Remaking Jam That Didn't Gel

I've been preserving and canning food for a while now. I'm no expert but I've had pretty good luck so far with applesauce, chutney, jellies, and all kinds of jams.

Until now.

Yep, I just had a couple of large batches of jam fail spectacularly.

The Backstory

This summer we had a HUGE crop of plums in our yard from just two plum trees. Stupendously big crop. SO. MANY. PLUMS.

We gave plums away, we dried plums, we made plum chutney, we made plum sauce, we made plum pies. And still we had plums coming out our ears.

So we decided to try to make plum jam. This is not a jam I'd ever made before. A friend made me plum jam from a different type of plum a few years ago and I didn't like it at all. Thus, we'd never tried plum jam with our plums...but we were ready to try anything to get rid of all these plums!

So we made a few successful batches of plum jam, and I tried a little on toast one day. WOW. I was so surprised. I loved this plum jam. I think the difference was ours was made with Italian plums which makes a delicious, thick, extremely flavorful jam. I immediately knew I'd be making more.

We finished picking all the rest of the plums...we got like 3-4 big buckets more. So we decided to make several batches of jam, using up the last of the regular pectin (Sure-Jell) in my cupboard. The first batches went well, no problems. The last batch, though, was a full-sugar recipe (which I rarely use because I find it too sweet). But I was out of my preferred pectin, and I'm loathe to waste food. So we winced and made full-sugar plum jam. We thought we followed all the directions correctly, but in the end it never gelled.

So now I had a whole bunch of jars full of plum syrup. This is not something I am likely to use. I have some raspberry syrup from a batch of raspberry jelly that didn't set up a couple of years ago and we are still trying to use it up. Mostly we add it to lemonade to make Raspberry Lemonade, but it doesn't take much so it takes forever to use up. All those jars of Plum Syrup were never going to get used.

So I thought, let's see if we can remake that jam and get it to set up properly.  I'd never done this before so I did a little research and found some articles online.

Keep in mind, the information below is pertinent only to jams with an added pectin like Sure-Jell (either the pink box or the yellow box).

Cooked jam without any added pectin is another story entirely and not covered here; Food in Jars is a good website for that type of jam. Directions for remaking jams with Pomona Pectin can be found on the Pomona Pectin website.

General information about different types of pectins and the pros and cons of each can be found in my article on pectins. This article gets a lot of online traffic so hopefully people are finding it useful.

Why Gelling May Fail

When it comes right down to it, making jams and jellies is really a chemistry experiment. Certain reactions are needed in order to make gelling action happen. Basically you cook up mashed fruit, then add a certain amount of sugar, acid, and pectin in order to make those reactions happen. Get the balance right and you get lovely jam or jelly. Get the percentage wrong and you get a runny mess.

Fruits naturally have some pectin in their cell structures, especially in the skins and seeds. The goal of cooking the fruit is to break down the pectin in the individual fruit so it can then build a mesh with the pectin from other fruits. This makes a gel where fruit bits are suspended in a latticework of pectin.

The problem is that pectin molecules repel each other. Acidity is needed to overcome this and let pectin molecules bond with each other to make the lattice structure. Sugar is needed to bond with the water so the water doesn't overwhelm the pectin. So all of these, heat, sugar, acid, and pectin, are needed in just the right amounts and timing to make jam or jelly.

Here is a quote about the process from a science blog:

The whole chemistry of jam making is all about making this pectin that's in the fruit break down and become water soluble. That then recombines, and all of those hydrogen bonds that are holding it together recombine in a chemical reaction with the fruit acid and with the sugar, and that makes a lovely network that forms a gel, and that's the kind of jelly-like substance of jams. 

So you need to get that chemical reaction right, the pectin amount right, the fruit acid right, and the amount of sugar right so that you make the right consistency of that network that will hold your jelly together, your jam together, so you don't get fruit sauce.

Fruits that are naturally high in pectin and acidity like quince, underripe apples, red currants, cranberries, and gooseberries are an exception. They often don't need anything except cooking in a little water to set up and gel.

Here are a few reasons why an added-pectin jam of most other fruit may fail to set up/gel:

• Not enough acidity - Some fruits have enough acidity on their own to gel without adding lemon juice, but most fruits need added acidity via lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, or other acids. If you didn't add enough acid, the fruit won't gel
• Not enough sugar - Box pectin jam recipes should not be altered. If you use less than the full amount of sugar, the jam will not set up. Therefore, follow the recipe on the box and measure exactly; don't try to make it "healthier" by using less sugar. The recipe depends on that exact amount of sugar. The exception is Pomona Pectin, which uses a type of pectin that doesn't need sugar to activate it; it uses calcium instead. If you want to reduce sugar in jams, use Pomona Pectin, but remember that most jams need at least some sweetener for the sake of taste 
• Too much water added - Using too much water to cook the fruit can throw off the balance of pectin, acid, and fruit. Use only enough to keep the fruit from burning 
• Doubling a batch or making too large a batch - Jam batches need to be made one at a time, no more than 4-6 cups of fruit at a time. You can't double a batch and expect it to set up properly. One of the annoying things in jamming is having to make and clean up each batch separately. But that's better than having to throw it all away!
• You didn't get a hard enough boil - Added pectin needs a hard boil of about a minute in order to activate properly. If you didn't boil the pectin long enough, the gel may fail. If the pan boiling the fruit plus pectin was too deep, then the heating may be uneven, affecting the gel
• Cooked too long - Some jams turn out runny because they were boiled too long. Overcooking can destroy the ability of the pectin to sustain its structure
• Using over-ripe fruit - The riper the fruit, the less acid and pectin it contains, and the runnier the resulting jam. If you use very ripe fruit, either add more pectin and acid or add some under-ripe fruit to balance the batch. Another choice can be to add in fruit naturally rich in pectin and acid like the ones listed above if you don't mind the extra flavors in your jam 
• Pectin too old - Some types of pectin lose their effectiveness if not used within the first year. Pomona Pectin does not have this issue but it's the only one that is reliably long-lasting
• Leaving the jars in hot water too long - If you put the jars into the canning pot too soon, before the water has boiled, the total exposure to heat may become too much and break down the pectin structure. Likewise, if you leave the jars in the hot water too long afterwards, that can also break down the pectin. After the 10 minute canning time and the 5 minute rest time afterwards in the canning pot, take the jars out immediately and place on a towel on the counter
• Tipping the jars - Some resources say that tipping the jars to the side as you take them out of the canning pot (or while they are cooling on the counter) can destroy the pectin bonds that are trying to form. Pick jars straight up out of the canner and leave them on the counter. Resist the temptation to tip them and check the set until at least 24 hours have passed 
• Not waiting long enough - Some jams with some pectins don't set up for a long time, even a week or two. You can always just let them set on the counter and see if the gel improves

Bottom line, if your jam didn't set up, the most likely cause is that you were out of balance with your sugar/acid/pectin, or you didn't cook it for the right amount of time. However, there are a few other nitpicky mistakes that even experienced jammers can make. If you have a significant jam failure, review the list and see if any apply.

Remaking Syrupy Jam

Whatever caused your syrupy jam, don't throw it away. Even very experienced jammers have had batches fail, so they have certain techniques for fixing a failed gel. They don't always work but they are worth a try. The following is the most commonly recommended technique for remaking jam.

