Food Preservation for the Paranoid and Tight-fisted

2009 Canning Stats:
51 jars strawberry jam
20 green beans
36 dill pickles
17 peach jam
16 peaches
63 applesauce
57 pears
8 tomatoes

Thought I better get these into the body of my blog. 259 bottles, while impressive, is almost exactly 100 jars shy of what Janet and I did last year. Let's go ahead and blame the cool start to summer instead of my lack of diligence for the shortfall. However, not included here are the many, many things that we dried. We've done some experimenting with flavored dried apples with extremely tasty results, and I have many apples on the back porch waiting for the same treatment.

When I used to watch my mom canning, it always seemed like such a giant amount of work for something one could slip out to buy at the store. I realize now that money isn't the only factor here. I take real satisfaction in eating something when I know exactly where it came from, that no pesticides were sprayed on it, I know exactly how it was processed, and I know there's not a finger or a rat in any of the jars. The rule of thumb for canning is this: Never, at any time, think to yourself, "If I worked x amount of hours at y amount of pay, I could just spend xy on canned goods instead of slaving away in the kitchen..." It's not about the math, people. It's about the intrinsic rewards. Seriously. I'm like a kick-ass pioneer here.