Health and Homestead Pod
2 sisters, a Registered Nurse and a Clinical Pharmacist, both moms, both working full time and living in rural Nova Scotia. We will share one medical tip and one homestead tip on each episode.
Come along as we discuss common ailments and easy ways to incorporate homesteading into your busy everyday life.
Health and Homestead Pod
Ep.5 Constipation & Canning
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In this episode
Laura discusses common causes and treatments for constipation.
Allie gives a brief overview of canning - water bath canning vs pressure canning
Etsy Store: Healthandhomestead1
Disclaimer. This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please do not avoid or delay obtaining medical advice based on the shit that we say.
SPEAKER_01Thanks. Hi. Hi. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. It's episode five. Episode five. Look at us sticking with something.
SPEAKER_02Oh my God.
SPEAKER_01I know. They believed they could, so they did. They did. And we got shirts with our face on it that mom is wearing around 10. So we do have merch.
SPEAKER_02It's on my Etsy store. And they look super comfortable too. And they look they look big. Like I don't, and I don't mean that like she got a, I don't know. They just look comfortable and like not too small, like not undersized, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
SPEAKER_01I think most of them are Gildan, though, so it's pretty good quality. Yeah. Yeah. They look super comfortable. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Ours are in the mail.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02You can wear your own merch. It's fine. Don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_01Check out our Etsy store, Health and Homestead Pod One on Etsy. Pod one. Yeah. There's some. We did a Health and Homestead kind of just a cover page for the for the podcast, but also that's the D for D right there. That's a new merch with that's the D for D on there. So if you're following along, you know what the dick for dolly is. Yeah, the D for D is the Dick D Doll E. I couldn't put dick on a shirt. You could. But you shouldn't. I shouldn't. With my face. I can't put dick under my face. No.
SPEAKER_00No.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_01Not at 41. There was a time that maybe it was appropriate, but the 41's not the time. Anywho. We have also some corrections from last week. I have some corrections. Yes. Because you asked me if you can get hand, foot, and mouth more than once. And you can, but you can't get the strain, the same strain more than once. I didn't know that. But there's hundreds of strains, so still. Fuck y'all. You can get it all kinds of times. You can get it hundreds of times, actually. Um and also what else? Oh, Vermox. I talked about Vermox for pinworms. And Vermox is not available over the counter. Vermox in Canada is a prescribed medication that you need someone to prescribe for you. So in Nova Scotia, pharmacists can do it. But you may need to talk to like your virtual care if you don't have a nurse practitioner or doctor to get it prescribed for you and your family. The only available one over the counter, it's called Cambantrin, or the generic name is Pyrental Pamelate. But it's my favorite Pamelate. That's my favorite. That's my favorite one. You don't have the parental, you don't have the D for D. It's not the D for D. Not the D for D. But it's that has been often on the market, like with shortages. So I don't know if that's available, and I'm sorry that I don't work community more, but um yeah, there is prescriptions available. But that's a corrections. What did you do last week? Pumpkins.
SPEAKER_02I did uh I did pumpkins, and I don't think pumpkins are still pumpkins. And you're perfect. And I'm no mistake. I'm okay. I'm a perfect little pumpkin, so next.
SPEAKER_01Next um next. This yeah, this week I've You had your surgery. I have my surgery, it's not going great. I'm not I I'm underwhelmed. I thought it was gonna be magic, but it's not. I don't feel very funny today.
SPEAKER_02No, it helped a little bit though.
SPEAKER_01No, yeah, the numbing that they put in the day that it happened was very, very nice. I want requested that for daily administration, but no.
