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Canning to Save Money

This may sound outdated, but I am so glad I learned to can! It costs a bit the first year to get set, but you could just get a boiling water bath the first year and use next year's savings to buy a pressure canner. It's a way of investing to save money, and that's the same as earning in my book. The Ball Blue Book is accepted as safe recipe guidelines by our county Extension Service.

It lets me enter my relish, fruit, salsa, etc. in the fair, and I make a modest check from that every year. I bought jars from people who were quitting their canning for a dollar or two per dozen. Lids are cheap, but for fair entries, Ball lids are required now.

We found an old ice vending building (remember when you bought a block for the ice box?) that had been gutted, and we buried it part way to keep it cool, and my husband made shelves for it. We got the shelving very cheaply from a small grocery store that was closing. I keep it full. We could live out of it for the next year or two without a qualm, if necessary. Some of the other things I put up are marinara sauce, our favorite pickles, all kinds of veggies, juice, fish, chicken and beef. It's the main reason our grocery bill is so low.

One year I found a box of bananas that had gotten frozen accidentally, and the grocery store manager gave it to me. I mashed them up with a bit of lemon juice and froze them. We now have banana bread whenever we want it. Pesto is next on my list. The basil is doing great this year!

When we have extra milk, it goes into a jar and is pressure canned. My husband and I agree that if we have a lot of something, we need to put it by for later. If we can't eat it, we give it to the chickens or calves.

This year I'm really looking forward to doing salsa verde with our crop of tomatillos! It's heavenly on chicken enchiladas! I have done 35 pints of sweet pickle sticks easy as pie and the cucumbers are still producing by the bushel (about a 10 foot row). But next year the cucumbers may fail, so we'll be all set. And no, it doesn't take your whole day! I hope some of you will give it a try. You will see your menus get better as your food budget shrinks!

By Coreen from Rupert, ID

Source: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf71544020.tip.html

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