Oh. My. Word.

WARNING - Many of you will find this post offensive for any number of reasons. That doesn't mean I have targeted you specifically. It means my opinion and thoughts are different from yours. And believe me, on this particular topic, there will be differences of opinion and thought. So if you're going to go into "oversensitive mode", just stop reading right now and go find something else to do. Because I am going to be very blunt.

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Thanks for sticking around. Again, I warn you that this is a very sensitive topic. And I'm not really interested in your opinion, even if you do agree with me. I'm stating what should have been pointed out years ago, and I only recently have been learning. Hold on to your hats, because here we go.

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In my personal journey of faith and discovery, I've made a lot of changes. Maybe I should say the Holy Spirit has made a lot of changes in me. I've learned that much of what I was taught, and much of what I assumed to be correct, is really on the wrong side of the fence from where I should have been. One of those areas relates back to the so-called Purity Pledge. Remember those days? My assumption was that the intent of this pledge was for our young people to keep themselves modest and sexually pure until marriage. Although that technically is true, it is only a small part of the indoctrination we were subjecting our young people to. Yes, I said indoctrination.

I honestly had no clue that our teens were being taught that the girls were responsible for a teen boy's lustful thoughts. I had no idea that they were being told boys had sex on the brain because it's in their nature, and so it's up to girls to not provoke impure thoughts in them, rather than the boys being taught self-control and restraint in their thoughts and actions towards girls!!

Pastors, youth pastors, Sunday School teachers, parents - if you taught this, or knowingly allowed it to be taught to your children, you are guilty of sexualizing our girls, while telling the boys it's okay because "they can't help themselves"! Let me take that one step further and say that you are making our girls out to be natural whores, while telling the boys rape is not their fault should they commit that particular violation.

You are guilty of teaching our youth that girls are only good for sex. That if a boy takes advantage of her, it's the girl's fault regardless of circumstances. You are guilty of devaluing our girls in the very same way girls in the middle east are devalued. (Need I explain that?)

You are also guilty of making our girls victims of sexual and emotional abuse because these teachings tell her that she is to carry the blame of someone else's sin nature. And that's not something she can atone for.

You have also told her that her only worth as a wife is to provide for her husband's carnal desires, regardless of her own needs and feelings. That if the marriage is not what it should be, it's her fault because she's not "putting out" like she ought to.

I can't tell you how this angered me when I learned about it. And I'm going to put the record straight here and now. NOWHERE IN THE BIBLE does it say any of this stuff! Not one verse says the women are to blame for a man's lustful thoughts when they happen to be in the same room together. Unless that woman is a declared prostitute. But even then, that man has made a conscious choice regarding his sexual desires.

Nowhere in the Bible have I read that women are good only for sex. Nowhere. Unless I am drastically deluded, I believe it says women are to be treated respectfully. Husbands are to LOVE their wives, not molest them or other women uncontrollably.  Neither are we told it's okay because men "can't help themselves".

We are told that women were created as a helpmeet, a compliment to man. A partner. HOW DARE ANYONE take that so completely out of context and twist it like it has been done!! How dare anyone tear our girls and young ladies down like that!! We are all created in God's image. Do you really think He had nothing but carnal sex on his mind when He created Eve? If you do, you're worshiping the wrong god.

Yes, if I could go back, there are definitely some things I would have done differently. No parent can say otherwise. But I made it a point to try and teach my daughter self-worth. I taught my sons that they, and they alone, are responsible for controlling their natural urges. And yes, I also taught them that if they just couldn't keep themselves in check until they got married, they were responsible for the outcome. Not the girl. Even if she's a willing partner in sex outside of marriage, it's never always and only her fault. There are two people involved. (Keep in mind, sexual assault is a whole different thing, and is completely the fault of the person committing that assault).

Parents, it is your responsibility to know what your children are being taught in any faith-based situation, be it summer camp, Sunday School, Youth Rally, whatever. Ask your children questions. And answer openly and honestly any questions they have. I have still got an open-door policy with my kids even though they are well into adulthood. If you feel like something isn't quite right, question it. Don't assume the kids are exaggerating or being dramatic because they're upset or angry about something they don't want to go into detail on. Follow your gut instinct, and ask that pastor/youth pastor/teacher/camp leader! If the things being taught are not biblical, get your child out of that situation immediately. Protect that gift God has blessed you with!

Homegrown, Home Canned - How about those pickles?

