Canning Navy Bean and Ham Soup

I'm still stocking my shelves for winter. I want some easy soups for my husbands lunches or a quick meal when we are running on borrowed time. I have finally figured out a way to successfully can bean soup without everything turning to mush. Thanks to a simple recipe of "Ben's Beans."

Here's my recipe:

Navy Bean Soup
2 lbs dry navy beans, rinsed
half of small onion diced
1-2 medium carrots diced
1 stalk of celery diced
1 cup of diced ham
chicken bouillon, powder
hickory smoked salt
water
7 quart jars, lids and rings

I prep my jars first by washing them and get my lids and rings in hot water. After this I cut up my vegetables and ham. Lastly, I sort my beans, wash with cold water and let drain well.

Then in no particular order I add the following in each quart jar:
3/4 cup dry navy beans (do not soak beans), rinsed
1 Tbsp onion, diced
3 Tbsp chopped ham
1 Tbsp carrot, diced
1 Tbsp celery, diced
1/4 tsp hickory smoked salt (any seasoned or plain salt will work or omit)
2 tsp chicken bouillon, powder

After this I add water to fill to the 1 inch head space. Wipe rim of jar with clean cloth. Affix lid and ring and place in pressure canner.

Process for 90 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure.

The beans in these jars are great northern beans. Any kind of beans will do.

If you choose to reduce to pints you would need to reduce everything by half and process 75 minutes at 10 lbs pressure.

If you make ham and bean soup let me know of any changes you made to the recipe. It's always nice having several different versions of bean soup.

~ Farm girl




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I've been MIA

To make a long story short I've been gone from the blog for sometime now because my garden came on strong and it's taken everything I got to keep up with it. A few times I got so covered up in vegetables I thought I was going to loose my mind. I also took on an adventure of trying to teach someone else how to can. I think it was a success. We've canned green beans and beef stew for them.

Things are starting to slow down in the garden so I'll be around more often.  I will leave you with a few pictures from the past few weeks.

Scored free apples.

Peas

One of 4 cabinets with the summers bounty.

Jam which was an experiment that turned out fabulous!

Crissy she wanted to learn so I put her to work!

Another bushel when will they stop producing?

Myself and some of this summers bounty. Much more behind me.

Well if you come to my house and leave hungry its your own fault. I have a little of this and a little of that! Hope all you canners out there was just as lucky as I have been. I'm not even close to finished but it sure is slowing down and I'm very thankful for that.

~ Farmgirl

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Processing Tomatoes (picture heavy)

Slow garden? Having the same problem as I am, with the small amounts of vegetables come on in the garden and not enough to make a batch of spaghetti sauce or salsa to can? I have a solution to this minor problem. My solution is to process those small batches of vegetables and freeze till you collect enough to make that special sauce.

Before you actually begin working with the tomatoes you will need to gather some equipment to get started.

Equipment Needed
Large pot: to boil water
Large bowl:  for ice water
Large bowl:  for shocked tomatoes
Large slop bowl: to discard skins and cores
Paring knife
Large freezer container
Measuring cup
Food processor
Slotted spoon

Lay out equipment in a similar order. I don't have much counter space so this is how I lay out the scald/shock process. Then after I get all tomatoes through this I move to the kitchen table to clean and core them. If you have counter space beside your stove you might want to put the ice water on the right side of the boiling water then your bowl for already processed tomatoes beside that. Making an assembly line.

Once you have gathered and laid out the equipment as described you can begin processing the tomatoes as follows:

1. Wash The Tomatoes: Thoroughly wash all tomatoes. I like to use a wash clothe and cool water.

2. Cut slit in each tomato: Small slit on blossom end will work fine. I use a serrated knife such as an old steak knife. You don't have to cut deep just enough to get through the skin.

3. Briefly scald the tomatoes in boiling hot water. Heat water to boiling and add cut tomatoes in small batches of 4 to 6 tomatoes. Leave tomatoes in water from 30 seconds to 90 seconds. Judging how long you must leave the tomatoes in the hot water is kind of an art. You will quickly learn how long to leave them. It all depends on size and ripeness. You must remember you are scalding them not cooking them.

4. Transfer tomatoes to ice water. Remove tomatoes with slotted spoon to ice water. Leave tomatoes in water till they are cool to the touch approx a 60 to 90 seconds. This process loosens the skins of the tomatoes which makes for easy peeling.

Then transfer to second bowl.

 You want to see the cracking of the skins, but not all tomatoes do crack which is okay.

5. Remove skins and cores: Throw the skins, cores, bad spots and any hard places in tomatoes where the core is located in the slop bowl.

At this point you should have a bowl of peeled tomatoes. 

6. Decision time for your peeled tomatoes.  For myself I'm making salsa at this point. So I need my tomatoes chopped. I do this by putting them threw the food processor. I pulse them a few times and they are chopped enough.

I'm at the point in my garden where I don't have enough of everything to make a batch of salsa. So I'm measuring the fresh garden ingredients and putting them in freezer containers until I get what I need. The next few pictures are of the measured ingredients ready for the freezer.

 Finally, make sure you keep track of what and how much ingredients you have in your containers. I keep a running tally on the side of the freezer for each container. When I have enough I will thaw container by allowing it to sit on table till I can get the tomatoes to break up some. Then add to stock pot with added spices for recipe and continue the process for cooking down and canning.

This is the way I do it and it works for me. Please let me know how you manage your garden fresh vegetables for canning when you don't have quite enough.

~ Farmgirl

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Summer Heat

This was the view after our first set of storms that took out
our power and several dozen trees here on the farm.

We've had some very weird weather here lately. Extreme heat in the triple digits to very cool nights. We are currently without power and have been for 6 days now. It's not very promising that we will have it on before the weekend. They are saying maybe Sunday late evening. We've had a lot of heart ache due to the heat and loosing some bunnies.

I'll be updating the blog in the near future. Look for some new recipes to come soon.

~ FarmgirlPin It

Lemon Blueberry-Strawberry Yogurt Loaf

Makes 1 loaf

1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1- 6oz Strawberry Yogurt

1- 6oz Blueberry Yogurt

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed

For the Syrup:

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

For the glaze:

1/2 cup confectioners sugar, sifted

1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of one 9x5 inch loaf pan; dust with flour; tapping out excess.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together yogurts, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl mix the blue berries with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them very gently into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes; or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing loaf to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.

While the loaf is cooling, make lemon syrup in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir together the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once dissolved, continue to cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat; set aside.

Use a toothpick to poke holes in the top and and sides of the warm loaf. Brush the top and sides of the loaf with lemon syrup. Let the syrup soak into the cake and brush again. Let cake cool completely.

To make the lemon glaze, in a small bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar and 1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Mixture should be thick but pourable. Pour the lemon glaze over loaf and let it drip down the sides. Let glaze set up before serving.

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