Post Pandemic Emergency Food Storage

Emergency Food Storage

Did you know that before the pandemic hit America, the USDA, FEMA, CDC, Homeland Security, and the American Red Cross all recommended an emergency food storage of at least three days to start? They recommend that once you have the three days of food and water in place to have a two-week supply.  In your three-day supply, they recommend you have food that can be consumed without heat as an option. Here are a few websites to look over as you begin your journey of preparedness. 

https://www.ready.gov/food

How to create an Emergency Water Supply

https://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/f&web.pdf

Well, we are way past three days, two weeks, and even three months. We are now into the six-month mark, and we are still in a partial shutdown, major job losses, and for some, catastrophic illness and death of loved ones.  Imagine if you had food security that would ride you through this uncertainty. We have all had the struggle in 2020 at times finding food, or have been limited on what and how much we can buy at a time. Even now, six months into the shutdown, flour and yeast to make bread can still be hard to find. Most food chains have had their delis and bakeries shut down.  The whole world knows about the absolute zeal Americans had for toilet paper at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. Toilet paper won't feed you, but you should have some of that stored, also

Starting Your Food Storage

I think every American will now consider having at least some food supply on hand. Before this, the average American home barely had a three-day supply of food. The rest on hand would most likely be a bunch of fragments that you may or may not be able to force into a semblance of a meal. The American supply line chain for food and supplies is about three days because of the Just In Time Delivery System model that almost all stores and businesses follow. One big impact on the American supply chain is that there are no real contingencies for its breakdown. It is still broken in August of 2020 because of the restaurant shutdowns. Food suppliers are having to find a place for that supply of food that normally would be for restaurants and schools, which no longer need the food. 

Americans eat out a lot, and now that we are not eating out, it is causing problems for supply lines. Not only are Americans not eating out as much, but many restaurants are just gone. They went out of business because of the mandatory government shutdowns. Many food suppliers are dumping and destroying food because they have nowhere to take, sell, or deliver.  Some are giving what they can away and then finding disposal places for the rest. Americans do not think about where and how food comes to them; they just go buy it. Cooking from scratch is hard if you have never done it. Once Americans realize that, once you learn it, cooking from scratch is not that hard. Not to mention it tastes way better than Frankenstein Foods and even restaurant food.  Then perhaps those foods being destroyed can feed into American homes instead. 

Many households have had a tragedy before the pandemic, be it illness, major home or car repair, job loss, or caring for a sick or elderly family member. They have learned about food security the hard way and adjusted their lifestyles to have food security. Most households do not have food security or have a clue about how to create it to have peace of mind. The fear and worry about how to feed their families during monetary hardship, illness, or job loss are fearful and stressful. Just the act of having food put by can relieve both the mental pressure and worry and take food from the financial struggle. 

 

Our supply chain is long. Items are in short supply as they come from so far.  Then the whole world is shut down in some form or fashion due to the pandemic. Americans are clueless about the extent to which our trade deals and other government programs have harmed American companies and pushed them out of business and overseas. The news does not show cities where the manufacturing is gone, and the cities have become partial ghost towns. People who live in those cities know about the factory closings and job losses, empty and abandoned buildings, and factories.  A perfect example would be any town like Detroit that used to be a manufacturing city of cars and staple items Americans use every day. Items that were once made in the USA.

 We go to the store and buy things like lightbulbs and other items for our homes.   We are totally clueless; they are only made overseas and no longer manufactured in the United States. When the pandemic hit, Americans learned that almost all the ingredients to make medicine come from overseas. Many items are made in America, but the ingredients to make them are not.   Over the last thirty years, through our trade deals with other countries, America has been dismantled and sold out.  Research American ghost towns and farmlands. It is something very important about our country that needs to be addressed. I have spent my life saying buy American.

Some items are getting harder to find.  This is causing producers to have problems getting the items they need to produce food for sale. You should research what you use in your home, like light bulbs, and items made from metal, steel, and aluminum, as well as electronic and digital items, as these items are coming from overseas. Batteries, lightbulbs, plastic items, electronics. 

