Les,we went with the All American too,a little pricey but IMO is the best made period,no gaskets a major plus,and heirloom quality so my DIL ( the foody of the family) is going to love it someday too.I think price to value long term cant be beat.

My Bud has been doing a lot of meatloaf and he and his wife have been raving about it,in pint wide mouth jars. Got me excited to try it too.

Sometimes we can get onions for 8 lbs/dollar and make flakes and powder,sure is tasty.The one I cant get into is dehydrating potatoes,we can get dried here dirt cheap,though chemical infused like most commercial,but its a survival food,not for gourmet cooking.Preservatives hardly an issue at that point.

We just dehydrated ten trays of apricots kids gave us,turned out so good we will do a lot more next year.

OUCH!

I hope this still rates as preparedness and not whacko TEOTWAWKI territory - I was spooked by reading some reports on the impact of an EMP, so I invested ~$250 in several hundred pounds of 'superpails' of rice and oats to supplement my food stores. This is really, really long term storage, such that if I go the rest of my life without opening and eating from the pails, my semi-panicked fully paranoid $250 investment will cost me $10 per year. I love rice and I love oats, but I am not likely to dip into these pails by themselves - they are there for eating if *everything* is off for the next while and society is literally starving and trying to make ends meet. A garden will be good after an EMP event, but will require 24x7 perimeter security from food poachers, which maybe I won't have. So I'm hedging my bets with a bulk purchase.

I don't usually dwell on things like EMPs or any other event that might, for instance, shut off access to equipped.org forever - far more likely I'll continue to experience smaller more manageable disasters. Dollar for dollar and hour for hour I'll still get more value, exercise and have more fun from our garden than pails of grains sitting in a cool dry place. This rates as an impulse buy, but I actually feel pretty good about it too based on the scientific research into EMP capabilities - although I am still negotiating with my wife on where I should actually keep this.

Total time on this food project: 2 minutes for ordering, a week for shipping, a half hour putting the pails in storage. Complete.

So in the end, one less thing...

FWIW I bought from beprepared.com, a reliable vendor at a reasonable price. I like the ~50 lb superpails because they come appropriately packaged for long term storage (oxygen absorbers, mylar bags etc). No relation to or compensation from the vendor etc.

Spending $250 on food hardly strikes me as paranoid. I can blow that in 15 minutes at the supermarket.

At my house, you'll often find many months of foodstuffs in cold storage. My garden stores alone account for several hundred pounds of potatoes, carrots, beets, squash, onions, etc. This is the reality of living in a cold climate. My parents and grandparents did the same thing. Prudent and practical, and darn handy too.

My 2c.

Tomatoes, onions, and peppers are cheap right now, and I have a lot of dry red kidney beans in storage, so I'm making and freezing large batches of venison chili with the last of my deer meat.

Anything to save a buck as I dont think Im going to have much extra come retirement.....Hence the canning skills.

Today we put up 21 qts pickle slices and spears,figure came to about a buck a qt.

click to enlarge

That's a good point, although by buying $250 of food I don't anticipate eating in the regular rotation of my pantry, I'm going against my basic principle of eat what you buy, buy what you eat. I bought specifically these pails of rice and oats for ease of prep (fewer calories expended) and caloric intake, not for day to day eating. I thought of getting some pails of wheat - I grind my own wheat and make breads and doughs almost every week, but baking after an EMP event may not be easy or even safe to do. Anyway, that's the sort of What If thinking I was hoping to partially address with my impulse buy. I admit, I'm not fully prepared for an EMP event (and I think I'm ok with that).

We don't have a huge garden area or terribly long growing season here, but its been hugely productive after 8 years of soil enhancing with compost, coffee grounds etc, and its a lot of fun to tend. With bountiful Eastern Washington providing our tomatoes potatoes onions and fruits of all kinds, we've focused on core things like basil which is growing great guns this year - also its far easier to put this up and store, but it doesn't produce very many calories. I think I'll continue to buy most of my pantry in cans which we use on a regular basis, but look at starting canning operations next spring. Aside from making jams we haven't canned any produce.

What a lovely thread! I don't have a garden, but I have been hitting up the farmers' stands pretty often. I just started canning a couple of weeks ago. So far I've done home made jelly (that was my first time, went with something easy). Then I did mangos that I got on sale for 25 cents a piece. Then I worked my nerve up to try pressure canning, and now I'm hooked! I've done 15 bean soup and pickles so far. I might actually do some chicken later this evening or tomorrow, I have some in my freezer that needs to be cooked.

I was hesitant to start canning because of startup costs. I quickly realized after doing the math on each of my projects, that it DOES save you money in the long run. And, personally, I more likely to can foods that my family actually eats. We don't buy a lot of canned foods, so this method is great for me.

A tip for any beginners, is just make your regular meal, double recipe. Then can what's left (before adding dairy, flour, etc, of course). My food storage contents have expanded very rapidly!

Edit to add: I've been using pint size jars. We are a family of two adults, one small child. My logic is that it would be less waste if the power is out (leading to no refrigeration). Also, in a severe situation where bartering might be useful, I thought pint jars would be more practical for trading items. Downfall is that it seems to be less food more space. Any thoughts on that, should I use quart jars too even though we are a small family?

Edit again to add: Also, I'm thinking pint jars are more useful if I see someone in need that I want to share with, I could give them *something* without feeling like I'm depleting my food stores too much. And I could help more people a little bit instead of one person a lot. Does that make since, or is my logic flawed? A different perspective would be appreciated.

Krista,I cant think of any changes you need to do,you have a plan,it works for you,and every morsel stored is that much more insurance for a food glitch of any sort.I say keep up exactly what you are doing.

Good job,and happy canning!

Quart jars have their place. It would be difficult to put up dill pickles in a pint jar. That said, I remember when my mother put up scores of quart jars of vegetables and fruit..early on it was a wax seal. Once in a while, a jar didn't seal right, and we lost a quart of peaches. Better to lose a pint!

Another consideration is how much you would need in a recipe. For example, you would probably need more than a pint of tomatoes to make chili or spagetti sauce...might as well put them up in quarts.

Fish, meat, apple butter,jam etc would be better in pints. I make my own maple syrup and I put it up in jelly jars.