A few months back I posted about my great grandma Hazel's canning adventures and how she would race her sister in laws to see who could be the first to put up 1000 cans for the winter, you can read that older post by clicking here.
I was curious to see if I canned all that I could from my garden, just how close I could get to that tally, a lofty goal but I was curious. All that you see below came from my garden with the exception of the peaches, pears and apples which I either purchased in bulk or was given. Now, to be fair I do not know if great grandma canned primarily in quart or pint jars (as this would make a difference in the final number I have recorded for myself being that my quart jars would be 2 pints each) My jars are almost all quart jars due to the size of our family. Great grandma had 4 children and we have 5.
Also, great grandma would have been canning her meats as they did not have reliable methods of freezing like we do now.
so...drumroll please...I have a total of 212 quarts of food put up for the winter. I canned spaghetti sauce, tomato juice, pickled peppers, green beans, peaches, applesauce, pearsauce, peach butter, and strawberry jam. I have to admit, it makes me feel good to stand back and look, but it is just over 20% of what my great grandma used to put up and I have it so much easier than she did with the modern conveniences of my kitchen with an electric stove, air conditioning while I can and plenty of clean running water at my disposal.
That means next year, I have a lot more work to do! But at least this winter I will be able to keep my grocery budget down as the math for the funds I put into the garden (cost of my seeds and incidentals) vs. what I pulled out of it (the produce I canned only not including the fresh eating) made my pint jars cost me less than 20 cents each!
I was curious to see if I canned all that I could from my garden, just how close I could get to that tally, a lofty goal but I was curious. All that you see below came from my garden with the exception of the peaches, pears and apples which I either purchased in bulk or was given. Now, to be fair I do not know if great grandma canned primarily in quart or pint jars (as this would make a difference in the final number I have recorded for myself being that my quart jars would be 2 pints each) My jars are almost all quart jars due to the size of our family. Great grandma had 4 children and we have 5.
Also, great grandma would have been canning her meats as they did not have reliable methods of freezing like we do now.
so...drumroll please...I have a total of 212 quarts of food put up for the winter. I canned spaghetti sauce, tomato juice, pickled peppers, green beans, peaches, applesauce, pearsauce, peach butter, and strawberry jam. I have to admit, it makes me feel good to stand back and look, but it is just over 20% of what my great grandma used to put up and I have it so much easier than she did with the modern conveniences of my kitchen with an electric stove, air conditioning while I can and plenty of clean running water at my disposal.
That means next year, I have a lot more work to do! But at least this winter I will be able to keep my grocery budget down as the math for the funds I put into the garden (cost of my seeds and incidentals) vs. what I pulled out of it (the produce I canned only not including the fresh eating) made my pint jars cost me less than 20 cents each!
