Interesting Discovery

Well when you are trying to build and expand on your homestead you are bound to have to step back sometimes and do some repairs and maintenance too. I spend the last weekend doing a complete upgrade to our home heating system (whole separate post there!) but needless to say at some point during the process I had to walk back past the garden to empty ashes from the furnace. Well what do you think I expect to find when I get down there.....

 

It appears as though something decided that all the hard work I did to make a gate for the garden wasn't worth trying. Something flattened one side of my fence and must have wandered around the garden...although I saw no damage to any of my vegetables. My only guess is that a nice Pennsylvania black bear decided to come through and take a look. This wasn't his first message. He also once bent the aluminum pipe that holds up my bird feeder to get a suit block and ripped apart the cage it was held in.

On a good note I went back down to the garden today and bent the stake and fence back up and did some harvesting. I got 4lbs of Roma tomatoes off that I will add to the collection that will become sauce later this fall. I also peaked at a few cucumbers that are getting ready to go that I might be making ANOTHER round of pickles this weekend. I'm hoping the others batches turned out ok before I keep making more and more!
 

Once I get a few pictures taken I will give an overview of the furnace upgrade and I"m sure I'll have some more stories by then. If you're near NEPA like I am enjoy the beautiful cool weather!!

Cucumbers Part II (Bread and Butter)

To follow up my last post on cucumbers and kosher dill pickles I made at the next harvest a batch of bread and butter pickles. I once again started with 4 lbs of picking cukes from the garden. If you need to refer to my notes on home canning and preservation please see my previous post on cucumbers.

This recipe came straight from the Blue Ball Guide to Preserving book. For this recipe the mandolin ($3 garage sale!) came in handy. I start by taking my cukes and slicing them 1/4" thick slices.

 

These were washed and cleaned and set aside. It was then time to do the same for onions. This time I set the mandolin to 1/8" slices and did the same for onions. 

  

For this recipe the cukes and onions were layered in a large pot dividing over each layer 1/3" of canning salt. (It's important to note that you must use a canning approved salt for this. I use a Kosher salt. Regular table salt has a compound in it to keep it from clumping that will turn everything cloudy. It will be ok to eat but will probably look so bad you won't want to!) 

  

This is then covered in ice and left to sit for 1.5 hours. Mine actually sat for about 2 hours until I did other things and got back to it. 

  

When this was all set I made my mix in a large pot:

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons mustard seed

2 teaspoons trmeric

2 teaspoons celery seed

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon peppercorns

3 cups vinegar

When this was boiling I then rinsed and drained the cukes and onions multiple times and added this to the pot as well. This was all brought back to boiling again before it was packed into clean heated jars. 1/4" of headspace was left and the jars were processed for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

 

I love these because they truly that have jar of pickles look! Again I have to wait 4 to 6 weeks to be able to go after them and find out! Notice how they were dated on the top before they were stored. I'm hoping to have at least another round of two of cukes out of the garden so I can try some more recipes. Plus, one of the joys of doing this is being able to share fresh healthy food with friends and family. 

Cucumber Harvest (Kosher Dills)

One of the things I've been educating myself with during this process is how to properly preserve food that I get fresh from a farmer's market or from my own garden. This way I can enjoy freshness from my garden all year long as well as have a supply of food that doesn't require refrigeration and therefore very handy in case of emergency.

Before I begin to talk about my experiences making pickles I'd like to stress that if you want to do some home canning of your own you MUST follow proper procedure. All the recipes I use and the ones you should use all need to be approved CANNING recipes not COOKING recipes you want to put in jars. In fact a lot of recipes that have been used by families for years (one Grandma handed down, etc.) aren't considered safe by today's standards. When in doubt a great resource is the National Center for Home Preserving.

Ok, that being said my quest for pickles began with growing pickling cucumbers in my home garden. I can go into detail more about that process but suffice to say I harvested about 4.5 lbs of pickling cukes for a recipe that calls for 4lbs.

 

  

I washed and cleaned the cukes and cut them into spears. To start the process I prepped and added to a stove pot

14 cloves garlic, peeled & split
1/4 cup salt
2 3/4 cups distilled or apple cider vinegar 5% acidity

This is all heated until it is boiling (this is important...make sure if a recipe calls for boiling you do it!) 

