When I first began finding the joys and understanding the necessity of growing my own food, I hurriedly began finding the necessity and understanding the joys of canning my own food. After all, what good is a garden if what it produces goes to waste.

Canning is pretty straight-forward and does not rely upon refrigeration. The basic principles are the same no matter what you can, but I really enjoy canning tomatoes, red cabbage, and beets. It’s a nice feeling to open the cupboards of your kitchen and look over the summer’s work. Also, it’s a great thing to look forward to all the freshly canned food that you will have when you are working on those hot, summer days in the garden.

So, get your canning on!

1. Grow your own food without pesticides or artificial fertilizer.
2. Pick, eat what you want, and save the rest.
3. When ready, get some heat-resistant bottles for canning
4. Boil the lids and bottles for at least 15 minutes.
5. Prepare the food to be canned.
6. Always, always make sure everything is clean, clean, clean.
7. After canning the veggies, boil the newly bottled veggies for about 10 more minutes.
8. Take the canned food out and listen for the wonderful  “pop” of the lid.
9. Try different recipes, or just can some veggies.
10. Mark the tops with the date including the year.

There are some important things to be aware of. First, some of your canning endeavors will fail. This is called compost in the canning world. Secondly, some of your recipes will not taste as good as you’d like. You have two options: compost or creativity. Mix some of these with other foods and sometimes you’ll be surprised.

I have read that growing your own food and putting it up is the ultimate revolutionary act and have found through the years found this to be true. So, if you want to taste true freedom, true self-sustainability, and experience what I would equate with being human, grow and can your own food!

It’s an amazing sense of freedom and the food, well, it tastes great!