Is Preserving Your Own Food Safe and Cost Effective?

As you may have read in my last post, I'm up to my ears in apples! Well, not really, but still a lot. Since our orchard didn't produce this year, I've resorted to buying deer apples again. Why? Because they are cheaper to purchase. At $15, a bushel, it's a better way of preserving for my apple needs. Store grade apples, the pretty ones, sell for $3.23 lb (organic). That's $209.95 for a 65-lb bushel. Say it together now CHA-CHING! Smart savings! I calculated I'd need four to five bushels for 1-2 years worth of apple products.

Let me break down the math for you. All of these are pre-tax prices. No labor costs are included and I'll admit to labor cost being high in the homesteading option, but I have nothing but time.

In a year, we use...

 STORE BOUGHT
7 gallons of Apple cider vinegar (for cleaning, cooking and other household uses) @ $2.68 for each...$18.76
6- 12 oz jars of apple butter @  $2.50 each...$15
10 gallons of apple juice @4.75 each... $47.50
6- 16 oz jars of applesauce @ $2.99 each...$17.94
4-16 oz jars of apple butter @ $2.86 each...$11.44
18-12 oz cans apple pie filling @ $3.12 each...$18.72
5- 12 oz jars of apple jellies/jam @ $3.19 each...$15.95
5 boxes of fruit pectin @ $3.59 each...$17.95
2 lbs of dehydrated apples  (even at the Dollar Tree)...$36
2 tanks of gas, oil, maintenance of vehicle @ $2.58 per gallon (17 gallons) averages out to$100.
That's $214.21 in apple products a year for 2 people.

Now take a look at the numbers for the same home preserved products shall we?
7 bushels of organic apples... $105 (will almost free when our trees start producing)
10 lbs sugar...$17.85
3 TBS sugar $0.50
3 lemons...$3.00
193 lids for canning jars...  (bought in bulk) $3.57
4- 5 gallon food safe buckets...FREE, Grocery bakery trash

193- pint and quart canning jars and rings...FREE
Propane, electricity, gas... Averaged out to $35
That's $162.10 in apple products a year the homesteading way.

In favor of canning my own...

• It's only about a $52 savings now, but oh, the benefits. I know I'm getting an organically grown product. 
• I'm eating local. The source 40 miles from me. 
• I know everything about these apples because I know the grower. 
• I know what is in my food.
• It's made to my tastes rather than having to tweak it.

Conversely
I can't say the same thing about store bought product.

• Food inspectors allow for so many insect parts, foreign debris.
• They aren't standing over each and every employee to watch them wash their hands or see if they are sick or not, nor where they've been in their work clothes.
•  A fairly recent survey (2005) prove it. What percentage of women do not wash their hands before returning to work unless someone else is in there too? Drum roll please (ra-tata-tat) 75%!!! These are the people who are preparing and serving your food! Let's all go out to Mickey D's after this...uh, no.
• Food inspectors only take small samples of huge volumes to inspect. What's been missed. 
• The average length of a food inspector is an hour or so. So many places to inspect, so little time. They hit the most likely place for infection/contamination.
• How many cases of food poisoning have you heard about regarding these points in recent years...mostly due to employee error- hundreds, thousands, or millions of people?
• Have you ever asked to see an inspection report? Shame on you.

The numbers will change over the next ten years. Store bought will increase in cost, while the cost of my home grown products will continue to decrease with the maturity of our apple and lemon trees. Although, the price of sugar will increase too. Unless, we start growing our own sugar cane. That's doable too.

I reuse my canning lids when I can too to reduce my overhead. The lid price is IF I only can with brand new lids. I've thought about purchasing the Tattler lids, but that's going to be made over time in multiple purchases. I've got 1,000 pint jars (36 are wide mouth), 48 half pint jars, 24- 1/4 pint jars, 18 pint and a half jars (wide mouthed lids), and 48 wide mouth qt jars in my inventory. I don't use all those at once. But IF the SHTF, I'm ready. They'll be a valuable trading item. But having so many jars is a buffer against breakage. They are glass after all. For two or three years worth of canned meats, fruits, vegetables and condiments, I might use all of these jars in one sitting, but I doubt it. Add to this my dehydrated stores and maybe I'd fill them all. I'm still on the lookout for cheaper half gallon canning jars for things like dry canning cornmeal, sugar, flour, rice, and dried beans in. Carry around 3 and 5 gallons buckets every time I need to replenish household staples gets tiring. A half gallon jar fits so nicely in my shelves. I'm not a spring hen, nor a fall hen anymore as this year of illnesses has proven to me.

To buy Tattlers for that many jars is huge money to convert to Tattlers (@ $70 for a 100 or 12 dozen for $120) from Ebay for regular sized lids). The wide mouth jars are handy when canning certain items like meatloaf and special breads. But, the Tattler wide mouth kids are equally as dear @ 10 dozen for $90. Of course, you always need to have spares on hand just in case of an unexpected gifts of produce from friends and family like one of my subscribers who was gifted asparagus this past Spring.

Then, there is the problem like we faced. Sure, Tattler lids won't rust, but rats will chew through them. If a tin lid fails after numerous attempts to seal. you can repurpose it into something else (everyone find a use for little bits of metal. Or chuck it. It only costs pennies instead of almost a buck each. What about a Tattler? It's plastic. I don't know about you but in my mind, plastic equals disposable, but the cost is premium. I can come up with one possible repurpose use. A guard in the hen side to hold down waste in an automatic chicken feeder, but it may even be too small for that. I could probably think of some other ideas, but my brain is too busy thinking of ways to use what we've got already.

So is preserving your own food safe and cost effective? In my book it is. While buying product to can isn't the best way to do it, it still saves money. Yes, you have to work at it, but isn't that true for everything you've gotten or achieved? I know my body feels better without all those petroleum/chemical based fertilizers or insecticides in them. Your body is your temple treat it with loving care and it will continue helping you along your path. Or like my old computer programming days, GIGO garbage in, garbage out.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed  Jo