Is it Really Done?!

We all worked together for one goal this week. We finished filling the pantry! We canned 31 jars of black beans, 12 jars of apple butter, and 7 jars of chicken broth. Sometimes when I’m working hard, I put my head down, charge forward and then forget to take pictures. Haha! Don’t worry I’ll have full pictures of the finished pantry on here next week!

Yesterday I was canning the black beans outside in 40 degrees. I’ve always done it outdoors on the propane stove. But this time when I was canning the wind was whipping like crazy. 

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As a result, I had the most difficult time keeping the temperature on the canner steady! I had to fiddle with the temperature every two minutes. I made a fortress of chairs and tables around the burner to keep the wind at bay but it still didn’t work.

After 45 minutes of doing the temperature fiddling  (beans take 75 minutes of processing time), the wind whipped so hard that the flame went to nothing and the pressure dropped too low on the canner.

I had to start the timer all over again and it was so frustrating. Except this time I switched over to my high output propane stove. 

It worked better and I finally got it all canned but still had to mess with the temperature a bunch. Meanwhile, I was messaging Cameron and said I needed to try canning on the cooktop inside.

I have never canned on our electric cooktop before because I had a friend who said her canner cracked her glass cooktop. I have been nervous about it ever since. But I was at wits end and I had another batch of beans to do.

So I got the ok from Cam to try it and nervously loaded the canner in place. It worked! It heated like a dream and was so easy to maintain. I took this picture below on my phone to send to Cam who wasn’t home at the time…

I will probably be canning on my cooktop from now on!

I also got the pantry tour all filmed today. I can’t wait to share! I’ll be editing it over the next week or so before it gets published on Youtube. 

In the Garden

I had to cover up my greens this week because we were expecting a hard freeze. I also have some cucumbers that are still alive in my caterpillar tunnel that I covered. 

They all made it through 27ºF with no trouble at all!