After years of reading about the homesteading adventures of Countryside readers, it has finally dawned on me. The difference between the homesteading success stories and the  tales of smoldering ruin is that successful homesteaders are craftsmen/women. They didn’t choose a minimalist lifestyle; instead, they combined determination and knowledge to craft a way of life , a heritage.  A lifestyle takes money. A  way of life takes time.

Established homesteaders like Sue Robishaw of Many Tracks and my friends Roger and Ann from Confessions of a Tightwad, are masters of the craft. They know full well that homesteading is a gilded craft, requiring the knowledge of the ages to sharpen modern skills. In the pages of Countryisde, the words of sage homesteaders guide others through the often tenuous steps to mastering their own level of self-reliance. I’m often in awe at the personal mastery of the readers who write to us. They are willing to try, repeatedly, to forge a way of life that reflects who they are and what they’re doing here. If you want to know someone’s heart, simply look at the things they care enough to do for themselves. Homesteading isn’t about a lifestyle; it’s about personal mastery.

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My friend told me this story about  a guy his friend worked with.

The guy was in LA on business. He met a girl in the hotel’s bar, and after a couple of drinks, the pair went upstairs. After that, the guy remembers nothing. He woke up in the bathtub in his hotel room, naked, covered to his waist in ice with an IV in his arm. In bold letters on the mirror, someone wrote: DON’T MOVE! You have just had surgery. One of your kidneys has been removed. We have called 911 for you. The guy passed out, and when he woke up he was in the ICU, and missing a kidney. The detectives told him that a ring of organ thieves is targeting business men. Good story, huh? But it’s not true. It’s an urban legend.

Here’s another urban legend: the Government is giving away land. Everyone knows someone who heard it from someone that there is free land out West, down South, up North, and even in the Canadian wilderness. Sorry folks, it’s just not true. There is no such thing as free government land, from any government on the planet. Such stories are just urban legends. Everyone knows someone who heard it from someone whose cousin worked with a guy whose brother’s friend got free land in Texas (or wherever). The problem is, no one seems to know the exact person who claimed the free government land. That’s how urban legends work: they seem legitimate because the person telling the story seems to personally involved. But if you pay attention, it becomes apparent that they are just repeating  the story.

Every now and then, we get a letter from someone looking for information on free or nearly free land. The latest came from someone claiming there is free land in Canada. Of course, it didn’t contain any contact information for the Canadian officials in charge of passing out the free land, not even the name of anyone who got a parcel of free land, just a few lines insisting that there is free land. So, at the risk of being abundantly redundant: there is no such thing as free land. The Homestead Act of 1862 that allowed settlers to claim 40 acres to farm, was abolished in 1976. Canada had a similar law that was enacted in 1872 and subsequently abolished in 1918. While the governments of the U.S. and Canada do sell land parcels on occasion, they sell them at market value. While buying land from the government can be inexpensive, it certainly isn’t free.

If you’re still looking for free land, don’t despair. I know a guy whose brother works with my cousin’s first step-sister who is friends with a gal at NASA who told her that she could by land for next to nothing on Mars and the Moon. Just a few dollars for thousands of acres!

My oldest daughter, 24, called the other day, and the words I had hoped I would someday hear came wafting through the phone, “Mom, it’s not that hard to can tomatoes, right?”

Of course it’s not that hard, but when she was younger, you couldn’t tell her that. She moaned constantly about having to help in the garden and prepare food for processing. You’ve never seen anyone carry on quite like this child. When she was 13, she threw such a hissy fit because she had to pick beans that the neighbor a quarter-mile down the road made her kids come in the house.

Another time, she was so upset about picking tomatoes that she threw half a bushel of them on the ground and stomped them into a pulverized pool of goo. She vowed for years, from the time she was 12 until she moved out, that she was never going to have a garden. And she was never going to eat home-canned tomatoes, ever again. I guess never isn’t quite as long as people think it is.

Tomatoes are the easiest thing in the world to can. So, for my daughter and all you other curious canners-to-be, here’s the drill:

Supplies

• A canning kettle with jar rack. You can find these at hardware stores as well as online.
• Mason jars, either pint or quart sized, with matching lids and rings. These will be available where you find kettles.
• Measuring spoons
• Rubber spatula
• A pile of fresh tomatoes
• Canning salt (available at most grocery stores in rural areas).

Procedure

Prepare tomatoes by removing the core and dipping them in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds. The less ripe tomatoes will take longer to blanch. Remove the skins from tomatoes. Place peeled tomatoes in large pan or bowl.

Prepare jars:

• Wash jars and rings in warm soapy water, rinsing well.
• Place lids in a bowl of very hot water so the rubber softens, ensuring a better seal.
• Steam or boil clean jars for ten minutes to sterilize and place on a clean towel to dry. (You can use your canning kettle for this step.)
• Fill canning kettle a little less than half-way with tap water. Cold water is fine. You’re not going to make a whole lot of difference in the amount of processing time by filling your kettle with hot water from the tap.
• Place kettle on stove and turn on burner.

While the water is heating, begin filling your jars with tomatoes, packing well each time more is added to remove air. This is  very important to avoid jars bursting in the kettle. Fill each jar to just below the neck. Add one teaspoon of salt, wipe the rim with a clean cloth, place a lid from the bowl of water on the jar and secure with a ring. NOTE: don’t tighten the jar with a death grip, just snug it up. If the lid is too tight and there’s any air in the jar, your jar could break during processing. It’s a mess. I know. I’m not telling how I know, just that I know.

Place the jars in the kettle. When all the jars are in, the water in the kettle should be an inch higher than the tops of the jars. Cover the kettle and bring the water to a full rolling boil. The start counting. If you’re using quart jars, you’re tomatoes are done in 45 minutes. If you’re using pint jars, you’re finished in 40 minutes.

Remove jars from the water carefully, and place them on a dry flat surface. Gently snug up each ring while wearing oven mits. It might not happen immediately, give it a few minutes, but soon you’ll hear a melody of pops and pings. That’s the jars sealing. Congratulations. You just canned your tomatoes. When they cool off, remove the rings. Yes it’s safe, the rings only hold the lids on so a good seal between the jar and rubber rim of the lid is established. Once the jars are sealed and cool, you only need the rings to transport them or hold the lids  on once the jar has been opened.

It’s a simple as that. I like Amish paste tomatoes best for canning, but any will do. Have fun.