President Trump began to address these things when he took office. We don't have manufacturing in the US anymore. One of President Trump's main campaign promises was to bring manufacturing home to the United States. In conjunction with bringing manufacturing home, he is also getting rid of destructive regulations that destroy and close businesses because they serve no purpose but to line someone's pocket with money. For every new regulation made, two must now be removed. Brilliant! These are things he started to put back into place before the pandemic even hit. 

 I personally don't think we have even begun to see the impact of the worldwide pandemic on our supply chain yet. Steel mills had just started going back into production when the pandemic hit. President Trump had mandated that any government contractor could no longer buy foreign steel but must buy steel made in America. If we move into a cold war with our main supplier, China, things will be even harder to find. I don't think many realize that our basic lumber is also imported because of the crushing regulations on the lumber industry. The almost non-management of forest lands is what causes the devastating fires across the nation. There were far fewer fires when America managed its forest land. It also kept the price of lumber down with the constant influx of trees from properly managing forest lands. 

This too. is changing, with the lessening of crushing regulations and trade deals that have decimated our industries and made a lot of people rich. This has dismantled the United States' ability to maintain its own manufacturing and supply chain. It takes time for the infrastructure of American companies to build back up to return to production. Do some research as to what you use and need in your home. What comes from China or overseas, and add that to what you store. Almost anything that has electronics, like refrigerators and freezers

  CONTAINER SHIPS   This is manufactured products from China and other overseas nations being brought into the United States. This is only one port; every coastal city that has a major port is bringing in just as many imports to the United States. 

Supply line distribution and need failures

Food Being Destroyed

Production of Food item shortages

What does this mean for you, the consumer? It means you need to decide what kind of storage you want to put in place. Everyone should have a three-day emergency storage from storms, water issues, and loss of electricity. You should also have two weeks food supply, a three-month supply, and long-term storage. This usually means for 6 months to a year.  This supply is of food and items that you need, eat, and use regularly. It needs to follow your type of lifestyle. You don't have to do it all at once, but you should have already started. It is estimated that everyone is stocking back a little food right now while we are in the middle of the pandemic. Most will stop when everything is back to normal. Some are estimating that about 30-40 percent will keep a storage plan and stash in place even when life as we once knew it returns. One thing that you might consider thinking about is if you should learn to be a producer as well as a consumer. Start learning what you may need to do and what to put in small gardens. Perhaps, you can get a few chickens. You may also consider learning new skills that help you prepare long-term food storage, like home canning or dehydrating. Check your state extension services and your state legislature for any post-pandemic changes that will help you store and produce food at home. 

Three Day Supply

One of the most important things about any food storage or supply is that it be the type of food you eat on a regular basis. Do not buy and store food that you won't eat. If you do not like the taste or texture, nor is it a food you would normally eat, you are not going to eat it. The old adage is that rice and beans store for 25-30 years. If you don't like rice and beans, you are not going to eat them or rotate them back into your regular food supply. The reason rice and beans are recommended is that together they are a complete protein. Rice and beans, broken down by your body, can be converted into every amino acid your body needs to function. If you don't like rice and beans, find alternatives that will make another complete protein for your body. 

Your three-day supply of food and water is more than likely going to be for an emergency like a power outage, earthquakes, storms, hurricanes, snow, or ice.  Most people who live in those areas have emergency items stored from experience. It is a safety measure put in place to alleviate stress, worry, and inconvenience. How much you store in your three-day supply depends on your immediate family size or family that may be staying with you as part of your family emergency plan. You do have an Emergency plan, right?

You should regularly convert your 3-day supply back into your pantry and replenish it with newer food. This should only have to occur once or twice a year, as shelf-life is rather long on these types of foods. The foods you want to have in this supply are high-energy foods and foods that can be eaten cold. Take into consideration if you have to move out of your home and have supplies like silverware, napkins, hand sanitizer, and hand and bottom wipes. Have as much of it as possible be disposable. Have everything stored near or together in the event you do have to relocate. Don't forget storage options for leftovers like closable plastic containers and ziplock bags. Remember, this is just your emergency 3-day supply. Here are some ideas of items you should have. 

