Canning to Save Time and Money - Getting Started

I just started to can things with a serious goal in mind last year when I got a call to come 'help yourself' to a bunch of green beans, corn and blackberries that got away from the folks who planted too much. Since we all know that we really can't snarf down mass quantities of green beans several days in a row without massive groaning from the family members, we have to do something with our tons of food we bring home from the store, pick your own produce places, or from your own garden. Many of us waste too much money on food from spoilage and those items we could have frozen, dehydrated, or even canned them for use later on. I'm guilty of this and I know I'm not the only person in the world to lose something in the fridge that would later become the fuzzy science experiment. So in order to get started on canning I had to have the basics. So here's the general start up list for canning:

1. Jars (Wide-mouth & Regular)
• Pint
• Quart
• Half-pint
• Half-gallon
• Gallon
• Pint and a half
2. Lids & Rings
3. Waterbath (Acidic, Fruits, Tomatoes)
4. Pressure Canner (Low Acid, Meats, Beans, Vegetables)
5. Canning Jar Tongs
6. Plastic headspace measure and bubble remover thingy
7. Free online study course & food preservation materials
• https://spock.fcs.uga.edu/ext/food/nchfp_elc/
• http://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html
8. Join various Facebook Canning and Preserving pages
9. Utilize the local county 4-H Extensions in your area for testing used pressure cookers or getting a specialist to come teach you how to can safely if it is available in your area.

Take advantage of food sales at the different times of the year and save your fruits, veggies, and meat in jars so that when their cheap season is over that you will have a stash to hold you over. We buy our hamburger on sale at the local grocery store, brown it and then can it in pint jars for use for any hamburger dish meals to add to a mix or pasta/sauce combinations. By storing meats in jars, you free up your freezer and also prevent that sad occasion when electricity is lost or your fridge or freezer dies and your food has gone bad. Trust me, it's more than canning for the Zombie Apocolypse. You worked hard for your money and don't just throw it down the drain with spoilage. We are far too reliant on our appliances and need to know how to handle a crisis before it happens, even if it is deciding whether to eat chicken or hamburger while trying to get to a dance class in 45 minutes. Grabbing the jar of whatever and heating it up in 5 minutes and tossing other ingredients to create a meal with it to be ready in 15 or so is better than sitting in a drive thru for 10 and still waiting for the special order to be done in another 5 or so. We've made our own lives hell with being slaves to fast food and restaurants. Time to wean ourselves from this and know what we are eating and where our money is going. 

I'm just at the beginning stages of this blog and will hit these main topics first and then throw in my recipes for the day if there is something new I haven't posted yet. Thanks for stopping by and maybe joining in this back to the basics movement. :-)