She sourced 12 kilos of beef from the local farmer's market. She also bought some new jars, having given most of our mason jars away to a friend in Oz.
And then she had at it, staying up late to can batch after batch in our little 4-jar pressure cooker.
But…it didn't work. The jars didn't seal. Instead of saving the meat for the Tuamotus, we're going to be feasting on it right now.
The jars she bought evidently were no good, so no discredit to Alisa and the enormous effort she put into the whole project.
But still, I'm so used to projects like this just working when Alisa takes them on. I wonder if something larger is afoot - has this woman truly been away from Alaska for so long that she can't can meat any more?
Has she lost her Great Land street cred?
I only recognize her as my wife because, after getting exactly no good cans out of the last two batches, she's found some new jars in town and is going to try again tomorrow.
That's the Alisa I know.
 |
| They don't have oatmeal where we're going - so Alisa bought 18 kilos of the stuff... |
Oh no! What a sad waste of effort. Did she get through all the jars before finding out they were faulty? Hope not.....that's a lot of meat to process for nothing. Hopefully the new jars work better! Can't wait to follow your journey to Patagonia.
ReplyDeleteAlisa! You can do it! You got the mojo, girlfriend, in spades. Get canning.
ReplyDeleteyes, Heather! that's what she needs to hear - she hasn't lost the magic!
DeleteThat's a lot of oatmeal too. We found after a few months there are weavils/moths in it. What do you do to minimize this problem?
ReplyDeleteAlisa's the weevil expert, but my impression is that we've only had that problem with stuff that we've bought in the tropics. Our theory is that if we keep these oats properly sealed the little buggers won't be able to get in - we'll let you know how that works out!
Deleteeditorial note - Alisa tells me it's actually 20 kg of oats...
DeleteYou can "deal" to the weevils by freezing the oatmeal before starting the new bag....... adds protein too!
ReplyDeleteSUCH a bummer! I know how much work that is. I didn't like the way jars looked in Oz, so ordered the classic Ball/Kerr canning jars online (there was one importer in Australia). Stinks though.
ReplyDelete