• canned Fruits
• canned vegetables
• canned soups
• canned meats like tuna, chicken, spam, and ham
• crackers
• snack bars
• trail mixes
• dried fruits, seeds, and nuts
• peanut butter
• spices like salt and pepper
• canned or dry milk
• cereals
• foods and special supplies for infants, like diapers, formula, ointments, and medicines
• Food for special diets for the elderly, diabetics, and vegetarians
• comfort foods for fear and stress, like candy, cookies, potato chips, and snacks
• flashlights, matches, lighters, and a can opener
• one gallon of water per person, per day. A family of four should have at a minimum 12 gallons of water for a three-day emergency. You should have more if your food requires water to eat or prepare. Several things people do not consider when storing daily water rations are that this is for drinking. You need to consider that you also need to stock up on hygiene. Personal washing, tooth care, hand washing, and cooking clean up. Do not forget your pets. They too need a gallon a day. 

Two Weeks and Three Months Supply

Now that you have a three-day supply of food in place for a disaster or emergency, you can begin your short and long-term storage of two weeks or longer. We have learned in the 2020 pandemic that illness combined with job loss is a big portion of a food emergency.  Most Americans have never had to even bother considering this until something like it has happened to them. These were the folks who were actually a little bit prepared. Something in life knocked them back a bit at some point, and they had to change their mindset.  Now everyone has had to consider it. Your two-week supply can also just move right into a three-month supply and just skip the two-week part. I have a small pantry and a small long-term pantry that I use together. Consider making these supplies permanent. The fear and stress of future illness, major household or car repair, and job loss. Having three, six months,  or even a year's worth of food stored could seriously alleviate fear and stress levels and remove food as part of the financial burden. The biggest secret to a successful rotational pantry is that you shop from your pantry supplies, then you shop at the store. This constantly rotates your food. 

You are going to need a plan to keep track of what you are doing, as well as what you want or should store. You have to learn and plan so that your long-term food and emergency storage items don't perish. You need to work these items back into your pantry on a regular basis. You need to teach yourself to rotate your long-term pantry into your kitchen or working pantry on a regular basis.  The best way to do this is to build your long-term pantry in a way that you shop first from your long-term pantry for the items that you can, in conjunction with your regular grocery shopping. Then just replenish these items back into your long-term pantry. This is where storing and buying food you normally eat come into play to make a long-term and short-term food storage economical and useful. This will also allow you to seriously take advantage of sales and bulk purchasing.  

When you begin,  just buy more of what you eat. Few can just go to the store and buy a three-month supply of food. Just buy more of what you eat. Buy a few extra at a time. If you normally buy one box of crackers, periodically buy two. Just start buying one or two extra of everything that is shelf-stable every time you go to the store. Something you may not have paid attention to in the past is expiration dates on food. Always look at what it is and try to find the one with the longest shelf life. Just rotate what you buy until your pantry starts to have more of the food you eat on a regular basis.  When storing your food, always put the newest food at the back of the cabinet so that you are always using the oldest food first. In stores, restaurants, and warehousing, this is called FIFO, first-in-first-out. If you normally buy one of something, switch your mindset to buy two or three. Below are multiple links on different ideas to start food storage and build a three-month supply or longer supply of food. Each video author gives different ideas on how you can begin, rotate, and continue to have food security for your family. 

Building a long-term pantry on ten dollars a week

Building a supply

Building a three-month supply of food

Journey to understanding and building food storage.

The mother of 12 couldn't find food when the pandemic hit. When she could find food she built a three-month storage.

