Our spanish farm Blog 
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If you've ever prepared dried beans for pressure canning, you've probably come across two different methods: soaking them overnight or using the much faster quick-soak method. But is one actually better than the other? Does it affect the texture, the taste, or even the safety of your canned beans? Let's have a closer look. Beans soaking Why do we soak beans before canning? When we're cooking dried beans for dinner, soaking is often simply a way of reducing the cooking time. S

How I pressure can Spanish-style lentils with tomato, peppers, garlic and smoked paprika: soaked, precooked, half-full jars, 75 minutes for pints ;)

Canning meat ;) Spend enough time reading about home preserving and you'll eventually come across something like this: "My grandmother always filled the jars while they were boiling hot, turned them upside down and kept them in the pantry. Nobody ever got sick." Or perhaps: "I've canned tomatoes in the oven for 30 years." And one of my favourites: "The lid sealed, so obviously it worked." These methods aren't unusual. Some have been used for generations, and depending on wher

Home canning can seem complicated when you first start. A part of my pantry Water-bath canning. Pressure canning. Acidity. Headspace. Processing times. Altitude adjustments. Seals. It sounds like a lot. But once you understand why these things matter, home canning becomes much easier to navigate. You don't need to memorize hundreds of rules. You need to understand a handful of basic principles and know where to find a reliable recipe. This guide covers the fundamentals every

August has arrived, and the preserving season is now in full swing. At this point in summer, preserving is no longer something I plan to do. Making sauce There are vegetables coming into the kitchen almost every day, jars are slowly filling the pantry shelves, the dehydrator is running, and every time I think I have caught up, I walk outside and find something else ready to harvest. And this month, it is all about tomatoes. I'm making tomato sauce, another batch of garden sal

If you'd asked me a year ago what a tomatillo was, I'd probably have guessed it was some unusual variety of tomato. I couldn't have been more wrong. When I planted the seeds this spring, I really didn't know what to expect. I'd never tasted a fresh tomatillo before, never cooked with one and certainly never grown them. I simply liked the idea of trying something different. This week's harvest! ;) That's one of the things I enjoy most about gardening. Every season feels like a

Every summer, I asked myself the same question. "Why am I doing this inside?" Anyone who has ever pressure canned in the middle of August knows exactly what I mean. The kitchen turns into a sauna, every window ends up wide open and, somehow, you're still standing over a pot of boiling water while the thermometer outside is already creeping past 35°C. Loving the simple canning station Every year I promised myself that next season would be different. Then another summer came an

A few weeks ago, I opened the door to our second house, walked over to the pantry and immediately knew something wasn't right. Bath time! A few tiny droppings. That's all it took. I don't think I've ever gone from calm to mildly horrified panic quite so quickly. For anyone who stores food, finding signs of a rat is probably close to the top of the list of things you never want to discover. My first thought wasn't about the rat. It was about the hundreds of jars lining the she

July is when preserving season stops being a pleasant little hobby and starts quietly taking over the house. Harvest season is upon us! At the beginning of summer, I always feel wonderfully organised. I have jars. I have lids. I have vinegar, lemon juice and a carefully considered list of everything I intend to preserve. Then the garden starts producing. Suddenly there are cucumbers in the fridge, tomatoes ripening on every available surface and a canner permanently stationed

May always feels like the true beginning of preserving season. The garden is awake, flowers are blooming, and herbs are surging ahead. The kitchen shifts from winter cooking into that familiar rhythm of filling jars, drying trays, and making the most of what the season offers. I like May because it still feels civilized. You’re not yet knee-deep in tomatoes, courgettes, and fruit avalanches. Instead, May offers smaller, enjoyable preserving projects that help rebuild the pant

When people imagine home canning, they usually picture the nice parts. Rows of gleaming jars. A bubbling pot on the stove. Sun-ripened tomatoes becoming sauce. Shelves full of homemade food ready for winter. And yes, those parts are real. My early spring pantry What people don’t always picture is standing in the kitchen surrounded by produce that all decided to ripen at once, realizing you’ve run out of lids, and wondering why you somehow created unpaid factory work for yours

Plannig your harvest from the start

Lately, it feels like everything is getting more expensive. You notice it at the supermarket first. A few euros more here, a few there. Nothing dramatic in the moment, but over time it adds up. And if there’s one thing history keeps showing us, it’s this Food prices don’t go down. They go up. Slowly. Then suddenly. And that’s exactly why growing your own food matters more than ever. Not because you’re trying to “save money” right now. If you’ve ever built a garden, you alread

Costco’s $5.99 rotisserie chicken is more than just a tasty meal, it’s a smart way to stretch your grocery budget and boost your kitchen efficiency. Many shoppers grab one for dinner and call it a day, but with a little planning, you can turn that single purchase into multiple meals and even homemade staples like bone broth. This post will walk you through how to make the most of this rotisserie chicken, save money, reduce waste, and build a more self-sufficient kitchen. 3 fu

I brought home 10kg of apples from a local farmer and turned part of the harvest into a small batch of low-sugar apple cinnamon jam. A taste of autumn, preserved in jars.

Turn your garden harvest into jars of rich, hearty ragu. Tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, celery and onions simmer into a sauce that’s perfect for pasta, and with pressure canning you can enjoy it all winter long.

Learn how to harvest summer squash at peak ripeness and preserve your bounty by dehydrating it. A step-by-step guide for stocking your pantry with shelf-stable squash all winter long.

If you’ve been canning for a while, chances are you’ve grabbed a permanent marker and scribbled the contents and date right on the lid. It’s quick, it works… but only until it doesn’t. Smart canning labels will be the thing for you. Labeled jars, ready for storage Now, I feel the need to add that I am not selling anything here. There is no link to an amazon store for you to check out, there is no "click here to get yours". I am just sharing somthing that really made a big dif

How I pick sweet corn at its peak, freeze it on the cob and pressure can the kernels: 55 minutes for half-pints. A taste of summer all winter ;)

Bolognese sauce right out of the canner If there’s one sauce that deserves a spot in your pantry, it’s Bolognese. Rich, meaty, and bursting with flavor, this classic Italian-style sauce turns any weeknight into a warm, comforting meal. With a pressure canner, you can preserve homemade Bolognese with ground beef (hamburger meat) in jars—ready to pour over pasta, stuff into lasagna, or spoon over zucchini noodles in minutes. In this post, you'll learn how to safely can Bolognes