Reflections of katlupe

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

How I Can Ground Beef

Ground beef for the pantry shelves!

Saturday morning I drove to Binghamton (NY) to MaineSource Restaurant and Party Supply Warehouse to buy some meat to can. Since we do not have any refrigeration at the moment, I have to find the best way to store meats for longer periods. Especially when it gets so hot. I drive to the store early in the morning and get home as quickly as possible to start my work.

Browning the meat

I purchased 20 lbs. of ground Angus beef. The smartest way to do this would be to have everything sitting on the table before you go to town to buy the meat. I didn't do that. Regardless, the the first thing to do is to brown your meat. I used four large cast iron skillets to do this.

Draining the grease off

You can skip this step but I do it to drain off as much grease as I can. The reason is too much grease could cause the jars not to seal. Sometimes I rinse it with water. This hamburger though is called Angus ground and is not as greasy as others. So I was able to skip the rinsing.

Bring the meat and water to boiling

After you drain the meat you put it in a stock pot and add water to cover it. Then bring it to a boil. Now it is ready to can. Hopefully you have everything ready. That means the jars are clean and filled with hot water, though some people put them in a kettle of water that is simmering. I don't do that. Have your lids and rims in hot water and everything you need in your work area. You can add salt for flavoring if desired. I don't.

Have all your supplies ready!

Take out a rim and lid and dry completely and then fill your jar with the meat, then fill with the broth until it is one half inch from the top. Wipe the rim of the jar as much as you can and make sure there is no grease remaining on it. When canning meat you do not want to have any grease on the rim of the jar or the lids and rims. Grease is the #1 thing that will cause your jars not to seal! Do not forget that!

Fill the jars one at a time

After each jar is filled put it into the pressure canner (MUST be a pressure canner and not a pressure cooker!) which should have three inches of water simmering in the bottom. Make sure you have a rack setting in the bottom as your jars will break if they are sitting directly on the bottom of the canner. You can use a folded dish towel for the bottom if you do not have a rack.

Exhausting the canner

After you have securely fastened the top of your canner, turn the heat up and let the canner exhaust for ten minutes. Then put the regulator or weight on and wait for it to reach 10 lbs. pressure. Once it has reached there you can regulate it by adjusting the heat to keep it at a constant 10 lbs. For quarts of ground meat my canning book says to can for 1 hour and 30 minutes. When it is finished turn off the heat and let it set. The canner will make a noise about 20 minutes later when the gauge reaches zero. Then it is time to remove the regulator or weight. Let is sit for a few minutes, open the canner holding the lid away from you. That steam will be very hot!

All finished!

Take the jars out being very careful as they are hot. Cool air could crack them so be very careful where you put them. Put them somewhere they can sit for 24 hours without being disturbed. I set mine on a folded towel on the table or counter. There you are, you have canned your meat. So 20 lbs. of ground beef gave me 10 quarts of meat and broth and about 13 man sized hamburgers. It was well worth the time and effort! What about you? What have you canned lately? Or don't you can anything yet? Why not?

Monday, June 27, 2011

Stocking Up Our Food Supply At MaineSource

Nice clean store and parking lot!

A big part of saving money for me is growing my own food in our garden. But I can't grow everything, obviously. So the grocery stores are a must for me also. The prices have skyrocketed so much this year that I have to stick to a plan to get through each week. I shop at the discount grocery stores, even though I wish I didn't have to.

Produce is available in bulk!

For the past couple of years though, I have been shopping at a local restaurant supply store, MaineSource Food and Party Warehouse. It is about 30 miles or so from my home and well worth the drive. If you live in the Binghamton, NY area, you most likely know where it is. In case you don't, it is located at 1018 Upper Front Street, Binghamton, NY 13905-1204. Their telephone number is: (607) 723-8200.

Good buys in the produce department!

Do I save money by shopping there? Yes! I do. Not only that but I am able to get top quality meat, produce and other food and products for a very good price. MaineSource does not have any membership fees so anyone can shop there. Especially with the gas prices, it saves me money by stocking up and not having to drive to the store ten times a week to get something for supper.

One of the meat aisles!

If you are trying to stock up by buying in bulk then this is the place to shop. They sell large packages of meat, such as ground or roasts of Angus beef. The ten pound bags of chicken breasts are what we usually buy too. You can also get bags of the chicken breast tenderloins, wings, drumsticks or thighs. Their prices are lower or comparable to the discount grocery stores, but the meat is higher quality.

Rolls of Angus Beef!

The ground Angus beef does not have that greasy feel to it when you handle it raw. The burgers you make from it are incredible! Ask my husband! One large roll is about ten pounds. Two rolls gave us 10 quarts of ground meat plus about a dozen man sized burgers. If you have a freezer, you can put up a good amount of burgers for the future. As you know if you are a regular reader here, I can all my meat.

So much available here!

