What a great thread! It is fun to read about how everyone started in canning and what they grow and where they buy what they don't grow! So, let's see....I started canning three or four years ago and started with things my mother and grandmother used to make - canned peaches and applesauce mostly. Once I found this forum I was seduced into expanding my repertoire VERY quickly! Like others, Annie's salsa is a must-try. I do the BWB version and love it. I do have a pressure canner, but very seldom use it (although I use it as a BWB because I like it better than my old kettle). I also have a rather large garden - I have learned to be careful calling it huge because there are people here with much bigger gardens than mine. We moved to our current home five years ago - it's on 20 acres, much of it native woodland. This property has accelerated our more spiritual move to becoming more self-sustaining and more aware of our impact on the environment. As part of that, we are growing more and more of our own food. It is a very satisfying feeling to prepare a wonderful meal and know where every piece of food came from. However, we will not be able to be completely self-sustaining. Although DH hunts deer (and elk), and fishes, I don't see us growing our own critters. So we buy beef from the Angus farmer down the road. I'm looking for a local source of pork and chicken. As for fruits and veggies, what I can't grow, I try to buy locally. My strawberry patch is not yet big enough to yield as much as I want, so I go to a local You-Pick. We can't grown peaches and cherries due to climate, so I buy from a person who trucks them in from Colorado. I have my sources for most everything I want to preserve. Even so, there's plenty I still buy from the store. So there you go, a short bio - LOL - as usual I can't keep it short! Have fun, this forum is wonderfully helpful and terribly addicting. Ann

Classico jars say Mason too, they used to be able to use the RM lids and bands and I used them for BWBing. Also saved the lids after I had enough jars, good for storage after opening a jar of jam or jelly. But now they're making them smaller, just as USDA says it's OK to BWB in them. But I wouldn't PC in them. I don't know who makes them - but you can buy all different sized "Mason" jars for crafting, etc. online. These look like the ones Green Mtn Gringo uses. Doesn't say who manufacturer is, just "made in East Asia" Here is a link that might be useful: Jar Store This post was edited by ajsmama on Mon, Sep 1, 14 at 16:17

I bought one when they first came out. Back then they were pretty tiresome to use. You have to really lean on it to get it to extract the air and seal and it makes a very loud sound while doing so. I kept it in the laundry room on the counter. It's fine but recently it broke after all these years and I was glad to get it off of the counter top. I find that I just don't need it. We have grocery stores very near and I don't normally buy in bulk anymore since it's just the two of us. The bags are expensive at least it seems and I'm not going to wash them out like it says you can (what I need, another job) so I would run out of them not realizing I was close to the end. I would put off ordering because you had to order a lot of them at a time and I didn't really want to spend $30-40 dollars for bags and so I would put it off and then forget about it. You can get them at Costco but the combinations of bags were not what I was looking for or they were just the rolls and so many of them! Something else to store! Then for the longest time you couldn't get the larger ones and the small ones are not useful for me. You can make your own but it was sort of a pita. It was freeing to be rid of it. One less thing on my counter and I'm enjoying the extra space I have now. If I had a large family and bought in bulk quite often and had a lot of freezer space I think it would be very helpful, if not, then I don't really think it's that necessary.

Hit or miss. I've experimented quite a bit. For a dozen years now we 'camp' just about every weekend in the Spring through Fall. I loosely start planning by Wednesday and start prepping Thurs-fri nights. Try and not re-peat too often. I do have a small fridge and cutting board in the barn and some room to work but not a 'kitchen' really. Prepping some things at home gives lots of time for the garden and hikes with the pups. For example, last weekend i made a sprouted grain salad with chick peas dressed with a lemon vinaigrette. put it in a qrt ball jar and tucked in some toasted nuts in a baggie just under the lid. Frozen shrimp, scallops, and a small salmon steak in its own zip-lock with the same dressing to marinate as it thawed. Two small frozen lamb steaks in food saver. I prepped a potato packet ready for the grill. Sliced potatoes, sweet potatoes, onion, shallot, garlic, fresh rosemary tossed in olive oil and wrapped tight in parchment then foil, zip-locked. I made a pasta salad with some fresh fine chopped veg like celery, cilantro, red pepper etc. the pasta was tossed with pesto and the veg had a light oil vinegar dressing. All ready to go, tossed together at serving. I used a qrt of frozen February chili and a qrt of chicken in homemade stock as some 'ice' in the cooler just incase the weather went sour to make a chicken chili heated on the wood stove. Some of DH's homemade bread to toast with that. Weather was better than expected so we ended up having the pasta salad over pea shoots from the garden for Sat, (chicken chili went in the barn freezer) and had the grilled seafood Sunday night with grilled leeks. Some washed and bagged veg (not chopped)...asparagus, shallot, mushrooms (frozen 1/2 pint sautéed with caramelized onion) for a possible Sunday brunch egg frittata. And a 1/2 pint of homemade humus packed with washed and cut up celery and carrot sticks and a couple Naan from the freezer. Enough food for three-4 days. And lots of choices weather depending. We never left the farm. I had more garden greens for a salad than i expected so a small jar of dressing was handy. So much easier to pre-prep at home. The weekend before last i prepped a spatchoked chicken, seasoned and wrapped and ready to go on the grill. It was near still partially frozen Friday night. Very cold and safe. Two weeks ago i prepped a brisket and had different sides for that. Slaw, a three bean salad. Smoked salmon and goat cheese for Sunday brunch with some cured meats and olives, etc. Again enough for 3-4 days. Our cooler is not large but packed efficiently. Thick newspaper bottom, frozen foods, then more newspaper. Frozen water bottles as ice. Thawed/half frozen to take on hikes. More newspaper for delicates like salads and fridge temp foods on the top third of cooler. Zip-locks work best. Pack flat and spread out rather than the solid food savers. 5-7 days may require local shopping but i've had kale and collards last in a cooler that long. A few canned goods like pasta and sauce for a back-up meal. Never needed it but good to have, I've been experimenting with freeze dried foods for a necessary need but not really needed for a few days or a week trip. This probably seems nuts and obsessive but i packed 'kits' for a recent road trip using the food saver. The lids are upside down in recycled containers with good cured meats and cheeses, olives, (even apple slices tossed in lemon juice but they were unusually good apples to begin with), under the lids with crackers and veg and pate on top, then shrunk. They stayed fresh, the veg sticks in damp p-towel. In the past some foods can shift and get ice 'water logged'. Day three we hop on a 16hr ferry and if caught in a storm that can turn into 24-36hrs. They now have a good decent restaurant onboard but years past was horrid steam table food. They still run out so we plan to not rely on any fast food or processed foods. (lobster rolls the exception) You just need to stop the suction and hit seal before it goes all the way on its own. Food saver does work for mixed cheeses, cured prepped meats but seal separately. Or zip-lock separately, then seal in kits. A meal itself with a bottle of wine picnic style sitting in the forest on a hike. Food saver will prevent leaks. Just pack a frozen water bottle or two if off on a hike.... (phew, that was long winded but i do this prep all the time)