Geek.Farm.Life

Comment by Joy Wandrey

April 16, 2007 @ 11:25 am

Hi Misty and Andrew,
Misty, the haircut looks great! Love the shearing pictures too and Misty, did you make Andrew’s hat? What pattern? is that some of your handspun? It looks great too. After listening to this weekends show I thought that maybe it’s the peels on the apples that are getting sharp and poking through the bags? I know that the peels have the most nutrition in them, but I think maybe that if you peeled the apples before you dried them maybe you wouldn’t have such a problem with sharp edges? Just a thought. One of these days I will call the farm phone again. Here’s a pic for you of the dyeing I’ve been doing lately with my BFL lamb fleece and easter egg dyes: I hope this works!

Comment by Joy Wandrey

April 16, 2007 @ 11:27 am

oh no, my picture didn’t post! well, you can see it if you are desperate at www.knitnick.blogspot.com , scroll down to the post called “just blogging here for myself”.
Sorry the photo experiment didn’t work!

Comment by misty

April 16, 2007 @ 11:42 am

Hi Joy! I think Andrew has had that hat since he was a kid, and it’s not handspun or hand-knitted. It’s really cute though, isn’t it? :)

Regarding the apples, we don’t want to have to work that oard to peel the apples first! Storing the dried apples in Mason jars works just fine, especially when they are vacuum-sealed.

Comment by andrew

April 16, 2007 @ 3:27 pm

Well the toque comes from the Cowichan tribe on Vancouver island, other than that I don’t have much more information on it. If misty says it isn’t hand spun and knit I’ll take her work for it.

I added the picture Joy! I hope it’s the right one, if not let me know!

Comment by India

April 16, 2007 @ 4:55 pm

I still find it hard to get used to ‘canning’ which to me conjures up metal cans of beans etc - over here we call it bottling because, well, it’s glass jars and bottles!
I was tempted to try bottling some tomatoes last year when there was a glut, but then I read about botulism when the environment isn’t acidic enough so I ‘bottled out’. Bad joke, eh? Actually, I don’t know if that translates across the pond….?
So, how do you guys make sure your ‘canned’ produce has the correct environment - do you add vinegar or citric acid or some such?
Have a good week,
India

Comment by Joy Wandrey

April 16, 2007 @ 4:57 pm

Thanks Andrew, that’s the right one! Those are all done with easter egg dyes, and that’s a bluefaced leicester lamb fleece from western oregon. it’s soooo fine and pretty. the roving in the picture is also bfl, but commercially processed. I’m borrowing a set of combs to process the newly-dyed fleece and it’s coming out so nice.

Comment by Mira

April 16, 2007 @ 5:36 pm

Hi Misty and Andrew,

Left a call earlier and then listened to the rest of the podcast while I was out running errands.

I actually was lucky enough to score a dehydrator through freecycle. I had forgotten about your dehydrating podcasts and will go back and look for them but in the meantime I had a quick question. When you do beans do you do green beans as well as the bean seeds (for lack of a better descriptive)? And have you tried drying meats such a jerky?

Thanks again for a great podcast.

Comment by andrew

April 16, 2007 @ 6:07 pm

Hey India, Joy and Mira!

Interesting, bottling over here means something pretty different. It means putting something liquid into a bottle, like soft drinks (coke, etc) or water.

Anyways! For tomatoes we tend to pressure can (pressure bottle?) it. It tends to be faster and safer. It can take a very long time to get an entire water canner up to a boil. That said we really haven’t had any problems. Misty knows more than me, but if you store the containers without the metal ring then if botulism starts growing it will pop the ring off. Most nasties will produce gas and cause the seal to break. It can go anarobic and cause a seal if the metal ring is holding the lid down, hence why you store them without the ring. I believe there is also an odor from most dangerous bacteria, so if it smells bad (or it’s fuzzy) don’t eat it. Wikipedia has some more techinal info here, though it’s a little US centric:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clostridium_botulinum

Joy! You’re carding the fleece, that’s a lot of work! It looks great, and misty really loves blue faced leicester too. I think she would like to get some if we didn’t love lamb so much. ;)

Mira, thank you for the call! We dry both green beans and ones that go too far we dry the beans if they need a little more drying. We haven’t eaten the beans yet, it’s a lot of work and you seem to get so little. I’ve done a few rounds of goat jerky and it’s worked out pretty well. I haven’t done it enough to offer much advice though. :)

Comment by misty

April 16, 2007 @ 7:26 pm

Those fleeces are gorgeous! I really need to do some dyeing. Yes, I love BFL fleece — it is so soft and silky! I think that’s what Carry of KnitWit has as well. If I remember correctly they are not the smallest breed in the world either — it might be something to think about if I ever want to change breeds.

India, it’s very important to either get the entire contents of the jar hot enough to kill all bacteria, or to have enough acid (or sugar) in the liquid that it retards bacterial growth. That’s why jam and fruit are some of the easiest things to can, and it’s why canning fruit with low-sugar syrup is risky.

For tomatoes, you usually add some vinegar or lemon juice. Not only does it keep the environment slightly acidic, but it adds a nice zip to the tomatoes when you eat them. Even still, we always pressure-can them. Pressure-canning causes the liquid in the jars to go above boiling temperature (they don’t boil because of the pressure). There’s a whole science about it, but the easiest thing to do is to get a food preservation recipe book. It will tell you what needs to be pressure-canned, and how long it needs to be under pressure.

Interestingly enough, tomato sauce and salsa do not need to be pressure canned. They have a lot of acid naturally, and in the case of the sauce, also a lot of sugar.

Most importantly, right after opening a jar or store-bought can of food, give it a good look and a sniff. Botulism and the other nasty things that can cause spoilage have very unpleasant odors and make the food look gross too. Do not stir the contents until you’ve given it a good look.

Here in the US there was recently an outbreak of salmonella in peanut butter. As far as I know, peanut butter is not heated much above pasteurizing temperature. Hence the danger. I’m not sure that the salmonella left any perceptible smell or taste in the peanut butter (otherwise why would anyone eat it?)

Comment by Valeriec

April 19, 2007 @ 2:24 pm

I was looking at some recipes and saw a squash/potatoe soup one. I have never had squash before but thought this sounded oood. Tought I would pass it along.

http://lifestyle.msn.com/foodandentertaining/recipes/recipe_detailbhg.aspx?st=k&q=squash&rid=2166&pn=1&ps=10

Comment by Sherry W

April 22, 2007 @ 3:40 pm

I’m sorry, I can’t help myself!
Who exactly is ‘peeing in the background’? :) :0