Lifestyle
119. Top Food Preservation Methods for the Home Kitchen with Melissa K. Norris
In this episode, host Mona Weathers interviews Melissa K. Norris, a renowned figure in the homesteading community, about effective food preservation methods for the home kitchen. They discuss the impo...
119. Top Food Preservation Methods for the Home Kitchen with Melissa K. Norris
Lifestyle •
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Interactive Transcript
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like people just don't know this. They don't realize the power that is just in the food that
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in the way it's raised because if they did, everybody would make these changes or most people would
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make these changes and it's simply a matter of the greater public just doesn't know it. And so
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it really became a mission field. I have to say a line. I feel like a walking of angelus because
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I saw so many people as a pharmacy tech that were having a lot of, you know, very life debilitating
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or just low low quality of life. And I might oh my goodness if they just knew.
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Welcome or welcome back to the podcast. This is Mona Weathers, your host. I'm setting up this
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interview because this is actually a read broadcast from a couple of years ago. The last time I
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published it, I published it in two parts, but I decided to republish it in one long interview.
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Plus this is also available on YouTube. So if you want to check out the actual video,
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then I'll leave a link in the description. I also want to remind you that if you're new here,
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I do have a checklist, a homesteading for beginners checklist that you can download for free.
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There will be a link in the show notes for that as well. Okay, enjoy.
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Today we have a very special guest. If you've been in the homesteading space for any
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amount of time, you've likely heard her name. She's an influential person in the homesteading
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community. She's an author, a speaker, a blogger, a podcaster, and a person that desires to see
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homesteaders succeed, which is why the main reason I have her on this podcast for beginners,
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a homesteading for beginners podcast, because I can see through her information, the information she
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shares through her heart. She wants to see people healthier and more confident in their homesteading
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skills. So welcome, Melissa. I am so thrilled that you're here. Thanks, Mona. I'm excited to be here.
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So I have a funny story to share about us meeting the first time. So back in April of 2021,
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when the audio social app clubhouse was really a big thing, was booming. You appeared in one of
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the clubhouse rooms to listen in. So you're like just nonchalantly was in there. One of the other
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people in the room spotted you first and went all fangirl. She was like all getting excited to see
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you there. And then they were like, it's Melissa Cainorous. And I was like, who is that? So that's
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funny part. But let me tell you. I love it. I had no idea who you were. Okay. But at this point,
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I was very much out of the online homesteading loop. I had been away from blogging and social media
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for a while at this point. So I like, I missed it. I missed your boom, you know, but then I did
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a research and I searched you and learned more about you. And I obviously I understood why everybody
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was fangirling about you. And you were just so kind to come and have a conversation with us.
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And then you even came back and had an interview with us on clubhouse. So I just thank you for that.
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And that's how we met. So I wanted to help people understand how that happened. Do you remember that
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whole? I do. I yeah, it was very, it was funny at that moment of time. Clubhouse was this very
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big thing, very short lived as some trends do, you know. And I totally remember, and I was excited
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just to see the conversations that were happening, which is why it's coming in like as a fly in a
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wall. And if I ever get so big headed that I expect people to know who I am, the good lord,
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I'm sure will knock me down a pager too. So don't feel that they didn't know what I was.
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So reason that you should. But what I loved is at that time where we were at in the pandemic,
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you know, there were so more people at home than before. And it really made home setting and what
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that movement is in our modern context in this moment in time, even though we're a couple years,
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you know, passed then. It really was bringing that desire to people who had maybe wanted to move
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that route for a long time, but they hadn't had that catalytic moment where they said, I'm going
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to do this. But that's kind of what the pandemic brought. So for folks who were already, it was on
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their radar and they were interested in it. It was kind of that push they needed to start. But it also
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was a really beautiful thing because even though it was a, you know, lots of bad things came from
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that, right? There was a lot of good that came from it too. And so a lot of people who maybe didn't
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really realize that you could do a modern form of home setting. It's not really full on farming.
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There are parts of home setting that are farming and there are home centers that do farming.
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But it's really that backyard at home environment where you're looking to produce more than you
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consume or looking to make more in your own kitchen or on your backyard. And all different things,
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not just food. You know, it's for some people it's making homemade soap. It's making homemade
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skincare items. So home setting and compass is so much more than just the food growth and
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production. Though that is a large part of it and where a lot of people start. So it was really
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exciting to see so many people looking at that as even a possibility that it hadn't been on their
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radar at radar at all before. And so clubhouse, I feel in that moment of time was really helping that.
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And just creating discussion for people to talk about it and start to realize, you know,
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what possibilities and what things they actually could do and what other people were doing and
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brought some some hope in at a time where I think a lot of people needed hope.
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Right. I agree. And for me, it brought community that I didn't have because we moved from California
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to Georgia. The year, well, we had been here a couple years, but I was newly at my homestead trying
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to restart my life here with my family. And I had no close, I had nobody that really wanted to
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talk about homesteading. So that was for me, it was like, oh, I found my people and it was,
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it was just such a great thing. And I made so many connections. I'm actually having several people
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that I've met on clubhouse on my podcast and have had them. So it so many good friendships came from
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that. So yeah, I agree. Some of the people realize that it maybe it wasn't as scary to get into
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the lifestyle as they thought just by having just by listening to those conversations. Yeah.
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Okay. So let's let's first start by helping my listeners get to know you. So I know you're a
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more about your story. Yeah. So yeah, I'm a fifth generational homesteader, but what's really
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funny is, you know, prior to, you know, maybe like 12, 15 years ago, we were just country people.
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You know, we just came and really we raised a good portion of our own food because we didn't have
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the money to buy it at the store. And my dad is, I always thought I had to preface this part.
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Otherwise, people were like, this doesn't make sense to me. It's one of my most asked questions.
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My dad was born during the Great Depression. And so he was a child during the Great Depression.
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But when the Great Depression ended, it didn't really change their lifestyle because they didn't have
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for a lot of seasons and a lot of different times. They didn't have money to buy outside food.
