# Homemaking Deep Dive Preserving & Canning, Part 1

An episode of [The Art of Home: A Podcast for Homemakers](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1557993655), 19 Jul 2023, 51 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1587457/episodes/13245802-homemaking-deep-dive-preserving-canning-part-1.mp3

Send me a text about this episode! What if you could stretch your grocery budget further by reducing waste and making the most of every morsel? Imagine the satisfaction of opening your pantry or fridge and seeing food preserved at its peak, ready for you to savor anytime. That's what we are going to explore in this lively conversation with my good friend, Mandi Thompson. We're peeling back the layers on the art of food preservation, sharing our personal journeys, and the practical tips we've learned along the way. EPISODE RESOURCES Small Batch Canning • Food in Jars, Marisa McClellan Favorite Short-Term Food Storage Tools • Zwilling Fresh and Save Vacuum Sealer • Souper Cubes • Freezer Tape & Dispenser for labels • Mason Jar Vacuum Sealer for dry storage-Manual Option & Electric Option • Rubbermaid Brilliance Glass Containers HOMEMAKING RESOURCES Free Weekly Newsletter, Homemaker Happy Mail Newsletter Archive Free Audio Version and Study Guide for JR Miller's "Homemaking" • Listen to the Audio of the book in our 2023 Summer Reading Series • Get Your Free Study Guide SUPPORT & CONNECT WITH US Leave Us A Review • Love The Podcast (works on any device) Stay In Touch with The Art of Home Podcast • Leave Us a Voicemail • Instagram | Facebook |Pinterest | Website | Email Follow The Art of Home on Your Listening App • Follow The Podcast (works on any device) Support The Art of Home (detailed instructions for sharing, reviewing and tipping) Support the show HOMEMAKING RESOURCES • Homemaker's Journal, AoH Seasonal Magazine • Private Facebook Group, Homemaker Forum • JR Miller's Homemaking Study Guide SUPPORT & CONNECT • Review | Love The Podcast • Contact | Text/Voicemail-use the link at top of description | Website | Email • Follow | Follow The Podcast • Support | theartofhomepodcast.com/support DISCLOSURE • **Buy | as an Amazon affiliate, AoH receives a small commission at no extra cost to you when you use our links to purchase items we recommend • AI Content | Portions of this episode’s copy and/or show notes may have been drafted with the assistance of AI and then reviewed and edited by a human, Allison Weeks.

## Chapters

- 5:12 How We Got Into Canning
- 16:25 Why Practice Food Preservation
- 23:11 Historical Homemaker Hints
- 26:40 Food Inventory Management and Organization
- 32:35 Freezer White Boards & Other Favorite Tools
- 48:00 What's Coming Next Week

## Transcript

[0:03] Allison: Hello Homemakers, welcome to the Art of Home podcast, where we are exploring how Homemakers cultivate a place to belong.
[0:10] Allison: I'm your host, alison Weeks.
[0:12] Allison: I'm a wife, I am a mom to four grown kids, a granny to one baby boy, and I have been practicing the Art of Home for over 30 years now.
[0:22] Allison: Well, if you are new to the podcast, I just want to say welcome, and I'm so glad that you found us.
[0:28] Allison: Welcome to all of our regular listeners.
[0:31] Allison: I hope that all of you will find something valuable in today's discussion.
[0:35] Allison: I'm very grateful and honored that you are going to share the next 45 minutes hour with us on this topic of canning and preservation.
[0:44] Allison: There's a lot of ground to cover, which is why we had to split it into two episodes, and I hope that you'll take one or two nuggets of truth, nuggets of information from today's episode and be able to chew on them and apply them in your own way in your own homemaking.
[1:00] Allison: That is always our goal with this show.
[1:02] Allison: So, on today's show, I have my friend, mandy Thompson coming back.
[1:07] Allison: She was a Homemaker Portrait interviewee back earlier this year and she's come back to talk about food storage, food preservation and canning because this is a subject that she's passionate about.
[1:19] Allison: She is still learning, just like the rest of us, making mistakes, learning from her mistakes, trying new things and figuring out what works best for her family.
[1:30] Allison: So we did have to split this up into two episodes.
[1:33] Allison: That was not the original intent, but by the time we stopped our discussion we were getting close to two hours and I just thought that might be a bit much.
[1:42] Allison: It's a lot of information and I wanted to be able to give it to you in two chunks so that you could think about what you hear this week and then be ready to listen next week when we go more in depth into the canning.
[1:55] Allison: So this week, what you're going to hear from us is kind of what our favorite things are that we've preserved in the past how we got into canning and food preservation.
[2:08] Allison: We're going to do some defining and directing.
[2:10] Allison: We're going to talk about the why behind food preservation and proper storage and why would we want to do that.
[2:18] Allison: We're going to talk about and some reasons why not to do it.
[2:21] Allison: We're going to talk, then, about short-term food storage.
[2:24] Allison: That is, how are we handling the food that is regularly rotating through our pantry and our fridge and our freezer?
[2:32] Allison: We geek out together for a little while over our freezer whiteboards and we give some of our favorite tools and tips for storing food in the fridge and the pantry and in the freezer and just sort of how we keep track of all that so that we're not wasting food, because that's really what we want to drive home here.
[2:51] Allison: You know, we are all about making the most of the resources that we have available to us and making sure that we're using everything up and we're buying only what we will use and we're not wasting things.
[3:03] Allison: So it is a packed discussion today.
[3:05] Allison: We're going to talk about all of those things and, bonus, if you're a long-time listener, you're going to hear something you haven't heard for a while.
[3:13] Allison: I brought back some historical homemaker hints because my handy little 103 household hints book from 1948 has a ton of kitchen tips and these are actually pretty helpful.
[3:24] Allison: So I brought that back for this episode.
[3:27] Allison: So I hope that you enjoy that.
[3:29] Allison: And then next week we will dive real deep into actually talking about canning.
[3:34] Allison: So we're going to go over all the basics about canning safety, canning equipment.
[3:40] Allison: We're going to walk you through just the basic process, first of all, scientifically, what happens when we can, and then we'll talk about the basic process of water bath canning versus pressure canning and what the difference is and why you would do one versus the other.
[3:57] Allison: It's a really informative and helpful discussion.
[4:00] Allison: It was for me anyway, because I've never done pressure canning, so I was picking Mandy's brain about that.
[4:04] Allison: So I hope that you'll tune in next week to hear the second half of this discussion, but I truly hope that this will be helpful for you today and that you will get some information that you can apply in your kitchen right away.
