Recently a couple of sisters were sickened with botulism from home canned “nopales”. If you are not familiar nopales are part of a type of cactus. This story is being shared around the innerwebs and is really making home canning look dangerous and risky. While there is certainly advantages to automatic systems of canning used to produce popular soups and vegetable found on grocery store shelves, the number of people sickened from home canning is incredibly small. Even in the article it is mentioned that a disease specialist for the county where the sickness took place had not seen such an even in 26 years.
Folks – follow instructions to sterilize jars, lids, etc. Get information on the particular canning recipe from good sources. If you are getting into canning make sure you have the latest canning book from Ball. A wealth of information. Home canning is incredibly safe.
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The garden continues to produce!!
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Over the long 4th of July weekend, a major project I undertook was insulating and organizing our garage. The garage is separate from our house and rests approx. 40 yards away. When we purchased the home we found many surprises we were unaware of. Hey – live and learn, right? One of the big ones was the garage had no power run to it. We had limited time with the property before we had to jump on it and it was covered in snow at the time.
Well – I failed to insulate the entire garage. Embarrassment prevents me from revealing how much I completed but it was a learning experience for sure. I’m still in the process of organizing and it’s going to be a huge improvement. I added some large steel industrial shelves which really work well for heavy items such as ammo cans.
Just added a CB base station I picked up at a yard sale and will install the antenna soon and then perform some testing.
Once done I’ll post a few pictures.
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For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
If you are unaware we have a survival & preparedness store here on this website. We carry a variety of unique and budget-friendly items and everything ships for free in the USA.
Bringing this up in case we have some new visitors as well as mentioning to check back often as several new products will be added soon. I’ll let everyone know when they drop.
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Have a good week everyone!!
Rourke
This post looks lonely, so I thought I’d let you know that at least some of us are still here!
Yes, People. PLEASE follow safe canning rules. Now, I’m not opposed to rebel canners as such. Far be it for me to tell my 80-year-old mother that she can no longer can cooked pumpkin because the FDA decided it’s not safe. However, if you don’t have 60+ years of experience, stick to the Ball Blue Book.
Since my garden is a complete failure this year, I’m heading off to a large farm stand in a neighboring county on Saturday and hoping to find some giant heads of cabbage and some green tomatoes. I plan to pickle everything. By leaving out the sugar and most of the spices, I can just drain the jars this winter and fry the veggies like I would when they were fresh.
LOL….appreciate that SingleMom!
Botulism is not fun. I was in the ICU for 2 weeks and the hospital for a month total. They found trace amounts in my system. I had to learn to walk again. My hands and arms were affected to worst. Over a year later and I still have issues with my arms. . I don’t know where I got it. The only canning that I have done is jams. A team was sent to my house but couldn’t find anything that might have caused it.
Wow Veronica. So sorry to hear that. I had food poisoning once. It felt like someone was grabbing my stomach and twisting it. Horrible – but nowhere near as bad as what you’ve had to deal with.