Relearning How to Can Food with Limitations

 

First, let me say let me say that I've preserved my own food for over forty years. Preserving my own food has been a lifetime of learning and doing. It's part of who I am. So after my my hemorrhagic stroke in 2012 left me paralyzed on my right dominant side, I was lost. It was very important to me to get back to who I was in some ways. Of course, I took baby steps in taking back/relearning/adapting how to can. I wasn't always as proficient as you see me in the videos.

Being a homesteader, it was about knowing how and where my food was grown so I got it to do my body good. It give me a connection to the earth, and God's Grace and abundance.

Washing jars, flats, rings, and other necessary equipment and utensils. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, right? Okay, but in this case it helps keep the nasty germs that will make you ill. I'll wash everything I'll use to can with the night before and cover them with a dish towel, or stick them in the oven overnight.

Next, I'll wash the food stuff before I do the prep work on them. I'll give each a vinegar and water rinse.

I'll let them air dry in a colander while I setup my cutting/prep station. Let the prep work begin! Depending on the amount I'm canning it could take an hour or a couple of days. I pace myself accordingly. I'm not as handy with a knife as I once was, but I get it done. Having gadgets helps like my slap chopper, mandolin, or my veg-o-matic. They save me a lot of knife work. Plus, the pieces are a uniform size and shape so I know it was can safely. This is important for canning and dehydrating.  

Come canning day, I'll put the canner on the stove and ferry pitchers of water from the faucet to the pot until it's half full for water bath canning or three inch mark for pressure canning. I'll put the lid on the pot. If I'm pulling the refrigerator to put into jars, I won't put the fire on under the pot. Cold ingredients, cold jars, and cold canner. If I'm using hot stuff. I'll use the heated canner method...hot geed, hot jars, hot canner. To heat my jars, I'd place the, in a large cake pan and turn the oven on to its lowest setting. I'd be taking these out two at a time to fill and putting them into the canner. 

When I finish canning, it's the whole setup process in reverse. I usually let my canners sit on the stove overnight to chill down. I'm not crazy enough to try and pick up a huge pot of hot water one handed and try to carry it to the sink and dump it. I may empty some of the water by pitcher load. I can fill the pitcher enough not to slosh it all over me and the floor. But usually, I wait until the next morning to do it. If I'm pressure canning, there's only about three inches of water in the pot, so picking up the canner one handed and pressing it against my body isn't that big of a deal once it cools off. There's very little spill hazard unless I drop it. One of the beautiful things about of using a pressure canner for canning both ways, they are built heavy duty. I've dropped them one concrete floors and unless I catch a bottom edge just right, it won't dent. It will make a lot of noise and may crack  your tile floors though. Work smarter not harder- clean up as you go.

Why would I bother canning my own food? It seems like a lot of work. It's cheaper and better than store bought. On average of $0.20- $1 per jar than store bought. It's COVID lockdown proof. I know where and how it was grown. It's empty store shelves proof. No matter what shortages the stores may have, I won't do without. I'm covered until the next growing season. It's what I can do when ends don't meet and inflation. Haven't we've seen most of this in the past two years and hasn't it taught us anything?                                                                

That make sense and cents.