After a long day of work around the homestead, I’m not always gung ho to create a sumptuous supper for us. Last spring I canned up a whole mess of baked beans and ham — jars and jars of them. The beans were bought in bulk from Homestead Mills, our local feed mill; the ham was less than $1 a pound, the tomato sauce and onions were from our pantry. It took an afternoon to can up dozens of pints. And tonight, I dumped two into a saucepan with a little extra chunk canned ham, brown sugar and catsup, heated it up and dinner was served!

Of course, we also had warm rolls and fresh, homemade butter I did this morning and big glasses of ice cold milk from our cow and slices of golden Jubilee tomatoes to go with it. Pretty darned good. And not a chemical in the whole works! Gee it’s great to be poor! — Jackie

14 COMMENTS

  1. Estes Mills,

    Good for you! Don’t you just love the ease of those varied, tasty meals in a jar???

    Jackie

  2. Jackie, I know you will not answer, but had to comment on “meals in a jar” read your blog all the time, have your book growing your veggies and canning, I’m 88 years old, born and raised on a farm, so I learned to be frugal early in life, but I had never canned meal in a jar, soup mixture, yes, but my son fell into a real deal on potatoes, so I decided to try the meal in a jar,I canned potatoe soup, using onions,celery,carrots, and potatoes,sent a jar to my granddaughter in Center Texas,with a recipe with what to add, whrn she opened them, she sent word back,best ehe ever ate! told her was Jackie’s recipe!

  3. This is great! That sounds like a fabulous dinner to me, too! We had some home canned baked beans in a bean and beef casserole from the Backwoods Home cookbook tonight – very tasty! We were very disappointed in our garden yield this year due to the severe drought we’ve had here in Texas, but are working on some ways to sidestep that next year. Working on a rainwater system that will serve to at least water our garden….now, if we can just get some rain! LOL…thanks for sharing, Jackie! LOVE this blog!!

  4. Jackie, I do the same thing only with soup. I make plenty for left over and can a couple quarts for winter time dining. I do love ham and beans with warm bread and fresh home made butter. I haven’t had that since my high school days. Mainly because I just got out of the habit of making the delightful dinner because I was the only one in the family that liked it. However, the family loved the warm bread and butter. I will have re activate that dinner even if my live in daughter and grandson don’t like ham and beans. I like to can up many different kinds of soup to eat during the winter months. One quart will give me two hearty meals.

    Have a great ham and bean day.

  5. Meals in the jar are wonderful! We love them. Soups, stews, beans, meat sauce and meatballs, you name it! Always great with homemade bread. Sure you can buy it, but homemade always tastes better.

  6. Ha! That’s great, Jackie!!

    Today we had chicken corn soup made (by my husband!) from a chicken that we raised. It was soooo good. And – NO CHEMICALS and NO ANTIBIOTICS!

    By the way, I’m really enjoying your cookbook – especially the meals in a jar section! I just canned some chili and have plans to do more.

  7. This blog post sums up the very reason why I love canning. Jackie, you have been a great inspiration & I cannot thank you enough!

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