First, be sure you have everything you need ready to go ahead of time. This includes a canner full of hot water; funnels, jar-lifters, and ladles clean and ready to go; extra new lids for the jars; and enough extra sugar, pectin, and lemon juice to remake the jam.

Open the lids of the runny jam (these lids cannot be reused for canning). Pour the jam out into a glass measuring cup until it makes a total of 4 cups. Clean the old jars in soapy water and rinse, or use new clean, sterilized jars. 

Mix 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice, and 4 teaspoons powdered pectin. Heat up until it has been brought to a rolling boil. 

Add the 4 cups of syrupy jam. Stir continuously until the whole thing has been brought to a rolling boil. Keep boiling for at least 30 seconds more, but don't overboil. 

Remove from heat, ladle into jars, put on NEW lids, add screwtops, then can in a waterbath canner for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the jars. Turn off heat and let jars sit in water for 5 more minutes, then immediately remove jars straight up out of the canner without tipping them. Put them on a towel on your counter overnight.  Don't check or tip them until 24 hours have passed. 

Some people report that chia seeds can be used to thicken up a runny jam, if you are open to that. Personally, I dislike chia seeds so I have never tried this but if you like them it may be worth a try.

Remain Philosophical About Results

Sometimes you can seemingly do everything right and a jam will simply not set up. Who knows what went wrong? All you can do is give it your best shot at redoing it. About half to two-thirds of the time, you can fix a runny jam. Sometimes you never do. Don't be afraid to just give up and call it Syrup at some point. Feel free to pretend that's what you wanted all along. Plenty of cooks before you have done the same!

Don't throw away your results. People use syrupy jam as toppings for pancakes, waffles, ice cream, yogurt, or desserts like poke cake. Our family sometimes adds it to lemonade to make a special drink during the summer. It can also be dehydrated into fruit leather, like above. Or you can add a little corn starch and use it as a glaze for roasted meats. It's surprisingly tasty as a glaze with pork in particular. (If that sounds weird, think about cranberry sauce with turkey at Thanksgiving. Same principle of fruit with savory.)

My first try at remaking syrupy plum jam was a mixed success. Some of it came out perfectly; no problem with the set the second time around.

However, about half of it didn't set again. Oh well. Considering how many batches of plum jam we made, that still left me with a lot more Plum Syrup than I wanted. On the other hand, we saved half the batch. I consider that a win.

I'm not quite sure why some batches failed in the original jam. My guess is we got sloppy in our measuring because of how much fruit there was and used too much fruit at once. I also think the last batch of pectin was from an older box. Also, my daughter helped, so she may have cooked it too long; I'm not sure. But at least we were able to rescue about half of the runny batches and remake them properly.

The rest of the syrupy jam we just made into Plum Fruit Leather, using both the oven and a dehydrator. Same great flavor, and at least we didn't waste it!


Resources and References

• https://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2009/08/post_6.html - The guide I used; basic practical information and tips in simple language, based off of government's site below
• https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_07/remake_soft_jelly.html - U.S. Government info about remaking too-soft jams
• https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can7_jam_jelly.html - U.S. Government site about canning 
• https://extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/documents/8836/sp50604remakingsoftjellies.pdf  - Oregon State Extension's quick hand-out on remaking jam
• http://pickyourown.org/how_to_fix_runny_jam.htm - Old website, not well laid out, but the information is generally good
• https://extension.psu.edu/preventing-jam-and-jelly-from-not-setting - Corny video from Penn State Extension to explain how to prevent jam failure; slow and boring but good information
• https://www.finecooking.com/article/how-to-get-fruit-jellies-and-jams-to-gel - Basic info
• https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/08/jam-making-101-pectin-sugar-gel-point.html - The science behind gelling, but more for non-pectin jams
• https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/article_6-03.html - More on the science behind gelling and pectins
• http://pickyourown.org/pectin.htm - Pectin levels of various fruits, types of pectin, etc.
• https://www.thespruceeats.com/high-and-low-pectin-fruit-1327800 - Pectin and acidity levels of various fruits 
• https://www.finecooking.com/article/the-science-of-pectin - All about pectins
• https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/oct/03/science-magic-jam-making - the history of jam making 

Should You Check Your Home for Radon?

January was Radon Action Month. As we finish up January and head into February, let's take a moment to raise awareness of this problem.

Radon is a colorless, odorless RADIOACTIVE gas that can be found in the soil in many areas. It is a leading cause of lung cancer in this country, second only to smoking.

However, there are no immediate symptoms that will alert you to the presence of radon, and you can't see it, smell it, or taste it. Therefore, you won't know if you have high levels of radon gas unless you test for it.

Have you had your home tested for radon? Here's what you should consider when making this decision.

Radon in the Home

Radon gas is created when radioactive elements (like uranium) decay in rocks and soil. The gas moves through the soil and can be pulled into homes by slight pressure differences. It typically enters through cracks in the foundation, around construction joints, through small gaps near pipes and cables, or through sump pumps and drains. Once inside, it can get trapped and build up to high levels that endanger long-term health.

Homes that have basements, cellars, crawl spaces, or lower levels are particularly prone to high levels of radon, but it can be found even in homes without these. Radon can also be a problem in well water.

But unless you actually test for radon, you can't tell how much is ─ or isn't ─ in your house.

Cancer Risk

Radon is an important public health issue because being constantly exposed to high levels of radon over time can lead to lung cancer.

How can radon gas cause lung cancer? One article gives a brief explanation:

Radon gas breaks down and releases small particles that can get trapped in your lung. Those particles can release tiny bursts of energy called alpha particles that can damage lung tissue. Alpha particles cannot pass through the skin. The damage done in your lungs by the alpha particles can lead to lung cancer over time. 

Radon exposure is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. It is thought that about 13% of all lung cancers are caused by radon exposure.

The U.S. government estimates that about 21,000 deaths per year are due to radon exposure, though most of those deaths are in smokers. People who both smoke and are exposed to radon are at particularly high risk for developing lung cancer because smoking and radon are powerfully synergistic. Some sources estimate that smokers exposed to radon have 25x the risk for lung cancer than non-smokers exposed to radon.

As a result, some public health commentators believe that radon-reduction campaigns exaggerate the risks to non-smokers and should target only certain areas of the country where radon levels are particularly high.

Risks Vary by Area

Not all areas are at equal risk for radon exposure. In the U.S. map above, areas in the darkest colors are the most at risk for high radon exposure. Homes in Iowa and parts of Pennsylvania are considered at particularly severe risk for radon contamination.

But again, the only way to know if your home is at risk or not is to test. You can live in an area that is at lower risk overall from radon and still have a house that has high levels of radon.

About 1 in 15 American homes are thought to have high levels of radon. Thus, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends that all homes should be monitored for radon.

Radon testing kits are relatively inexpensive and can be found in local home improvement stores. There are short-term kits (that measure exposure over a few days) and long-term kits (that measure exposure over a few months, generally considered the most accurate). Follow the directions on the package, then mail in the results. You will notified of the findings soon after and can take action accordingly.

Mitigation usually involves sealing any foundation cracks or construction joints, and installing a way to vent the radon gas from the most affected areas. Some cases can be fixed for a few hundred dollars by someone comfortable with DIY, but more significant cases need trained professionals so it can be done properly, and this cost usually runs $1000-2000.

Because of the cost of mitigation and the uncertainty of the impact of moderate levels of radon on non-smokers, radon testing remains controversial to some. Critics maintain that radon testing is a waste of time in low-risk areas, and should be saved only for high-risk areas or for houses with smokers.

