As I get older, I’m more amazed at the things my grandparents did. My grandma was still canning when she was nearly 75 years old. I can a lot but it’s more of a hobby for me. For my grandparents, it was a matter of survival. They had a huge garden and canned everything they could can. They might share their purple hull peas, either ready to shell or already canned, with a friend, who would share their cream peas, either ready to shell or already canned. Whatever one had in excess, they shared or traded.
It will always be mind boggling to me that they probably didn’t eat out more than half a dozen times their entire lives, they snacked for lunch and ate a large breakfast and a large dinner. Bread/rolls were always homemade; there was always a homemade cake or pie. If chicken was being served, my grandma had to butcher it and clean it. How did she do all that?
Let’s just say my grandma cooked 350 meals per year. There were times when they probably had a sandwich but there were lots of times, my parents, my sister and I and sometimes my aunt and uncle were there for the weekend. If they ate two vegetables per meal, that’s 700 jars of vegetables and that doesn’t include having to use two jars if we were all there. I think she canned everything in quart jars but she didn’t save leftovers much because they had the tiniest little fridge and it didn’t work very well. Maybe they just had one veggie per meal and ate the whole quart. I don’t know.
How did she do that? Even as a fairly prolific canner, I just cannot grasp canning 350+ jars per year, if they only used one per meal. That’s just veggies. She’d often can chicken, fig preserves, tomatoes for the year . . really, my brain just gets to a roadblock and cannot even think any farther.
All that to say that I love canning red beans and sausage for serving as red beans and rice. The other day Marcia Hohn posted that she was canning red beans and shared a link to a video. The lady was adding ground turkey. I’ve never cooked red beans and rice with ground meat – always just sausage but I don’t like to eat the “boiled” sausage. I just like the flavor it gives the beans. I thought . . I have plenty of ground beef so I’ll add ground beef to a batch of beans.
Why can beans when they will cook in about an hour, unsoaked, in the pressure cooker? The flavor is so much better after they’ve been cooked and sit for a while. Plus, getting out all the spices, chopping celery, onions, bell pepper . . just do it all at once and be done!
I will admit that for the past few months, I’ve been eating out of jars. With grocery costs as high as they are, eating food that was canned a year or so ago makes sense but it also could be that opening a jar, heating up the contents, having fewer dishes to wash . . I have more cross stitching time.
I opened a jar of jambalaya I had made in 2016 this week. I wasn’t sure it was going to be good so I had a backup plan. When I make jambalaya, I just make the sauce with the meat and veggies and don’t add the rice to the jar.
Yesterday I chopped the celery, peppers and onions. That was 6 onions, 6 bell peppers and a whole bag of celery. Glad to have that done.
I’m using six pounds of beans because I’ll share half of it with Chad. They love red beans and rice.
Using the ground beef will also help my Louisiana sausage go farther. I usually use four pounds of sausage and 4 pounds of ground beef. It’s kind of an experiment so we’ll see how it ends up.
Most of today will be spent canning beans. I’m not sure how many quarts of beans I’ll get. I’d be really happy if I get 16 quarts – that will be 8 for us and 8 for Chad – that should last us at least through most of Fall.
Twyla says
Sounds good. Our friends in Shreveport make us red beans and rice when we visit them. Let Vince know I am concerned about over exercising his heart with too much digging and shoveling. Sometimes doctors fail to tell patients not to do too much exercise of heart.. Your place looks great.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
They must really like you. 🙂 I’d be happy any time someone made red beans and rice for me.
Vince’s heart doctor and our GP stay on top of things. Vince does work hard but he takes breaks and checks his BP often to be sure everything seems to be going ok.
Thanks for caring about him/us.
Sara Fridley says
My parents always had a huge garden and mom and I canned like crazy as things became ready. Plus they would get beef and chicken from local farmers and canned the meat. Seeing the colorful jars lined up on the shelf in the dirt floored root cellar provided a definite feeling of satisfaction – even for a kid.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
A question for you – as a young girl working your tail off to can did you ever think (1) you’d never touch a canning jar when you lived on your own and (2) aren’t you glad you have those skills now!
