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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 18,005
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 18,005 |
We vacuum seal stuff in jars and it keeps longer. Like cheese and dry goods. We have a vacuum sealer with jar lid adapter. We use the vacuum sealed bags in the freezer and meat keeps two years or more. Shreaded cheese in jars will keep for months if vacuum sealed. Good tips! FWIW, I don't bother to vacuum-seal my meat in the freezer, as double-wrapping with plastic wrap + butcher paper works fine and is cheaper. The other night I thawed and cooked some venison steaks from 2005 that were delicious. No freezer burn at all.
"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 18,005
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 18,005 |
It's good to hear that this person's experience isn't confirmed by you folks who can. Economy must be doing just fine. Nobody said the economy was doing fine, just that the premise source of this article is not a good indicator. Fixed it for ya. Yep, Tinfoil-Hat Central, that one.
"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars
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Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 574
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 574 |
If canning isn't being done (and I suspect it still is being done quite a bit), it's because it has become relatively expensive vs purchasing inexpensive pre-canned food. A 12pk of Ball pint/16oz jars on Amazon is $16. Comparatively, a case of 12- 15oz Hormel chili cans is $18.96 at my local Walmart. Cans of beans or other products are even cheaper.
The original purchase of the jars is the cheap part. It's the labor time that really gets you. Add to the Ball jars the $3-4 for a dozen lids every time you can, plus all of your time and labor to grow what you're canning, the heat for your stove, and the time to get a boil going in the canner and the time to actually heat and can the food in hot jars, and you've spent an inordinate amount of time to produce a marginal (if any) financial savings.
I'll caveat this by saying that I continue to can everything from jam to pickles to venison, but I'm under no impression that it actually saves me money. It simply provides good, homemade food. But it does so at a premium to (basic) purchased canned foods from what I've seen.
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Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 54,284
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 54,284 |
The economy sucks, but we have lots of jars & lids, the rings are near indestructible. With & daughter are canning this weekend and making spaghetti sauce by the gallon and grape, strawberry and blackberry jam to last several years as well. My garden sucks this year. Way too dry. Shaping up like Texas' drought last year. I've got bunches of jars down in the basement. Prolly some lids and such around here too.
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Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 3,795
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 3,795 |
If canning isn't being done (and I suspect it still is being done quite a bit), it's because it has become relatively expensive vs purchasing inexpensive pre-canned food. A 12pk of Ball pint/16oz jars on Amazon is $16. Comparatively, a case of 12- 15oz Hormel chili cans is $18.96 at my local Walmart. Cans of beans or other products are even cheaper.
The original purchase of the jars is the cheap part. It's the labor time that really gets you. Add to the Ball jars the $3-4 for a dozen lids every time you can, plus all of your time and labor to grow what you're canning, the heat for your stove, and the time to get a boil going in the canner and the time to actually heat and can the food in hot jars, and you've spent an inordinate amount of time to produce a marginal (if any) financial savings.
I'll caveat this by saying that I continue to can everything from jam to pickles to venison, but I'm under no impression that it actually saves me money. It simply provides good, homemade food. But it does so at a premium to (basic) purchased canned foods from what I've seen.
Mom and dad canned when I was a kid, but they had a sizeable garden back then. I am with you, right now, it's too expensive to buy stuff to can, as well as canning supplies, and the time. I do it for stuff like salsa, which is crazy expensive. I made @ 8 jars of salsa for about $18 worth of time, materials, and effort. Salsa is running $4/jar at the store right now so I saved about $30 I also canned some jelly from strawberries, but I did freezer jam, not boiling this time.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,706 Likes: 17
Campfire Sage
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OP
Campfire Sage
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,706 Likes: 17 |
Nothing beats a vac packed 1911 though.... Can't think of a better way to preserve one long-term against rust in a high humidity environment like a bathroom where a shower is taken on a daily basis, that's for damned sure. 
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,090
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,090 |
Well, My jars have been sitting on the back porch for 2 months waiting to be washed. So, one of these days the product will be flowing from the garden and I'll have to get my behind in gear.
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Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 1,950
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 1,950 |
Home grown food is actually better for you. You can control what fertilizers and bug sprays you use, if you use any. No Frankenfood. Chicken manure for fertilizer, marigolds for bug repellants. Best system I saw my late FIL had, was a dirt floor chicken house with chicken wire below the roosting poles. Bottom could be opened from outside to scooped the chicken manure out for fertilizer.
Another was to split the garden area in half and fence in with chicken wire. Put chicken house in middle with doored openings on each side. One year let them free range on one half fertilizing it, garden the other size. Next year swap sides.
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Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 9,517
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 9,517 |
sounds like pistol primers.
No shortage here.. yet. Like there was in '08
But the prices have really jumped.
The old law of supply and demand.
Sometimes the balances are tipped artificially , but it all comes back in the end.
