About 3 years ago, I became aware of the chemical ingredients, sugars, GMOs, etc. in the food we buy at the grocery store. We were already stocking up canned food on the boat so that when we are at sea, we have provisions. But I didn’t like knowing that we were eating things that are difficult to pronounce such as bisphenol (BPA), monosodium glutamate (MSG), brominated vegetable oil (BVO), hydrogenated vegetable oil, etc.
Rather than be at the mercy of the corporations that make our food, I decided to learn how to preserve food that we can take on the boat with us. Yes, glass on a boat is bad, but it’s going to be unavoidable if I don’t want to eat what comes in a can from the grocery store. I will be very careful as I plan where to store the jars. At some point, we’ll make a video for our viewers who can then give us advice on where to store the jars, how to pack them, etc.
For now, we are still working on our boat, which was a fixer-upper when we bought it in March of 2015. We have been working on her every weekend since then and it looks like we might finally be able to take her out for a sea trial for the last weekend of lobster fishing in March. I have to figure out how and where to store the jars over the next few weeks.
So I learned how to can food in 2013. I started with tomatoes and I am now a mad canning woman, canning everything from tomatoes to chicken. Most recently, because I found them on sale at 50% off, I canned a bunch of Italian sausage, pork, and breakfast sausage. I like the idea of being out at sea and being able to cook up some sausage for breakfast that we wouldn’t otherwise have after being at sea for several weeks or months.
I recently purchased a foodsaver so that we can store dehydrated food on the boat, which I am currently in the process of learning how to do. It will cut down on the amount of glass we have on the boat and we can store much more food this way. I will keep you posted.