This post is not about canning, not really... well, only in a roundabout sort of way... I can because I want quality food to eat... I want to know what's in it. I want to know that I'm eating and feeding my family the best I can afford. Sure, I buy Spaghetti-O's and boxed cereal from time to time. I consume the marketing ploys out there with the best of them. I buy into the convenience, microwave, instant gratification mindset often... WAY more often than I really want to. I eat fast food, drink diet soda, use Kleenex instead of handkerchiefs, paper towels instead of dish towels, and I LOVE flavored liquid coffee creamer. I'm guilty... totally. I almost never remember to take my recycled, reusable bags to the grocery store and I come home with piles of plastic bags every week. Yes, I'm guilty... I'm learning... I won't be fanatic about it, but I do want to do better... not necessarily because it's better for the environment (even though it is, I guess)... but because it's better for me... and mine.

I like people... love them really... but sometimes the "public" really bothers me.

A few years ago when my now 14 year old grandson was a toddler and lived with me... I realized he had an attention span problem... ADD and maybe ADHD... I don't know for sure, we never had him tested... I do know that he had a real problem sitting still, and if you told him to do three things... he might remember the first one and do it... but then he got lost somewhere on the way to do the second and third task... the TV, or a squirrel running past, or he would find a toy he hadn't seen in awhile... and he forgot to finish what he started out doing. This problem came to a head when we realized he was waking up during the night... he didn't bother anyone, he didn't wake anybody up... he would quietly get up... because his little mind was rushing around so fast... and he would play with his toys in his room for awhile, then go back to bed and sleep a little more. He stayed tired a lot because his mind wouldn't let him settle down and sleep. He developed asthma and other allergies. A friend told me about the Feingold Diet and I looked into it, researched it... I didn't have a lot of money but I invested in their book and I gave it a try... it was NOT easy! But it worked! I got rid of as much artificial coloring, artificial flavoring, and artificial preservatives as I possibly could and within weeks he was sleeping at night, his behavior had improved... people were asking me what I had done to change his attitude. We would go to the health food store to buy his macaroni and cheese, chips and a few other treats... he loved it! He would say, "Nana, when are we going back to the "good store?" He had fewer asthma attacks and fewer colds.

Cereal the color it was meant to be

Artificially colored cereal

I learned that "marketing experts" target children and their love for bright colors... so they load things like juices, cereals, candies and other things that kids like with artificial colors... in moderation these things aren't particularly harmful... they're FDA approved right? Think back when we were children... cereal was beige, we only had sodas or candy on rare occasions... we were made to drink milk... our toothpaste was white instead of sparkly and colorful and it tasted like toothpaste instead of bubblegum... our medicine tasted like, well, medicine... we didn't take Flintstone artificially colored and flavored vitamins because we were made to eat our veggies, drink our milk, have an apple... whipped cream and butter were made from, guess what? cream!!!! not hydrogenated oil...

What's wrong with butter being the creamy color of fresh cream... it's not supposed to be bright yellow! Artificial colors are made from petroleum... so is gasoline, crude oil... Artificial vanilla (vanillin)  flavoring is made from a waste product from paper mills.

Remember when Orange Crush came in an amber glass bottle? When you poured it out into a glass, it was the color of pale, watery orange juice.

Orange Crush today is filled with artificial colors and flavors

"Artificial colors have been around for more than 100 years. (Originally they were made from coal tar oil.) And children have been eating artificially colored and flavored products for decades.
But then . . . most children ate these additives infrequently. They got an occasional lollipop from the bank or barber shop. Cotton candy was found at the circus. Jelly beans were given at Easter, orange cupcakes at Halloween and candy canes at Christmas.Today . . . the typical child growing up in the United States is exposed to these powerful chemicals all day, every day."








And then there are diapers... disposable diapers... convenient? Sure. Better for baby bottoms? I'm not so sure. They claim to "keep baby dryer" but they use an awful lot of chemicals to do so. They cost more... and we have come to believe that they are necessary to raising a happy healthy child. 






