# All American 930 arrived!



## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Arrived home Friday and there was a big box on the porch, a BIG box. Took some saving up but looks like a real nice unit that will serve me well. Fits 19 pints (16 oz = .47 L) or 36 half pints (8 oz = .24 L). Being single I see no need for quart jars. If there is no power for refrigeration the food will go bad so using smaller jars. I could even see getting some 12 ounce (.35 L) jars too. Half pints look like a great size for single serving spaghetti sauces or a bowl of soup.

Also went to the local hardware store to get some jars. Pints $8, half pints $7 a case. I was looking them over and a gentleman came over and asked if I needed help. Said sure do, I need 20 cases of pint jars. He said ’20 jars or 20 cases?’ I stated cases again and asked why he would wonder? He kind of shook his head and said again, ’20 cases’. I said, ‘You’re right, best order me 20 cases of half pints too!’

We had a good laugh and I explained that I would need more but needed to save up for them. 12 jars to a case, figure the pints using two per meal, 3 meals a day, 6 jars, that is one case for 2 days or 40 days for 20 cases. Half pints: 3 each meal, 9 a day so 3 cases for 4 days, 20 cases is roughly 28 days’ supply. For a worst case scenario that is 2 months supply for just me, one month if the puppy runs out of her 6 month supply of food.

Looking from a logistics stance, what would I need for a year’s supply? Pint jars I would need 182 cases of 12. Half pints, 273 cases for a year or some combination of them both. I’m going to need a bigger house and LOTS more shelving.

I’ve only been planting ¼ of the garden because I have not been canning or sharing. It has been nice to give the earth a good rotation too. Realistically, I don’t think I could grow enough to fill 182 cases of pint jars (around 550 gallons or 10 - 55 gallon drums). Maybe, but that is a lot of stuff to grow!!! 273 cases of half pint jars looks a bit better at 409 gallons or 7 ½ - 55 gallon drums.

I have a good store of other canned goods so this is just to bring me some fresh home-canned veggies to supplement the FD stuff. It will be interesting to see how many jars I can fill from each row of crop. For instance on a 10’ row of beans, planted 3 wide on each row, how many will that give me. Never calculated before, there were just always beans when I needed them and I pick every day and cook fresh. Even the dried beans, they all went into one bag then I shelled and vacuum sealed them up. Never counted or made notes on the actual output per foot of row. Should be a fun season!


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

I use the pints because I'm planning meals for 1 as well, but I dont think you'll need multiple jars for a single meal unless you're doing something very different than me.

1 lb of chicken cubed
1 lb of beef (roast, ground, sausage)
1 lb of pork cubed
1 pint of chili
1 pint of beef vegetable stewy
1 lb of meatloaf


those are all pints... I would caution you though to consider mixing in wide mouth jars with the regular. The meatloaf for example can be very difficult to get out of a regular jar, but the wide mouth lets you easily cut it into quarters, and for me 1/2 jar is too much, it's 2 sandwiches worth of meatloaf, but thats a lot... but I figure thats better than having tons and tons of half pints of meatloaf jars. And I can plan on that being 2 meals for that day if I bake bread. 


Congratulations on your 930, I have the 921 and I'm seriously thinking about getting the Presto next, which I'll use as a 2nd and then I'll replace the 921 with a 941 and move the 921 to my BOL... once I get that sorted out lol. We'll see


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

The jars are all straight sided. The pints take wide mouth lids, the half pints take regular lids but are still straight sided. As you pointed out it will make sliding things out easier.

Thank you for the info, a pound of meat is a lot for one meal. I will most likely plan on stocking up on half pint jars. Sure I will have a lot of them but better that than wasting food if there is no refrigeration. They looked to be a good size for vegetables for one meal. I have filled one with corn and one with beans and it was a good portion size for me. Not packed them full mind you, I left 1” of headspace.


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