[4:14] Allison: Whatever you are applying your hands to as you listen today, I know that you will enjoy this deep dive part one into canning and food preservation.
[4:27] Allison: Okay, welcome to the art of home, and we are going to do a deep dive on food preservation and canning.
[4:32] Allison: We're going to talk mostly about canning, but we're going to talk about food preservation in general, and I'm here with a familiar voice If you are a regular listener, mandy Thompson, who was a guest as a were you in the trenches?
[4:44] Allison: Yes, in the trenches homemade portrait and Mandy is going to share this discussion with me today because she is a canning enthusiast, and I can't wait to hear all the things that she's going to share and we're going to have a fun conversation.
[5:01] Allison: Before we dive into where we're going to go and what we're going to talk about, I just want to give Mandy an opportunity to introduce herself and tell you just a little bit about her history with food preserving and canning.
[5:12] Allison: Okay, take it away, mandy.
[5:15] Mandi Thompson: Thanks for having me.
[5:16] Mandi Thompson: So we started my husband Hunt's, and through him, hunting and us learning how to process the deer.
[5:26] Mandi Thompson: We have taken on this whole mindset of really how to be mindful about all the things that we do and how we are with the animals, and then also with just wanting to garden and just learning how to live off the land a little bit more.
[5:42] Mandi Thompson: We.
[5:43] Mandi Thompson: I think there's just something very primitive about that that we all just very much have in us.
[5:48] Mandi Thompson: So it's just been a fun journey for him and I to walk through this together of learning how to process and preserve and our latest has been canning.
[5:59] Mandi Thompson: So it's been a fun road.
[6:02] Mandi Thompson: A few years ago I noticed all the prickly pears on our cactuses and so that kind of started me off with wanting to see what we can make off of our land.
[6:13] Mandi Thompson: So it started there and has just kind of continued to grow and, yeah, I'm still learning.
[6:23] Mandi Thompson: I'm still making lots of mistakes, but then also learning how to not make mistakes too.
[6:30] Mandi Thompson: So that's been fun as well.
[6:33] Allison: So you have made okay.
[6:36] Allison: So if you don't know what a prickly pear is, it's a kind of cactus that grows wild.
[6:41] Allison: It's everywhere around here, Everywhere, Okay, and it has a fruit right.
[6:45] Allison: Yes.
[6:46] Mandi Thompson: So in the prickly pears they can be spineless, not spineless, but all the pears on there are usually termed bright red.
[6:54] Mandi Thompson: You'll see them in a springtime.
[6:56] Mandi Thompson: They'll have beautiful flowers on them.
[6:58] Mandi Thompson: Once those flowers die off and the pears will be green and then they slowly turn red and usually in about August they're ready for harvest.
[7:06] Mandi Thompson: So the pear is like the fruit.
[7:08] Allison: It's like a fleshy fruit thing that grows where the flower was.
[7:12] Allison: Yes, right, and it's sort of pear shaped.
[7:14] Allison: Yes, which is why we call it a pear.
[7:16] Allison: It's not actually a pear.
[7:18] Mandi Thompson: No, no, and it's got beautiful red color.
[7:22] Mandi Thompson: It's purpley red color, and the paddles are actually also edible, which I would love to learn how to make those as well.
[7:30] Mandi Thompson: Oh, the, the, what is it called?
[7:32] Mandi Thompson: The paddles?
[7:34] Allison: The pads, the pads.
[7:36] Allison: It's called a paddle.
[7:37] Allison: Yeah, I didn't know that.
[7:38] Allison: Yeah, okay, and you can eat that.
[7:40] Mandi Thompson: Yeah, you can grill them.
[7:41] Mandi Thompson: Sometimes they can take a slimy texture, so that'll be probably my next step.
[7:47] Mandi Thompson: Our deers like to destroy my cactuses, so I have like extra all the time, so I would love to learn how to make those into something as well.
[7:55] Mandi Thompson: But they're super nutritious, have lots of vitamins and minerals that are really good for digestion and all kinds of stuff, and so, yeah, so I had no idea, I didn't, I didn't know you could eat the whole.
[8:06] Allison: basically, the whole plant is edible.
[8:08] Allison: Yes, very interesting.
[8:10] Allison: Okay, and so that was kind of what got you started, because you made prickly pear juice and canned that right.
[8:16] Allison: Yes, yes, yes.
[8:18] Mandi Thompson: Delicious.
[8:18] Mandi Thompson: Yeah, we love it.
[8:19] Mandi Thompson: It's fun Prickly pear, lemonade and other things.
[8:24] Mandi Thompson: So yeah, great Delicious.
[8:26] Allison: Okay, well, so do you grow a garden?
[8:30] Mandi Thompson: So we, during COVID, as so many people did, we started a small garden and I think we got a little frustrated because we live in Texas and it burned up very quickly.
[8:43] Mandi Thompson: So there was a lot of our produce that didn't make it.
[8:46] Mandi Thompson: I've since learned that a lot of people here have two gardens, one for the spring and then one for the fall.
[8:52] Mandi Thompson: Yeah, so that's something that we are hoping to start this year.
[8:55] Mandi Thompson: We actually have a couple of tomato plants and pepper plants.
[9:00] Mandi Thompson: So I would love to, you know, be making our own tomato sauce with our own tomatoes, and then sauces and things like that.
[9:08] Mandi Thompson: But we're we're starting small again and then hoping to get a little bigger which eat with each year?
[9:17] Allison: Yeah, it is.
[9:18] Allison: It is challenging to garden here, but it's not impossible, so that's good.
[9:23] Allison: And one of the things that I want to point out, too, is food preservation doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be preserving food that you grew yourself on your land.
[9:31] Allison: You know you could take advantage of of in season things when they're in season at your grocery store and all of the you know oranges go on sale or the whatever is marked way, way down because they have just a plentiful amount of it.
[9:46] Allison: That's when canning can be awesome, because if a whole bunch of stuff is super cheap at the grocery store and you have the time and what you need to do it, just get it and can it up.
[9:54] Allison: Or, if you know, know your local farmer or and you can get a bushel of pickling cucumbers or something like that.
[10:01] Allison: It doesn't have to be something you grew yourself.
[10:03] Mandi Thompson: Right, I love taking advantage of stuff whenever it's been marked 50% off, so being able to can that, or even you know, freeze packet or whatever you want to, however, you want to preserve it.
[10:15] Mandi Thompson: Yeah, it's been really useful.
