Saturday, August 14, 2010

field to pantry shelf


I need to apologize to my BBFG. I doubted that there was an green beans in this field. That being said don't judge a newly harvested field from a car. Sometimes the goal is hidden in plain sight.



Learn the way grasshopper learn the way. Teaching a son to fish so to speak, age 3.


To the left is about 30 feet of green beans that weren't mechanically harvested due to low hanging tree branches on the neighboring playground. Prime picking. I was able to glean enough green beans to fill my 10 gallon bucket.

Scored canning lids for free thanks to Ball coupons and my local mega mart doing a one week dollar coupon doubling. Thanks also to a non canner bbgf who printed me off extra coupons. And a neighbor who gave me hers from the Sunday paper. 84 small mouth lids. Good deal down to my last 332 acquired from an eBay auction years back.
Gone are the days when Big Lots or Family Dollar priced American Harvest for just under a buck. Currently in my area selling for $1.50. Wally World going for close to $3.
Since I am canning using electric not wood despite the lids being free (remember after 9 years of canning all equipment has been paid off) I really don't know how much my 1949 Hotpoint stove pulls on the meter. For July kWh is $1.46. I figure between two pressure canner loads = 18 pints, prep, and what not I will have had the stove on for 3 hours.
Any takers out there on calculating a rough estimate for me ?

~~ pelenaka ~~





8 comments:

  1. I never knew how beans were mechanically picked. Do they get more than one harvest out of a field?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I belive that it's a one harvest deal on those beans since 98% of the leaves were pulled off. By day 2 what green beans that are left are very dry unless it has been cool & rainy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Apology accepted. Now you need to apologize for that wonderful photo of me!

    ReplyDelete
  4. K, if you turn your back on on a blogger with a camera then u are just asking for it.
    How'd the dilly beans turn out?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't know how these work, but thought I'd share that there are reuseable lids(although it looks like an investment...)

    http://reusablecanninglids.com/About_TATTLER.html

    Bethany

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yeah, there has been a few discussion over on HT about them. Not quite convince yet.
    I did the math - buying 36 lids with shipping works out to 85 cents per lid vs. the average 10 cents per conventional lids that I buy them for. I consider each jar in a canning season to cost me a dime to start with before I even include the cost of ingredients.
    So I would have to get 8 canning seasons from a lid to bring the cost down to a dime.
    So far I haven't read an online post from someone claiming that they are on their 9th, 10th, 11th, canning season with the same lids & rubbers (there by making them free).
    Also what I have noticed is that there has been posts where people say they still have the lids but the rubbers wore out unfortunetly no one says when they wore out. On the 9th canning season ?

    ReplyDelete
  7. H said they are delicious...I haven't tried them yet. Got 19 quarts of plain ole beans canned and ate a whole bunch more. Funny I still had several quarts in the basement...oh well. Those melons though...yum yum.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your a Godly forgivng woman, can't say that I'd feed him after this past week.
    I gave a good sized handful to my Mom she steamed them and they were good. Pity I couldn't have been able to pick more.
    I wanted to make Dilly beans but felt greatest use would be as a sde for dinners.
    Melons were the bomb. Are you sure we can't sell them 'n the ghetto ? That would be wrong huh ?

    ReplyDelete

Thanks, good to know there are other's with this interest