How much are you preserving this year?

[FarmerJamie]

On a serious note I would like to have an idea how much a family of five should store in general?

This has been posted before, I think on BYC.

http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm

 

[savingdogs]

I plan on buying a whole mess of jars and then making a whole mess of blackberry jam.

I have a weird berry here called "salmonberry" and I was thinking of trying to make something from that too. I just found some jars on sale and I'm hoping I can afford to pick them up.

I'd love to start an extensive storage of preserved foods, but haven't been able to afford to yet. I'm missing the strawberry jam season here because we just don't have the cash to buy the fruit and jars at the moment.

 

[Marianne]

That LDS link that FarmerJamie posted was interesting. It does give you a starting point for storage of dry goods, but then you have to adjust it for your own situation.
I just process everything that I get from my garden. Some years it's enough for the entire year, sometimes it's not. The things I count on the most are potatoes and tomatoes - Especially tomatoes as I can make so many different things later with cooked tomatoes. I freeze more than I do canning most years.

Through the years I have figured out that somethings aren't worth growing here, like basil, bell peppers, carrots and others. Either we don't eat enough to warrant it or we get such a poor yield from our alkaline soil and well water that it's not worth the battle. Other things are cheap enough in the grocery store (like dried beans and lentils) that I don't use the garden space to try to grow my own. I have less in my garden and around the yard this year and it's nice to have a life again.

 

[Boogity]

Like Marianne, we process everything that we don't eat right away. Sometimes it lasts all winter and sometimes not. I have stopped planting corn. It's so cheap at all the roadside stands and our farmer's market when mine are ready to harvest that it's not worth the effort and garden space. Also I like to help the local farmers with equipment maintenance (it's kind of like a hobby for me) and they give us more sweet corn than we could ever eat.

I think we canned 60 pt. of tomatoes, 40 qt. sweet corn, 40 qt. of green beans, 20 pt. chicken stock, 20 pt. split pea soup, 20 pt. beets, 20 pt. green peppers, and a biszillion pickles. I hung up 14 large bunches of onions and they really stayed nice all winter - I think we still have one bunch left. We had 2 shelves of various jellies and jams and five 5-gal buckets of potatoes. And we experimented with canned meats last year - we did some cubed venison, cubed beef for stews, and some Texas chili. We need to work on those meats some more as they were good but not great.

 

[Neko-chan]

FJ! That's the exact link I was gonna post.

Last summer, I made four small jars of tomato sauce, and I realized then that I would need a whole lot more canning stuff if I wanted to go big on the preserving scale. I'm currently in the market for cheap bottling supplies.

I am (today I hope) going to try and make fruit leather in my convection oven. If I can do that, it means I have my very own winter dehydrator. I'm also exploring the possibilities of making kiwi jam and chutney, since I'm expecting that to be our faithful winter crop.

I am currently shooting to have at least six months supplies stored for the two of us, and then shoot for the 1 year supply mark.

 

[BarredBuff]

Sorry I didn't mean to make light.

Last year I figured this for tomato/spaghetti sauce. We use two quarts per dinner X 52 dinners(once a week)= 104. I ended up with 54 after my tomatoes failed. But we made it until about a month ago. So I kinda figure how much we use of something per week then times it out.

Someone around here said "100 of everything". Which seems like a good goal to me.

My canning usually follows how much of something I have and how bountiful the garden is. A couple years ago I made so much zucchini relish I had it coming out my ears. Never again.

I would make a list of what your going to can and guesstimate how much you will eat. Its a good starting point.

g

Im liking the one hundred of everything.........seems to be a good goal. Im taking it as metaphorically like can all you can or dehydrate or freeze.

 

[rebecca100]

At the rate my garden is going it really is going to be zero. Dang bugs.

 

[BarredBuff]

At the rate my garden is going it really is going to be zero. Dang bugs.

One day you will get the kinks out! Since this is a emergency go and get some sevin dust and wipe them out!

 

[Neko-chan]

Diatemaceous (sp?) earth (DE) might help. It's a bunch of micro shards that kill the bugs from the inside basically.

 

[BarredBuff]

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