In conversation with Kathi part one

So I chatted with my friend Kathi about food storage and canning. I've never had the pleasure to actually meet Kathi in real life, but I know that I'll get to see her one day in heaven!
We had a long conversation, so I will share in two parts


Please tell us about yourself..
Hello all! Kathi here, from Colorado in the USA. I'm a wife, mother and grandmother to a precious lot. We were a military family and frugality was our way of life as military pay was pretty low. I only wish I would have known then what I do now because our money would have stretched so much further than it did!

I know you’re a bit of a whizz in the kitchen, with regards to saving money and storage. How did you first learn all your skills?
Learning skills is a process. I've always been a person to want to try new things and had many years to dabble with different methods of food preservation, they were hobbies that I had fun with. At some point in the last ten years I read an article online that was an eye opener to me. I realized that if we had an emergency situation we were woefully not prepared. I actually wasn't able to sleep that night because the thoughts of what to do were tumbling through my head. The next morning I told my husband about it and what I was thinking. To my surprise, he told me he had been thinking along the same lines recently and that we should work on it. Hearing that from my retired green beret husband was enough for me to start the journey with purpose.

 I started researching to find out how people set up their food pantries for emergencies. I was overwhelmed with info and almost wanted to just give up on the idea because we don’t like commercially processed foods and definitely didn’t want a pantry full of food we wouldn’t eat. I talked with my mother and father in law to find out what their families did in the depression to preserve food. Their primary means of food storage was dehydration and canning. I had the equipment for both from my hobbies and decided to go with it.Prior to that, I had made pickles and applesauce with canning

 I’ve made jam before, but I’ve never done any canning because it scares me a little! Can you tell me a bit more about that?
 Debs, you mentioned in your question that canning is a bit scary to you, honey I can relate! It was for me so I made sure to continue learning with the safest methods possible. It is more difficult to can in other parts of the world mainly because the expense of the jars and lack of pressure canners makes it a bit harder. But, I’ve been in touch with people worldwide that safely and successfully can their food using what is available. Here we are blessed with many local farms that sell their produce at a cost much lower than grocery stores. We also grow a small garden and primarily plant what we have found is the most expensive to purchase in our area like tomatoes and green beans. My family helps out whether it means helping me lift the enormous bags and boxes of food from the farms or with food prep prior to canning it. What do I can? Every thing we like prepared that way, it really is a personal preference. We have meats, veggies, soups, stews, fruits, jams, different cuts of potatoes for the different ways we eat them. If there are foods we don’t care for canned we freeze or dehydrate. Corn or zucchini goes in the freezer, onion dehydrated. 

 Oh, I thought of some other benefits that I should have added.  With canning, I’m able to put a full meal with main and side dishes on the table in five minutes.  Just dump and heat, real fast food.  Far less waste  of food to throw away because I use the size of jars to can for what we will actually eat.  Far less trash to put in a landfill because the jars are reusable and not thrown away.  I also know what is in our food as it’s real food, chemical free from farmers that care about food safety since that is what they feed their families too.  Another benefit that is very important to me is I don’t have to worry about checking my cabinets for food that has been recalled.  I know who grew my food and how I processed it.


This is really interesting. Can you give me examples of what you've got canned that you can use to make a quick meal? And how you go about heating it up and putting it together?
If we want a nice roast beef dinner, we put a jar each of roast, potatoes, carrots in the microwave in a bowl, microwave for five minutes and have some of the most tender roast available from any cut of beef I've used.  If I want to make gravy to go with it, I can use the broth from the roast to make that up on the stove while the rest is in the microwave.

A five minute meal with pork is breakfast burritos adding a jar of pork, a jar of potatoes, fried in a skillet with eggs added.  The tortillas are heated in the microwave while the mixture is heated, add a jar of green chile that I have canned up to a pot to heat on the stove and thicken and we have delicious smothered burritos. Another variation on that is to use a jar beans to make refried and use those instead of potatoes and eggs in the burritos, add some shredded cheddar and we're set. 

We also love to use canned chicken in a variety of Mexican foods like tacos, tacquitos, enchilada casserole.  It's a huge time saver because I don't have to cook and bone the chicken, it's ready.  A couple of other favorites are beef stroganoff which I have canned ready in a jar to put in a pot, thicken and add sour cream which I keep in powdered form in our bulk supplies while some noodles are boiling or the same with chicken alfredo.

We love breakfast foods for dinner and enjoy a jar of corned beef hash that has been canned to fry in ghee that I also have canned with eggs and toast.  On a cool day we love a homemade pot pie and have a mix canned up for chicken or beef pot pies.  I make a pie crust, thicken the mix dump it in, top it with another crust and bake for a hearty meal. We have a variety of soups and stews canned that we empty in a pot and heat on the stove adding anything at that time that wasn't canned. These are just a few of the ways we use our home canned foods.

The fun part of canning is going through your normal meal plan, decide what can be adapted for canning and make it up to use.  In canning, I make multiple meals at one time and have the luxury of time saved later.   It's completely personal preference as to what to can and how to use it. Also, many spices intensify in flavor when canning.  Unless it's for a specific dish like roast, stroganoff, I tend to add the spices when we are heating the food instead of when canning.  It makes the ingredients more versatile to use later.  I don't waste bones and save them to make broth which is canned for when I need it to make a lot of soups, etc.

Oh and spaghetti meat sauce !  I have two versions canned from scratch. Two types because our grandkids like a tamed down sauce compared to our tastes.  Can be heated and served in the the time it takes to make the pasta and garlic bread.