And yes I do realise that pressure canning like this is probably overkill for rhubarb!
It just seemed good stuff to try the canner on - as there's plenty more out there right now.
Pressure Canning
Moderator: Peak Moderation
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hardworkinghippy
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Blimey - where are you getting all this nice stuff from?! Do you get gooseberries this early?!Sally wrote:Also preserved today - 6 jars of Rhubarb chutney and 13 of gooseberry jam
Also have elderflowers steeping for elderflower cordial.
Ah... the good life!
Nothing in my garden is ready to eat yet, apart from a few radishes and a bit of lettuce. I was reduced today to munching a raw kale leaf. Very tasty - and probably very good for me, I'm sure. Can't wait for the mangetout peas though, they seem tantalisingly close . . .
Andy Hunt
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net
Eternal Sunshine wrote: I wouldn't want to worry you with the truth.
Andy,
Gooseberries are still not fully ripe, but apparently that is the way to use them for jam. I got 4lb of fruit from one bush. Granted it was the one near the tap and I've been giving it extra water on a regular basis - best gooseberries I've EVER grown though!
The other fruiting bush is a bit behind as it was too far away to get watered - and we are still in drought here.
Rhubarb doesn't seem to notice the lack of rain - the manure last autumn seems to have helped.
Elder round the roads is starting to flower - but not much needed to make cordial. This is the first time I've tried this.
Thanks so much for massaging my ego with the 'blimey' comment...
Made my evening.
HWH - I know this is just scratching the surface of your productivity - but it's a lovely feeling to produce stuff like this. I always did a little each year - but THIS year I want to see how much I can achieve. Luckily my family all like this sort of food and are appreciative. Makes such a difference.
Gooseberries are still not fully ripe, but apparently that is the way to use them for jam. I got 4lb of fruit from one bush. Granted it was the one near the tap and I've been giving it extra water on a regular basis - best gooseberries I've EVER grown though!
The other fruiting bush is a bit behind as it was too far away to get watered - and we are still in drought here.Rhubarb doesn't seem to notice the lack of rain - the manure last autumn seems to have helped.
Elder round the roads is starting to flower - but not much needed to make cordial. This is the first time I've tried this.
Thanks so much for massaging my ego with the 'blimey' comment...
Made my evening.HWH - I know this is just scratching the surface of your productivity - but it's a lovely feeling to produce stuff like this. I always did a little each year - but THIS year I want to see how much I can achieve. Luckily my family all like this sort of food and are appreciative. Makes such a difference.
Sally,
With folks like yourself and HWH on here, I feel very much at the bottom of the heap in terms of knowing about the REAL sustainability stuff, i.e. growing and preserving food.
I had a feeling for the first time this spring, that I was really beginning to understand what I am doing in the garden. It's soooo difficult and a pure art - scientific method just won't cut it, you can't just learn lessons from one year and then apply them the next, e.g. plant peas in the 3rd week of May or whatever, it totally depends on the weather and you just have to judge it as best you can at the time. It's all about understanding what the hell you are doing, and to be honest, after my initial confidence in the spring I am now now too sure what I am doing any more, things seem to be getting a bit out of hand! I think I will just have to wait and see how it all turns out, and what I can figure out from this year's efforts.
But the way you guys talk about it, you make it sound so effortless . . .
With folks like yourself and HWH on here, I feel very much at the bottom of the heap in terms of knowing about the REAL sustainability stuff, i.e. growing and preserving food.
I had a feeling for the first time this spring, that I was really beginning to understand what I am doing in the garden. It's soooo difficult and a pure art - scientific method just won't cut it, you can't just learn lessons from one year and then apply them the next, e.g. plant peas in the 3rd week of May or whatever, it totally depends on the weather and you just have to judge it as best you can at the time. It's all about understanding what the hell you are doing, and to be honest, after my initial confidence in the spring I am now now too sure what I am doing any more, things seem to be getting a bit out of hand! I think I will just have to wait and see how it all turns out, and what I can figure out from this year's efforts.
But the way you guys talk about it, you make it sound so effortless . . .
Andy Hunt
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net
Eternal Sunshine wrote: I wouldn't want to worry you with the truth.
Ah but Andy - the reason we talk about the successes is because they are SO precious!
I could tell you about the cabbage root fly that killed ALL my brassicas last year, or the sawfly that ensured that I got minimal gooseberry harvest over the past couple of years, or the fact that only 6 out of my 60 odd parsnips showed this year despite using the same method as last year etc. etc. but I like to remember success.
And I prefer to forget that all the seabuckthorn I planted in a hedge this March have now snuffed it because I couldn't keep up with the watering or that I had to chuck some of the tomatoes I grew from seed because I couldn't make beds fast enough for them in the polytunnel and I let them get too poorly to give them away.
I'm sure HWH has a few stories too.
My motto is "Plant plenty, celebrate success and forget about the rest".
I recount these disasters briefly to let you see why I get so jubilant about a nice "blimey" comment.
I could tell you about the cabbage root fly that killed ALL my brassicas last year, or the sawfly that ensured that I got minimal gooseberry harvest over the past couple of years, or the fact that only 6 out of my 60 odd parsnips showed this year despite using the same method as last year etc. etc. but I like to remember success.
And I prefer to forget that all the seabuckthorn I planted in a hedge this March have now snuffed it because I couldn't keep up with the watering or that I had to chuck some of the tomatoes I grew from seed because I couldn't make beds fast enough for them in the polytunnel and I let them get too poorly to give them away.
