Saturday, November 22, 2014

Ermahgerd Appersauce (Canning and YOU)

So every fall season for the past three years (yes. three glorious years with Mr. Tactical, where did the tacti-time go...) I've been canning homemade applesauce. Typically I make around 3-4 batches and then can them for later use. (or holiday gifts, my dad loves this stuff....) Last year i was able to make around 18 pint ball jars for storage. It's really not that difficult honestly (just a bit time consuming), and it will help you stock up and prepare for the tough months ahead. Canning is a good way to supplement your food supply that has quite a long shelf life. We have canned spaghetti sauce we received from a family member. Canned jam, fruit, veggies. Get a dehydrator. Educate yourself. You have the ability to grow, and save your own personal stock of noms. We have apple and peach trees where we live. It's a good idea to get something that basically provides for you every year so you can continue to prepare. I mean, look at this:


Delicious apple nom noms. Honestly, i don't like applesauce, but I like mine. Find something that you can make that will keep, and that you like, or can fix up so you like it. You can doctor many things. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH FOOD STOCKED UP.



Being as the winter months are coming up, you need to consider the possibility that if you live in an area that gets bad weather, you may be stuck in your home without a way to go get provisions. Do you have a way to keep warm? Do you have food put away? We have about 5 loaves of bread in our freezer. I never thought i would be one of those crazy people who freezes bread. Powdered milk. Rice. Possibly something to spice up the rice since rice sucks.....same thing with the beans....hate beans. But beans and rice make a whole protein so there you go (still hate beans). Hunt. It's hunting season. Get deer. Rabbit. Squirrel (actually quite tasty). Get a bear. Have a bear skin rug. Put it in front of the fire and keep warm (you know. all romantic and shit. How awesome would that be. I killed you this bear...). You don't want to be stuck having to break into a Dorito truck like those people in Buffalo that got snowed in (how romantic. I brought you Doritos. not anywhere near as cool as "hey i brought you a bear" but i guess it works). Especially if you don't have access to a Dorito truck as it would make such an endeavor quite difficult. Prepare yourselves....Winter is coming....

3 comments:

  1. We have 2 gardens-one is about 15'x 25, the other is 25'x50'.
    Starting in late July/early August we start canning tomatoes.By mid June,we are canning green beans,after tomatoes,all the peppers start coming in,I make pepper rings that everyone says kick ass-gave away 24 jars of them this year because I had way too many banana peppers. I had way too many hot peppers this year-habeneros,serranos,jalepenos,poblanos,tabasco,and anahiem chilis.
    You can make hot sauce and can it-or it will keep for about 6 months in the 'fridge.
    We also grew corn and a ton of eggplants this year,along with bell peppers,zucchini,yellow squash,cukes for pickles,and some butternut and acorn squash.
    Next year,I'm planting a bunch of potatoes and onions,along with all the other stuff-and way less hot peppers-we have about a 5 year supply of dried hot peppers.
    We have chickens,so we have the perfect garden fertilizer-6 hens and 1 rooster provide more than enough manure to fertilize both gardens.

    It's not all that much work to raise a lot of veggies,plus you can save tons of $$ and have the veggies you canned in summer for dinner in Jan and Feb.

    I bought a pressure canner too-you can can a lot more stuff in a pressure canner-you can even make a big pot of soup and can it-just don't add noodles-add noodles when you heat it up for lunch or dinner. We canned spaghetti sauce,chili,green beans,chicken soup,and there's tons of other stuff you can can with a pressure canner.

    We're still learning as we go-just get a copy of the ball Blue Book,and/or go online to...

    http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html

    Everyone should learn how to can-plus it adds to your food supplies for no $$$ other than the cost of a few packages of seeds.

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  2. I can remember the full shelves of mother's canned food: beans, corn, bread-and-butter pickles, applesauce, jellies, jams, and so on. As I recall, it wasn't that hard, jut tedious. Worth a try.

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  3. Get a pressure canner! They're about $100 at Wally World. You can cut the time you spend waiting for the water to heat up significantly compared to a water bath canner because a pressure canner only uses like 3 quarts of water. Also you can can meat with a pressure canner. They typically come with a booklet of recipes and instructions.

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