In our case, we buy it for it's long shelf life and the fact that it needs no refrigeration. Strictly a backup meat for the campground (when we drive in), and for a backup food for our emergency home cache. Spam is OK cubed up and fried in scrambled eggs, and corned beef mixed with diced potatoes makes a hearty breakfast when we are in grouse hunting camp. In the home cache, we have a lot of dried beans and dried rice sealed in one gallon plastic jugs. The plan is to cube up some spam to cook into the beans.

And Socrates other quote, "Semper ubi, sub ubi", meaning "Always wear, underwear" (Funny to be quoting a greek who was dead long before Latin was a language, har).

This is why I prefer to can my own meat products. If you know what you are doing, you don't have to rely on expensive, subgrade canned meats from the grocer. You can put up your own hamburger, chicken, fish, corned beef sausage, even steaks, and you can do it for a lot less money and a lot better taste.

I plan on putting up at least 200 quarts of canned meat this year. This will include Shad, Salmon, beef, chicken, turkey, elk or deer (or both, if I get lucky), and even some pork. Between the wife and I, we can go through about 1 1/2 quarts of meat a week. We can also take advantage of special purchases as the time allows. I like that I can control the sodium content, the preservatives, the fillers, the fat content, and the flavor. If I want to can a potted meat product, that is just a matter of getting some quality cuts and running them through the grinder a couple times, then processing them through a recipe.

Yeah, it's work, but it is good clean work, and it allows me to cultivate some valuable life skills. It requires some initial cash outlay, but if you amortize the cost of the equipment and materials, it pays for itself pretty fast. More importantly, the implicit values of eating my own product are immediately apparent.

Still, I have other committments and interests, so I stock store bought canned meats in my pantry for now, with the intent of using them while I build my jar collection and get ready for the Shad run here in May/August. For the cost of a license, I can catch and keep as many 4-6 lb fish as I care to. There's no daily catch limit, no possession limit, and there's 4 million fish in the run, and only maybe 50 or so who fish it. It's not uncommon to catch 30 fish a day during the peak! Talk about a great, inexpensive, abundant food source!

I think he was dead before they invented underwear too. Anyway, you have described exactly what I would like to do when I retire (still a few years off). When my son was a baby we made his baby food ourselves, sorry Gerber. He is now a 6'3" Airman in the Security Forces, so I think it worked. I like to cook, hunt, fish, eat, and prepare for the future, so what better hobby than preserving food when I have the time? I should probably start buying the equipment while I still have an 'income'.

Ben, you might keep an eye on Craigslist for jars. Here, someone was giving away about 600 most-quart jars last summer.

Sue

giving away 600 jars?..there might be a lesson to learn there,like it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Yes, it can be a daunting prospect for the initiate. Having grown up around it and done it myself enough to know what I am getting into, I don't recommend taking on too much at the beginning.

I keep an eye out for jars from time to time. 600 would be plenty.

Sometime I am going to catch a mess of fish and try drying them on a wooden rack over a fire like the Native Americans did. It is a time-consuming activity, but I have a serious advantage over them; I have a lawn chair and beer!

The good news is by the time you finish the beer, you won't really care what the fish tastes like. LOL

"600 is plenty" rather than "600 is more than I need" is a bit scary . . . .

Fried Spam, onions and eggs is not a bad breakfast!