While this is heating you need to get yours jars and lids ready. The jars I put in the dishwasher to heat and sterilize them (this recipe calls for 7 pint jars). The rings can just sit and wait and the lids I put on the stove in a pot of hot water (DO NOT BOIL). Boiling will soften the seals too much and cause them to fail.

When this is boiling remove garlic and place 4 halves into each clean jar, then pack cucumbers, adding 2 sprigs of dill and 4 peppercorns.

When the jars or packed your going to pour the hot liquid into the jars leaving 1/2" of space at the top (this is called headspace and again is important to do as the recipe asks). You then adjust the 2 piece lids of the jars and put them in the boiling water bath canner and process for 10 minutes. Following canning guidelines to ensure a good seal! (Remember the site above!)

When they are done and cooling on the counter they look great!!

 

For this style of pickles I will have to wait 4-6 weeks before I can open the jars and dig in to see how they taste! One tip I definitely learned is to start to boiling water EARLY! Even on the power burner of my gas range it takes a while to get all that water boiling....most of the prep time really.

So for an easy hour I have 7 full pints of Kosher Dills that will last approximately a year. I love the idea of knowing they are sitting downstairs on the shelf and that I controlled everything that went in them!

To close if you want to follow it this way here is the recipe I used in it's entirety:

Kosher Dill (Heinz Recipe)
4 lbs pickling cukes
14 cloves garlic, peeled & split
1/4 cup salt
2 3/4 cups distilled or apple cider vinegar 5% acidity
2 3/4 cups water
12 to 14 sprigs fresh dill weed
28 peppercorns

Wash cucumbers; remove 1/16 inch from blossom end, cut in half lengthwise. Combine garlic and next 3 ingredients; heat to boiling. Remove garlic and place 4 halves into each clean jar, then pack cucumbers, adding 2 sprigs of dill and 4 peppercorns. Pour hot vinegar solution over cucumbers to within 1/2 inch of top. Immediately adjust covers as jar manufacturer directs. Process 10 minutes in BWB. Makes 6-7 pints.

Sitting down to the table

We've lived in our little homestead for just over two years now and there is so much I want to talk about already to share what little things we've done to make ourself more self-reliant. I decided to start with just one area and that is food! Ever since we moved here I began to think about food more in the context of what is needed more than what is wanted.

While we aren't one of these 100 acre homesteads that could very easily be cut off from modern conveniences I began to ponder the "what-if" questions and realized that in this day and age being cut off from food supplies could be a very real possibility. With all the food scares of recent months and the fact that problems quickly turn into panic in a large scale I decided that one of my goals would be setting up a food supply system that met several goals. While we are here I wanted our food supply to be:

• Healthy
• Balanced
• Sustainable (as long or as much as possible)

and I wanted to have the tools and the know how to provide food even when I couldn't just drive 20 minutes to the store and get some. I'm currently living in a state that is WEEKS late passing a budget and all of the basic government facilities are taking a hit. Who knows how long food will be readily available if it truly hits the fan.

Thankfully, some of these "old school" practices are being rejuvenated again so it wasn't impossible or extremely expensive to gather some of the materials I needed to get started. I'll break down some of these as the blog continues to grow including recipes, steps, pictures and more.

The Beginning

Welcome to the launch of Sugarloaf Homesteading! After a long time of searching on the internet I found that I just didn't find a type of homesteading that fit my "niche." Most places I looked for information were for homesteads on large plots of land or urban homesteading which really just didn't fit my setup. I decided then to start this blog for the rest of us! I wanted to see if I could fill an area of homesteading that hasn't really been talked about.

For me the homestead came in the size of 4 acres at the base of the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania. While we didn't buy this home with the thought in mind of homesteading I quickly started to realize the many benefits and challenges that would come from trying to be as self-reliant as possible on a small track of land.

I think the biggest appeal to me as I started trying different things and expanding my knowledge is just how much CAN be done in such a way that I truly feel that there are conveniences available to me when I need them but at the same time we are self-sufficient enough to survive on our own. I'm amazed at the feeling of comfort I have as I lay in bed at night and know that today was good and if tomorrow is not I can still provide for and take care of my family. In a world that sees a lot of economic turmoil, political change, health concerns, etc. I have made it a priority to help fill this space for the "small homesteaders" and share what I've learned.