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So the only thing they would buy from the store would be a little bit of sugar and a little bit of
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flour and salt. And there were seasons where anything else they ate came from what they were producing
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themselves. And that didn't change with the Great Depression ended. So you're probably doing the
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math and wondering how that works. My mom is 20 years younger than my dad. And she was his second
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marriage. So I was, I have some older half siblings. And so I was born much later in his life.
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And I am now 42. So I feel like I have to say that I'm going to wait a minute back it up.
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How was your dad raised during the Great Depression? So raising your own food was always something
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that he practiced and did. And when I was growing up, I really didn't realize that a lot of that
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was still necessity because we were actually poor. My mom sowed my clothes when I was little, which
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I have to tell you I did not appreciate when I was little. I wanted to store about clothes just
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like everybody else when I was going to school. And those types of things. But back then, as I said,
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I'm 42, then it was cheaper to sow your clothes than it is now. You know, fabric prices and zippers
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and buttons and all those things now. And we've got cheaper clothing options with big stores. Like
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when I was growing up, we didn't, there were no Walmart surround. I still remember when came
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art came in. And that was kind of a big deal. So there wasn't really cheaper clothing options when
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I was little either. So all of that to say it was just really a way of life. But we just looked at
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it as what a lot of country people did. You know, they had a garden in wood can and cooked from scratch
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and there weren't any back then, of course, no delivery options for food services and delivery.
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At all, in fact, I still live on the same road where we grew up. And the closest McDonald's is
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still about a 45 minute drive away from us. So the option of fast food wasn't really even here
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unless you wanted to drive an hour almost one way and then back and most people weren't willing to
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do that for just to get drive through food. So I was very much just raised this way. And it wasn't
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until I got into high school that I realized when I would go and stay the night at other people's
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homes that they didn't have mason jars with food and they didn't have cows and they weren't pulling
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their own beef from the freezer that and they had Oreo cookies. I still remember I was a
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freshman in high school and I was going to a girlfriend's house to stay the night and she was
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all excited. She's like, we get Oreo cookies tonight. And I'm like, great, what are they? I'd never
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had them before. And I still don't get what all the fuss is about. I'll be honest. I'm like,
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I much prefer homemade chocolate chip cookies to an Oreo because that my mom baked cookies.
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You know, we didn't have store about but she would make cookies. So of course, as I became an adult
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and I got married at 18, my husband and I are getting ready to celebrate 24 years of marriage,
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I also started working full time as a pharmacy tech. And so I wasn't home. I was working full time
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and I used convenience foods because those pre-packed mixes and boxes and cast rolls and a box and
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all those different things. They were convenient and they were easier. And so I started relying on
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a lot of that and not relying so much on making everything from scratch like my mom had.
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We still did a garden and still canned because I have never liked store bought green beans.
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I my kids can't won't eat them. We try to be polite for other people's homes and they
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serve that but we don't like store bought green beans or pre-beads and restaurants homegrown
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completely different flavor profile. I actually have flavor. So it was when my I have two children
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and when my youngest of my daughter was an infant, the heartburn I got from when I was pregnant
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with both my kids didn't subside with her after having her like I did with my son. And it got
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to the point where I was taking prescription medications up to six times a day but it wasn't
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controlling the symptoms. So I had stomach ulcers and just really bad gird. I was basically got to
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the point where I really couldn't eat anything. It was very very thin. And I went into the specialist
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and they said, well we need to do a scope because you know your age, your weight like all the normal
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indicators that people have girded, you don't fall you don't fall into those categories. So we
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need to see what's going on internally. So when in it had an endoscope done and when they were
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doing the endoscope, they ended up biopsying my epistemic and a spot on my esophagus that had
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a lot of erosion and just kind of looked suspicious. So they suspected cancer. Thankfully it wasn't.
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It came back benign on both the biopsy spots but I had cellular change and cellular change is that
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precursor to it actually turning to pre-cancerous you know and that cancers. So especially I said look
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you have to get off all of these prescription medications. You should have never been allowed to
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have been on them at these doses for the amount of time that you have been and you have to figure out
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how to control this by the foods that you eat or the next time you come in here, you will probably
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get a have a diagnosis of cancer. So I was 29 at a husband two babies at home and I mean it was
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it was kind of a shock. I mean I'm so grateful that the diagnosis was not cancerous but I was like okay
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so I was driving home because we live so far out. It was an hour drive home and I have this huge
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stack of papers on the car seat behind me and it was just this very defining moment that I knew
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that God was giving me an opportunity to figure it out or it would lead to cancer and most likely death.
