u/Successful-Leek-2020

Researching provisioning records for 18th and 19th century voyages has been a recurring part of my work lately, and the overlap between what sailors ate on long passages and what we do now in home canning keeps pulling at me. Ships carried salted meat, hardtack, dried legumes, and pickled goods expected to last years under genuinely rough conditions. No temperature control, no consistent humidity, constant motion.

That context made me think more seriously about shelf life on the canning side. Not just the standard oneyear recommendation, which I understand is about quality rather than safety for properly processed jars, but what people have actually observed holding up well over longer periods. Pressure canned meats seem like the obvious candidate. Certain highacid fruit preserves too.

The question I keep coming back to is whether anyone here has opened jars that were two or three years old and found them genuinely good. Not just technically safe, but actually worth eating. And whether some categories deteriorate faster than others in practice, not just in theory. Texture, color, flavor intensity after extended storage. I know there are variables involved, but I'm more curious what people have observed in their own pantries than what the guidelines say.

Provisioning for a long passage, even a hypothetical one, seems like a useful frame for thinking about this.

running a growing business and we’re at the point where off the shelf tools just don’t cut it anymore. need a proper custom system that handles inventory, client management and a few internal workflows. not a tiny side project, this has to scale with us.

looked at a few agencies already.

how do you usually structure payments on larger custom projects so you’re not risking everything upfront?

what’s a realistic timeline for something this size if the team is experienced?

Feel like this is the most universally recommended herb for calming down and sleep, comes up in basically every thread on this sub whenever someone asks about anxiety or sleep issues. Tried it a bunch of different ways now, strong tea right before bed, tincture, even tried the tea bags versus loose dried flowers thinking maybe potency was the issue.

Nothing. Not even a mild effect that I can detect. Meanwhile stuff like valerian or lemon balm actually does something noticeable for me, so it's not that I'm just generally unresponsive to calming herbs, chamomile specifically just seems to do nothing at all no matter how I take it.

Started wondering if there's something about how it's prepared that I'm missing, like maybe steep time matters more than I think, or if it needs to be taken consistently over time rather than just as needed, or if some people are just genuinely non responsive to it the same way some people don't feel anything from caffeine.

Also wondering if the sourcing matters more than people talk about, like maybe the mass produced tea bag stuff is just weak compared to good quality dried flowers, and I've just never actually had the real thing.

Anyone else completely unaffected by chamomile specifically while other calming herbs work fine for you?

This fall I went a little overboard at the farmers market and came home with more dried hibiscus and fresh rose hips than I knew what to do with.

Started canning a hibiscus jelly mostly because it felt like the obvious move.

Then I got curious.

Rose hips have a solid reputation for vitamin C and general immune support, and I kept wondering if there was a way to preserve them that actually kept some of that intact versus just making a pretty jar of sugary jam.

I ended up doing a small batch of rose hip syrup with raw honey instead of sugar to see if it would hold up in the fridge long enough to be useful through winter.

Not sure I got the ratios right honestly.

The flavor is good but I have no real reference point for whether a syrup like that is better fresh or if you can stretch it a few months without losing whatever made it worth making in the first place.

The hibiscus jelly came out gorgeous and I feel okay about that one. The rose hip syrup is more of a question mark.

Anyone here making herbal preserves that live somewhere between food and medicine? Curious what your process looks like and whether you bother canning versus just keeping things in the fridge short term.

Picked up a giant enamel water bath canner at Goodwill last month for four dollars. Four dollars. Thing is in perfect shape, no chips on the rack, lid fits tight. It's now my most used piece of equipment and I think about that price tag every single time I pull it out.

Got me curious though. A lot of homesteading gear new is genuinely expensive, and the learning curve on what you actually need versus what just looks useful is steep when you're still figuring things out. Thrift stores and estate sales feel like a real cheat code for this stuff if you know what you're looking for.

My haul so far: the canner, a hand crank food mill, and a giant stockpot I use for blanching before freezing. All under fifteen dollars total.

What I haven't cracked yet is cast iron. Every thrift store near me either has none or the price has crept up to the point where it barely makes sense anymore. Is that everyone else's experience or am I just looking in the wrong places?

Curious what the best thrift or secondhand finds have been for people here. Gear specifically, not seeds or plants, just the tools and equipment side of things.

