Sounds like my Dilly Beans. pH=3.9 
I have burned lots of things over the years but I never had to chisel it off. I might have weighed my options for buying a new dish lol.
Well, it’s my wife’s big Corningware tempered glass pot, and she said it’s been in her family for over 20 years, so it has some sentimental value. I looked at it, and it appears it has little nicks on the bottom where I had to chisel out the carbonized apple. I told her about it, and she’s not sure if it’d be safe to use because of minute pieces of glass flecking off the nicked areas. So, we may have to pitch it. We have other pots, like a big stainless one and a big ceramic Dutch oven. That’s what she gets for putting me in charge of cooking stuff!
Those spicy pickled beans sound delicious. What about using apple cider vinegar in your green ketchup?
Nice stash you have there, Eric! Looks kinda like our cellar, but a bit bigger. Is that an in ground cellar or in your house type? We’ve canned and stored so much stuff in ours, we’re kinda running out of space. So, I’ve been considering having a newer one built.
What is the substance in those jars on the top shelf? It looks like milk, but I don’t think milk can be canned? Is the clipboard a list of what is canned and when it was done? We need to take an inventory after we’re done for the season. It’s been a pretty productive canning year for us. Our neighbors were kind enough to let us come pick all the half-runner beans we wanted, so we’ve canned about 15qt of those. Plus we’ve canned about 12qt of tomatoes and 13pt of salsa, along with maybe 15qt of various pickles. And, we try to get cheap chicken breast or beef and can as much as we can.
I’ve thought about it. I’m on the western side of the NC Piedmont. There was an earthquake about 5 years ago that some people around here felt, but I was outside and didn’t feel it. I think it was the same earthquake that damaged the National Cathedral. So far as I know there hasn’t been an earthquake that hit here strong enough to shake a jar off a shelf in the last 100 years.
My canned goods are in a separate, at-grade building. We have a couple medium size chest freezers in the building, too, which adds to the heat in the summer, which is all why the lard in those jars is starting to melt. I had to go outside and look to see what it was. I couldn’t tell from the photo myself. The clipboard is an imperfect inventory for the freezers.
Half runners are the best. Growing up I wasn’t familiar with half runners, at least not by name. They’re definitely what all the locals here eat. After moving to this part of the state I still favored bush beans for several years because I thought they looked tastier, but a friend insisted I do a side by side taste test, and that was immediately and totally convincing.
At grade- does that mean, kinda in the ground (or hill) but not totally under it?
Regarding half-runners, for most of my early life I despised green beans, guess I was fed out of the can Del Monte Blue Lakes or some other bush bean. Something about the pods just didn’t set well with me.
Well fast forward about 40 years. Before me and my wife married, I was up here on her farm visiting, and her Mom made supper for us. She placed some kind of green beans in my plate, and I thought, “oh no, I’m going to have to choke these down and act like I like them”. Well, they were great, and I asked her what they were, and she said, “oh, just some half-runners out of the cellar”. My opinion on green beans changed then.
But we didn’t move back up here until a couple years ago, and I wanted to grow these same beans, along with some Blue Lakes, as a control group. We canned about 35qt of the HR, and 15 of the BL. As usual the HR were great, but then I tried the BL, and it brought back bad memories. I just do not like those, maybe it’s the thick pod, or the taste, idk. But, I could live on HR.
Totally off subject, but I have a very good friend who lives down in Lumberton, down close to the SC border. We grew up across the street from each other in OK, but we went our separate ways after high school. He’s an AF vet, and has been in NC for over 20 years now.
Yes, for sure. I saw recipes with it. Plus it would add some taste, a white vinegar would not. The wine works well, but the color is a problem. Apple cider is not as dark, unless you buy the organic raw stuff. Another very interesting vinegar I never had is plum vinegar. Only ever seen it online. It is a red vinegar. I heard it is different and great for pickling.
I never used it, I would to try it sometime.
Yep. Epicenter was about 1 hour from here. The chandelier in the dining room was swaying and many things were rattling. Lasted a long 30 seconds. Eerie. An elementary school in Mineral VA was destroyed. Folks in DC felt it and left their buildings - my daughter was one of them. Scientists found a new kind of fault that explained it and indicated more to come. It is an ‘unexpected’ to prep for.
I don’t disagree, I think what I was trying to say is it is more about a freak accident then a common occurrence but the stories linger on and scare another generation.
Wasn’t there a church potluck somewhere in Ohio not too long ago where potato salad with canned potatoes sickened a bunch of people and killed one or two people? That’s the only home canned goods food poisoning story I can remember, but if you just sicken/kill your own family, you might not make the national news.
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Yeah, that happened not too far from here within the last couple years, I think it was up in the Columbus area. Some folks ate tainted potatoes in potato salad.
I read of a story of a guy out west who ate some tainted canned elk. It didn’t kill him, but put him in the hospital for a while. He short cutted the process, and it almost killed him. He’s had a hard recovery since it happened.
In the first article, the canning method isn’t really discussed. In the 2nd story the lids worked. i would never eat anything out of a jar with a popped lid. Nice to know that failsafe works.
So allow me to suggest that everyone have on their shelves some activated charcoal. It comes in capsules and can be found where supplements are sold. And at first suspicion that you have eaten tainted food (from wherever), start taking them.
Allow me to get a little gross here. If you are to the point of frequently losing your gut contents (often occurs in the middle of the night when stores are closed), the capsules need to be opened and a slurry made with some water and sipped through a straw after a vomiting episode. Don’t sip too much as to trigger another vomiting episode - just little frequent sips to absorb the toxins. Vomiting is an intelligent response of the body to rid itself of poison. Activated charcoal has been given in cases of drug overdoses =poison). It is wise to have it on hand to administer first aide while WAITing for medical attention.
What have you made here?
That picture is actually from last year, but if I recall correctly the bottled wine includes red raspberry, sour cherry and lemon. I think the two carboys are elderberry and some more sour cherry.
I’m going through my freezers today, looks like I should be fermenting about 60 to 70 gallons this winter. Time to stock up on sugar!
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That’s an impressive batch of vino, JD! I’ve never heard of lemon in wine, what does it add to it? Does it maybe cut some out some of the sweetness from the berries? About what % of alcohol do you get out of your batches?
It’s actually a stand-alone lemon wine. Easy and cheap to make (although sometimes it can be a real challenge to get the fermentation going with all the acid), tastes like lemonade, very popular for summer events.
I usually shoot for 10.5% to 11%, I find that any more than that, in country style fruit wines anyway, the heat of the alcohol seems to take away from the flavor of the fruit.
Just sayin’
