Canning Stuff.

[Larry Caldwell]

ok stupid question time

We've done a good job in getting into canning over the last couple decades
but where we fail is EATING IT
and if there's one thing I absolutely abhor is spending a lot of time on a task and then literally having the throw away the results later; canned foods don't last forever (side topic: how old of food will you eat that you've canned?)

I can't get people to look in the pantry for canned goods before going to the store and buying something in the same category
of course, they're typically buying fresh - we mostly eat fresh veggies
and while my wife grew up in a typical American middle-class family that ate lots of (tin-)canned goods, we've been much more healthy eaters for decades and I'm not saying that home-canned goods aren't healthy, but they're not fresh veggies either.

How do you make this social change to get your canned stuff eaten?

My mom canned vegetables, but I don't. Flash frozen vegetables are cheap and have no waste, so that's what I buy. If I had to buy tomatoes I wouldn't bother to can them either, but when a friend gives you six grocery bags full of ripe tomatoes...

My canning tends toward the gourmet experience. Nothing tastes like a fermented dill pickle. Vinegar pickles are acetic acid, fermented pickles are lactic acid. I also like a spicy pickle, so add hot peppers and garlic to the crock. My sweet pickles start with 10 days in brine fermenting before they are rinsed and the sugar solution treatment starts. They are a really tangy sweet pickle that makes a wonderful garnish for many different dishes. Gravenstein apples make the best pie filling, applesauce, and apple butter in the world, but if you want gravs you better grow them yourself. You will never find them in stores, because they tend to scab and people pass them up for worse tasting varieties. Wild blackberry jellies are exquisite (seeds removed) and store bought jelly is really expensive. People could be eating better tasting food, but they don't know what they are missing.

For those who wonder about the longevity of home canned food, the glass is impermeable, unlike the plastic lining of metal cans, or plastic. As long as the lid stays sound the food will be fine. I think it is Kerr that is advertising an upgraded coating on the lids that is guaranteed for two years, though I suspect it will last longer.

 

[shooterdon]

Last week I bought Ball lids for $3.19 for 12 lids, BUT if you bought $20.00 worth of lids, (or any other canning supplies) you got $5.00 off.

A lid will do several different sizes of jars, so I'm not so sure you came out ahead of me. lol

SR

So, you got 25% off and your lids cost $.20 each. You are way ahead of me. Your seeds were free, your fertilizer was free, fuel and equipment was free, but most of all your time free.

I will “suffer” with my $.20 commercial cans of crap...LOL.

IMO...I am way ahead. YMMV

 

[MossRoad]

Getting to be a lost art, period. Outside of my sisters and myself, I don't know many people of my generation that can/preserve. Oddly, those that do seem to be the younger generation. Maybe it's one of those "everything old is new again" things. Good for them.

We canned when we were young. Fruit and produce was cheap. Spend and afternoon and get a couple dozen quarts of good stuff. Well worth the time and effort.

Now a bushel of peaches or tomatoes costs more than a couple cases of canned peaches, or canned tomatoes, so.... we find a good brand and stick with it.

However, we will still can some favorites, like hot pepper jelly and freezer jams.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

So, you got 25% off and your lids cost $.20 each. You are way ahead of me. Your seeds were free, your fertilizer was free, fuel and equipment was free, but most of all your time free.

I will “suffer” with my $.20 commercial cans of crap...LOL.

IMO...I am way ahead. YMMV

I don't use seeds; I use plants and yes, they were free, also the fertilizer (compost) was free too. And although I did buy my equipment, I've owned it many years and it's made me back MANY thousands of dollars doing work for others, so I guess that makes it free too, when I do something with it for myself.

As for my time, I garden because I like to, I grew up gardening with my family and still enjoy doing so, so I garden and enjoy the better taste growing my own food gives and the knowledge of being able to grow that food. I'm glad I have another thing that I can do for myself.

I get it, you don't like the work, and don't care about the taste, so you choose to just go buy your food instead, that's fine with me.

SR

 

[jyoutz]

We canned when we were young. Fruit and produce was cheap. Spend and afternoon and get a couple dozen quarts of good stuff. Well worth the time and effort.

Now a bushel of peaches or tomatoes costs more than a couple cases of canned peaches, or canned tomatoes, so.... we find a good brand and stick with it.

However, we will still can some favorites, like hot pepper jelly and freezer jams.

To be financially ahead with canning, you need to have abundant tree fruit or garden veggies at home.

 

[MossRoad]

To be financially ahead with canning, you need to have abundant tree fruit or garden veggies at home.

Yep. We have abundance... of groundhogs, rabbits, squirrels and deer!

We had probably $5-600 dollars in irrigation, fencing and an electric fencer to protect $40 worth of vegetables.

One of my favorite things I like to can is Hungarian hot peppers sliced into rings, then canned in bread and butter pickle mix.

 

[MossRoad]

Just put in 8-9 mature blueberry bushes last weekend we got for free. The next day there were deer tracks in the fresh dirt around the plants. Maybe 12 hours. Gonna have to get a fence for those as well, now.

 

[Hilbilly]

Someone asked how long canned goods last. I have some canned salmon that is 6 years old and still just as good as the day we canned it. I always check for any signs of it being bad before eating it and to date not one can has gone bad. My dill pickles and pickled beans are good for over a year but not for 2 years.

 

[jyoutz]

Yep. We have abundance... of groundhogs, rabbits, squirrels and deer!

We had probably $5-600 dollars in irrigation, fencing and an electric fencer to protect $40 worth of vegetables.

One of my favorite things I like to can is Hungarian hot peppers sliced into rings, then canned in bread and butter pickle mix.

Years ago I constructed a 8’ tall deer fence around my garden and orchard. It works well. The fence is over an acre in size.

 

[ponytug]

We have been battling ground squirrels and blue jays. The former stripped every fruit out of the orchard this year in a couple of day light raids. I think that they were extra hungry because of the drought. They burrow, and have no trouble climbing 8'.

I have come to the conclusion that I have to make a large aviary like enclosure, with screening going 24" underground. It is going to be interesting.

So nothing much to put by this year.

All the best,

Peter