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Canning Season 2013
I realize that food can be preserved throughout the year, when it’s in season, but I feel like because of the way I can (I only can things I grow) and the things I like to can, I end up having a “canning season”. It usually runs from late Summer through early Fall. My canning season ends when I run out of things from the garden to can and when I put my canner away, so this year’s canning season has officially ended. Here is my 2013 Canning Season Re-cap! What I canned in 2013 and where I got the recipe: Jalapeño Jelly: 7 pints from Ball Blue…
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Happy Birthday Rake and Make… and Goals for 2013!
Well, I did it. My first post was on February 19th, 2012, so Rake and Make is one year old as of today. This will be my 53rd post, which means I met my goal of posting an average of once a week! I recapped 2012 in another post, so I won’t go into that again. Instead, I’d like to take this time to talk about my goals for 2013. Since Rake and Make is a gardening, cooking and crafts blog, I have goals in all three areas and a few overall goals for blogging in general. GARDENING– Grow more blueberries– I really need to work on my blueberries. A couple…
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2012 Year in Review
So I had plans for the some blog posts that I just haven’t had a chance to get around to, such as post about my lovely Renfrew cowl neck shirt that I made to wear to holiday parties (and did wear…a lot). I will do a full post later, but here are a couple of photos in the meantime. I also really wanted to write a “year in review” post to highlight some of my accomplishments this year with gardening and crafting. As many of you know though, my mom has not been well since June. I wrote about it here. She never got much better after that and just…
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Mission Accomplished: Sauerkraut!
I did it! I overcame my inability to grow cabbage AND ended up with a successful, delicious batch of sauerkraut! And it only took me eight months! Maybe I just needed to be patient, because my cabbage actually headed up this year. I started the seeds indoors in March and transplanted them out in May. I’m estimating that the biggest heads were about 4 inches in diameter by late October. I guess I just didn’t realize cabbage took that long to grow! I’m thinking one of my mistakes one year, was that the cabbage didn’t head up and I tried to use the hard outer leaves anyway. I’m thinking now…
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Canning Season!
Without even realizing it, and due to my little urban farm, I have adopted the age old farmer’s routine. Spring and Summer are the planting and growing season and late Summer/early Fall mark the time for harvesting and preserving. Fortunately for me, I like this kind of structure and dependable repetition, so it suits me just fine. I preserve food mostly by freezing or canning it. I freeze soups, sauces, and berries and can pickled things and jams and jellies. I like to can things that are fun to give away… or hoard (sometimes it’s hard to share)! Apparently I only can things that are red or green. I’m not…