SPEAKER_02No, we're not uh we're we're not firing on all cylinders, on all cylinders this week, I don't think. Yeah, so what's going on with you, Al? So thank God for my sister. We're having a time over here. Having a time. So I'm just gonna preface this by saying mental health is very important. It is very important to take care of yourself um and to put yourself first sometimes, especially when you're a mother, when you're a full-time working mom, and all that stuff. Sometimes your health can kind of be second fiddled to everyone else's, so it is very important. So um I realized that the meds that I've been on, meds for kind of anxiety, depression for a very long time, been on a few different ones, but the ones that I've been on that have been working, had been working for years, um, all of a sudden weren't working as well as they should have been. So, anyway, so I was pro, well, not so much pro- which is common, which is very common. One size does not fit all, and one size does not fit you forever. Forever, yeah. So trial and error is a big part of of finding the right medication, finding the right mix of medications. Um, but like I said, I was very well controlled for a long time, and then I I was until I wasn't, and then just doing some changes in medications, but that process itself is is very difficult, and it is I'll tell you one fucking thing. It's very easy to be an advocate for mental health. I am I'm always an ad for advocate for mental health, but it's very easy when you are on the right meds, when everything is great, and you're just kind of coming from a place of you know how good it can be. You know how good it can be, but to be in a spot where you have to be a little bit more vulnerable, even if it's with the closest people in your life that you love and they love you, it's still for someone like me, it's very difficult. For a lot of people, it's very difficult. So I just wanted to do a little plug for mental health, just take care of yourselves. It's very important, and um yeah, it's it's sometimes it's hard hardest, but you have to go through to get to the other to the other side kind of thing. But yeah, so I have I have hope, but I'm definitely in the in the the thick of it right now.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, it comes in waves, it's not gonna be and important to know too when you do med changes, you have to be patient. It's not gonna change overnight. It's usually a taper program that's like at least three to four weeks, usually up to you know, up to 12 weeks sometimes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, which I'm dead in the thick of right now. And as we've discussed before, I am deficient in patience, so I'm working on that as well. The iron's better. My iron, guys, is low normal. Thank you. Thank you very much. But yeah, it's a work, it's a work in progress, but always, always kind of I don't know, assess yourself and make sure you're doing what's what's best for you. And sometimes that means doing some hard stuff, but it's okay to not be okay.
SPEAKER_01It's okay to not be okay.
SPEAKER_02And just hopefully you have the support that I have.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, yeah. And if you don't like there's there's support out there, it's just a matter of finding it.
SPEAKER_02And sometimes it is tough to navigate healthcare, but and it's and it's tough too when you're when it when you're not in a place that you're very comfortable about seeking that kind of help. So even if you have somebody that can help you with that. And again, I'm very, very helpful. I'm not very helpful maybe right now, but I am always always a non-judgmental um corner. We we both are. So, anyways, just a little little plug for that, because it's it's it's hard to talk about this stuff sometimes. But yeah, we're going through it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right in the right in the middle of it. It's been a it's been a fucking week, maybe.
SPEAKER_02It's been a week on this compound, let me tell you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, it's been tough. But anyway, today we're gonna go constipation and canning. Yeah. Weo, weo! And please, I did have some more, actually, some um suggestions for topics this week that came in, but we have a couple that we're on to already. But please keep sending suggestions in. Um, and if they start with the same letter, then bonus points. Yeah, but saps for you.
SPEAKER_02We might not be able to do that forever, but we'll try as much as we can. That's okay.
SPEAKER_01Oh, what a bad day it's gonna be when we can't do it anymore.
SPEAKER_02I feel like we're gonna stretch it. Yeah, we're gonna make it happen.
SPEAKER_01It won't make sense much, but it'll it'll happen. Um, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Come up here with me. Me first. Yeah, Laura's gonna go first with constipation. Constipation. Which I know a lot of us are figuratively figuratively, it's hard for me to say. Figuratively full of shit, but have you ever been literally full of shit? Yeah, probably. Probably you probably uh constipation. When I when you look at the definition of it, it's really it they have to define it somehow. It's if you go to the bathroom, if you have a bowel movement less than three times a week, I'm just gonna say poop. Yeah, because poop is an easy word to say. Bowel movement doesn't sound like me. No. So if you poop less than three times a week, you're technically by definition constipated. But also you're constipated if you have hard, lumpy, dry stools, like little pellets. Yeah, it's all stuck together like deer poops. Yeah. If you strain when you go to the bathroom most of the time. If you like poop and then you feel afterwards like you're not empty, like you should feel satisfied. It should be a very satisfying feeling when you poop.
