Back In The Day...

March 26, 2020

Back In The Day...

Hi, Sweet Friends,

How many of you have canned? Did your parents can, or Grandparents, or another relative can foods? Growing food and preserving it became quite popular OFF The Grid has a good article on the History of Home Canning. Our Garden Bounty can be preserved by canning vegetables and meats, freezing, pickling, or by dehydrating them.

Bee In My Bonnet: The Quilty Barn Along...Silo Barn 6 and the "Canning Season" block Tutorial!...

From the gardens we have grown, we have done all four ways of food preservation. We like canning and dehydrating the best.

Back in 1988, I made pickles in a large crock. It took longer than I really wanted and have made pickles in the canner ever since then. Many people still pickle in crocks today.

William - Sonoma Crockery

Like I mentioned, I've canned ever since I was first married in 1985.

I have fond memories of my older family friends canning jams, jellies, and vegetables when I was in elementary & high school. I learned basically on my own, from Ball Canning books, and from "The Joy Of Cooking", given to me as a wedding gift.

Plum Zinger Jam CJD.Sign

Canned Plum Zinger Jam has fresh-squeezed orange juice in it that adds a punch. This is great added to yogurt as a treat, brushed onto chicken for a Sweet & Sour coating, or just on toast. Hubby does like it on PB&J Sandwiches!

Powdered Tomato

Chef Carie Partin showed us how to dehydrate and store powdered tomatoes. She uses it in pasta, tortillas, and other dishes for added flavor.

Canned Green Beans CJD.Sign

We seem to never can enough green beans. I canned about 2 dozen jars this year and should have figured at least 3 per week. That means I should really be canning 3 x 52 weeks in a yr equals 156 cans! humm... my 24 cans truly fall short of the mark!

Canned Squash & Zucchini CJD.Sign

We've canned squash and though we both like it in soups and stews, we prefer it frozen rather than canned. I love it cut into tiny cubes and added to pickle relish.

Canned Meat

We also like to can meat and meat sauces, meat stews, chili, and spaghetti. Canning meat is a bit different, so please read the directions fully before you tackle meat canning.

Canning For Later CJD.Sign

Pressure canning is for foods that don't contain acids.

This is zucchini and pickle relish.

This is a water bath for acid vegetables and pickling.

Dehydrating Foods CJD.Sign

Dehydrating is also very popular now. We use to have "Fruit Leather" before the stores carried it as snacks.

Dutch Oven

This is the dutch oven we use to cook stews, soups, chili, frittatas, and can be used on the stove, grill, and in a fire pit. Cast Iron has been used since the late 600s in Asia. We also have frying pans, pots, corn shaped cornbread mold, and hopefully will be purchasing a cast-iron kettle soon.

" In Asia, particularly China, India, Korea and Japan, there is a long history of cooking with cast iron vessels. The first mention of a cast-iron kettle in English appeared in 679 or 680, though this wasn't the first use of metal vessels for cooking. The term pot came into use in 1180. Both terms referred to a vessel capable of withstanding the direct heat of a fire.^[1] Cast-iron cauldrons and cooking pots were valued as kitchen items for their durability and their ability to retain heat evenly, thus improving the quality of cooked meals." -Wickipedia

This cooking area is on a friend's homestead. They cook outdoors over a campfire and have created this awesome cook area/storage area for their cast-iron cookery.

Cast iron cookware is great for any type of cooking, baking, smoking, and stewing. It is easy to clean and needs to be seasoned after each use.

Vinegar with herbs and spices, chilis or lemons are a perfect addition to salads. We use Apple Cider, White, and Red Vinegar. We use cold vinegar infusions.

When food is in demand, like it is today, due to the World Wide SARS Coronavirus-2, COVID-19, the global health emergency, preserving foods and home-cooked foods will be a must.

This is a book I picked up in 1979 and I still use it today. I highly recommend The Homestead Kitchen & Cellar, by Grant & Holly Gillmore.

Free Antique Print Labels for your canning jars. I tape them on when the jars are cooled. They can also be added to the jar lids. From MagicPug.com

Both of these posts are from Facebook.

I absolutely love these stoves. My Great Grandmother and older friends had these original stoves and cooktops in their kitchens. I have fond memories of delicious foods made on these!

A food pantry or cold room is usually in a cellar/basement or underground where the temperature is cool and dry. We had a cellar that was at the end of a stairway bricked in and lined with shelves. I kept potatoes, carrots, onions, and winter squashes in the cold room along with all my canned foods. I now use a walk-in closet that stays cold all year round for these items.

In WWI & WWII, Victory Gardens or War Gardens were a way for those at home to boost their food rations and boost morale making victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front.

Victory or War Garden

These gardens were grown on private residences and in parks as community gardens.

I've gardened most of my life and I still love it today! It not only puts healthy food on my table but I also enjoy sharing with family, friends, & neighbors.

CJD.Sign Harvest

Enjoy!

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