( and usually in our "end")
Last edited by ColsPaul; 06/20/12.
"wanna hear God laugh? Tell Him you have complete control now!"
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Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,948
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,948 |
If canning isn't being done (and I suspect it still is being done quite a bit), it's because it has become relatively expensive vs purchasing inexpensive pre-canned food. A 12pk of Ball pint/16oz jars on Amazon is $16. Comparatively, a case of 12- 15oz Hormel chili cans is $18.96 at my local Walmart. Cans of beans or other products are even cheaper.The original purchase of the jars is the cheap part. It's the labor time that really gets you. Add to the Ball jars the $3-4 for a dozen lids every time you can, plus all of your time and labor to grow what you're canning, the heat for your stove, and the time to get a boil going in the canner and the time to actually heat and can the food in hot jars, and you've spent an inordinate amount of time to produce a marginal (if any) financial savings.
I'll caveat this by saying that I continue to can everything from jam to pickles to venison, but I'm under no impression that it actually saves me money. It simply provides good, homemade food. But it does so at a premium to (basic) purchased canned foods from what I've seen.
Sure it saves you, you get better, healthier food. What type of cheap fillers and low grade meat do you think Hormel uses to keep costs low? Processing your own food is a good family exercise, where you get to control the quality of food you eat which is a big part of your overall health.
Wanted: Vintage Remington or Winchester hats, patches, shirts. PM me if you have something.
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 10,873
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 10,873 |
FYI a 12 pack of regular mouth Ball or Kerr jars just $10.98 at the local wally mart. Picked up 2 case for green beans today at lunch.
If y'all need any I will be happy to trade some for firearms or ammo.
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 21,959
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 21,959 |
Canning jars have always sold like hotcakes in my area. Lots of Mormon folks around here, and they take the canning/storing of food seriously, from what I have heard.
"For joy of knowing what may not be known we take the golden road to Samarkand."
James Elroy Flecker
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Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 14,076
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 14,076 |
It doesn't save you upfront, but once you have the jars on hand the cost goes way down. It is similar to having a garden, the first year I put a garden in I had to but a rototiller, and build a fence around the garden to keep the deer and other critters out. I could have bought a lot of vegetables with that money the first year, but now I do not notice the costs and the long term sustainability of the garden, and the food it produces will be worth more to me during hard times than the money I spent on the garden upfront during good times.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,706 Likes: 17
Campfire Sage
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OP
Campfire Sage
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,706 Likes: 17 |
Home grown food is actually better for you. You can control what fertilizers and bug sprays you use, if you use any. No Frankenfood. Chicken manure for fertilizer, marigolds for bug repellants. Best system I saw my late FIL had, was a dirt floor chicken house with chicken wire below the roosting poles. Bottom could be opened from outside to scooped the chicken manure out for fertilizer.
Another was to split the garden area in half and fence in with chicken wire. Put chicken house in middle with doored openings on each side. One year let them free range on one half fertilizing it, garden the other size. Next year swap sides. Two excellent ideas.
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 13,250
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 13,250 |
They have pints ($6.98) and quarts ($7.98) stacked head high at the local Super Foods in Greenville. I can a lot and usually buy a couple of dozen when I stop in. I bought a ton of Tattler lids and rings last year so I'm good in that dept.
Last edited by MColeman; 06/20/12.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 48,411
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 48,411 |
Dunno where he is located, but they are easy to obtain all day long here. here too....take your pick...Walmart, Ace Hardware, or Winn-Dixie. I know because I'm my daughter's personal shopper, in return for a supply of preserves.
Proudly representing oil companies, defense contractors, and firearms manufacturers since 1980. Because merchants of death need lawyers, too.
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 13,250
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 13,250 |
the food it produces will be worth more to me during hard times than the money I spent on the garden upfront during good times. A big consideration is that you won't be forced to fight for what's available on the store shelves if there's even anything there during a crisis.
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Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 1,950
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 1,950 |
Stores will run out of food in 3 days if there is an EMP from either giant solar storm or an EMP bomb exploded in space above the US. Will knock out the power and over half the vehicles on the road. Without trucking or electricity shelves will be empty in 3 days. Average store only has a 3 day supply of food. Being able to produce and store your own in bad times is a must. What about truckers strikes? What about martial law for a terroist act or a pandemic keeping you at home. You either have to store preps or be able to make your own.
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Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 16,000
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 16,000 |
ah, there are a LOT of people that know how to home process. We just got done putting up about six five gallon buckets of apples, and yesterday i gots myself a gallon of non processed honey.
one does what one can.
THE BIRTH PLACE OF GERONIMO
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 59,162 Likes: 2
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 59,162 Likes: 2 |
By last year I was ready to give up about 200 jars... Not any more..  Finding lids/seals might now be the main issue..
Ex- USN (SS) '66-'69
Pro-Constitution.
LET'S GO BRANDON!!!
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