Author Archives: lizzylanefarm
100th Anniversary Blue Ball Jars…A sneak peek from the workshop
The Ball Corportation has out there new Heritage Collection Blue pint jars, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. They are designed to commerate the 100th anniversary of the Perfect Mason jar. These Heritage Collection Pints are a limited edition jar, they’re not exact reproductions of those first jars, but do put stars in my eyes knowing I now can safely use these beauties in my every day canning without worry. They are designed to stand up to todays canning methods. YES! some lovely color for the canning pantry.
I already own 100′s of the originals I store our bulk herbs in, and create our sought after soap dispensers and solar lights, so I do get to work with them every day and that couldn’t make me happier.
Everyone who knows me knows I collect and love working with Ball canning jars. A favorite past time on a summer morning is hitting the flea markets, yard sales, antique shops on the hunt for jars to add to both my personal and business collection.
A pretty solar light with a vintage Perfect Mason jar.
Keep an eye out here because I can just tell there is going to be a give away soon with some of these new Heritage jars.
Win a $25 Holiday Shopping Spree
Would like to share with you an offer we are running from 10/1/12 until 12/20/12. Would you like to win a $25 shopping spree in our Etsy shop? You can and it’s easy to do. All you need to do is promote any product from our shop on your favorite social network or website …. post the link into the comments below and be entered to win our monthly drawing!! I will pick 1 winner on 10/31/21 and 11/30/12, so you can shop away.
You can enter as many times as you would like, just post a new link in the comments below. Feel free to use any of our images you would like to, just right-click on the image and save to your computer.
Open to all, I will be happy to send your goodies to you, just keep in mind if these are for holiday gifts overseas shipping deadlines are November 30th and, December 19th for shipping in the US. December 19th will be the last day I will be shipping orders that need to arrive before Christmas, and will continue to ship orders with no guarantee. If you are in a super rush and would like me to send your order Express I will be happy to work with you to do that. Custom orders are still welcome but we should talk about the delivery schedule in the month of December.
Just now I am in the middle of a large wholesale order but will be back soon to tell you about my piccalilli making adventure.
A Weekend of Canning
outside temp. at 10am I should have started earlier in the morning.
I had put this project off for over a week now, it’s been so hot I couldn’t bring myself to start the stove. But if I didn’t do it over the weekend it would have to wait until next weekend and by then the green beans will be ready and I would be so far behind…
This spring I planted a 4 x 6 foot area of Bulls Blood beets. 17.25 pounds I pulled and canned. I never took the proper time to thin them right so some were huge and others very small. I’ll get the area cleaned out and reseed with more beets for a fall harvest.
I like Bulls Blood pretty well for canning because they seem to hold their color a bit better than some of the others I have tried. Detroit is my choice if I’m going to pickle them, that’s what the next batch will be for.
I ended up with 14 pints of beets.
Next up was a project I have been wanting to try for a couple of years now but the radishes never cooperated. Late in June I planed French Breakfast Radish under the tomato and pepper plants with the hope there would be plenty to make relish with, I think I succeeded with that goal. I have another pile of these radishes just as big. These and Belle are my favorite for flavor and looks. My goal was to make radish relish. I pulled all of them and set out to make the relish.
The recipe I have calls for onions and no one here at the house likes onions so I replaced them with carrots. Daisy and I have tried a new to us variety called Dragon. Dragon is a pretty carrot, being purple on the outside and orange inside. It should make a pretty salad or relishes. I only pulled enough to make what I thought would be 2 cups of shredded. So there are more to can and eat fresh.
They are very pretty and grew well in the new raised bed we set up last year just for carrots. It is extra deep so the carrots would grow long and straight. This week it is also time to put in another batch of yellow wax beans, peas, broccoli. Of course more radishes, I would like to make another couple of baches for the holiday season. I have several of the Ball Elite jars saved for this gift giving project. With this heat I’ll have to put up the row covers and use some burlap to cover the seeds. This will help in keeping the soil cooler and moist so the seeds don’t dry out.
I don’t have a summer sink set up yet, I’m still looking for an old cast iron one that I can use. Until then I use the hose and the table just outside the garden. This saves on the amount of dirt coming into the kitchen and going down our drains.
So what did you do this weekend? How is your garden growing?
New Soap Packaging is here...
And already out to door to a few of this weeks' customers. Packaging for our Farm House soap has bothered me since the beginning and has gone through a few changes. I think I am happy with this for the moment.
Each bar of our natural soap is tucked inside a 100% natural cotton bag with a drawstring. Why?...well these bags are so useful and I think while soap itself is very good for your skin, smells nice and all that great stuff.