I'm sure HWH has a few stories too.
My motto is "Plant plenty, celebrate success and forget about the rest".
I recount these disasters briefly to let you see why I get so jubilant about a nice "blimey" comment.
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hardworkinghippy
- Posts: 568
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I think the other thing is that you feel pleased that you "got your arse in gear" to do something.
Six months later when you open a jar of chutney/rhubarb/chilli or whatever and the smell of summer hits you in the nostrils you realise that you can save a lot of effort - energy even - doing this sort of thing.
No shopping, car, money etc.
Do you know what I mean?
(This has been a terrible growing season so far )
Six months later when you open a jar of chutney/rhubarb/chilli or whatever and the smell of summer hits you in the nostrils you realise that you can save a lot of effort - energy even - doing this sort of thing.
No shopping, car, money etc.
Do you know what I mean?
(This has been a terrible growing season so far
)Our blah blah blah blog is HERE
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RenewableCandy
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hardworkinghippy
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Sally,
How can you face eating pork?
After I've had an outbreak of bottling we eat bread and cheese for a week.
Renewable candy,
How can you face eating pork?
After I've had an outbreak of bottling we eat bread and cheese for a week.
Renewable candy,
Pretty damn cool eh?All that gardening and you still have nails to die for...how cool is that Cool ?
Our blah blah blah blog is HERE
That sounds like an excellent motto! In fact one thing I think I have understood from this year so far, is not to aim to plant enough, but to aim to plant too much! Any seedlings you have left over can be swapped or given away, and any plants competing with each other in the beds can just fight it out, as long as they aren't weeds!Sally wrote:My motto is "Plant plenty, celebrate success and forget about the rest".
I have a couple of veg beds which are crammed with stuff, but both have a butternut squash in, and one has a courgette and a mini pumpkin plant, and the other one has a normal pumpkin plant too. They are very small at the minute, but come July I am expecting them to attempt to take over from everything else in one fell swoop!!
The garden seems to have ideas of its own though. I have found a load of purple poppies coming up in one of my veg beds, and I just don't have the heart to remove them for the benefit of the food plants!
Andy Hunt
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net
http://greencottage.burysolarclub.net
Eternal Sunshine wrote: I wouldn't want to worry you with the truth.
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kenneal - lagger
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Sally, have you tried starting parsnips in loo roll centres? It works for us every year although this year we have had to net them after planting out to stop a deer eating them, together with the strawberries runners and apple trees. The police will only let me have a .22 which is illegal for use on deer, not heavy enough.
Action is the antidote to despair - Joan Baez
Hello! My first post here, because I am also looking for a pressure canner. My Presto 16-quart canner, brought from the US, looks like it may have had its last batch. I cannot get it open (after it being in storage for some time), and I would really, really like to get one without a replaceable seal (which clearly do not last all that long).
So, my question is how much shipping from the US is likely to be? I can probably arrange to get someone to buy and ship one over for me, but I would like to know what I am getting myself into.
I even rang Lakeland to see if they had or would consider getting a canner, and got hold of someone who didn't even know what it was! I wonder how much of a market there would be for a smallish (21 quart) canner here, with the recent surge in people growing their own food, considering that there doesn't appear to be ANYONE selling them.
edited to add: On customs charges... in my experience, as a general rule, if you are importing goods with a value of more than £25-30, you run the risk of customs charges. When I get gifts from the US, we have ALL our names put on the parcel, as each person gets that "duty free" limit. If you are buying a multi-part item, the value of each part can be listed to spread the value to various addressees. We imported a PlayStation long ago like this, with the controllers, software, cables and console all listed separately to minimise the charges (which were only assessed against the console, as it exceeded the duty free limit).
You can argue the toss with the Customs & Excise people to get a refund, if you can be bothered - I have successfully gotten rebates, but you have to pay up-front and THEN challenge the assessment. Different goods are charged at different duty rates, and then VAT is assessed on the duty (not the item, I don't think). So clothing will have a different rate to electronics, for example.
I have also found that getting stuff sent by courier increases the likelihood of a parcel being plucked out for inspection and charges, so I prefer to use surface mail.
So, my question is how much shipping from the US is likely to be? I can probably arrange to get someone to buy and ship one over for me, but I would like to know what I am getting myself into.
I even rang Lakeland to see if they had or would consider getting a canner, and got hold of someone who didn't even know what it was! I wonder how much of a market there would be for a smallish (21 quart) canner here, with the recent surge in people growing their own food, considering that there doesn't appear to be ANYONE selling them.
edited to add: On customs charges... in my experience, as a general rule, if you are importing goods with a value of more than £25-30, you run the risk of customs charges. When I get gifts from the US, we have ALL our names put on the parcel, as each person gets that "duty free" limit. If you are buying a multi-part item, the value of each part can be listed to spread the value to various addressees. We imported a PlayStation long ago like this, with the controllers, software, cables and console all listed separately to minimise the charges (which were only assessed against the console, as it exceeded the duty free limit).
You can argue the toss with the Customs & Excise people to get a refund, if you can be bothered - I have successfully gotten rebates, but you have to pay up-front and THEN challenge the assessment. Different goods are charged at different duty rates, and then VAT is assessed on the duty (not the item, I don't think). So clothing will have a different rate to electronics, for example.
I have also found that getting stuff sent by courier increases the likelihood of a parcel being plucked out for inspection and charges, so I prefer to use surface mail.