# Canned in "79"



## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

I was going through some jars of canned "stuff" that I brought home from my late grandmothers house. Got plenty of Jars, wide and small mouth, some of which she got from her mother(my great grandmother).

I came across some boxes of what I thought were empty jars and to my surprise, one box had 2 pint jars of canned "Tomatoes and Okra" in it, the date on the lids were "79". They had lost some of their color but had no rust on the lids. 

Those jars have been sitting in her utility room for some 33 years. I am going to open the jars try them out, if they are still good it will be validation that home canned foods can last more than the few years that the "expets" say.

If you hear nothing more from me, you will know not to eat "Tomatoes and Okra" that are 33 years old.


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## pawpaw (Dec 21, 2011)

Hey Davarm,
Please DO post the results/opinion of your opening. I'm fascinated.
It's been my impression that tomato products are the least enduring of storage foods, but that may be for cans instead of canning jars.
Are you gonna hire out the tasting of it to a half-wit? Or do YOU have the testicular fortitude to do it? This is cool!


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

My grandmother died in '98. When the family started cleaning out the house, there were several hundred jars of stuff she had canned over the years. Most was 15-20 years old and nobody would touch it; not even to empty the jars. It all went in a dumpster.


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## mdprepper (Jan 22, 2010)

Davarm, I sure am gonna miss ya!!! :ignore:

:goodluck::crossfinger:


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

UncleJoe said:


> It all went in a dumpster.


That is a double !

mdprepper ~  Thank for the smile!

Anyone heard from Davarm ...


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## PamsPride (Dec 21, 2010)

Those are as old as me!!


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## siletz (Aug 23, 2011)

I am looking forward to hearing about the results! I have pie cherries that are 10 years old that still make great pies, but 33 years!


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## sailaway (Mar 12, 2009)

I hope you live to tell us!


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Well, Im still alive....I only opened one of the jars. The smell was like you just canned it, the texture was kinda off and the colors kind faded - kinda thick, looked like they were over cooked(I know they were not, GM would never do that and keep the evidence) and starting to break down.

The taste, well, lets just say that since I knew what it was, I could tell what it was(I could not bring myself to finish the whole jar) although it did not taste spoiled, just tasted like a Pi$$ Poor cook made it and left it in the fridge for a few days too long.

I would not recommend keeping okra and tomatoes for 33 years but I guess it would keep you alive if you had nothing else. Keep those 10 - 15 year old home canned goods - Hard times are a coming.

I can just hear my grandmother saying "Eat that, there aint n ee theng wrong with it". The Depression made a big impact on her, she would wash and reuse aluminum foil and plastic bags and let nothing(and I mean NOTHING) go to waste, sure do miss her.


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## mdprepper (Jan 22, 2010)

:woohoo::woohoo: So glad you lived to tell the tale!!:kiss:


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

Folks--I ate green beans, tomatoes and tomato juice that had been canned for 20 years by me.
Nothing wrong with the taste either.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Thanks for the input, Davarm. LOVE all the experiments you do and share with us! :2thumb:


So what's the oldest home canned meat anyone's eaten? I'm not advocating anything, just curious. If I'm not mistaken, the home canned goods that have been canned 10+ years that folks here have eaten have not been meat - so I was wondering about that...


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## OdieB (Mar 18, 2012)

We all need a Grandma like that. I'm lucky to still have mine. Age 90 and she just finished telling me how to make a good mustard poultice for pneumonia. -OdieB


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## ComputerGuy (Dec 10, 2010)

Ok when they canned, they mean in jars? Correct


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## LilRedHen (Aug 28, 2011)

OdieB said:


> We all need a Grandma like that. I'm lucky to still have mine. Age 90 and she just finished telling me how to make a good mustard poultice for pneumonia. -OdieB


So how about starting a new thread in Medicines and tell us about that mustard poultice:congrat:


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## LilRedHen (Aug 28, 2011)

Davarm said:


> Well, Im still alive....I only opened one of the jars. The smell was like you just canned it, the texture was kinda off and the colors kind faded - kinda thick, looked like they were over cooked(I know they were not, GM would never do that and keep the evidence) and starting to break down.
> 
> The taste, well, lets just say that since I knew what it was, I could tell what it was(I could not bring myself to finish the whole jar) although it did not taste spoiled, just tasted like a Pi$$ Poor cook made it and left it in the fridge for a few days too long.
> 
> ...