This year I went a little overboard with the container garden on my back patio. Six grow bags of roma types and two big pots of a paste variety I picked up from a local nursery. The yields have been way better than I expected for containers and now I have more tomatoes than I can eat fresh.

The thing I keep going back and forth on is whether container grown tomatoes are actually worth putting up, or if the flavor just doesn't hold up the same way after processing. My inground tomatoes from previous years felt richer after canning, but I don't know if that's soil depth, variety, water consistency, or just nostalgia.

I'm sticking to tested recipes and doing crushed tomatoes with lemon juice added, keeping it simple. Romas are going in first.

What I'm genuinely curious about is whether anyone has noticed a real flavor difference between container grown and garden grown after canning. Not before. After. Because fresh off the vine they taste fine to me, but I have no reference point for what happens once they're processed and sitting on a shelf for a few months.

Also wondering if the smaller yield per plant changes how people approach batching. Do you collect and refrigerate until you have enough for a full canner load, or process small batches as you go?

Container garden life means working with limited space and limited harvests. I never get massive amounts of any one herb, so I keep wondering if small batch tinctures and infused oils are even worth the effort, or if I should just dry everything for tea and call it a day.

This year I have lemon balm, spearmint, and rose in pots on the back patio. The lemon balm went absolutely wild and I did manage to pull together a decent amount. The rose is more of a slow bloomer, so I have been collecting petals as they come and stashing them in the freezer until I have enough to actually do something with them.

What I keep getting stuck on is whether freezing petals before using them in an infused oil or a tincture changes anything about the final product. I have read different things and honestly never landed on a clear answer.

The other thing I am curious about is whether people working with small harvests tend to lean toward alcohol tinctures or something like an oxymel, where a smaller amount of herb still feels like it goes somewhere useful. I made one oxymel last year with thyme and it turned out really well, so now I keep thinking about what else could work that way.

Anyone growing in containers dealing with this same problem of never quite having enough of one thing?

Three years into this and I still wasn't ready for how hard it hits when you lose one.

Got my first flock as basically a fun weekend project- figured eggs, a little composting help, some entertainment. Nobody mentioned that you'd end up naming them, that you'd know their individual personalities, that one of them would follow you around the garden like a dog. Nobody mentioned that when a hawk gets one, or you lose one to egg binding, or a raccoon finds a gap in the coop you thought was solid, you'd feel like absolute garbage for days.

I used to roll my eyes a little at people who talked about their chickens like family members. Now I get it. You spend enough time out there at dawn doing chores, watching them do their weird little chicken things, and they stop being livestock in your head even if that's technically what they are.

Doesn't mean I regret it. If anything it's made me take the whole setup more seriously-better predator proofing, an actual vet who'll see poultry, not just winging it when something looks off.

Just wish someone had told me the emotional side before I told my spouse it's just a few chickens, how much work can it be.

Anyone else get blindsided by how attached you get? Or is it just me being soft.

Picked up Pomona pectin earlier this year after getting frustrated with inconsistent results from Ball RealFruit. The gels were either too loose or weirdly stiff depending on the fruit, and I could never figure out what I was doing differently batch to batch. Switched midseason and the difference was noticeable pretty fast. More control over sweetness since it works with low sugar, and the set has been reliable across strawberry, plum, and a mixed berry I did last month.

The calcium water step threw me off at first, felt like an extra thing to mess up, but it's actually simple once you do it twice.

What I'm curious about is whether people notice a difference in flavor. A few batches feel like the fruit comes through cleaner, but I can't tell if that's the pectin or just better fruit coming into season. Also wondering if anyone has run into trouble with specific fruits where Pomona just doesn't perform the same way Ball does. I had one peach batch that set softer than expected and I'm not sure if I should adjust the calcium water ratio or just add a bit more pectin next time.

Would be interested to hear what people have run into, especially with loweracid fruits.

My calendula has been going strong all summer and I finally sat down this weekend to make a proper infused oil with the last of the big blooms. Olive oil, dried flowers, slow and low in a water bath. It's the simplest thing but I always forget how satisfying it is to have a finished jar sitting on the shelf.

I also threw together a small batch of lemon balm tincture because the plant basically took over one of my beds and I figured I should do something useful with it before the first frost hits and it all dies back.

What I'm curious about is whether people harvest and process everything at once near season end or work through things gradually as they peak. I tend to scramble at the end and feel like I missed windows earlier in the year.