Everything is available in large quantities so you can really stock up there. I am not growing tomatoes this year due to the late blight mine had last year. So I bought some of the large cans of tomato sauce which are 6 lbs 10 oz. each. Then I plan on canning them into pint jars. I did that last year and it was great. You can do that with any of the larger cans of tomato products or vegetables. I do it all the time now.

The dairy case!

Dairy products is one thing I cannot store as I do not have a freezer. But for anyone buying for their freezer they have larger amounts of cheese, butter, ice cream and even frozen vegetables and food. Processed frozen foods are available also. I don't use those types of food so I can't really tell much about them. They have recently added a deli counter and have rotisserie chickens available there too. Everything is so clean and neat there.

Their bag says it all!

I must tell you how the manager came right to me when I started taking pictures in the store! I think he thought I was taking pictures for some other reason. I assured him that I was a blogger and was going to write a very favorable post about their store. I hope this meets his approval, though I doubt he will be reading it. Didn't seem like a blog reader to me!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
Updated 2018

This post was NOT an advertisement for MaineSource Restaurant and Party Warehouse. They did not ask me to write this post or paid me in any way. They did not give me free food or anything else. I wish! I am just a VERY happy customer. ~ kat

Friday, June 24, 2011

My Forest Homestead In Summer

I love the color green!

We have been getting thunderstorms daily for the past week. Our garden will never need watering if this keeps up. I am not complaining! It makes my job easier to not have to carry water to each of the raised beds. I do not have the luxury of using a hose and turning on the water....yet! Within this next year, I hope.

A volunteer plant in the compost pile!

The garden is coming along. The green and wax beans have been attacked by the slugs but I have been picking them off in the morning. So now they aren't so bad. They will turn out okay. They usually do. The winter squash look really good and already have blossoms on.

How lucky! Look what I found! Mullein!

I even found a volunteer cherry tomato coming up. These tomatoes I planted over five years ago here and every year since, they come up in different places. They are heirlooms from Johnny's Seeds called Matt's Cherry Tomato, I think. And they just come up automatically. Last year we had a bumper crop. They are not bothered by the Late Blight, it seems.

Wild Grape Vines

A few days ago, I started seeds for cucumbers and summer squash since none of them have come up. I figure if they don't peek out soon, I will have some back ups. If they do, I will just have more! Even the wild grapes, or fox grapes as they are known around here seem to growing good. But if I get any from it is another question, as the birds and the bees usually get them before I do!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Birthday Thoughts Of My Grandmother Today

Anna Leonard Neer (left) and her two sisters,

Josie (center) and Mary (right)

Today would have been my grandmother's 110th birthday. I can hardly believe she has been gone so many years now. I miss her. In her later years, I did not get to see her so much. She had moved first in with my uncle and his family, then to my aunt's which was farther away. Many times you do not think of the time when you won't have that option to see them whenever you please. I wish now, that I had made an effort and not been so busy with my life at the time.

My mother and grandmother,

Hazel Neer Dran and Anna Leonard Neer

Regardless, I have many good memories of my grandmother and think of them often. Since my birthday is the day after hers, tomorrow, she always made a big deal of our birthdays being together. I stayed at her house often, and when my family lived nearby, we would pick her up and bring her to our house. I wish we had stayed nearby, and been with her through out those years. She wrote to me back then, and I regret that I have none of those letters now.

My grandmother feeding her chickens

My grandmother loved her farm, even though by the time I was old enough to remember, she only had some chickens. I will always remember the day her family got together to take her barn down. She was very sad. She would have rather had them repair it. Not take it down. Her love for her family was the most important thing to her and she always put them first above her. Always.

Happy Birthday To My Grandmother in heaven with her family!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Old Heirloom Apple Tree On Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Saving The Wild Critters From Our Cats

Chippy, the chipmunk

This little chipmunk lives in our rock pile along the side of our raised beds. It is a shaded area and really pretty. All the rocks give little critters like this places to live that are safe. The rocks don't move and protect them from the elements outside. Before living here, I always thought chipmunks lived in trees.

Chippy's home area

We have been putting rocks here ever since we moved here so the pile has grown over the years. If one of us need a rock for some purpose, we can go pick one up pretty easily. My husband has done a lot of digging work and this has given us a huge amount of rocks and stones. They can be used for many things. It is handy having them available when you need some.

The rock piles

I have noticed my cats, especially Patches and Hobo stake out this area. Now I know why. We found one dead chipmunk in the backyard so far. Yesterday I managed to save this little one, that I now call Chippy. Hobo had him in her mouth and was on her way to torture him. But I made her drop him. He laid in my hand and looked right into my eyes. Pretty soon his heart beat slowed down, and he felt safe. Then we were able to let him go again.

Places for little critters to live.

I saved him so far. The cats are outside all the time, hunting and killing, as cats do. It is their nature and nothing you can do to stop it. I keep my eyes on this area now. It is tough for these little critters when you have cats patrolling the area, ready to pounce on whatever moves. I wish they would just stick to mice and moles.

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