Glad to hear you're OK! I can okra and it wants to start getting a little mushy after the first year. Two years is the longest that I have been able to keep okra and also the okra with tomatoes without the texture changing. The deer and groundhogs ate my okra into the ground last year & I didn't get one pod. This year I will practice my aim.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

LilRedHen said:


> Glad to hear you're OK! I can okra and it wants to start getting a little mushy after the first year. Two years is the longest that I have been able to keep okra and also the okra with tomatoes without the texture changing. The deer and groundhogs ate my okra into the ground last year & I didn't get one pod. This year I will practice my aim.


The reason I tasted it when I did was that I am trying to get over a case of what I thought for a while might be pneumonia, If I did wind up getting sick, didnt want wind up loosing additional time getting over 2 separate sicks.:2thumb:

With the critters in the garden, if you pick up a motion sensor light fixture at Home Depot or the like(about $20.00), run an extension cord to it and point the sensor down the row that is being attacked, it may keep them scared off long enough to get a crop. Works here for jack rabbits and deer. I plug a "Boom Box" to one of the light sockets and that really gets them. When they trespass, they get a blast of George Noory and a couple flood lights.

If the animals do daylight damage most of the fixtures can be set to sense motion during the day and the boom box may keep them scared away.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

goshengirl said:


> Thanks for the input, Davarm. LOVE all the experiments you do and share with us! :2thumb:
> 
> So what's the oldest home canned meat anyone's eaten? I'm not advocating anything, just curious. If I'm not mistaken, the home canned goods that have been canned 10+ years that folks here have eaten have not been meat - so I was wondering about that...


My daughters get kinda perturbed at some of some of my experiments but they have learned to live with it.

The GM didn't can meat, I asked her why before she died and she told me that her mother(my GGM) did when she was a child and they were "Dirt Poor". She thought only Poor People did that so I have not had the opportunity to "Test" any meats that old.



ComputerGuy said:


> Ok when they canned, they mean in jars? Correct


That is what I am talking about and I think most others are too. Canning in cans is something that I have noooo experience at.


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## pawpaw (Dec 21, 2011)

*But DAVARM...*

If you were going to get sick, you would have by now. That took Kahonas!:2thumb:
One minor detail.... My research indicates that, within 14 days, your privates should atrophy and fall away. Just sayin-


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## siletz (Aug 23, 2011)

Thanks for sharing your experiment with us!


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

pawpaw said:


> My research indicates that, within 14 days, your privates should atrophy and fall away. Just sayin-


Thats OK, they dont get much use anymore anyway.:dunno:


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## brucehylton (Nov 6, 2010)

Some people must have more money than I have. I still have canned goods and rice, beans etc from as far back as 1998 in my pantry that I eat out of regularly. The can tops aren't bulging or the cans aren't leaking, we eat it.


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## seabeedaddy (Feb 19, 2012)

Thank you for all the good info. I just recently got started myself in the whole canning thing. I remember growing up and helping my mother and grandmother can. We canned every thing and anything. We worked the gardens all spring and summer and everything went into the root cellar for the winter. Even the meat we would procure. That was the best thing ever when you would be craving something and be able to just go out to the cellar and get it off of the shelf and just open the jar and go to town. Gosh I miss those days.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

seabeedaddy said:


> Thank you for all the good info. I just recently got started myself in the whole canning thing. I remember growing up and helping my mother and grandmother can. We canned every thing and anything. We worked the gardens all spring and summer and everything went into the root cellar for the winter. Even the meat we would procure. That was the best thing ever when you would be craving something and be able to just go out to the cellar and get it off of the shelf and just open the jar and go to town. Gosh I miss those days.


We didn't have a root cellar but did have a big basement where we kept all the jars of canned "stuff". I would often go down with a spoon or fork and grab a jar of SauerKraut and polish it off and hide the empty.

When my mom found the stash of empties, you would have thought she found a bushel basket of beer bottles. I spent the next month scrubbing that dirt basement with a bucket and brush.


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## cengasser (Mar 12, 2012)

Glad to know that worked out.


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## JoKing (Mar 11, 2012)

seabeedaddy said:


> Thank you for all the good info.


Your handle made me start singing P.T. Jodies in my head damn you lol.

C-130 Rollin' down the strip. 
Seabee daddy gonna take a little trip.


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