SPEAKER_02There should be a sigh, a nice sigh. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01If it's 20 minutes later and you're back in the bathroom, that's the same poop. It just didn't come out all the way. So there's some there's some issues going on there. And I'm gonna say one of the most common things that I see, and this is why asking questions as a healthcare professional is so important, because people come in, they're like, I have diarrhea. Like I've been I went to the bathroom four times today, it's all water. It's like, okay, how long has it been since you went before? And if they say, Well, I didn't go for four days, and then I had like explosive diarrhea, it's like, okay, but was the first one solid? Like, was that the cork and the champagne bottle? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because damn it's called like charismal diarrhea or something, but it's it's something, it's very common. Yeah, but you can be constipated and go to the bathroom like once every three days, but then if you have like a diarrhea day, that could actually mean constipation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Because you're you're which is difficult to explain.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. From your asshole to your appetite, there is a hundred to six hundred million neurons. Like your your gut acts as its own brain system. It's called the second brain in the body because it doesn't actually need your brain to send triggers and tell it when it's full. It does it by itself.
SPEAKER_02It's really fucking that's why gut health is so important.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a whole system, and it when you look into concept, but I'm gonna give it to you very broad because there is a ton a shit ton. Shit ton to know. And we're back, baby. Maybe I didn't feel funny, but here we here we go. Just been behind this foam with you, Al. Just give me the little rush. Anyway, your gut's a genius. Yeah. So there's 25 feet of intestine in your body, which is fucking crazy. Like if you it's all rolled up in there, and sometimes you see it on the road when you pass a dead animal. But anyway, 25 feet. Small intestine and large intestine. So that's where all of our like nutrients are absorbed, all the water in our food. Like our body's mostly water. We we absorb a ton of water from what we eat, what we drink, you know, just to have our body function. It's a lot of spots for shit to happen. Like if there's issues gonna happen, if there's like blockages or like a lot of surface area, for activities, a lot of room for activities. Um, but yeah, it's a ton, it's very scientific. There's a bunch of nervous systems that are involved. I'm not gonna get into that. Bleep. Bleep bleep blee blee, blue, bleep, blue, blue. And what causes constipation though? Being dry. Being dry. No, being dry a lot of the time, diet habits, hydration, like lack of physical activity. Yeah, community, in our culture. In our culture, yeah. But not being hydrated, not being physically active, like diet, hydration, high fiber, and movement, those are kind of that's the D for D for conservation. If you can move your body and drink enough water, which is fucking hard. Yes, it is. Two liters of water a day. If I always I pose it because I did it myself once. I put I say take four like 500 mil bottles and put them on the counter and try to make sure that they're gone by nighttime. Because it's actually a visual of how much water you have to drink. Oh, I drink tons of water. It's like I drink up my morning pills. It's like, do you take a sip or a full bus? Oh, just a sip.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's like I'm gonna have a sip with lunch and a sip with this, and it's maybe six ounces of water in a day. You need a lot. You need a lot more than that. Yeah. So a lot of water is very important just for every bodily system, not just your your gut, but um, that's one of the main symptoms of or the main cause of constipation is kind of diet. Medications, though, a lot of medications that can cause you to be constipated. Some common ones, like antidepressants, um, GLP ones. GLP ones, maybe that we've always in the osempics of the world, they actually slow digestion, so it can it can cause constipation. Um very common in practice. Very I see that all the time. Yeah. Diabetic medications or some hypertension, like high blood pressure medications, like diuretics that can cause that. A lot of conditions too, like having hypothyroid, so an underactive thyroid, having anxiety and depression is a symptom of is a cause of constipation. Um, but like Parkinson's MS. Um, there's a lot of conditions that just having the condition itself can can increase your risk of constipation. But when you're constipated, usually you're bloated, so your belly just feels full and full of gas, you're nauseous, you can have back pain like radiating up your back. Um, it can cause anxiety and depression. God damn it. And it can cause the cycle continues. Yeah. So it's a not it's not comfortable, it's not a good, it's not a good time. And I will share an experience.
SPEAKER_02I know what she's gonna say.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think I was in grade 10 or grade 11, but I got my mom to pick me up.
