That’s right. This time of year, turkey is the best meat bargain you can find. I can hear you right now: “Three turkeys?!?! That’s just crazy. We’ll never eat that much.” Well, I hope you do. Turkey is not only a very healthy, but if you cook it and freeze it in portions or can…

It’s the end of the harvest and our storehouse is full to overflowing. Here are some highlights from this year’s garden: We got a bumper crop of blackberries and Nanking cherries. Gallons and gallons of blackberries and cherries in the freezer. Plus a couple batches of jam and several pies. Our apple tree produced a…

Let’s make canning less of a chore Canning can be a pretty overwhelming task, especially if you want to put up enough food to last your family all year. But if you have the right tools for the job, you can make the job a lot easier, saving your hours of work and headache. Let’s…

Remember the FIFO rule: First In, First Out. This shelf life chart will also help you keep your pantry up to date. Time to fill your pantry You’ve been working on expanding your food storage all year. Hopefully you have a good three-month supply of regular food as well as a good start on long-term…

Remember back in November when turkeys were on sale for a ridiculously low price? You bought a a couple extras, didn’t you? A 28-lb turkey will yield about 7 qt jars of meat plus 7 pts of broth. That’s a lot of ready-to-heat meals from one turkey. But what if you didn’t buy any extra…

Canning can be the backbone of your food storage plans and is a very safe method for preserving food if you follow tested and safe canning directions. Please do not take any shortcuts. For the latest information on canning, please consult reliable, up-to-date sources, such as the USDA. What do I need to start canning?…

We’ll talk more about canning later in the year, but since we have a goal this month of Learning a New Skill, I thought I’d mention canning as a good skill to learn. Once you learn to can, you can be canning something almost every month, putting lots of ready-made dinners into your pantry. Which…

First, a short history In the 1860’s, a tinsmith named John L. Mason invented what we now call the Mason jar—a glass jar with a threaded lip and a reusable metal lid. Since then, this homemaker’s wonder has allowed people all over the world to preserve fruit, pickles, relishes and jams. Even though people of…

You have so much good food available to you this season, now is the time to learn (or improve) canning skills. First, get your equipment Canning doesn’t need to cost a lot. Just start with a water bath canner and a box of jars. Here’s my list of the important canning tools that I use.…

Since this month’s goal is canning, I thought I’d share this little tip for storing your canning rings that comes from a friend of mine: When your jars are sealed and you remove the rings, put them onto a wire hangar. Just untwist the wire at the top, slide the rings on and re-twist. It…

Man has used salt to brine or fermenting vegetables for millennia. It is one of the easiest ways to preserve the goodness of vegetables all year long. Sauerkraut is one of the easiest foods you can preserve. There are two ways to make sauerkraut: in a big batch that you later process in a water…

Making homemade vinegar is a good way to make use of fruit scraps and it is so easy to do. Of course, we are all familiar with apple cider vinegar but don’t stop there. You can make vinegar with almost any fruit: pears, apricots, peaches, plums and even pineapple. What Fruit to Use Vinegar is…

This last week I finished making our family’s favorite: Sri Racha. All the men in our family love this spicy condiment and chances are your’s do too. It’s on our table at almost every meal.  Last year for Christmas stocking stuffers, I bought sri racha key-chain bottles and filled it with my homemade sauce. Now they…

This is a really busy time of year. Right now I have garden produce filling the house every day. (That’s why I am a few days late getting this posted.) But I love it. This is when the summer garden is at its best. But it can also be a frantic time trying to get…

This week you will probably see celery sold for a ridiculously low price. But you’re only going to get one, maybe two because, after all, how much can you really use before it goes bad? Well, I’m going to get eight bunches of celery. Because this is the perfect time to make celery powder. And…

When lemons go on sale in the winter, buy a whole bunch and preserve them. Preserved lemons will last a year, or more. At least that’s the theory. I don’t really know, because there are so many wonderful ways to use preserved lemons that they never last more then a few months in our house.…