"They were absolutely delicious. Seriously!"
"BTW - I can about 100 quarts of stuff from my garden each season."
Expiration 01.! Wow..! Stones, you have..!!
My son is dead-set on spending $2,200 on a freeze dryer... I remember eating freeze dried ice cream back in the early 70's..(?) I'm not sold on the idea.....
Water..!! a good supply of water is absolutely critical... Walmart sells some pretty good cheap filters nowadays....
A couple of things I want to say about some recipes in the Ball blue book...their pickel and relish recipes are frequently off with regard to liquids. It’s hard to complete the jar filling because there’s not enough liquid. Secondly, their instructions for pickles is confusing. For example, it’s impossible to tell if a pickle recipe is for a brined pickel or fresh unbrined. Salt content becomes an issue. Pickles are notoriously limp..not enough vinegar.
Finally, foods end up over processed.
I follow a recipe exactly the first time I make it. Then if I need to improvise, I do after making notes about the needed corrections.
I’ve used other recipes that work out better than ball blue book.
They smelled fine and passed the taste test.
Simmered them up with a dash of fish sauce, rooster sauce, black pepper and okra from the garden.
The human sense of smell is pretty reliable in cases like this.
It’s the only sense that’s directly connected to the brain.
Don’t forget salt.
For all the suggestions I see about essentials, salt is going to be critical for survival and may not be readily available in many locations.
I store my salt in canning jars (without processing) just to keep it from caking up.
Maybe you can get your son to freeze-dry you some water...