Gardening Tips

Tips for our gardeners

I found this tip to prevent tick bites in my feed today: wrapping adhesive tape around one's ankles.



As for slugs,  orange peels and some others clever tricks ( anyone heard of copper for example ? ) are supposedly fine ways  to handle them.

https://www.gardengatemagazine.com/articles/how-to/deal-with-pests/four-easy-ways-your-garden-of-slugs/

Such a great thread Carol
Thank You

Your welcome mudra.. will also include canning butter, meat, stew, etc.






How to Pressure Can Beef Stew 


Water bath canning simply does not get the food hot enough, long enough to safely cook the meat for storage. Because meat is a low acid food, it needs the high heat and pressure of a pressure cooker.


Meat needs a pressure canner (All American) water in bottom. Water bat I different.Clean jars and lids


Wide mouth quart size mason jar (6)


Chopped Carrots
Potatoes, peeled & diced
Onions - chopped
Stew beef / chicken / pork - chopped (may want to roll in spices first / corn starch)
Red Himalayan salt


Layer into jar: meat (brown beef a little bit in oil first is good), potatoes, carrots,
Onions, 1 tsp salt for each jar.


Add boiling water over ingredients up to one inch mark. Use bubble popping tool along sides to rid bubbles. Top of water to 1 inch line.


Want 1 inch head space


Clean rims with white vinegar with clean cloth. Put new lids on and add rims and screw on finger tight.


Heat water in canner to boil and turn off. Turn canner on and bring it slowly up to a full steam. Medium high heat.. Let steam up to about full steam (10 minutes). Then put pressure weight on minutes where steam is up (check pressure for elevation). Let the canner to come up to full pressure. About 4 jiggles per minute. Do slowly.


When it at current pressure then let it process for 90 minutes. Turn off. Cool the canner all the way down to zero pressure. Can use the dial gage.. Will take about 45 minutes to cool. Then remove the wait and let the canner continue to sit 10 minutes.


Remove the jars and let them cool. Then bring out and set onto a towel. Let them sit for at least 16 hours so seals can set.


Check the seals. If not sealed needs to go into fridge or remove into a freezer container and freeze.
Label jars.. what’s in it and date. Store in container. Serve over egg noodle or rice.




Settle jars on rack in canner - make sure that the jar lids are not covered by water
 
Ingredients
Beef stew is a very basic recipe of cubed meat, peeled and cubed potatoes, peeled and sliced carrots, diced onions, and salt.


You can omit any of these ingredients, or adjust the amounts based on your preferences.
You’ll add boiling water to these ingredients just before putting the jars into the pressure canner.

Assemble the Jars
Starting with clean dry mason jars (I like using quart jars, however wide-mouth pint jars will work as well), layer in your meat, potatoes, carrots, and onions.
Using your hands, pack the ingredients in nice and tight. They will release oxygen and shrink during the cooking process so it’s best to start with nice full jars.


Add Flavor (Herbs, Salt, and/or Pepper)
Once jars are filled, add a teaspoon of salt to each jar. If you’re using pint-sized jars, you’ll want to reduce that down to 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
You can also add in a pinch of black pepper, thyme, or any other herb or seasoning you like in your stew.


All the seasonings, including the salt, are optional, but I find I like to at least add salt, otherwise, the stew is pretty bland.


This is purely preferential and you can skip the salt and the seasonings if you’d like, or add them in when serving.


Note: Some people recommend adding beef bouillon for additional flavor, but I’m not a fan of all the ingredients in bouillon and prefer the natural flavors of my ingredients shine through.


Pressure Can


Lift your jars and carefully place them on a rack inside your pressure canner. You want the water inside the pressure canner just below boiling.


Before you seal the lid on, make sure your jars and lids are NOT covered in water. If there is too much water in the pressure canner, you’ll need to remove some water before continuing.
Using a ladle is helpful for this.

Bring Up to Pressure


Seal the lid, according to the manufacturer’s instructions for your specific pressure canner, turn the stove on to about medium to medium-high and allow the pressure canner to come up to full steam.


It’s always best to bring the pressure up slowly, over a medium-high heat. This way we don’t over-pressurize the canner and have a hard time regulating the pressure.


Allow the steam to vent at full steam for 10 minutes.


Next, either add your weight or your rocker and allow the pressure to build-up to the correct pressure for your elevation (see notes in the recipe card for more info). For me, this is 15 pounds of pressure using my weighted-gauge.

Processing time


Once you’re up to the correct pressure, you’ll want to process the stew, holding at the correct pressure for 90 minutes.


When the 90 minutes is up (or 75 minutes for pints), turn the heat off and allow the pressure to come down naturally.


This takes quite a while, probably 30-45 minutes, but it’s important not to rush this step as the stew finishes cooking during this time.


Once the pressure is down to zero, you can remove the weight and allow the canner to sit for 5-10 minutes to allow the pressure to equalize.


Next, take the lid off the pressure canner and carefully remove the jars and set them onto a towel-lined counter.


It’s important not to tip the jars when removing them, try to keep them level.


Now, allow the jars to sit on the counter overnight, undisturbed (or for at least 16 hours). This allows the seals to seal completely and firm up.


Once your stew has cooled completely at sat for 16 hours, you’ll want to check the seals right away. If any jars had seal-failure, you can place the jars into the refrigerator and consume them within 24 hours.

Before you store your jars on the shelf, remove the bands, check the seals and wipe down the jars.


You always want to store your jars clean!


More Canning Tutorials:

• Preservation 101: Introduction to Canning