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And so I came home and I started just deep diving research just keep your keep your warrior just
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looking up everything I could find on foods that triggered ulcers and what's actually inner food
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and what's in all the ingredients which led me down the rabbit hole of really beginning to understand
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genetically modified foods and the different fats and the different oils and just all the different
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things and additives that are put into our foods and how those can affect the body and so I did
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a complete I pulled everything out of the cupboards and got rid of anything that was a highly
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genetically modified crap had food dye in it had high fructose corn syrup in it I mean all the stuff
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and started cooking with grass fed butter coconut oil lard and at that point we were raising our own
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grass fed grass finished beef and only the reason for that is because I grew up raising our cattle
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that way because we couldn't afford to buy grain so thankfully we couldn't afford to buy grain and
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we couldn't afford to buy weed killer so I grew up on grass fed grass finished better than organic
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being nice because we couldn't afford anything else so thankfully that was the process we were
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using to raise our beef already for our family but to try to find at that point in time because we're
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going back oh gosh almost 14 years ago now there wasn't as much available on the market like there is
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now there's actually a lot more available for us as consumers we've kind of made our boys
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heard even though we've got a lot further to go and so in order to afford it or find it
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we had to start raising it ourselves and so we started raising our own pasteurized pat pork
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pigs and meat chickens for our birds and then of course hens for eggs and then we really started
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increasing I was already had always grown and canned a year's worth of green beans because I said I
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could never could eat the store by but the rest of the garden was really just for fresh eating and
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maybe and jam and jelly like I would can homemade jam and jelly but that was pretty much it so not
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a huge portion of our food year round where we producing ourselves and so we really just went full
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board and started now it's about 99% of our meat we raise ourselves for our family of four throughout
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the whole year and 65% of our vegetables for the entire year and about 70% of our fruit so
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that was my big push and the reason we got into it but then I was within six months of completely
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changing my diet I was because you had to take the doses and the medications I was on you had to
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taper or you could trigger a really almost like a storm in the body where you would produce massive
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amounts of acid in your proton pumps would go into hyperdrive so I had to slowly ween off and that
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was a six months process but after that I was completely healed I didn't have you know any of the
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symptoms was able to introduce a good portion of foods back in and the beginning it was very limited
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as I was going through healing but I was also a pharmacy tech so I worked in regular medicine
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and prior to that if anybody would have told me you could just heal yourself by the food that
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you're eating I would not have believed them I would have been like they are full of it
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but when I went through it myself I was like oh my gosh like people just don't know this they
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don't realize the power that is just in the food the in the way it's raised because if they did
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everybody would make these changes or most people would make these changes and it's simply a matter of
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the greater public just doesn't know it and so it really became a mission field I have to say a
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line I feel like a walking of angeles because I saw so many people as a pharmacy tech that were having
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a lot of you know very life debilitating or just low low quality of life and I'm like oh my goodness
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if they just knew they would be able to get off not everybody in every medication but so many people
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if they only knew how much better and how different their life would be and so it became like a
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burning passion to share it with people and a lot of people are actually quite interested even if
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they don't have the same health problems I find a lot of people who are looking to this way of life
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have health problems and sometimes that's their catalyst like it was for me but other times it's
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people who are coming to it because they just want to be healthier and more self-sufficient they
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they want to you know do better for the land and the environment and all of those things and they
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once they start then they like oh my goodness like I don't have xyz anymore so it might not have
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started with health but then when they realize what it's done for their health almost inadvertently
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then they're like oh wow so anyways that was a very long part of my story but no that's good yeah
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I love your story and I remember hearing you share that in the clubhouse but I did want you to know
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like I love that that I mean I don't love that you went through all of that to figure out where you
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wanted to be where you you know your your mission basically I you know I wish you didn't have to go
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through that to figure it out but it's just such a that's that is a lot of everyone's story that
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was my story as well and my health changes you know I had I saw health changes because I I got rid
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of certain things and and added certain things but I also wanted to share that your your story is
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very similar to my husbands in that his parents were also raised in the great in the great
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fashion they're actually older I think than yours my husband's older than you as well but
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but he always had to explain that too it's like okay well my mom was 42 when she had me
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so but yeah so that's great but yeah I love like I said I don't love that people have to go
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through bad hardships to discover you know what works for them but thank thank God we do discover
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what works for us because you know otherwise you know I don't know yeah well anyways it would
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just be for not I mean because we're gonna go through our you know struggles regardless but
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right if there's nothing good that comes from it then it's just a struggle right good that comes
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from it then it makes it worth it yeah exactly and you can share your your testimonies and things
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like that okay so my listeners are new home stitters and home set dreamers so many of the people
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listening don't have have either just or either just thinking about starting or have started and
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just in the beginning stages so but a message I I want and I'm sure you do as well people to know
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is that your kitchen is the is a great place to start home stitting you don't need land you don't
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need all the animals you can start in your kitchen which brings us to the topic of preserving food
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one of your books that you've written how many books have you written so far that is I have to
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actually sit count for a minute this one is my fifth fifth was okay yeah and and the title is
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everything worth preserving the complete guide for food preservation at home okay so that's
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what we're gonna be talking about today and this is actually a part of a series I'm doing right
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now on that podcast about small about small scale home stitting and I figured this is fits in
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perfectly with the topic of you know you can start in your kitchen basically you don't need all
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of the things and it's a really good place to start because like you said like you shared it can
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make so much difference in your health so you know maybe you could I I looked over your book and
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saw that there was nine preserving methods that you share in there and I didn't realize there is
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so many there's probably more than that right like is that all of the preserving methods yeah well
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it's really it's actually all of the preserving methods um that you can use because different foods
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safety-wise right some can't be preserved with one method but they can with another so it's really
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a guide that walks you through all of the different forms and then tells you which foods can safely
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be done using that preservation method so real quick I'll just run through them so you've got
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canning and you've got within canning you've got water bath canning which is safe for acidic foods
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and then you have pressure canning which is what you need to do non acidic foods so vegetables that
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are not being pickled meats and then and combination recipes and then you've got dehydrating
