I'm thinking that we here at Cooking&Baking could focus on food preservation now.

[FarPoint]

In light of the tRump administration bringing chaos to the food chain via the bird flu epidemic with morph to cattle, people even and fresh produce will be hard to find...

So, could we share our preservation of food skills, ideas, and home gardening of veggies?

Home canning is a detailed safety issue...so this is an essential area to address here in my opinion. I do water bath canning for fruits/jams but a pressure canner is a must for meats, veggies and a more challenging safety technique....

Canning supplies will be going off the shelves so I suggest getting supplies now at Amazon, Tractor supply store etc...especially canning jars/ Ball is the best.

I'm also stocking up on home pantry items, flour, dry milk, canned fruits, veggies, soups...honey, dried beans....

I'm also freezing meats.

So, just a suggestion..

[MiHale]

1. Can't forget about dehydration ...

We freeze a ton of food…from meats to prepared meals. But always worry if a power outage happens, luckily we’re on a pretty stable line.
I started dehydrating some veggies in the last few years, starting with tomatoes. I store them in canning jars with a cloth teabag filled with rice for moisture control. I used Romas which we also sauce, dried they are like candy…I have to force myself to stop eating them. I use them to thicken and flavor stews, soups, salad dressings.

As an aside…. Using the leftover dried bean water…don’t throw it away…if nothing else water your plants…it’s full of minerals…a great source of potassium. Also as a starter stock for soups and stews.

[FarPoint]

2. Dehydrating is an excellent option!

I bought my daughter a dehydrator unit for Christmas....she and her husband like to hike the Appalachian Trail...dehydrated food is a favorite for them when hiking, light weight, yummy too.

Great post! So inspiring.

[Woodwizard]

3. I use a pressure canner

I can a lot of tomatoes usually grow 50 plants and can 50 to 80 quarts a year the pressure canner can do 7 quarts at a time I mix in onions garlic and hot ghost peppers 2 peppers per batch.

We have a dehydrator mainly use that during Apple season. If you dip the apple slices in lemon juice before drying they don't turn brown.

[FarPoint]

4. Pressure canning is a true skill!

I'm a tad afraid to learn it on my own...I just may have to work thru my fear now...I believe I have good reason to do so now...

We should start posting canning videos come spring...In my opinion.

[Woodwizard]

10. Actually it is simple

I cold pack no pre cooking. I cut everything up and mix up in a big soup pot then pack my quart jars, put 1 tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of lemon or lime juice then pack the jars. Put in the pressure canner once the rocker starts to rattle turn down to a low rattle for a half hour.

Don't buy cheap lids I had to during covid when everyone started buying canning supplies and I had a 40% failure rate. They never sealed after the jars cooled so I ran them again with new lids. Ball lids always seal.

I add my tomatoes to all kinds of meals makes jar sauce taste really good.

[Retrograde]

11. I rely on the Ball Blue Book

There are some things that can be canned with just a hot water bath (i.e., you put the food in jars, add the lids and rings, cover with water and boil for however long the directions say) - some fruits and vegetable fall into this category. Then there are things that require a pressure canner, which is a specialized piece of equipment that still scares me a bit - and I make and can stocks roughly every three months! I have an old one that has to be watched constantly and the flame twiddled so it stays in the correct pressure range, but I hear there are new-fangled electronic ones that can regulate the pressure automatically.

The biggies: make sure your jars, et al are clean before you start - I run mine through the dishwasher on the sterilize setting, or if I'm using just a few, I boil them. If a recipe says you can hot-water can something but you're not sure, eg, with some varieties of tomatoes, you can use a pressure cooker recipe. You can't go the other way, though: if the directions say it has to be canned under pressure you can't use the hot water method

Once the jars are out of the water bath/pressure cooker you'll hear popping sounds as they cool. That's good: it means the processing forced some air out of the jars and the lids are now sealed (PV=nRT, my favorite equation!). If after they're cool you can press down on the lid with a finger and it doesn't give then the jar is good to store until needed. If there's give, refrigerate it and use ASAP.

There are a lot of web sites that talk about canning, but I'm leery of any that aren't connected with Ball or another canning company or the USDA.

[if..fish..had..wings]

5. I no longer preserve, however I have many canning recipes at my website

https://www.boscado.com/canning/index.htm

[FarPoint]

6. Ohhhh many folks can't grow their own veggies...but...

I suggest going to Farmers Markets this summer and/or road side stands...fruits, bread etc are popular there... Also, growing your own Herbs is always an option too... Widow plants or try grow lights if poor sunlight in home...

[lark]

7. One of our local grocery stores is going out of business and we stocked up on canning supplies.

Husband is canning marinara today. Yum!

[FarPoint]

8. Smart action step with the going out of business shopping!

Canning supplies with be costing double this year I suspect....

[FarPoint]

9. Preserving citrus will be essential now!

Preserve lemons in a salt brine....lasts a year....can do even whole lemons...

[Retrograde]

12. Just don't use any thing metallic!

I learned this the hard way - even though the ring that held the lid on was (I thought) protected by two layers of parchment paper, it corroded, probably due to spillage. The lemons were fine, since they didn't touch the lid - I suspect drippage from when I took them out.

You can also make lemon pickles, which are more useful to me at least than marmelade.