>>>>Sustainable Living PLUS Canning and Dehydrating Food<<<<

thank you, expert AC 1509978! i knew someone would come through for us.

wow! that thing is the shiznit!!!

Ain't it though.

thank you! i will try the roasted tomatoes. that sounds very tasty.

will agrue with mom when i have to.

you'd have to be super crafty to build that. would be worth it.

i'm secretly working on a chicken coop for 4 chickens. my dad is not cool with the idea of chicken keeping. we've done it before when i was small.

i don't think i could build the shiznit myself!

Good job. Well done. :)

that is extremely clever. i have a number of large glass jars full of bullion. i should start stocking up heavy on corn starch also, methinks.

we are canning chicken next week and beef after.

thank you. it's for all of us. we need to put our heads together for our family's.

thank you so very much for the receipe and all instructions.

i have apple and pear trees. i believe i'll try this.

i'm breaking out the dehydrator tomorrow. mom says we have to rest today. rest? what the hell is that??

all the advise makes it that much easier for all of us.

the peaches i canned last night.



the first jar on the left of the right section is a very old glass bottle. it was my grandma's. we'll save it for a special occasion.

Great thread, TG!

Just stocked up on ball jars.

I remember canning day at my grandmother's. Everybody helped, even if they were just stopping by for a chat. Soon they would be chipping in and grandmother never forgot to reward those present with some preserves.

I highly recommend the Foxfire series of books for those interested in learning the old ways from the elders themselves. [link to www.foxfire.org]

Last Edited by Waterbug on 08/28/2011 03:16 PM

BEAUTIFUL!!!! and grandma knows

what are you going to be canning? now's the time, i hope the weather stays cool. hotter than hades in the kitchen the last few weeks!

everyone who comes to our house lately has gone home with at least one jar of something.

i love gifting people with stuff i've made myself. makes you warm inside.

i'll check that series out. i need all the help i can get.

this is sooooo true!!

i love hearing, 'no, grandma says...'!!! i laugh so hard knowing i'm the authority now.

I'm using the jars to store dry goods at the moment. I don't trust the store packaging. Hydroponic gardening is my food for the future. Learning to grow essentials first and then some tasty's. Hoop-house, as well. Anyone can build a hoop-house with a small amount of money. It is a greenhouse made with pvc pipe and plastic. Food by mansanto is not my style. I want non-genetically-modified groceries from now on. Jars for seed and jars for food. Guess that makes me a jar-head.

I canned over 800 jars this year green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, pinto beans, purple hull peas, peach jelly, plum jelly, pickles, peppers, salsa.

It's my third year and I got a new canner that will do 19 quarts at one time, it's such a time saver.

I'm glad you started the thread, I love to can. I'm going to go back and read all the posts from the beginning.

I don't know why that snapping sound should be a valid test. It's one thing what happens when the lids are cold compared to when they are hot. I used Ball this year and everything sealed fine.

this is a great thread

I would NEVER trust water bath with green beans. You have to be able to get the food above boiling to be safe and you can only do that under pressure.

i remember you talking about hydroponics. i have 4 pieces of what could be the top of a greenhouse. i am looking into using it next year. think i could use wood for the posts instead of pvc? i already have the hoop top in pvc.

jar head! i guess we all are. too funny.

yeah, we did green beans under pressure. we did the peaches in water bath though.

dang!!! 19 quarts!! i want one of those!! right damn now. where did you get that?

you are a super canner. i admire that and am working to get to your level.

glad you like the thread.

my mom says as long as you slightly heat the lids in hot water you won't have a problem.

she said if there is no snap at all, just flat top, there might be a problem.

i've had about 5 quarts and 2 pints not seal so far. mom said that normal.

thanks for adding to this. i'm new so i listen to people who have actual experience.

BEAUTIFUL!!

Maybe that's why I've never had a problem - I've never had a jar not seal but I do put my lids in simmering water for about five minutes while I wipe the tops of my filled jars real good. It's also important that you not touch the seals or the jar top with your fingertips I've heard as the oil from your hands can become a factor and cause jars not to seal. I'm super careful to follow all the steps. I don't even cold pack just for safe measure.

Here's a link, I ordered it from Amazon: [link to www.amazon.com]

If you're going to can a lot, you sure need one. I work my garden mostly by myself and it took me 9 hours to pick my green beans so I sure needed a short cut. This canner doesn't have a rubber seal either so it will NEVER wear out - I sure like that too. Oh, and it almost regulates itself - you put your jiggler on in one of three holes it has and the holes represent 5, 10 or 15 pounds. Once the cooker reaches that pressure it will jiggle more or less depending on how hot it is to keep it at the right pounds of pressure. It's so much more reassuring than having to keep fooling with the heat to keep it at the right pressure. The one thing I will say is this CANNER IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS and the reason I say that is the instructions assume you know a lot already just in the terminology it uses. Like "vent the cooker for five minutes" - my first canner said something like "watch carefully for steam to come out of the top of your canner and once you see a steady stream, set your timer for five minutes"

You talked about potatoes, I didn't want to can mine but I had a couple hundred pounds and they were doing fine until it just got so hot here all the time and then some began to rot so I just canned them to keep them from going bad. My onions are holding strong though and I think I'll have enough to last through the winter.

dehydrated water !

I have a tip that may help someone.

I keep all of my empty canning jars full of water at all times so I'll have water in the event of an emergency.

thank you so much for the compliment on my pantry.

i'm going to show my mom the link, maybe we can get one.

i hear you about doing all the work. my dad has slowed down and i'm doing most of the garden work. he has been doing some of the picking though and that helps.

we are going to wrap most of our potatoes and put them in the root cellar basement at our farm. i'm putting onions down there also. hoping to do the same for the acorn squash and some of the peppers.

it's a great thing to have your own food all year around.