[10:17] Mandi Thompson: So every dollar helps, especially whenever we're doing this time.
[10:21] Mandi Thompson: Yeah, exactly.
[10:22] Allison: So what are some of the favorite things that you've made beside your prickly pear juice?
[10:29] Mandi Thompson: So I've done.
[10:29] Mandi Thompson: My brother actually, a couple years ago, started doing just broth, chicken broth and so since then I've learned to do some chicken broth, beef broth.
[10:43] Mandi Thompson: I was really bad with beef bones initially.
[10:48] Mandi Thompson: I didn't realize you had to roast them first before you put them in soups and stews and things like that, so I had some really foul smelling things from time to time.
[10:58] Mandi Thompson: Yeah, just the learning process of that.
[11:01] Mandi Thompson: So that's been something that's fun.
[11:02] Mandi Thompson: Pickles have been fun and, yeah, done a few sauces and then, like I said, my next thing would hopefully be to start making our own spaghetti sauce.
[11:13] Mandi Thompson: We're really trying to get away from sugar in our house and sugar is just in so many different things.
[11:19] Mandi Thompson: So learning to make things without so much sugar and it would be helpful.
[11:25] Allison: Well, and I know there's like one.
[11:26] Allison: There's one brand that is often recommended for the no sugar, you know, only sort of like paleo-ish, and it's like $9 a jar or something.
[11:37] Allison: Yes, it's so expensive.
[11:39] Allison: Yes, so that's definitely a must If you can figure out how to do that yourself, okay, yes, so I would say I got into canning for a lot of the same reasons.
[11:52] Allison: I just didn't want to waste food.
[11:55] Allison: I wanted to well and not just canning.
[11:57] Allison: Okay, again, we're talking about preserving, so figuring out how to properly freeze things, how to, you know, dehydrate and dry things if I was gonna go that route or can things, and I wanted to be able to take advantage of sales and I wanted to make sure I was not wasting food, and so that's kind of why I got into preserving food and I haven't canned a lot in the last few years.
[12:20] Allison: But I did go through a time there where I was canning a lot because we had friends giving us produce and I had a lot more people in my house and so it was a little more economical to make a lot of our own jellies and relishes and things like that, because that stuff can get expensive when you're feeding a big family.
[12:36] Allison: I do still make chutney on the regular because chutney is hard to find, that's not full of all kinds of weird ingredients and sugar and I just don't generally like jarred chutney and it's really expensive.
[12:49] Allison: So I've made pear chutney before.
[12:52] Allison: My favorite recent one that I made was cranberry chutney.
[12:57] Allison: Yes, sounds really good, it's delicious, it's good on any kind of grilled meat and then, of course, if I make like Indian food or something, we'll have dollops of that, but it's really, really yummy.
[13:08] Allison: Tomato jam was a huge success.
[13:11] Allison: I haven't made that in quite a while, but it sounds really weird, but it's so good it's almost like extra spicy ketchup.
[13:20] Allison: It's like ketchup, but it's got like some of the warm spices in it, so some cinnamon and nutmeg and that sounds really bizarre, but it is so delicious.
[13:28] Allison: I had people asking me can I have some more of that tomato jam?
[13:32] Allison: Because I made it in little ones and I gave it to friends and family and they were coming back asking for more.
[13:37] Allison: I love to make my own bread and butter pickles because they're so much better than the ones that you can buy in the store.
[13:44] Allison: And then if you are blessed with an abundance of zucchini, or if you have a neighbor who is like leaving it on your doorstep and, honestly, because they don't know what to do with all the zucchini they have, you need to make zucchini relish.
[13:58] Allison: It's just like cucumber relish, but instead of cucumbers use zucchinis, and it's so good.
[14:05] Allison: Is the texture firmer with the zucchinis?
[14:07] Allison: It's nice and firm.
[14:09] Allison: I think it's awesome.
[14:11] Allison: So that sounds delightful.
[14:13] Allison: Yes, so those are some of my standout recipes that I love and I will remake.
[14:17] Allison: And then, of course, figs.
[14:19] Allison: That's really so.
[14:21] Allison: I grew up always eating figs canned by my grandmother, and that's the like of Louisiana thing, because everybody has fig trees everywhere.
[14:31] Allison: They're all over the place, and if you know somebody with figs, or you have figs in your yard, you get your huge buckets and buckets full of figs and you make fig preserves, which is just basically figs and a ton of sugar cooked way down, and then you can do things with.
[14:48] Allison: You can eat them straight out of the jar, of course, but you can also make recipes like fig muffins or fig turnovers or fig pie all the wonderful fig things and I wanted to be able to learn how to do that, and so that was actually one of the main reasons why I started canning was to learn how to do figs.
[15:04] Allison: So I've never successfully had a crop of figs off of my own fig tree, but I'm crossing my fingers because we have a fence now.
[15:12] Allison: So I'm like, please, it's actually really healthy and it has a ton of figs on it right now, but I don't know if the birds will get to them before me, but we'll see.
[15:20] Allison: But the deer are not gonna get to them this year.
[15:23] Allison: So that's exciting.
[15:24] Allison: I'm very excited because we fight our deer for our figs.
[15:27] Allison: It's like it is a losing battle.
[15:29] Allison: It's a losing battle, so I'm hoping we'll get some this year.
[15:32] Allison: I'll let you know how that goes, but okay, so we are going to.
[15:37] Allison: Let me define and direct.
[15:39] Allison: Let's tell you where we're going here.
[15:41] Allison: We're gonna discuss food preservation, mostly long-term storage, home canning, freezing.
[15:45] Allison: We're gonna touch a little bit in the beginning, though, on short-term food storage, and I'll tell you why in a second.
[15:52] Allison: But before we get into any of that, this is my disclaimer at the beginning to say do your own research.
[16:00] Allison: And we're gonna talk about safety.
[16:03] Allison: But again, do your own research.
[16:05] Allison: We are not professional canning people.
[16:09] Allison: We just were home cooks, home canners.
[16:11] Allison: Safety is paramount and I just wanna put that out there.
[16:15] Allison: We're gonna talk more about that in a minute.
[16:18] Allison: But this is my disclaimer to say that whatever you hear here, go do your own research.
[16:23] Allison: Okay, food safety and common sense, please.
[16:25] Allison: All right.
[16:26] Allison: So let's establish why, why this is important.
[16:29] Allison: Why is it important to practice food preservation?
[16:33] Allison: How does it benefit our home making?
[16:34] Allison: What do you think?