SPEAKER_02I feel like it was a big hockey game, too. It was like the the We We left school to go see it. Yeah, it was a championship one because I was in grade eight.
SPEAKER_01It's my grade one that someone fell down the stairs. Do you remember that? No. Oh, my girlfriends will know what I'm talking about. Anyway, um, but yeah, I had to get my mom to come pick me up at the hockey game because I was in that much pain. I was like, I have to go to the hospital. And I thought I was going in the hospital and I was not coming out. Like I it was it. This is it for me. I need a one-way. My 16-year-old life was coming to an end. Anyway, I went in to the emergency room. They did a bunch of x-rays and stuff, and they said, You're full of shit. And I was like, No, seriously. Like worst pain I've ever experienced. Like, and he's like, No, no, seriously, you're you're full of shit. I was like, Oh, okay. So there's my beginning of constipation. I know, I know. So I know I'm very sympathetic to the constipated of the world. But when you read about it, it's like they're up to 30% of people have constipation, whether it be chronic or like just periodic. But it's that's a lot of friggin' people. It's one of those things that people throw around the word, but it's actually like it's you probably are. Like if you think you are, you probably are. Yeah, and there's a bunch of stuff you can do for it, but it it takes patience, it takes like some some healthy dietary habits, which a lot of us aren't great with, but uh but it segue into treatment for constipation. D for D, fiber, fiber, fiber, baby. So high fiber diet has been linked to like lower risks of colorectal cancer, lower cardiovascular disease risks, like better for your heart. So, all around, just eat more fiber. And for it's like 20 to 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day, which is a lot if you're don't go from zero to 30. Go slow, go slow. Go slow, go slow. Yeah, or you'll be you'll be toot toot toot in your way through the body. So you'll be hurting in your belly. But yeah, increase your fiber gradually, slowly, to get it up to that normal range, and and try to stay there because that it's one of the best things you do for your health, honestly. Different types of five fiber though, like there's soluble fiber, insoluble fiber that we always hear about most plant, like veggies and fruits and things like that, they have a mix of both. But the stuff you buy over the counter, so psyllium and inulin, which inulin is low glycemic index, so it's really good for diabetics to use because it doesn't raise your blood sugar, but good for cholesterol, too. Those are soluble fibers, and it's good for diabetes, it's good for sugar control. Um, they absorb so you take a soluble fiber like psyllium. You you take it, you drink it with a big glass of water. It actually makes like a gel in your in your gut. Make sure you drink it with a lot of water, a lot of water, or else it's going to bind you the fuck off. But yeah, as long as you're drinking lots of water, it helps like kind of slow things down and it I always say it kind of looks like works like a vacuum. Like it kind of balkaning, it's a stool balkening thing, yeah. Yeah, it like takes the stuff sticky on the side of your intestines and moves it along. Um but that's really good for it can absorb cholesterol, it can absorb sugar, so it can actually decrease your body's absorption of those things. And then there's insoluble fiber, which is like the roughage. When you talk about roughage and like just stuff that moves right through.
SPEAKER_02I picture hay. I always just picture eating hay and it going through. I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01I don't know why either, because I think corn.
unknownOh.
SPEAKER_01It's like when did I have corn? When did I have corn? Yeah. But wheat, bran, and roughage stuff that's uh insoluble fiber. Both of them are great. Doesn't matter what kind, but if you're constipated and you take soluble fiber and not fluid, then you're gonna be in trouble. Yeah, because you're gonna it's gonna bind up more. So if you're gonna take a fiber supplement, dietary fiber is better. Get fiber in your food. It's always better. You're gonna get a lot more nutrients and minerals from the food you eat. Um same for most supplements. Yeah, yeah. But it's a lot. I mean, food's expensive and fiber is 30 grams of fiber is hard to get in. So if you do take a fiber supplement, like a metamucle or like a ben fiber or something like that, um, just be sure you're drinking enough. Another treatment, hydration. Like we said, so important. Like two liters, one and a half to two liters of water a day. Move your bod. Move your goddamn body.
