My wife had been wanting a deep freezer for the basement for years, to give us more meat storage. We got one last fall, but in my "prepper's mind" I kept thinking about a grid down scenario and the possibility of meat going bad before we would need it, if it was all stored in the freezer.
So we got a smoker. But of course in my "prepper's mind" I figured that was probably just a nice big advertisement to everyone around that something interesting and food related was going on at my house. So much for keeping a low profile.
Sooooo, in order to diversify our food storage portfolio we decided to buy a pressure cooker (American Model 921.) Of course we let it sit in the basement for a while, avoiding the task of figuring out how to can without wasting a bunch of food or blowing up the house in the process. Because you know pressure cookers are dangerous and stuff. (I'm sure if they were painted black, the AG would ban them.)
Anyway, a few days ago I decided to put on my big boy pants and just do it (after watching a bunch of YouTube videos of course.) I canned about 20lbs of boneless chicken breasts in the first batch (18 pint size jars fit in my cooker at a given time.) Turned out ok, no one got blowed up and all the lids sealed properly. Not a bad experience, so we did two more rounds today for another 40lbs. A couple more rounds and we'll probably call it quits for the summer, but I'm glad we finally got into it.
Now that we've got a few methods of storing/preserving meat I'd like to look into hunting. Never did it before, but have always wanted to.
The progression of a prepper.
So we got a smoker. But of course in my "prepper's mind" I figured that was probably just a nice big advertisement to everyone around that something interesting and food related was going on at my house. So much for keeping a low profile.
Sooooo, in order to diversify our food storage portfolio we decided to buy a pressure cooker (American Model 921.) Of course we let it sit in the basement for a while, avoiding the task of figuring out how to can without wasting a bunch of food or blowing up the house in the process. Because you know pressure cookers are dangerous and stuff. (I'm sure if they were painted black, the AG would ban them.)
Anyway, a few days ago I decided to put on my big boy pants and just do it (after watching a bunch of YouTube videos of course.) I canned about 20lbs of boneless chicken breasts in the first batch (18 pint size jars fit in my cooker at a given time.) Turned out ok, no one got blowed up and all the lids sealed properly. Not a bad experience, so we did two more rounds today for another 40lbs. A couple more rounds and we'll probably call it quits for the summer, but I'm glad we finally got into it.
Now that we've got a few methods of storing/preserving meat I'd like to look into hunting. Never did it before, but have always wanted to.
The progression of a prepper.
