Yesterday Mommy woke up with a fever and aches and chills. You know, the whole flu-like viral syndrome. Same thing Evie had earlier in the week. We had plans to get the turkey stock from Thanksgiving canned, as well as put the last of the carrots in the freezer, but Mommy was not feeling up to it, so Evie had to step up and make it happen.
First step is to scrape the fat off the top of the stock. It had been sitting out on the worm bin on the back porch all night in sub-freezing temperature so all the fat had floated nicely to the top (winter time is very convenient when you don’t have a walk-in refrigerator). That will go to the pigs, and they will turn it into lard.
Mommy had just enough energy to ladle it into jars and get them into the pressure canner, and then she went to bed.
Evie made vacuum pack bags while the carrots blanched, and then ladled the carrots into a quart jar to measure them out. Then we dumped each quart of carrots into a quart-sized freezer bag.
The watched vaccum-packer never seals.
Then she ran them through the vacuum packer and double sealed each one so that they would not run the risk of breaking the seal and getting freezer burnt.
We now have 11 quarts of carrots in the freezer, although six of them are earmarked for the girls to sell for their own spending money. So if anyone wants a quart of soup or saucepan ready carrots (just open, dump, heat to desired tenderness, and serve) shoot Kathleen a text.
Kathleen is very snotty today, but otherwise feeling better.
Happy Sunday!
Little Farm in the Big City 