SPEAKER_02Move your body. Laura showed up in my house this morning, the last two mornings with a protein shake and a half smile on her face. 50 grams of protein in a shake. Yeah, it's like here you go. Yeah, but we are walking. We are walking and we're it's good for your mental health, guys. It is, and physical health, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But medication, so there's a lot of over-the-counter stuff you can get. Always check with somebody first because it really depends what you're on. But the most common ones are the stimulant laxatives. So you get X-lax, Senecot, bisicodal, or Dulclax is the name for that. So they work by actually like making your intestines contract and move things along, which are great when you're taking medications that slow it down. So if you're taking an opioid, it stimulates it too. Yes, and it's it's making it slow down. Sometimes you need something to help speed it out. There's been a lot of talk about like, does it make my bowel lazy if I use it all the time? And the evidence isn't there to say it does, but it's not there to say it doesn't either. So not recommend it long term unless it's like prescribed for you by your healthcare team. But um, for once in a while use to get things moving, but then to introduce the fiber and keep things soft and and yeah, the main goal is a soft formed stool. You want something that wraps around the toilet bowl. Yeah. Um Bristol, what is it? The Bristol thing, yeah. There's pictures. Yeah. And then the other ones, the osmotic laxative. So this is your uh lactulose, your peg, your mirror lax. Yeah. So that uh clear lax, restore lax, mirror lax, whatever. Put it in your two liters of water that you're drinking. Yeah, just get it in. So that they're they pull water into your bowel. So they are soluble fibers.
SPEAKER_00No, they're not.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. They're no, they're not. Okay. They're a nosmonic laxative. So they they pull water in though, so they make things soft and form. It's more of a stool softener. Yep. They're not great. They they say laxative on the bottle, and I I hesitate to call it that because it's gonna take a couple days for restoralax to get your stuff moving, but they're great to take as a preventative. But anything for constipation, if you have to take it more than like a month, probably talk to your doctor because they're or be better with your diet. Be better and move your body. Yeah, yeah. Because there's some dietary stuff that's a lot safer to use. Um, but PEG is good, like the the Restoralax, the Miralax, those are good because they can be used in kids too, like for six months and over for occasional constipation, stool softening. Um, but yeah, long-term, long-term use, not always recommended, but is it safe? Probably. It's just a matter of is it part of your treatment plan? Yeah. But your gut's a genius. Go listen, listen to your gut, people.
SPEAKER_02Listen to your gut.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, if you have explosive diarrhea after a after you pass a hard stool after a couple days of not going, it's constipation. And you go to the pharmacy because you're like, I have diarrhea, then you want to take a modium. It's not the right answer because then you're gonna be even more constipated. For the love of God to know. Yeah. So when you when you have anything going on with your bowels, try try to think back a couple days. It's like what what was my habits up until this point? If I had watery diarrhea for the last six days continuously, yes. You need something, you need to go see your doctor. You need electrolytes. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But if you if it's I like the champagne bottle, yeah. It's a good, yeah, yeah. There's a cork there, and once that passes, then everything's gonna come behind it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it could just be a little tiny hard plug and then the the rest is liquid because when you're when your intestines are full, your belly sends signals to say, like empty, empty, empty, empty. Yeah. So when that cork comes out, empty, empty, empty, empty, empty, like it's gonna go full force until everything's gone. So yeah, it can be a miserable couple days. And I will say GLP ones, that happens a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_01Because it does cause constipation, and then you get these diarrhea days. It can be diet related depending on what you're eating, but um yeah, a lot of it's constipation.
SPEAKER_02Up your fiber, make sure you're getting enough. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Definitely. Yep. So that's my shit talk for the day.