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you've got freezing of course most people are familiar with the deep freezer and use that so you've
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got that method and then you have fermenting which is another form of food preservation that has
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wonderful gut health properties to it and is also really easy so what I'll run through these nine and
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then kind of dive deeper into the ones where you don't have to really buy any special equipment or
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are really easy to do without a big upfront investment so fermentation is one of those and then
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you've got root cellarine which you don't have to have a root cellar now for some crops you do
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need to have an environment like a root cellar because there's specific humidity and temperature
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requirements in order for it to store long term but there's actually quite a few things that you can do
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I don't have a root cellar we don't even have a basement I don't have an unheated garage I literally
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just have my house and there's many ways that you can use those root cellarine techniques just even
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in your regular kitchen or if you have a room that you can kind of partition off and keep a little
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bit cooler then there's freeze drying which of course requires a freeze dryer which is probably
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the biggest investment of home food preservation equipment and then you've got infusion which can
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be done sometimes it's with vinegar sometimes it's with alcohol but different ways of infusing a
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liquid with the herb and then you've got salting and smoking so salt curing and or smoking and
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really the salting and the smoking are kind of forms of dehydrating because the action they're
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taking the moisture out and that's what is stopping the decay process and the further breakdown of
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enzymes but it's you're not putting it in most cases you're actually putting it in a dehydrator
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using the salt independently and with the smoking obviously you're going to need some type of
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smoker because it's the actual smoke itself but also ring flavor so those are really your nine
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and I count at nine as water bath canning is one and then pressure canning as the other
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immutable technically canning because you are using different different you have to use a pressure
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can or obviously a pressure can so slightly different mechanism there but those are your your
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nine ways to preserve food at home and aside from the pressure canner and really the even the water
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bath canner because canning was really just invented with glass jars the mason jars in the latter part
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of the 1800s and then your pressure canners were introduced for pressure canning in the early 1900s
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so as far as human humans eating food goes and preserving food it's relatively new and then of
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course the freeze dryer was really home units just really came on the scene about 10 15 years ago
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and then prior to that I think it was about the 1940s or 50s that they started using
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freeze drying techniques so those do are relatively newer but the others are all just very old forms
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of home food preservation it's just a lot of us haven't seen the modeled forests you know maybe your
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great grandparents your grandparents did depending on your age maybe your mom and dad
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and so it's just been some skill sets that in the general public had been lost in just a few
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generations right and I feel like that you know that happened to me like my grandparents were
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garden my grandfather garden my dad knew nothing about gardening and then same with my mom she
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didn't know anything about guarding but her family they were avocado armors and you know and she
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knew nothing and so we're we're there's a there's this whole group of people that are now trying to
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regain some of that knowledge by you know sharing it for the next generations you know so
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I am I am familiar with a few of the I mean most of those I've done I haven't done freeze drying
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I actually have not done pressure canning yet that's something that you know I've been
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on the gauntlet and I'm like okay let's do it okay yes I will do it it's just one of those
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things I meant to do and never did you know I've done a can't water bath canning steam canning
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fermenting is one of my favorites and dehydrating is also one of my favorites root seller you'll
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have to talk more about that because I I don't know I mean I've had like squash sitting in my house
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for the winter yeah I don't is that considered root selling yeah 100 percent that is considered
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root salarying it's just not down in a you know a root seller per second um so the root
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salarying technique the easiest ones to do it with because you don't have to have as cool of
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temperatures or as high of humidity and of course this is going to change like um you may have
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higher humidity than I do because up here in the Pacific Northwest we have some humidity but it's
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not anything like like Tennessee you know or even Virginia when I've been to those areas that like
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or Florida they have a really high humidity but they'll Georgia's yeah Georgia's right there
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right so you've got the humidity factor naturally in your favor but then it's going to be
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finding for those specific foods that being able to maintain the temperature with the humidity so
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okay where um humidity and temperature aren't as big of a play like it's basically room temperature
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um the longest uh storage ideally your your temps would be in around the 60 degrees Fahrenheit so I
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know depending on if you have air conditioning or what your your internal house temperatures are
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but that's going to be your garlic your onions and your winter squash so the key with the garlic
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and the onions though if you're growing them yourself and or you're able to get them from a local
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farmer is to cure them and so you want and to pick long storage varieties of onions now garlic
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soft neck actually usually will last 12 to 18 months so it will go the longest before it will
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start to sprout hard neck will go anywhere from like six to nine months I've had a few hard
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neck go almost 12 months my soft neck just naturally so just kind of keep those things in mind
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it when you're planting and or purchasing them soft neck garlic's going to give you your longest
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storage and then with your onions you want to make sure that you have storage variety so like
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wallowala sweets any sweet onion does not have long term storage viability it will sprout and rot
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you within a couple of months sometimes four to six weeks just depending on it um your red onions
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there are a couple of red onions that have a little bit longer storage variety but most of your
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storage onions are going to be the yellow varieties specifically Patterson and Copra are both long term
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storage onions I have a variety that I got from Dixondale onions they're an online you can order
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from them online and they will they'll ship out and so I got a it's called blush and it's a
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where they have bred together a long storage onion of the yellow variety with a red onion so it's
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this really pretty it's why it's blush it's like this beautiful pink blushy color
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good flavor and they have stored a whole year for me as well so those also are really good
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good storage so you know you can just use this or change in a lookup long term you know
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storage varieties and then grow those yourself and or like I said if you're buying them from a
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local farmer you want to make sure you're getting those long storage varieties otherwise this isn't
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going to work and so I want you to set yourself up for failure there so you want to cure them and so
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ideally that means that this you're leaving part of the stack and the stem on them and you first
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harvest them you leave all of the dirt on so leave the dirt on and then you're gonna put them in
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area where they can fully dry you don't really want to put them in direct sunlight because you
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can't get sunscaled but really good airflow where it's warm and you're the all of the dirt will dry
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and then the outer layers will also dry and get hard and that's going to protect it and signal to
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the onion like okay it's it's time for me to go into dormancy don't sprout it regrow again
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so then you'll check your stem and you'll want to make sure that it's dry all the way through so
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I leave mine kind of long and so I can snip it and check every so often on them to see is it
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internally dry and then you can braid them if you have those long steps and so that just makes