Also controversial is what level of exposure presents enough risk to make mitigation worthwhile. Clearly, high levels of radon (near 20 pCi/L) present significant risk and should be identified and mitigated. Lower levels are more controversial. The EPA recommends an action level of 4 pCi/L whereas other countries recommend 5 pCi/L or even more. On the other hand, some U.S. states recommend getting radon levels down to less than 2 pCi/L. More data is needed.

Please note, radon is not just an issue for homes. Only about 20% of schools in the U.S. have been tested for radon. Since students and teachers spend long hours in these structures most days of the week, they are another potential source for radon exposure. Has your child's school been tested for radon? How about your office? How extensive should testing for radon exposure be?

Why I Care About Radon

Why do I want to educate people about radon? Frankly, I didn't care about it until recently. I heard about it on a TV show many years ago and figured it was just another over-exaggerated health scare to make money for unscrupulous "repair" companies.

However, I changed my mind a few years ago after doing more research into the matter. Frankly, it really looked legit. Nothing to panic over, mind, but something to definitely be aware of.

So we tested our house for radon a few years ago, not really expecting to find a problem. Turns out the area around the kids' bedrooms had quite high levels of radon, even though we live in an area not at high risk for radon. We put in a radon mitigation system post-haste because the levels were pretty elevated. The levels are down to normal now, but we will re-test every few years just to make sure the system is still working efficiently.

I also care now because I think radon may have contributed to my father's death, along with smoking.

Like many soldiers, my father took up smoking in WWII; he smoked for 20 years afterwards. He quit when I was young, but was around second-hand smoke in his job at times.

He also grew up in an area known now for high radon levels. Of course, there's no way to prove that radon had any impact on him. We don't even know for sure that he was exposed. However, the city he grew up in has some of the highest radon levels in that state, and most of the houses there have basements, so I think he probably had a strong chance of exposure.

Although it's impossible to prove, I think the combination of growing up in a high radon area, 20 years of smoking, and years of second-hand smoke tipped him over into lung cancer, even though he had not smoked in nearly 30 years. Sadly, his lung cancer was inoperable. His cancer eventually spread to his brain, and this very intelligent man who loved to discuss theology was reduced to not even being able to operate his TV remote. He died 3 years after his diagnosis. We had to watch him slowly suffocate to death, and that was really terrible.

Sad as his death was, that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone should consider testing; smoking was clearly the biggest culprit in his death. However, the fact that high radon levels were found in my own home nowadays, even in an area not at high risk for radon, suggests to me that more widespread radon testing seems pretty sensible for most areas.

Final Thoughts

At high enough levels over time, exposure to radon gas clearly increases the risk for lung cancer, which is a very intractable and nasty form of cancer. Therefore, the EPA, Surgeon General, American Lung Association, American Medical Association, and National Safety Council all recommend testing your home for radon.

This testing seems sensible to me, especially if you are in an area known to have moderate or high levels of radon, or if you have smokers or former smokers in your home. It is more debatable in areas at very low risk for radon but personally I would probably err on the side of testing most of the time.

It is also not completely clear at what level of exposure mitigation is truly needed. Certainly high levels need mitigation and I strongly believe in taking action in that situation. It also seems like a sensible precaution to me to treat even at only modestly raised levels but I would like more reliable data on just where that treatment line should be drawn.

Factors in your decision on whether to mitigate may include how high the radon levels are, where in the home these levels occur, how much time people spend in this area, the type of soil around the home, whether there is a history of smoking in any family member, etc. If your test results are borderline, you might want to repeat the test before making a decision, since radon levels can fluctuate over time. More data may give you a better picture of the risk.

It's important to point out that testing doesn't commit you to doing mitigation. The test is very easy, not expensive, and pretty effortless to use. Once you have your results, you can decide what, if anything, to do about it. But you can't do anything if you haven't had your home tested. 

Clearly, smoking and radon exposure are an extremely bad combination, so your best prevention is not to smoke. But even if you have never smoked, radon exposure can be a risk. Most importantly, it is a risk that can be mitigated...but only if you test for it. 

So while I believe in taking a moderate, sensible approach to radon testing (and would like more reliable data on which to make decisions), on the whole I do think radon testing is worth doing.

But as always, the decision to test or not remains your decision.

You can find out more about radon here, here, here, and here. Click here for a link that will help you find the risks in your particular state.

Adventures in Gardening: Hügelkultur Experiments

Periodically, I write about gardening on this blog. I'm sure some readers scratch their heads and wonder why, given that I generally focus on issues pertinent to weight or on pregnancy/birth/breastfeeding, but I view gardening as part of the mission of this blog too.

I write about gardening for several reasons. First and most importantly, I write about gardening as part of my Health At Every Size focus. I think it's obvious that as a society, we would be better off if we ate fewer processed foods and more whole foods, and gardening is an important part of the "slow food" movement. It promotes better nutrition and gives us exercise, all in one convenient package. Not that we all have to be perfect or obsessive, but striving for more whole foods is just common sense.

Second, I write about gardening as part of my Parenting focus. Kids will eat more vegetables and fruit if they help grow it themselves, and it's good for kids to appreciate the kind of work it takes to provide the food we eat. Far too many kids have no concept of how food reaches their table. Gardening also helps kids connect with nature, gets them outside, gives them exercise, and helps them learn to care responsibly for living things. I think every child should learn to garden in one degree or another.

Finally, I write about gardening as part of my Emergency Preparedness message. It's important as parents to have a stock of food on hand in case of a natural disaster or other emergency. Too many people are completely dependent on grocery stores for all their food, and most have very little stored food in reserve for emergencies. Gardening helps you have a renewable source of healthy food for your family. Gardening also lends itself to preserving, which helps you keep a stock of preserved food around. It's important that we keep gardening and preserving skills alive for our children, and it's also important to have a food reserve for our families in case of an emergency.

Gardening is a win-win all around on so many levels. Even though it might not seem like a logical topic for this blog on the face of it, it really does fit my blog mission too.

Today I wanted to share about a gardening experiment I've been toying around with this year. It's called Hügelkultur gardening.

Raised Beds on Steroids

Since a big car accident a few years ago significantly damaged my knees, I mostly garden in raised beds now. Saves my knees a lot of grief and my back likes it too. I'm a real fan of raised beds.

But raised beds have challenges too. They are more watering-intensive; they dry out sooner and need to be watered more often. Being the lazy, less-than-attentive gardener that I am, I'm not always good about watering regularly, which can be stressful on the vegetables.

Also, the soil in raised beds can get "tired out" and depleted of nutrients if you don't refresh them regularly. I prefer to garden organically, so I've been experimenting to see how I can best "feed" the soil in my gardens without having to resort to artificial fertilizers or additives.

It was in response to these challenges that I began to learn about a new/old technique called Hügelkultur Gardening (pronounced HOO-gull-cul-ture). 

Hügelkultur Gardening Basics

First layer of hugelkultur bed - pieces of wood in various
sizes. Image by Jon Roberts, from Wikimedia

Although Hügelkultur gardening has been practiced in several different cultures, the name is German and the idea was popularized by permaculturist Sepp Holzer.

