long time dream

I know I post a lot of pictures of canning stuff from the garden,but it is something that I have been trying to achieve for a long time. I have been learning at it for years now,but I finnaly fixed a good spot in the basement to keep everything, I worked at this closet in the basement last winter and am starting to fill up the shelves this year, It is something Ihave wanted to do for many years,but never got to doing it,it is a closet inside our garage that is under the front steps, The tile on the floor were left over from a job I did,the walls are just painted white ,Just plastic shelves bought at the store, Hope to fill all the shelves before frost hits!

Looks like you did an excellent job Larry. Your pictures are always a very welcome sight to look at. Your canning pics make me very hungry! My garden has been terrible the last 2 years. My wife and I also can goodies too. But not these last couple of years. Drought has done us in.
Kow Farmer

A friend of mine has an area in his basement that is 6 foot wide x 10 feet long. He has shelf after shelf of non-perishable food. Mostly canned goods, cereal, plastic jugs of OJ and grape juice, He has over a 3 month supply of food. (I think he is getting ready for the end of the world or something)
Congrats on your new "cellar" I should do something like that, but the closest to canning I do is buying Campbells chunky soup.

last year in late august it rained so much we hardly had anything to can. You never know what is going to hit ,just hope for better luck next year. Isnt that the story of our lives? lol

looking good, great feeling to see lots of home grown food available for whenever you want to eat it. good job

We've always got room for some of your delicious salsa if you run out of storage room in your basement.

We haven't moved and are still at the same address.

Thanks for sharing your photos and salsa with us.

mild ,medium ,or hot?

Don't you worry about too many pictures Larry!
Not only do I enjoy the pictures, I share them with my better half.
She's bound and determined to start canning her own now!
I haven't done any canning in a long time, so we're going to learn together.
See what you've done?!?!?!?

It will be fun if you do it together,I recomend the ball blue book ,Wal mart has it,it is good to have and not too expensive,also on the internet a site called pick your own,it has recipes and step by step pictures,

Larry, at the rate you're going, you may want to start making plans to expand your storage area! And you are right about the Ball Blue Book, it is an excellent guide. The wife and I had a system, I grew it, she prepared it, and we both shared the canning part. I haven't tried canning anything since she died, but I'm gonna have to get brave and try it next year. (I am just not very fast at peeling and snapping, and chopping, etc.) But I'm sure my daughters will help me.

That looks Great!

One of each.

Forgot to give you the address at the farm, otherwise I might not get to sample either mild, medium, or hot if sent to the metropolitan address.

Not saying that Nancy would eat all of it, but there's always that possibility based on previous experience.

Don't mention this to Nancy, I'd like to surprise her with three empty jars.

eMail is open.

Larry: I think that most of us that live in or want to live in a rural area like to grow our own food. I also think it is a carry over from our ancestors days of having to provide all their own food or as much of it as possible. Going to town every day for supplies just was not going to happen.

I can still remember going out to the root cellar for either of my Grand Mothers. Those cellars where full by the start of winter. My maternal Grand Mother canned everything you could think of. She could make fast good meals out of those canned goods. One thing she canned that I have tried to copy for years is Beef. She just would chunk it up small enough to get in a jar. She seasoned it and filled the jar with some type of liquid. That is the problem I don't remember what she put in for the seasonings or the liquid. The beef was ready to eat out of the jar. She would just cut it up or mix it in what every she was making. She would many times just chop it up a little and make a gravy with the juice. She would serve that over mashed potatoes and bread. Just like roast beef hot shots. The thing was she could do it fast. She had the potatoes canned and the beef. She could have it all together within 15-20 minutes. If she had company drop in she could have it going by the time they washed up and talked just a few minutes. She was an amazing cook.

That should be a cool ideal area for those preserves.

thats a great piece of history! So far I only use the hot water bath canner and do high acid products,to do beef I would have to get a pressure cooker,that may be in the future plans,We froze string beans ,corn and squash ,they would have to be processed in in pressure canner too.

Nice job- especially like the tile floor.

But it pains me to see all that wasted space above the jars!

Wait until 1 X 12 pine is on sale at your nearest lumber emporium, then build a set of shelves with just a couple of inches of "headroom" over the jars- twice as much capacity!

Our canned good storage when I was a kid was "the cellar"- separate building away from the house, built mostly below ground level (eaves came down about 2 feet above the ground) that had the well and pump in one corner, and shelves on 2 sides for jars. Trouble was, it was always damp, and floor was usually wet- and us little kids could imagine all sorts of swamp demons zuckerin' around down there, just waiting to pounce.

Larry,looking good!We always did beans,peas,beets,ect. in water bath. Never did meat,also never used a pressure canner and always had good luck.We also in the olden days used the old glass jars with glass tops and red ball rubbers.