Nelle Coursey says
I grew up in the 50′ and 60’s in Central Texas. We had a serious drought and there was no work for farmers. But daddy managed to find work. I never knew we were poor! We had red beans and cornbread, sometimes onion from the garden. My mother and aunts would get together and can things from the gardens. We would have a hog killing at either our house or my cousin’s home. I still love red pinto beans and cornbread! One of my favorite meals. Second favorite is black eyed peas and cornbread. I think I could eat that at every meal. It certainly heled that we lived on a farm with cows, chickens and grew our own veggies. Being sandy land, we grew watermelons and sold those. One year I sold enough watermelons at 3 for a dollar from our front porch way out in the country to buy all my school clothes. And those watermelons were not like the ones today! They were at least 80 pounds each and orange meated Tender sweets! You talk about good! And the Red Diamonds we grew were just about as big! Not those tiny things of today that cost $7 each! AHH the memories.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
There’s a whole story I could tell on this comment but I’d rather be poor and eat beans every day than live like some people live. There’s so much more to living a good live than having money and steak! My guess is that you’re who you are today, at least in part, because of how you were raised. I wish people could/would stop judging people based on the size of their house and, for sure for me, by the age of the car they drive! 🙂
Nelle Coursey says
This is the truth! I learned a long time ago you don’t judge someone by the way they look or the car they drive. Nor is anyone better than anyone else because they have a better car or house. Those are material things, and I am happy they have them, but as long as there is love in the house, that is all you really need. Like the old saying: “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” I look at people who are down and think there but by the grace of God, go I.
Tee says
I wish I could get over my fear of pressure canning. I water bath can all the time but not pressure. I am certain I would open a jar and not eat it. Once, when I was much younger, I threw out all my water bath canned stuff. Got scared that I would kill my family. LOL
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I feel much better eating home canned than I do storebough but I do understand. There are very few people whose canned goods I will eat. And, I’m not going to try to talk you into it – you know my crazy bridge fear and I think your fear is more legitimate than mine is.
I trust the UGA canning sight but other than that, I question pretty much everything before doing it.
Ginny says
When we lived on Long Island it was easier to have a garden, better soil, no rocks and no deer than here in CT. We had a large garden and I canned 100 qts of tomatoes each year for tomato sauce and meat, either meat sauce, meatballs or sausage. We also canned blackberry for jam from our bushes. Peach jam from a neighbors tree who didn’t know what to do with the peaches. We would go to a pick it yourself for an outing to pick either strawberries or blueberries that were turned into jam. We also canned applesauce to eat. Most of the jam became holiday gifts to family and teachers. We were a 1 income family and I needed to save money were I could. I made my childrens clothes and we squeezed the penny. Now at 71 I still cook but less than I did before I retired and I quilt and volunteer my time. Things change.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
What fun! Yes, a lot of work but so rewarding. Things do change but so long as we’re having fun and enjoying life . . it’s all good.
Vivian Oaks says
Growing up in New York state, and now living in Pennsylvania, I’ve never eaten, or even been offered red beans and rice! 🙂 I’ve done more canning this past year than I’ve done since the kids all grew up and left home. I haven’t really done a lot, but I keep thinking I need to do more this year. We even have some plants planted for a garden, which we haven’t really done in the past 15-20 years. With inflation going the way it is, and the government trying to force us all to go green, I feel so bad for people who are at the lower end of the pay scale. Families are really going to be hurting this year. If canning helps, I’ll do it!!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Yes. I feel bad for those who were already struggling to make ends meet. We were in Walmart the other day and I was going to get a box of salt. It was $1.12 for a box of salt that I know I didn’t pay more than 49 cents for the last time I bought it. Thankfully Walmart’s brand was sitting right next to the name brand and it was only 54 cents and I know I paid about 26 cents for it the last time I bought it. Everything is outrageously expensive.