I am Gardening and Learning to Can with Fagor Home Canning Set

My Garden Help...no this not Grandpa H.

While moving home I swore to myself that life was going to be different and I true to my word life is much different.  My newest hobby is gardening, yes, I have always grown a small garden with some tomatoes, lettuce, and easy stuff, but this year it is much bigger. 

I currently have about 30 tomatoes set out, 7 hills of cucumbers, 7 hills of squash, 2 huge rows of beans, about 20 cabbage plants, and several fruit trees that are loaded with fruit.  I must confess I am no expert at gardening, so I have lots of help…which is greatly appreciated. 

My Fagor Home Canning Set

With all this gardening, fresh fruit growing, and even some wild fruits (blackberries) I got the crazy idea that it is time for me to learn to preserve my fresh produce.  Being that I am a newbie at this preserving my fresh foods and let’s face it I am not the sharpest tack in the box I have decided to try out this Fagor p piece home canning set…..they promise to make canning effortless! 

I received my canning set last weekend and I am not sure who was more excited me or Grandpa H (an old family friend who is helping me learn to can) he has already started his list of all the things we will make.  I think he even told me we are going to make pickled tomatoes…..hmmmmm I will let you know how that goes! 

The Fagor Pressure Cooker Home Canning Kit (9 piece set) retails for around $129.95 at various stores.  The set came with everything but the jars and the food and I can gurantee you I am going to put this to the test! 

Stay Tuned……………

~Becky 

Disclosure:  I was gifted the Fagor Home Canning Set, however, all thoughts, opinions, and experiences are mine or my family’s.  

People are not disposable….

It is no secret that this past few years has been nothing but a train wreck straight from hell.  I often think to myself that I will one day wake up and this will have all been a dream and I will step back and will have my happy little family back again.  Then I slap myself to reality and remember that I must remember the good days to get through the bad days.

I have not wrote much about my divorce for several months, because every time I would say something I lived in fear that it could be considered slander, or every time I posted something people would say I was whining, bashing, or just being a baby. 

Today, I have decided to speak up and speak loudly.  I am NOT whining, bashing, or being a baby the ending of my marriage was nearly devastating.  I loved my husband with all my heart, I think many of my readers can recall how I spoke about him, posted photos of him and the kids, and I was always anxious for him to come home at the end of the week.  He was the one person I thought would always have my back, and then I realized that Satan could and had pulled him away.  There were times over the past year I would see glimpse of hope or the “old” him, and then they were always followed by the “other” him.

Finding Life in the Midst of Chaos

Our house is mass chaos as we have begun packing and moving home to my parent’s family farm, there must be boxes stacked everywhere I turn.  In the midst of all this, I keep telling myself I should not feel this overflow of pure JOY that keeps bubbling out of me.  I should be sad, but I am not…..I am truly at PEACE with my decision to move back to my roots. 

Yesterday, D-man and I traveled home for a few hours to finish the “business” part of moving back home.  We took a brief break to drive through the cows with PaPa, I glanced over and saw my son grinning ear-to-ear and pure joy beaming out of his eyes.  I thought to myself this is LIFE!

 

Today we played hooky from packing and decided to attend the Cousin Carl Farm Show in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  PaPa thought the kids might enjoy seeing a few tractors, but I really believe PaPa enjoyed watching the kids see the tractors.  While we climbed around on the tractors, I watched the kids and PaPa interact I realized this is LIFE!    

Over this past week, I have truly realized it is not what we have it is how we use what we have.  I have never cared for fancy things, a glamorous lifestyle, but I do realize I have forgotten how special the little things are.