"They contain dyes, sodium polyacrylate (the “super absorbent” gel), and dioxin, which is a by-product of bleaching paper. Sodium polyacrylate has been linked in the past to toxic shock syndrome and allergic reactions—and it’s potentially lethal to pets. Some dyes and dioxin, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, are known to cause damage to the central nervous system, kidneys, and liver—and may be linked to cancer. In fact, Dioxin is so toxic that even the smallest detectable quantities have been known to cause immune system suppression, liver disease, and genetic problems in lab animals.
Cloth diapers, on the other hand, are reusable, absorbent and so darn cute on a baby behind! I used cloth diapers on my babies... yes, I went against the grain... people thought I was crazy... I got comments and questions like "But you DO use disposables when you go somewhere don't you?" and "Don't you have to change them more often with cloth diapers?"... and on and on... I used cloth diapers when I "went somewhere" too... a saved bread bag was stuffed down in the side of the diaper bag along with a couple of damp wash cloths in another plastic bag for cleanups. When I came back home... I dumped the contents of both bags into the diaper pail for washing up later... 

Photo courtesy of the smitten word

And last, but not least... along with my research concerning my grandson's diet... I began researching products we put ON our skin... and I began making my own soap, lotion, and other bath products. My husband told me I had a GREAT product and should market it. So we set up a website and a small soapmaking business on the side. We've been to markets and festivals and have done reasonably well with our soap... but some of the questions and comments "the public" makes leaves me shaking my head. "Why isn't your soap pretty colors like so-and-so's?" Well, the purist in me won't allow me to add artificial colorants to my soap... maybe it won't hurt me (maybe it will!), there's principle involved... it doesn't add anything to the health and well-being of my skin so why color it up? 
"Don't you sell 'vanilla' or 'plumeria' or 'lilac' scented soap? and why not?" Well... I don't add ANY artificial fragrances either... they contribute to allergies... don't do anything to moisturize or benefit my skin, or yours, so why would I?

Lovely, artificially colored soap

Honey Oatmeal Soap the color soap really is... creamy beige... I think it's simply beautiful!

Ever wonder what pieces and parts make up a can of "store bought" chicken? Sometimes it doesn't even look like chicken. And sometimes there seems to be more water than chicken in those cans.

I canned my own! Now, I can just open a jar of chicken and have chicken salad, chicken and dumplings, chicken soup, or chicken casserole in just a few minutes.

Here's what I did...

I simmered my chicken pieces until they were cooked thoroughly. Sometimes I pressure cook the chicken for 30 minutes at 5 pounds of pressure... it gets done faster. I added about a half teaspoon of salt to the water before cooking.

Canned chicken breast meat.

Boiling Water Bath Canning
Boiling water bath canning is a method of home canning in which sealed jars of food are immersed into a pot of boiling water for a preset amount of time. There are a few universal rules to water bath canning, but not all foods get treated the same. 
For high acid or high sugar foods only:
- Fill jars to within a half inch of the rim of the jar with hot food or hot liquid.
- Check for air bubbles trapped under the surface of the food or liquid.
- In the case of pickles or other free floating food, a butter knife is handy to knock air bubbles loose.
- Removing air bubbles allows the air to escape the jar during canning which gives you a better vacuum.
- Apply lids and rings finger snug, not tight.
- Place jars into the boiling water and make sure they are covered by a minimum of 2 inches of water.
- Put a lid on the canner or pot to help hold in the heat.
- Start the timer when the water comes back to a full boil.
- When the time is up, turn off the heat and wait until the water stops boiling.
- Remove the jars from the water bath and set them aside for two minutes.
- After a minute or so, tighten the lids fully to “complete” the seals. A silicone oven mitt is a good tool for this purpose.
- This step is unnecessary, but greatly increases the chance that your jars will seal.
- Place the finished jars aside at a minimum of one inch apart to cool.
- Within a couple minutes, you should see and hear the first jars sealing. (Listen for the "ping" of a successful seal!)




