Did you know that it’s possible to can produce and meat yourself? You don’t need commercial canning equipment to make shelf-stable jams, jellies, soups, stews, and more at home. All you need is a consumer-grade water bath canner or pressure canner if you want to make low-acid recipes.
Canning is not only a fun hobby but also a fantastic way to save money. It allows you to preserve produce when it’s fresh, cheap, and in season, which can help lower your grocery bill. Now is a great time to master canning so you can take advantage of the abundant, affordable produce available in the summer. If you’re looking for ways to cut down your grocery budget amid rising food prices, here’s a brief overview of canning to help you learn more about it and decide if it’s right for you.
Brief History of Canning
Canning is a form of food preservation that dates back to the 1800s. Home canning became very popular during World War II as a way to preserve garden produce and supplement food rations. When refrigeration became widespread, canning fell by the wayside.
However, many homesteaders still can produce from their gardens to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle. I’ve been canning for a few years now to preserve my garden produce and in-season fruits and veggies from the grocery store. Having a well-stocked pantry of healthy home-canned goods helps me avoid buying fruit and veggies during the off-season when they’re most expensive. Here are a few more ways canning helps me save money and eat healthier.
4 Ways Canning Saves Me Money
Allows Me to Preserve the Garden Harvest Cheaply
Gardening is a cheap way to put delicious, healthy food on the table. You can usually buy seeds and other gardening supplies like fertilizer and trowels at Dollar Tree in the spring. This year I paid just $0.25 for each pack of seeds I bought. I invested in raised beds, an irrigation system, and a rototiller last year, but you don’t need expensive tools to get started. You can establish your garden very cheaply and start reaping the savings of growing your own food right away.
In my experience, it’s impossible to eat all of the fresh produce that comes out of a large garden by yourself. You’ll likely need to find a way to preserve the leftover produce so you can enjoy it throughout the year. Canning isn’t the only way to preserve your garden harvest, but it’s one of the cheapest. Freezing your fruits and veggies requires you to continuously run your freezer, which raises your utility costs. Freeze dryers cost upwards of $2,000 and also use up electricity.
You have to heat your canner on the stove in order to process the jars which does use up energy. But once the cans are properly sealed, you can safely store them at room temp. So you don’t have to run any appliances to keep them cool. You’ll have to buy a canner and some canning jars to get started, but you can often find them at the thrift store for an affordable price. You’ll also need new canning lids every year unless you buy reusable ones. But the cost is negligible since they’re less than $5 for a 12-pack.
Canning is my favorite food preservation method not only because it’s affordable, but also because it allows me to create specialty items like jams and jellies for less.
Enables Me to Create Specialty Food Products for Less
When you can, you have to find a safe recipe and follow it exactly to prevent food-borne illness. Home-canned items can develop the botulinum toxin, which causes severe sickness or even death when ingested. However, botulism poisoning is very rare—only about 110 cases are reported each year. If you follow safe canning practices and get your recipes from trusted sources like Ball or universities, you won’t have to worry about getting sick.
Luckily there are lots of really delicious safe canning recipes out there. You can make lots of mouth-watering specialty sauces, jellies, and jams such as apple butter, cranberry relish, and peach barbecue sauce. You can also can plain vegetables, fruits, and meat so you can add them to recipes later.
But my favorite way to use my canner is to make delicious specialty food items that would cost me an arm and a leg at the grocery store. I can make amazing condiments such as candied jalapeños and corn relish for a fraction of the price to spice up affordable pantry staples like beans and rice.
Helps Me Avoid Buying Out of Season Produce
When produce is out of season, it’s significantly more expensive because it has to be shipped in from a faraway farm. But thanks to my ample supply of canned goods, I don’t have to buy out-of-season produce in the winter. I can simply crack open a jar of corn and enjoy the sweet taste of summer even when it’s snowing outside!
Although grocery stores sell canned goods, home-canned vegetables taste so much better, whether you get your produce from your garden or the store. If you’re shopping at the supermarket, the key is to get your fruits and veggies in-season when they’re the cheapest.
Last week I was able to get blackberries for $0.75 a pint by combining a store sale with an Ibotta rebate. I ate some fresh and used the rest to make a delicious low-sugar blackberry jam. I’m saving it to spread on my toast in the dead of winter when fresh fruit is too expensive.
Prevents Me From Ordering Takeout
It takes a lot of work to prep all of your produce and get it ready for canning. But once your pantry is stocked with cans, it’s pretty easy to throw a meal together. You can pressure can soups and stews that are basically meals in a jar. All you have to do is dump them in a pot, heat them up, and serve.
Having these convenience meals on hand makes it easier for me to avoid ordering takeout. They provide me with a quick way to get dinner on the table on nights when I’m feeling too tired to cook a big meal from scratch.
Are you a home canner or interested in trying it? Let me know in the comments section below!
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Vicky Monroe is a freelance personal finance and lifestyle writer. When she’s not busy writing about her favorite money saving hacks or tinkering with her budget spreadsheets, she likes to travel, garden, and cook healthy vegetarian meals.
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