SPEAKER_02That is that. So I'm going to talk about canning, and I I tried to just talk about, like I was going to just talk about water bath canning and pressure canning, but I have to start with botulism because that's kind of where everything stems from. Um everybody has heard of the word, I'm sure, but it's not like the and I'm not going to go too in depth, but essentially, botulism is a bacteria. Um, Clostridium botulinum is the is the bitch. Um it's a bacteria and it forms spores that are like a protective coating, and this is something that's everywhere. Like remember when I was talking about sourdough and how the yeast is everywhere, it's gross to think about, but it is everywhere. Um, this bacteria is the same thing. It's everywhere, it's in the soil, it's in like guts of animals, and it's it's everywhere. But that spore has a very hard coating on it. It's not going to do anything until it's activated. So when that gets activated, and that happens when it's when this spore is in a very low oxygen um anaerobic kind of place, right? So excuse me, um, it has to be in that kind of um environment to to be um to get there faster. Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Um okay. So it's an anaerobic bacteria. That's what I'm trying to get to at the end of the day. It cannot live in, and the reason for what I'm getting at here is the reason that you water bath some things and you pressure can some things all has to do with kind of the pH and where the um what the where the botulism kind of is. So with water bath canning, you use you can water bath can anything that has a low pH, anything under 4.6. 4.6 is the cutoff. Anything below that, if I ask you what's the pH of anything, you'd be like, why the fuck are you asking me this? I don't know. So essentially, that means things like jams, jellies, tomatoes are kind of right on the cusp. So usually anytime I make anything, um, I can anything with tomatoes. I do do water bath canning, but I usually add lemon juice to it. It makes it a little more acidic, which means it's lower pH. Ah. So it's one of those things that's kind of like the opposite. Um, you gotta kind of think about it for a minute. But with water bath canning, you are boiling water. So that is the boiling point of water is 100 degrees Celsius, which is 212 Fahrenheit for all you weirdos out there. No, I love you all. It's fine. Um, but 100 degrees is kind of where you where you want to be. With those acidic foods, botulism cannot live. It needs anaerobic. If you have um a vinegar kind of situation, if you have a high salt um environment, if you have a highly acidic environment, it's not gonna live anyway. Like pickles. Like pickles, exactly. Okay, like vinegar, vinegary-based things, fermented things. I'm gonna be canning some sauerkraut here soon, actually. Um, and that's another example. So it cannot live. So therefore, when you are water bath, when you are water bath canning, um, there's no risk of botulism based on the temperature that you're that you're canning it at. And water bath canning is like on the stove. Yep. It's a big tub of water that you have to boil. You submerge the the cans completely with like water over top of them, get it to a rolling boil, and then you you boil it for X amount of numbers. Usually if you have a recipe, it'll say you have to can it for what however long. Can you do it in any pot? Yeah. Oh, okay. You can you can. I mean you can pot, obviously. A big pot, you just have to make sure that the um you have to make sure that the bottles are not sitting right on the bottom because they can crack, just because when the when it's boiling and stuff, if they can move around. So what I do actually I did the other day, I was just doing a small, um, a small batch. So I put a towel on the bottom, it kind of like floats up, but I put all the things on a towel so that way they didn't they didn't crack. And I just used my like pot, my pot from that I would use like my stock pot. You put a towel of boiling water? I put a towel on the bottom of it, yep. Okay, I would think that would burn, but don't. Nope. Not in the not on the stove. I put it in the in the actual thing to prove to give you that kind of like excuse me. Yeah. Oh my god, shut up. Um so yeah, so that's water bath canning, and that's kind of something um you you apparently can water bath can anything, but it takes so long to water bath can stuff that is high, um, or sorry, that is low pH. So more basic. No, sorry, high pH and yeah, less acidic. So it would just take hours and hours and hours, whereas you could just do it in like 40 minutes in a pressure canner. So that's why pressure canning is more um appropriate for those things. So that would be your things like your potatoes and beans and basically anything that you want to make shelf stable. So a lot of the things and a lot of things I see on social media, they talk about rebel canning, and then there's what's called the canning cairns that say, like, you're gonna get botulism if it's not a USDA approved recipe. So the issue with that is that USDA came out with these guidelines. They tested a whole bunch of stuff and they said, okay, we tested it. There's no way there's botulism in this, it's it's good, it's safe to eat. There's stuff that they didn't test. It's not that they tested it and it was unsafe, it's just that they didn't test it. So things like I mean, people make shelf stable like cheese sauce, alfredo sauce, that kind of thing, as long as they are pressure canning it to the point that it reaches um at least 240 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 116 Celsius, as long as it reaches at least that for that period of time that it's canning, that means that there is no possible way that botulism can live in that environment. Does that make sense? It does.
