Is canning veggies cost effective?

[Quail_Antwerp]

yep, seriously, $15 for 2lbs of beef. I just bought the smaller pack of ground beef for $10 and it nearly killed me.

Beef has skyrocketed because Japan has ordered a bunch of our beef due to their radiation issues.

We used to be able to get calves to raise out at $10 - $25 THAT was great!

The best beef we ever had was a $5 hairless calf from the Scio Auction. She had mange so bad no one wanted to bid on her. She was a day old and BALD as a baby's butt

E buys her, brings her home, treats the mange, gives her scour meds, milks her up with fresh milk as he worked on the dairy farm at the time and all our milk was FREE.

Raised her up to 1200 pounds and whaddya know - butchering day arrived and yummo!

Course, I'll admit to having been so freaked out that he butchered and ate his PET that I didn't eat on her for the first month - 'cuz I swear she was mooing in the freezer!!

But - the sirloin tips that came off that heifer were absolutely WONDERFUL smothered in fresh onions and mushrooms


eta: she was a simental and I have to say, I think they make the best beef! herefords after that! and grass baby, oh yea - grass fed beef only!
I was hooked from the first bite and now - heck the heifer in the field is starting to look pretty darn good!!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

* in the background: mooooooooooo! *

QA: baby! whats that??
E: hush you are hearing things
QA: no! there's mooing coming from the freezer!


ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

anyway that is nuts about the beef prices but it makes sense.

 

[KevsFarm]

Can you really raise beef just on grass,grazing in the pasture..? Corn or grains are no needed at all..? I'm waiting for the price of chicken to skyrocket in the stores.! We must also be exporting chicken to Japan as well as beef, no..? Plus that huge tornado in north Alabama last month trashed over 200 poultry farms.! When chicken is cheap on sale in the stores thats when i can it.Never tried canning any other meats.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Can you really raise beef just on grass,grazing in the pasture..? Corn or grains are no needed at all..?

Yep. That's how we've raised every beef we've had. And it's DELICIOUS!!

Some people think if you don't finish them off with grain, the meat's slimy. We've not found this to be true AT ALL.

in the winter we feed hay hay hay and more hay.

We have given her chop as a calf, to help teach her to eat off the bottle, but that's usually the only grain ever used. Once they are eating off the bottle it's grass grass grass and more grass all summer long, and then hay hay hay and more hay all winter long.

our current heifer is named Blessing, and lucky for her, she won't be butchered but rather bred. She's 1/2 Angus 1/2 Holstien, so this gal is praying she has a good udder and we can milk her! We keep her tame by petting and rubbing all over her including belly and udder, so that she's used to our hands being on her when the time comes.

We DO worm our beef, though, but we make sure that the last worming is more than 30 days from the time of butcher.

and honestly, cattle shouldn't EVER eat corn! They can't digest it. Seriously - look at a cow pie of a beef that's ate corn - the corn is in their pies UNDIGESTED - so really, I think it's a waste of $ to feed the beef corn.

 

[Marianne]

I do more freezing than canning. I got all my jars free, just gathering from friends as the years went by. So I do tons of tomato stuff like the other posts. Yes, I think it's worth it. I'm getting more like gd, (I think it was gd) in that now I only plant a few different things in my garden that like the alkaline soil and well water that I have.

I never have canned beans or meat. I don't buy meat unless it's on sale, and we're okay having some vegetarian meals. Beans are pretty easy to cook up. Usually I plan supper in the morning, so I have time to deal with things like that. And we always have eggs! The most satisfying meals are the ones where everything came from our property.

 

[FarmerJamie]

if you really want to do it up right - can your potatoes.... i swear, its the easiest thing ever and the quickest way to supper. i thought it was the stupidest thing ever, but wow you take care of all the prep work up front so all you have to do is pop open a can of taters and fry 'em up in lard and you are in business.

Oh yeah!

MIL once brought us 100lb of potatoes she got on sale. I thought the wife was going to flip out until we figured out we could do about half in the size for fried potatoes and the other half larger to use in making mashed 'taters (no peeling or dicing needed, just dump in water and finish cooking!).

Mashed potatoes and hamburger gravy.....

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Marianne - you've got to can some beans! really! there's something about how they get finished in the processor that makes them so darn good. i'll never buy another can of refried beans again. for about $1 for a bag of beans you can get a bunch of pints. and its totally easy peasy.



FJ- 100 pounds!?!? wow! thats like my dream come true...

 

[chrissum]

Wow, 6 pages! I have read all of them and now have some more things to think about! I've also got a large freezer, a dehydrater, so now there are other methods with which to preserve food to think about. I only used the dehydrater for deer jerky! Does anyone recommend a book(s) that can explain in detail canning? I bartered with a fellow to cut down a large tree, he gets to keep it for the firewood, than I can expand my garden. This is why I asked for the info of price of canned/store bought. I will have a lot more room for more garden.
Meat is taken care of, its veggies/fruit I want to get into preserving. Thanks again everyone!
Any other input is greatly appreciated!

 

[FarmerJamie]

Marianne - you've got to can some beans! really! there's something about how they get finished in the processor that makes them so darn good. i'll never buy another can of refried beans again. for about $1 for a bag of beans you can get a bunch of pints. and its totally easy peasy.



FJ- 100 pounds!?!? wow! thats like my dream come true...

Black beans, oh yeah. I can about 1/2 of them, bag up the rest. I'm with you there.

I didn't want to touch potatoes for about 2 weeks after that.

 

[KevsFarm]

Quail_Antwerp..thats very interesting.So do you grow or buy your winter hay.? Also, how much pasture would one need to raise one steer a season,,? Sounds like a pretty economical way to obtain a healhy beef supply.I suppose it could get expensive if you had to buy a good quality hay for winter feeding..? What doesn't go in the freezer to eat, would provide alot of canning meat for chile, stew, etc...i would imagine..!