The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

-taff

I've ordered a new batch of lids for my jars in anitcipation of a tomato and runner bean glut but I'll have to see what to do with runner beans because I've never wet stored them before. I did try salting them one year, they were OK but not great so it's off to find another way. I know my aunties and mother used to picle them sort of in white wine and water so I could ask my cousin what to do....

annieb64

I think Delia Smith has a recipe for runner bean pickle. I haven't  tried it as I don't  eat pickles

-taff

I don't really want to make a pickle, I usually make a lot of jars of picalilli using a recipe I found on the sallholders website. It has three times the usualy amount of tumeric and it's the best picalilli I've ever tasted.

https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/christmas-piccalilli-recipe-5658/

I wanted to save the beans themselves as they are.

Si_Clist

-taff said:

I wanted to save the beans themselves as they are.

We tried salting runner beans once.  Just the once ...

Ever since, we've always done a couple of dozen 1lb Kilners of them in the pressure canner.  If you grow the right varieties, they seem to keep their flavour well past Easter.

[Deleted User]

Yes.....so did we.....just the once Mrs Webley!!! what a waste of beans and salt!

maryb

Si, do you find the beans go a bit mushy being processed for so long?  My DH likes his beans with still a little bit of crispness in them just enough so your teeth don't squeak.  I'm totally with you on the All-American, I love mine.  I've got the smallest one which won't take a double layer of jars but it's fine for my needs.  I also like the gasket free  seal though I find it a little tricky getting the lid sitting evenly all the way round - if it's wonky you can get too much steam escaping.

I mainly use mine for stock and chilli con carne.  A jar of chilli is just right for two people and heats up in the time it takes to cook the rice.  Every now and then, I cook up a vast vat of it and can it all.

I don't tend to use it for fruit because I find the fruit always rises in the jar when using a pressure cooker ( a normal pressure cooker is fine for high acid fruits) so I tend to water bath those.  I've got a big pot like a mini dustbin that I got in France.  It's a big beast and I have to put it on the cooker and then add the water, it's impossible to lift when it's got water in it.  But being so deep I can process bottles in it and I make vast quantities of elderflower cordial every year. 

Speaking of which, the elderflowers are starting to come out round our neck of the woods and I think I'll be making cordial again in a couple of weeks.  I think this must be the earliest I've seen them.  I could be driven to making alcoholic elderflower champagne if the lockdown goes on much longer!!

Onebrokelady

Si_Clist said:

thriftwizard said:

... I'd still recommend buying a good secondhand machine in preference to a cheap new one, because many of the latter struggle to stitch heavy fabrics like denim & won't be repairable when they "die". 

And a plastic one will probably drive you nuts walking across the table when you sew with it!

DigForVictory said:

... The singer engineers will be booked solid as soon as they’re open for business again - I had planned to get my treadle machine refurbished.

I used to be heavily into vintage Singers*, and FWIW I can't think of anything apart from accidental damage that could warrant anybody spending money on having a treadle machine "refurbished". The Singer treadles were designed to be maintained and sorted-out by the average housewife, and nowadays we have the great advantage that everything you could ever need to know about them is on the internets. 

* So much so that I did a blog about them a few years ago, and to my surprise it's still online!  If you're really bored, check out https://oldsingersewingmachineblog.com/  It looks like if you click on "older posts" at the bottom of the page, the rest of it's still there, floating round cyberspace ...

My Dad used to earn his living repairing sewing machines and many of the machines he worked on were vintage singers,he had loads of them in his workshop 

Si_Clist

maryb said:

Si, do you find the beans go a bit mushy being processed for so long?

In a word, no.  Having said that, though, neither of us is very particular about the finer points of veg-eating.  Ours certainly seem solid enough when we open the jars, though.

maryb said:

I find it a little tricky getting the lid sitting evenly all the way round ...

We did at first, then I carved a little bit of firewood down to just the right thickness to fit in the gap 'twixt lid and base when the top's on level but not yet tightened down.  Now all we do is put the lid on, put the wooden gap gauge in the slot, then move it all the way round the lid, tapping the lid level as we go.  Then carefully tighten down opposites a little bit at a time so as to maintain the level, and Bob's yer mother's brother.  We also find a smear of Vaseline helps a great deal.

PS We always water-bath fruit too.

snowbird20

herlig said:

markin said:

US woman who caught coronavirus despite self-isolating for three weeks believes it was passed to her when she collected a bag of groceries...

Rachel Brummert was shielding herself at home in Charlotte, North Carolina, as she suffers from an autoimmune disorder that makes her...

Which is why thorough handwashing and cleaning is essential for people shielding and dealing with incoming. 

IIRC, this woman lives with a husband who WAS going out into the world and most likely brought the virus in to her.  But that's not a sensational headline, is it?

[Deleted User]

The original post is from Markin not Herlig and Herlig commented on Markins post!