My 'GreenHouse'

Once you have decided what to plant, how many, and when....then it's time to get to starting your starts.  In the event you are not wealthy with a large yard can't afford a green house or don't have the space for it, a south facing window is as good a place as any to start your seeds.

I prefer a method which can be duplicated without expensive equipment, tons of space or electricity.

I made a make-shift green house out of clear sterlite under-the-bed boxes which I got at the local Wal-Mart.
I used paper egg cartons for the tray.  The seeds that make it will grow into the egg carton, but we can just tear or cut the egg cups apart later when we re-plant the seedlings.  We will re-plant the whole cup section into larger pots.

I drilled a hole in the edge of two boxes to make the top and bottom. Threaded a small bolt through the whole in the bottom box, secured it with a nut and can now set the top box on the bolts sticking out of the bottom box to complete my 'greenhouse'. 

(Sorry about the blur, couldn't get the camera to focus on the shiny bolt.)

This allows me to have a deep bottom which will hold the water for the seeds and a tall top which allows plenty of room for any seedlings without fear of the top sliding off and smashing the delicate little plants.

Canned Bacon II

I opened up a jar of our canned bacon. 

The bacon was soft and very fragile.  It didn't look as if it was cooked, it still looked almost raw. 

Interesting.

The process was fairly messy to open the jar.  The grease was EVERYWHERE.



I fried it up anyways.  It was so fragile that many pieces were broken in half.  Thats ok.  The better to fit my sandwich, my pretty bacon.

The bacon tasted amazing.  All the rest doesn't even matter when the finished product is this fantastic.

It may not be the prettiest thing, but the smell and flavor was heavenly.  I'm going to be eating fresh BLT's in my food storage.  What will you be eating?

Canned Bacon

Canned Bacon.  Yum!
My food storage plan involves having bacon for breakfast.  What's in your food storage?


Step by step, here is how it is done.

You need approx. 1 pound of bacon per quart size, wide mouth jar.

I started by weighing the bacon, then after I got a feel for how much was a pound, I just kept it in the slice range so I could move faster.  For the thick slice bacon I was using, a pound was 10-11 slices.

Lay the bacon nicely across one edge of the parchment paper.  (Do not use wax.  You don't want the wax being melted into your bacon!)

Fold the parchment paper, and use an extra piece if necessary so that the bottom half of the bacon is covered.

This was one of the first ones I did.  I found that I only needed about a fourth of a piece to make up the difference.  The first ones I used a full half sheet and then a third. 


Fold the top half of the bacon over so that it lays on top of the parchment covered bottom half.  Then roll the whole thing as tightly as you can.  It needs to be skinny enough to slide into the jar.

Slide the whole thing into the jar.  I find the folded side down goes in easier than the other way.

Clean the rim, add a boiled lid and ring.  Process at 10 pounds for 90 minutes.



The one in front is cooler than the ones behind.  You can see the bacon broth on the bottom and the fats on top.  Once they cool, they turn a white color but before that it looks like water on top.