We had out frost scare last week, then it got nice and warm again. It’s that period ever fall when we get a break, then it’s like God’s testing us to see if we’ll make good use of the time He gave us. Tonight it’s not a frost scare, but a full blown FREEZE warning. The high today was 45 degrees and it’s already down to 36 degrees at 9:00 P.M. But we had plenty of warning. Our good old NOAA (by the way, I misspelled it last time!) weather radio kept us informed of a really cold front headed our way and we’ve had two days to get ready.

There won’t be any “cover plants”; it’ll be too cold for that to do any good. We had the same thing happen last year. We didn’t think it would get so cold and it did; plants froze black under all the tarps we spent hours spreading out.

This time we knew it would freeze hard and we’ve spent two full days picking everything in the garden that would not live through a freeze; tomtoes, peppers, squash, melons, herbs and the potatoes and onions we’d dug to see how they looked.

I was getting this feeling of panic this afternoon. David, of course, was in school and I had a whole lot of stuff to get in before dark. But then lo! Our friend, Jim, called to see if he could get a few wheelbarrows full of sand for his septic pipe repair. I told him sure thing and kept on picking. He came over, bearing a chile plant in a pot for me, then went to dig sand into his pickup.

Awhile later, he walke down and asked if he could help; he and Jeri had finished picking their garden that morning. Because I was not insane, I graciously and very gratefully accepted his offer. Together, we picked two bushels of green tomatoes to add to the two bushels I had already picked and hauled in yesterday.

And David voluntarily skipped football practice to help me finish up the garden. We picked, picked and picked. He hauled bins and buckets full of produce up to the house and we stashed it in the new greenhouse. It’s now pretty much weathertight, except for a few minor cracks and will keep the harvest cool but unfrozen until we can sort and use it where we need to.

I picked the green tomatoes into several different plastic totes, according to their size and ripeness. When I do this, each box ripens in the house at about the same time, avoiding rotten tomatoes in the middle of a box. I actually lose very few this way and end up canning a whole lot of tomato products after it freezes, all at once, rather than a little at a time.

Because we can’t stand to have beautiful plants killed by the freeze, David and I dug up three nice bell pepper plants to join those already in our greenhouse, and the chile that Jim brought over this afternoon. Then, at dark, we dug up a Chilly Chile (non-hot chile) from the flower bed in the yard. Sigh. I really hate to lose all my nice annuals and other frost sensitive plants.

But that’s how it is when you live with nature; you soon find out that nature isn’t always gentle and kind; it has no mercy or feelings. When stuff happens, it happens and you’d better learn to deal with it. Our here in the backwoods, cute little animals are born and you also find a chick drowned in the drinking water or a baby goat layed on by it’s own mother. Those little seeds you’ve nurtured all spring, the plants they become all summer will also die when the freeze comes. It’s all part of homesteading and it makes each and every success so much more gratifying and wonderous.

I’ve posted readers’ questions and answers below:

Mirro pressure canner

My father gave me his 12 quart mirro pressure canner and cooker model m-0512 I would like to can green beans there are no instructions with it and I cant find a manual on line, I don’t know
the first thing about a pressure cooker.

Pam Duncan
Waterford, Michigan

You’re not so far in the dark as you think, Pam. Just buy a Ball Blue Book canning manual at you local grocery or hardware store (Wal Mart even has them!) and follow the directions in there. It’s simple and quick to learn to can green beans. They are nearly impossible to mess up. That’s why most beginners start with them.

Basically you’re going to add a couple of inches of water to the canner to produce the steam that processes the food. Put in the wire or aluminum rack or plate to keep the jars off the bottom of the canner. Then you heat the canner up a bit, add your jars of food, put the lid on it and tighten it down securely with the petcock or steam valve open. Turn on the heat and wait until the steam ejects forcefully for a few minutes.

Shut down the petcock or steam valve to let it build up pressure to 10 pounds. Process the beans or 25 minutes for pints or 30 minutes for quarts. Turn off the heat and let the dial return to zero. Carefully open the steam valve to let any remaining steam blow off then open the lid away from you so your face doesn’t get burned by the steam in the kettle.

Remove the jars to a folded dry towel on a counter or table to cool. That’s it.

This is an abreviated instruction, but will give you a good idea. Again, buy or borrow a book and read the directions and you’ll feel more confident. Good canning!

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Pam, it just dawned on me that the Mirro Model 0512 has a weight instead of a gauge. With the weight, there are three holes, one for 5, 10 and 15 pounds pressure. You’ll use the 10 pound one unless you live at an altitude above 2,000 feet.

