We are spending some time organizing, discarding, giving away & figuring. This morning I was going through our canning jars, regular canning lids, Tattler lids, and rings. As I did so, I pondered the possibilities. If these were the only jars, lids and rings I would ever have. Do I have enough? Do you?
With that pondering comes these thoughts. How many jars would I need to fill from our garden, chickens, goats and fruit to last a year until the next harvest was available? I really do appreciate the information we can find on the internet, and went on a quest. Here are a few articles I found that discuss how much food to raise or store, for a year.
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How much to plant in your garden to provide a year's worth of food?
Food Storage Calculator
TheFoodGuys.com - Food Storage Calculator
Long Term Food Storage Calculator (uses Excel)
The Pantry Primer: How To Build a One Year Food Supply in Three Months
Peek Inside My Pantry - Use This Tool To Help Plan A Year's Worth of Food and Supplies
How Much to Plant Per Person in the Vegetable Garden
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Okay. That's enough for now. But, you see what I mean. We have been homesteading and gardening for years, but now we are getting very serious about trying to have on hand what we may need if the SHTF or TEOTWAWKI happens. Permanently. We've had many conversations
about how many jars of this or that we may need to last a
year in 'normal' circumstances. But what if the electricity is off and
we have no freezer, refrigeration, instant hot water, or anything that
runs off of the grid? We depend on the freezer to preserve our meat,
some cheese and some fruits and vegetables for now. If we didn't have
that luxury, and it really is a luxury that many people don't enjoy,
even in this day and age. So, if we didn't have that luxury, and instead
canned all of our meat, broth, dog food (organ meat and fats from
butchering), lard, some milk, maybe butter and cheese, fruits and all of
the vegetables, I go back to my original question. Do we have enough
jars & canning lids?
Some other things I thought of. With jars, we have to plan on breakage. This happens sometimes during canning, or by accident. Ask Frank. I am a rather clumsy person. Regular canning lids can be reused, sometimes as many as three times. We know. We tried it just so we would know and wouldn't have to hope or guess if we really needed them. But it is not a recommended practice. The Tattler lids can be reused many times if you take very good care of the gaskets. If I was solely dependent upon them, I would want to lay in a good supply of extra gaskets. And for Tattler lids to work, you must have 
rings. We've tried to devise a way to take extra good care of our rings to make them last as long as possible. When we are canning and our jars have sealed and cooled, we wash the rings, dry them well and store them so they won't rust, thus prolonging their usefulness.
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| June 2013 |
Spring and the gardening season will be upon us soon. This year we are going to make a serious effort to can and store a year's supply of food. Food that we produce here on our farm. Then, as we use it up, we will take stock of our jar, lid and ring supply. But until we have a more solid idea of our long term needs, we will continue picking up more jars and lids. Just in case. We have been surprised at the stock of canning supplies Wal-Mart has kept this winter. They usually don't. I'm glad. We have picked up a few more lids.
The more I learn, the deeper I learn, and the more I realize how little I know. There are layers upon layers of knowledge to learn. I have barely scratched the surface.
Until next time - Fern
I have wanted to try canning dried pinto beans for a long time. I have made many a large pot of beans and frozen the extra for later. It seems it would be much more convenient to open a jar instead of thawing them out. I don't know about the quality of canned vs. frozen. So, we will find out. As far as energy consumption goes, what takes more - the propane to can or the electricity to keep them frozen? I don't know the answer to that. It may depend on how long they stay frozen before they are consumed.
The beans I have stored are about five years old and getting to the point that they are taking longer to cook. So, it's time to experiment.
The canning recipe I used says to cover the beans with water, boil for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and let sit for 2 hours. I followed everything but the wait time, it was more like 6 hours. The beans had to wait until the mozzarella was finished and the cheese pots were off the stove. But I figured the extra soaking time wouldn't hurt them any.
I had jars of frozen ham and turkey broth that I planned to use for the liquid when canning the beans, so out they come to thaw. Most recipes call for water instead of a broth, but I figured this broth would add more nutrients and a little fat which is a
necessity if you don't have any other sources in your diet.
We brought the broth and beans to boiling.....
.....ran the jars through the boiling water. And simmered the lids and rings.
We measured the jars because the recipe says to fill them 3/4 full of beans. It doesn't look like a lot of beans, but they aren't cooked all the way either so they will absorb more liquid during the canning process.
Since we are using broth with some fat content, we wiped the rim of the jars with vinegar to insure a good seal.
We are using some of our Tattler lids on this batch. The process for using them is a little different, so we are practicing. I am glad we discovered these since they are reusable as long as the rubber gasket is good.
Process in the pressure canner for 90 minutes with 10 lbs. pressure. We came out with 27 pints of beans! I didn't know about quantity - x beans = y pints....and I am very happy with the results.
This will be a good, nutritious meal in times to come and I won't have to depend on the freezer or use cooking fuel if I am trying to conserve energy. I would encourage you to learn something new everyday that will benefit you and your family. You just never know when that experience will come in handy.
Until next time - Fern
