Home Canning 2025 - Soups, Beans & Stew Meat

 

At the end of 2024 I came up with a canning list that would have me canning at least one thing each month to refill the shelves in my LTFS.  True to my over achieving nature I have canned several things already and it was so much fun!  I love home canning.  I love to prepare the food, pack the jars, process them, label the lids and line them up on the shelf.  To me these jars of wholesome goodness are like gems gleaming in the sunshine.  It is truly a labor of love.

 

Taco Soup

In January I found myself down to one single pint jar of my favorite taco soup.  Fortunately I had all the ingredients I needed on hand so I whipped up a batch and got it all canned up and restocked.

 

Canned Beans

Another thing I was running low on was canned beans so I pulled some dry beans from my pantry and got them into the pressure canner.  I did an assortment of different beans so I now have a nice variety from which to choose.  The convenience of having prepared jars of beans on the shelf allows me to whip up a recipe in short order.  Plus, I know exactly what is in them.

 

Minestrone Soup

After doing a reorganization of the refrigerator and freezer I had the ingredients to make a nice minestrone.  I was thinking I might as well go big or go home (wait, I was already home) and make a big batch so I could can most of it and fill in some of the gaps I still had on my soup shelf.  It turned out so good and now that I have several jars of it on the shelf to look forward to I’m super happy.  And!  There are no GMOs or bioengineered anything in my canned soup.

 

Beautiful chicken stock

Chicken stock is something I use quite often and having homemade jars at the ready is not only handy, but I can make it basically for free by using chicken bones and vegetable scraps that might otherwise have ended up in the trash.  Waste not, want not!

 

I have had this canner for five years now 
It has been a work horse and has definitely paid for itself

The prices on commercially canned meats have skyrocketed and so has meat prices in general.  I like to have a variety of home canned meats on hand so I am not solely relying on my freezer to store meat long term.  Having it already cooked makes it so nice when I need to throw a meal together quickly.  On my list this year is to bulk up my canned meat so I made the plunge at Costco and picked up two of their big packages of good quality stew meat.

 

Beef!

I placed some seasoning in the bottom of each jar, raw packed them with the cubes of beef, added some cold water to each jar and then processed those jars in my pressure canner.  There is plenty of rendered broth in each jar to easily make gravy.  Now, I have some beautifully cooked and seasoned tender beef to add to whatever recipe I choose.  I am really looking forward to that.

 

Beef & barley soup

In my deep freezer I had a smaller single package of stew meat that I thawed and made a big batch of another soup I enjoy, but don’t often make, beef barley soup.  With all the ingredients for this soup on hand, no trip to the store was needed.  I got busy and made it up, put it in jars and processed them in my pressure canner.  This batch filled my soup shelf full to capacity, but I don’t anticipate it will stay full for long.  Now whenever I crave a nice bowl of beef barley soup with plenty of vegetables all I have to do is open a jar, heat it up and enjoy!

 

Jars & rings are reusable so I have less waste to contribute

Some people feel that home canning just isn’t worth the effort anymore and has become too costly.  I kept track of my expenses for the food and the canning supplies and determined that I was able to can my own food, with total control over the ingredients, for less than half the price of what each item would cost at the grocery store if I had purchased that can of soup, beans or seasoned beef.  I also know I have a much healthier version over commercially processed products.  Plus I really love the process so for me it is well worth it.