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

It's a Cockeyed Life

You know if it wasn't for my body crapping out, I'd live on this Earth forever. But that is not the case for me. For instance, I'm still dealing with a broken foot. As if a surviving a stroke isn't bad enough, I also have a bum ticker, aortic aneurysms, and now moderate kidney damage. In other words, I'm dying, but aren't we all?

All each of us can do is the best we can do.  I'm no different. I'm busy living my life and dreams until I can't anymore. As should we all. Bummed out yet? Don't be. I'm not.

Even with all these health issues, I'm getting ready for Spring. We've got a garden and orchard to plant. Although right now, all I can do is plan and pay for it. It will be up to Mel to install it. Much as I hate it, it's the truth. It's already March. The last expected frost date is May 1st. That means come Easter, I need to start seedling in trays so we'll have a jump start on our garden. My garden plan and layout still stands. Hopefully by about mid growing season, I'll be back on my feet again.

I'm praying for a great harvest this year now that the chickens are finally penned up. Well almost. Houdini, Buff Orpington rooster, and Little Red, Rhode Island Red rooster, are still free ranging. They service our two remaining New Hampshire Red hens who live in our rabbit barn. But all of them are too big to squeeze under the gates or through the fence. So my garden should be safe now. Just the occasional squirrel or small cotton tail rabbit should be the only predators.

Now pests and birds in an organic garden and orchard is another  story. I plan my planting and yield with them in mind. I figure 1/3 of the proposed harvest for them leaving 2/3rds for us. Bugs and birds do have their benefits. Birds eat the pests. For the caterpillars and larva the wild birds do not eat, my chickens will feast on them as I go through the area. It will break their hearts to have to wait on their treats this year, but oh, well, if they had left my harvest alone they'd be loose still.

I'm already gearing up for canning and freezing my produce. I found an upright freezer for free on Craig's List and it works great.  This will be for bunny bottles and vegetables. The chest freezer in the barn will be for just meats. I bought another sleeve (364) of canning lids off of E bay. I also purchased rolls of food saver bags. So I'm ready.I still have another 60 cases of pint canning jars awaiting pick up for when I to to North Carolina again.

I still haven't found a good, used small pressure canner yet. I'm still looking. I'm in the market places and auctions looking for two of them actually. I want a smaller one for smaller batches. My two large ones are great for bulk produce, but as any gardener knows, fruits ripen at different times. Sometimes, there's just enough harvest for 6-8 pints or even half pints. It just seems like a waste of energy and resources to keep pulling out my 23-qt pressure canner for these jobs.

The reason for two of them is that the Lord has put it on my heart to provide one for an internet friend in TN. She wants/needs to can food, but doesn't have the resource to purchase one. She only has her freezer that's on top of refrigerator too. That makes canning a necessity. I'd love to find an All American, but almost any small pressure canner will do. If it needs new seals, gauges, or weights is a small issue that can be corrected. I usually change mine every couple of heavy canning seasons just out of habit. Better safe than sorry.

This isn't a story of a friend of a friend occurrence with a pressure canner. I've actually seen one of these explode through no fault of the owner. She was scraping canning jar glass and beef stew, I think, for weeks off of walls and ceiling. There was actually imbedded glass into her dry wall. The cause was a fault in the metal which held the lid on. Two of the prongs snapped off when the canner was under pressure. The lid made a dent in her range hood. Luckily no one was hurt. She was also an experienced canner. This was a Chinese knock off pressure canner too, which I will only buy a canner from reputable dealers and check them out carefully. I always follow the instructions of the manufacturing company. So far in almost 25 years of pressure canning and cooking, I've had ZERO incidents. It just takes caution and common sense when operating your equipment. Oh Lord, please don't get me started on the lack of common sense these days.

Anyhow, I'm healing and hope to be ready for Spring.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Jars, Jars, Jars!

Canning jars are an essential for the homestead. Ours is no exception. A YouTube subscriber of ours lives in North Carolina near an Amish community with a cannery. They sell for pennies on the dollar or giveaway their used jars. Yes, they have some leftover jams and jellies in them, but otherwise, they are perfect. She's collected 40 cases of pint and a half jars for us this year and it's time to get them. SIXTY cases (12 jars to a case) may sound extreme, but how many cans or frozen bags of vegetables do you go through in a year?

I'm not above borrowing, bartering, or even using second hand stuff. It's all part of being frugal financially. This goes along with the self reliant life style we are trying to achieve. With a garden, there are overages in harvest, either planned or just happens in a fruitful year. I don't know about you. but I just don't have enough freezer space to process all my planned harvest because we are shooting for six months to a year's worth. It also costs money to store produce in the freezer. The option are limited to store and preserve a harvest: dehydrate, can, freeze, or a root cellar.

Some fresh produce does well in a root cellar. Mainly root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and turnips. Hard squashes, garlic, and onions last only a few months. My grandmother kept apples in a barrel after wrapping each one in newspaper. These would have to be checked and rewrapped each week to check for spoilage. You ever hear this old saying, "One bad apples spoils the whole barrel or bunch?" That's where this comes from. The same concerns the rest of the harvest stored in a root cellar. Vigilance is the key to successful root cellar keepers.

Some produce does beautifully dehydrated, but not all do. I dehydrate all my herbs and root type seasonings. I love to dehydrate mushrooms! Four pounds of dehydrated mushrooms easily fits into a pint jar. Talk about space savings! Don't you just love dehydrated watermelon? A ten-pound watermelon dehydrates into a super sweet treat almost like candy because without the water all the sugar is condensed in a smaller area. Cantaloupe or strawberry roll ups. Raisins. Apple and banana chips. Venison, beef, and rabbit jerky. I could go on and on.

The last option is canning. Once you purchase the jars and you have a garden, the expense is minimal year after year. The cost of lids can vary. I usually buy the sleeves of 349 lids for about $50. I also will reuse lids. Technically, you are not suppose to, but I do. The rings are reusable until they get too rusted or bent. Since you remove the rings after you seal your jars, the same rings can be used multiple times during a season. The rest of the time, they hang on an opened metal clothes hanger in my pantry. Wide rings on one and regular rings on the other. You  will quickly end up with a glut of rings if you buy all new jars. They'll be everywhere and seem to multiply.

You can also smoke and salt meats for longer term storage. I prefer canning my meats.

So I'm on a pickup run to North Carolina. When you figure out just how much canned food you go through on a year and how many jars you'll need, the monies saved on a trip like this sure beats the cost of new jars $36 in gas versus $480 in new jars. Plus, I picked up 30 4-gallon food grade buckets with lids for free. They'll come in handy for storing the rest of what I purchased. In going into the actual store, I purchased 100 lbs of each, oats, sugar, barley, dried corn, and wheat. All non GMO and no chemicals. For other canning and tanning items, I bought Clear-Gel, citric acid, alum, and salt in bulk quantities and cheaper than Amazon would have sold it. I might have spent almost all my savings on the jars in other products, but I won't need to buy them again in at least a year or more. Now that's still saving money and being self reliant!

Y'all have a blessed day!