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the current state of affairs has led me to realize that my "survival skills" have a large gap that needs addressing. I have applied for big game tags in 4 states and hope to get lucky somewhere which could result in a pretty big pile of good meat. In the past I have depended on processors and frozen everything and given away a bunch to friends and family. My parents were children of the depression and avid home canners of everything from Elk to strawberries.

Not an answer to the current panic but a skill that now becomes painfully obvious. WHEN things return to semi-normal I will be prepared to preserve food that doesn't require a freezer.

I don't plan on planting a garden but I will know how to preserve what I can buy or kill.

You green bean and venison canners be feeling pretty clever today.


mike r

Gardening can be therapeutic and even fun. Don't write it off.

Well yeh! Welcome to a small group of people that would actually do something to save themselves! memtb

Peanut butter? Hardtack?

The biggest thing you can do is move to where you can sustain life if it goes bad, Vegas ain’t it.

buy the Ball Blue Book of Canning, a pressure cooker and a few dozen jars of various sizes. its easy.

Vegas, so no frozen lakes near you to stockpile ice in the winter..
Propane back up for freezer?
Generator for backup, w/ canning supplies on hand.
Canned stuff has an expiration too.

Can you can post frozen food?

Gee, watching zombie movies and realizing if things got really bad the zombies would be replaced by live desperate people......I don't think I would want to live or survive in a world like that. Good luck.

I have about 1500 canning jars, 2 pressure canners and 2 large rack-stockpots

about 400-500 have tomatoes or green beans in them

I don’t can any meat.

Ton of canned goods here.

BRO! Cannin' meat is easy. EVEN I CAN DO IT!! Give it a whirl this fall.

Scott

Everybody says canned meat is good, but I can't get past how it looks in the jar. Like a lab specimen or something.

Went down into the basement of a Mennonite house that had burned years ago, and they had left probably fifty quarts of canned fish (carp, maybe?) behind. Nastiest looking stuff I ever saw.

Plenty of canned green beans, maters, and apples here. Some pears too.

Tip: Wal mart brand canning lids suck big time. Stick with Ball or Golden Harvest.

My home canned goods. I cannot find a sell by date on them? lol

Guess being brought up in the 50's, things were different then. Maybe the law of gravity was not the same.

I have some 2009 tomatoes, about 40-50 qts left

They start to get a layer of blackening seeds migrate from the top down, even with a good seal intact. Just shelf life

Bout 1 out of 3 is a pooper, just open and dump into the ash pit. Smell is slightly off.

Wife has stronger guts, I let her have the 2009.

If I make chili, I put my 2015 and up in it.

Went to some AK Native friend's house for moose roast dinner once when I lived in Juneau.

As I was leaving they asked if I wanted a couple of jars. You betcha, that stuff was delicious. Made great stew and tacos!

I didn't worry about the looks. Guacamole doesn't look so hot either.

Geno

Dehydrated foods such as vegetables can last twice as long as canned, dehydrated fruits are about the same as canned.

By the book, canned goods time-out @ 5 years.

Keeping canned goods longer puts you much more at risk of botulism poisoning.
Food borne botulism is a rare but serious. You cannot see, smell, or taste botulinum toxin but taking even a small taste of food containing this toxin can be deadly.

Low acidic foods such as asparagus, green beans, beets and corn are most susceptible. But any food has the potential to be contaminated. Boiling home-canned foods for 10 minutes before eating is recommended.

With the high heat cook the canning process requires and then the re-cook before use required with canned goods makes for vegetables too over cooked for my liking.

With dehydrated food, if it won't grow mold, then it absolutely won't grow botulism, so unlike canned you get a visual warning of the possible existence of botulism in dehydrated foods.

Canned goods time-out @ 5 years?

When I was in the military I ate canned C-rations that were a couple of years older than me! The edible stuff wasn't too good, but the Lucky Strikes survived well.

Doing what we can to prep for this. One thing I never took into consideration, is that we're on city water here. I don't have nearly enough bottled water set aside here. Bottled water is getting hard to come by up here. If I want to buy empty jugs and fill from my tap, do I need to add anything to city water to preserve it's shelf life?

Yup. One of the best investments I've ever made. I have cases of salmon both kippered and skinless/boneless and homemade sauerkraut. I have moose meat in the freezer that I'm going to end up thawing out and jarring up here pretty soon. Right now I have a cheap-ast 23qt Mirro pressure canner which works okay, but I'm going to upgrade to an All-American 30qt pressure canner eventually. Since I'm less than two years out from retirement and moving north where I can actually grow schitt, the major near-future purchase is going to be a home freeze dryer. You can freeze dry just about anything from fruits and veggies, to meat and fish to prepared meal entrees and soups. Freeze dried foods have about a 25 year shelf life.