SPEAKER_01But our pressure canners dangerous. I feel like it's like a champagne bottle, too.
SPEAKER_02No, they're not. They used to be, apparently. They used to be in apparently. But pressure cookers. Pressure cookers, yeah. Yeah. So pressure, pressure cooker, and pressure canner are two different things. Do not pressure can in a pressure cooker. That's a good point. Um, so when you're pressure canning, it's stuff that is a greater um greater than 4.6 pH. So that's a lot of the stuff. I mean, if you're doing jams and and pickles and stuff, that's fine. But like if you're getting into meat, like we we bottle um like their deer meat and stuff like that, you really have to to make sure that you are definitely not going to get botulism. And it's not saying that if you water bath can these things that you will get botulism, it's just that you're increasing your risk because you're not killing the thing at the source, kind of thing. So, pardon me, pressure canning gets up to 116 to 121 degrees Celsius. I know these numbers are boring, but that's like the cutoffs for it. Um, a lot of the stuff I see on on Facebook, a lot of people I follow are from the States, so they use Fahrenheit, so it's 240. As long as it's above 240 Fahrenheit, there is no possible way that the botulism toxin, which is the thing that you can like the foodborne illness that can kill you, that can give you kind of like the paralysis or whatever, it cannot survive above 240 degrees. So then it comes to how long do you pressure can it for and at what pressure and at what elevation and whatever. So that's when you have to kind of go to the guidelines and be like, okay, I'm at whatever elevation, which I still have to look up for for where we are in the world. Um, but it'll tell you that stuff and like for how long. So say you have something, if you're just doing potatoes, if you're dry packing potatoes and then you're putting them in a pressure canner, all you have to do is follow the instructions for pressure canning potatoes. If you have a soup that has potatoes in it and has peas and it has ham and it has cream and all this stuff in it, you have to use the densest thing that's in there. So you would have to use the longest times because that that temperature has to penetrate the densest material in there. And then it'll be safe. So it's kind of like uh, yes, there are rebel rebel canners out there, but they understand what botulism is. And if they're taking the steps to not have botulism in there to begin with, it's not like you you just have to know about it what you what you fear, what you don't know, you fear. Um, so yeah, that's kind of in a nutshell, that's that's what it is. That's the biggest thing between water, water canning and pressure canning is the pH of the food.
SPEAKER_01So canning is just to make things shelf stable. Yes. So you can make anything shelf stable. Like this is why when you harvest a garden, this is like canning.
SPEAKER_02And a lot of, yes, exactly. A lot of vegetables are are um should be pressure canned because they're higher than than 4.6. But like I said, tomatoes are kind of right on the cusp. So anytime like I've made a shitload of stuff this year, pizza sauce, pasta sauce, blah blah blah. Everything I do, I usually make the sauce, put it in the jars, and then add a teaspoon or whatever it is, whatever that I usually follow a recipe just to be, just to be safe, but um it'll say add a teaspoon of lemon, of lemon juice. Like pure lemon juice, not from a lemon, like actual lemon juice. So just to be just to be on the safe side. But I mean, if you're if you're making something that is technically not USDA tested, that doesn't mean it tested and failed. That just means that it wasn't tested. And that was that conveniently came out when everything started to be canned on shelves and taxed and everything.
SPEAKER_01So there's a shit ton you can can too. Like you told me about a recipe for rice yesterday.
SPEAKER_02Rice, just like rice and water, and then you can it and then it's just available, available shelf stable, cooked rice. It's cold, obviously, but you know you have to heat it up. Yeah, but yeah, and like even saline, like saline water for emergencies, yeah, like these preppers and stuff. Like, I'm not a prepper by any means. I would love to be, but someday. I don't have time right now, but um, but no, you can you can a can like yeah, saline for medical emergencies just to have on hand like clean, safe I mean you don't drink it obviously, but it's for wounds and stuff in case of yeah.