Basically, it means "Mound Culture" or mound gardening. You pile a bunch of wood in various stages of decomposition at the bottom of the pile, water it in well so the wood soaks up the water, then add other layers of soil, kitchen waste, leaves, straw, compost, manure, bark chips, etc. until you have a mound. Then you plant in that mound.

Sometime the mound is small, sometimes it's large, but you basically are planting in a compost pile that's in process. Using different sizes of wood means that it processes slowly and that the nitrogen from the kitchen waste etc. does not overwhelm the carbon content, which is a common problem in many compost piles.

The benefits of hügelkultur are:

• it improves soil fertility (through decomposing organic matter)
• it aerates the soil and improves its structure (the soil around the logs naturally creates air pockets, which helps keep the soil from compacting to much, thereby improving its structure)
• it improves water retention (water is released slowly over time from the water-soaked logs, necessitating less watering in the drier months after the first year or two)
• it warms the soil (making it easier to plant earlier and longer in the growing season)
• it promotes earthworms and other beneficial animals/fungi in the garden (they are attracted to the decomposing organic matter and help break it down)

Permaculturists like hügelkultur because it recreates replenishment of soil in the garden in the same way that it happens in nature:

Hügelkultur replicates the natural process of decomposition that occurs on forest floors. Trees that fall in a forest often become nurse logs decaying and providing ecological facilitation to seedlings. As the wood decays, its porosity increases allowing it to store water "like a sponge". The water is slowly released back into the environment, benefiting nearby plants.

Image from richsoil.com 

Personally, it's the watering benefits I'm most interested in. While my area of the country gets lots of moisture in the winter, we get very little during the summer, so we have to do a lot of watering in the summer. My new hügel bed is on the side of my house that doesn't have easy watering access, and it's far away from the raised garden beds that get my main (if inconsistent) watering attention. I wanted more gardening space but less upkeep, so I'm hoping the new hügel bed will help by giving me a new garden space that I don't have to spend so much time watering.

There are lots of different ways to do hügel beds. Although it is helpful to read up on ways to optimize the process, it's basically just planting into soil mounded over buried wood. Some online accounts make it seem complicated, but if you keep in mind the basics, the process is pretty forgiving.

Some people like to build their hügel beds in a trench. You dig a long hole, pile up woody debris in it, then fill in the gaps with kitchen waste, compost, straw, etc. until you have a good mound. The digging part can be a lot of work, so some gardeners don't bother with the trench; they just pile the woody debris directly on the ground and then fill in the gaps. Personally, I used a trench because I think it gives more stability to the mound and because putting the wood directly in the earth accelerates its decomposition, brings more worms, and enhances water retention in the dry months.

Some writers suggest building your hügelkultur beds to run in a line north to south. This is to maximize sun exposure (otherwise, the mound nature of the bed means one side of an east-west bed will get too much shade). Some surround the base of the hügel mound with rocks, logs, or other materials for stability and neatness; others do not. Rocks along the edges may help warm the soil better, but otherwise it's a personal choice.

It's important to use different sizes and ages of wood in the bed if possible. You want some to be old and partially decomposing already, some to be new, some to be thick pieces of wood, and some to be small thin twigs and branches. If you start with all-new and thick wood, your hügel bed may not do as well for the first couple of years, since it needs time to absorb water and start the decomposition process. For maximum benefit, use wood of various sizes and states of decomposition, and start your hügel bed in the fall so that the wood can absorb the winter moisture before planting in the spring.

If you don't have enough woody material of your own, look around. Tree-trimming companies, power companies, and government agencies often have some you can get, or you can collect fallen wood from a friend's back yard, etc. Just make sure it's untreated wood. No plywood or treated lumber should be used.

Another suggestion I've read is to put some of the wood in vertically instead of horizontally, especially if using less water is one of your priorities. Supposedly the wood wicks moisture more efficiently if it's vertical instead of horizontal. I can't speak to this but it seems plausible to me.

Some authors also suggest adding alfalfa pellets when building the bed in order to add more quickly-available nitrogen to balance the carbon dominance of the bed in the first year or two. If you don't have much manure available, this might help. After that, the wood should start breaking down and create its own balance of carbon and nitrogen.

(As an alternative, some people suggest pouring diluted urine or peeing directly onto the logs, but surprisingly, my teen-aged boys declined to do this. I thought they'd love the chance to mark their territory but they were absolutely appalled by the idea.)

Alternate layers of greens and browns in your pile, like in "lasagna gardening" (sheet mulching). Use kitchen waste, garden waste, bark chips, manure, straw, grass clippings, whatever you have on hand. Top it all off with a thick layer of compost and then straw or other mulch to help keep the soil in place and hold in moisture. When you plant, simply move aside some of this top layer and plant the start (or seed) directly into the pile. When you see the seedling is high enough, put the mulch back around it. The first year or two you will have to water seedlings more often, but after that you should have to water much less often.

The more organic material you add (especially nitrogen material) on top of the wood, the sooner your bed will produce results. If you have mostly woody material with minimal soil, it's going to take a couple of years to start breaking down and you won't get much results until then. But if you start with well-watered wood in all stages of decomposition, then add lots of nitrogen-rich material and soil layered with smaller carbon materials (like straw or bark chips), you should be able to plant in the first year and get reasonable returns.

Each year, the organic materials will break down more and more, so you'll need to occasionally add more compost, leaves, manure and bark chips to the hügel beds over the years. Just fill in the holes periodically. The best growing results are typically several years into the process.

But really, although these are suggestions to make hügelkultur more efficient, there's not a lot of strict rules to follow. It's a very forgiving approach, which is why I like it. You can make it what you want and adapt it for your own needs.

My Hügelkultur Beds

Hügelbed, minus top layer of soil.
(This is not my hügelbed, but mine looks
a lot like this, not very mounded yet.)
Image from Wikimedia.

Personally, I started my hügel bed in a small trench and filled it with fallen tree limbs, some firewood, and some old branches and logs from our school grounds. (If I were to do another hügel bed, I think I'd add in even more wood, as I don't think we have enough in there to truly go without extra watering.)

My hügel bed is more of a mini-hügel than a true hügel. The classic hügel is a very high mound with very steep sides. I do not have enough soil and compost right now to make a mound that high, so I'm doing what works at my property...a mini-hügel. It won't last as long, but it should still last several years. That's good enough for a first experiment.

I let the wood get good and soaked in the fall rains, then we began covering it up with layers of kitchen scraps, manure, straw, wood chips, grass clippings, half-cooked compost, the original soil from the trench diggings, garden leftovers, and dead leaves. At this point, it's not very mounded yet, so we need to add more compost, straw and other materials this spring to continue to build it up.

The top of the pile has last year's Halloween pumpkins on it; I'm hoping they seed and start new pumpkins in the pile for this year. Pumpkins are supposed to love hügel beds. My hügel bed is in the former rabbit pen, so it should have lots of good rabbit poo to make the pumpkins happy, and the pumpkins will have lots of room to spread out and grow, which was a problem in my raised beds.

I plan to plant several berry bushes of different types in the hügel bed this year, mostly huckleberry, josta berries, and blueberries. These will form the backbone of the hügel garden, the "perma" in my permaculture. Their root structures will hopefully grow strong over time and give stability to the bed.

Some people also put stuff around the edges of the bed to give it stability, but since mine was built in a trench and isn't very mounded, I'm not too worried about this. I probably will put down some cardboard and bark chips around the edges of it to create a walking path and hopefully deter the grass from growing up the sides, though.