[16:35] Allison: What are a couple of reasons you came up with?
[16:38] Mandi Thompson: I love that.
[16:39] Mandi Thompson: It helps us to not waste as much.
[16:41] Mandi Thompson: The amount of food that we throw away just really hurts my heart and we can do better.
[16:47] Mandi Thompson: And so learning how to properly store either partially used bundles of celery or those really ripe tomatoes or whatever it is just learning how to be more mindful of how we are with our food.
[17:03] Mandi Thompson: So I think that that's why we, I think, start, but then to just the joy of being able to have things have longevity as well in providing for a family in a different way.
[17:21] Mandi Thompson: That's not something that store bought, that we're so disconnected with having things, that we know what's in it, knowing the process of how things are done and then getting to enjoy the end product.
[17:35] Allison: So yeah, that is a very satisfying part of it.
[17:38] Allison: It can be frustrating learning how to get there, but once you've kind of mastered some of the basic skills and you produce something that actually it actually turns out and you know, it's so satisfying.
[17:52] Allison: I think we talked a little bit about that in your homemaker portrait, actually, and talking about working with your kids and processing deer and all that kind of stuff and just helping them to understand you know that your meat doesn't just come from the packaged cellophane in the meat, it's just a meat case at the grocery store.
[18:09] Allison: Like getting them to really understand the whole process of how it goes from animal to table.
[18:14] Allison: Yes, it's super valuable.
[18:17] Mandi Thompson: So, yeah, okay, and then learning how to use more of it as well.
[18:21] Mandi Thompson: So you know we're so good at throwing things out and you know anything from apple pills to orange pills to strawberry tops.
[18:29] Mandi Thompson: You know they can be used for your vinegarette and cleaning and cleaning products smell lovely and have that antibacterial as well.
[18:37] Mandi Thompson: So, yeah, just learning to not be as wasteful.
[18:40] Mandi Thompson: Yeah, yeah.
[18:41] Allison: And it does take a little.
[18:42] Allison: It takes intention and time, I think, especially initially, to understand how to use those things and what was going to work best for you and your lifestyle and your family.
[18:53] Allison: But then again, once it becomes a routine and part of just the way that you do things naturally in your kitchen, it takes less brain space and then it can become a little bit more Automatic and easier.
[19:05] Allison: Yes, to do that.
[19:06] Allison: So a little, a little time and effort investment on the front end is going to pay off later.
[19:11] Allison: Yes, in all sorts of ways.
[19:13] Allison: So, yeah for sure, good stewardship It'll.
[19:17] Allison: It can save us time and money.
[19:20] Allison: Nutrition and food quality you talked a little bit about wanting to get rid of the sugar in your house, and so that is absolutely one way, as if you're preserving and cooking from scratch and then you know making.
[19:32] Allison: I find, like you said, condiments are.
[19:35] Allison: You know, you were saying spaghetti sauce, but that made me think about, like ketchup and all the different salad dressings and you know, and the relish and all of that stuff has just got so much unnecessary things in it.
[19:51] Allison: Yes, so nutrition and food quality can be a great reason.
[19:55] Allison: It can benefit you in that way If you have to meet specific dietary needs.
[20:01] Allison: You know we've got that in our household.
[20:03] Allison: And then, of course, preserving food when it's in season can help preserve it with its optimal nutrition, because you're not preserving tomatoes in, you know, february.
[20:13] Allison: Yes, you want to do it when they're in season, although I will say here in certain regions, you know, it's hot enough that we actually can get tomatoes in February.
[20:25] Allison: But yes, preparedness, that was the other thing that I wanted to talk about as a reason to practice preserving your food.
[20:33] Allison: It's helpful to have a stock of prepared food during natural disasters, economic hardship, extended illnesses, you know.
[20:42] Allison: And when I say having a stock of prepared food, that can be as simple as just having a few ziploc bags full of frozen chicken broth so that the next time the flu goes through your house you can pull those out in very cold and very quickly make some soup, because nobody feels like cooking but yet you need to eat something that's going to nourish your body and help you get better.
[21:05] Allison: So it can be that simple, or it can be having a fully stocked you know, seller, root seller, full of stuff.
[21:12] Allison: I don't know.
[21:13] Mandi Thompson: What did you think of when you thought about preparedness and along those same lines just being prepared for any, anything that may commit your family.
[21:21] Mandi Thompson: We don't know what's coming next, and so to just have some sort, I think, one knowledge, so that way we can take care of things if needed.
[21:33] Mandi Thompson: If for some reason a plant goes down and we don't get canned green beans, all we have are fresh green beans, you know.
[21:40] Mandi Thompson: Learning how to can it on your own is also, you know, being self-reliant, but also being prepared, and that you know you may not be able to get canned green beans for a long time.
[21:49] Mandi Thompson: So how do we, how do we prepare for that?
[21:53] Mandi Thompson: And then just teaching our kids to how you know, passing that along to them so that way they can be prepared for things in the future, for what may come at them too.
[22:03] Allison: So yeah yeah absolutely Passing on the knowledge of how to be prepared.
[22:08] Allison: So one thing I will say here as far as the reasons why to practice food preservation and stocking up and all of that, a reason to not practice it would be fear.
[22:20] Allison: If we find that we're being motivated by fear, that's a warning flag.
[22:25] Allison: You know, if I'm stocking my prepper pantry out of fear, like I'm just so afraid all the time that what if this?
[22:32] Allison: Because you, like we were just talking before we press record I can't possibly plan for every disaster scenario.
[22:40] Allison: I can't possibly have a contingency plan for everything that could go wrong, because I don't even know what.
[22:45] Allison: I don't know about the things that could be going wrong or that could be coming, you know, down the pipe for us.
[22:51] Allison: But we serve a God who is sovereign and has told us not to fear.
[22:55] Allison: Now we are to walk in wisdom and we're to be good stewards and use the resources that he's given us well, but we're told to not fear.
[23:06] Allison: So I just wanted to throw that out there.
[23:08] Allison: Yes, okay, cool, we will get back to our discussion on food preservation and canning in just a minute.
[23:16] Allison: Right now it's time for historical homemaker hints.
[23:19] Allison: This is the part of the podcast where we highlight some of the helpful and not so helpful hints doled out to homemakers throughout history.
[23:26] Allison: Today's hints come from 1003 household hints and work savers.
[23:31] Allison: It's a little pamphlet that was put out by W L Moody and Co bankers of Galveston, texas, in 1948.
