While boiling will kill bacteria, the lack of bacteria and anaerobic environment of a water bath processed jar is the ideal environment for botulism spores to grow.  This is important because non-acidic foods, like meat and vegetables, are susceptable to develop botulism while canned and sitting quietly your food storage.  Acidic foods, like fruit, do not develop botulism because of their acid content.  It’s perfectly safe to use a water bath (boiling) for canning fruits. Vegetables, including tomatoes (because the acidity level is in question batch to batch), should be pressure canned. 

I love my pressure canner.  A pressure canner can be used for water bath canning as well (just leave the lid off), so you only need the one piece of equipment.  It can safely preserve anything from applesauce to venison without me having to worry about food safety.  There are only a few precautions:

• Do not use a pressure cooker instead of a pressure canner.  They are different equipment.  The cooker will not heat as high as the canner.
• Do not remove the lid from a pressure canner while canning.  Extremely hot steam is building in pressure inside the canner.  If you open it in the middle of canning, ridiculously hot water will explode all around you, and you will most like suffer intense burns from it.  Please use common sense.  You may be severely injured from the steam.
• Do not can on a wood stove or wood cook stove.  It is very difficult to maintain a constant temperature on a wood-fired stove.  Without a constant heat source, the contents inside the jar may still grow bacteria or develop botulism.  Try a portable propane stove for canning if you primarily cook with wood.
• Never use the “open kettle” method for canning.  This is when you fill a jar with hot food and let the steam from the food make the seal.  While you may get a decent seal, the contents have not been heated high enough to prevent either bacteria or botulism from growing in that jar of food.

Ingredients

• a dozen eggs
• mayonaise, 1/2 cup or less
• 2 tablespoons green onion
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• salt & pepper

Directions

1. Boil and peel a dozen eggs. (click here for how to boil an egg)
2. In a large mixing bowl and using a potato masher, break up the eggs.  Alternatively, chop the eggs and add the to the mixing bowl.
3. Stir in enough mayonaise to bind the eggs, up to 1/2 cup if necessary. 
4. Add two tablespoons of green onion.
5. Add two tablespoons chili powder (adds flavor, not heat)
6. Stir to mix in green onion and chili powder.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve on wraps, sandwich bread, or on crackers.

• When the water cools down, use it to water tomatoes.  It will add some calcium to the soil which can help prevent or treat blossom-end rot.  (Add crushed up egg shells for more effect.)
• Use the water in making soups and stock.  The calcium survived being boiled out of the egg shell, it will survive a little soup-making.

1. Soil Amendment- Crush them up (mortar & pestle, food processor, blender, etc.) and add them to your soil before planting tomato plants.  Tomatoes love the extra calcium, which “may” help prevent blossom-end rot.
2. Seed Starter- Start your tomato seeds in the shells and plant them directly in the ground.  No more need for those plastic seed starter trays.  You need reasonably intact shells for this.
3. Create Decorative Eggs- You can carefully prick the ends of the egg and blow the contents out for use in recipes, and then decorate the shells.  LearnPysanky.com has step-by-step instructions on how to make traditional Ukrainian decorative eggs.
4. Bird and Deer Deterrent- If you don’t want to bother finely crushing the shells for your tomatoes, give the shells a quick crush and add them to the soil where you want to discourage birds from eating your newly planted seeds, as well as in the soil surrounding plants you don’t want the deer to nibble on.  Who wants to walk on sharp egg shells?
5. Sidewalk Chalk- This is a great project for the kids to help make and then use to play.  Complete instructions can be found on Make-Stuff.com. 

Step 1: Take the eggs out of the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, and let them lose some of their chill.  This is a preventative measure to help avoid cracking shells.  If you have fresh eggs from a laying hen, obviously you don’t need to let the eggs sit out.

Tip- If you are making devilled eggs and want the yolks to be better positioned, rest the eggs on their sides overnight.

Step 2: Put the eggs in a large pot in a single layer with room between the eggs.

Step 3: Fill pot with water (straight from the tap, not heated) to cover the eggs by about 2 inches.

Step 3: Add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of vinegar.  The salt helps to heat the water and the vinegar helps prevent cracking.

Step 4: Bring water to a rolling boil.

Step 5: Turn off heat and cover with a tight lid for 20 minutes.

Step 6: Submerge eggs in ice water.  This helps make peeling the eggs easier.

Step 7: Peel the eggs.  Gently tap the egg on it’s side to get it started, then roll it around.  You want to pierce through the “skin” between the shell and the egg itself, but not rip the egg inside to shreds by handling the shell too roughly. 

Step 8: Use the eggs in a recipe immediately, or store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to one week.

Click here for five uses for leftover egg shells. 

Click here for uses for the water used to boil eggs.

• Food Preparation
  Food should be prepared from single-ingredient items (for example, pork, milk, basil, honey, butter, eggs, carrot, etc.), and from as many items that can be produced in one’s own garden as possible.  No MSG, HFCS, or other dangerous pseudo-food need apply!  This is the only way to ensure the freshest, healthiest, most cost efficient way to prepare food for your family.  There are two subcategories here: Recipes and Techniques.  Recipes are for natural, homecooked meals from scratch.  Techniques are descriptions of basic cooking skills and methods that people may not have tried before or ever had the opportunity to learn before.
• Food Preservation
  Each type of food has its own best way to be preserved.  Some foods are best preserved through canning, while others are better dried, frozen, or smoked.  There are subcategories for Canning, Dehydration, Freezing, and Smoking.  Instructions on each method, details about equipment, as well as recipes (which are cross-referenced in the Recipes category) are found in these subcategories.
• Gardening
  Only organic, natural, and sustainable gardening tips and techniques are permitted on this web site.  This category will likely grow some subcategories for specific trees, plants, and techniques.
• Home Remedies
  Treat this section as you would information on common first aid, not medical advice.  Please seek the advice of a physician for proper diagnosis and recommended treatment.  However, many plants,  natural materials, and methods have a long history associated them with relief from common ailments.    Please be aware that plants contain hundreds of chemical constituents, and can have contraindications.  Always verify information on herbs from a well-written herbal (links to good books on herbalism will be provided) or with a trained herbalist.
• Homeschooling
  Homeschooling is becoming much more common since many public schools are simply underfunded and more concerned about standardized test scores which effect their federal funding than whether or not the students are actually learning anything, and private schools are often too expensive for the average person to afford without a loan.  Look here for information on curricula, networking with other homeschooling parents, etc.
• Homesteading
  This is a general category of homesteading skills, tips, and other useful, related information that doesn’t fit anywhere else.
• Housekeeping
  Here, you will find tips on organization and how to make non-toxic homemade cleaners.  Again, materials used should be things you can reproduce as often as possible, or are extremely frugal to purchase.  Too many people are exposed to suspected carcinogens in common, expensive, commercial cleaning products.  Better to make the more frugal, safer alternatives at home.
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