SPEAKER_01A tip I read too is like to to um store your bottles with water in them, like clean drinking water because it takes up the same amount of space there for when power goes out, or if you you know, for emergencies to have all your cans just full of water.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's so smart. And another thing too, when I I find when um our water, do you get does your guys' water have a lot of calcium in it? Like, do you do you have like a film on your on your stuff sometimes? Or you guys probably have a lot more filters over there. We have a filter on it, yeah. I don't I don't know. Yeah, so our our water, I usually go, we have a spring that's kind of down the road. If I'm filling up my water bath canner, if I fill it from the sink, it's not that it's unsafe, it just makes the jars all cloudy on the outside and the inside. And that's the other thing they say is when you're when you're done canning, always wash your balls. Always wash your balls. Balls are the brand name of the of the mason jars. Um, actually, ball, I think, is an American company and Bernardin is the Canadian company. But anyways, always wash your balls.
SPEAKER_01So once they're all before you seal them, you should always wipe the top of them too to get any like residue off right before your sealer.
SPEAKER_02So when you're pouring it in, they always they suggest to do vinegar just to take off because if there's any liquid at all, it's just gonna affect the seal. Um, and another tip that I seen the other day, and I was guilty of this, is when you're taking things out of the canner, it's good to take it out completely straight and put it completely straight. I'm bad for trying to tip off the water just because I wanted to have no water on it. That can affect the seal because they don't always pop right away. They don't always pop when they're in the canner. Sometimes you hear them when you take them out and you're just you're doing something else, like pop, pop, pop, pop in the background. So that can affect the seal too. So straight out, leave them to cool or whatever, and then after they're they're on their solid, then you're gonna like wash them to to put them away and stuff, and just you can take the water off in.
SPEAKER_00It's fascinating.
SPEAKER_02It's it's really cool. And once you get into it, like I said, I'm really I'm very much acquainted with water bath canning. I am going to be, I'm gonna make myself more acquainted with pressure canning because I'm running out of freezer space. That's the biggest thing. You can freeze everything, but it's energy, and it's again, I'm not a prepper. I will say that I'm not a prepper, but it's good to have stuff that's shelf stable for when the power goes out. Yeah, if the power goes out for, I mean, it's it was what four years ago that Fiona was, and it was 15 plus days that people had no power. We were lucky to have generators available, but not everybody did. Like we could have lost two stand-up freezers full of meat. Yeah, right. So if we had some that was shelf stable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And when you pressure can them, that's why I want to do potatoes, because they're basically cooked. Yeah. In the thing, you just have to take them up and heat them up. Yep. Same as meat. You can like can chicken and it's on sale.
SPEAKER_02And it's well, and that's the thing too. And again, with the rabbit hole, it always comes down to the when I started homesteading, it was everything was I want to make all my own stuff, everything I can. I have to make from scratch, like I have to, it has to be my own beans, it has to be my own potatoes. If shit's on sale, yeah, uh, can it? Like it doesn't like that's the that's the mind mindset that you have to kind of shift sometimes of uh crunchy-ish, crunchy-ish, baby, crunchy ish. So yeah, just try to try to work work with what works with you and your income and all that stuff, but you can really and and it saves money too, it saves food waste. Because if you buy a whole bunch of like peaches or something, yeah, and you want one peach and then you're like, I never want to see a peach again, you can can the rest of your fucking peaches. Yeah. Or like peach pie filling or something, like apple pie filling.
SPEAKER_01Most of the things you can too are high in fiber for constipation.
SPEAKER_02Oh, there you go. Oh, the D for D. We came right back around. Came back around.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Anyway, 35 minutes.
SPEAKER_02Love it.
SPEAKER_01That's the that's the limit. My friends have said that that's the perfect amount of time.
SPEAKER_02So we're at 3455, so bye.
SPEAKER_01Next week, I don't think we have a topic for the episode.
SPEAKER_02I don't think we picked it yet, but we'll we'll we'll be back for episode six. I can't believe five episodes already. That's crazy. I know. So yeah, like, like, review, subscribe, hop, skip, jump, whatever you want to do, whatever you want to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, that's it for today. All right. Okay. Love you bye.
