So you don't have a garden? No problem, you can still participate in this step. You do have to have a desire to learn a new skill though. Canning and dehydrating (dehydrating is the simpler of the two) are ways of preserving the seasonal harvest that for most is not available all 12 months out of the year.
Thinking back a few generations ago our grandparents and great grandparents only had what they could grow. If you wanted to eat tomato sauce or green beans any other time besides in the summer, you had better figure out how to preserve that harvest. Not only that but you may just starve if you didn't put up enough food for your family!
Here is where I started...
Thinking back a few generations ago our grandparents and great grandparents only had what they could grow. If you wanted to eat tomato sauce or green beans any other time besides in the summer, you had better figure out how to preserve that harvest. Not only that but you may just starve if you didn't put up enough food for your family!
Here is where I started...
This is what most ladies refer to as the bible of canning...no disrespect to the real bible but this has EVERYTHING you EVER needed to know about canning, complete with pictures for the visual learners out there, like me! (If you use my link to access it I get a referral bonus).
Canning is not a difficult skill and other then a jar lifter and a large pot...you don't need a whole lot of fancy equipment
The only other thing you need is a case of jars (you can buy these at walmart- year round, Family Dollar, Dollar General and Big Lots from about June through October). You can expect to pay between $10- $14 for a 12 pack case of jars (depending on the size) to buy them new. But, you only have to buy them once because you reuse them like you would reuse drinking glasses. The only thing that cannot be re-used from year to year is the disc lids that seal the jars. (be sure to save the rings though!)
The most economical way to get jars though is at garage sales. I often find the jars for less then 25 cents each and you can then buy just the lids and rings for them later. I think I have close to 800 jars at this point, but that is a good thing because during good harvest years, I fill most of them up!
But wait, I said that you didn't have to have a garden, so where do you get the produce? You can buy it at farmer's markets, the grocery store, or even apple orchards. If you are short on funds you can also glean fruits that others may not want. (post here)
When you buy your produce in bulk you save a ton of money. There is an apple orchard down the road from me where I can buy 40 pounds of apple "seconds" for $15. (that's .37 cents a pound!!!) Since we eat a lot of apples, but not that many, I do this and can applesauce to save for the later months when I can no longer get those delicious apples.
So you don't live near an apple orchard? No problem. Most grocery stores sell green beans by the pound where you can parcel out how much you want, in the height of the growing season they are often VERY inexpensive, when you take those home and can or freeze them you save a TON (NOTE: canning green beans requires a pressure canner, not hard to use but it is an additional piece of equipment to purchase. Or, if you want you can just blanch and freeze those beans (no worries the Ball book I mentioned goes through all of those steps in detail and explains it all!)
Just in case you want to go whole hog...here is the link to a pressure canner, oh and this is the cheapest time of year to buy them because during canning season the prices increase, sometimes dramatically.
The most economical way to get jars though is at garage sales. I often find the jars for less then 25 cents each and you can then buy just the lids and rings for them later. I think I have close to 800 jars at this point, but that is a good thing because during good harvest years, I fill most of them up!
But wait, I said that you didn't have to have a garden, so where do you get the produce? You can buy it at farmer's markets, the grocery store, or even apple orchards. If you are short on funds you can also glean fruits that others may not want. (post here)
When you buy your produce in bulk you save a ton of money. There is an apple orchard down the road from me where I can buy 40 pounds of apple "seconds" for $15. (that's .37 cents a pound!!!) Since we eat a lot of apples, but not that many, I do this and can applesauce to save for the later months when I can no longer get those delicious apples.
So you don't live near an apple orchard? No problem. Most grocery stores sell green beans by the pound where you can parcel out how much you want, in the height of the growing season they are often VERY inexpensive, when you take those home and can or freeze them you save a TON (NOTE: canning green beans requires a pressure canner, not hard to use but it is an additional piece of equipment to purchase. Or, if you want you can just blanch and freeze those beans (no worries the Ball book I mentioned goes through all of those steps in detail and explains it all!)
Just in case you want to go whole hog...here is the link to a pressure canner, oh and this is the cheapest time of year to buy them because during canning season the prices increase, sometimes dramatically.
Last but not least you can dehydrate your food. I have a very inexpensive food dehydrator similar to this one...
We often will dehydrate apples, though there are tons of other foods you can dehydrate. Here is a post I did on our snack apples. The problem with the dehydrator is that for a large family, I think the effort outweighs the product...we just gobble them up too darn fast!
There you have it, if nothing else buy or borrow the book I mentioned above and get a good look at the photos that explain everything. It really isn't as difficult as you might think and though my mom cans jams and tomatoes I taught myself about most of the other products I can, it really is that easy.
There you have it, if nothing else buy or borrow the book I mentioned above and get a good look at the photos that explain everything. It really isn't as difficult as you might think and though my mom cans jams and tomatoes I taught myself about most of the other products I can, it really is that easy.
