That brings me to how to can food. I watched my mother use a pressure cooker to can food. She had to do that in a hot kitchen (no air cond. in those days). I thought I'm never doing that.
I'm not sure what the difference is in a hot water bath and a pressure canner. Yesterday, I looked at the Ball website and there is the Blue Ball canning book which I will get ($6.95). They also have canning equipment there, the big water bath utensil and equipment like a lifter to get jars out of the canner without burning yourself and a tool that turns the lid to close it on a jar.
I could deal with a water bath way but I don't want to buy a big pressure canner.
What do you guys suggest? I am serious about this.
I just watched a demonstration film on the Ball website, and they are just using the big pot and boiling the jars with the food inside. That process is simple. Is that all there is to canning?
Basically a water bath is for high acid foods..jams, and picklesd vegetables..The vinegar kills bad stuff.
Pressure canning is for low acid foods..meats, fish, vegetables like green beans, carrots, corn, that needs more pressure and heat to kill the bad stuff.
Yes, do get the ball book of canning and preserving. It’s my bible. When I first got married, I did a lot of water bath canning. It is great for naturally acid fruit or stuff that can be acidified.
That would be all kinds of pickled stuff, cukes, zukes, squash, beets etc. Since many of tomatoes are a bit lacking these days, I always add a little lemon juice to each jar to ensure that there is enough to use the water bath canner and keep the buggers at bay.
Non-acidic stuff like green beans and corn, or meats will require pressure cooking unless you want to pickle them. Hubby tells me the pressure cookers are easy to use and have lots of saftety features-takes no brains to use. I’m like - fine you use it then.
So I get everything ready and packed into jars, then turn it over to him for processing.
If you don’t want to use a pressure cooker, then you can dehydrate, freeze, and use a root storage type setup in the ground.
Along with dehydrating and making jerkey out of meat, you can use the salting and smoking methods of the 1800s and still used into the 20th century.
I think 3 chickens to lay eggs would be a great way to have home grown protein. I love fresh eggs. You can grow the food to feed chickens, they give you good fertilizer for the garden, clean up the area by eating insects, give you lovely eggs to eat, and shells are great to add calcium to your compost.
Perfect protein to eat with your homegrown beans and other produce, and they don’t take up much space. Lots of cities will allow a few pet chickens.