Fruit Leather (crying over peaches)

Walt signed us up to help at the Cannery last week.  I had a ton to do, but went without complaining  UNTIL I started putting the greenest peaches in a can I had ever seen.  They were so hard that they would not go into the cans.  They would not mush down.  I was the last of the assembly, so they were already washed and preped for the can.  After about two hours of this, I started to get very sad.  I was raised on a farm and taught that you harvest when the fruit, potato, grain, or hay is ready.  It is against the law of the harvest to take a beautiful fruit, pick it on your time schedule, and tell it is ready.  Crazy.  I did not know how much it bothered me until we were at KFC later for lunch and Walt asked me what I was thinking.  As I tried to explain to him how I felt, I had to actually wipe tears from my eyes with my napkin.  Crying over a green batch of peaches! Later he told me that we could have had free seconds from the day before.  The seconds were ripe from the previous day, I made jam and fruit leather.  I read in Cori's dehydrator book that you can add nuts to leather before starting the drying.  I sprinkled them on top and it was not just good, but I could not stay out of the darn stuff.  Walt took an entire dryed tray with him for his day of hunting.

Costco Canned Chicken vs My Own

The other day after pouring the liquid off my can of Costco Chicken Breast for my yummy Chinese salad, I decided to weigh just the meat. I got just less than 8 oz from a 12 oz can of chicken! I figured it up and I was paying almost $6.00 a lb on a good sale day! I dusted off my mother's old pressure canner and went looking for some chicken breast. Due to being in my experiment mode, I did not look for best sale on skinless boneless breast, but bought at the cost my grocery store was selling that day. I packed it in jelly jars and 75 minutes later better chicken than Costco at over half the price. I had a bottle the next day and found it to be juicier and much tastier. It does naturally make some broth, but it is pure chicken broth, not water as Costco chicken. I called around and found out that Lins is having a chicken breast sale in two weeks where it is only $1.29 a lb. I can get the same amount of chicken as in a Costco can for about 75 cents a jar at that rate. ...about a 75% savings.

Directions on bottling chicken: Raw pack, do not cook before It makes it dry. (NOTE: Every thing I found said to cook first, but Wendy DeWitt, a provident living specialist has been doing hers raw for years. Even had a bottle after storing for years. It was perfect. The intense heat cooks and kills all bacteria.) Boil jar lids, this is not to sanitize but to soften to seat. After placing lids on jars, place in pressure canner at 15 lb for 75 minutes. Let the steam come our of the hole a top for about 4 minutes, place weight on, let pressure build until weight is rocking steadily. On my smooth top stove, it is at about 7.5 heat. Pressure for 75 minutes and turn off heat. You can remove from heat, but do not remove weight or lid until completely cool. It is that simple.