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you don't have to have as many different containers for storage so I braid mine and then I just hang
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them in I've hung them in closets I've hung some in the kitchen for the ones that I'm doing
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ideally the majority of them aside from like the braid you're using you do want to have them out
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of light so if you can put them in a closet or a room or somewhere like that that doesn't have
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big daylight coming through or next to the stove where it's hot mind will last a whole year so
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that's kind of the key on those and at that point after they're fully cured then you can brush off
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the dirt but if you try to brush off the dirt when it's still moist or just been pulled before
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it's all the way dried and those outer layers are cured you actually inadvertently end up pushing
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some of that dirt while it's still moist into the skin of the onion and then it's a higher likelihood
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that it will begin to rot faster and it won't store so that's kind of the thought process there
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and then so so onions and garlic I'd have to say are you're going to be your two easis
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provided you pick those those and they'll store pretty much at room temp then after that you have
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your winners squash and one of the keys of the winners squash and this is if you're harvesting it
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yourself or if you're buying it even at the store is make sure the stem is still on if the stem is
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off then you are allowing oxygen can get through where the stem has been broken off even though it
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feels like it's sealed you know like it's not open open oxygen gets through there and then they will
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break down and they won't store as long so you really want to leave the stems on you know just a
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few inches is fine and then you're also going to cure them so you want to see that stem when you
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first harvest them right it'll be green and as it cures that stem will turn brown and get really
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hard so that's one of your indications like okay and then it's also for that outer layer you want
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that outer layer of skin to be hard and impenetrable like I'll check my thumbnail just kind of push on
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it and see if it goes through or if it's starting to to harden up and so you want them to dry and anywhere
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like 85 degrees Fahrenheit to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and again out of direct sunlight is best but
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there's plenty of air flow in its warm so here where I live that's actually hard to get sometimes in
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the month of October when you're harvesting a lot of that winter squash and it's ready so I will
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even do mine by our fireplace if I don't have it outdoor temperatures are no longer warm enough so
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if you're like 80 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit they will cure within like maybe a week to weeks max if
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you're cooler like 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit then it can take up to a month for them to cure but once
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they're cured then you just can move them like I said I put mine I've done closets I've done
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cupboards I've even just done the open shelves beneath my kitchen island and put them in in there and
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spaghetti squash and delicato squash last the longest for me I still have delicato squash
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we harvested in September and it's now May just on the other side of this wall actually we have a room
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that's just room temperature and they're storing there so well yeah I I knew I was going to learn
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something okay so I don't think I've ever officially got my squash ready for winter storage I think
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I accidentally must have done that because they've lasted throughout the winter and stuff but that
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that was really really great tips with both of those that and where are you going to share something
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something else I was gonna say um the sugar pie pumpkins and acorn squash those smaller ones
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they will store for about two to three months on average so those ones you definitely want to take
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keep an eye on them and look for any little soft spots on the outside or feel them
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because once they start to go once you notice it on one usually the rest follow shortly thereafter so
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that's your that's always my sign like okay I've got to cook these up you know figure out how I'm
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doing it does by me time in the fall so that I'm not having to deal with them while I'm dealing with
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all the other things that won't just store on the shelf right okay okay that that was that was
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really great information and so you guys understand who when my listeners now understand why you're so
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valuable you're such a valuable resource I would like to go a little bit through the rest of the
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list if that's okay and just talk about like best practice tips um uh for the rest of the list the
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the rest of the nine so the eight left um maybe in the order of so so root cellaring is not difficult
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that was you know kind of that you don't even have to have any extra equipment to do that you just
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need your space so so like maybe in the order of easy is to hardest uh if you if you want to do that
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yeah definitely well I feel like freezing is probably pretty easy as just how much
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freezer space do you have right um and then understanding with using the freezer that when you're
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freezing vegetables at home like fresh vegetables that you've got either from the grocery store
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your own garden or farmers markets wherever you're you're bringing them in that certain vegetables do
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need to be blanched before freezing and the reason for that is even because they're freezing there's
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that doesn't stop that enzyme activity um and it doesn't kill bacteria it just puts everything
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in a hibernation form so that's like you freeze rame but once you thought you still have to cook it
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in post cases right um so with some of your vegetables no I have not really most fruits but most
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of your vegetables if you don't blanch them you can either do it in boiling water for in each
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vegetable will tell you like how many minutes or seconds or steam blanching them before freezing
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then you'll set yourself up for failure the texture will be off um flavor can be off and they just
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won't ever cook back quite right whereas if you do blanch them the ones that need it um it really
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is a important step I skipped it when I first started freezing some of our winter squash
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and I couldn't figure out why when I went to cook it three months later it would never cook
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I'm like I've made this for two hours it should have been done in 20 minutes and it had just a really
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how did it off flavor not like it it went bad but it just didn't taste good and that's where I
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realized the importance of blanching it wasn't a suggestion right I should have done okay and I didn't
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even I wouldn't have even thought of I I don't think I've ever done that for winter squash I'm not
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sure that I can remember if I frozen winter squash before but I wouldn't have thought winter
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squash you would have to do that I mean like green beans and things like and tomatoes I get those
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with winter and you said winter squash or regular or summer squash did you or both winter squash
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okay it depends for summer squash zucchini specifically if I'm wanting to freeze it like in in
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rounds or slices then I will blanch it if I'm rating it up and it's going to go in like a bread
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where it's you know really incorporated with a lot of other stuff grading wise I don't blanch it
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but I do if it's like the round medallions or quarters depending on how big it is by the time I
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actually pull it out of the garden okay yeah and in case someone doesn't not know what blanching is can
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you quickly explain what that is that process so blanching is where you're putting something in either
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steam and or boiling water not to fully cook it just long enough to stop that enzyme activity
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that still goes on after harvest and that's what goes along and actually breaks down food and then
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transitions to rot etc so blanching stops that but it's still considered um you know it's not fully
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cooked so it's still mainly raw it's just been blanched so like things will still be crunchy you
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know as far as like green beans and and that type of thing you're not like a fully cooked version of it
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and so yeah that's blanching okay okay thank you okay so what would be maybe next on the list
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or you know it doesn't have to be exactly hard you know easiest to hardest but I thought we'd get
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into the more difficult ones at the end yeah well I think next to be fermenting because you really
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just ate a vessel a mason jar a crock a glass bowl anything like most of us have some type of
