Under Pressure

As mentioned in my previous post I had yet to make use of the lovely pressure canner that I bought just before Christmas. I was too busy to even look at it over the holidays and then I was back to work the first week of January and somehow it's been sitting there for 6 weeks now! And truthfully it made me a bit nervous. I read through the manual the day it arrived and there were steps to do before using in, and very thorough instructions how to use it and it was all a bit intimidating. In the meantime I've been stewing up pots of various meat stock that were not helping with the lack of fridge space and it reached critical mass this weekend when I brought home a large hambone from my friend's wedding. They actually offered me an entire ham and you have no idea how difficult it was to say no but it was a 20 lb ham and I just didn't have room even with the recent fridge clean out!


The hambone was still very meaty so I carved off all the excess to have another meal, and put the bone in the slow cooker to simmer. It had been heavy marinated in bourbon, mustard and cloves among other things so I kept the seasoning minimal, using just some onion and bay leaf. It made a huge pot of wonderfully fragrant ham stock!

I also had a pot of beef stock from a bag of rib bones and fat I rescued from the kitchen at work (I also made beef tallow for later use) and a pot of turkey stock from last week's bird.

So yesterday I finally bit the bullet and set up the pressure canner for the first time; it was actually much easier than I imagined! I cleaned and prepped the canner as directed and then ran it through a test run which went perfectly. So I filled up my jars with hot stock, sealed them and fired it up! I had a moment of confusion when I added the water since my manual says add 3 quarts of boiling water and then indicates a line in the inside where the level should be. Maybe it was because I was only canning four L jars and one 500ml but it took a lot more than 3 quarts to bring it up to the line. The level at that point reached just to the shoulder of the L jars. Can any of you pressure canning experts clarify for me whether that is the correct amount of water?

In any case it seems to have worked like a charm! I was also a little nervous about maintaining a proper pressure since many sources report that using just the pressure gauge can be tricky and many people suggest using weights. Well I don't know if it was beginners luck but I got it up to 11 psi as directed in the manual and there it sat for the entire 25 minutes.

Only in the last 5 minutes did the pressure start to creep up so I turned the heat off entirely at that point (gas stoves rock!) and let it slowly cool down. It was still over 11 for more than the time remaining and it took about an hour to cool down enough for the pressure to release. When the lid finally came off all the jars were intact and still boiling furiously, a good indicator that a vacuum had been achieved. It took quite a while for the contents to cool down, much longer than hot waterbath canning, but eventually I heard a series of lovely pops and today all my jars are nicely sealed.

My first batch of pressure canning was a success!

Surviving January

It's probably a bit early to be posting about the winter blahs since here in Toronto we've barely even had any winter yet. In fact it was balmy 7 degrees C yesterday and today is looking to be even warmer- yes that's laundry on the line! But it's been mostly grey and bleak for what feels like months already and even sunny days seem too short. It's so easy to slip into a funk when all I feel like doing is reading or watching movies, and even getting dressed seems like too much effort. In my defence I did receive a lot of great books for Christmas, including these beautiful clothbound editions of classic novels that the Russian gave me!

In the video dept I have my dear friend Kate to blame for my latest addiction- Downton Abbey is a beautiful period piece set in England in the early 1900's and I've been devouring the first season which I was able to download entirely along with a Christmas special. I was also delighted to discover that Season 2 begins airing on PBS this Sunday at 9pm!

I never did get around to doing a year end wrap up post so I thought I'd post a few moments in pictures. The highlight of the year was of course my trip to England: my aunt and I had a fabulous time and I hope very much to make another trip there soon.

My search there for both Kilner history and Kilner jars was a success and then my friend Leigh trumped the list with this beauty she recently brought back to Canada with her. It's a vintage 3lb jar that is going to look great on the wall of jars.

The gardens on the other hand have had better years. In fact the less said about them the better. The best thing about a new year is the ability to forget all the heartbreaks of last year's garden because it's a clean slate again. I'm already dreaming of what I want to grow this year!

The one sad note of 2011 was losing my beloved Casey in Sept. I still occasionally forget she's gone and then miss her all over again- 20 years of habit I guess.


I'm grateful to still have my other two Farmcats even now that it's winter and they are as stir crazy as we are. They get restless being inside so much and need regular amusement lest they find some on their own (hide the toilet paper and lock up the yarn!)Our favourite method of entertaining them in the winter is the mini disco balls we have strung in the sunporch. At this time of year when the sun does shine, it streams in the windows; sunbeams reflect off the mirror balls and bounce all over the place. The cats think it's a marvelous game. Best cat toy ever!

And of course I am full of joy that the Russian is still here in Canada. Although it's been a year since he was granted permission to stay, he's still awaiting the documents that make him a permanent resident and until he has those in his hand he won't believe it 100%. Government bodies move slowly and at times it's still frustrating-the longer it takes the more he doubts it will really come to be no matter how much I try to reassure him. Having those papers will mean we can make more plans, as well as allow him to travel outside of Canada again and he hopes to be able to see his daughter who he hasn't seen in 4 long years. Hopefully he won't have too much longer to wait.



Despite my earlier grumbling, 2012 looks to be a promising year. Colette and I have decided to emulate our Can Jam experience by attempting to can one recipe a month again and we have our eyes on Meyer lemons for January. And speaking of canning I finally splurged on a pressure canner just before Christmas but I've yet to try it out so I'll be sure to record my first attempt!

We've also got some other great plans for this winter, including building window farms and of course tapping maple trees again- mmmm, syrup!
At work we're putting together a number of interesting projects as well. I'm still amazed that I'm getting paid to come up with gardening plans and related projects and I can't wait to get going. There's even a rumour that I might be working with bees and possibly even chickens!!

Maybe I should enjoy the quiet time while I can!