Adventures in Pressure Canning

Paul, my husband, gifted me with a pressure canner for Christmas this year. After using it as a hot water bath canner for jam a few weeks ago-- I got brave enough to do some actual pressure canning.

All shiny and new my pressure canner cooking away with chicken broth in it.

Jar lids warming 

Jars cooking ready for broth to be ladled in and then sealed with the jar lids.

Jars in the canner just before sealing the pressure canner shut.

Fun craft project

Paul gave me the morning off yesterday, so I got up early did a little bit of gardening and then headed over to my friend Jane's house for a tye dye party.  

Here are a few pictures of my results:

Favorite picture

In the garden for the 4th



The Lunch bell at Interbay P-patch
 

Madelein and I watering the garden





Madeleine helping me water our garden

4th of July BBQ at the garden

Yum!  Her very own glass of lemonaide!

Artisian Bread in 5 minutes a day...Love it

Finally tried making Artisian Bread .  Its so easy and so good.  Another way that I'm trying to eliminate processed food from our home.

My little bedroom window plant nursery....

Earlier this spring I tried planting seeds directly into my p-patch with mixed results.  My lettuce seeds did not come up at all.  I think part of the reason was that my seeds were really old - more than the recommended three years.  Once I reached that realization I decided to try my seeds at home in the egg crates.  After thinking about it for a month and then intending to actually plant the seeds for about a month...I finally did!

My bedroom window has excellent sun exposure and it is out of reach of tiny helping hands (aka my daughter Madeleine).

One more step toward growing all my of salad greens for the summer and fall.

All of my salad starts

 

Arugula starts planted 6/11/13

Cut and come again lettuce - blackseeded sampson Heirloom seeds

Cut and come again lettuce - oakleaf lettuce blend

basil blend - I'm going to plant these starts in a strawberry pot.

Red Kale Starts

White Kale starts started just 6 days ago.  Look at Red Kale started 11days before.

 

One more step toward growing all of our salad greens for at least the summer and fall if not year round.

Garden update

It's been awhile since I posted an update on the p-patch garden. Tuesday I found 13 tomato starts on the free table at my P-Patch garden!  Wednesday I got up early so I could run down to the garden and plant them before everyone else in house was awake for day.

 

Garden bed with lettuce, peas, carrots and cawliflower

Tomato bed after my plants had been trenched and trellised

One of my cold frame boxes sans cold frame lid.  Right now it has zuccini and beans growing in it.