 To me, the absolute easiest thing to do is make pickles. I admit it - I cheat on this one. I do not brine my cucumbers. I use a prepackaged mix for flavoring. But the advantage to this is crisper pickles, and the flavor is ALWAYS consistent. 

Needed:

Towel for countertop. I use a bath towel that's folded in half.

Water. Jar tongs, ladle, wide mouth canning funnel, measuring cup, spoon or spatula for stirring.

Sugar if you're making sweet or bread and butter pickles.

5% acidity white vinegar. You can buy the vinegar labeled specifically for pickling, but this is the same thing for less cost.

Mrs. Wage's Quick Pickle mix. I use pretty much every flavor the company makes, and have had success with every batch.

Pickle Crisp. I just started adding this last season, and it does help keep the end product firmer and crunchier.

Pickling cucumbers. If you don't grow your own, get them from a local farmer's market stand. You can use the slicers sold in the grocery store, but they are more likely to soften when processed. If you go this route, I would use them only for spears or wedges. They are generally too tall to process whole, and slicing them might mean you end up with really soggy pickles. They also can have a wax coating on them, which has to be cleaned off.

And of course, you need jars with rings and seals. Run the jars through a hot dishwasher cycle OR hand wash in hot, soapy water to be sure they are thoroughly clean. Put the seals in a small pot of boiling hot water (no heat while the seals are in it!). This will sterilize the seals, and soften the compound for better sealing results.

Pickles are high acid and don't need to be pressurized. Use a large, wide stock pot with a dish towel on the bottom, or use a water bath pot with a jar rack. You will need to put enough water in the pot to cover the jars by about 1 inch during processing. This water needs to be boiling BEFORE you put the jars in.

What to do:

Follow the package instructions! This might seem obvious, but it amazes me how many times I am asked what I do to make pickles. Basically, you're going to put the water, vinegar, and pickle mix into a pot and bring the mixture to a near boil. Stir to mix. Keep the mixture hot until ready to use. That's it.

Wash your cucumbers, and slice them into wedges, spears, slices. Or leave them whole. Whatever you like. If you use a mandolin slicer (which I do), BE CAREFUL!! They Bite!!! I've sliced my finger and thumb more than once on that thing. Using a food processor with a slicing blade might be easier, but you may not get the thickness on the slices that you want. Or do it by hand with a knife. It's your choice.

Once the cucumbers are washed and cut, put them into clean jars. Pack them fairly tightly. They will loosen during processing simple because they will soften to a certain point from the heat. Add the pickle mixture until it's at the bottom of the threads of the jar. 

With a damp (not wet) cloth or paper towel, wipe the jar rim. Make sure there are no seeds or cucumber bits on that rim or your jars will not seal! Place the seal on the clean rim, and put the ring on. Hand tighten the ring - don't make it super tight, and don't leave it loose enough to wiggle.

Use the jar tongs to place the closed jars into the water bath. Don't try this with bare fingers. Remember, that water pot should have boiling water in it! And the pickle mix should still be hot enough to heat the jars when you have filled them. Depending on the size of your pot and your jars, you should be able to process between 5 and 10 jars at a time.

Bring the water back to a boil, set a timer, and let the water do its thing. When finished, turn off the heat and wait 5 minutes. Then use the jar tongs to lift the jars out. Place the hot jars on the towel to cool. This will help minimize water puddling on the counter, and keep your area cleaner. 

Processing times - Remember that time starts only after the water in the pot is boiling again:

Pint jars - 10 minutes    Quart jars - 15 minutes

That little "pop" you may hear is the seal being completed. The center of the seal is sucked downward as air is forced from the jar. Once the jars are completely cool, check the seal by pressing gently in that middle area. If you cannot feel any movement, your seal is complete. If the middle pops down and back up, the seal didn't form correctly, and that jar should be refrigerated.

Use a marker or label to date your pickles. Mark the seals, or put paper labels on them. I don't label t
he jars themselves because it's just too hard to remove later on. The seals are generally rated for 18 months, but I keep pickles up to 24 months. They will hold longer, but since I make fresh batches every season, I try to use up or give away extras to keep a fresh rotation in the pantry.

Homegrown, Home Canned - Pressure Canner

 Pressure canning is the method most people think of when talking about home canning foods. And it can be a scary topic if you're unfamiliar with processing your own foods. Don't let it put you off, though. This method has been used for DECADES, and done right, there's no worry about contamination or food going bad before the recommended use by/expiration period. The drawback is that pressure canning requires you to stay close by and watch things, even though they are in a sealed pot. Heat may need to be increased or decreased several times during processing in order to keep the right amount of pressure to kill bacteria. Time needs to be monitored so foods are not over or under processed. And the initial cost of a pressure canner can be more than you want to invest. You just have to remember that it's a piece of equipment that will probably outlast you. I'm currently using one of two pressure canners my mother had in her own kitchen for no less than 40 years!

