Canning help.

[freemotion]

You know the joy, then, Sally! I'm a big believer in variety!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I was at Walmart not long ago and saw the Ball Blue Book for only $6.

 

[patandchickens]

Oh, for SURE freezing is less guaranteed-reliable than canning, no argument there!

However the o.p. was talking about economics, and the likelihood of losing your freezer food varies GREATLY depending on where you are, with some places/situations having very little chance of anything like that happening; whereas no matter how you slice it, you gotta put a lot of BTUs into all that canning, and that must also be figured into the costs. Which people seldom do.

Pat

 

[TanksHill]

Ok so lets address some of these.....I live in Ca.

My gas bill goes up about 10 to 15 per month for the two months a year I do the most canning.

I run a freezer year round. It's huge. Electricity is not that cheap. I have no idea what it cost to run the darn thing. We don't loose power very often but it has survived a 12hour blackout.

I dehydrate things from the garden. Not on a huge scale but this year I ended up with several quarts of diced peppers. Electricity.

I have made an "almost" root cellar in my garage. I store home grown pumpkins, squash, and onions I bought realllllly cheap.

I really think the trick is to have a variety of storage methods. Like others have said variety is good.

Also lean more towards the most economic. It's that simple. It will take time for you to adapt to your new surroundings. I think you are definitely on the right track. Research is good.

Best of luck.

 

[kyle]

WOW, thank you guys. What a warm friendly place to talk i like this! so many places are either stay or leave, do this or go away. what a nice change

I will be mid Vancouver Island, BC Canada. not real cold winters, or even long ones, but not warm either. i have a 6 month growing season, but i will build larger greenhouses, so there is that benefit.

it does not get cold enough, constant enough to use it as a natural freezer...good or bad, there we have it.

I liek the ideas about variety. I already dehydrate a ot here, and am well accustomed to those procedures. It is well possible in our new area for sure, despite the "rainforest" we live in, summer is really dry!

The house already has a deepfreeze. i think its about 2 meters long. a good size, so we will be using that til its busting open. But a full family will go through that quick if nothing else is being added to the meal, so we want to can (and dry) as well.

Because, very unfortunately, our surroundings are clear cut a lot (dont get me started on the BC logging ordeals!) there is a never ending supply of free fire wood, and i do not need to harm any living trees to get it. $5 in gas gets me a truckload of wood...not bad. Our house has an electric range, and natural gas, but i will buy a wood stove as a cooking and heating item. I hate gas, so i wont use that in our house. Electricity will be used only when needed, but i prefer to stay away from it when possible if there is something greener/cheaper available...but smoke bothers me also i will also try to make fire burning more efficient.

Thank you so much for hte book suggestion. Right now i am financially able to buy any kind of stuff i need, so we are in SUPER SAVE MODE because we can save a few grand a month here, so we can setup, or put aside funds now to upgrade the house....including good books. i got it on order, cant wait to get it. any other good suggestions?

electricity costs $0.09 (CDN) per KW where i live. the freezer there, if i remember right is around 600 watts i think...so in a 30 day month thats $38/month...We may sell it (its pretty new) and buy a smaller one...see when we get there and live for a year and see how worth it, it is.


now the even bigger challenge.

Learn to cook


Edit this post: i was jsut briefly looking at freezers, and it seems a lot rate by the year. when i calculated it down to the hour, it was under 100watts, an hours...which clearly is not right as is, but as an average. So do they just run, for example, a max of 600watts per hour when in huge freeze, but dont use that much when everything is frozen and maintaining a freeze? i guess that makes more sense, than my thinking it would be 600 watts every hour, every day.

 

[fancy]

I found a book titled "Putting Foods By", it touches on many methods of food preservation. I have found it very helpful.

Fancy

 

[Denim Deb]

I found a book titled "Putting Foods By", it touches on many methods of food preservation. I have found it very helpful.

Fancy

I think I have that same book!