I started to can since 2016. When you grow your own food, you have to think about preserving it. Freezing is one way but canning allows you to store more than your freezer space. I like to cane meat to free freezer space but I cane vegetables too.

There are vegetables and cut of meat I would not can like sausage, steaks, and corn. When I can corn it changes color to deep yellow. I think it is better to freeze it to keep it fresh. I like to freeze peas and green beans until my freezer is full and I would can the excess.

I have caned winter squash and potato in the past but I would not do it again unless they are going bad and I need to preserve them otherwise they last long in my basement. I still have one spaghetti squash I grew and harvested in fall 2016 as of today February 2018. It is in good shape. I have not done anything special to it. I just left it in the basement. Butternut squash and acorn I harvested in October 2017 and stored in my basement are still in good shape. I have been eating from these.

Spaghetti squash harvested in Oct 2016 after the first frost is still in good shape in my basement as of Feb 8, 2018.

If you raise your own animals for food, canning would free your freezer space and you would minimize waste as well. I don’t raise animal. We ordered 40 chickens from my aunt-in-law last spring. In fall we received them and a big turkey. Few months prior, she gave us a whole cow. I didn’t have space in my freezer for all of that. Thanks to canning, they are all sitting on the shelves right now. That speeds cooking later too. When freezer breaks down or there is no power, all my food is not lost. And I can make quick meals by heating canned food over barbecue grill.

I do buy meat on sale at the grocery store and canned them as well.

It is good to learn more than one way of preserving food so that when you are blessed with abundant harvest, it doesn’t go to waste. At the community garden where I rented two plots last year, half way through the season, I saw many kale plants with giant leaves on them in the trash and I could believe the waste. I picked most of them and scattered in my plots as mulch.

Learn to preserve your abundance to reduce food waste.