[23:39] Allison: So there is a treasure trove of kitchen hints in this book of 1003 hints, and I'm just going to highlight a few of them today that are related to our topic of food preservation and canning.
[23:52] Allison: Number one government studies show that Americans waste fully 20% of their food through spoilage and over generous portions which are pecked.
[24:01] Allison: At Practice.
[24:02] Allison: The food savers in this book Serve moderate helpings first, second helpings if wanted.
[24:09] Allison: This sensible practice minimizes unusable leftovers and moderate helpings look more appetizing.
[24:15] Allison: For every $10 you spend on food each week, you can save about $100 a year, according to the government, merely by adopting this highly rewarding habit.
[24:28] Allison: Number two bulging ends on tin cans signify real danger.
[24:33] Allison: The food inside is spoiled and poisonous.
[24:35] Allison: Don't open the can, return it or throw it away.
[24:39] Allison: Dented cans are not, however, dangerous if the ends are flat.
[24:43] Allison: Number three unwrap meat and store in your refrigerator the moment you bring it home.
[24:50] Allison: Quick frozen meats should be kept solid frozen until time to use, then thaw and cook.
[24:57] Allison: Cooked meats should, however, be covered.
[24:59] Allison: Number four Keep canned meats in a storage space which is wholly dry and neither extremely hot nor extremely cold.
[25:09] Allison: Either extreme tends to change the color and flavor of the contents.
[25:14] Allison: Number six Uncooked smoked meats will stay fresh and sweet for a long time if you do this.
[25:22] Allison: Saturate a clean cloth with vinegar, ring it out and wrap the bacon or ham in this damp vinegar cloth, then wrap again in wax paper and store in your refrigerator.
[25:34] Allison: So I looked this up, tried to find some information on wrapping up bacon with vinegar cloth, and I found nothing, except for one random article about a camper who was trying to keep raw bacon fresh on his four week long camping trip, and he did something similar.
[25:50] Allison: He said it lasted a good two weeks.
[25:52] Allison: Now this was unrefrigerated.
[25:53] Allison: It lasted a good two weeks with that preparation, but after that it started to go rancid very quickly.
[26:00] Allison: So I don't know.
[26:01] Allison: You'll have to do some research on that one or just maybe do some experiments in your own refrigerator.
[26:06] Allison: I certainly do not recommend that you keep bacon unrefrigerated that's just a recipe for disaster.
[26:10] Allison: But perhaps wrapping it in this vinegar cloth and in some wax paper and putting it in your refrigerator might extend the life of your raw bacon.
[26:18] Allison: In our house, bacon just doesn't really last that long, so it's not a problem.
[26:22] Allison: Well, that's it for today's historical homemaking hints.
[26:26] Allison: As always, please remember that this information is for entertainment purposes only, and we leave it up to you, the listener, to determine the safety and soundness of this advice.
[26:37] Allison: Now back to our deep dive on canning and food preservation.
[26:40] Allison: All right, so let's talk a little bit about some basic principles of food preservation, both short-term and long-term.
[26:49] Allison: Okay, because if we have a fantastically stocked long-term you know freezer and pantry, but we're regularly letting food rot in our refrigerator, well, that's not practicing good stewardship.
[27:05] Allison: So what are some things we need to think about?
[27:07] Allison: Just making sure that the food we bring in on a regular basis is getting used up and is not being wasted, and all that kind of thing.
[27:13] Allison: So my rule of thumb is use up what you have and only buy or preserve what you are going to use.
[27:22] Mandi Thompson: Yeah, and I think it's easy to think, you know, as we're talking about canning and things like that, there's so many times where we think we need to do like giant batches of things and there's so many times where we may not have the yield for the big batches and the big things.
[27:38] Mandi Thompson: But there's some great books out there on small batch canning and stuff like that and small batch preserving.
[27:44] Mandi Thompson: So I think just learning you know the best practices for what we have when we buy it, you know rotating, putting dates on everything is always helpful and then learning how to use what you have when you have it.
[28:02] Allison: I think I'm glad you brought that up about small batch canning, because that was another thing I wanna clarify.
[28:08] Allison: You may be a single homemaker or you may be a husband and wife with no kids and you think, well, I don't wanna can because there's only two of us here.
[28:17] Allison: You know there's only two of us here now, for the most part in our home, but it's still valuable to me to preserve food and have food in different, you know, in the freezer, stocked in the pantry, all those kinds of things for the reason we don't know.
[28:30] Allison: You know when we're not gonna have access to the grocery store, and that has happened several times in the last few years.
[28:35] Allison: So that doesn't mean just because you don't have a big family doesn't mean canning isn't for you and can't be done on a smaller scale.
[28:44] Allison: There are a few excellent books and we'll make sure that I link those in the description box so that you can have access to those resources.
[28:52] Allison: Okay, so how do you keep track of your food inventory?
[28:56] Allison: Both we can talk about both short-term and long-term but like, how do you keep track of what's currently in the fridge and in your working pantry?
[29:06] Mandi Thompson: So a couple of years ago I went and got a whiteboard for our freezer downstairs.
[29:11] Mandi Thompson: It holds our deer and beef and all those kinds of things.
[29:13] Mandi Thompson: So whenever we go to the store, if we have a deer, I count out how many pounds of ground beef I have, how many tenderloins I have or whatever else, and then I mark that on there and so that way it's easy for me to wipe off whenever I've taken one out, so I can kind of see at a glance what I have In my pantry.
[29:33] Mandi Thompson: I usually try to rotate, keep the oldest in front, put the newest in the back, and then, as I plan out my menu for the week which mostly happens I really try to think about what we have on hand, what needs to be used up this week, what could maybe wait another week, or what is something that I could make this week and put in the freezer for next week or a week.
[30:02] Mandi Thompson: That's a little busier.
[30:03] Mandi Thompson: So I usually try to just take note of what we have, maybe the few items that I may need to pick up at the grocery store to make the meals for what's ahead, but again holding those lightly as well, knowing that if somebody gets sick or if you know, there's a busier day at work or whatever happens that we can make some sort of adjustments as well.
[30:28] Allison: Are you mostly cooking?
[30:29] Allison: You guys mostly get meat that you've hunted or, like you're not typically buying meat from the grocery store.
[30:38] Mandi Thompson: Pork is really the only thing that we've done from the grocery store.
[30:42] Mandi Thompson: We split a cow with my sister-in-law and her family a year ago.
[30:48] Mandi Thompson: It's amazing how fast you go through a cow or half a cow, but that's.
