Basement Gamers Cookbook - Canning

Basement Gamer Cookbook

Roma tomatoes processed and ready for sauce in the winter months.

Many of you have heard me mention the Basement Gamer Cookbook once in awhile on the blog.  Its not just about providing food for your gaming buddies but also about food in general.  Growing up I remember always having canned foods available from family members.  Now with the cost of grocery's going up and my family eating its way into my hobby budget, I needed a way to save money.

My wife and I take part in a Fruit and Vegetable share in the summer months(its actually 25 weeks long), which means that we receive every-week 8-10 fresh organic items.  The cost breaks down to about $30.00 a week compared to $100 or more at the grocery store.  Plus since this food comes from the field it stays fresh so much longer.  I had a sweet potato last year that lasted for 5 months in the fridge.

Pressure cooker, pots for sterilizing, and trying to stay organized.

The only bad thing about the share we noticed was that we were throwing food out on a weekly basis.  Also that we had little to now idea week to week what we would be getting so a change had to occur.  That's when I started thinking about canning food to save for the winter months.  Luckily my mother had moved out near us and she is a wealth of knowledge about canning.

20lbs of Sweet Potatoes right before Thanksgiving.

So every couple of weeks between working on the house and models, we would do some canning.  Luckily the CO-OP that I get the share from does bulk purchases every once in awhile.  So I can drive the cost of canning down even more.

Small amounts of green and wax beans.

Near to wear we live are several farmers markets and discount food shops, that I can get awesome deals from.  So that drives the price down even more, most of the canned food I have done this summer came out to around .30-40 cents a jar.

Your biggest purchases with canning will be getting a good pressure pot(Im sure on on a terrioust watch list now), jars, lids, materials, and incidentals.  But if you search around you can get most if not all on sale.  I managed to get all of my stuff for under $200.00 by using sales and coupons that I signed up for.

Sometimes you get some bad seals.

The big thing you have to remember is that you need someplace to store all this.  So to that end I went into the basement and built a nice storage area with some spare wood from our house remodeling we have been doing.

I even had to build a shelf in the basement for everything.

My little helpers getting it all setup.

I love the fact that my children are seeing how easy, fun, and family oriented this can be.  My son wasn't to into it this year(except when we made beef jerky), but my daughter is loving the time.  She actually worked the strainer for the last batch of salsa and tomato sauce we made.

Not a bad start to being prepared for the winter.