A Very Busy Week

Wow! I can’t believe that’s it’s already been almost a week since I last posted. Time sure does pass quickly when you are busy, and that is what we have been around here. Here are some of the things that have kept me away from my blog this week:

1- Doing a lot of organizing around the house- the better organized I am, the easier it is for me to think and function. It is also helpful for me to see what we have and what we need so I can make sure that we are staying on track with our preparations as well as with our every day existence and budget.

2- Doing some inventory of what we have in the freezers, stock room, and pantry and still trying to get my household management binder together. (Thanks to Foggy and ThePreppersWife for getting me off on the right foot.)

3- Doing some GREAT coupon match ups for my shopping trip this morning. The ShopRite that I patronize is having their can can sale right now, and I took full advantage of it this morning! I got about 300 dollars worth of groceries for $140. That included 24 cans of veggies and beans- for about 8 dollars, 12 cans of tomato sauce (the big 29oz cans)- for $6.99, 3 (25oz) cans of crushed tomatoes- for $3.00, 8 cans of diced tomatoes- .88 cents each, 4 cans of refried beans- $3, and 4 cans of chili- $2 after coupons and the sale. I also stocked up on Olive Oil- which was only $3 for 16oz after coupons, enough kids shampoo to satisfy my “five-year itch” (what I’m calling my overwhelming desire to have enough to live on for five years), diapers, Cheerios- for about $1.35 after coupons, four FREE tubes of toothpaste, two FREE toothbrushes, and two FREE bottles of mustard. I got a whole bunch more, but those are the highlights of my trip today.

4- Researching and purchasing some items to aid in our stockpiling and self-sufficiency (more info on this to follow in other blogs as I review the items we got.) I’m especially anxious to get my Shelf Reliance rotating can rack that I got when they were having a GREAT sale online. And we are also waiting for an Excalibur Food Dehydrator to come in- my husband’s anniversary gift to me.)

5- Working out in the garden- the tomatoes, squash, and bean plants all look great! All of our herbs are doing really well, and the scallions are absolutely beautiful! The pepper plants, however, look very sad, and I will need to be giving them some TLC in the next few weeks. My only regret about our garden this year is that we should have made it bigger. I didn’t want to take on too much with our first year of really doing a garden, but now I regret it because it is going so well and because we have learned how to can.

6. Canning chicken! That’s right, I said “Canning Chicken!” Although I’m not quite sure how it turned out. We’ve been a little busy, and I’ve been meaning to break open a can and give it a try, but it just hasn’t happened yet. I’m planning to dedicate an entire post to the process we used (and I even made sure my hubby took some pictures while we canned so I can post them as well), but I just don’t like the look of the chicken. It’s a bit dark- which I’m sure you’ll be able to see in the pictures, but I think that’s just from the type of chicken bouillon we used. I don’t know……my husband thinks that we should wait a little longer before opening a can, just so that we’d definitely know by then if it was no good. The jars sealed, and the pressure cooker wasn’t NEARLY as scary as I thought it would be, but I guess I’m still just a little leery about chicken in a can.

7. Swimming and enjoying my kids as we’ve had some very nice summer days.

So, more posts to come. I’m definitely going to do some reviews of the new prepper toys that we got as they come in and we put them to use, and I’m also planning a book review section for my blog. Since I’m an English teacher and a book snob at heart, I thought it might be fun to merge my passion for literature with my love of prepping.

Until the next post, happy prepping!

– A Prepared Mom

Canning 101

On June 28th, 2011, I decided to try my hand at canning. Since we are growing our own veggies in the garden, and because of the type of grocery shopping I am doing now, it only makes since to can our foods when they are at their freshest and lowest cost. I did a lot of research before purchasing the necessary materials, and I finally decided on a Granite Ware 21.5 qt Canner with Rack  for water bath canning and an All-American 15 1/2 qt Pressure Canner for pressure canning. I got the water bath canner for about $19.00 on Amazon, and I paid about $130.00 for the All-American pressure canner on Amazon. I decided on the more expensive All-American because, well, pressure cookers can be scary, and I want to make sure that the one I has is well-built and able to withstand many years of use. I also purchased the Ball Blue Book: Guide to Preserving (from our local Agway), and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving from Amazon.

Once I researched and ordered the materials, it was only a few days before the canners came in and we could begin canning. We decided to try our hand at blueberry jam first. I got the blueberries on sale for $1.99 a pint, and they were very fresh. It took about an hour, from start to finish- which definitely took a bit longer as we are still becoming familiar with the process of canning-, 3 pts of blueberries, 6 cups of sugar, and we ended up with 6oz jars of blueberry jam. We only did a small batch since it was our first. I haven’t tried the blueberry jam yet, but it looks great and the jars all sealed. I can’t tell you how great it felt to hear those jars pinging as they sat on my counter cooling off.

I will upload a picture of jam as soon as I get some free time, but I am very proud of our first attempt. My 2-year-old son also loved the canning process, as he got to eat all of the blueberries that I thought were too ripe or too bruised to go into the jam.

So let’s do a price comparison. At my local grocery store, a 13 oz jar of jam is $3.99 (or about 31 cents per ounce). It cost me about $2.50 for the mason jars, lids, and rings. $5.97 for the blueberries, and about $0.25 for the sugar to make 6- 4oz jars of blueberry jam (or about 36 cents per ounce). It comes out to be a little more expensive to make our own jam, but once we’ve done this a few times, the overhead that we put into the jars will even out and it will be more cost effective. Also, it is healthier, since I know exactly what went into my jars, and learning how to can may just be a priceless skill to have if the SHTF.

All in all it was a great experience, and I can’t wait to move on to the next one. Up next on the list? Some peaches that I got on sale for 69 cents a pound!

Happy Prepping 🙂

– A Prepared Mom