Do you/your spouse/family member can or preserve food?

Question

In the past couple of months my wife has canned 40 pounds of tomatoes (catsup, taco sauce, spaghetti sauce etc.) 40 pounds of peaches, 20 pounds of cherries, 30 pounds of blueberries (jam), and probably 40 or 50 pounds of rhubarb (we grow our own so it is not weighed) All of this will be eaten by next summer, along with the fruit (pears, apple etc.) that is yet to come.  We could never afford this amount of store bought canned fruit.

Answer 1

I wish I could Korvo but it's just me here and not much to can. Be nice though! 

Comments

perhaps, but California always has fresh fruit and vegies, so canning is not really a problem for you.  We pay premium prices in the winter here for tomatoes and such.

Answer 2

No, but it would be a good idea.

Answer 3

Dear Korvo,

No not so much now, although I do freeze a few things for winter. However, growing up in the 1950's, that is how we made ends meet! We had a garden, and then in autumn we bought gunny sacks of corn, and peas too. Then we went to Eastern Washington where there is lots of fruit, and purchased peaches and pears from the farms there, and canned those. 

I remember it as lots of fun, plus the good eating when winter came! I think it is great that people still do that, good for you and your wife!

Comments

I fear that today, if you went to the fruit farms, you would find that they now charge just as much as the retail stores. We were lucky and found a produce store nearby, which closed for Sunday, and Saturday he would sell all the ripe fruit at his cost just so he would not have to throw it out on Monday.

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Yes, I fear you are correct, Korvo...I notice even our Saturday Farmers' Market now, where people bring their home-grown produce, the prices are VERY high.

Those high prices? It was not like that in the 1950's in the small rural communities, such as where I grew up.

I am delighted you and your wife found something like that. I remember it was lots of fun; in the 1950's, the whole family helped with the canning and the freezing, and then such fun to bring it out in winter, so delicious!