You are also going to need to store items like cleaning supplies, laundry, and dishwasher soaps. You should also consider stocking items like toothpaste, mouthwash, and sanitary items for both men and women, like shaving cream, razors, tampons, and sanitary napkins. If your crazy 2020 stockpile of toilet paper is getting low...by all means stock it back up. A great source for doing this cheaply comes from two women who call themselves Krazy Coupon Lady. Their website shows you how to use coupons, phone apps, and in-store deals at major box stores and pharmacies. It is seriously worth your time to study a few of their videos teaching you how to take advantage of in-store deals, coupons, and deep discounts most people are totally clueless about. Sometimes as much as 50-60 percent off, and with a combination of apps, coupons, and in-store deals, sometimes for free or just pennies. It does not take as much time or is as hard as you think. Most people also don't realize that Walgreens and CVS are great places to replenish staples like paper and cleaning products with coupons. These stores are more friendly to the couponer and bargain shopper than a traditional grocery store.  

Deep Discounts at Walgreens

Storage

As you build your food storage, you may notice you need places to store it. You are going to need to look around your house and find places to put shelves and cabinets to store items. That is, unless you are blessed with an actual big pantry. I am not, so I have been creative. You are now going to have a working pantry and a short-term and long-term working pantry. Many kitchens only have a small closet-sized pantry or a cabinet.  Food items really can not be stored anywhere where there is a heat fluctuation, but non-perishable items like cleaning supplies, detergents, paper, and personal items can be stored in the garage or outside sheds and storage buildings.  The best solution if you can afford it is overtime to get bookshelves, and industrial, or chef racks to store your new and growing pantry on.  and stuff them in rooms and corners of your house.

When storing food for the long term, look for ways that keep your food storage safe. Consider adding infrastructure items like a vacuum sealer to extend the shelf life of perishable items. There are also mason jar attachments that you can use on the wide-mouth and regular mouth canning jars that will tightly seal items like crackers, pasta, and snacks longer in an airtight environment. Here is a good video example. 

Mason jar attachment for a vacuum sealer.

Do you have anything stored under your bed? Find storage containers that fit under your bed to store extra food. To start,  cut delivery boxes to fit under your bed. Find your creative self! Consider closets and other corners of your home that you can stick a shelf to store items. If you do not like it visible, consider putting fabric skirts or curtains over it so that it is hidden from view. There are a ton of YouTube videos out there teaching you these simple skills. 

We as Americans have never really had this type of long-term crisis happen. Learning to prepare in this volatile time in American history is crucial, in my opinion. Food storage and food safety are good first steps into being prepared for any contingency in our crazy upside-down world right now. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being prepared. Those Crazy preppers and doomsday preppers might not seem so crazy to you now.

 

Freezing Spinach

Freezing Spinach

I can't grow spinach at this time. I don't have the infrastructure and raised garden bed space or set up. I have three, four by four raised bed garden plots that I purchased in excitement when we bought the house five years ago. They have since begun to fall apart.  Pesky pests like squirrels and raccoons and OPC (other people's cats)...I took the F out, dig up and poop up and just mess anything I have planted.

 A knee injury and family hardship put two of my five seasons out of range to learn Gardening. Gardening requires learning, trial, and error, and finally building healthy soil. This makes me have to buy some things. Like spinach. It would be too expensive from the grocery to home can spinach. So for eight dollars at Costco for 2 large bags, I can put ten, two-person portions in the freezer. This tastes way better than can spinach and I don't have to cook it down for fresh. Win-win for me and my knee. I'll show you.

Pre Washed Or Triple Washed

Even if my produce says pre-washed, already washed or triple-washed, I still wash it very well. Gloved hands, protected hands can still stop and pick or itch their face or nose and or whatever else tickles or itches. I prefer to rewash all, my pre-washed produce.

 Two large bags cooked down in butter salt and pepper till tender. I removed some of the liquid that cooks down from the spinach and cooked the rest away.

Before you know it the pan that was overflowing is no longer.
Then it is time to fill the containers.

It is amazing how two very large bags cook down to ten small containers,  I now have ten delicious sides prepped and ready for dinner. 

Coronavirus Gardening. Garden while sheltering in place

Garden your way through Coronavirus!

