Behind the Scenes with Sara F. Hathaway, Canning Craziness

It has been canning craziness around here! Both my husband and I work very hard during the day on our perspective occupations. We also have two sons one 14 and just starting high school and one whose is 3 and is with me all day. We also have a deep belief in physical fitness so we are at the gym three days a week. All of this makes for a very busy schedule. The reason I am sharing this with you is we all have busy schedules. Every one has their own tasks to accomplish and their own excuses why they can't take the time to garden and can.

I think it is of the utmost importance to practice the art of growing and preserving your own food. Your garden can be a very small plot and still produce a lot of food. I find it so peaceful to be out in the garden working for the food we will be eating. Both of my children have developed a taste for veggies because they eat them fresh from the garden.  Yes it takes work but with the right watering system it is minimal and the yields can still be great.

If you grow your food in the garden and did all that work for it, you will not want it to go bad but even if you skip the gardening step you can still visit the local farmers market and start canning. Canning is very easy once you get the hang of it and you will be providing a year round source of food for your loved ones. I always suggest everyone starts with tomatoes or anything pickled. The reason is the acidity of these foods will allow you to process them using a hot water bath method. After you are comfortable with that you can move onto using a pressure cooker which is a little bit trickier and dangerous but can process anything from fruits, to corn, to meats.

In our modern society with foods available at the grocery store in every preserved manner imaginable, canning is sometimes looked at as an unnecessary, labor intensive task. Honestly, it does take a lot of work but you know exactly what is in that can and the time that you spend with your loved ones all chipping in together to get the job done is irreplaceable.

Working together for the good of the family creates strong bonds, ever lasting memories and many smiles along the way.

Sara F. Hathaway

Sara F. Hathaway is the author of the The Changing Earth Series: Day After Disaster and Without Land. She also hosts The Changing Earth Podcast which blends her fictional stories with educational survival tips. Sara grew up in the country where she developed a profound interest in the natural world around her. After graduating with honors from The California State University of Sacramento with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, she launched into a career in business management. In her fictional novels her research and experience with survival techniques and forgotten life-sustaining methods of the generations past come to the forefront in a action packed adventures. She has used her background in business management to pave new roads for fictional authors to follow and she delights in helping other achieve the same success. She currently lives with her husband and two sons in California where she is at work on the sequel to her first two novels. For more information and a free copy of “The Go-Bag Essentials” featuring everything you need to have to leave your home in a disaster visit: www.authorsarafhathaway.com

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