Thyme OffGrid

06/07/2023

'Canned' or 'Jarred' Butter!!

I'm re-sharing this post because I've been hearing and reading quite a bit about a possible butter shortage and continuing high prices for butter. I don't know if that will happen (I hope it doesn't), but just in case it does I wanted to share this again to help you all be as prepared as possible for whatever may come... bad weather, shortages, rising food prices, inflation, illness, job insecurity, etc... The more prepared we are the better we can handle whatever comes our way! I firmly believe we should 'Be Prepared - Not Scared'!!

Before I go on I want to post a portion of what I've written in my 'about' section... "I'm not an expert, but I am a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother who likes to cook and bake and store up for my family! I'll be sharing some favorite recipes. I will also be sharing canning recipes - methods - and pictures. Some of the canning recipes I share may not be FDA approved or found in the Ball book, I've chosen to can these things after much research, but please be aware that you will be canning them at your own risk. I will let you know when one of the recipes I share is in this category!"

Now that you've had a chance to read my disclaimer... This is one of those projects that isn't approved by the FDA, USDA, or any of the experts.

I've done a lot of research about 'canning' butter and this is what I did. I'm not giving you a tutorial because it's not approved by the experts, I'm simply taking you on my journey.

I unwrapped 5 pounds of butter (you can use salted or unsalted) - I used the least expensive butter I could find and it happened to be Walmart's store brand,

I put it in a pot and began to melt it at medium low heat,

I stirred very regularly to prevent sticking or browning,

meanwhile I had my clean jars on a cookie sheet in the oven at 225 degrees to keep them hot and clean - you never want to put hot food in cold jars or cold food in hot jars!

I also had my lids in a small pot simmering on a low heat.

When the butter was all melted I took my jars out of the oven -
I had hot pads on the counter and set the whole cookie sheet of jars there so it would be easier for me to deal with.

I filled the jars with my melted butter (using a funnel) leaving 1/2 inch headspace ,

I wiped the rims of the jars to make sure there was no residue,

I put on the hot lid and the ring/band - tightening it as tight as it was comfortable for me to tighten it.

I set the jars on a clean towel and let the jars seal.

Now starts the intensive part... shake the jars.... set them down... wait a few minutes... shake them all again.

This shaking process goes on until the butter is blended and begins to set.

I even put my jars in the fridge for about 15 minutes - and I still shook them while they were in there.

I'm very pleased with the end result!!
Beautiful butter that is shelf stable.

I did not water bath or pressure can this butter.

I've talked to people who've done this and had the butter on their shelves for several years and when they opened the jars the butter was as good as the day they canned it.

If you do not agree with putting up butter like this that is your right, but please do not chastise or correct me for what I'm doing. I've been very clear that this is not a method approved by the experts, and any one doing it does it at their own risk. I choose to take that risk, what others do is up to them.

If you feel compelled to be unkind or to chastise me, don't be surprised if I delete your comment! I've made it Abundantly clear that this is not an approved method and everyone does it at their own risk.

This is simply part of my journey I'm sharing on how I'm being as prepared as possible for my family!

Doing this assures me that whatever comes - storms, power loss, loss of income, shortages, inflation, rising food costs, societal collapse, etc... my family will have the things they like to eat and cook with.

05/28/2023

05/28/2023

🌺🌿🌊🌅🌧🌙✨

05/28/2023

Empath Empowerment Ceremony May 3rd! ♥️ http://bit.ly/empathacademy

12/29/2022

SOME FAMILIES TURNING THEIR LAND INTO FOOD FORESTS

If you’ve ever wandered back roads in a developing, tropical country, you know that many of the locals grow much of their own food. You might also have noticed that their food gardens aren’t comprised entirely of small annual vegetables planted in straight rows like ours are. They are typically wild-looking plantings of edible trees, shrubs, vines, and ground covers all mingling effortlessly together, as if Mother Nature had planted the garden according to her own design. These are literally forests of food.

Forest gardening has been the standard for millennia in many tropical regions, but it’s possible in more temperate climes as well. A British chap by the name of Robert Hart first popularized the concept among European and North American gardeners with the publication of his book Forest Gardening: Cultivating an Edible Landscape in the 1980s. Food forests have also figured prominently in the permaculture movement, an approach to designing agricultural systems that mimic natural ecosystems.

Why Food Forests?
Food forests are like the ultimate organic garden. Does a forest need tilling, w**ding, fertilizer, or irrigation? Nope. And that’s the goal.