I am updating a kitchen scrap garden blog I wrote about last year's celery. I also do the same with the bottoms of lettuce and cabbage. I just started some celery, lettuce, and cabbage today (3-23-20) Check Back in a few days, I will add some more pictures as I go along. Below is my blog on the celery that I grew from scraps last year.

If you have a few potatoes with eyes on them you can cut them into pieces, set them out to harden on the edges for a few days. Plant them shallowly in the dirt in a big flower pot or a 2-5 gallon bucket. As they sprout keep covering the area around the plants as they grow taller. When the container is full of dirt the potato plants are ready to begin their magic. Depending on the size of your container you could get anywhere from 10- 60 potatoes at the end of its life cycle. Worst-case scenario,? You fill your time productively, and if your plants fail you gave your dirt some good nutrition. Better yet, use the peels from all your veggie scraps as mulch on the topsoil of your kitchen scrap garden.

Youtube has so many videos teaching you this stuff. Take some time out from constant news watching and back up and be proactive. You are using scraps what is the harm maybe in 30-60 days you will have a small amount of food to add to your fridge. You can even plant carrot tops it will only be greens but greens are greens. Buy some bags of dirt, a few pots, and do a little container gardening. In Texas, this is the best time to begin.  At worst you are learning a new skill with the time you are sheltering in place.

Growing Celery From Kitchen Discards (updated)

I use a lot of celery lately as my daughter and I are on the eating protocol from the GAPS diet. So I decided to try something I had read about over the years. I started growing celery from my discards. In a few weeks, I should be able to start harvesting Celery.  Below are photos are the growing journey so far.

If you are interested in learning about the GAPS Diet I have written a blog on it.

Gut and Psychology Syndrome and Gut Physiology Syndrome.

 Here is the book from my Amazon site. GAPS

Mushrooms:Ways to store them

MUSHROOMS

Keeping Mushrooms For A Longer Time In Your Freezer Or Refridgerator.

I sometimes get so frustrated because I get busy and forget I had mushrooms I wanted to add to my cooking. Then they go all stinky and slimy. Taking advantage of sales and buying mushrooms in larger quantities will allow you to store them for whenever you need them in the freezer. 

Simple solution, sautee them in butter or oil,

then store in the fridge and use within a week, or put in small freezer bags or containers and freeze in portion or meal sizes and keep for up to a year. 

Mushrooms hold their texture and taste well when frozen. 

Second Fermentation of Kombucha Part Three

We started off making our own scoby, then we progressed to making our own batch of kombucha. We find ourselves at the glorious part of flavoring the finished kombucha and letting it ferment for a second time and get even fizzier. 

Making Your Own Kombucha Scoby Part One

Kombucha: How To Make Part Two

Our favorite seems to be Pineapple. I prefer fresh or frozen pineapple chunks, but canned is also good in a pinch.  First things first you need to find some good glass bottles. I use several different types. 

The first type I use is glass bottles that are squared. They are called French Glass squared, but they don't seal well or tight enough for kombucha. They are pretty but don't get the seal as tight. The second type I like is swing top fermentation bottles. Originally I got my bottles one at a time at Sprouts. I bought a bottle of French sparkling lemonade in a swing top bottle for 1.99. Recently they raised the price to 2.99 per bottle. It is actually cheaper to buy a case now on amazon prime.

Easy Cap Beer Bottles

My favorite bottle at this point and time is

 This is a 6 pack case bottles of Kevita Probiotic Coconut Kiefer that I bought at Costco for 11.99 per case.  I bought it specifically for the bottles. I figured the cost and it was as good or better deal for the bottles as buying bottles. Plus I knew it would create a good tight seal. So I bought them, drank them, and cleaned the bottles for future kombucha 2nd ferments. The jars seal tightly and create a wonderful fizz. I like these kevita bottles the best and the swing top bottles the second best. As you can see from my image it is fizzing over, and that was just twenty-four hours. They are also way easier to clean with a bottle brush than any of the other bottles. 