 On occasion (years, not weeks or months), the rubber gasket may need replacing. And even more rarely, the pressure gauge might need to be replaced. If you buy one with a wire jar basket, that basket will rust over time due to water exposure. Otherwise, these babies keep on going! Once you have your pressure canner, you are able to do practically any food preservation you like. These are large enough that they can be used without the lids as water bath pots. And the bottom rack to set the jars on is included. It's usually made of aluminum, so no rust here!

Pressure canning is absolutely required for low acid foods like vegetables, greens, and beans. These foods need higher temperatures to kill bacteria than jams or tomatoes, and pressure is the only way to achieve that in a home kitchen. When you get your pressure canner, READ THE MANUAL. If you buy one used (2 of mine came from the thrift store), look online for a manual, or at the very least, a reliable website that will explain the do's and don't of pressure canning. And don't be afraid to buy a book or two on home canning. My favorites are Better Homes and Garden's Complete Canning Guide, and Ball's Blue Book: Guide to Preserving. I advise against using book published prior to 1975 because of advances in food preservation methods since those earlier days, but by all means, check out the recipes in them!

I harvested the first bunch of green beans from my garden yesterday. In another two days, that one pound will be joined by 8-10 pounds, so that means next week, I can officially begin my canning season for this year!

Homegrown, Home Canned - Food Choices for the Water Bath Method

What do you want to preserve, and where can you find it? Well, the obvious answers are everything, and pretty much anywhere. The real answers are not so cut and dried. For instance, my garden typically has tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, white and red potatoes, green beans, sweet peas, black-eyed peas, and squash. Sometimes it includes okra, radishes, bell peppers, lettuce, turnip greens, broccoli, and more. It depends on the weather, seed availability, and other factors as to what actually produces. What I don't grow here, I get either at the produce stand or as a last resort, the grocery store. Even so, I don't put up everything I do harvest or buy. So the real answer is that you can preserve almost anything as long as you do it properly. If you don't grow it yourself, you may or may not find it elsewhere. And if you outsource, you're going to pay for that fresh food, so don't freak out about the cost.

Each season, I generally start prepping in March or April. The garden has already be planted, or re-planted if that's necessary. I give my kitchen a thorough cleaning, including my pantry. I want to be sure I don't have foods that are out of date still on the shelf. Most home-canned items are generally good for up to 2 years, but 18 months is the recommendation from jar seal manufacturers. This is why it's so very important to label things before you store them up.

The easiest way to begin the season is with things that process in a water bath, which is basically a large, fat stock pot with a rack to keep jars off the bottom of the pot. This is great for high acid foods, that do not need to be pressurized. This is also the least expensive way to process foods for storage. Walmart has an inexpensive stovetop version for just $12.00 listed on their website, so don't feel you need to spend $150 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for the plug-in version.

 For pickles, you need pickling cucumbers. You can use the slicers sold in the stores, but be aware that these will not hold their crispy bite as well as the pickling variety. You also need white vinegar (yes, pickling vinegar is the same stuff at a higher price) and pickling spices. I use Mrs. Wages brand because they are the most consistent packages I have found, are reasonably priced, and always have a good flavor. I have also started adding a product called Pickle Crisp, which helps keep the crunch better.

For jelly or jam, you need fruit. Fresh or frozen, it doesn't matter. If you start from a juice rather than fruit, DO NOT get refined juices. I buy Martinelli's unfiltered apple juice, but all other jellies come from whole fruit. Strawberries are a low pectin fruit, and do not set as firmly as apple or other berries, so be aware of this when cooking it down. You also need Sure Jell (I use the yellow box - the pink box is low sugar, and sets differently) or Ball's fruit pectin. Two tablespoons is equal to one box of Sure Jell. And since we're talking sweet things, sugar is a primary ingredient. Each batch uses between 7 and 9 cups of sugar, depending on the fruit.

A third option to begin with is tomatoes. Whole, sliced, diced, crushed, pureed, juiced - whatever form you like. Again, I buy Mrs. Wages Salsa and Pasta Sauce mixes. I also can the tomatoes whole and pureed for soup. (I can't even begin to describe the difference between this soup and that condensed junk in a can!)

