Harvest Bounty Canning: White Peaches

canning-rhonda-sonja

Rhonda Dieni came over to give my girls a basic canning lesson. We canned 50 pounds of organic white peaches.

My husband loves canned peaches. So last week we bought three cases of organic white peaches from Benchland/Todd Orchards, Keremeos, BC at the Saturday Kamloops Farmer’s Market. The peaches were so delicious we ate one case before canning day!

Rhonda Dieni came over to give my girls a basic canning lesson. My girls are home schooled and canning is a great skill for anyone to learn. Rhonda has been canning all her life. She gives canning lessons at the Kamloops Community Kitchen. Before Rhonda arrived I washed and dried twenty, 1L glass mason jars. I found twenty lids and caps. I cleaned up my counters and removed the tablecloth from the dinning room table.

I have never canned before so Rhonda brought her canning equipment and set up in our kitchen. She has two traditional canning pots with trivets for removing the hot jars. While we peeled, Rhonda made a hot syrup for pouring over the peeled peaches. She prefers to use less sweetener in her syrup but warns that if we don’t use any sweetener the peaches would discolor. Here is Rhonda’s hot syrup recipe:

Hot Syrup for Peaches
16c water
1c local honey

The rest of us stood around the dinning room table and peeled fifty pounds of peaches. We peeled and pitted the peaches and cut the peaches into eighths. We saved all the pits and peels for our hogs. The peach pieces went right into the jars. Rhonda told us to lightly push down the pieces, without crushing, to better fill the jars. With four of us working at peeling, it took less than two hours. Actually, it was really fun to stand around the table peeling, laughing and talking. I feel like everyone should have this wonderful experience!

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It is very important to ensure the tops of the canning jars are clean before putting on the lids.

While we peeled, Rhonda poured the hot syrup over the peaches and carefully cleaned the top of the jars before setting the lids on the jars. The first load of jars was ready to go into the hot water bath. Thirty minutes later Rhonda removed the jars and set them to cool on the counter protected by a tea towel to sop up sticky juice. Each load did ten jars.

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Here is one fresh organic white peach. In the background are the canned peaches just out of the water bath.

Rhonda said to let the jars sit overnight on the counter, if possible, before moving the jars into storage. This lets the jars set. Rhonda said it was a tradition in her family to not eat any canned foods until after the US Thanksgiving Holiday. This tradition ensures that the family would eat fresh foods during the bounty of fall and save the canned foods for the cold, dark days of winter. I think this is a smart tradition and my family will follow it.

Rhonda Dieni gives canning instruction every second Thursday for the Kamloops Community Kitchen. This would be an excellent course for home schooled young adults or anyone interested in learning how to can. Rhonda is also organizing the First Annual Food Swap on October 17, 2012 at 6:00 to 8:00pm. Please contact Rhonda at 778.470.4442 for more information and to preregister, as space will be limited.

canning-cooled-peaches

Here are the canned peaches after they have cooled and set. I removed the metal collars and washed the sticky juice off the jars. The collars are not needed and can be difficult to remove later.

Urban Chickens: Part I

GUEST POST by Maureen Lefebvre

chicken-tractor-book

A permaculture guide to healthy hens, eggs and soil.

We left our beloved Pritchard homestead under less than ideal circumstances. Fifteen acres, river front, cows, chickens, hayfields, barn and shop. We had it all. The story of that parting is best told in person over a cup of hot tea.

We had made the decision to move into town, but my line in the sand was drawn. I WOULD have my chickens. And so began the search for the ideal house with the ideal bit of town property suitable for a backyard chicken coop. Internet searches and phone calls to city hall revealed that indeed, you needed to have at least one acre to have chickens. Deeper reading of past city council discussions brought up comments indicating that if neighbors didn?t pose a problem, bylaw officers wouldn?t come pounding on your door demanding to confiscate your birds. In any case, the house we ended up with is in rural Barnhartvale, on not quite one acre, with neighbors who are used to horses and dogs, bears and deer. A few chickens wouldn?t upset the ecological balance.

The problem now became what to house these birds in. Our previous property came with a father-in-law who was quite the handyman. He built a sturdy chicken coop and pen that served us well for years. However, he wasn?t making the move with us. So we began the three part journey to chicken ownership satisfaction ? a journey that hasn?t quite ended four years after we started.

My handy teenage son was recruited to build our first chicken home. We home school and this satisfied his love for carpentry, especially when he could be outside pounding nails instead of inside writing. Based on the concept by Andy Lee a chicken tractor was soon in the conceptual stage. After much discussion and pages of graph paper designing, we soon had a rectangular, floor-less box moving its way across our back yard. This box was 8 feet by 4 feet by 30 inches. One half was an open pen. The other half was closed in with an attached nest box and a roost. The water and food containers sat on the ground. Both halves had lift-able lids with handles. The lid of the open pen was chicken wire.

By moving the pen to fresh grass every few days this size was plenty for the three chickens that we acquired from a Vernon farmer. I chose to keep the flock to three so as to perhaps be a prototype for an urban chicken raising example should I ever take part in political action.

So there we were happily enjoying our fresh eggs every day. But winter was coming. How would we handle cold and snow?

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The chicken box is not exactly as we originally built it. In the meantime we?ve gone on to something else and this has been adapted for a different use. But the basic idea can still be seen.

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The joy of an urban flock is happy hens, delicious eggs and healthy soil.