Canning Joys - A New Adventure Begins
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"Peaches on the shelf Potatoes in the bin Supper's ready, everybody come on in Taste a little of the summer, Taste a little of the summer, You can taste a little of the summer my grandma's put it all in jars." -- Greg Brown "Canned Goods" 
First all-day canning event. Quarts of chili and pints of ground turkey - all sized to hold two servings - perfect for a quick after-work dinner
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Preserving food has been a necessity for thousands of years - freezing, drying, smoking, fermenting, curing, preserving, pickling and canning. People had to preserve surplus foodstuffs to tide them over during months when their indigenous foods weren't available.
Modern refrigeration, food handling and storage methods have allowed food to travel the globe and show up in our local market. While this is really amazing, it has created other concerns, including crops picked before they are ripe, or crops that are stored for months before they are sold. Many crops are not grown for their flavor, but rather their "eye appeal" - how good they will look in the store. We have all heard of the atrocities our fruits and vegetables undergo before they arrive all perfect and shiny in our local grocery store. Every week I see new types and brands of prepackaged and prepared foods slowly taking over the supermarket with less of the raw ingredients available to make our own fresh food, and I find this alarming. While allowing more healthy foods to be stored for longer times, more refrigerators and freezers are stocked with processed, quick-cook foods that are less healthy. Studies connecting the correlation between frozen (microwaved) foods and obesity have proven that access to easy meals has led to a general decline in overall health
-- Wikipedia, "Refrigerator" |
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Why we decided to start canning:
Motivation to start canning came in the form of a tasty chili recipe that we can't seem to get enough of. We decided we liked it better than our pantry staple, Dennison's, and that we'd much rather reach for a "can" of ours. |
All American Pressure Cooker & Canner
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Pints of cooked ground turkey in broth and quarts of turkey chili
Canned meats are available at Pleasant Hill Grain,
our supplier of choice for wheat berries and oat groats (for whole-wheat bread and oatmeal)
our supplier of choice for wheat berries and oat groats (for whole-wheat bread and oatmeal)
If you decide to can your own food, following proper guidelines for either water-bath or pressure canning is very important. The USDA has a lot of great information and detailed guidelines for safe canning practices. See their downloadable pdf instruction publications here: Complete Guide to Home Canning
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Some ideas for using canned and left-over meats:
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Chicken breasts cooked in broth
Thick cut cooked bacon
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Stay tuned for more canning adventures...
Links:
Green Living: What Your Hamburger (and Cereal and Produce) Aren’t Telling You by JUDY ZIMOLA
Canned meats available at Pleasant Hill Grains
Complete Guide to Home Canning by the USDA
Green Living: What Your Hamburger (and Cereal and Produce) Aren’t Telling You by JUDY ZIMOLA
Canned meats available at Pleasant Hill Grains
Complete Guide to Home Canning by the USDA
©2012 Laura Delanty, Wife With A Knife - All Rights Reserved