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that in the kitchen a good quality salt and that means a salt that doesn't have any anti-caking
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agents added to it or iodine because iodine can interfere with the fermenting process
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um so you just need a good salt you're vegetable and a glass container mason jars work great
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and then you usually need some type of weight you don't have to buy a weight um I've used old
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little glass jars and filled them with water like a baby old baby food jar but just something to keep
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the contents that you're fermenting the solid parts of the food beneath the brine level
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so that it doesn't mold it needs to be beneath the the brine level um so you can make your own
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weights I know even people take like a ziplock bag and fill it with water and then push that put
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that on the top in order to keep it down you can also buy little glass weights they're fairly
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inexpensive and you can reuse them time and time and time again they're really great I have those
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and you can get fermenting lids for your glass jars that help let the gases escape but also keep
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um the bad bacteria from entering in until it's got it to establish pH because the active fermenting
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it's actually acidity and salt so you have enough salt that it keeps the bad bacteria from growing
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and keeps that at bay while you have your um your lactobacillus bacteria in vegetables is
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creating an acidic environment um it's really cool so it actually creates an acidic environment
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and then you have all of the great probiotic parts that are in the food and all of this good gut
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bacteria and it acts as the preservation mode as well um the only caveat with fermented foods is
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most of them in order to keep them long term you are going to need to move them into some type of
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cold storage after they've reached your fermented part and that cold storage just greatly reduces
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how fast it's fermenting so that you can enjoy it for a long period of time so for a lot of people
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that's a refrigerator um but it also could be a room so if you're fermenting in the fall and you
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have a room that you can kind of close off that doesn't get as much heat ideally it would be between
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like 35 degrees you don't want your ferments to freeze um to like 55 degrees Fahrenheit just know
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if it's warmer than that it's you're going to need to consume it faster or it will reach the past
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of two fermented which usually just means right to sour and all those different it's just not
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palatable you're not going to enjoy it right uh what what do you recommend like people starting
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to ferment like what types of food i know cabbage is always a good one to start with but what would
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you say including drinks because um there's kombucha and water kefir and those sorts of things too
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yeah i actually prefer kombucha because water kefir is too high maintenance for me i don't want to
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have to feed and strain something every day or every two days so i prefer kombucha because i could
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let it go where i can just put it in its little scoby hotel and and we're happy and it doesn't take
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my fridge um until it's finished and i'm you know ready to put it in the fridge but i can just keep
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it all on the counter um so i i tend to be a little partial to kombucha between those two
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personally um and then i cabbage is nice because cabbage tends to have a lower or lesser frequency
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to want to mold so if you're brand new and you don't maybe have some of the the airlock system lids
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i have found that some of the other vegetable ferments can be a little bit more prone to
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cam yeast which is not harmful but it's not always desirable um or mold contamination where i find
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the cabbages they those ferments tend to do better so like a kimchi my favorite is kirtito
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which is a spanish version of sourcrow where you're using um carrot and garlic and onion and oregano
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and i don't even make regular sourcrow anymore i only make kirtito is that is that in your book
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is that right? yes that would be a definitely in the book and it's my absolute favorite so um those
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that those are probably my favorites and then my daughter loves though fermented i still make
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canned ones but she loves fermented garlic till cucumber fermented pickles so i always do um
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several gallons of those um to keep to keep we're going throughout the whole year yeah okay um so
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fermenting is great just because it is you can do it in small batches if you only have a little bit
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of something you know you can do it in small batches you don't have to have a lot of equipment
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and it's so good for you so right fermenting is one of my favorites i would say next is going to be
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probably infusion and so infusion is just where you are either infusing the fruit with alcohol
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to help stabilize it or the vice versa like if you're using herbs you're actually infusing the
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liquid with those herbs and then sometimes you're straining it out which would be a medicinal
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herbal tinctures but you also can do it for flavoring so you can do you know homemade lemon
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extracts almond extracts of course vanilla extract is something a lot of people are familiar with
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that is a form of infusion and preserving that food um is well so those are relatively easy
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because again you just need to have the alcohol and or vinegar you can also do vinegar infusions
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but that liquid a glass jar and then whenever you're infusing it with or matter fruit usually
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it's herbs and fruit so those are your general ones but again pretty easy to do you don't have to
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have a ton of equipment um and then sometimes you do oil infusions or another one and this is where
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we do need to talk safety for a minute so when you uh botulism is probably the most dangerous
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form of food poisoning that you can get because it's a fatal neurotoxin that you actually have to
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get an antidote to it's not like you just get sick and throw up and then you get over it like you
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would you know salmonally equalize some of the other things we think of is food poisoning wise
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mm-hmm botulism is not one of those and botulism you can't smell you can't see you can't taste
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you cannot identify it by any way shape or form until you start to come down with the symptoms which
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can be blurry vision weakness of limbs like there's there's some symptoms the good news is it's
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actually very very easy to avoid if you are using updated safe tested methods of home food preservation
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and you understand how it proliferates and how to avoid it which is one of the biggest things that
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I wanted to hit with the book because a lot of people think botulism with canning but you can get
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botulism in other forms of food preservation salt curing with meat is one of those as well as oil
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infusion is another and so with the oil infusion um because it doesn't have so botulism won't grow
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in acidic environment so 4.6 pH on your pH scale or lower because the lower the number the more
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acidic botulism cannot grow in an acidic environment so that's why you can water bath can fruit
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so we can do a lot of different things like infusing fruits and all that and you don't have any issues
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um if it is 4.7 or higher so you're going more alkaline right then botulism can grow in those
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environments if it's present and because we can't see and identify the spores and they can be all
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over they definitely are in the ground root vegetables are a higher likelihood of having botulism but
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again it can be a meat it can be in the air it can be on surfaces we come in contact with it a lot
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but we're not ingesting it in a form where it's been allowed to proliferate and it's harming us
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so in an area that is not acidic and is anaerobic does not have oxygen so inside oil if you have
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something in a jar of oil and in the oil is covering the top of it that's anaerobic a sealed
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canning jar that's anaerobic um inside of meat all the way um you know then it's it's not close
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to the surface to have the oxygen hitting it those are anaerobic environments so that's where we
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need to be careful so with infusion a lot of times people want to make garlic oil garlic is a
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root vegetable garlic has been shown to have botulism in it and garlic infused oil specifically
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has tested positive for botulism so if you want to make those infused oils you can however
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three days in the fridge the shocks people when you're doing garlic you're just doing garlic
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with straight oil three days in the fridge and then botulism can grow even in the fridge and that
