Well, That Didn’t Go Well
My first attempt with the Nesco NPC Smart Canner didn’t go well.
I bought plums, read the instructions for the canner, read the directions for water bathing plums, even watched a couple of You Tube videos.
Nevertheless, this is what happened with my plums:
Thank goodness, FAIL means First Attempt In Learning.
I May Have Been Naughty
While I was in the throes of Peach Week, I found myself avoiding canning them even though that’s my preferred way to preserve peaches. The massive time commitment canning requires limited me to doing it on Saturday – all day long – rather than for a couple hours after work like I can do with dehydrating and freezing.
I function so much better with small batches / small projects. There is nothing small about canning. There’s a lot of water, a lot of equipment, a lot of cleaning involved. For canning to become a viable activity for me again, it would have to become a lot simpler.
Ten or so years ago Ball came out with an automatic jam maker. For a mere $250.00 you could have yet another appliance on your countertop to make 4 half-pint jars of jam or jelly. At the time I thought it was laughable.
I still think it’s ridiculous but the thought stuck in my brain and I got to thinking, “It’s been awhile. I wonder if they’ve figured out how to make an electric canner?”
Sure enough, for a mere $290.00 you can have a Ball Water Bath Canner with an 8 pint (7 quart) capacity. Well, that’s a nasty price. I kept looking.
I found the Nesco NPC-9 Smart Pressure Canner. I researched the features and the safety. It does both pressure canning and water bath canning. The price was $130.00. It looked promising! I was conflicted. I thought, “Maybe I’ll get it someday,” and “I don’t need another countertop appliance,” and “I do not need to be spending $130 when I have perfectly good canning equipment already.” I compromised and added it to my Amazon Wish List where things generally sit for years and then, usually, get deleted.
Not so this time. The next time I looked, it was $50 off! Apparently, this was enough for my resistance to fly out the window. With a few clicks, I bought it!
Note that this is a Pressure Canner, not a Pressure Cooker. Pressure Cookers are not to be used for pressure canning.
Is the Nesco Pressure Canner Safe? | Carey and Nesco Canner Concerns – YouTube
True to form with new things, when it arrived, the box sat in the living room for a week. Then it sat on my counter for a week. Eventually, though, I got to my “this is ridiculous” stage, when I’m avoiding doing something that is unfamiliar. To force me into action, I went to the Piedmont Farmer’s Market this past Saturday to find something to process in my fancy new gadget.
There were lots of peaches. So many peaches. As much as I love canned peaches, though, enough time has not passed since Peach Week for me to not feel a little bit repulsed by them. I came home with plums, green beans, and potatoes.
Let the fun begin!
Zucchini Has Its Day
This week it was finally time to do something with the accumulation of zucchini and crook neck squash that has been taking over my refrigerator.
I scrubbed 7 zucchini and 3 squash and shredded them.
… and shredded … and shredded … and ….
Let’s just say it was a big job, involving a lot of shredding.
I squeezed as much liquid as I could from the mass of shredded zucchini and then left it in a colander-lined bowl to continue draining for a couple of days in the refrigerator.
Finally, it was time to pack it up. I ended up with 13 one-cup bags of zucchini to put in the freezer.
I really like how this Golden Delight Zucchini looks. I think it will be much more appealing in recipes, even less noticeable (for those pesky picky eaters), than the standard green-skinned zucchini .
I’m going to enjoy pulling these pre-measured packets from the freezer to make all things zucchini throughout winter. I can add it to soups and casseroles for an extra bit of nutrition, make zucchini muffins and zucchini cookies, maybe I’ll even make some zucchini bread to give away at Christmas.
The first order of business, though, is to make Chocolate Zucchini Cake. I haven’t had it for many, many years and I’m pretty sure that it is one of the keys to a happy life.
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- 21⁄4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1⁄2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 3⁄4 cups sugar
- 1⁄2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1⁄2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1⁄2 cup buttermilk (substitution: put 1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice in regular milk)
- 2 cups shredded zucchini
- 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Prepare a 9×13 pan by coating the inside (bottom and sides) with butter & flour.
- Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, & salt into a medium-sized bowl.
- Beat sugar, butter, & oil in a larger bowl until well blended.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Mix in vanilla.
- Add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk.
- Stir in shredded zucchini.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
- Bake about 50 minutes, test for doneness with a toothpick.
- Cool cake in pan.
One Done, One begun
ONE PROJECT DONE:
In addition to the instinct to scratch the ground for bugs, chicken nature is to perch up off the ground. They need a roost in the coop for sleeping at night. They also need to be able to perch on something during the day for a quick nap, to watch what’s going on, to stay out of the way, etc.
Ever since the chicks got out of the brooder box, I’ve been trying to get a set of perches made for the chicken run. This weekend that project finally got done. Ta-da!
It is 5 feet long, 3 feet high, 3 feet deep and has 3 perches. It turned out to be an easier project than we were making it out to be in our minds. Someday maybe we’ll learn you just have to start a project rather than overthink it or be anxious about it.
ONE PROJECT BEGUN:
It’s August and, in North Carolina, that means it’s time to get fall gardens planted. The problem for me is that the summer garden is not yet done and is still using my existing garden beds/containers. I need more garden beds!