Pressure Canning
If you are going to get food poisoning, it is likely to be from low acid and low sugar home canned foods that were improperly preserved. This doesn't mean not ever to even try pressure canning, it means to follow the tried and true guidelines. If you do this, you won't have any problems and you’ll love the results! Pressure canning MUST be used when preserving food that doesn't contain enough acid or sugar to kill the worst bacteria. Also, pressure canning relies totally on heat to kill the bacteria spores that are almost certainly found in the food.
- Most pressure canners come with an instruction manual, which will help a lot with the details.
- Depending on the type of canner you have, you’ll want one to two inches of water in the bottom to begin with.
- Distilled or rain water is the best because it leaves no calcium or deposits on your jars. These are sometimes very difficult to remove.
- If you want to use tap water, add a little vinegar to avoid these water deposits to some degree.
- Here's one way that pressure canning differs from water bath canning: the jars don't have to be completely submerged. 
- Now is a good time to preheat the canner, but make sure it isn’t sealed so that it builds up pressure yet.
- Put hot food and or liquid into hot jars to within a half inch of the jar rim.
- Check for air bubbles trapped under the surface of the food or liquid.
- In the case of green beans or other vegetables, a butter knife is handy to knock air bubbles loose from around the food.
- Put lid and ring on and tighten it to finger snug, not tight.
- Put the jars of food into the canner and apply the lid.
- It’s very important to turn the heat up high at this point and allow the canner to vent steam steadily.
- Once the water begins to boil, it usually takes 10-20 minutes for the steam to force out any remaining air in the canner.
- You’ll notice the air escaping the canner going from white to clear even though it is blowing air out the entire time.
- This means that steam is replacing air inside the canner, which is important.
- Steam will give you a more accurate pressure reading and it cooks the food more completely. 
- When it blows out steam constantly, it’s time to apply the weight and build up pressure.
- When the pressure reaches (a minimum of) 10 pounds, it is time to start the clock.
- At this time you must reduce the heat to just maintain 10 pounds (or more) of pressure.
- If you don't have a gauge, use the weight as your guide. If the weight is moving, you are at pressure.
- If you allow the canner to get too hot, the jars will lose liquid and might not seal properly.
- The pressure and time are both variable to your specific food and altitude.
- When the time is up, you simply turn off the heat and wait for the canner to cool down and de-pressurize all on it’s own.
- Pressure decreases as the temperature decreases, reducing pressure prematurely will cause big problems for your efforts.
- If you manually release pressure at this point, you could break jars or force liquid out of the jars.
- When the pressure is zero (between 30 and 90 minutes), you can begin to check your canner.
- Start by lightly jostling the canner weight to see if the pressure is gone.
- If the canner still has pressure on it, leave it for another 10 minutes or more to cool on it’s own. Don’t get in a hurry.
- When you are very sure the pressure is gone, slowly open the canner lid until it is loose and peek at your jars.
- The jars will still “boil” for quite some time, which is normal, but taking the lid off too quickly could result in fluid loss or worse.
- Allow them to cool for a few minutes with the lid loosely attached, this will help cool the jars more slowly than fully open.
- You should be able to safely remove the jars no more than 20 minutes later.
- Many times, the jars will start sealing right inside the canner, which is normal.
- Remove the jars and wait a minute or so before “completing” the seal by tightening the lids firmly.
- This step is unnecessary, but greatly increases the chance that your jars will seal.
- Set them an inch or more apart to cool and you are done.


*From www.survivalistboards.com

In addition to your ingredients, you absolutely need:

• Kerr or Ball jars in the appropriate size for your recipe (thin-walled jars, like mayonnaise jars, won't do, they may break!)
• NEW lids with sealing rings (never reuse these)
• Screw bands (can be reused)
• A large pot to cook your ingredients
• A very large pot to seal your jars (unless using the inversion method for jams and jellies)
• A shallow pan to scald your lids
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Tongs, or jar lifter, or some way of handling scalding hot jars (I LOVE my jar lifter!)

I Love my jar lifter!

• A ladle or large spoon for filling the jars
• A clean dishtowel or tea towel
• Access to lots of water

• A water bath canner and/or pressure canner and rack
• Canning funnel
• Magnetic Canning Lid Lifter (I also LOVE my magnetic gadget!!!)

This magnetic lid lifter is a magic wand as far as I'm concerned!

• Labels