Because they’re mostly perennial crops, there’s no need to till. Not tilling preserves the natural soil structure, preventing the loss of topsoil and allowing all the little microbes and soil critters to do their jobs, cycling nutrients and maintaining fertility. The deep roots of trees and shrubs make them much more drought tolerant than annual vegetables, and they shade the smaller plants below, keeping everything lush and moist in a self-maintaining—in other words, a highly sustainable—system.

Step 1: CHOOSE PLANTS
The first step in establishing a food forest is to choose your plants. The largest plants will reach into the sun, so most common fruiting trees and shrubs are fair game. The smaller plants generally need to be more shade tolerant, as they will be in the under story. But you can leave sunny patches here and there—like little forest clearings—to accommodate species that need more light (though see Step 3 for a trick to make the most of the available sunlight).

Winter is the ideal time to get started, because most edible trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous plants can be purchased and planted while dormant, which is better for the plants—and for your bank account. That’s because at this time of year they are sold in “bare root” form—meaning without soil or a pot—which gives the roots a more natural structure and costs less for nurseries to produce. Bare root plants are typically ordered in January or February, for planting in early March, or as soon as the ground thaws in your area. Naturally, you’ll want to stick with species that are well-adapted to your region.

CANOPY: This layer is primarily for large nut trees that require full sun throughout the day, such as pecans, walnuts, and chestnuts, all of which mature to a height of 50 feet or more.

UNDER STORY TREES: This layer is for smaller nut trees, like filberts, and the majority of fruit trees. The most shade tolerant fruit trees include native North American species like black mulberry, American persimmon and pawpaw, though many other fruit trees will produce a respectable crop in partial shade.

Vines: Grapes, kiwis, and passion fruit are the most well-known edible vines, though there are many other more obscure specimens to consider, some of which are quite shade tolerant, such as akebia (edible fruit), chayote (a perennial squash), and groundnuts (perennial root crop). Kolomitka kiwi, a close relative of the fuzzy kiwis found in supermarkets, is among the most shade-tolerant vines.

SHRUBS: A large number of fruiting shrubs thrive in partial shade, including gooseberries, currants, service berries, huckleberry, elderberry, aronia, and honey berry, along with the “super foods” sea berry and goji. Blackberry and Blueberry bushes will work well here in the U.S.

HERBACEOUS PLANTS: This category includes not only plants commonly thought of as herbs—rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender, mint and sage are a few of the top perennial culinary herbs to consider for your forest garden—but is a catch-all term for all leafy plants that go dormant below ground in winter and re-sprout from their roots in spring. This layer is where perennial vegetables, like artichokes, rhubarb, asparagus and “tree collards” fit in.

GROUND COVERS: These are perennial plants that spread horizontally to colonize the ground plane. Edible examples include alpine strawberries (a shade tolerant delicacy), sorrel (a French salad green), nasturtiums (has edible flowers and leaves), and watercress (requires wet soil), all of which tolerate part shade.

RHIZOSPERE: This refers to root crops. It’s a bit misleading to call it a separate layer, since the top portion of a root crop may be a vine, shrub, ground cover or herb, but it’s Hart’s way of reminding us to consider the food-producing potential of every possible ecological niche. Most common root crops are sun-loving annuals, however so you’ll have to look to more obscure species, such as the fabled Andean root vegetables oca, ulluco, yacon, and mashua, for shade-tolerant varieties.

Step 2: PREPARE THE GROUND
Choose an open, sunny location for your forest garden. It can be as small as 100 square feet—a single fruit tree and an assortment of understory plants—or multiple acres. At the larger, commercial-scale end of the spectrum, forest gardening is often referred to as agroforestry. A number of tropical crops, including coffee and chocolate, are grown commercially in this way, though commercial agroforestry is uncommon in North America (other than in the context of timber plantations).

Unlike preparing for a conventional vegetable garden, there is no need to till the earth and form it into beds in preparation for a forest garden. Instead, dig a hole for each individual plant, just as if you were planting ornamental shrubs and trees. However, if the soil quality is poor, you may wish to “top-dress” the entire planting area with several inches of compost prior to planting.

One situation in which raised beds are desirable in a food forest is where drainage is poor. But rather than make the effort to construct conventional raised beds from wood, you may opt to sculpt the earth into low, broad mounds at the location of each tree. Smaller plants may then be positioned along the slopes of the mounds. A variation on this approach is to sculpt the earth into long linear “swales,” which consist of a raised berm (to provide a well-drained planting location) and a broad, shallow ditch (to collect rainwater runoff and force it to percolate into the soil beneath the planting berm).