Also wondering if anyone here has worked with wood betony. I planted some this spring mostly for the garden aesthetics but now I'm reading it has a decent history of use and I want to know if there's a preparation people actually reach for, or if it's more of a growitandappreciateit plant.

Picked up Pomona's Universal Pectin for the first time this year after years of using Ball RealFruit, and I wasn't expecting such a different process. The calcium water step threw me off on the first batch and I ended up with a soft set on my strawberry jam, which was frustrating because the strawberries were perfect this year.

Second batch I got it dialed in and the set was firm without being rubbery, which is honestly better than what I was getting with Ball. I also used way less sugar than the recipe I'd been following for years and the fruit flavor comes through so much more now.

What I'm curious about is whether people adjust the calcium water amount based on fruit type or just follow the packet instructions every time. The peach jam I want to do next has a lot more natural pectin than strawberry, so I'm wondering if that changes anything with Pomona.

Also read that the new Ball RealFruit formula is different from what it used to be. Has anyone actually done a side by side with the old version or Pomona to see how they compare for a highsugar jam like grape or plum where you actually want that firmer set?

Been growing an Albizia julibrissin in the backyard for a few years now and this summer it finally went absolutely wild with blooms. Read a bit about its traditional use in Chinese medicine as he huan pi, mostly the bark, for calming the mind and supporting sleep. The flowers get used too but the bark seems to be the more potent part from what I can tell.

Thinking about doing a simple tincture with some of the dried bark but I keep going back and forth on whether the flowers would be worth including or if that just dilutes things. The flowers smell incredible so part of me wants to use them for something even if the bark is doing the heavier lifting.

Also curious about extraction method. Some sources lean toward alcohol tincture, others mention decoction for the bark specifically since it's woodier material. Made a few tinctures before but mostly with softer plant material so not sure if I should adjust my approach here.

If anyone has worked with mimosa bark or flowers in any form, what did you actually notice from it? The sleep and mood angle is what drew me in originally but curious if there's more to it that people have found useful.

Hey everyone, long time gardener here but pretty new to canning. This summer my tomato plants went absolutely wild and I ended up with way more than I can eat fresh or give away. I decided this was finally the year to learn water bath canning so nothing goes to waste.

I've been doing a lot of reading and I understand the basics around adding bottled lemon juice or citric acid to keep the acidity at a safe level. I'm planning to start with crushed tomatoes and maybe a simple tomato sauce without any added vegetables, to keep things straightforward and safe for water bath canning.

A few things I'm still unsure about and would love some input on. Does the variety of tomato make a noticeable difference in the final canned product? I have mostly roma types but also some beefsteak and a few heirlooms. And do you precook your tomatoes before packing or go raw pack? I've seen arguments for both and can't decide which works better for home canners.

I want to stick to tested recipes from Ball or NCHFP so I'm not looking to improvise, just want to understand the practical experience side of things that recipes don't always spell out. Thanks in advance for any advice you can share.

Hey everyone, I've been cooking from scratch for years and always end up with a ton of homemade chicken and vegetable stock that I freeze in batches. The freezer is honestly getting out of control, and I'd love to start pressure canning my stock instead so I can free up that space and have shelfstable jars ready to grab anytime.

I've done some reading and I know stock is a lowacid food, so a water bath canner is off the table. Pressure canning only. I picked up a Presto 23quart pressure canner based on recommendations I found here and feel pretty good about that choice.

A few things I'm still trying to figure out before my first batch. Should I be straining my stock completely clear, or is a little fat and cloudiness okay going into the jars? Does homemade stock with no added salt follow the same tested processing times as salted stock? And how do you all handle dial gauge testing? Is that something most people do annually or just before every canning season?

I want to do this right from the start rather than develop bad habits. Any tips or experiences from your first time canning stock would be really helpful. This community has so much good information and I appreciate it.

I recently started growing a small herb garden and I've been completely fascinated by making my own tinctures and preparations from what I harvest. This season I have calendula, lemon balm, and some chamomile coming in really nicely and I want to put them to good use beyond just drying them for tea.

I tried my first tincture a few weeks ago using lemon balm and vodka, following a basic folk method ratio, and I honestly had no idea what to expect. The color shifted beautifully over the weeks and the smell is incredible.