Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
Are you ready for another challenge? I think you’ll like today’s.
If you missed the previous challenges, you can catch up here:
Today’s Challenge
Today I’d like you to preserve some food. If you read articles by folks who have survived epic SHTF events, a huge part of their day is taken up by finding food and water.
If you were in a survival situation, preserving any additional food you were able to find would help to keep you fed during the long winter months.
A good way to start off with canning is to water bath can some applesauce. You can find the directions here. You don’t need all the bells and whistles. A big stockpot can serve as a water bath canner. The only things you might need to buy are mason jars and lids.
You can also preserve food by dehydrating it. While you can spend a few hundred dollars on a fancy dehydrator, you can also use an inexpensive dehydrator for this purpose. I have this one. You can even use your oven to dehydrate fruits or vegetables, but if the weather is too hot you might not want to heat up your house. I’ve never tried it but some people use their microwaves on the defrost setting for dehydration.
What did you preserve?
Were you able to preserve something? What method did you use? What did you put back to eat later? Share your experiences in the comments.
Remember to pop over to the forum and post if you want to qualify for prizes.
When my kids were young I started canning to save money and take advantage of free produce from mine and friends gardens.
I don’t do as much as I I’m by my self but you can’t beat the taste of home canned compared to store bought.
Of course jams ,jellies and applesauce , are a must when you have growing boys and are very easy for someone just starting out..
Dehydrating Apple’s and banana chips is fun, easy and very tasty.
A couple of years ago I found out you can dehydrate frozen and canned fruits and vegetables
it cuts out the prep work and When you find them on sale frozen might be the way to go.
Also if your canned goods are getting close to expectation date or if you just want something a little different try dehydrating some of them. (I’ve done peaches, pineapple they are great for snacks and very inexpensive
Even made fruit leather with applesauce and peaches)
It’s easy and fun.
I’m a regular canner…when we have a garden or get a windfall from someone. This year we bought peaches from a friend’s fundraiser and so have MUCH peach butter. Did not manage to put in a garden this year, but friends had bountiful tomato harvests and so we also have homemade salsa. And…strawberry and plum jam. Strawberries were pretty cheap at the store (and my jam is much better than you can buy) and someone in the neighborhood brought us a bag of plums.
We have 2 dehydrators that get used regularly. Nothing fancy here. My wife does also can.
Lol.you picked the perfect day for this one. Nothing to can right now but I was planning to pick a lot of amaranth leaves toppp p. day for sun drying on an old bed sheet. Also have more herbs to cut and bundle to hang and shade dry.
I could possibly have canned a few pints of summer squash with onions and tomatoes… But I gave away yesterdays picking to the guys that came to build my porch. I may still can a few jars of squash and perhaps corn in another week or two. There isn’t much from the garden this year. Frosts came until around the first of June and frost is due again the end of this month. Most years I can garden here from mid April to late September and hardy things into early November. With enough time we usually get plenty to eat fresh and can a lot. Not this year.
Garden was so late I finally started corn to try transplanting. Every plant lived and 38 plants are all making ears with silks beginning to turn brown. A good experiment.
Didn’t get anything done today, but tomorrow I will be canning bacon, cow liver, heart and ox tail soup.
I have been canning for a few years. My tomatoes are just coming on because of flooding early on. So I have to make up my salsa and spaghetti sauce this weekend. Been intimidated to use a PC, but I have one and this is the year I learn.
I do a lot of home canning but I recently made some beef jerky by slicing roast beef very thing and using my dehydrator to dry it. I store it in a jar with an oxygen absorber. All I used for spice was salt and Worcestershire sauce. Nothing else was needed.
I fired up the freeze dryer yesterday and did a batch of banana chips, they are so much better than store bought ones. Last week I did 20 pounds of chick thighs. They had been baked and then sliced. I will be using them for soups or as the main meat in a stir fry. For stir fry I just reconstitute it, stir fry some veggies and add it in the end just to warm it up.
This is garden season and am already putting things by for winter, I also have a CSA at a near by organic farm and get lots of fresh vegetables that I freeze, dry, and some canning. Something I dry a lot of are zucchini thin sliced, chunks, and shred . I use them in soups, stews, and zucchini bread. The slices I do very thin and have used them as chips instead of potato chips.
That is something I need to work on. So far the only things I have preserved are some dehydrated blueberries I did in the oven and some candied orange peel.:(
I dry strawberries, apples, tomatoes, nectarines (storebought), sweet corn (par cook then slice kernels off cobs), herbs and greens.
I can applesauce (6 pints so far with more to come), green beans, jams and jellies. Whenever I cook a chicken or buy a rotisserie one, I make broth from skin, bones, backs etc and can some of it. Also turkey broth! Carrots in 8oz jars to add to soups. Soups like borscht and vegetable. Start a huge pot, can couple three quarts, then finish cooking the rest for dinner.
You can raw pack and pressure can beef, pork or chicken stew. Also try fermenting, it’s easy!
No freezer except top of frig so I have to can, dry or ferment what I want to store.
Remember to follow all safety rules!
I’m way behind in this daily challenge because we were at a cabin. Did not have any of my stores to draw from, however did a lot of walking. I needed this respite after canning season.
Because of much hospital time for a friend and helping after her death, my garden got planted very late. We did not have our usual rain in July and August so the gardens look good from irrigation, but have not produced well. Out of 24 tomato plants I’ve gotten a dozen tomatoes because the most gigantic grasshopper I’ve ever seen has eaten 95 % of the blossoms. They love dry weather. My husband wanted to travel more so I have not been here as much to catch the hoppers when little. All that to say, without local growers and farmers markets I would have few veggies for spaghetti sauce and Mexican tomatoes, green beans and cukes for salad. It’s a very uneasy feeling knowing you supply much of your produce, but even in good times you are battling coons, javelinas, and deer… who never had a chance against the hoppers. I can still can meat from my freezer stores and I’m doing that more often, so I will buy extra turkeys at Thanksgiving prices and keep canning taco meat, stew meat and chicken and shredded pork this fall.
The article on planting a fall garden when your garden fails was the inspiration I need to persevere in my efforts to feed us.
At 66 years of age I have just started learning how to can food! Have successfully canned beans, carrots, pickled onions, and beetroot. All tested and enjoyed at home, so now all I must do it build up a stock for the bug-in pantry.