Preserving food is a lost art in many places. Teaching is the best gift. I hope more young people desire for your knowledge. I have taught my young relatives, what can be used in the forest. I have helped and encouraged gardening. I think it is the most important thing I do, before I die. Thank you.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your wealth of knowledge! I am always so amazed when I read your articles. My eyes are wide open, with excitement , just like a child.
while here n the sunny south , we dont have as many varieties of berries , we do have black berries and huckle berries similar to blue berries but the bears and deer get most of them, we have black walnut and hickory nuts( those are a lot of work for very little goodies) mush room yes ! just picked a few , sauteed in butter . i bought a book from 1911 that is a real treasure, shows canning , dipping cheese in red wax , even how to make shoe polish , it is an interesting book @ 112 years old . lots of turn of the century recipes, hope the floods are over there . we'rre off to the farmers market tomorrow , for hybrid squash and other veggies , be safe in your foraging .
Did you plant most of these berry plants or shrubs or are they naturally on your property. We have tons of black walnut and know apples die living near them.
We planted pawpaws because they live well by black walnut trees. Do you know if others you listed do well by black walnut trees. Chokecherry does that I know, but any others?
So the majority of those were foraged within a few miles of our house, not on our land directly. Many though, do grow on our land...and now even more grow on our land. Each time we foraged, I save about half the harvest for broadcast seeding here on our land. We now have highbush cranberry, black walnut, chokecherry, black cherry and all manner of other wild edibles that we didn't before. I'm just speeding the work of the birds =)
i planted a muscadine that 7 years old ,sweet potatoes, elephant garlic, and mild mini peppers from seeds , hope the rains have stopped there 1:48 pm dark , be safe .
Re: Concord grapes. I have used a grape press & a stem juicer to extract the juice which was then canned or made into jelly. However, seeing the high cost of grape seed supplement, I wonder if I can use the seeds/skins and dehydrate, then pulverize into a powder?
I would like to share the best dill pickle recipe from 2 generations and the easiest .
Use pickling cucumbers, using potato peeler to take off bumps & some skin, Leave some skin so when the bright green is gone and jar top is convex you know they are processed enough. Using sterilized quart jars or pints . Soak cuc's in cold water for awhile ,taking off ends and cutting into long pieces. Add garlic clove, dill & strips of red pepper to jar, fill not tightly with cucumber, can add green bean a few or strips of carrot. Brine is 7 cups white vinegar, picking salt 7/8 cups water 12 cups, white sugar 1 cup. heated to boiling. Pour brine over cup's, Seal with heated lids. Place in pan in oven 225 degrees , with some water in pan for 30 - 50 minutes. All bright green must be gone. Remove and cool. Best after a few weeks. So easy, and time tested to be the best dill cucumbers.
I've made a big oopsie that I'm hoping is okay, so I'm hoping you know...
I've been canning apple juice all weekend using the recipe on your Practical Self-Reliance site. For some reason -- I guess I was on complete auto-pilot and made some incorrect assumptions -- I totally botched the first batch. I didn't heat the juice to 190F first, I just put it straight in the jars. And I guess I assumed it was a pressure canning recipe, so I put it in the pressure canner and once it hit the right pressure I processed it for ten minutes.
I later realized my mistake. Once the jars were cool enough to handle, I popped them all open, dumped the juice in a pot, and brought it all to 190F. (Sigh... I didn't keep it there for five minutes like the recipe specifies since I was still going on autopilot...) Then I put it in clean jars with new lids and water bathed it for the ten minutes.
I'm going to assume that the run through the pressure canner raised the temperature of the juice to above 190F for more than ten minutes, so I'm going to say that aspect is safe.
The question I run into -- the juice from that batch is a very reddish-golden-brown, rather than the clear brown of normal apple juice. (I did two more batches following the directions correctly and those batches turned out the clear brown.) I'm wondering if the heat of the pressure canner caramelized the sugar in the apple juice.
