Lamb Stock/Bone Broth

Last night my good friend Kirsty (From rural retreat restoration) came over and we spent the evening canning lamb stock. 

I'd set a number of bones that had been taking up freezer space in a large saucepan along with some carrots and shallots to simmer for a good few hours.

 Then when Kristy turned up we strained it and sterilised the canning jars. Carefully filling them as far as the book said, we used half pints because it's going to be a fairly strong tasting stock.

 Then after messing around with the electric hob and it not getting to temperature we used my little camping stove that did it in no time!

 Then under 10 lb of pressure for 25 minutes they were ready to start cooling down.

Only one can didn't seal so not too bad.
We're determined to practice more with this canner as it hasn't been used to the fullest yet! I've got lots of chicken carcasses in the freezer so I think a more useful chicken stock next week.

What would you do with the lamb stock?

I'm thinking of a broth with pearl barley and chunks of fresh granary bread!

Dehydrating Courgette/Zucchini

There aren't many certainties in gardening, but I can pretty much guarantee you one - you're going to have too many courgettes! 

I know I certainly have, well mine are summer patty pan squashes, but you get the idea. I hate seeing them go to waste, I have about eight plants producing heavily and the chickens can only eat so many. 

There's lots of chutneys and pickles that call for squashes but I haven't got the inclination at the moment and my pantry is still quite full of last years chutneys, so I looked at other ways I could preserve them.

It was time to crack out the dehydrator.

Two Broken Preserving Jars

I've always looked at buying glass preserving jars as a long term investment, that's why I was disapointed on Monday when two of them seemed to break in the same place.

I was doing some baking and we keep a few items in La Parfait flip top jars. One after the other they both broke a small section of glass by the metal bit that opens the jars. The one put glass fragments into the food item so I had to chuck the whole jar full away. 

Two wasted jars now.

I was wondering if this is a common occurrence or just a defect that I happened to have with two jars? We've got well over a dozen of these jars and it's the first time it's happened.