But once, we did. And this is the story of how it went.
It had rained and rained and rained. People were griping about too much rain. People were whining and wailing about too much rain.
And then it happened.
A guy was working on his car with it propped up only on the cheap jack that comes with the car. Dangerous. As was his custom. To top that off, he did not have the chocks by the wheels as he should have.
You guessed it. The car slipped and came crashing down directly on this man’s forehead.
And did not kill him.
No, because we’d had too much rain, the frame of the car merely pushed his head down into the sodden earth and gave him a grisly gash on his brow. His wife was able to visit him in the hospital, where they kept him for observation, instead of at the funeral home for visitation.
And SHE thought we’d had just the right amount of rain.
Let’s talk a moment about canning failure. Although any canned food that fails to seal is acceptable if refrigerated and eaten within 3 days, undetected failure gives you food that is spoiled. It is unusable, offensive, and poison.
Either way, we must empty the jar, clean it, and try to find and fix the problem.
If the only trouble was debris on the jar rim, or a defective flat, it is an easy fix. Refill it next time and it will work fine.
However, if that rim is the problem, the jar is useless the way it is. Unless you know someone who knows how to do the impossible job of fixing a broken jar, the best thing you can do is to get it out of your life so you can avoid those problems in the future. It’s best to place it inside a bag, break it, and throw it away, to prevent its accidental re-use.
Sisters, we are the jars.
Yes, we are the earthen vessels that God uses for storage. But instead of physical nourishment, the things stored within us are spiritual life-giving treasures.
He gives His Living Word (Rhema) to us (John 1:1-4). It is so refreshing, like fresh fruit to our bodies, satisfying thirst and energizing us, but must be handled with extreme care.
Then He sustains us with His Written Word (Logos), which is also life-giving to us, the routine staple diet every Christian needs and longs for (John 20:31).
He also desires us to contain His meat: obedience and righteousness (John 4:32, 34; Hebrews 5:12-14).
Why does God desire to store His heavenly treasures within us? So that much good can come from these treasures here on this earth. God’s ways are difficult for the unchurched to know of. As vessels, we make the Kingdom more available and more palatable to the spiritually starving.
There is much we can do to make careless people notice God favorably (Romans 10:14). You’ve heard the saying: “You are the only Bible some people will ever read.” Another Christian saying goes: “Do not force the reason for your hope upon those who don’t ask for it, but live so that they will ask.”
Oftentimes God also uses us to make His Kingdom more understandable to some who desire it but are confused (Acts 8:30-31).
He uses us to make the Kingdom more easily acceptable to others (1 Corinthians 9:19-22).
It’s that dinner invitation, soft answer, or offer of baby-sitting that can woo people to Christ who would otherwise never turn to him. We are always to be His containers.
Just like the food we pressure can, God’s treasure within us must be prepared for the process. We must be sure it is clean, pure wisdom; no dirt or bug spots allowed (James 3:17).
Sometimes we cannot receive it all at once, either, any more than a jar could receive a whole potato (John 8:31-32, 16:12-13).
Sometimes it simply “goes in” better once it’s been softened by teaching, summary, or example (Ephesians 4:11-13).
It’s not just the food; the jars must also be clean. Some mothers employ children for this chore because they think their own hands will not fit through the mouth of the jar. Actually, a wet, soapy, adult female hand will usually fit into a very warm jar. It is not a bad chore for a careful child, though.
We must take extra care to examine the jars for chips on the rims. Chipped jars will not seal and may even further chip or break altogether, so are useless for canning. You need one flat (or lid) for each jar of food you process and about a dozen or so screw bands (or rings) that aren’t too rusty.
The pressure pan consists of the pan and lid themselves, the rubber gasket (unless it is the metal-to-metal type), the over-pressure plug, the vent tube, the pressure regulator, and the cooking rack. These parts help cause, contain, and control the pressure and temperature of the food. To can the food, we add water to the pan, close it, install the pressure regulator, and apply heat for the recommended time.
The extreme benefits of canning foods are not obvious to us, but before the advent of canning it was usual and quite acceptable that people would die of starvation, malnutrition, or poisoning. With pressure canning we have long, safe storage of any food we need or desire.
Since we’re accustomed to canned foods, the benefit we notice most is how easy it is to use! Who hasn’t reached for canned pintos to make quick chili rather than soaking and cooking dried beans all night and day?
Canned foods also are timely–you may, in one afternoon, pressure cook 10 pint jars of raw green beans for 20 minutes and have them for a quick Monday dinner vegetable for 10 weeks. Compare that to shopping, rinsing, snapping, and cooking for an hour every Monday night for 10 weeks and you see the difference.
My favorite advantage, though, is the gift-ability of canned foods. People love to receive this kind of stuff, it can be so pretty, and it does not thaw on the way to meeting.
You put beans, salt, and boiling water into a jar, cap with a hot lid, set it in a pressure pan that has a couple of quarts of water in it, apply the lid and the pressure gauge, turn on the heat, wait a while, turn it off, take the jar out, and you are done. What could be easier? People do this all the time!
Yet it took us about 4000 years or so to figure it out. The idea of canning, itself, did not come about until the early 1800’s. Tin cans were first used in the U.S. in 1839. Mr. John Mason invented the canning jar in 1858.
Before then, we starved a lot.
There are many advantages to cooking food at all. Many foods become much easier to chew and swallow. Imagine eating a raw roast! Cooking also often improves digestibility. Eating a nice big helping of delicious raw peas would put you through abundant abdominal agony!
Although cooking usually also improves the flavor of foods, we often prefer some foods raw, or fresh-frozen, such as strawberries: the canned ones are like mush. Still–if your only choice is between overly soft strawberries and NO strawberries, you begin to see the advantage.
