The Increasing Pantry

Later this year we'll clear about 4 out of our 10 acres, and (hopefully) next spring I'll be all ready to start farming the newly cleared land.  Once that happens, though, I'll need to know how to preserve the harvest as it came in.

So THIS year I've been learning how to can and preserve food.  I've also started a notebook where I save the recipes I've found that we like.

As you can see here, the supply of canned food is slowly adding up!

Even more surprising is how often we've already been using what we've put up.

The first thing I pressure canned was black beans.  I'll be honest - I'm a little scared of pressure canning and turning dried beans into a ready-to-eat state seemed like a pretty easy way to ease into learning this process.  We actually eat a LOT of black beans - soups, nachos, etc.  Just today I realized that we're down to the last 2 jars of black beans!

I am totally hooked on canning my own black beans.  First of all, the dried beans are so much cheaper I can afford to buy organic dried beans and can those.  If you bought canned organic beans in the store, it would run about $2 per can.  Each jar that I canned myself cost less than a dollar.  When I can the next batch I'll post the per-jar cost.

Secondly, canned beans are super convenient.  I NEVER remember to soak dried beans and usually decide it's just too much hassle to bother with them.  These canned beans are ready to go at a moment's notice, however.

It's such a great feeling to see all these jars full of good food just waiting.  I love this version of 'convenience' food.  Just open a jar, and you pretty much have dinner!