A couple of nice things happened today. The first was ordering my tattler lids. After placing the order, someone from the company must have read this blog. They called back to say that they had read I was planning to make tinctures and advised me that the lids should not be used with alcoholic content. That kind of service isn’t likely with a huge company. I really appreciated it. The second thing was hearing from my editor that Mother Earth News wants to interview me next Monday for their radio broadcast. I didn’t even know they had a radio show. The final things was getting a call from some folks involved with an urban homesteading group looking for me to do some food preservation workshops for them. All good stuff.
I have been having some back and forth exchanges with one of my readers about the wisdom of canning cheese and butter. Both are low acid foods and the USDA does not recommended that they be canned. The arguments against are compelling as the consequences of being wrong could be deadly. This is the kind of thing that makes the loss of our county exchange services such a blow. I want to see the research, never having been one to be satisfied with edicts and wanting hard evidence. If you do plan to can any dairy product, please understand that you are taking a risk.
I had a doctor’s appointment today and needed to pick up my grandson at school later in the day. I had about 2 hours to fill and so I went shopping. It is really amazing how much stuff there is in the world that I have no desire to own. I ended up sitting in the parking lot for the last hour with a good murder mystery and no telephone. There are worse ways to spend one’s time.
I actually had two more good things. I have my grandkids this week while their dad is out-of-town. My granddaughter, Emily was talking about Three Cups Of Tea, the book whe just finished. That led to a conversation about cultural imperialism. My daughter, Karen, is reading The Grapes Of Wrath and we spent a lively hour talking about books and life and community and hard times. My final good thing is personal but I’m going to share. I had a funky looking mole as, as both of my parents had melanoma, I was pretty worried. Well I don’t have melanoma (thank you sunscreen and broad brimmed hats and hating to sunbathe). When you have your health and your kids and your community and work you love you really do have pretty much everything. No wonder I couldn’t find anything I wanted to buy.
February 8, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Sure sounds like a phenomenal day to me! Glad that mole checked out okay. We are a family prone to moles in general – my husband gets a chuckle out of me doing basic checks on the whole family. But they are very important to keep an eye on so you know if something is “off”. Good for you for getting a check on it.
Yes, no wonder you couldn’t find anything to buy.
February 9, 2011 at 11:20 am
Hi Kathy,
If Kraft can put all kinds of cheese sauces in 5 ounce jars and sell them for $4 a jar, why would it be so different for us to put the cheese in 8 or 16 ounce jars? We follow all of the processing rules to the letter and beyond. Have you ever heard of anyone dying from eating a jar of home canned cheese?
You always have such common sense advice for “normal” people in what is becoming more and more an uncommon and abnormal world.
One more unrelated question. You mentioned that you have asthma. I am 58 years old and was diagnosed last year with adult onset asthma. How do you handle the strong smells when you are dehydrating things like herbs and broccoli? Other than grabbing the inhalers or putting the dehydrator in the back yard, I don’t know how to handle this.
February 9, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Kathy,
Glad to hear that the mole checked out okay. Melanoma runs in my family too. It’s good to be vigilant as this can be a deadly form of cancer.
February 11, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Sounds like a most excellent day!
February 13, 2011 at 1:26 pm
I just bought 10 lbs. of butter that I was going cann. I have been reading about canning butter, did I miss something? I didn’t find anything neg. about it. Please let me know if you have anything con about it. Thanks
February 13, 2011 at 2:49 pm
According to the USDA canning gude, butter and cheese are low acid foods and cannot be safely canned in a water bath as there is a botulism danger. A pressure canner would not produce a good quality product.
February 16, 2011 at 12:57 am
Kathy – -
I totally get what you mean about the excess of stuff in the world. I can’t believe how much marketing crap is being shoved down our throats with about 99% of stuff being totally useless. I do like to shop at thrift stores…
Thanks for your insights!