It tastes fine... but do you know if it'll be safe for long term storage? (I guess the root question is if it's the sugar content or the acidity of the apples that makes it safe for canning...? If it's the acidity, that should be unchanged. If it's the sugar content, I don't know if caramelizing the sugar affects the sugar content.)
Great questions! There's a lot to unpack there, but I'll try to cover it all.
It's the acidity in the apples that makes them safe for canning, not the sugar. All apples are quite acidic, well below the safe limits for water bath canning. You can actually put up apple juice in half gallon jars with only a 10 minute can, and it's one of the lowest times for canning for any food.
Just about anything that you can water bath can, you can also pressure can. (Jams are an exception, due to quality, not due to safety.) Usually, if you pressure can something that is fine in a water bath you just do it at 5 lbs pressure, that's why weighted gauges have that setting (since nothing that actually needs to be pressure canned can be processed at less than 10 pounds). You were totally fine just having it canned in the pressure canner, and you didn't need to dump it out and water bath can it again.
Yes, it is a different color because the sugars caramelized in the pressure canner, but also because some of the pectin denatured. Both of those are fine safety wise. (Corn and sweet potatoes also often have their sugars caramelize in a pressure canner.)
They are perfectly fine for storage as they are. (I'm surprised they taste the same though, and not more molassas-ish than the other water bath canned ones.)
I figured that pressure canning would make it safe, but just on that off-chance (since I didn't do the pre-heating to 190F) that something might go wrong, I redid it.
I think it has a bit of a caramel taste -- just a very slight one -- but it works well.
Preserving food is a lost art in many places. Teaching is the best gift. I hope more young people desire for your knowledge. I have taught my young relatives, what can be used in the forest. I have helped and encouraged gardening. I think it is the most important thing I do, before I die. Thank you.
I agree, and I'm so glad you're teaching them!
Thanks for including the clay link! I recently got a good used kiln for $75 and I’ve been dying to try this
Nice! I really hope it works out for you!
Thanks Ashley, not too many of those wild foods in Australia, but will keep our eyes open
Cheers
You guys have your own wonders down there! Every time I see foraging guides for Australia I'm amazed at all the crazy fruits you guys get.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your wealth of knowledge! I am always so amazed when I read your articles. My eyes are wide open, with excitement , just like a child.
Thanks Jane, I'm so glad you enjoy them.
while here n the sunny south , we dont have as many varieties of berries , we do have black berries and huckle berries similar to blue berries but the bears and deer get most of them, we have black walnut and hickory nuts( those are a lot of work for very little goodies) mush room yes ! just picked a few , sauteed in butter . i bought a book from 1911 that is a real treasure, shows canning , dipping cheese in red wax , even how to make shoe polish , it is an interesting book @ 112 years old . lots of turn of the century recipes, hope the floods are over there . we'rre off to the farmers market tomorrow , for hybrid squash and other veggies , be safe in your foraging .
Oh nice! What's the title of your book? I'd love to look into it.
Did you plant most of these berry plants or shrubs or are they naturally on your property. We have tons of black walnut and know apples die living near them.
We planted pawpaws because they live well by black walnut trees. Do you know if others you listed do well by black walnut trees. Chokecherry does that I know, but any others?
Thanks
Deb
So the majority of those were foraged within a few miles of our house, not on our land directly. Many though, do grow on our land...and now even more grow on our land. Each time we foraged, I save about half the harvest for broadcast seeding here on our land. We now have highbush cranberry, black walnut, chokecherry, black cherry and all manner of other wild edibles that we didn't before. I'm just speeding the work of the birds =)
This guide has a lot of info about what will grow near black walnuts: https://joybileefarm.com/plants-will-grow-near-black-walnut-trees/
Just scrolled through the article for the moment. But oh my. It looks packed full and great information. Thank you so very much.
You're quite welcome!
I’m so excited to learn more from Ashley!! Thank you for sharing your hard work!!
household discoveries and mrs. curtis's cook book 1909 print date the success company . no libary info ?
i planted a muscadine that 7 years old ,sweet potatoes, elephant garlic, and mild mini peppers from seeds , hope the rains have stopped there 1:48 pm dark , be safe .