I will plant some nitrogen-fixing plants like peas and beans this year, which hopefully should help provide balance for the carbon in the wood pile underneath. This may be especially important in the first year of growing, since a hügel bed tends to be carbon-dominant at first. I didn't add any alfalfa pellets, but I may look into getting some to add to the beds (since my teens aren't cooperating with territory-marking plan).

In future years I will add more variety of plants, intercropped between the more permanent plants, but for now, I just want to get the basics in the bed and get it up and running. I'll probably have some annual greens there this year as an interim plan.

I like the hügelkultur idea so much that I'm trying to convert some of my raised beds on the other side of the house to a hügelkultur hybrid bed. I have my teenagers digging up the dirt in the raised beds, shunting it to the side, putting old soaked wood and branches in the bottom, and then mixing in kitchen waste, half-finished compost, rock/mineral dust, straw, bark chips, and manure into the rest of the soil. They won't be true hügelkultur beds because they won't have nearly as much wood, but will hopefully give my raised beds a good shot of soil replenishment ─ and maybe lessen watering requirements if I'm lucky.

I wrote previously about my experiment with trench composting, i.e. composting my kitchen waste directly into holes in the raised gardens. Overall, that has been great (far better than messing with a compost pile!), but I did notice that some of my raised beds tended to have too much nitrogen this year. As a result, some of my tomatoes had tons of green growth but not as much fruit in some places.

So the hügelkultur hybridizing of my raised beds will hopefully also help bring more carbon to balance the nitrogen created by the trench composting, which I love and want to continue. Hopefully, a better balance between "browns" and "greens" in the garden will create maximum produce production.

Although it's still early in the process, I'm pretty optimistic about the Hügelkultur beds I'm creating. Since it simply re-creates the process as it happens in nature, I think it has a great chance of succeeding and will greatly add to the productivity of my garden. Better yet, I'm hoping it will lessen the amount of watering, fertilizing, and fussing I need to do, which would be great because I'm a very lackadaisical gardener. I enjoy it when I get around to it, but I have too many other time demands and interests to obsess about it too much.

If you are interested in Hügelkultur for your own gardens, check out some of the links below. Happy gardening!


Resources

• http://www.urbanfarmonline.com/urban-gardening/backyard-gardening/what-is-hugelkultur.aspx
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCgelkultur - basic information
• http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/ - lots of pictures illustrating the process 
• http://www.inspirationgreen.com/hugelkultur.html - many pictures showing possible variations
• http://lowcostvegetablegarden.blogspot.com/search/label/Hugelkultur - one man's experiments
• http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2008/09/_ld_slot_with_gr51vernx02.html 
• http://www.permies.com/forums/f-117/hugelkultur - forum on hügelkultur on permaculture board; lots of articles and pictures about the process
• http://s1274.photobucket.com/user/whiskeychikaho/library/2013%20Hugelkultur?sort=4&page=1 - photos of complete process of building a very steep-sided hügel bed
• http://www.yellowbirchhobbyfarm.com/how-to-hugelkultur-raised-garden-bed-start-to-finish/
• http://www.permies.com/t/8905/permaculture/Hugelkultur-Raised-Beds - raised beds 
• http://www.permies.com/t/6298/permaculture/Combining-Hugelkultur-Raised-Beds-Sheet
• https://permadubdream.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/how-to-build-a-hugelkultur-raised-garden-bed/

Test Those Smoke Detectors Frequently

Last week, my husband almost burned down our house while cooking dinner.

The good news is that he didn't actually burn down the house. It was all smoke, albeit pretty thick smoke; I caught it before it turned into flames.

The bad news is that it probably ruined a beloved pan I got from my mother, and the house still smells a bit like scorched metal. Hopefully that will disappear soon.

The unsettling news is that this was a good check of our smoke detectors ─ and we found that they totally FAILED the test. Ulp! So now we are working on fixing that issue.

My husband is a great guy with many many sterling qualities, but he has a bad habit of putting something on the stove and then leaving the room, forgetting about the item on the stove. I've rescued many scorched things over the years, and have had to throw out more than a few. (I have to be fair ─ I've been known to put something on the stove and forget about it once in a while. You really shouldn't leave the room if you have anything on the stove.)

Well, that's what he did last week. He put a pot of beans on the stove to boil, then took the kids out, forgetting the pan on the stove. I stayed behind to work on the computer but he didn't tell me that he was cooking anything.

Thank goodness I stayed home! After quite a while I smelled the burning pot and went to investigate. Sure enough, there was the pot of beans on the stove, scorching like crazy. Luckily, I got to them before any flames actually began, but it was obviously only a matter of time before that had happened too. If I hadn't been at home, it might well have happened.

The most alarming part was that the house was filled with smoke, yet not a single smoke detector was going off. 

Sometimes there's not enough smoke to really set off a detector, even though it looks pretty smoky. But that's not what happened here. Nope, there was more than enough smoke to warrant a smoke detector going off this time, but not one did. Uh-oh.

We usually check our smoke detectors during daylight savings time changes in fall and spring. But sometimes I ask him to do that and he says he's done it, yet it turns out he didn't really do it. (Does your spouse ever do that?) That's what happened this year.

When we checked, it turns out that there wasn't a single smoke detector on the main floor of the house that was working properly. Doh!

And not only that, you're supposed to check the batteries on smoke detectors every six months (at the time changes) and change the batteries every year ─ PLUS you are supposed to test the smoke detectors every month. We were only testing them every six months (and apparently not always even then). Oops.

Thank goodness we hadn't had a fire. We would have been out of luck.

As a parent, I'm all about preparing for emergencies, as long-time readers of the blog know. Mostly I prepare for scenarios involving weather issues (snowstorms, windstorms), power outages, or earthquakes (we live in a major earthquake zone). Although I joke about the Zombie Apocalypse, I don't really get too concerned about the scenarios that many preppers worry about, honestly. I can't say I'm not concerned, but honestly I don't think most are very likely.

But natural disasters? Those happen regularly. It makes much more sense to focus your prepping on the kinds of scenarios that statistics show every area encounters periodically, rather than focus obsessively on a rare something that might or might not happen someday.

Yet you should always focus on fire safety first and foremost, because FIRE is the life-threatening emergency scenario you are most likely to face in your life. 

The Red Cross notes that, on average, 7 people die every day from a home fire. Fires kill more Americans each year than all other natural disasters combined.

But having a working smoke detector cuts the risk of dying in a home fire in half.

The Red Cross estimates that nearly 900 lives a year could be saved if only every home had working smoke detectors.

So go now, go check your smoke detectors. While you're at it, add some Carbon Monoxide detectors too. 

And don't forget to push the button regularly and test to see if these detectors actually work.


Resources

For more information:

• http://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/all-around/Pages/Fire-Safety.aspx
• http://www.redcross.org/prepare/location/home-family/prevent-home-fires
• http://www.redcross.org/prepare/location/home-family/prevent-home-fires/test-safety-savvy
• http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/escape-planning/basic-fire-escape-planning
• http://www.ready.gov/home-fires
• http://www.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m4240204_FireSmokeAlarmFactSheet.pdf
• http://www.wellroundedmama.blogspot.com/2012/09/national-preparedness-month-fire-safety.html
• http://www.safewise.com/home-security-faq/carbon-monoxide-detector

Preparing Your Family for an Emergency

Among other things, September is National Preparedness Month.

