LESSONS FROM A PRESSURE CANNED CAN OF CHICKEN

It's been a pretty decent few days, knock on wood. 

I finally figured  out that one Value Pack of chicken breast with rib attached (roughly one 5# package) will result in 2 1/2 pints of raw packed chicken. This means that 6 value packs will result in a full Pressure Canner (14 regular mouth pints) if you are using a pressure canner like mine, which is a Presto 23 Quart Pressure Canner (and cooker). 

We had purchased about 40 pounds (about 8 packs) of chicken earlier in the week and canned a PC worth. Which meant we had 2 packs leftover. Fortunately, there was an even better sale the last few days (.88cents a pound!) so we bought some more and canned it today.

Fridays are great  days for our family. My two middle children who attend a local community college do not have classes, and my youngest (14) homeschools. So today for school, we learned some self reliance skills: canning chicken.

I taught my youngest first, all the way from sterilizing jars to de-boning chicken to placing chicken filled jars in the canner.

Then a miracle happened. 

On his own initiative, HE turned around and taught his 17 year old sister. That's my 14 year old teaching!

Then SHE turned around and taught her 18 year old brother!

It was so great. 

Beyond the mechanics of canning chicken, this morning saw my children learning the importance of organization (getting everything ready to use before you start cutting), how to sterilize jars and instruments on a stove top (dishwasher's out of service), preparing enough workspace, as well as reinforcing the ideals of self-reliance, and learning something well enough to pass the knowledge and skills on to others.

The latter was particularly noteworthy for my DD17, who is a vegetarian. Her initial position was, "I'm never going to eat canned chicken, so why should I learn how to do it." She came to the realization that regardless of whether it is chicken, vegetables or fruit, knowing how might someday be important. And someday, she might be the only one who does know how; she may end up re-introducing the skill to a whole new group of people, thereby enabling their self-sufficiency.

We still have a long long way to go to build up a year's supply of canned chicken. At a minimum, I prefer to have 104 pints of canned chicken on hand (do the math, lol, that's 2 pints of chicken per week.) 

But at least my children have learned how to 'fish' for themselves.