When I schedule canning classes, these will be the first items we prepare, so if you're going to join us, have your mind made up which one you want to start with. Each group and class will be based on this selection.

Homegrown, Home Canned - Basic Equipment

Everyone who knows me, knows my husband plants veggies for me every year. This is important to me because he is not a veggie lover! We grow far more than we (I) can eat, so we share out most of it. What I keep at home is either frozen for storage or *gasp!* canned and put in my pantry. Canning food at home is not really difficult, and I offer every season to have friends and family come over to learn about it. I wish I had let my mother teach more than I did, but I have her equipment and her books, so I've been learning just the same. I think she and my dad would both be proud of me. In the next few blogs, I'm going to share what I 've learned so you can learn, too. 

In this blog, I'm going to cover equipment and supplies. If you don't have what you need in the beginning, you can't go far.

Canning jars - These come in a variety of sizes. The size you need is determined by the size of your family, what you're putting up, and fast you'll go through each jar. The brand is unimportant. I have found that it doesn't matter if you choose Kerr, Ball, Mason, Anchor Hocking, or Walmart's jars, they all work the same. The only thing I don't recommend is using mayo jars or the like. Those are not made for repeated use and heating, and you could find yourself with cracked or shattered glass during processing.

If you buy new, a case will have 12 jars with the rings and flat seals. If you buy used, check the rims of each jar to be sure there is no chip or crack. Also be prepared to pay more per jar because you will need new rims and seals. Rings can be reused, but the flat seals are single use and need to be replaced after the jar's contents have been eaten.

I have 4 ounce jars that I use for individual veggie servings. Since my hubby doesn't eat green bean, black eyed peas, or other such goodies, there's no need to put up a larger amount for just me. 

I have 8 ounce (half pint) jars that I use primarily for jelly and jam. These are also great for relish, which we don't use a lot of, individual servings of soups, salsa for snacks (so you don't have to keep a large jar in the fridge for weeks), etc.

Then we go to 16 ounce (pint) jars, which are used for practically everything. If you go through jams and jellies quickly, or have a larger family, this is probably where you would want to start. Pickle slices, salsa for more than 1, veggies for 2, etc., is what I use them for.

How about tall stuff like asparagus? There's a 24 ounce tall jar for that!!

Bigger family? 32 ounce (quart) is the next size up. Pickle spears fit nicely in these. So do new potatoes, mixed veggies, diced fruits, or whatever you like.

Still not big enough? How about 1/2 gallon jars? Typically these and gallon jars don't fit in canners, so you are limited to things that can be processed in a water bath, like pickles. I don't use this size often, but it's always for whole pickles that go straight into the fridge. I don't seal those because they are just plain HEAVY when full.

There's one more thing you should know about canning jars. They come in two sizes of mouth - regular or wide. Wide mouth jars typically are more straight from bottom to top, where regular mouth jars have a reduction at the rim. Pickle spears and potatoes, as well as other larger bite items, are easier to insert and remove from wide mouth jars. The drawback is the seals can be hard to find sometimes.

Need new rings and seals? WalMart usually has these in the canning supply section, but Amazon also sells them. Just ask Google, and you will be rewarded with links to a lot of sites that sell canning supplies.

The other major equipment items you need are water bath pot with a rack in the bottom, and a pressure canner. Water bath pots are used for high acid foods like pickles, tomatoes, jelly and jams. Low acid food like green beans, peas, potatoes and corn needs higher pressure and temps to kill off potential bacteria, so a pressure canner is necessary for  these. If you can't find a water bath pot, you can use a large stock pot with a towel on the bottom. This is to protect the jars from the direct heat of the stove, and help prevent breakage from vibration during processing. Pressure canners can be costly, but there's no real or safe alternative for these.

Miscellaneous items needed include spatulas, cooking spoons, ladles, canning funnel (has a wide opening on it), paper towels (I prefer the blue shop towels, myself), jar tongs, measuring cups and spoons, and a digital cooking thermometer that clips onto the cooking pot, which is essential for jelly and jam temp monitoring. And of course, work bowls. I have also found that a stick blender and juicer are very useful for preparing fruits and removing seeds from tomatoes and grapes.

One last note here - before you start any food prep, make sure your kitchen and work areas are CLEAN. Any unintended crumbs or dirt will become a contamination to your food. Sterilize jars in the dishwasher before use. I even go through the process of washing my sinks and drain plugs with hot, soapy water before I do any prep work.