Crazy4Canning Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Simplegirl, I do a happy dance and rejoice with you on your blessing! :banana2: If you already know this, forgive me, but sometimes a word of caution is better than being unsafe - Be sure to check for the 'one trip' jars like mayo or the 'unbranded' pints. These aren't safe for canning because of the thin glass. They also don't have a thick 'lip' at the bottom of the screw bands like Ball & Kerr and the like. I've had these thinner jars pop on me while canning! What a mess! Out of the 30 DOZEN jars I got from my gramma, about 1/3 are these one-trip-jars like mayo or other jars. Some I can use for dry storage, others are being sent to the recyclers. Also, beware those antique jars that are blue or really thick wavy glass - the glass can be so brittle! Since they're so old, they may very well be unsafe. I use them for decoration in my kitchen, not for canning. Any jar marked Ball or Kerr or another major brand - either pint or quart should be relatively safe! I'm still double-checking mine for nicks after I got a lovely cut on my knuckle from an antique jar. Be sure to check the rims of the jar for nicks and imperfections. This can prevent a good seal. Also, I've found that since I had to rescue my jars from a side shed and old chicken house, they had been stored for probably 15 years. Some mice had made themselves at home amongst the jars. Mice are vermin - ick! They carry so many germies! So, rather than just putting the jars in the dishwasher, I've been soaking them in bleach and soap, then giving them a good scrub prior to the dishwasher. Congrats again on your find! Link to comment
sassenach Posted June 22, 2008 Share Posted June 22, 2008 Ok I managed to make passable bread for myself in my tyrant of an oven. Yesterday. Link to comment
Stephanie Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Well, I stumbled upon a deal...I think! I was at WalMart...which had lots of mark downs, price rollbacks, etc...and happened upon this display of juices, it said regular 1.98 for .50.. I'd never heard of this particular one, but , I still got 6 Have y'all heard of these ?? http://www.appleandeve.com/our_juices/frui...trawberry-Mango Now I'm thinking I should go back and get more....hmmmmm Link to comment
LaBellaVita Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 have not posted here in a while, but have been steadily adding more to the preps. More: pasta tuna and canned chicken canned veggies juices jugs of olive oil more rice and sugar picked up more buckets TP sleeping bags for all lantern & fuel 5 gallon gasoline jug (will fill it tomorrow) 2 more flashlights batteries bought another big box o' paper so I can continue printing homeschooling and prepping info out binders for said papers books for my children & a couple of games (planning ahead) some odds and ends clothes items for them to grow into DH is agreeable to a camping stove, but is not convinced we need a tent. I feel adamant about us needing a tent. So I'm working on him :cocktail: he doesn't drink, but boy, wouldn't that be easy working on it, working on it... Link to comment
mommabear Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 got more buckets and filled with bulk dry goods (20 5 gallon buckets full so far!), started a container garden for fruits and veggies, thawed out the freezer and removed all the junk so we could store some dry goods in it. next week we have to add to our garden and clear off another shelf to make our little computer nook into our new food storage nook so we'll be moving around. we've also been cooking from scratch and downloading pioneer recipes so we can put all this cornmeal, rice and beans to good use! Link to comment
crazycanner Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Some one said that you can't use mayonaisse jar it depends on the type of jar. I have used them before and had good luck. but it is best to always check any jar for broken tops or cracks, don't want anyone to get hurt. crazycanner Link to comment
Campy Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 You need to check out VitaCost http://www.vitacost.com/productResults.asp...0food|465872351 Their selection of freeze dried stuff is limited, but their prices are the cheapest I have been able to find AND shipping for the entire order is only $4.99 Link to comment
MommyofSeven Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Those one trip jars (cute name) are perfect for storing spices in when you order in bulk from somewhere like herbalcom, or smaller amounts of stuff, or dehydrated goodies. Mo7 Link to comment
MomM Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 I canned 6 qts of spaghetti sauce and 5 sealed, no idea what happened to the 6th, but it's now in the refrig. and will be eaten soon. We finally received some rain today, and our front rainbarrel is 1/2 full and the back one is 1/8 full (DH is going to plug the other side of house's gutter, so all the rain will drain toward the side with the rainbarrel. I am so excited with my rainbarrels! Link to comment
Simplegirl Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Crazy4Canning~ Luckily, they are mostly Ball jars with a few Kerr and Golden Harvest. So a real great deal! AND my sister even washed them up for me! Some had old food in them apparently and she took them home, dumped the jars, and washed them. Bless her heart....... gotta love her! Link to comment
Jasminegirl Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Think I have last of the snap beans yesterday (7 quarts), got 90 quarts out of them and several meals for folks around, plus my Sis canned herself 21 quarts from them. I have 3 quarts in the refrigerator I will cook for Mom, Sis, daughter and my family tomorrow with some fresh potatoes. YumYum. The beans didn't do as good as in the past, but I was only short 14 jars(104 was my goal). Planted the 2 rows of peanuts day b/f yesterday, and transplanted 50 okra plants after church this evening. They were kind of late in the ground. So I hope they do good. Have to get up and put a few jars of tomatoes in pints tomorrow and make the blackberry and blueberry jellies. Hope everyone will tomorrow. Link to comment
Jeepers Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 I dehydrated some peas last week. I ended up over doing them and scorched quite a few. Most of them actually. So this week I'm dehydrating peas again. It's okay though. It was my first time so I chalked it up to experience. Or lack there of. I have some canned veggies but want to add some dried ones for long term storage. I'm trying to diversify my 'stock' portfolio! Link to comment