With the weight, you exhaust the canner, then put the weight on the steam valve. Begin timing when the weight jiggles 2-3 times per minute. If it jiggles more, turn down the heat a bit; less, turn it up a bit until it gets right. Then hold it there by gentle heat adjustments. — Jackie

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Misguided people think that everything is always rosy and runs smoothly on our homestead. Ha ha! They should have been here today. It started out pretty normal. I was finishing up on my latest building project, siding our chicken coop with pieces left over from our new greenhouse/porch addition. Those short pieces of 2″x6″ tongue and groove lumber were just too nice to be sawn up for firewood. Mmmm. So I had this idea to piece them together and side the chicken coop. For the last few days I’ve been sorting and fitting them together, nailing them over the old OSB sheets. Not only is it turning out nice looking, but will make the coop sturdier and more weather tight.

Then, because my corn is about done, I decided I’d better pick it to can this afternoon. That was a good idea until it started raining. Now I’m not complaining about the rain; we’ve been in drought all summer. (The day before yesterday it broke and we got 5″ all at once!) But I wanted to get that corn done today. So I picked in the rain. Oh well. I don’t melt.

So I picked the corn; two baskets full. That’s about all we’ll have left. The heat and drought stopped the plants growth and made them ready for fall…..three weeks early. I brought the corn in and sat on the porch, watching the rain fall, shucking those wonderful ears.

I got them all canned up, too. Eight pints and nine half pints; not much, but it is better than a kick in the pants, when combined with the other three cannings earlier.

Then the trouble started in earnest. Our main generator is having fuel issues; we think a fuel pump is shot; it blows gas out of the muffler; not a good thing! It’s still under warrantee, but we have to take it to Virginia, 25 miles south of us to get it worked on and they aren’t open on the weekend. So we started running our #1 backup generator. Until the lights went out and the generator was still running! Eeeek. A circuit board had went. It was running but not generating.

David came home about then, when I was switching generators with a flashlight in my teeth.
He backed the truck up the drive while I walked, up to the old mobile home where our old #3 generator sat. He got almost up there and the truck died and wouldn’t start. That was unusual; it’s a dependable truck. David had just opened the hood when I asked him if he’d bumped the gas tank switch. We only put gas in the rear tank because the front one leaks.

Ahhh. That was it! OKAY! So the truck roared to life and we brought the generator back down to the generator shed where the yard was becoming littered with dead generators. So he went to plug it in and discovered that the generator outlet was not the same as our main plug. I pointed to the adaptor on the wall and he grabbed that and made the connection.

He started it with a few pulls and we plugged in the house; no power! What??? Then he unplugged the adaptor and looked at it. One of the wires had come loose. Cool. Easy to fix. Well by then, we were both flustered and he quickly shoved the wire in and screwed down the screw. Power again. But why were the house lights SO bright????

I told David to run in and turn on the faucet to run water into the storage tank while we had a genarator running because it was low and we’re having Bill and Kelly up for his birthday tomorrow, along with my sister, Sue and her son, Sean. No water would not be fun.

But David came boiling out of the house in two seconds, tore to the generator and shut it off quicker than I can tell about it. “Come on, Mom!” he said, running for the house. “Oh crap!” I thought, quickly following him, “We’re burning the house down.”

Well it wasn’t that bad but the TV in the living room was smoking. No we didn’t catch fire, but basically what had happened is that in his hurry, David had hooked the ground wire to a hot outlet. Oops! So he went to check out the adaptor again by flashlight. I suggested checking the other end to see what the wires were hooked to and he did…..and succeeded in pulling ALL the wires out of the female end of the adaptor. It was one of those days!!!

Luckily, our friend Tom was home when David called and David was able to drive to Cook and get help in re-wiring the adaptor. And when he got home an hour later, we got the generator home and I’m busily blogging. At 12 midnight. But the computer didn’t fry and neither did David’s video games or VCR. Hooray! All’s well that ends well.

I’ve printed readers’ questions with my answers below.

Beets in brine

How long should beets remain in brine before they are eaten? We are bottling pickled beets for the first time.

Paula Beer-Eligh
Pictou Nova, Scotia Canada

Generally I like to wait at least 3 weeks before trying any pickles; it takes a while for the vegetables to absorb the spices and vinegar that make them taste pickled. At 3 months, the beets have reached their ultimate taste, where they will remain until eaten. — Jackie

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