[30:55] Mandi Thompson: We're really trying to go that way Again.
[30:59] Mandi Thompson: We know the land that that cow lived on, we know what that cow was fed and then the processor that we use for the cow is really fantastic as well.
[31:08] Mandi Thompson: But deer I mean like a year ago the bulk of our stuff was deer meat and we'll cut, you know, some pork and stuff with that as well.
[31:21] Mandi Thompson: We almost always try to look for stuff whenever it's on sale.
[31:24] Mandi Thompson: Along with wanting to do a garden, we wanna do chickens as well.
[31:29] Mandi Thompson: So we're trying to get to a point where we can raise some chickens, both chicken for eggs and for meat and for meat.
[31:37] Mandi Thompson: Yeah, so we went and visited my husband's uncle and they have chickens and they do meat chickens once a year and then it's like a six weeks process, I think, and then they'll process them, get them ready for the freezer and then they have their chickens for the next year.
[31:55] Mandi Thompson: So that's kind of something that we're looking at doing next.
[31:58] Allison: But and if you don't, you know, if you're not a hunter or you don't have the ability to get a half a cow at a time or whatever, although I do highly recommend that if you could get like four people together and even just get a quarter of a cow, if you have the storage space for it, it's way more economical, or it can be.
[32:18] Allison: And even if it's not, it you know.
[32:22] Allison: Like you said, you know exactly what that cow was raised on and where it was raised and how it was raised and how it was butchered and all that kind of stuff.
[32:30] Allison: So, okay, I will go back when you're talking about your freezer whiteboard.
[32:35] Allison: So I also have a freezer whiteboard.
[32:37] Allison: You're speaking my language.
[32:39] Allison: It makes me happy.
[32:41] Allison: So, look, I got tired of.
[32:43] Allison: I have a chest for a deep freeze a chest freezer, not a upright freezer, so it's like to get to the bottom of it.
[32:50] Allison: I literally have to dive my head down in there because I'm not that tall, and so I was tired of finding things buried at the bottom of the freezer that I had to throw out Because they had been down there for five years.
[33:02] Allison: So I had to come up with a system to make that work better and stop wasting food that was in the freezer and so I created actually I actually have like a map drawn on mine.
[33:13] Allison: I love that.
[33:14] Allison: So I know what's in the bottom layer because the way it's designed there's like baskets that slide across the top and so and now I even have some containers so that I almost have like three layers in the three levels in the freezer.
[33:28] Allison: And so this and it's all color coordinated Like this section is the chicken section, this section is the beef section.
[33:36] Allison: But I do the same thing I keep a running total of, because we kind of buy the same cuts most of the time we eat and buy the same cuts most of the time.
[33:46] Allison: So I'll be like, okay, I have this many pounds of ground beef and I have this many chicken breasts, this many whole chickens, and I'll write.
[33:52] Allison: And I get mine from Costco or from wherever, but I generally buy my whole chickens at Costco.
[33:59] Allison: But I'll write on there Okay, I bought these chickens on this day.
[34:02] Allison: So I know, oh gosh, I bought those almost a year ago, I need to eat them.
[34:07] Allison: We need to eat those sooner and I try to put them in the freezer so that I can see the older ones first.
[34:13] Allison: But that's a little harder in the deep freeze, that's easier to do in the pantry.
[34:17] Allison: I do practice the same thing where I put older stuff in the front, newer stuff towards the back.
[34:24] Allison: When I get cans of things at Costco, like a big case, I go through and I write in Sharpie on the top of the can or somewhere where I can really easily see it, the expiration date, just so at a glance I can see when that's gonna expire.
[34:40] Allison: What are some other things?
[34:42] Allison: Clear storage I'm a big decanter.
[34:45] Allison: Like I decant everything because it looks prettier.
[34:49] Allison: Typically I can arrange it more, like I can use my space better if I decant and put it in different containers.
[34:56] Allison: But also I can see at a glance the oatmeal's getting low, the rice is getting low, the pasta or whatever it is that's in that decanter.
[35:05] Allison: So I love clear containers for pantry and for refrigerator storage as well.
[35:12] Allison: I don't know how you feel about that, but I'm all about the clear containers because I can look in and I can see again what's running low, what's not, or for leftovers I can see what's in there.
[35:23] Allison: But I also practice label, label, label, label everything.
[35:28] Allison: Label all your leftovers, label what's in it, label when it was made, because you think you're gonna remember that you had beef stroganoff on Monday night and it gets to be, I don't know, friday or Saturday and you're like wait, when did?
[35:42] Allison: How long has this been in the refrigerator?
[35:44] Allison: I don't know.
[35:45] Allison: So it's really helpful.
[35:47] Mandi Thompson: I'm still learning with labels on my fridge stuff, with the freezer and in the pantry.
[35:54] Mandi Thompson: I'm usually really good at it, but what do you use?
[35:56] Allison: for labels.
[35:57] Mandi Thompson: What do you Usually?
[35:58] Mandi Thompson: I just write on it Whatever it is.
[36:01] Mandi Thompson: So I need a good label system for especially leftovers, because it is it's like you say, if we don't eat it within the next couple of days.
[36:11] Mandi Thompson: I forget when it was made and then it's that whole gray area of does this need to be?
[36:16] Mandi Thompson: Is it past, maybe what we can do, or is it still okay?
[36:22] Allison: So, yeah, so this is what I do.
[36:24] Allison: I've been doing this for years.
[36:26] Allison: I used to do washi tape, but washi tape is expensive and it has often too much design on it so you can't see what you write on there and it's generally not wide enough.
[36:36] Allison: So I started buying freezer tape.
[36:38] Allison: Oh, you can buy free, it's cheap, that's fantastic.
[36:42] Allison: And it's better than masking tape, because I feel like masking tape.
[36:45] Allison: It's just like masking tape, but something about the residue it doesn't, I don't know.
[36:50] Allison: It sticks better in the cold because it's freezer tape, yeah, but it doesn't.
[36:55] Allison: It peels off really easily when you go to wash it.
[36:57] Allison: I love it.
[36:59] Allison: So I just I actually bought a dispenser.
[37:01] Allison: It was like $12.
[37:02] Allison: And I bought a pack of four rolls of freezer tape probably four years ago and I still haven't gone through them all.
[37:10] Allison: And I keep it in the pantry and I keep Sharpies in that drawer right there next to the pantry, and so anytime something goes in there or goes in the refrigerator, we just pull out a piece of freezer tape and label it.
