Canning Stuff.

[newbury]

I grew up canning since I was old enough to get in the way in the kitchen. My Grandmother and Mother were dedicated canners. When I met my present wife she impressed me with her cook book selection and all her relatives canned, usually keeping a full years supply of very tasty foods.
Alas, after marrying her and a couple of years I learned she had the knowledge but not the inclination to either garden or can.
And my work travel schedule left me out of the loop. The gardens died without getting watered.
But she more than made up for it in other ways.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I'm still canning in the same jars I helped my mother can in, when I was a kid. I plan to can more tomatoes later today.

SR

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Blanch, freeze and cold pack here. Just put up 30 quart bags of Blue Lake green beans, cleaned, snipped ends, blanched (5 minutes in boiling water), bagged in freezer bags and off to the freezer. Kind of limited myself this year to what we put up as we still have a lot of Spag sauce, canned beets and Kraut left from last year but we did blanch, strip and bag, 20 bags of Ambrosia SSU corn earlier this last month and the porkers get the cobs.

Gonna have to purchase another deep freeze come November as I have a full half side coming.

We never get to concerned with the supposed food shortages, we always eat well here on the farm.

My freezer is already crammed full, and two old retired people do not need an extra freezer. The thing I like about canned food is that once it's done it's good until you use it, no electricity required. During this time of grocery price inflation, it's interesting to be eating last year's food, or in this case, free food. We don't put up tomato sauce, we put up tomato base. It's seasonal crops in excess, that contains summer squash, onions, fresh herbs, peppers, whatever we can collect that otherwise would go to waste.

We filled narrow mouth jars with tomato base, wide mouth jars are next. I have 9 gallons of dills fermenting, three gallons of sweet pickle spears ready to can, and a friend has a 5 gallon Igloo full of sauerkraut that is working away. We'll trade pickles for kraut. As soon as it starts raining we will have a flush of mushrooms. I sauté and freeze them because pressure canning is such a PITA. I haven't canned meat in decades, but if a friend drops off 20 lbs. of tuna it goes right into jars. Fish only keeps frozen for a short while. For long term storage, canned in glass is as good as it gets.

I love prepping the jars. I have Atlas Strong Shoulder jars. I have Anchor Hocking mason jars. I have Ball jars that are a century old. As I am filling them, I wonder how many meals those jars held over the decades. Collectors can relax, I know how to treat old glass. I pre-heat the jars in the oven so there is no thermal shock when I hot pack.

Now to clear shelf space in the garage for the full jars.

 

[5030]

I suspect there will be a lot of people, especially in urban areas who will get caught short (food) this year. I keep the freezers on a very low setting and our frozen stuff will actually be fine after a couple years. In fact we are eating Brussels Sprouts we froze in 2020. Just fine.

Far as electricity issue, non starter here. We have a diesel standby genset and it's plumbed in the bulk tank which I keep at least 75% full all the time. It's 500 gallons, plenty enough to run the entire farm for weeks if necessary.

Next year is a kraut and sprout year.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I suspect there will be a lot of people, especially in urban areas who will get caught short (food) this year. I keep the freezers on a very low setting and our frozen stuff will actually be fine after a couple years. In fact we are eating Brussels Sprouts we froze in 2020. Just fine.

Far as electricity issue, non starter here. We have a diesel standby genset and it's plumbed in the bulk tank which I keep at least 75% full all the time. It's 500 gallons, plenty enough to run the entire farm for weeks if necessary.

Next year is a kraut and sprout year.

I vacuum seal anything I want to keep frozen for a while. The Seal-A-Meal is also a great way to store welding electrodes. You can bake old rods in the oven. Then I seal them in 5 rod batches. I pick up old welding rods at estate sales, and bake them just often enough to keep an inventory of refurbished rods on hand.

Back to food, I picked up an 18 lb. boneless rib roast a couple weeks ago for $3.37/lb. I cut it into 20 steaks and the end pieces into roasts. Vacuum sealed and frozen, they will last fine for months. Fruits and berries get canned. I'm not really a survivalist, but we often go a month or more without grocery shopping. Prep some dried beans with the tomato base, a little savory meat, and we have a delicious minestrone.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I suspect there will be a lot of people, especially in urban areas who will get caught short (food) this year. I keep the freezers on a very low setting and our frozen stuff will actually be fine after a couple years. In fact we are eating Brussels Sprouts we froze in 2020. Just fine.

Far as electricity issue, non starter here. We have a diesel standby genset and it's plumbed in the bulk tank which I keep at least 75% full all the time. It's 500 gallons, plenty enough to run the entire farm for weeks if necessary.

Next year is a kraut and sprout year.

Have you tried radish sprouts? Alfalfa sprouts were all the rage for a while, but they tasted like cattle food to me. Radish sprouts are great tasting, and of course bean sprouts are a staple of Chinese cooking. We also have an extensive herb garden, though deer are a problem. The vampire Bambis defoliated our thyme last week, leaving only nubs sticking out of the ground.

 

[m1garand762]

We just made another 25 quarts of tomato juice this morning. If food gets short we’ll be good for a few years we just got a steer and 2 hogs back from the butcher last week I’m going to kill 75 chickens next week and my turkeys will be ready late October. We froze 100 quarts of strawberries about that in blueberries ,black raspberries , peaches and the apples will be ready late fall. I couldn’t tell you how much beans and corn we froze but I am tired of standing at the sink cleaning them. The benefits of be a refrigeration tech is i built a 10x10 walk in freezer in my barn

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I hope you can set the freezer a little warmer for hanging carcasses. I've thought about a walk-in cooler big enough to hang a cow or a couple hogs. I have also thought about building a smokehouse, but at my age it will probably never get done.

 

[m1garand762]

I hope you can set the freezer a little warmer for hanging carcasses. I've thought about a walk-in cooler big enough to hang a cow or a couple hogs. I have also thought about building a smokehouse, but at my age it will probably never get done.

Freezers can get converted to a cooler easily but a cooler depending on the evaporator and condenser can’t always be made to a freezer

 

[m1garand762]

We have the smoke house taken care of the Amish neighbor has one he lets me use use in exchange for freezer space and help with the electric bill on tue barn since he charges his batteries there anyway