What do you can?

[Beekissed]

It gets 100 degrees here in MS during the summer. I hope I am not going to have to run my air conditioner when I leave the house just to make sure my canned foods are ok. This would defeat the purpose of saving money

Anywhere you can safely keep a can from the grocery store, you can keep a canned jar of food. People have been keeping canned foods for as long as there has been canning without the aid of air conditioning. If you have a cupboard, cabinet or under bed storage that you can fit the jars into you can store your canned foods.

 

[k15n1]

It gets 100 degrees here in MS during the summer. I hope I am not going to have to run my air conditioner when I leave the house just to make sure my canned foods are ok. This would defeat the purpose of saving money

The ground doesn't get that warm. Consider a root cellar. But only if you can keep it dry---otherwise, you'll have lids rusting through.

 

[ORChick]

I mainly can tomatoes, peppers, jams, relishes, and pickles. ONLY because I don't have a whole lot of jars though...working on that I haven't tried meats yet.

I also can soups - tomato and vegetable, green beans, dried beans, lots of tomato based foods - salsa, chili sauce, pasta sauce, also apple pie filling.

Would love to start canning meats. I'll have to check out that link too! I'd also like to try sauerkraut, potatoes and sloppy joe sauce this year.

It's never too early to start thinking about the garden!

I only started pressure canning a year ago (been waterbath canning for decades). I mostly have canned chicken and beef stock, soups and stews, and some beans. Oh, and what was left from a large ham. Personally, I don't like canned veggies ... except beets.
As far as Sauerkraut is concerned, it is much better if you don't can it; all the good lactobacilli get killed in the canning process. Check out the "what are you fermenting?" thread to learn the ins and outs, and whys, of fermenting. It is another good way to preserve food without using the freezer or the canner. AND it is the only way to preserve food that actually increases some nutrients.

 

[moolie]

Or a better question might be what CANT you can.

Im trying to save energy by not using the freezer.

Do you can meats?

what temp does the room have to be for the canned goods? Also do you keep them in the dark? Is there a lot of work involved in canning and keeping inventory etc?

thank guys!!

I can everything I can think of! I have recipes if anyone is interested:

Meats (chicken, bison chunks, ground bison, pork chunks, soup stock)

Pickles (dilly and bread & butter cukes, pickled beets, dilly beans)

Relishes (pickle relish, veggie antipasto, beet relish, salsa, chutney)

Soups (split pea with bacon, tomato, beef veg)

Beans (from dry: meat chili with beans, baked beans, plain beans to add to dishes)

Tomato sauce (plain for the most versatility in making meals later)

Fruits (peaches, pears, fruit cocktail)

Jams (strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb, raspberry, cherry, nectarine, plum, peach, apricot, grape) marmalades (orange, grapefruit) fruit syrups, cranberry sauce

I don't care much for plain canned veggies so I prefer to freeze these, but I do have a great recipe for seasoned green beans and have also pressure-canned carrots and pumpkin. Oh, and plain beets--those are ok canned.

When it comes to storage conditions, you want to stick with as dark, cool, and dry as possible. Light, heat, and humidity can shorten the storage life span of canned food but most home-canned food keeps for at least a year, often for much longer if the conditions are ideal. If your home is warmer than room temperature, your food may degrade in quality faster, but it probably won't be noticeable. If you can your own food, and work with the seasons, chances are you'll be canning every year so your stocks won't need to last longer than that anyway.

A personal example of how long home canned food can last: my Mom canned fruit like crazy (peaches, apricots, pears, plums, cherries) when I was a kid because we lived in a major orchard area (BC Okanagan valley). We moved away and were still enjoying some of that canned fruit 5-6 years later. She just kept it in a lower kitchen cabinet (under the countertop) away from the stove (heat source). Visitors always remarked on how fresh it tasted, and she never told them how old it was

 

[SSDreamin]

Nobody has mentioned yet but, if you are interested in getting away from using your freezer, you should check out Jackie Clay. She has a blog, and an Ask Jackie section on the Backwoods Home Magazine site. I have two of her books and use them constantly. She cans or dries everything because she lives off grid and can't have a freezer. I learned how to can all kinds of meats (including bacon!), bottle butter and can cheese from her! I also learned to dry frozen, store bought veggies (works great, takes up almost no space and tastes great) so I can have a large supply of the veggies that didn't do well in my garden. As for heat damaging home canned stuff - I kept all sorts of my canned items in a cupboard, in a trailer, in south Texas, through several summers. Never had an issue. I have always canned things that I/my family likes though - that way, I'm sure it will be used up in a timely fashion. The only problem I've had with canned goods is calculating how many jars to do, to last until I can do up some more!