2nd Fermenting

The first thing to do is to make sure all your bottles are clean. Gather all your funnels and scoops and measuring cups as well as your completed kombucha. Clean any bottles that aren't completely clean. There is never a time that I don't find one or two bottles I thought were clean that could be cleaner. Find a GLASS jar to store your scoby in if you are not making another batch of kombucha right away. Typically I will start another batch and then do the second ferment. Make some Fresh sweet tea, set aside to cool. Place your scoby in the tea with a cup or two of starter liquid.

Prepare your fruit

Place fresh or frozen fruit in a glass jar. You can also use fruit juices. I would use organic juices, but that again is my preference. The second ferment process will eat most of the sugar present in juice and fruit. The brewing process has eaten most of the sugar present. Adding fruit gives it a 2nd sugar to eat and as it has already fermented, it will gobble the new sugar up and that is the added carbonation. When you add the brewed kombucha to the fruit it's going to start eating it right away. I put about an inch of fruit or juice in each bottle. 

Fill the jar to top with the finished kombucha. Screw the lid down tightly. After placing the lid on tightly rinse the outside of jars and place on a kitchen towel to ferment for a few days until fruit sugars have been eaten and it is at the optimal taste profile for you. The longer you leave it the less sweet it will be. Do not leave longer than 2 to 3 days max or you will have an explosion in your kitchen.

I burp my bottles at least once a day to stop mild eruptions in my kitchen. When it is ready, I get a big bowl in a clean sink and  I strain all the fruit out and combine all same flavors of the 2nd fermented kombucha into one bowl. I then refill the bottles before placing in the refrigerator. I do this each time with each different flavor. I always set even my unflavored kombucha aside along with the fruit flavored in tight bottles. The unflavored will also get fizzier.

They will last several months and begin to get more tart and fizzy at a slower pace in the refrigerator. At this time my favorite flavor is pineapple and honey lemon and lemon ginger. Play with the flavors and find the ones you like the best. Search for recipes on the internet. Your taste is going to determine your favorite flavors. It is very easy to play around until you find that flavor. 

Happy happy Booch Babes!!!!!

Canning Green Beans

Home Canning Green Beans

Having home-canned items on your shelf is a boon. Controlling what is in your food is a must these days if you are on the path to becoming food conscious. We eat green beans often, so having them canned on our shelf is something I love. I replenish my home-canned shelf based on the season. Fresh if they are in season, or frozen if they are not. "They" the food commentators do advise that although you "can" can green beans that have previously been frozen safely, it is not recommended.  They will be too tender.  I grew up with my Mom making what she called; six-hour green beans. Perfectly southern seasoned, melt in your mouth green beans. So I do not mind them going from frozen to home-canned. Once seasoned they taste as if I cooked them all day like my mom used to,  I especially go out of my way to can frozen as all of Costco's frozen vegetables are organic. 

Canning can be and is a lot of work, so when I can items I try to have enough to run a complete canner load. I use an All American 921. Here is a link. 

 All American 921 Canner

 If you have Prime on Amazon with free shipping it is cheaper to buy on Amazon. The storefront is the actual manufacturer of the canner and is the same price as on their website.  

This canner will allow me to bottle up 19-pint jars or 7-quart jars at one time. I chose this canner as I wanted a sturdy nonrubber sealed canner that I felt would be safe, which would also allow me to can food anywhere I needed too. The big lockdown screw bolts went a long way to calming my irrational fear that home canning isn't safe because it will explode and kill you. In reality, if a canner explodes it is more likely the Person doing the canning did something wrong, not the canner. In the event the Home Canner does do something wrong, there is a pressure release valve on the top of every home canner to bypass mistakes. If the pressure gets too high the relief valve will blow, and not the canner.
 I am long since over that irrational fear as I have become more experienced home canning foods.

Size Matters!

I mostly can pints and I mostly can single ingredients and put meals together myself. I can some soups and sauces, but most of my canning is single-ingredient foods and I combine upon cooking. Like beef, potatoes, and carrots. I make five minutes Stews. Drain the carrots and potatoes, add beef as is and add carrots and potatoes. Add a thickener and heat till thick and serve with green beans. Supper in Five! With it just being my husband and me, we really do not need quart items. I also typically try and serve two vegetables per meal. I even can my soup in pint jars.