This means it's time to shore up your preparations for unexpected emergencies. This kind of preparation is especially important if you have children or other family members dependent upon you.

You should be asking yourself, do I have enough supplies to get through an emergency where grocery and water supplies might be interrupted? Do I know my school or childcare's emergency plans? How will I reunite my family after an emergency?

Here is a link to an article about emergency planning for families. Among the important points of the article, the author points out that:

• Despite their disaster risk concerns, the majority of parents (63 percent) are not very familiar with emergency plans at their child’s school or child care
• Two thirds (67 percent) don’t know if emergency drills are held frequently, or at all
• Two in five (42 percent) wouldn't know where to reunite with children if evacuated from school or child care

So let's talk about a few important points for family emergency planning:

• Family Emergency Kits
• Family Communication Plans
• Evaluating School Emergency Plans 

Family Emergency Kits

Many parents haven’t set aside key disaster supplies, such as the bare minimum three-day supply of food and water. (Most experts agree that a five-to-seven-day supply is better, and many recommend at least a two-week supply.)

It's most optimal to have multiple kits; one for at home, one in an outbuilding or garage near your home in case you can't get into your home due to damage, and one for your car in case you are away from home when an emergency occurs. Some people choose to have a small emergency kit for their workplaces as well.

These kits don't need to be elaborate. Remember, something is better than nothing.

Yet nothing is what most people have. Even if your kit isn't perfect or doesn't have every recommended thing in it, get SOMETHING going.

Water

The most critical thing to have on hand after a disaster is fresh drinking water ("potable" water). Have a gallon of fresh water in your car, just in case. Because a car is subject to extremes of temperatures, this water should be rotated every 6-12 months, but this is a very easy thing to do.

At home, store a few 5-gallon containers of drinking water in your house or outbuilding in case your regular water supply is disrupted. Each person in the household needs at least 1 gallon of water per day. Don't forget to add in some water for pets too.

Portable water bottles are an important part of any emergency kit. The best are stainless steel so they can be directly heated over a fire.

You should also have a way to filter and purify water in case the emergency extends beyond your stored water supply. You can read more about that process here. Water storage and purification supplies can be bought at most camping stores.

Food

Ready-made snacks are helpful for your emergency kit. Foods such as granola bars, energy bars, and fruit leather pack well and last a long time. Don't forget food for your pets too.

Emergency Information Card

An emergency information card is helpful. This should contain a recent picture of your child, a recent picture of your family, emergency contact information for family members, home address and phone number, the name and number for your child's doctor, a physical description of your child, a list of any special conditions/medications, and an out-of-state emergency contact. 

Most children benefit from a small activity in their emergency bag. A deck of cards, a small game, or a few small toys give an evacuated child something to do and bring a sense of familiarity and safety to an insecure situation. Young children also benefit from a comfort object, like a small stuffed animal, as well as a hand-written letter from a parent to offer them reassurance and love.

Family Communication Plan

Think of all the time you spend separated from your children each day, either due to work or school or their various activities. If an emergency occurs when you are away from your children, how will you find each other? How will you communicate?

A Family Communication Plan can help family members reconnect after an emergency. This doesn't have to be an elaborate plan; it can be quite simple. The key is to have talked about your plan before an emergency occurs.

Create Paper Back-Ups of Important Numbers

Create a paper copy of important contact phone numbers; this can be combined with the emergency information card listed above. Store a copy in each person's backpack, purse, or vehicle.

Most kids today don't bother to memorize their parents' cell phone or work numbers, let alone their relatives' numbers. It's all in their cell phones, so they don't feel the need to memorize anything. But phones fail, get damaged, get lost, or run out of power. Having a paper copy with all contact information on it is important as a back-up.

Even if your child knows all these numbers by heart, a person under stress can forget everyday information like where they live or their own phone number.Memorizing important phone numbers is still a good thing to do, but it's best to have paper back-up too, just in case.

Also designate an out-of-state contact as your emergency notification number. Ironically, it is often easier to reach someone out of state than it is to reach someone locally after a disaster. Have someone far away be the person who helps facilitate communication between family members. Have that number programmed into everyone's phone and written into your emergency information card.

TEXT, DON'T TALK!

If a disaster occurs, your first priority is securing your own safety and that of those around you. As soon as you can manage, however, use your cell phone to send a text message to your family members. Remember, experts recommend that you TEXT, DON'T TALK. 

After an emergency, phone networks will be overwhelmed, and many cell towers will go down pretty quickly or have limited power. Texting takes only a brief amount of power and as a result texts are much more likely to go through during an emergency.

Create a texting tree for your most important contacts. Send a brief message as soon as you safely can after an emergency, as it is more likely to get through sooner than later. Briefly summarize how you are and where you are, remind everyone of your designated meeting place, and tell them to update their status with the out-of-state emergency contact.

You can also briefly post to social media like Facebook or Twitter to let a wider circle of people know that you are all right. Minimize contact, though, to reduce network congestion and help others get through to their families.

The Red Cross also has a program called "Safe and Well" which can help you communicate with loved ones in a disaster. This can help people who have been evacuated to a shelter but who may have very limited online access to connect with loved ones.

Put "ICE" Contacts Onto Your Phone

Identify several ICE ("In Case of Emergency") contacts and program them into your phone. There are smartphone ICE apps now (some free, some at a very low cost) that will show ICE numbers on the cover wallpaper of your cell phone (without someone having to know your phone code to unlock it).

Emergency Responders have been trained to look at your phone to see if there are ICE numbers available. If you are unconscious, they will contact those ICE numbers for you. The emergency information card in your wallet or purse can also serve this function if your phone is damaged or lost, but most Emergency Responders will look at your phone first.

Again, have the information in more than one place. Have it on your phone because that is the first place Emergency Responders will look, and also on a paper back-up in case your phone is broken or not accessible.

Designate a Family Meeting Place

If the family is apart when an emergency happens, where will you meet? The first choice is usually at home, but what if your home is damaged or the neighborhood off-limits because of road washouts from a storm or toxic fumes from a chemical spill?

Be specific about where you'll meet. If you are going to meet at a church, are you going to meet in on the front steps? The back entrance? By the announcements board?

Designate a back-up emergency meeting place in case your first choice doesn't work out. Experts also suggest a regional meeting place in case you have to evacuate out of the immediate area and are not allowed to return for a while.

Establish Retrieval Responsibilities 

Establish ahead of time who is responsible for retrieving which child. If you have multiple children in different schools or activities, having someone assigned ahead of time to each of those children will help minimize duplication of efforts and wasted time. If there is only one parent available, then establish a routine of which child will be fetched in what order (usually youngest to oldest).

Evaluating School Emergency Plans

By a certain age, most kids spend considerable time away from their parents at school or daycare or other activities. How can you help these organizations improve the students' safety profile for when you are not there?

One way to help them is to evaluate their emergency plans and press them to improve drills and planning. Another is to familiarize yourself with their Family Reunification Plan.

Improving Emergency Drills

Your school undoubtedly already holds regular fire drills, since this is required of all public and private schools by law. However, you should ask further questions about the types of drills your school holds. Some not only have fire drills, they also have drills unique to the potential disasters in their area, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, or tsunamis. In addition, many schools these days have Lock-Down Drills and Shelter-In-Place Drills. Ask your school which drills they are holding and press them to hold drills appropriate to the area they are in. 