Virginia Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 18 pints of green beans coming out the canner,12 more going in. Trying to make myself order a Berkey and some other stuff. Seems like I have to work up to it sometimes. Link to comment
Stephanie Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 Virginia, Berkey's are backordered! I'm still waiting on mine. However, you may be able to find a distributer like Lehman's who has a few in stock. Link to comment
Virginia Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 I saw some on E-bay, but I haven't ever done business there. It appeared to be a company, with a good rating, but I just don't know. I am not too internet savy. Link to comment
Crazy4Canning Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Originally Posted By: Simplegirl Crazy4Canning~ Luckily, they are mostly Ball jars with a few Kerr and Golden Harvest. So a real great deal! AND my sister even washed them up for me! Some had old food in them apparently and she took them home, dumped the jars, and washed them. Bless her heart....... gotta love her! Aren't you the blessed one! What a chore she saved you! I've been tripping over jars and running through dishwasher detergent like nobody's business. I ave come across some VERY cool antique jars though - the oldest is dated 1908. I can't believe I have a 100 year old jar. I am going to save those thinner jars like mayo for some dry storage...there are just too many of them to pass up. Link to comment
Jasminegirl Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Mom, Sis and Me went today. I bought 12 lbs more rice, a couple lbs of dried beans, several jugs and bottles of water, a couple more large jars of peanut butter(to put up for all those jars of jellies I am making), 2 boxes of grits, 1 large container of oatmeal, 6 boxes of poptarts(mostly for son during the summer along with some cereal for him). Then came home and picked my first time out of my butter bean patch. Just got done shelling them and washing. Will be putting them up tomorrow along with more blackberry and blueberry jelly. Picked another gallon of cherry tomatoes, probably make some juice with those. Time to get to bed and pick up a and read a few minutes before I get to some. Link to comment
LaBellaVita Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 went and bought a vacuum sealer. Had bought three 3 lb bags of almonds, so I separated those out in 1 lb increments and vacuum sealed them, bought more 50 lbs of rice and sugar, more canned goods, reinventoried everything. Oh, also bought some books for my homeschool, games for kiddos, and beautiful new bibles for everyone. I feel like I still have so much to do (will buy more bags and rolls and start vacuum sealing my pastas), and I will be ordering my dehydrator this week (yay!), but I will say it is good seeing that big o' pile of foodstuffs already. I would love to move later this year, would LOVE a basement and to be away from people (thinking of elections, TSHTF, etc), but I'll just have to keep praying about it. Link to comment
crazycanner Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 canned 3 jars of blackberries yesterday. plan to go back tomorrow and pick more. 3 may not be much but that is 3 I didn't have. crazycanner Link to comment
JCK88 Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Picked 12 pounds of strawberries...now off to wipe the juice off of my face and make some jam! Link to comment
Dora Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Got 2 boxes of quart jars from Freecycle last night and they all had rings on them. Some were spaghetti sauce jars, but all said Kerr, Ball or Atlas on them. Last week DH and I went and got new glasses. Also found a bail type jar at a thrift store about 3 quart size that so far has 3 pounds of 16 bean soup mix, with room for at least one more pound. Went to library and got a book on blacksmithing for DS and videos on gardening, how to play the acoustic guitar, and learning American Sign Language. (Knowledge is Power). Picked the apricots off the tree got about 10 pounds, time will tell how many survived the picking lol. Will probably dehydrate most of them. And now have 75 pounds of rice in buckets, with another 25 left to put up - gotta find more buckets. AND the electrician mounted the boxes on the house and electric company will turn the power on (outside only - have to finish the rewiring inside) WOOOHOOO Getting closer. Link to comment
ibelieve Posted June 25, 2008 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Finally found an umbrella clothesline in stock and ordered it. Should be here soon. I also picked up more canned goods. Things are getting so high. I about fell over when I saw how much maple syrup was. It was 4 something, now it is over 7. Yikes. Needless to say, I'll be making syrup from molasses instead. Also noticed that the dry milk went up over 2 bucks as well. I got it anyway. We have a lot of tangerines and lemons on our trees. Oh, and our pumpkins are up and growing now. We've never grown them before, so something new and exciting to look forward to. I love making fresh pumpkin bread and pie. YUMMY!!! Link to comment
CrabGrassAcres Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 My brooders are running over and I filled the incubator again. Future dinners and layers! Link to comment
Simplegirl Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Went shopping today at Sams and got 30 more rolls of TP, big bucket of laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, 24 cans dog food, one more package of spaghetti (can't have enough of that around here!), a pork tenderloin, and some other groceries. Friday I will do a big Aldi shopping trip after I help out at my Dsis' garage sale. Link to comment
Tracie Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Seriously -- I think finding and reading this forum has been the best thing I've done this week. I'm making a list of things we can buy when we get a certain check we're waiting for. We got rid of our guns when our son was born, but Hubby's given me permission to replace my Mossberg I've missed so much, so long as we buy a gun locker. Also on the list are a Berkey Light and possibly a Tilia Foodsaver (or a lot of mason jars). I started prepping in the mid 1990's. But nothing ever happened. I got complacent, I stopped prepping and even gave my food storage away to the person who bought my off-the-grid cabin. I got married and was thinking "nah, it'll never happen." Well shoot boy howdy, times have changed. Between the gas prices and the crop failures, I'm starting to think I need to have it all done by Christmas. But I think I can do it... Link to comment
Recommended Posts