Green beans I can in my favorite jar  The Ball pint and a half or 24-ounce jar. When canning the jar is treated like a quart jar in the way it fits in the canner and the time that you would choose for the individual food item. 

The jar is wonderful for green beans, asparagus, and whole carrots. Sadly Ball replaced the jar with a 28-ounce jar that I do not care for, They sell four jars for the same price as they used to sell nine jars. When I heard Ball was discontinuing the 24-ounce jar I set out to find and buy as many as I could. I ended up buying nine cases over a few weeks time as I found them. You can find them in the canning isles of most big box stores, and even the grocery store. You can still find them both on Ball's website and stores.

Nine Cases!!!!! It seems a lot but when canning on a regular basis you would be amazed at how quickly you run out of jars. Let us say I did the green beans, carrots, and asparagus. That would be only one canner load each of 7.   At just seven each, that is twenty-one bottles. and only twenty-one meals with vegetables. You think it is a lot, but it actually goes fast.  It is only fourteen meals if you serve two vegetables as I do. Once you start home canning you will find you give a lot away. You are so proud you want to share your babies. Rarely do you see the empty jar or bottle return home.

Preparing your environment for canning 

My method is simple. First I wash and sterilize my working environment. I wash my jars based on how many I think I will need.  *

I gather all my items at the ready so I don't have to go looking for them. I also sterilize many of my utensils inside my water bath canner. 

I wash and drain my green beans. In this case, they were frozen. I set them in the fridge the night before; then on the counter to thaw on the morning I was going to can.

I used what would be called the raw pack method for preparing and canning my beans. 

Once the jars are filled, you would then add salt. I put a quarter teaspoon per jar. Salt is not required, but it adds to taste and clarity of jar and color when your items are canned. I do not always add salt to vegetables, but I do green beans. 

I then added boiling water to each jar to the proper level, then I used a wooden skewer to stir and remove any air bubbles that have settled in the jar. You want to remove air bubbles so you have a proper seal. I then checked jars for nicks or chips, wiped the jar for any debris that might impede sealing in the canner, and added the new canning lid and screwed down the top fingertip tight.

Once the jars are ready, place in the canner, make sure your canner is filled to the manufacturer's recommended depth of water in the canner, add vinegar to assist if you have hard water. A quarter cup will help the jars not be cloudy with lime at the end of canning. It isn't necessary, it just helps with the overall look of the jar afterward. 

Remember to always check the vent area is free of debris.

Once the canner is full,  place the lid on and in my case I line up the arrow on the lid to the groove on my canner. 

Once the grooves are lined up you would then alternately tighten the screws down catty-corner from each other all the way around

Let us get the fire going!

Turn on the fire and bring it up to temp to begin venting. Eventually, you will get used to your stove and know at what setting will bring your canner up to temp. I no longer put mine on high. I know to keep my canner at ten pounds of pressure I need it to be on medium. I just set mine there and do other tasks or read while I wait. I'm never far from my kitchen and canner when canning. 

When the canner begins to heat up inside it will begin venting air out of the vent hole. At first, it is light. You want the venting to become a very strong vent out.  Once you know it is a strong vent, set your time and let vent for 10 minutes. This is very important. Venting pushes out all the air from the canner itself and from the jars also. This will allow for your jars to eventually set a proper seal.  The heat is also building in the canner, which will kill bacteria and other bad microbes. I did not post a picture as it is very hard to show the canner venting in a photo. Below are three videos that show a canner venting, another under pressure and how to use an All American in general. I chose Starry Hilders as she actually cans outside on fire as she lives off the grid in Idaho

Venting a canner

When canner reaches pressure

How to use an All American Canner

Now the waiting begins.

