Beans, Beans, BEANS!!!!

The garden is finally coming along, in fact I picked our first ripe tomatoes of the season tonight after work.  So late getting them planted this year, I'm thankful that we finally have some ripe ones.

Last weekend I picked about a bushel and a half of green beans first thing Sunday morning, then when it got too hot in the afternoon, I sat on the porch and got them prepped to can.  Lots of work for something you can buy already processed at the grocery for 59 cents!!!!  At least I know there are no pesticides on our beans and I use a simple recipe that my Mom has been using for years to can them, and the jars seal every time!!! 

Here's the recipe:

One Gallon of fresh green beans

1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of salt

Put all of the above in a large stock pot and cover beans with water, just slightly.  Bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes, or until beans are tender.  While the beans are cooking fill six pint jars with boiling water.  (I put mine in the sink to prevent messes.)  You want the jars very hot when you put the beans in.  You also will need to have your canning lids in boiling water (I use a small saucepan) for a few minutes, and then keep them simmering until the beans are ready.  When the beans are ready, empty one jar at a time of the boiling water, and fill with the beans, packing them down as you go.  Fill with the liquid, leaving about a 1/4" of headspace.  Put your hot lid on and tighten down the screw band.  You should start to hear them seal within a few minutes.  

Because of the vinegar, when you are ready to serve the beans, rinse once in the jar, and once while they cook on the stove.  They usually don't need any additional salt, just a bit of butter and pepper.

Not the best photo, but I did two batches and got 11 pints!!!

I also took some time on Sunday to run into town to breeze through the Dayton Celtic Festival.  I had heard from a friend that there was a weaver that usually is demonstrating, and sure enough, this gentleman was dressed in period attire, processing flax for linen, spinning the fiber, and then weaving on this ginormous loom!  He actually was a speaker at one of our Weaver's Guild meetings this year, so I didn't stick around for long..... I had beans to can!!!!

Isn't that loom amazing!!!!  I'd hate to have to haul that puppy around!

I was able to get another scarf started at home...... still the same multi-colored warp, but this scarf is with bold stripes!  Be sure to speak up if you're getting sick of this warp!!!!  LOL

Have a great rest of the week!!!!  Peace!  Kent (and Chris)

Scarf Season!

Here in Ohio, it is still winter, we had another inch or so of snow this morning before dawn, and the strange thing about it there was also thunder with the storm.  Even the dogs got woken up by it this morning around 5 or so.  Way to early for me!!!!

There has been some weaving going on around here too!!!  Primarily weaving scarves.  The blue and white one above is a combination of two yarns, one rayon chenille and one wool.  The warp is white 10/2 bamboo set at 10 epi.  These turned out very nice, but I think the bamboo is a little stiff.  Even after wet finishing them, they don't have the soft drape that I was hoping for.

The bamboo warp has been totally woven off, and the next warp is on the loom.  The photos above are of the next batch of scarves, using all rayon chenille.  The warp is a random stripe of very warm, earthy tones with some rust and light cream tossed in for good measure.  The warp is again set at 10 epi, and I think I wound about 14 yards of warp on this time, so we should be able to get 6 scarves out of this one warp.  The weft is rayon chenille in a warm amber color, in fact I think the color is called "Amber Lights" 1399 ypp (yards per pound), so these should be soft and luxurious!!!!

Here's a close up of the warp threads at the back of the loom as they go through the heddles.  There are 100 threads back here that each have to be pulled through those little metal rods, and then through the beater bar at the front of the loom..... if you're a weaver, you're bored by now, if you're not, you're probably thinking why in the world would anyone want to do this!!!!  And keep in mind, the scarf is only 10" wide!!!!


Will try and post again tomorrow.... had lunch with Michael Bolton's wife this week, and she wants to see updated kitchen photos!!!! 

Peace!  Kent