To alleviate that problem, I picked up a galvanized steel raised bed from Northern Tool. It was just the right size (6′ x 3′) and, even better, it was on sale. I’ve never used these galvanized steel beds so this was the perfect combination of “pros” to feel secure in giving it a try.
This weekend we assembled it,
determined where to place it,
and filled it with soil.
We are going to build another hoop house by the end of September that we’ll use as a greenhouse. That will extend our fall/winter growing season almost to Spring planting time. We’ll just place the greenhouse over the winter beds and containers. (When we’re done using it as a greenhouse next Spring, perhaps we’ll be ready to raise meat birds and that hoop house will be used to house them. We’ll see.)
I’ve planned out what I want to plant this fall. In addition to this bed (planted with Cauliflower, Peas, Radishes, Kale, and Carrots), I will also move the Greenstalk planter into the greenhouse and fill it with greens (for the chickens of course) and the big pots (that I used for potatoes) will be planted with either rutabagas and/or beets.
First things first, though, this next weekend I need to get this new bed planted.
Chicken Bedtime
Just like children, birds need routine. Not so much that life is boring; just enough that they feel comfortable that their grownups can be counted on to take care of them.
With my cockatiels, our bedtime routine was to give them dinner, then half covers (just like it sounds, we put their cage cover on halfway), then after a half hour, full covers, and finally, lights out.
With the hens, as dusk falls, you can see them getting their last munch of food and final drink of water and they will put themselves to bed, waiting for Oscar or me to close the coop door.
It’s all very serene and civilized.
Putting the chicks to bed, on the other hand, is just like putting nine toddlers to bed. Even when they follow the hens to the coop and start to settle in, when one of us comes to close the door, the chaos begins. First Chrissy will run out squeaking, “Hi Friend! Is it time to play?” No matter how fast you scoop her up and get to the coop end of the run, one or two others will run out to join the fun. As you toss one chick into the coop, another will run out. Finally, some nights miraculously, everyone is in the coop at one time and you can shut the door. When you stop to check that no toes will be squished in the door, however, at least one is standing there looking crushed that they have to stay inside.
“Night, night, chickies. Sleep tight.”
Chrissy Has A Spa Day
In an attempt to help her gain weight, we have been soaking chick food into a mash consistency which we have been giving to Chrissy (our cross-beak chick) twice a day to supplement what she gets from the usual sources. Mushy food is easier for her to get in her mouth.
When she eats this concoction, however, she makes a massive mess. She shakes her head while she gobbles it down, covering the wall, the ground, any nearby chickens and people, and herself with flecks of the mash.
With the addition of the muddy mess created in the chicken run by recent rains, Chrissy looked totally manky and was in desperate need of a bath. So, she had her very first spa day!
She enjoyed the warm, soapy water:
She relished snuggling with Grandma while being towel-dried:
She tried her best to not let the little monster barking at her from the floor ruin the mood:
Timmy thinks Chrissy would make a good snack
When she returned to the chicken run, she told the others she must be a princess because she was treated so specially.
I don’t think they believed her, but it’s what you think of yourself that matters.
Those #%&@ (Darn) Squirrels
Twenty-five pound bags of chicken feed take up a lot of space in my utility room, so I was glad to finally put it outside in garbage cans. That way it was right where we need to use it, and much more practical. I even did like another You Tuber does and secured the lid with a bungee cord so the squirrels wouldn’t be able to get in it.
It didn’t matter …
… they ate right through the container.
Eager Expresses Her Joy
It’s been a couple of weeks since I reported that after the rooster was separated from the girls, Eager is happy, out of the nest box, and mingling with the other hens and pullets.
Eager is so happy, in fact, that she is expressing her joy by laying eggs again!
It is such a pleasure (and relief) to see one brown egg in the nest box each day.
Don’t Let the Heat get you
In June, I planted one Cowhorn Pepper plant and one Serrano Pepper plant in my Greenstalk planter. Over the past week, I harvested two Cowhorn Peppers and five Serrano Peppers. The Cowhorn is a little less hot than a jalapeno with a Scoville rating of 2500 – 5000 while the Serrano can be five times hotter than a jalapeno with a Scoville rating of 10000 – 23000.
Tonight I sliced them up and put them in the dehydrator. I ended up with:
and, I added:
I was smart and remembered to wear gloves while slicing the peppers.
Apparently, I should have worn a gas mask, too, as the fumes irritated my nose, throat and lungs and made me cough and my nose runny. Thank goodness I wasn’t processing any more than I did.
I put the dehydrator outside to save us all from some serious coughing and choking issues throughout the night. Hopefully, the 80% humidity out there won’t hinder the dehydrator too much.
They should add some nice heat and flavor to soups and entrees throughout the winter.
I’m looking forward to tasting those zucchini chips, too. After slicing them very thinly, I put them in a bowl with a bit of olive oil, a generous sprinkle of garlic salt, some smoked paprika, and stirred until all surfaces were coated.
Watch Out!
August 8th is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day.
Anyone who got peaches from me a few weeks ago should be very, very afraid. I know where you live and I have zucchini!
😁
Two Chickens Homestead 
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