Keeping Hearth and Home

Nothing smells more uniquely like fall than the scent of hot grapes juicing.  My in-laws have quite the collection of grape vines and, much to hubby's delight, they offered us first pickings and the use of their steam juicer to juice them!  The process is quite simple, just time-consuming. 1. Pick grapes and rinse them 2. Follow your steam juicer's instructions.  This steam juicer has a water reservoir at the bottom, topped by a collection reservoir with a basket inside.  You fill the basket with grapes, the water reservoir with water, put it all together and put the lid on and heat over medium to medium-high heat. The tubing comes out the front, and make sure it is sitting in a bottle and that you have lots of bottles on hand, because when the juice starts to come out it really flows!  The juice will come in spurts for a while, and I got about 6 quarts per basket full. 3. While juice is still hot, put on lids and rings and they will self-seal...

My very first post on home canning!! This is something I am pretty passionate about, so I'm a little sad that I decided to start this blog at the end of the canning season, because that means that I missed out blogging about peaches, pears, apricots, and applesauce.  As it is, I am going to be posting the end of our harvest canning. First up.....Dilly Beans! (aka pickled green beans). This recipe makes 4 pints of pickled green beans. What you'll need: 2(ish) lbs green beans 1/4 c. canning salt 2 1/2 c. vinegar 2 1/2 c. water 4 cloves peeled garlic 2 tbs dill seed 4 pint jars 4 new canning lids 4 canning rings Water bath canner Snap or trim the ends off of green beans and pack them vertically into clean pint jars (I like to lay my jar on its side while I do most of the packing, and then tip it upright and see if there is any more room). Put 1/2 tbs dill seed and 1 clove garlic in each jar.  Put the water, vinegar and salt in a sauce pan and he...