I got a lot of things done this weekend.
First, I put four trays of strawberries into the dehydrator on Saturday morning:
This yielded just under a quart of dried strawberries:
Dried Strawberries
Then I reloaded the dehydrator with Tomatoes:
My major project for the weekend was to can some Italian Meatballs in Spaghetti Sauce (homemade). Here are the meatballs ready to go into the oven:
The sauce is simmering on the stove while the meatballs bake:
The sauce has tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil, green peppers, onion and oregano.
Finally, I combined everything in wide mouth quart jars:
I wiped the jars down and processed in my pressure canner for 90 minutes at 11 psi pressure. I’m at sea level. People at higher elevations will need to adjust the pressure based on their altitude.
The five quarts are cooling on the counter. All of them sealed. I figure each jar will provide a dinner for TMOTH and I, plus enough leftovers for my lunch. We’ll serve this on shredded Spaghetti Squash or Zucchini Noodles.
While I was monitoring the canner, I mixed up a batch of deodorant. I’m sure those of you who see me in real life are relieved. As my five loyal readers may recall, I went “No Poo” in November 2011. Basically this means that I stopped using shampoo, soap, deodorant and toothpaste. I’ve developed, or found, alternatives for these products that don’t have harmful chemicals in them.
Deodorant was the thing that was the most difficult thing for me to find a satisfactory replacement. Rubbing coconut oil in my armpits and powdering with baking soda was just not cutting it (to say the least). I found a recipe that has essential oils, beeswax and other magical things in it. You mix it all up and pour it into a standard deodorant dispenser. It hardens and then is just as easy to use as standard deodorant. Best of all, no stinky armpit funk at the end of the day, I’ll blog the making of the next batch for those of you who may be interested.
Rancho Seabow Permaculture 
I’d be interested. So far, no good with my experiments (though if I layer the failures, almost). I’ve got all the ingredients.
Hi, found your blog through your recent post on Paul Wheaton’s Permies.com site. Just a note to say thanks for posting all these great recipes, living the life notes and preserving/drying how to’s. Looks like you are (or were) doing very similar things to what I am and I’ve really enjoyed your blog. Hoping there’s going to be more? Don’t give up yet…there’s at least 227 people out there besides your regular 5 plus me now who are interested enough in what you’re doing to add you to our busy lives. Oh, and I’d also be interested in the homemade deodorant recipe. I’ve tried a few with little success.
Thank you for your kind words. I am doing even MORE than I was doing. I found that blogging sometimes gets in the way of doing. I have kept the blog because I enjoy it and hope to get back to it. I will make the commitment to blog the next batch of deodorant. My oldest daughter is after me for that too.
I also just got a distiller for making essential oils, and that will be fun to blog (as will all the pressure canning I’ve been doing). Thank you for your encouragement. It may just be the push I need to get back to this bl0g.
Ooooh! A distiller! Just last summer I was looking at $$$essential oils in the stores and wondering what it would take to make my own. After a little research I realized i’d need some specialized equipment, so put that endeavour on the back burner. I’ll look forward to hearing how it goes 🙂