The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

DigForVictory

Gardeners World? They're mostly flowers but also the half price gardens entrance freebie for when things are less weird.
Here's the link from the email

Si_Clist

MrsLurcherwalker said:

... I also have an American pressure canner that was a Christmas gift from the family some years ago that I've never used and I have some small kilner jars so I shall be processing some of the veg into soups/purees and will read the instructions and can some of them to see how successful it is as a storage method. 

We bought an "All-American" pressure canner at great expense maybe 12 years ago now, and it's proved to be worth every penny.  If yours is the same make/type that relies on a metal-to-metal join 'twixt lid and body, one tip which may not be in the instructions is to apply a trace of Vaseline along the join to ease release of the lid.  And be prepared for how heavy it is when full!

We started building up our collection of Kilner jars (the proper made-in-England 1lb and 2lb ones with the metal lids and sealing bands) 30 years ago when you could still get loads of them at jumble sales.  At the last count we had 312, all of which we usually manage to fill with various types of beans, peas, apples, pears, gooseberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, brambles, damsons, plums, raspberries and strawberries from the garden and the allotment.  Peas and beans are done in the canner, the rest by the water-bath method, and believe me it's well worth the effort when in the middle of winter you can look at a cupboard full of jars of scrummy food and not worry about your freezer and the electric going off.

FWIW we've always gone by the definitive bible on home preserving in the UK, which is the HMSO book "Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables", written by the MAFF, 1971 edition ISBN 0 11 241321 8.  It's worth its weight in gold is that book, but note that later editions of it missed out some really useful stuff.  We have never seen another book on home preserving that's anything like as informative.

And incidentally, having run out of Kilners last year, we tried water-bath bottling apple rings in ordinary glass jars of the Hellmans Mayo type with the metal quarter-turn lids and it worked perfectly

DigForVictory

As Amazon's still working & as we're not out of the EU yet, Germany are big on canning & their leifheit gear fits kilners (& bonne maman jars), resupplying online from Germany may pay off. Be warned a lot of new glass jamjars are European sourced & even Wares of Knutsford have said there may be issues as their supply chains are affected.
My husband thought I had Too Much Kilner at about 70 jars. I shall cite you, point out the no electricity needed & hope his heart changes. 

[Deleted User]

Many thanks Si Clist for all that oh so useful information, I'll get my canner out of storage and check it over, particularly useful is the Mayonnaise Jars are OK to use information.  I think we're going to try to squirrel away at least as much of the crop as we eat, I think next winter will be a very difficult time for the whole world if we have to stay in lock down mode for most of this year and the crops that are grown commercially are not as readily available in quantities we've come to regard as 'normal', if there are shortages and price hikes because of that then all the home produce we can accumulate between now and then will be as 'gold dust'!

My tip for stored goods is if you grow beans, any type of beans from runners to French to broad then if you have some that go 'over' and become fibrous and not edible fresh just leave them on the plants until they die back, then harvest the pods, leave them somewhere warm and dry to go hard and papery and then harvest the dried beans inside, make sure they are fully dry (takes a few weeks) and hardened, pop in a lockable bag into the freezer for 48 hours and then use them as you would any dried pulses by soaking and cooking to use in stews etc. We ran out of runner bean sees this year and I've a couple of jars of our own beans saved just as above so got our 12 of the biggest beans and they've all sprouted and grown into healthy plants which will give us (hopefully) a very good crop and many dried pods for next winter too.  I've got dried climbing French beans too but the broadies that are left are all in the freezer, they didn't make it to dry pod status because we love them fresh.  This year however, I will make sure to dry some to grow next year rather than to eat as an insurance for if we can't get seed in the autumn when the seed companies send out their catalogues.

euronorris

Would pea seeds travel well in the post? I have a big, unopened packet, I could share out to a few people. I bought more than I needed last year, in my over excitement. They are dated as sow by 2022. Packet says average 400 seeds (but that seems an awful lot, so not sure). They are 'Pea (Maincrop) Hurst Green Shaft - Pisum sativum'.

[Deleted User]

They will be fine in the post love, that's such a generous offer bless you xxx.

euronorris

Ok, great. I am limited on envelopes and stamps, but can get out about 6/7 lots to people. So if you need seeds, please pm me

pineapple

The potatoes from my free gubberment food package started sprouting (not a big potato eater) so I planted them in potato bags. Let's see if it works! On a completely different note, I saw some TV footage of someone in a care home struggling to breathe and then read that care homes aren't getting GP visits, or oxygen to support poorly residents or indeed access to hospital. Is this true and if so what is the justification? I'm shocked.

Si_Clist

Ref jars useable for canning/bottling or for that matter for jam, most of what we use comes from the glass recycling bins in town.  Same goes for the quarter-turn lids, which are perfectly fine for re-use as long as they haven't got dinked when folk chuck them out.

Yes we do wash them thoroughly (and nowadays sanitise them!), and no, we have never had a breakage.  The only frustration from time to time is a total inability to remove the last trace of the smell from the lids of those lovely big jars that Lidl sell their pickled gherkins in.

Ref DfV's point about the Leifheit lids, we'be been using them ever since kosher Kilner ones became extinct, and to date the longest-serving one of ours has now been used 4 times.  You just have to be careful when breaking the seal to open the jars that you don't distort the edge of the lid. 

We also have some ordinary quarter-turn metal jamjar lids which are on their 3rd jar.  No reason at all not to re-use them if the seal still looks OK and has some give in it, and there's no sign of corrosion.

Thriftygifty

pineapple said:

The potatoes from my free gubberment food package started sprouting (not a big potato eater) so I planted them in potato bags. Let's see if it works! On a completely different note, I saw some TV footage of someone in a care home struggling to breathe and then read that care homes aren't getting GP visits, or oxygen to support poorly residents or indeed access to hospital. Is this true and if so what is the justification? I'm shocked.

My Dads on oxygen and has a machine and a large oxygen canister as back up, the other day my parents had a call to say the company needed the large oxygen canister back 😬 they came 2 days later and collected it, I think they are rounding up supplies and redistributing where needed. My parents put the canister outside on the driveway so the person didn't come into the safe zone that has been set up around house.