Also encourage your school administrator to hold emergency drills with a twist. Many kids know exactly what to do if a fire drill occurs in the middle of class (which is when nearly all fire drills are held). But what if a fire occurs during recess? During passing time/bathroom breaks? What if your child's designated exit is blocked during the fire? It's important for schools to practice not just "plain vanilla" drills, but also Deluxe Drills, where unexpected things happen or where drills occur at times of more confusion. 

Reunification Plan

Become familiar with your school's Emergency Reunification Plan. Would you know where you should report to pick up your child in an emergency? Do you know what the protocol is to sign your student out?

Because schools are legally accountable for knowing where students are at all times, there must be an orderly reunification process that documents all actions. Parents will not be allowed to just rush in and grab their children and leave. 

Usually students will be evacuated to a designated area, away from parents and the school building. Parents come to an assigned reunification area and request their student. A runner brings the child to the reunification area, the parent shows ID verifying their identity and signs the child out, and then the parent may leave with the child.

You can save a lot of time and stress by knowing ahead of time where the reunification area is and heading straight there. Also ask how your school plans to communicate with parents in an emergency situation if power is out or phone networks are overwhelmed. It may be that the planned reunification area has to be moved.

As with emergency drills, work with your administrators to improve the planning around the family reunification process. Encourage them to actually do a dry run some time so they can see what the strengths and weaknesses of the procedure are before a true emergency occurs. 

Summary

Emergencies can be scary, but remember, most don't turn into life and death situations. Even so, having a good emergency kit, a family communication plan, and knowing your school's emergency plans can help keep an emergency situation more low-key and less confusing.

And in a true emergency, these things might just save some lives. So take the opportunity of National Preparedness Month and review your family emergency planning today.

Canning Books for Beginners

Image by Carter Housh

It's that time of year, when all the bounty of summer fruits are starting to roll in. Strawberries are in, rhubarb is in, the raspberries have just sprung to fruition, and cherries are hitting full force. Blueberries are just around the corner, and then it's time for plums. Yummm!

For me, that means it's time to start canning in order to preserve all these delicious fruits so I can enjoy them next winter too.

This is not something I grew up doing or learned from my mother; I had to learn it on my own. I came to it only in middle age, but it's a skill I'm determined to teach all my children because I think it's something everyone should know how to do.

If for no other reason, people should know how to preserve food so they have some emergency food on hand that doesn't depend on a refrigerator or freezer to keep it safe. And of course it's great to have these summer foods available to eat out of season, and they make great homemade gifts. But the best reason is because these foods just taste delicious!

So let's talk about the very easiest foods to can, jams and preserves, and the best books for learning how to prepare these.

Canning Books for Jams

When I was first learning how to can, I looked for a book that was quick and easy to understand, had great diagrams and instructions, and which had a lot of interesting recipes.

I found quite a number of good canning books and resources out there. Each one had something different to recommend it. Here are the best ones for beginners.

Put 'Em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton is my favorite canning book and the one I recommend to beginners. I find the explanations very clear and concise, with some of the most clear illustrations of the process I've seen. When I was a beginner, this was the book that was most helpful to me.

I also liked that she organized the book by types of produce, so if cherries are in season and you are looking for something new to do with your overload of fresh cherries, you just turn to the "cherry" section of the book (which is clearly labeled and easy to find). That is really helpful. Many canning books are not organized like this.

The author has a great sequel too, just for fruits, with further recipes and hints on how to use them. And she now has a Preserving Answer Book, to answer common questions about canning, drying, freezing, etc. for those fairly new to food preservation.

One of the most common canning books, of course, is the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Its companion website is www.freshpreserving.com, and it has a great guide to getting started with canning if you want to learn about canning without having to spend the money to buy a book.

This book is the classic canning book, and all its recipes have been extensively tested for safety. It's been around forever so it's got lots of time-tested recipes that have been favorites for generations. It goes far beyond the basic jam recipes included in most books and has recipes for many other types of foods besides jams.

A newer canning book that many people seem to like is Food In Jars by Marisa McClellan. The author has an excellent blog from which the book sprang. It has lots of interesting hints for canning and links to unusual products like special canning jars.

One interesting thing about Food In Jars recipes is that they often have unusual flavor combinations that go beyond the usual basic recipes found in most books. She typically does not use pectin in her recipes, but teaches the old-fashioned cook-em-till-they-set method. She has a great Canning 101 section on her blog where she answers a lot of questions about canning technique and safety.

The author has also written Preserving By The Pint, which specializes in canning recipes for very small batches, which can seem more do-able to the beginning canner since no special equipment and no huge pots of water are needed. You don't need to buy big batches of fruit and you end up with only a few jars to store, which is important if you have only limited storage. Most canning recipes were written for women with large families to feed; this is the scaled-down version for folks with very small families, not much time, or limited storage.

Another bonus is that the author does a lot of touring and offers classes all over the country teaching many of the recipes used in her book. That's good marketing and it helps a lot of people who feel insecure with canning to get past the fear and start doing it.

Another book which might be really handy for some is Preserving with Pomona's Pectin by Allison Carroll Duffy. This book specializes in recipes using Pomona's Pectin, which is a somewhat harder-to-find pectin but which offers the distinct advantage of being able to adjust the sugar content in a recipe.

With most other pectins, you have very little flexibility about how much sugar to use in a recipe. The full-sugar pectins use insane amounts of sugar in their recipes; usually far more sugar than fruit. Even the "reduced sugar" pectins (like Sure-Jell in the pink box) still use quite a bit of sugar.

But Pomona's Pectin works differently than other pectins. It doesn't need sugar to help "gel" the jam; it uses calcium water instead to get the gel. This means that the sugar content of these jams can be adjusted to your heart's content. You can use as much or as little as you prefer, and you can use honey, agave syrup, fruit juice, or artificial sweeteners to sweeten your jam instead of sugar. If you are one of the many people trying to reduce the sugar content in your diet for health reasons, this is a great option to have.

Pomona's Pectin offers a lot more flexibility than other pectins, but it has a little steeper learning curve than the full-sugar pectins. Having a book that discusses the process of using this pectin in minute detail can be useful for those new to canning with Pomona's Pectin.

Summary

There are many, many great canning books available out there, but these are some of the best canning books for beginners. Youtube also has many video tutorials available on canning, and you can find many canning instructional DVDs as well.

Once you get good at the basics, then you can start adding wet and dry "zing" (spices and liqueurs) to your fruit ingredients and creating your own custom recipes. Or you can learn how to make pectin-free jams. But first, it's helpful to get comfortable with the fundamentals.

There are so many great resources on learning to can out there; get started on learning this important skill this summer! Or take your basic knowledge of canning to a whole new level of experimentation instead by playing around with the more advanced recipes in these books and blogs.

Remember, it's perfectly okay not to be a Canning Diva; you're not a canning failure if you don't spend all your time in the kitchen or put up great quantities of food. Do as much or as little canning as you have time for, but do learn to can so we keep this important skill alive and so that you have shelf-stable food put aside for emergencies. 

Emergency Phone Numbers to Keep Handy

If an emergency or health crisis hits, it's vital to have a list of important phone numbers handy to help you through the crisis.

It's even more helpful if you have generated this list of emergency numbers ahead of time, so you don't have to spend precious time scrambling to find the numbers you need.

This is one thing our family has learned from experience. It's especially important if you have children or elderly people who are dependent on you.