[37:22] Mandi Thompson: I love that idea.
[37:22] Mandi Thompson: I'm getting one.
[37:24] Allison: Okay, there you go I like it, Yep it works great and it's cheap, okay.
[37:28] Allison: So food?
[37:30] Allison: Okay, that's not what I wanna say.
[37:33] Allison: So we talked about glass containers, putting the oldest food in the front and labeling everything clearly with what's in it and the date that you put it in there, or the date or the use by date.
[37:45] Allison: And airtight I mean just that's a must.
[37:50] Allison: Make sure that you protect, because air and we're gonna talk more about that when we get into the canning air is where all the microorganisms are, you know, and the things that are gonna start to break down your food.
[38:00] Allison: So there's a few things that you wouldn't wanna make airtight, you know, like herbs and some delicate leaf things, but for the most part, you wanna keep things airtight.
[38:12] Allison: Is there anything else we need to talk about?
[38:15] Allison: About food, what are your favorite tools to store food in the pantry or refrigerator?
[38:20] Allison: Like, do you decant?
[38:22] Allison: Are you a decanter?
[38:23] Mandi Thompson: So some things I actually really love.
[38:26] Mandi Thompson: This is probably terrible, but I love old Tupperware Um.
[38:32] Allison: It's not terrible Like old retro Tupperware.
[38:35] Mandi Thompson: Yes, it just it's nostalgic, well, and it's the perfect burp to get the air out.
[38:42] Mandi Thompson: I don't know, I just love the old Tupperware.
[38:45] Mandi Thompson: So that's what I grew up, you know making a bazillion batches of chocolate chip cookies out of and everything.
[38:51] Mandi Thompson: So I do love my old Tupperware, but I am loving being able to see what I have, so to know at a glance that my sugar is halfway gone is helpful as well.
[39:04] Mandi Thompson: So, even though we're getting away from sugar, but it's just, I really like having the clear storage of a lot of different things and it is prettier.
[39:14] Mandi Thompson: So in the last probably year, I've been transitioning more and more things to different containers, different canisters and things like that.
[39:24] Allison: Yeah, I mean jars.
[39:26] Allison: Obviously, if you really get into canning, you're always going to have like extra jars, so jars of all sizes are great for using in the pantry, for or even in the refrigerator.
[39:36] Allison: I like those little glass flip top jars.
[39:39] Allison: Those are cool too.
[39:40] Allison: I use those a lot in the pantry and there's some rubber made makes a brilliant it's called brilliant glass container and it has a plastic lid that seals airtight.
[39:54] Allison: But it's a glass container and it's clear glass and I really like those a lot.
[39:59] Allison: I've recently really gotten into beeswax wrap.
[40:05] Allison: Cause I'm just I'm tired of buying all the plastic wrap stuff because that's expensive and the reusable stasher bags are really awesome.
[40:17] Allison: But that was a bit of a transition, because people would go in the pantry to get a snack or whatever and they're like where's the Ziploc bags?
[40:25] Allison: So they could put their snack in the mess.
[40:27] Allison: I'm like just get a little cup or something and it's fine.
[40:30] Allison: We have a dishwasher, we can wash it, so those are great.
[40:34] Allison: So what about freezer storage?
[40:35] Allison: Because you do a lot of how do you freeze your meat?
[40:41] Mandi Thompson: So a lot of it.
[40:43] Mandi Thompson: We did buy the bags that are for that way.
[40:46] Mandi Thompson: When we process a one pound thing of ground deer, it's a freezer bag for that, and then like the little sausagey bag thing, or is that what you're talking about?
[40:57] Mandi Thompson: Yeah, but it's a one pound bag.
[40:59] Mandi Thompson: So yeah, we can have it go right in there.
[41:04] Mandi Thompson: So we use those for the pound as for whenever we're doing the roast and things like that.
[41:10] Mandi Thompson: We'll wrap that with butchered twine.
[41:13] Mandi Thompson: We'll either wrap that in bit your paper or in saran wrap just to kind of help preserve it.
[41:19] Mandi Thompson: I'm a little longer from freezer burn and then I have big Ziploc baggies that I reuse for those.
[41:25] Mandi Thompson: So when that gets emptied I wash it out and then dry it off and reuse it again next year.
[41:32] Mandi Thompson: Okay, so I'm looking for different alternatives, just because I want to be able to have the longevity with what we have to reuse and Don's looked at even bags to pack the meat in and out and everything.
[41:52] Mandi Thompson: That's a reusable bag versus not so just being very mindful about the reuse of things that we have, yeah, yeah.
[42:02] Allison: Okay.
[42:03] Allison: So I'm a big fan of butcher paper or freezer paper.
[42:08] Allison: Is the difference between butcher paper and freezer paper?
[42:11] Allison: That freezer paper has that coating on the inside, that kind of slick coating, and I think you can buy both of those in like a huge roll instead of just a little bitty roll at the grocery store.
[42:23] Allison: So that would be more economical.
[42:25] Allison: And you know, if you're worried about the environment, it's like biodegradable because it's just paper, and then you can use your freezer tape that you're gonna buy yes, so excited.
[42:36] Allison: And you just if you wrap it correctly.
[42:38] Allison: And I learned this from my husband because his first job was at a butcher shop when he was 15.
[42:41] Allison: So he knew all the things about how to like, cut and butcher meat and then store it properly.
[42:46] Allison: So he taught me how to wrap things in butcher or freezer paper.
[42:50] Allison: But you just wrap it correctly and it won't get freezer burned if you wrap it correctly and all you need is that paper.
[42:57] Allison: But for some of the things it's a little harder to do and one of my favorite things that I have come across.
[43:03] Allison: So I have two favorite things.
[43:04] Allison: One of them I talk about all the time on the show it's super cubes.
[43:07] Allison: They're amazing.
[43:08] Allison: So they're silicone, mold type things and I know there's knockoffs out there.
[43:14] Allison: But I love the super cubes.
[43:15] Allison: I love the story of the little family, the sweet little young family that created them, and I think they were like a shark tank thing.
[43:22] Allison: Maybe I don't know, but they have such good products and so I freeze my broth in those because they're in one cup cubes.
[43:30] Allison: They also have a two cup cube, but I can do one cup cubes.
[43:33] Allison: They're more like a rectangle but, it's a cube rectangle.
[43:37] Allison: does that make sense?
[43:37] Allison: Yes, okay, and then I can just wrap those in a little bit of freezer paper and throw those in the freezer and they're great.
