Continuing the tour of grow bag gardens June 1, 2009

Continuing the tour of grow bag gardens June 1, 2009, originally uploaded by Campobello Island.

Continuing the tour of my grow bag gardens starting at the greenhouse where the last video clip left off and visiting the former herb garden that I turned over and covered with black plastic mulch for this year. I have grow bags on top of the mulch and this fall I will remove the plastic and add the soil from the grow bags to the bed and prepare it for it's new life as some sort of garden next year. Right now my thoughts are an Alberta Spruce in the center surrounded by a circle of English Lavender with the rest of the bed covered with a dark mulch. Hard to say how many times I will change my mind before next year though. There is one more short video clip to do leaving this garden and walking out a path through the trees to the hidden where I have another area of grow bags to show you. Hopefully I will get that done in the next few days.

The start of canning season.

The start of canning season., originally uploaded by Campobello Island.

The official start of canning season and first up to the plate is Rhubarb. I use my trusted and well worn copy of Stocking Up , my 1977 edition when ever canning or preserving I find all of their instructions easy to follow and tried and true.

Quoting from the book, the Rhubarb method that I used:

Rhubarb (hot pack method)

For hot pack the water in your canner should be boiling and you should add boiling water enough to bring the level 1 to 2 inches over the top of the jars.

Wash and cut the Rhubarb into ½ inch pieces. Add ¼ cup of honey to each quart of Rhubarb and let stand for several hours to draw out juice. Bring to a boil then ladle into sterile jars filling to within ½ inch of the top. Add sterile lids and tighten. Place in canner as instructed above and process for 10 minutes . Timing from the moment that the water returns to a rolling boil. Putting the cover on the canner will speed up this process.

To sterilize the jars I wash and rinse and place in a 300 degree F over for 10 minutes. I boil the lids in water for ten minutes.

The resulting product from this method is not sweet enough to eat right out of the jar, you will need to add additional sweetener before you serve it or use it in a pie etc.