You will need to eliminate any w**ds, grass or other existing vegetation prior to planting. This can be done manually, or by smothering them under a “sheet mulch,” a permaculture tactic in which sheets of cardboard are overlaid with several inches of mulch on top of the vegetation, starving the plants for light and causing them to compost in place. Compost may be added as a layer between the cardboard and the mulch to add extra nutrients. Permaculturists often employ sheet mulching in conjunction with swales to enhance the area prior to planting.

When you’re ready to plant, simply brush aside the mulch and cut holes in the cardboard just big enough to dig a planting hole at the location of each plant. Then slide the mulch back around the newly installed plant. Maintaining a deep mulch is the key to preventing w**ds, conserving soil moisture and boosting organic matter—all things that will help your food forest be self-maintaining and self-sufficient
Step 3: PLANT
The next step is to arrange your plants in the landscape. Position the tallest species (i.e. the ‘canopy’ plants) at the northern end of the planting area, with progressively smaller plants toward the southern end. This way the taller plants will cast less shade on the smaller ones, especially at the beginning and end of the growing season when the days are shorter and the sun hangs lower in the sky.

Of course, truly shade tolerant plants may be interspersed throughout the understory of the forest garden. You might even consider cultivating mushrooms in the shadiest zones once the large trees have matured. Edible vines may be planted on any accessible fences, arbors, or walls, and you can also train vines up trees, just like Mother Nature does—just be sure the tree is significantly larger than the vine to avoid the tree getting smothered.

The edges of the food forest are suitable for sun-loving annual vegetables, if you wish to include them. Also, keep in mind that it takes decades for large tree to reach their mature size, so in the early years of a food forest there is ample sunlight. Plant sun-loving species in the open spaces between trees and then replace them with more shade-tolerant plants as the forest matures. Good info by Modern Farmer

Good Healthy HEIRLOOM SEEDS will make all the difference when you want to get a good start on your Food Forest. At THE SEED GUY, we have a great Heirloom Seed package that has 60 Heirloom Seed Varieties, 34,000 total Seeds, all Non GMO and **CHISTMAS SALE** Priced until Dec. 31st at $79.

You get 49 Veggie varieties and 11 Herb Seed varieties. You would definitely be able to Feed Your Family with this Seed package, and you can store the Seeds you don't use right away in the 10 x 14 silver mylar bag we provide. All Heirloom Seeds are Small Farm-Grown, we hand count and package to make sure you get the best germination, and they are fresh from the New Fall 2022 Harvest.

You can see Seed varieties and Order this Seed package on our website at https://theseedguy.net/seed-packages/50-60-variety-heirloom-seed-package.html

You can also see our other 8 Heirloom Seed Packages. and all our individual varieties in Stock on our Seed Guy website at https://theseedguy.net/15-seed-packages

You can Call Us 7 days a week, and up to 10:00 pm each night, to ask questions or to place an Order at 918-352-8800

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10/26/2022

The Irish have been making butter before the pyramids were built
Another awesome Irish butter invention that goes back into antiquity is the creation of bog butter.

Would you try some ? I did Bog butter is a unique Irish food stuff going back thousands of years. Because of the nature of the peat bogs being cold, wet and acidic they were ideal storage lockers to preserve your food. The ancient Irish not only buried butter but also buried animal fats to produce the same effect. It is possible to consume 300 year to 2000-year-old bogbutter and the tastes and smells described are often funky like specialty cheeses but with an overwhelming dairy butter smell.

This here takes the cake oops I mean churn. A 5,000-year-old keg of bog butter was found by Brian Clancy and his uncle Joe who were cutting turf in Ballard Bog when they made the discovery. Joe explained: "We were cutting turf and I found what looked like a huge piece of timber…We took it out with a spade and it turned out to be bog butter."
Speaking to the Irish Times, he said, "It looked like a keg or an urn with two handles and a lid carved from a solid piece of wood."
The container has carving marks around the edges with a removable lid with handles and holes, possibly for carrying. The wooden vessel measures a foot in diameter and is almost two feet tall. The 100-pound container was buried seven feet down. Bog butter was still being sold in marketplaces 100 years ago in Irelan
I have recreated a bog on a micro-scale and buried a 10 kg clump of butter in it . I plan on digging it up in ten years from now It was made using the same thing eat that once surrounded this clump of 5000 year old butter.

10/23/2022

Another unique Irish culinary invention , that I mentioned in an earlier post ,is buttered eggs, a unique and tasty way to preserve eggs.