Once the canner had vented for ten minutes I add the weighted gauge and wait for the canner to come up to pressure. When it begins to make a jiggling sound the canner is now up to pressure.  I set my timer for the time recommended for green beans in a quart jar.  In my case at sea level, I would can with ten pounds of pressure for twenty-five minutes in a quart jar.  At the end of twenty-five minutes, turn off your canner and let it come down off pressure. This can take a while. Do not become impatient and try and make it come down faster as it could cause your jars to break, or spew out some of the liquid in the jar. This could cause your jar to lose its seal or not form one at all. Once the canner has come down off pressure, remove the lid carefully away from your face so that any steam left in the canner will push out away from your face. Set beans to cool on the counter for twelve to twenty-four hours. Then wash the outside of your jars in hot soapy water. Dry them off to write with a sharpie the date of canning and the items you canned. Now you can put them up in your cabinet. 

Always research any canning recipe for yourself. 

As always when following someone else's directions for home canning, ALWAYS do your research on home canning techniques and times. Never trust anyone else to be your authority. Always check and double-check yourself. I have watched many canning videos where someone decides to do a how-to. I have actually seen videos on water bath canning food that should be pressure canned.  A good rule of thumb is pickles and foods in brine,  and foods very high in PH can be water bath canned. This includes most fruits, as well as jams and jellies.  All vegetables, meats, and beans are pressure canned. Again the exception with vegetables is if you are making them into pickles. These have vinegar and sugars which change the ph. Why, what is the difference? The Ph level that controls the acidity level that stops bacteria and microbes!

Books, Books, and More Books. Does one ever have enough books?

Balls books are trusted immensely. They test all their recipes in test kitchens and labs for precise times and temps. I have many of their books. The one listed below is a good one. It is good to have on hand. It is very in-depth and covers more than canning. It is recommended that after a canning publication by an accepted authority is ten years old to replace with an updated version. This book was originally published in 2006 and is now over 10 years old, but it is full of almost anything you might ever want to can. I think it is a must on your shelf if you plan to start home canning. It has classic recipes from the past. Whereas the newer one is more hip for our Foodie society of today. One should always have a classic! You can always look up times and anything else that may have changed by cross-referencing with newer versions.


 Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today

The new book that replaces this one is here.  The All-New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving: Over 350 of the Best Canned, Jammed, Pickled, and Preserved Recipes

The National Center For Home Food Preservation is probably one of the most trusted how-to sites all around. I use this website often. I have also bought their latest book from an extension service, publisher. That information is on their website,  How to buy the Bound version.  You could save time and money and print the PDF on their website and put it in a binder. 

 National Center For Home Food Preservation

There is a learning curve to becoming a home canner. Society today has taken away from us home food preservation as it was in the past. Things we used to learn growing up are no longer taught to us. Why bottle up your food when you can go to the store and buy it. I take this step by step, but there are many, many things you need to know and understand on home canning that ensures you have canned the food item at the proper temp, in the proper canner, for the proper amount of time. With the time spent canning, you want to make sure that while you are canning you are safe and ultimately your food is safe for you to eat.  You want proper seals and long shelf life. I watched many YouTube videos learning how to can. Honestly, I still watch them and I still learn something I did not know. For Example, Why do my beef cuts sometimes have a metallic taste after it is canned and sometimes it does not. When browning in cast iron pans the food item sometimes takes on the taste of the iron. Eureka! I only use stainless steel pans now to brown and par brown meat items for home canning. No longer have that problem and curiosity of taste.

Two home canners that do excellent how-to canning videos are:                  

 2leelou Preserves  2leelou is a professionally trained Master Food Preserver.  She gives precise and proper instruction. She is an instructor at her local state extension service. 

       imstillworkin   is very, very, thorough and by the book as a canner. With these two you will get the best hand and visual instruction there is out there. Neither of the two deviates from proper and safe canning instruction. If you are new to canning that is exactly what you need.   Keep your eye out for more canning articles.

Happy Canning!!

*Note I take all my own photos. Crooked at times on purpose. Some photos are generalized and not the actual canning session. Washed jars at the ready are not the size used in this article.