Re: Concord grapes. I have used a grape press & a stem juicer to extract the juice which was then canned or made into jelly. However, seeing the high cost of grape seed supplement, I wonder if I can use the seeds/skins and dehydrate, then pulverize into a powder?
I would like to share the best dill pickle recipe from 2 generations and the easiest .
Use pickling cucumbers, using potato peeler to take off bumps & some skin, Leave some skin so when the bright green is gone and jar top is convex you know they are processed enough. Using sterilized quart jars or pints . Soak cuc's in cold water for awhile ,taking off ends and cutting into long pieces. Add garlic clove, dill & strips of red pepper to jar, fill not tightly with cucumber, can add green bean a few or strips of carrot. Brine is 7 cups white vinegar, picking salt 7/8 cups water 12 cups, white sugar 1 cup. heated to boiling. Pour brine over cup's, Seal with heated lids. Place in pan in oven 225 degrees , with some water in pan for 30 - 50 minutes. All bright green must be gone. Remove and cool. Best after a few weeks. So easy, and time tested to be the best dill cucumbers.
I've made a big oopsie that I'm hoping is okay, so I'm hoping you know...
I've been canning apple juice all weekend using the recipe on your Practical Self-Reliance site. For some reason -- I guess I was on complete auto-pilot and made some incorrect assumptions -- I totally botched the first batch. I didn't heat the juice to 190F first, I just put it straight in the jars. And I guess I assumed it was a pressure canning recipe, so I put it in the pressure canner and once it hit the right pressure I processed it for ten minutes.
I later realized my mistake. Once the jars were cool enough to handle, I popped them all open, dumped the juice in a pot, and brought it all to 190F. (Sigh... I didn't keep it there for five minutes like the recipe specifies since I was still going on autopilot...) Then I put it in clean jars with new lids and water bathed it for the ten minutes.
I'm going to assume that the run through the pressure canner raised the temperature of the juice to above 190F for more than ten minutes, so I'm going to say that aspect is safe.
The question I run into -- the juice from that batch is a very reddish-golden-brown, rather than the clear brown of normal apple juice. (I did two more batches following the directions correctly and those batches turned out the clear brown.) I'm wondering if the heat of the pressure canner caramelized the sugar in the apple juice.
It tastes fine... but do you know if it'll be safe for long term storage? (I guess the root question is if it's the sugar content or the acidity of the apples that makes it safe for canning...? If it's the acidity, that should be unchanged. If it's the sugar content, I don't know if caramelizing the sugar affects the sugar content.)
Any thoughts?
Great questions! There's a lot to unpack there, but I'll try to cover it all.
It's the acidity in the apples that makes them safe for canning, not the sugar. All apples are quite acidic, well below the safe limits for water bath canning. You can actually put up apple juice in half gallon jars with only a 10 minute can, and it's one of the lowest times for canning for any food.
Just about anything that you can water bath can, you can also pressure can. (Jams are an exception, due to quality, not due to safety.) Usually, if you pressure can something that is fine in a water bath you just do it at 5 lbs pressure, that's why weighted gauges have that setting (since nothing that actually needs to be pressure canned can be processed at less than 10 pounds). You were totally fine just having it canned in the pressure canner, and you didn't need to dump it out and water bath can it again.
Yes, it is a different color because the sugars caramelized in the pressure canner, but also because some of the pectin denatured. Both of those are fine safety wise. (Corn and sweet potatoes also often have their sugars caramelize in a pressure canner.)
They are perfectly fine for storage as they are. (I'm surprised they taste the same though, and not more molassas-ish than the other water bath canned ones.)
Did I cover everything?
Thank you!!!
I figured that pressure canning would make it safe, but just on that off-chance (since I didn't do the pre-heating to 190F) that something might go wrong, I redid it.
I think it has a bit of a caramel taste -- just a very slight one -- but it works well.
Thanks again!!
(And sorry if this isn't the right place for this question -- your email newsletter leading to here was at the top of my inbox!)
No worries! Perfect spot to ask =)