Eating Well on a Budget

[SPedigrees]

Frozen is usually fine and for future days. I can take reheating something from the fridge once, for a second day. Maaaybe twice, for day 3.

It would be taking an important pleasure out of my life to eat slumgullion, day after day .... I go for freshness and simplicity.

Some things improve with time. Spaghetti sauce for instance, the reason why Italian cooks used to simmer sauce for an entire day, but even in the fridge, the flavor of the ingredients blend into something more delightful on day six than on day one.

 

[Country Homesteader]

My FH and I love fresh veggies which we buy LOTS of which I par boil it then put it into vacuum sealer (NOT FOOD SAVER but an off brand one) and freeze it and if we can't find something fresh we buy it frozen then I still break it down into smaller packages and freeze it.
Yes, I do want my own garden and more than likely it will be a RAISED BED GARDEN so I don't have to waste money on buying veggies unless I really have to. I would love to learn how to do canning (preserving) especially so I could make own Spaghetti Sauce. I already have a perfect closet for it too!!! It's the utility closet (its long and narrow with built in shelves) in the dogs room, stays cool all year long and dark unless I have to go in there for something.

 

[SPedigrees]

I would love to learn how to do canning (preserving) especially so I could make own Spaghetti Sauce. I already have a perfect closet for it too!!! It's the utility closet (its long and narrow with built in shelves) in the dogs room, stays cool all year long and dark unless I have to go in there for something.

It sounds like you have the perfect storage closet for canned goods. Probably the best way is to learn from someone who knows canning.

I learned a lot of cooking and food preparation methods from my mother and my grandmother. My mom never did any kind of food preservation. My grandmother canned many of the vegetables she and my grandfather raised, but by the time I was old enough to learn from her, they had stopped gardening and she had stopped canning foods. As a young married, lots of our neighbors canned their own vegies, but we were all too busy back in the day to give or get instruction in an art that was 2nd nature to everyone but me. I've made pickles and jam, but have always trusted the refrigerator or freezer to store these foods.

 

[Country Homesteader]

Probably the best way is to learn from someone who knows canning.

I really don't have anyone around me that knows canning. When I was growing up I lived with my Great Grandmother who passed in 1995, my Grandmother in 1995-1996 who passed in 2019 and my Mom who passed in 2021. My Grandmother used to make 14 Day pickles and I loved them but was never shown how to do anything like that.

 

[SPedigrees]

I really don't have anyone around me that knows canning. When I was growing up I lived with my Great Grandmother who passed in 1995, my Grandmother in 1995-1996 who passed in 2019 and my Mom who passed in 2021. My Grandmother used to make 14 Day pickles and I loved them but was never shown how to do anything like that.

I can totally relate. I helped my grandma make donuts and got her to show me how to make a lemon meringue pie, as well as watching her and my mom cook various things, but that was one thing, while canning (which could kill people if not done correctly) was quite another. There is really no substitute for learning by doing with an expert watching over to alert you to mistakes and correct methods. If only we could travel backwards in time to learn these skills!

 

[digitS']

Our 2 freezers are absolutely crammed -- as they should be at this time of year . DW bought 2 chickens today and wanted to freeze one. I told her that we might have been in trouble if she had wanted both in there. Chicken soup with rice and garden veggies tomorrow. We should be able to empty the pot in 2 days. I'm supposed to buy barley soon because we both like beef & barley soup.

The only thing that I have ever canned was jam and that practice went by the wayside years ago. The jars were mostly used for gifts and I relied on the apricot tree that grew beside the then garden. In 2023, I'm lax about buying some Bartlett pears and GD apples. I've often made pear & apple butter and frozen it in small containers. However, DW is really trying to cut sugar and so it would just be me eating these, which might be okay with her since she isn't inclined to eat this sort of thing in sandwiches or on toast.

Pasta sauce goes in the freezer every year.

The only thing that I remember my mother canning were peaches. She especially liked them and, I think, resisted becoming too much of a farm wife. An example, she said that her mother told her to never learn how to milk a cow. I know Grandma Goldie was speaking from experience. Perhaps this was your mother's thinking also, @SPedigrees .

I was once told by a person at Cooperative Extension that the reason her job was funded 100 years ago was because of important food safety concerns. You know, @Country Homesteader , it wouldn't surprise me if your Coop Ext office has a food preservation program that you could benefit from. BTW, Country', the LDS genealogical people tell me that I have ancestors who migrated first from the Great Britain and then into what is now Lunenburg County, just next door to you there in Crewe. This was in just about 1700 and if you give me some time, I just might remember their names . Good Gravy, at 5 generation/century, if your families arrived on the Eastern Seaboard at 300 years plus, those early colonists are almost all ancestors.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

I can totally relate. I helped my grandma make donuts and got her to show me how to make a lemon meringue pie, as well as watching her and my mom cook various things, but that was one thing, while canning (which could kill people if not done correctly) was quite another. There is really no substitute for learning by doing with an expert watching over to alert you to mistakes and correct methods. If only we could travel backwards in time to learn these skills!

there's the few basics to start with and then after that canning depends upon what you want to put up.

there's a lot of good threads here and on SS on the topic.

having a nice pantry is really important as you don't want to go through all the work of canning but then end up not using it because you can't get to it easily or to see what you have.

 

[baymule]

Baymule waves hand……hey y’all I do canning!

 

[Country Homesteader]

Baymule waves hand……hey y’all I do canning!

Yes you do @baymule but you are all the way in TEXAS while I'm in VIRGINIA so it's kinda hard to teach someone something over a distance and through pics especially when someone learns better being hands on NOT just reading or viewing.

 

[baymule]

I started canning easy stuff like jams and jelly. Then tomatoes, I could water bath. I bought a pressure canner and followed directions. Ball has several books out with very good instructions.
My first canner didn’t have the weights that go on the vent and I had to constantly monitor the temperature. Now I have an All American with the calibrated weights, it makes it much easier.
There are now electric pressure canners that make it real easy and take a lot of the “explosion “ fear away.