We are learning to preserve food by canning

My wife and I are getting into something that we hope will help us with our food budget, and also give us healthier food to eat. We are learning to preserve food by canning. We picked up our new pressure canner yesterday at the department store and today is our first venture into that type of food preservation. We are canning chicken. It is fresh chicken, we processed them this moring. We are doing 7 chickens in all. Right now we are pressure cooking the chicken, and when that is finished we will remove the meat from the bones, put them into jars, and back into the cooker they will go for about 1 1/2 hours. If all goes well we will have healthy tasty chicken preserved, and they should last for a few years, if we don't eat them first.

My sister has been canning chicken, among other things, for many years. She gave us a couple of jars that she had processed and we made some chicken pot pie last week. It was scrumptious! The canned chicken is so much better than what you can buy at the store. We have too many live chickens and have been paying way too much money out for food for them. Now by processing some, we have lowered our feed bill, and got some healthy food in the deal.

My parents preserved a lot of food by canning. I grew up watching and helping, but I really never learned much except for how to wash the jars. It was a job that I hated back then, but now I am interested in learning more about the canning process. The way the world is going right now is scary and we want to have some insurance that we can make it if things keep getting worse. My wife and I plan to can lots of vegetables, and also things like brown beans, chili, stew, soup, etc. Then when we want some tasty food and don't feel up to cooking it, or if we are just in a hurry and want some tasty home cooked food, all we will have to do is open a jar and voila, the food is served! I will try to write a few more articles later as we learn more about the process. Now its back to watching the pressure canner to make sure the pressure is ok. Have a great weekend!