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Food Preservation During a Power Loss. Canning in the Dark After Sandy

November 14, 2012 By: Anna2 Comments

Canning in the Dark. The Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

Food Preservation :  Canning in the Dark. The Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Pin Me!

In all of the years that I lived in New Jersey, we have never  lost power for more than a day and a half.  Consequently, my freezer and refrigerator have stayed cold.  Hurricane Sandy broke the rule.  After day 2, I knew I was doomed.  My whole freezer contained my frozen garden produce, homemade chicken and vegetable broths, meat, canned beans, and other assorted frozen foods.  I guess you could refer to me as the “freezer queen” since I made large batches of items to freeze for later use.

Well, my whole ” freeze for later” concept  was thrown back in my face when day 3 of no power rolled around.  The freezer that I refused to open?  Well, it started leaking.

I stood there in horror.  What was I going to do?  In fact, what would you do?  Luckily my friends (with generators)  had freezer space in their freezers, but not enough to house a full stand up freezer.

The Freezer Was My Titanic

I felt like I was on the Titanic.    Women and children first.  In that case, most expensive items such as the meat and chicken went to my friends.  We quickly took out the meat and started to take out everything that already started to defrost like the ice cream. I also took out all the chicken broth to defrost.  Then didn’t open the freezer again.

FYI, my boys elected to eat a whole container of ice cream themselves for the cause.  (Mind you there are only two at home right now.)  Wasn’t that nice?

Pressure Canner Comes in Handy

Panic has set in.

I looked over at my big Presto 23-Quart Pressure Canner and Cooker who was waving wildly at me.  Over here, Anna, it kept calling.  Over here.  (And yeah, it is a big boy that handle 7 quart jars!) Go big or go home, I always say.

Luck has it, I learned how to can at  the end of this past  summer since I had a boat load of tomatoes to deal with. (Watch my video about canning tomatoes.)

But here is the Rub…

But when I had power, I used my oven to keep the jars hot and my instant hot water faucet to keep the lids warm.  (By the way, I have an InSinkErator Hot Water Dispenser and can’t say enough about how much I love the convenience of instant hot water.)

Without power, all I had was my gas stove, my large pressure canner, and a stock pot.

I never dreamed canning would take so long without my oven.  Here is my life for the next couple of days:

  • Heat a large stock pot of water with 7 or more quart jars.  This could take forever.
  • Each time I use all the quart jars in the stock pot, I had to either wait for the water to cool down to wash dishes since I didn’t have hot water or throw out the water to use cool water with the glass jars.
  •  Originally, I put cold jars in hot water with knives so the jars wouldn’t crack.  Guess what? One would crack in the pressure canner. Lesson learned but added more time.
  • Heat up the liquid, beans, vegetables, etc since you have to hot pack the jars.
  • Heat up the lids to use to can.
  • Then use the pressure cooker.
  • Lighting everything with a Bic Surestart Lighter.  Sometimes it was real tricky to get to the back pots.  (And no I wasn’t using matches.  I would blow up the house.)
At certain points all 6 of my gas burners were being used!
Unlike jams or applesauce, broth needs about 25 minutes to cook in the pressure cooker once it achieves the right pressure.  By the time, the pressure cooker got up to the right pressure, cooked, and then cooled down, an hour elapsed.
Had I water bath canned, I would have had to add so much time on that I don’t even want to think about it.

Not the Squash.

Broth was 25 minutes plus.  But what about all the other frozen vegetables?  D*mn it.  I couldn’t lose my squash that I grew with my little hands. (Says the little red hen.)  90 minutes in the pressure cooker when it achieves pressure.  Someone shoot me.
So that you know, you basically watch the pressure cooker as it cooks since it is like a wild horse.  If you turn your back, that pressure cooker keeps gaining pressure which could cause problems.  So, I sat there watching, turning up and down the flame to keep pressure just right.  Again, jump in if you know how to get that flame just right.  I felt like Goldilocks.

Defending the Raspberry Patch

The last item I canned was my jams.  I wasn’t going to lose 6 bags of my raspberries.  Not going to happen.  50+  half pints later  there was raspberry seed puree, raspberry jam, peaches, and dandelion jam.  And yes, I water bath canned these items.
In all I canned over 120 jars of various sizes!
LED Canning in the Dark!  Above is Picture without Flash and Below with My Flash

LED Canning in the Dark! Above is Picture without Flash and Below with My Flash

Here is the sad part.  At a certain point, I think I lost it since I was canning in the dark using my Mr. Beams’ LED which by the way produced great light. I shot a picture of the beam without my flash so you could see.  Somewhere between the two pictures is the actual light output.

From Tuesday to Saturday, I canned.

I was exhausted.  Dishes were everywhere since I was afraid to put my dishes away from washing in cold water.  At one point, I hadn’t showered in a few days since we didn’t have hot water.
In the end, I didn’t throw out that much food.  All of it went into the composter since I had to start picking and choosing.  The low acid foods just took too much time to pressure cook. (Cooked beans, artichoke hearts, etc.)
From here on out. I am canning and not using my freezer so much.
Oh, did I mention we filled up the larger bath tub too with water?  Or that I started to think about sharpening up my bow and arrow to kill game?
Yeah, I lost it that week.  We never realized how good we had it with power.  Starts to make you wonder what we are doing to the Earth.

Join the Conversation:

  • What lessons have you learned when faced with power outages?
  • Do you can?  If so, do you can everything?
  • What changes have you made since all the power outages and frequent storms?
  • What survival skills have you drawn on when the power goes out?
  • Do you think I went overboard?  I am a big girl.  Give it to me straight.

Similar Posts:

  • How to Can Broth. Simply Broth. No Additives.
  • Canning Tomatoes Recipe–A Better Way.
  • Crockpot No Sugar Applesauce: No Additives. Just Good Tasting
  • Watermelon Jam. Saving Summer for Later.
  • Preserve Vegetables For Year Round Use in 6 Easy Ways

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About Anna

Anna Hackman is the editor of Green Talk, and owner of The Naked Botanical and a avid (okay obsessed) gardener. She also loves video and podcasting and hosts Green Talk TV and Green Talk Radio. Her most important role is being a mother of four boys.

Chat with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest , and Google+.

Comments

  1. 1

    Judy says

    November 18, 2012 at 10:38 am

    You might want to invest in an All American Pressure Canner 30 quart. It will greatly increase the number of jars you can can at one time. It will do 19 pints or 14 quart jars at one time. You have inspired me though as I have lots of meat in my freezers and I think I should start canning a lot of it now, so this won’t happen to me. Thanks for the idea.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How to Can Broth. Simply Broth. No Additives. | Green Talk® says:
    February 20, 2013 at 1:30 pm

    […] adore canning.  After Hurricane Sandy, I learned it was a must if you want to preserve your summer harvest.  Why?  Picture this.  No electricity and 20+ […]

    Reply

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