Making an Emergency Phone Number List 

If you don't already have an emergency phone list, start making one now. Make it a word processing document so you can update it as needed. Make the document as easy-to-read as you can.

Then program these phone numbers into your cell phone AND print them as a hard copy. 

Many people have their emergency phone numbers only in their cell phones, but then have none of them available if their cell phone runs out of battery power, is stolen, or is damaged. If you also have a hard copy of the numbers, you have a back-up to refer to if needed. Ideally, you should know the most important numbers by memory also (and train your children to know them too), but a hard copy is helpful because memory is sometimes unreliable in an emergency situation when under stress.

At home, hang a copy of these emergency numbers up on the wall by all your major phone receivers (or in a prominent place in the home, like on the kitchen refrigerator and in the master bedroom, if you only have cell service).

Include your name, home address, and phone number at the top of the page; many children (and even adults) forget their own contact information in the adrenaline rush of an emergency and find a nearby reminder to be helpful. If a family member has a known medical condition or significant allergy, you should include that information near the top as well.

Carry a hard copy of these emergency numbers in your purse/wallet, emergency supplies backpack, diaper bag, and car. You never know when you might need them while away from home.

Your family's emergency phone number list should include:

1. Parent names and phone numbers (work, home, and cell)
2. Guardian names and phone numbers (work, home, and cell)
3. Relative names and phone numbers (work, home, and cell)
4. Doctor names and phone numbers (for each member of the family)
5. Dentist names and phone numbers (for each member of the family)
6. Poison Control (1-800-222-1222)
7. Nearby hospital phone numbers
8. Your pharmacy's name and phone number
9. Your veterinarian's name and phone number (and an animal hospital) if you have pets
10. Neighbors (and their phone numbers) who could help out at your home until you could return
11. Trusted local emergency contacts who you could call for help if needed
12. Names and phone numbers for your children's schools (and daycare/babysitters, if applicable)
13. Names and phone numbers for adult helpers at kids' activities (Scouts, sports, church, etc.)
14. Out-of-State emergency contact phone numbers/names
15. Your home, medical, and car insurance agents' names and contact information
16. Your utility company contact numbers (water, electric, gas, etc.)
17. Ambulance, Police, and Fire phone numbers if you are in an area not covered by 911 service

In each car/diaper bag, try to have a current picture of each member of the family. Keep both a hard copy and a digital copy, if possible, because there are certain scenarios in which one or the other form might be most useful. Having both digital and hard copies covers all eventualities.

Hopefully you will never need these emergency contacts, but in life, unexpected things happen. It's good to be prepared for the possibility of a civic emergency, an unexpected medical crisis, an extreme weather event, a sudden school closure, or even just a protracted traffic jam. And having both digital and hard copies of these numbers keeps you ready to respond even when your cell phone isn't working or available. And if cell service is out or overloaded, remember that often a text will go through when nothing else does.

Have children practice making an emergency phone call so they could do it without adult help if needed. Use a disconnected or toy phone and have them play-act dialing 911, telling emergency services about their emergency, and saying their phone number and address. If they are calling from a cell, they should know they may need to describe where they are so they can be located more easily. Emphasize the importance of staying calm and speaking as clearly as possible so the operator can understand them and help get the information needed. They should also know to unlock and open the front door so EMTs can get in, or to have somebody outside waiting for the ambulance.

Role-playing what to do in an emergency can help children respond more effectively, and having an easy-to-read, clear emergency contact list helps children convey information even if they become upset or disoriented. It may help save lives ─ maybe even yours.

Be Ready for Special Needs Family Members

Finally, if you are taking care of an elderly parent or other family member with significant health issues, you know what a hard job this can be.

To make this job easier, consider putting together an updated list of your loved one's medical conditions, health history, current medications, and doctor contact info. Keep this list with you at all times. You may also want to have a file folder at home that you can grab quickly, containing a copy of healthcare power of attorney, living will, and pertinent medical files if this might be needed.

This is the system I developed when I took care of my mother in her final years. Although she lived a long and mostly healthy life, by her mid-80s she did have quite a number of health conditions (as older people often do), including cardiac and neurological issues. After struggling to remember all her complicated medical history every time we went to the doctor or hospital, I developed this system to make things easier. (I kept her medical history on the back of my emergency phone contacts list so I had both critical items on the same piece of paper.)

Having a system like this can improve health and save lives. When I took over my mother's care, she was on a truckload of medications, many of which had interactions with each other. Through careful questioning and care coordination, we were able to reduce her medications considerably and minimize drug interactions. Her condition improved considerably when her medications were more carefully overseen, and my list was helpful in this process.

In addition, by keeping a detailed list of her prescriptions and their proper schedule, I was able to catch a number of medication errors before they happened at the hospital and at her nursing home. This was critical in keeping her quality of life good for as long as possible.

Like many elderly people, she did have a gradual health decline by the end and became a "frequent flyer" at the local hospital. Sometimes we were called into the E.R. in the middle of the night or on very short notice because of a complication. Those doctors depended on me to quickly fill in the blanks of her health history until they could get further details from her physicians, but it was often hard to remember everything on such short notice or in the middle of the night.

Having a pre-existing list of her conditions, history, prior surgeries, medications, and doctors made all of our lives so much easier. All I had to do was pull out the list, have them make a copy of it, and then answer any questions they had. This streamlined her treatment and minimized medication delays. They often thanked me for being so organized and told me they wished everyone kept such a list.

Taking care of a loved one with special medical needs is a hard job. It's also difficult for medical professionals, who must formulate a quick treatment plan for complicated cases. If they are delayed in finding out the patient's medications and medical history, critical treatment may also be delayed.

Having a special patient's updated medical history summary with you at all times can help expedite treatment and prevent many medical errors. It also can considerably lighten the heavy burden of overseeing the care of such family members.

Summary

Having an emergency contacts list with you at all times can help you deal with unexpected situations like weather emergencies, medical crises, or other challenges. Although most people carry emergency numbers in their cell phones, many don't have all the recommended numbers above in their cell phones, and few think to carry a hard copy too in case they don't have access to their cells.

Similarly, if you are one of the many people who care for a family member with special medical needs, it can be very helpful to also have their medical history summary on the back of your emergency contacts hard copy. List the person's conditions, doctors, doctor contact info, and medications/dosages/schedule and keep it nearby at all times. That way, if you are called in to help, you don't have to scramble to try to remember all the details accurately. The medical professionals you deal with will appreciate a concise summary like this.


Resources

Forms to help make an emergency contact list:

• http://foodstorageandsurvival.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Emergency-Phone-Numbers-pictures.pdf - simple and concise, with pictures to help children who may not read well yet
• http://foodstorageandsurvival.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Emergency-Phone-Numbers-no-pictures.pdf - the same form without picture prompts
• http://scoutermom.com/wp-content/uploads/Emergency-Phone-Number-List1.pdf - simple, easy-to-read format of a few emergency numbers (for younger children)
• http://citymomsblog.com/fortworth/2013/05/31/how-to-stock-a-first-aid-kit/ - another child-oriented easy-to-read format that looks like a bulletin board
• http://www.seattlechildrens.org/kids-health/page.aspx?id=34359738830 - suggestions for numbers for your emergency list and where to keep them

Advice on discussing how to make emergency calls with your child:

• http://www.mobilepromotion.biz/kids-emergency-numbers.html
• http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/plns/mrgncychldrn-eng.aspx