Samgaran Sanctuary - Preserving the Harvest

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Preserving the Harvest (Read 1363 times)

Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Preserving the Harvest Jan 17^th, 2016 at 9:21pm	Print Post
	One of the problems with Skywise's low salt diet is finding commonly used products that are both low salt and low potassium. It is a let me tell you. And when I do find something, it's always a bit more expensive in addition to being hard to find. So last night I was going through the Ball Canning book that I bought last summer to see if there was anything in there that I could use. Quite a bit as it turns out. According to the book -- which is considered the home canning bible and has been for as long as I can remember -- for the majority of recipes the use of salt is optional meaning that you can use as much or as little salt as you want and leaving salt out entirely won't affect the flavor or the preservation of the food. I didn't quite jump up and down but I felt like it. As I have mentioned elsewhere, my mother canned incessantly during my childhood and while I didn't do the actual "putting up" I helped with preparing the food for processing. So. Today I went into Rural King to start pricing canners. They had two sizes: 16 qts. for $89 and 23 qts. for $99. I didn't get one today -- I wanna do some price checking -- but I will be as soon as everyone starts restocking them in a few months. I'll be using this thread to talk about it.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Preserving the Harvest Reply #1 - Jan 22^nd, 2016 at 7:43pm	Print Post
	I'm sitting here thinking about the blizzard hitting the East Coast and remembering the Blizzard of '78 which hit here back in the day and how "global cooling", "emergency preparedness" and "self-sufficiency" are all tied together. Being self-sufficient -- or mostly self-sufficient -- in food makes some aspects of emergency preparedness easier. A stash of home preserved food represents one less thing that would need to be grabbed at the last minute and if you keep your supplies of milk, bread, eggs, coffee/tea and the other "must haves" that you need to feel civilized topped up, you might not even have to do that. I'll undertake my first project the next time ground chuck goes on sale. I'll buy several pounds, season it and cook it with tomato sauce for chili, divide it up and freeze it. Then the next time chili is on the menu, I'll pull out a bag of "chili base", thaw it, heat it to boiling and start throwing the rest of the ingredients in. If that meets with the family's approval in terms of flavor, the next step will be to can it once I get a canner. That way, I'll be able to stockpile ground meat when it is on sale and not have to worry about it spoiling if the power goes out. Post # 36,963
	« Last Edit: Apr 20^th, 2019 at 3:53am by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Preserving the Harvest Reply #2 - Mar 17^th, 2019 at 8:50pm	Print Post
	Current weather conditions and rising food prices have convinced me that "home canning" is going to be a thing around here. I already have a new canner and I'm stocking lids and bands. I fought my way to the closet where Mom kept her canning jars and most of them are -- thankfully -- empty. I'll have to wash -- probably more than once -- and sterilize them but maybe only a dozen -- no more than twenty -- will need to have the contents dumped. What Mom had was enough for the two of us to last over the winter until the next harvest but not enough for four of us and since I intend to can meat as well as vegetables, I'm gonna need a LOT more jars. And space to put them.....


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Preserving the Harvest Reply #3 - Apr 24^th, 2019 at 4:30am	Print Post
	Relentlessly researching meat canning. There are few things worse than having a freezer full of meat when the power goes out for an extended period. I've had that to happen and it was no fun. So I'm researching canning hamburger -- both as patties and as "crumbles" -- since we use a lot of it. Two of Spirit's favorite dishes involve hamburger. I've found canning jars the right size (1½ pts.) -- which I will need to stock up on -- that will hold one meal's worth of hamburger patties if they weigh 4 to 5 ozs. and shrink to less than 3 inches in diameter.
	« Last Edit: Apr 24^th, 2019 at 4:34am by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Preserving the Harvest Reply #4 - May 1^st, 2019 at 3:04am	Print Post
	Currently trying to figure out the logistics of canning meat with only four burners on my stove. I need one burner to keep the jars hot, one (maybe) to keep the sterilized lids hot, one burner for the canner, one burner for the hot broth that goes in the jars with the meat and one one burner for cooking the meat. That's the entire stove top PLUS another burner in VERY tight quarters. More research is needed along with figuring how I'm going to do this before I start.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Preserving the Harvest Reply #5 - May 4^th, 2019 at 8:42pm	Print Post
	Found out last night that you can home can pepperoni.....


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Preserving the Harvest Reply #6 - Jun 24^th, 2019 at 12:33am	Print Post
	Penthesilea wrote on May 1^st, 2019 at 3:04am: Currently trying to figure out the logistics of canning meat with only four burners on my stove. I need one burner to keep the jars hot, one (maybe) to keep the sterilized lids hot, one burner for the canner, one burner for the hot broth that goes in the jars with the meat and one one burner for cooking the meat. That's the entire stove top PLUS another burner in VERY tight quarters. More research is needed along with figuring how I'm going to do this before I start. I think I've solved this problem. I have a jumbo George Foreman Grill. I also have a crockpot that can keep the lids at the proper temperature once it's hot. So now all I have to decide how I'm going to arrange the kitchen before I start and have all the information at my fingertips. Moonie wants to learn too which will be a big help.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Preserving the Harvest Reply #7 - Sep 5^th, 2019 at 12:37am	Print Post
	I am pleased. I bought a Food Saver unit last Saturday and a 10 lbs bag of flour will fit in the 11 inch "make your own size" bag. This will make the long term storage of flour a LOT easier. WHY am I interested in the long term storage of flour -- among other things? THIS is why: https://electroverse.net/nasa-predicts-next-solar-cycle-will-be-lowest-in-200-ye ars-dalton-minimum-levels-the-implications/ Anyone who still believes in the "Global Warming Hoax" in spite of the Climategate emails is fooling themselves and putting their survival and that of their families at risk.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Preserving the Harvest Reply #8 - Jan 8^th, 2023 at 10:00pm	Print Post
	Today in Rural King I passed a display of food dehydrators.The price was certainly reasonable but the boxes -- and I assume the contents -- were roughly three feet by three feet which would be fine if I were going to dehydrate a whole side of beef at one go -- which I'm not. They were a bit more dehydrator than I would need... but it got me thinking -- always dangerous, ya know. So now I'm looking into dehydrating using a unit that is considerably less "robust" than what I saw today. Not really a fan of jerky but dehydrated fruits and vegetables are another story. For one thing, dehydrated fruits/veggies properly packed take up less room than canned and you don't have a crisis if the power goes out. I found a good source for canned (cooked) meat, including ground beef (THANK YOU, HESTIA!!) so that isn't as critical as it was. With dehydrated veggies on hand, I could use them, canned meat and stock and have a filling stew no matter what else was going on. So yeah, in research mode right now. I probably won't make a decision before summer since I'll have a lot of other things -- like Skywise's surgery and rehab -- to deal with starting in February.
	« Last Edit: Jan 8^th, 2023 at 10:33pm by Penthesilea »

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