Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Ridgetop]

Not that I need more lids, but if they jump into my cart there's nothing I can do to stop them.. right?

When the lids are that cheap buy all you can get. The jars are reusable forever, it is the flat lids (and rings you run out of. The rings come can come off once the jars are cooled down and the seal is tight and you can reuse them again when you can, but new flat lids are necessary each time. Definitely go back and pick up some more rings and lids and if the packs of just the flat lids are on sale really invest in them. You have all those fruit trees you planted, and young children coming along. You will be canning a lot as they get older - even if it is only jam for their PB & J's! BYW, quarts are what I used for veggies, soup, fruit, and pints for pickles. When I was doing boutiques selling homemade pickles and jams, I used the 12 ounce tall jars, left the rings n them and added a fancy fabric top and ribbon. For jam for the family I used the half pint size - we went through a lot of jam but the kids got tired of one flavor and I hate wasting fridge space having several flavors open at the same time. Sometimes the sugar will crystalize if left too long in the fridge too.

FYI: When giving jam as a gift, and putting a fabric topper on, it is easiest to put on the fabric with a rubber band, adjust the fabric, then tie on the ribbon. Otherwise, the fabric keeps sliding all around while you fight with it and the ribbon. Since losing my 3rd and 4th hands it has become harder to do that! When doing my boutique jars, I needed to speed up the process, so I used rubber bands, and also measured the ribbon length I needed. Then I took a small piece of 2x4 and drove in 2 8d finishing nails that distance apart. By winding the roll of ribbon around the nails multiple times, I could cut all the ribbons the right length at once. Getting cheap baskets at the thrift store during the year, I bought fancy Easter grass or excelsior on sale for making gift baskets to sell.

I had a lot of repeat customers who would order during the year until I moved to this house and lost my garden and fruit trees. The fruit trees and shrubs we planted here died immediately due to a Ph of 9!!! My grocery bill went sky high when we moved since we lost our garden and fruit trees which made up about 2/3 of my groceries for out family of 6.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

I told several church friends about the lids and they were excited. I also talked to one of the ladies who organizes the events for the relief society and they might look into doing a canning party. I'm pretty excited.

I'm thinking I could start with trying to make some jam? Not sure what is "easiest" thing to start but I figure that even if it doesn't can successfully that I could just stick it in the fridge and eat it right away?

We have a pineapple that I probably could try to can or make a jam. My dad likes orange marmalade, I could try to make that. We could probably get a box of strawberries for $20 too, but they will go bad fast unless you process them.

 

[SageHill]

I told several church friends about the lids and they were excited. I also talked to one of the ladies who organizes the events for the relief society and they might look into doing a canning party. I'm pretty excited.

I'm thinking I could start with trying to make some jam? Not sure what is "easiest" thing to start but I figure that even if it doesn't can successfully that I could just stick it in the fridge and eat it right away?

We have a pineapple that I probably could try to can or make a jam. My dad likes orange marmalade, I could try to make that. We could probably get a box of strawberries for $20 too, but they will go bad fast unless you process them.

I think the easiest and "gateway" canning item is strawberry jam. The Ball Book of Canning and Preserving is great. All recipes in there are tried, true, tested and follow the National Center for Home Food Preservation guidelines (important stuff there). Strawberries here are not expensive - ~$8/ 3 pack, less if you go for a flat that doesn't have the pretty ones (but then this area is big in growing and shipping them). Lots of great recipes (I like the zucchini marmalade - but don't put "zucchini" on the label call it surprise marmalade. Of course you can easily label the strawberry margarita jam for what it is! . There's amaretto apple jam too (all the alcohol boils off). Soooo many things.

 

[murphysranch]

Hey! I'm in Canning Rebels too and saw that post. Just need to anchor it to the wall for earthquakes.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

We finished cutting up all the rabbits from last weekend: we have 3 and 1/2 gallon Ziploc bags to grind up, a 1/2 gallon each of loins and kebob chunks, 3 sets of 8 "wings", and a partial bag of belly flaps to make into jerky. I think there's at least 50 pounds of meat there, I am not sure where our scale ran off to. Plus we saved the hearts and livers.

There was quite a lot of fat, so that was added to the grind pile. I think we are going to freeze it, and then grind up with a couple pounds of bacon to make burgers, nuggets, meatballs, etc. Hubby has a grinder from Bass Pro. I've got one set of wings marinating in the fridge now for tomorrow night or Tuesday night.

Now my hands smell like raw meat.

 

[Mini Horses]

Well that's a good amount of healthy meat. Nice job.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Forgot to add that the extra hens got moved to my parents house, didn't cull the roosters tho. Hubby said we might be able to do it Monday.

I think I'd like to replace my easter egger rooster with a leghorn rooster, so the chicks would be purebred. Then I can get more pens a few years down the road and play around with crossing them at that time. Now I just need to find a leghorn rooster...

 

[Baymule]

That’s a lot of meat, it will feed y’all for awhile. Nothing better than your own home grown meat.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Extra roosters are STILL here. Ugh. Hubby not cooperating. We had family come over on Saturday and that threw a wrench in our outdoor plans for the weekend. Also it's been raining or sprinkling the past few days so that didn't help either. I really want to get the chickens taken care of and some more trees planted so I don't have to baby them through the year again.

Fence for the new garden is still not done. I have a metal mesh trash can over the one tomato that is out there now, so far it hasn't been attacked. We also apparently have ground squirrels now, there's holes appearing everywhere. I bet they hitched a ride from hubby's family's house somehow, they are infested there. Their dog chases them but rarely actually catches one. They steal the almost ripe peaches off the trees. I dunno how I'm going to keep them out of my garden. Maybe I need to get some practice in with my 22. Or buy a squirrelenator.

 

[SageHill]

Extra roosters are STILL here. Ugh. Hubby not cooperating. We had family come over on Saturday and that threw a wrench in our outdoor plans for the weekend. Also it's been raining or sprinkling the past few days so that didn't help either. I really want to get the chickens taken care of and some more trees planted so I don't have to baby them through the year again.

Fence for the new garden is still not done. I have a metal mesh trash can over the one tomato that is out there now, so far it hasn't been attacked. We also apparently have ground squirrels now, there's holes appearing everywhere. I bet they hitched a ride from hubby's family's house somehow, they are infested there. Their dog chases them but rarely actually catches one. They steal the almost ripe peaches off the trees. I dunno how I'm going to keep them out of my garden. Maybe I need to get some practice in with my 22. Or buy a squirrelenator.

The squirrelenator is the only reason I had figs last year.
Caught 'em, let 'em swim, and put them on a boulder for the hawks.