[43:43] Allison: And when I just want like a cup of broth, I just have to take one out and stick it in a saucepan and it's done like it's ready.
[43:50] Allison: Like that, that's perfect.
[43:51] Allison: Yeah, it's really nice.
[43:52] Allison: So I love my super cubes and you can do more than just freeze.
[43:56] Allison: You can freeze all kinds of things in them.
[43:57] Allison: So go Google that.
[43:59] Allison: And then I have a vacuum sealer.
[44:01] Allison: That's a handheld little.
[44:04] Allison: It's like a little wand and it works with these.
[44:06] Allison: It's by zweeling zweeling.
[44:08] Allison: Have you heard of this?
[44:09] Allison: Okay, so the bags are these reusable plastic bags and they have a little like grommet thing on the front of them and that's what the vacuum.
[44:18] Allison: It's like a little stick, like a little you know stick thing, and it attaches to that and it sucks all the air out of the bag.
[44:24] Allison: It's a zip top bag, but then you suck the air out through that little grommet.
[44:29] Allison: It works amazingly well.
[44:31] Allison: And then you just wash and reuse the bags.
[44:33] Allison: So you might wanna look into that.
[44:36] Allison: I wouldn't recommend putting raw meat straight inside the bag and vacuum sealing it that way.
[44:42] Allison: But the YouTuber that I learned about this system from what she does is she wraps the meat first in like wax paper, okay, and then puts it inside the bag so that the bag doesn't get, you know, contaminated with raw chicken juice or whatever.
[44:58] Allison: Yeah, so that's the thought, and the bags are reusable and they're not that expensive.
[45:03] Allison: So if they break or but I haven't had one break on me yet and I've had mine for over a year, so that's something to think about.
[45:08] Allison: Yeah, that's awesome.
[45:10] Mandi Thompson: I do want one of those handheld mason jar vacuum.
[45:14] Allison: I have one of those.
[45:15] Mandi Thompson: Yes, I want one of those, because I do use mason jars a lot for stuff.
[45:18] Mandi Thompson: My kid loves marshmallows and so marshmallows actually stay really fresh in mason jars for a long time, so being able to suck the air out of those would be even better.
[45:26] Allison: So, yeah, that is a mm-hmm.
[45:28] Allison: Yep, I haven't actually used mine yet, but I do have one, yeah, and so I'm glad you brought that up because you can use mason jars to store dried things.
[45:36] Allison: Like I like to buy spices in bulk because I make a lot of my own spice blends, because a lot of the spice blends in the store have gluten in them for some strange reason.
[45:44] Allison: I do not understand this.
[45:45] Allison: So I would.
[45:48] Allison: I just got in the habit of making all my own taco seasoning, italian seasoning, ranch, all that stuff, and the most economical way to do that is to just buy the stuff that's in all of them, like garlic powder, onion powder, you know chili powder that we I use a lot for these mixes.
[46:02] Allison: I just buy them in bulk.
[46:03] Allison: But I have to have a way to keep the bulk fresh, and that's a way to do that is to keep them in mason jars, and they stay fresh really actually for a long time, just in a mason jar with a regular lid on.
[46:15] Allison: But if you can do the vacuum seal thing, that will extend the life even more.
[46:19] Allison: I like it Awesome.
[46:22] Allison: Okay, so we should probably move on and talk a little bit about canning, so we wanted to touch on those other things, because those are important.
[46:32] Allison: You have options.
[46:33] Allison: You don't just have to do the canning.
[46:35] Allison: Why do you think, though, that canning intimidates people?
[46:44] Mandi Thompson: Because nobody wants to blow their house up.
[46:45] Mandi Thompson: I think it can be overwhelming just because we're, I think we have the mindset of we have to do it in bulk, because that's what we've seen so many people do in the past, and so we think it has to be this big, huge labor intensive process.
[47:02] Mandi Thompson: And then, you know, the pressure canner itself is, you know, quite intimidating just learning how to do that.
[47:08] Allison: I do think the Instant Pot has maybe helped a little bit with some stuff, even though that's kind of a well, it's probably made people a little less scared of the concept of pressure cooking in general, because you cannot can in an Instant Pot.
[47:22] Allison: No, you have to use a pressure canner.
[47:25] Allison: They're not the same thing.
[47:25] Allison: No, an Instant Pot is a pressure cooker.
[47:27] Allison: But I think you're right.
[47:28] Allison: A lot of people are now not quite as scared.
[47:31] Allison: Yes, because they know how to use an Instant Pot, and that's kind of the same concept.
[47:35] Mandi Thompson: Yes, so I think that that's you know, helps some.
[47:39] Mandi Thompson: But still, learning the process of the pressure canner, learning that you can control it, maybe a little bit more than you initially thought, it doesn't have to be super scary, I think, maybe going to anything with a little bit of a healthy fear, but not, it doesn't have to be frightening.
[47:58] Mandi Thompson: Yeah.
[48:00] Allison: Thank you so much for listening to this part one of our deep dive into canning and food preservation All the things that we mentioned that we would provide links for.
[48:10] Allison: I will put those down in the description box.
[48:13] Allison: If you have questions or comments or a tip that you would like to share, I would love to hear from you.
[48:19] Allison: You can always DM me on Instagram at the Art of Home podcast, but you can also hop over to our website and you can contact me there.
[48:28] Allison: You can leave me an email or you can leave me a voicemail directly on the website.
[48:32] Allison: Just go to theartofhomepodcastcom slash contact.
[48:36] Allison: Another quick reminder that our newsletter Homemaker, Happy Mail, is still on summer break all throughout this season and the two week break that we'll take in between this and next season, but it will be back next season.
[48:51] Allison: So if you have not already subscribed to our newsletter, make sure that you do that so you don't miss a single edition.
[48:58] Allison: And you can do that over on the website as well theartofhomepodcastcom slash subscribe.
[49:05] Allison: Make sure you tune in next week, not just to get the second half of this episode, but I have a very exciting announcement coming to share with you and I wanna make sure I have all my ducks in a row this week before I say anything.
[49:20] Allison: So make sure that you're listening for that next week.
[49:25] Allison: If you have found value in today's episode, you can show us some love and support in one of the following ways.
[49:32] Allison: You can leave us a rating and a review on your listening app.
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[50:16] Allison: Well, that is it for this week's episode.
[50:19] Allison: Meet me back here next Wednesday for part two of Canning and Preservation Deep Dive with Mandy Thompson.
[50:27] Allison: Until then, keep practicing your art of making a home.

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