Almost any type of food can be canned, though some with less success. Fruits are canned at 5 pounds of pressure for a short time because their acidity makes them less apt to spoil and their fragility makes them disintegrate easily. Vegetables are more rugged and less acid, so they require 10 pounds for around 30 minutes. Meats must be very thoroughly cooked and so are placed under 10 – 15 pounds of pressure for about 90 minutes.
The purpose of the pressure is to achieve higher temperatures: The water in the pressure pan boils at 240 degrees (instead of the normal 212 degrees) under 10 pounds of pressure, the secret of the short cooking times.
To prepare food for canning you must first clean it. Beans, peas, etc., may simply be rinsed several times. Greens require at least seven rinses. Carrots, potatoes, etc., must be well-scrubbed with a brush. Even your own organically grown, guaranteed unsprayed apples must be carefully washed because ants, roaches, and flies crawl on them all the time. These creatures spread staph, strep, fungus, and yeast diseases.
After cleaning, cut the food into bite-size or jar-size pieces. Most foods do not need peeling but beets and tomatoes usually do. Some people also blanch food before packing it into the jars. The purpose, then, is to get more into the jar with slightly softer vegetables. Beets, potatoes, peaches, and tomatoes peel more easily when blanched.
Rotel, carrots, pumpkin, tomatoes, beets, tomato soup, pickles, green beans, and more pickles.
I remember canning.
Mama had jars, lids, rings, spoons and pans all over her huge kitchen. She let me hand her the “rings” (screw bands) which I wore like bracelets up and down my then skinny arms. The temperature in there had to be at least 100 degrees, but I do not remember that. I remember her praise when I managed to stay focused on my job and hand her the ring on time. I felt so grown up.
I also remember disappointments, especially the cherry jelly that turned out like taffy. MY we loved that. I remember our neighbor, Eula, tanned and in flip-flops, who made her own catsup. And dear old Mrs. Secrest, who always gave me hand-pumped cold drinks from the well inside her dark, quiet house.
For some reason I’ve kept those memories fondly. I’ve tried to resurrect them in my own adult life. I do canning. I make jelly and catsup. We have a well. I want this for my children’s heritage. I wonder why.
It’s not just that the food is better. It’s not only that it is more healthful. And it is not simply that I grew up with it.
It is the soil–the harvest–the glorious, breath-taking heat–the oceans of perspiration replenished by oceans of teas and juices. It’s working together, sharing . . .
Oh! I know what it is! It is the fellowship with those who have gone before and those who are to come, stepping into my place in a long, long line of real people living a real life, marching to the rhythm of summer.
So all my children and I would march down to the garden to harvest God’s blessing for each day.
I hope you will join us. Then together we will all put back something for those special winter days when only that which is straight from the garden will do.
Tomorrow: Six Tricks to Get You out of the Canning Kitchen Faster!
The long break has been full, just full. Doctor visits, 1000-mile trips in two cars, garden harvest, company, you name it, we had it. I never meant to stay away this long.
I have some new direction, though, and feel ready to finish what I started, here. Basically, though, the new direction will be posting about every 3 days instead of daily. Sorry.
However, all the excitement about my eyes led to the new discovery that my circulatory system seems to be in perfect health. Yea!
So, to start off with a big rush, let’s talk about multi-tasking. I’ve been doing some of it!
Do you remember from past posts, how long it takes to make a bed? The answer is two minutes. And that is exactly how long to wait after lighting your Lampe Berger. Combine the two and you have a tidy and lovely scented bedroom.
Instead of a musty mess.
Right now I am waiting, waiting, waiting for my pressure cooker to come to pressure. While I need to stay by the kitchen and pay close attention to the stove, I am using this time to catch up on blogs. I will keep at it until it is totally finished pressuring my jars of green beans.
Then I will damp mop my kitchen and laundry room floors while attending to some delicate clothing in the dryer. Do not want to over-cook these, as they become nearly impossible to unshrink and unpleasant to fold.
After that, it is off to the showers for me, where I will tend to the damp shower surround once I am finished with my self time. Everyone knows the shower is easiest to clean when it has had a good wet-down.
So how about it? Do you multi-task? Share with us how you get more than one thing done at a time.
And thanks for your patience and kind words while I was away. They mean more than you can know.
This is my favorite treatment for every problem–just close your eyes! Maybe it will go away!
In the case of eye health, this is definitely true.
But no one tells us.
Study this set of posts. Link to them. Copy-paste them for your fridge. Someone you know needs this information!
Resting
When we do not get enough sleep, eye health breaks down. Do not let this happen to you.
1. The only time your eyes get a rest or a chance to self-heal at all is when you close them. Open your eyes and they are on the job. Just as never resting would weaken a soldier, so never sleeping could weaken the two guards you call your eyes. A good nightly amount is eight hours. If you cannot get that for some reason (sick children, etc.) then pay more attention to daily resting.
2. You may need a timer for this one, at first. Every time you work for 50 minutes, rest your eyes for ten. This includes computer work, yes, but any reading or crafting is work for your eyes, no matter how fun it is. Give them a break.
3. You know how tired eyes feel to you, When your eyes feel overly tired, try this: lie down and cover your eyelids with cool cucumber slices. Chamomile tea bags, boiled, cooled, and squeezed out, work too. Let the soothing compresses take you away!
So now you have it: Four ways to make for better eye health: nutrition, exercise, detoxify, and rest. Let’s all get going on taking care!
Okay, now comes the part we have to say in this lawsuit-happy world: This post is meant to inform and to satisfy curiosity, only, and is not a substitute for medical advice. Consult your doctor for information concerning your conditions. Much effort has been made to assure this information is accurate, however, medical research is always changing the facts, and new findings may supersede currently accepted data. I am NOT a doctor, only quoting several of them.
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