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needs to be tossed you can put it in the freezer to prolong it longer um or you can acidify it so there
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are very specific instructions that you can acidify it to extend the shelf life in the fridge um but
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just no garlic infused oil is a botulism danger and so anytime you're using oil as your infusion
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mechanism uh you need to be making sure you're following uh tested recipe etc to avoid that okay
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um real quick you sent three days in the fridge that stops the botulism no you have a three day
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safety window with it in the fridge to use it i see so after three days in the fridge you need to
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pass it okay yeah so make small amounts right oh small amounts or just keep out the amount you're
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gonna consume it consume within three days still in the fridge um and then freeze the rest i see i see
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okay that makes sense yeah okay what's next on the list okay um next i'm like okay push
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for some time right here we've done okay um then i'll say salting and well salting and smoking
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and dehydrating the both who's similar mechanism says i said you're pulling out the moisture
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and then it's so dry that you're um not going to have the the breakdown of the organisms and
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mold growth and all of those things um you with the salt curing you have to be careful with nitrates
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versus nitrites um and then also if it's on muscles or big cuts of meat to ensure that it's
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properly infused with the salt so that you don't get the possibility of botulism um and so that
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we go into to greater detail within the book i don't we don't really have the scope to dive super
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deep into that i don't think that's a method that most of us are looking to start with however like
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making you know homemade beef jerky and you can smoke that or smoking meats those are all great
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um they do help preserve it even though typically we still store them in the fridge um but it
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does definitely preserve it versus a fresh filet sitting a fish for example sitting in the fridge
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if it's smoked it'll sit in the fridge much much longer right um and then salt though same thing
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it's pulling out the moisture but i love to use salt for a lot of my herbs i make herb salts
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especially herbs like basil that i don't bother dehydrating basil because i find that it doesn't
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have much flavor after it's been dehydrated like nothing like when it's fresh um and so i make
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basil salt i also make celery leaf salt and so you just use the whatever salt that would regularly
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be in a recipe with celery i'll use the celery salt but it really keeps that fresh flavor alive
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and so that is one of my favorite and really easy because all you have to have is the herb i use a
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food processor or a blender you can even pulverize it by hand if you have a mortar and pestle
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to the salt ratio and it's i mean that's all you have to do and then it's stores so that one's
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one of my favorites um and then dehydrating because you can't dehydrate some things without an
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actual dehydrator um if your oven will go down to a low enough temp and you can prop open the door
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you can dehydrate certain things uh an actual dehydrator is nice because it allows you to select
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specific temperatures and and maintain that evenly um but you don't have to have a dehydrator
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to necessarily dehydrate especially leafy things like herbs um you know things like that i'll just
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hang bundles upside down and let them dry that way just completely here we try so i feel like
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that one's a pretty lower again a lower barrier to entry uh for certain things and that's probably
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my i'm sorry i was probably my favorite one is dehydrating and that's the one i did the most
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because i would that's how i used um that's what i did with my excessive amount of squash summer
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squash i would dehydrate them and make different um spices with different you know with peppers
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and i would and um squash summer squash make really good thickener for like spaghetti sauces
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and things like that so dehydrating was my favorite and i wanted to always get into the salting of herbs
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that sound always sounded really good and i never for some reason i just never went that
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went that direction but yeah those both are my favorite probably if i were to pick two
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and fermenting yeah and the the salting of the herbs like it's just so easy like i love easy
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easy quick ways to do it yeah um and so that leaves us with where are we at here i need to check
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my left scanning um yeah we've got canning and then freeze drying and i would say freeze drying
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is lab because you you have to have a freeze dryer in order to freeze dry and you know you
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those pieces of equipment they're they're great but they are about for a small one you're looking
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about 20 25 2000 dollars and then they kind of go out from there so it's a significant investment
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for most people um so they can't be a fabulous great arsenal tool in your home good preservation are
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you know um skill set but they have the most amount of money as an upfront investment so that's
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what i meant last but as far as ease of doing um they're super easy you're just loading your tray
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you're pushing it into the machine and you're pressing the button and then and you're just checking
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it to make sure it is fully fully freeze dried and doesn't eat it a little bit extra dry time if
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it's not completely finished so as far as like hands on and ease of doing research is probably the easiest
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like least amount of prep and all those things but it's that monetary investment so yeah that makes sense
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yeah so we're canning water bath canning is fabulous for acidic items as i said so that's
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going to be the majority of your fruits um not all like bananas are not acidic enough on their own
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there's some melons aren't acidic enough but pretty much all of your berries um stone fruits etc
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are completely acidic enough to safely water bath can and of course there's jams jellies the fruits
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themselves you know holes have fruit butters all those things um and then pickled so pickled
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vegetables of course um surprisingly pickled eggs are not safe to can they're too dense and they
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have been tested to show bachelors them so pickled eggs can be stored in the fridge but they're not
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densities so okay the brine even with canning can't get into the center of the egg far enough
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penetrate far enough in order to kill uh bachelors of spores so um so but the great thing about water bath
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canning is you need to have your canning jars and your lids and bands and then your food but you
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can use any large pot as long as the water completely covers will protect my coffee cup is a canning jar
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once it's put into the pot you need to have something on the bottom so if you buy a water bath canner
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or steam canner they'll come with a rack because you don't want the jars sitting right on the bottom of
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the pot you need them a little bit lifted up off with the water flowing underneath but you can
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lose like a twisted dish towel you can use the extra round bands that come with you canning jars
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and you can make a rack like that and put those in there so you don't have to have a rack you can
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make one put your jars in and then the water once the jars are fully submerged needs to cover the top
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by one to two inches um if your processing time is longer than 30 minutes which there's a few
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recipes and they involve tomatoes that have a longer processing time uh you need to have that two
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inch so that as uh even with the lid on it doesn't evaporate too much and then there's always
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liquid covering the top of the jar so that's just making sure you have a large enough pot that is
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deep enough once the jars are in there you've got that over the top so as I said water bath canning
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for pickles and again like with canning pickles just to make sure um that you are following a
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pickling recipe that has been made for canning wise because just because a pickle like a fridge
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pickling recipe doesn't necessarily have a high enough concentrate a vinegar for it to be safe to
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be canning with um and so that's where I see a lot of people like with homemade tomato sauce recipes
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just want to make their favorite tomato sauce but their tomato sauce generally like spaghetti sauce,
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pizza sauce, etc. people will be adding in peppers and onions and garlic and tomatoes are already
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borderline on not being acidic enough and so when you add in peppers and onions and garlic those are
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non acidic items you are actually changing that ratio to above a 4.6 and then it's no longer safe
