Ball BLUE Book of Canning

As I posted previously, here's my "important" post on canning/preserving.  Well, at least what I wanted to share with you that I felt was an important part of being self-sufficient.

With all the gardening activities winding down or completed for the season now is a good time to assess your efforts, whether some things need to be changed or if you are going to grow the same varieties next year or not, order seeds for next year (taking advantage of the end of season sales) and get your equipment ready for next season by cleaning/oiling your tools and draining or running the fuel dry from your tillers and mowers.  (Old fuel will cause a bunch of headaches come spring!)  And getting your produce stored or canned for the upcoming winter months.

Now, since I have been canning and freezing stuff like a crazy woman, I have a few canning books that I refer to.  Ball Blue Book of Canning is one of them.  Well, actually I have two of them.  One is a newer release and the other is an older book.  Even though both books have the same recipes (the yellow one has some additional ones), I really like the blue covered book with the last publishers date of 2001 and mostly because at the end of the book are a some (in my opinion) very important charts in helping you plan your garden (which, by the way, I had initially overlooked for several years).

Like I stated in my previous post, I did not plant enough to supply the family with a years' worth of preserved produce.  I have been focusing on what varieties of vegetables grow well in my temperature zone (5b) and length of growing season.  It has been a learning curve!  I think I am getting them narrowed down.

But the question has been for me is how the heck do you determine how much to plant to provide a certain yield for a family of 5.  Seed packets don't give you this information. And, yes, I do know that even if the packet did state that Tomato Plant XYZ would yield 100 pounds of tomatoes per plant that would also vary based upon soil conditions, weather conditions, water schedules, fertilizer, soil temperatures and number of days in your growing season.  And, yes, the packet numbers would also be based on the seed growers' "perfect growing conditions" in a "perfect environment".  Like that ever happens.... can't say I've ever had "perfect" gardening conditions.  I think that is called an oxymoron.

So before I get completely off-topic, the answer I found to my question is at the end of the Ball Blue Book of Canning (blue cover), publisher date 2001 (Volume 1, Alltrista Corp). The charts in the back are for determining how much to plant for a family of 6, canning guide for family of 4, jar estimates and recommended freezer storage for certain lengths of time.  I don't know why Ball didn't include them in the later book.  It is an important piece of information that has been left out especially if you are planning for your family.  It may be because people just don't can or preserve foods like they used to.

 

So below are pics of the charts for your reference.  And I highly recommend that if you do run across this edition in a used book store or thrift store, grab it (make sure that all pages are intact - don't want to be surprised when you get home only to find that some pages have  been removed).  Check those yard sales, too.  Not only because this book contains a wealth of canning information and recipes but also for the charts.  They are a very handy reference in planning your garden or when you swing by that farmer's roadside produce stand or when your market has a good sale on meats.