Invented in time immemorial , probably due to the proliferation of butter on the island, the Irish developed this way to preserve eggs. It became so popular that exportation of buttered eggs to England numbered in the tens of thousands of dozens every year during the English colonial times .
Rubbed over freshly laid eggs the butter will melt forming a thin protective layering

Because the shell is porous, it absorbs the butter to form a more protective seal. Curious, I took one home. Soft-boiled, it tasted fresh from the hen, the yolk the color of sunshine, the white carrying with it a whiff of cream. Today buttered eggs are a delicacy, largely vanished from Irish farmyards and pantries. You can't butter eggs by machine, as it’s an intimate practice involving the hand . Every one needs to be done by hand. Farmers' wives used to say it was a task most difficult to execute in winter, when the butter was harder and their hands were colder. So perhaps in addition to the egg and the butter, what I taste is the memory of an Irish woman whose palm coaxed butter lovingly all the way around a fragile shell, hoping to preserve it for as long as she could.

That might seem counterintuitive. Why waste butter on the outside of an egg? But clever Irish farmers had hit on buttering eggs as a way to preserve them during winters, when hens produce less. Taking freshly-laid, still-warm eggs, farm families rolled them in their buttery palms. The butter helped solidify the hot, brittle shells, sealing off the yolky contents from the outside air.

Buttered eggs take on a shiny gleam. And, as an added bonus, the taste of butter permeates the egg, making it even richer when cracked opened and cooked. Eggs preserved this way keep for up to six months in a cool place and I have had them last even longer . It’s not surprising that buttered eggs were a Cork specialty, seeing as it’s also home to the Cork Butter Museum, a tribute to the region’s status as a butter-producing powerhouse.

They can be found at markets in Ireland and I make them regularly as a homestead speciality. If you keep chickens or know someone local who does , then you can too !

10/14/2022

IT'S TIME TO START PLANTING GARLIC

You usually plant Garlic during the second to last week of October, depending on where you live, and then cover in at least 6 inches of a good mulch of shredded leaves or grass clippings, and harvest the following July.

Getting the soil ready is an important and often neglected prerequisite for successful garlic growing. Although garlic evolved in poor soils (most likely in the desert regions of Siberia), application of organic matter to the soil prior to planting will definitely increase your yield. Summer is the best time to add compost or well-rotted manure to the site where you intend to plant.

To prevent w**d growth between when you are finished with preparations and when you plant, cover the bed with black plastic or heavy mulch. You can add a little more nitrogen to your garlic bed in the spring in the form of compost or rotted manure, but lay off after that; too much nitrogen may cause premature yellowing of the leaves.

When you’re ready to plant, it’s best to divide your garlic bulbs into cloves before starting. Plant the cloves 6-8 inches apart, in rows or double rows with room to w**d in between. You may have to remove some of the mulch in the spring if it is compacted and impedes your plants’ growth. Often, though, the mulch breaks down enough over the winter to allow the garlic to push through.

Planting garlic is a joy because the days are crisp and cool and there are few pests that bother garlic. In fact, it is often used in companion plantings to protect other plants from pests.

Selecting the type of garlic you want to plant is a matter of individual taste, but be aware that there are many species of garlic out there other than the California white you usually see at the supermarket. There are dozens of exotic varieties available with names like Russian Red, Purple Stripe Porcelain, Rosewood, Kabar and on and on.

So-called “hardneck” varieties develop a flowerhead on the stem called a “scape,” which curls and then extends upward, eventually becoming woody (hence the name “hardneck”).

Garlic scapes are considered a delicacy in their own right.

They are harvested soon after they appear, and are often sold in bunches at farmers’ markets. Cutting the flower heads off of garlic when they appear also allows more of the plant’s energy to go into producing larger bulbs. Many commercial operations “pop the tops” off of their garlic for this reason.

You will find the Garlic Seed Bulbs in many of the Garden Centers this time of year, or many people buy from good companies online. If you have issues getting them, you can always go to your Neighborhood Grocery store, but make sure only to buy the Organic Garlic Bulbs. Then just plant the cloves from the bulbs. Good Luck.

Please visit us here at THE SEED GUY, when you are ready for some great Small Farm Grown Non GMO Heirloom Seeds. We still hand count and package our Heirloom Seeds for best germination for you, and have Great Pricing on our 9 Heirloom Seed Packages. Fresh from the New 2022 Harvest --) https://theseedguy.net/15- seed-packages

We are also available by phone 7 days a week, and up to 10:00 pm each night, at 918-352-8800.

If you Like Us on our page, you will be able to see more of our great Gardening Articles, New Seed Offerings, and healthy Juice Recipes .https://www.facebook.com/theseedguy Thank you, and God Bless You and Your Family:)