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so the canning recipes and I go over that to pickling brines, etc. when they've been formulated
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for canning it's to ensure that the end product is that 4.6. There's the pH part but there's also
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the density part so a lot of times we're like why I'm just going to get a pH tester and I'm just
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going to test well that tells you your brine is and that would prove true for pickled onions right
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but not able to test the density of the item and the inside of it to ensure that the inside of it
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and pH little test strips those little paper litmus test they're not accurate enough for canning
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anyhow um that's it's not a safe measurement even if you are just testing your brine so that's
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just making sure that you're following canning recipes specifically for water bath and then
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you're going to be fine um then we move into pressure canning which is where a lot of people get
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nervous and don't don't want to jump into that realm but pressure canning oh it's if I could only
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pick one one thing I was going to ask you what your favorite one was I was actually going to that
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was one of my questions pressure canning because one it's all shell sales so we do have deep
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features and I use them because I'll be honest I'm not pressure canning my steak I want my ribeye
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as a ribeye on the grill even though you technically can can steak it's you can't be
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so we use our deep freezers mainly for though like I'm my whole chickens I do can up some
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chicken breasts and different things like that but when I want a whole roast chicken I want it
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to roast a whole chicken so I did that because um we lose power um often where we live and so we
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have a generator that will kick in um actually manually go out and set it up but to take care of the
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freezers but all of my canned food all of my hydrated food all my freezer if all of those are
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shell stable so when the power goes out I am not in any danger of losing those and that's really
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big for me but my other thing is with the pressure canner I can do like meals and stuff basically
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in a jar still following safety stuff there's some things with the pressure canner you still cannot
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can you can't can at home dairy um you can't do flour or grain so rice um is a density issue and I
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do those condensed little jars but that's because commercial pressure canners reach much much
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much higher pounds of pressure in temperatures than home models can't so that's the reason that
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you'll see dairy even like condensed milk and different things like that store shelves but you
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can't do it at home um because of the temperature difference is home models get um but I just
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love like busy nights I'm like oh I don't have time to cook dinner I'm just going to go grab off
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the shelf I've got some canned chicken I'm going to grab a jar of salsa a jar of already canned um
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you know beans black beans and I'm just going to throw together just a really quick like a Mexican
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I'm just going to dump it all together heat it up and then I'll cook some rice and we'll throw it
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over that or you know whatever up throw it in a tortilla but I can have home cooked homegrown
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food on the table and like as long as it takes you to open the jar and heat it so like maybe 10
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minutes so to for me that's why I really really love my pressure canner um is is for those two
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reasons so it's it's because it hisses you know it is but all of the newer models and by newer I mean
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like 1980s or newer have double mechanisms built into them unlike the pressure canners of old
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so they have two fails safes basically they have two different mechanisms so that they don't
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explode and the lid doesn't come up you know that type of thing so it's actually pretty hard
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for you to have a mishap that way with the pressure canner yeah I it took me a long time to even
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use the insta pot my husband was the one he bought it or we bought it or we got it and I wouldn't
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use it because I was nervous about it but that's another thing I know people ask about often his
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can you use a insta pot for canning yeah and it's it's a big no and I love my insta pot I actually
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use it quite often it's a no and the reason for that is they did third party testing and it
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does not hold the pounds of pressure and the electric pressure cookers like an insta pot the
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pounds of pressure is not held consistently all the way throughout and so when you're canning
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it's really important that you have your pounds of pressure correct to your altitude so if you
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are a thousand up to a thousand feet above sea level for meats and vegetables in the pressure canner
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you're canning at 10 pounds of pressure if you are one thousand and one feet above sea level and
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higher than you are canning if it's a weighted gauge at 15 pounds of pressure so that's why say
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pressure matters and you don't have the ability in an instant pot you can't change the pounds of
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pressure based upon your altitude number one but number two when you're canning something it has to
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be kept at that pounds of pressure for the entire time to ensure that those bachelors of spores
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have been killed so for example a pint of green beans at 10 pounds of pressure for altitudes
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1000 feet above sea level or lower which I'm only like 650 feet so that would be me it's 20 minutes
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if it at 18 minutes drops below 10 pounds of pressure I have to start all the way over again it is
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being at a full 20 minutes whatever the time is at that pounds of pressure for the entire time
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to ensure bachelors of spores are killed so because the instant pot does not keep it at the
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pounds of pressure all the way throughout it'll have dips and fluctuations it is not safe to canon
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okay that that totally makes sense I've never heard that explanation I just knew it was
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you couldn't do it so that that totally makes sense well this was really really great information
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I know that my listeners are going to enjoy this and I know that this is going to inspire some people
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to get started with at least one of those preservation well they probably are already doing at
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least the freezing right yeah but maybe to add another skill set to their home-steading
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skill to toolbox I love what you have on in your book it's at least that this was the description
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in amazon which was learn to learn the time tested traditional skills of preserving food at home
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all in a beautiful book that you'll pass down to your children I love that I am a firm believer in
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having actual physical books so I really think that that's part of our that's part of our preparedness
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is being able to have things in case we don't have the internet which I you know more than likely we
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will for a long long time but you never know so have a physical copy of a book will ensure that you can
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passes knowledge down to you to the next generation as well um so where can people find you
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and where can they buy the book I meant I found light on amazon so I know that's but is that
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the best place to find your book yeah well to find the book which is hardcover because I'm like I
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I also wrote it because I wanted all of my preserving recipes in one spot instead of having to
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pull out like 50 different papers every time I went to do something but I also wanted to cover
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I could wipe off because I am not I am messy in the kitchen it's my thing I say it's a sign of a good
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cook but so I wanted something I'll take that I'm very messy yeah I could wipe down if I needed to so
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it is it's a hardback physical book um amazon is fine or you can go to my website
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mosquitos.com and you'll see at the top where it says um shop and there's little book tab and you
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can order it there as well and then it ships directly from the publisher but either either way
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that it gets into your hands I'm just thrilled so either spot um I know that people have amazon
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prime then you don't pay shipping and that's a you know a boon for some people so either spot and then
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my website mosquitos.com have ton of you know recipes are listed there and videos my podcast
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pioneering today podcast so you're just looking for a hub to kind of to look at all the things that
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the best spot yeah and I'll have those links in the show notes as well so well I thank you so much
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for for sharing your knowledge like you do and um I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day
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yeah you too thanks so much for having me on Mona it was a pleasure