growing for canning/preserving

Speaking of the old book, there was a small section in there devoted to growing for canning/preserving, kind of a calculator like we have for MM. Is there anyway that someone could put that info into an online spreadsheet or send me the info and I can try to do one of those google document things. I could always get the old book from the Library and do it, but sometimes getting hubby to swing by and pick it up is challenging due to his schedule, even though I go online, request it, they pull it, and have it at the drive thru waiting on him. While I'm on this subject, is there anyone here that could give me permission to do this on a google document and share it here if it is needed? I'm getting ready to stick my corn in the ground and want to make sure I have enough to last a year for my kids and me, we cannot get enough of that stuff.

Okay, back to the original topic-sorry, I'm a bit scatterbrained and if I went somewhere else with out a post it note on my forhead I would have forgotten what I went there for, and if I get up to get a post it note, I'd forget what I needed it for.

that would be awesome if you could do that! When you say "old book" are you referring to the first SFG book? I own the most recent book.

I see half of a page that is titled "A Garden for Stocking Up"

one line reads:
carrots 256 plants yields 30lbs.

Is that what you mean? There's only seven veggies listed.

I found alot of information on http://www.pickyourown.org/canningcarrots.htm

carrots
17.5 pounds (without tops) is needed per canner load of 7 quarts. An average of 11 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel (without the tops) weighs about 50 pounds and yields 17 to 25 quarts jars ; an average of 2.5 pounds per quart.

grean beans
About 14 pounds of beans makes 7 quart jars; or 9 pounds is needed per 9 pints. A bushel, which produces anywhere from 13 to 20 quarts, weighs 30 pounds.

peas
About 14 pounds of peas makes 7 quart jars; or 9 pounds is needed per 9 pints. A bushel, which produces anywhere from 13 to 20 quarts, weighs 30 pounds. That works out to an average of 2 pounds of peas per finished quart jar.

Corn
According to the USDA, about 32 pounds (in husk) of sweet corn is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 20 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. Note that a bushel weighs 35 pounds and yields 6 to 11 quarts of canned corn, which is an average of 4½ pounds of corn in the husks per quart of finished canned corn.

is this the information you were hoping to find?

Sort of, I guess I'll have to request the book, it was how many per square, and how many squares per person and how many total per year, I know I just made that clear as mud.

I had a drawing of how many squares I would need for last years garden, but ran out of materials and boxes, and hubby wanted one last try at rowing corn (we have yet to have corn, its the only elusive crop we have ever had-kind hoping it fails this year so I can convince him what is missing is MM-slick huh).

I'll get the book, look it up, then holler for help on the google doc, was it Kimbertanglenot who did the seed database, and who did the MM calculator?

My mom found one of the old books at a Goodwill store. I should have it tomorrow. If it is the correct one, I'll be glad to assist with this project.

ok, now I know what your talking about . ( yeah, Im slow like that LOL). I googled some more and everything I find refers to "the other gardening style" and how much for a family of 4. They don't take into considerations like "teenage boys that eat you out of house and home" and really could be considered 2 family members instead of 1.

Tell me about it, my 22 year old came over for a visit the other day, walked in, said hi, and went to the fridge. The boy-oops man has his own fridge.

Thanks smartchick, basically I just want to know how many squares of corn to plant for me and my kids. Hubby won't eat corn unless it's in bread or tortillas, he claims to be alergic to it, and he was as a kid, but still won't eat it in it's natural state. I say the best way to eat corn is bend the stalk, peel back some of the husk, and take a bite. I'll try to get the book too from the Library and we'll see what we can put together, I don't want to have to count ears, count plants, just squares.

FarmerValerie wrote: I say the best way to eat corn is bend the stalk, peel back some of the husk, and take a bite. I'll try to get the book too from the Library and we'll see what we can put together, I don't want to have to count ears, count plants, just squares.

I'm a stickler for fresh corn, but you got me beat! I'll stand beside the corn patch and eat raw corn for lunch, but I take it off the stalk first!

Corn is the one thing I don't want to grow in MM; it would take way too much. I plant 1 seed per square foot. I grow long season corn (Peaches and Cream, the same as Dixie) and I expect to get 1½ ears per sf if I get decent weather.

Boffer, stick a pole bean in there with your corn, they play nice in the garden. Heck put the 4 recommended and then 4 beans and let them climb the corn, and do their thing in the soil, feeding the corn. I'll be playing with that plan this year, I'll let you know how it goes.

Just a reminder to give the corn a big head start, or the beans won't have anything to cling to.

(Disregard that if you're growing the same type that Jack did )

Yep, corn goes out on April 1 or 2, beans will follow when corn is 4" high, and yes squash is going in the same box too. I may try to hide some lettuce in there, just for fun, lettuce is hard to grow in the heat here, and it's already extremely warm.

Well, from the 1981 Version, here is what it says on page 31:

Crop	No of Plants	Harvest to Expect	Spacing
Bush Beans	144	35 lbs	4"
Carrots	256	30 lbs	3"
Cauliflower	16	14 heads	12"
Corn (short, early variety)	25	25 ears	9"
Corn (tall, late variety)	16	24 ears	12"
Onions	256	25 lbs	3"

That is all I see on gardens for canning...

OMG, THANK YOU!!!! That's what I was looking for, I can take it from there for my more "anal" needs.....

I'm not sure where that website got their data about sweet corn weight. The federal standards say that one bushel of shelled field corn weighs 56 lbs. and one bushel of corn on the cob weighs 70 lbs. Popcorn is the same.

There is a lot of variation in size among sweet corn varieties, but it is hard for me to believe any of them would weigh half as much as popcorn which usually has small ears.

I found one site online which said that there are usually about 48 ears of sweet corn in a bushel, but that can vary with variety.

Here is a table with standard weights:

Agriculture commodity weights

Ander217, the weight may very well be off, but I was looking for how many plants, which I can translate into how many squares. I know I don't have the space this year for a years worth of corn for me and my 2 kids, especially since I'm doing the three sisters method and only doing 8 mounds with 4 corn in 4 8x4 boxes and 6 mounds in 2 6x4 boxes, but this give me a start. I've tried before to plant to can/preserve but the math gave me a headache, however for some reason seeing it in Mel's first book just made things click. Now that I am armed with that info, I just feel better.

Smartchick wrote:Well, from the 1981 Version, here is what it says on page 31:

Crop	No of Plants	Harvest to Expect	Spacing
Bush Beans	144	35 lbs	4"
Carrots	256	30 lbs	3"
Cauliflower	16	14 heads	12"
Corn (short, early variety)	25	25 ears	9"
Corn (tall, late variety)	16	24 ears	12"
Onions	256	25 lbs	3"

That is all I see on gardens for canning...

FarmerValerie - in the Ball Blue Book there is a Garden Planning Guide near the back of the book that has the "Amount of food to be grown and preserved for a family of 6 persons." It lists 13 different crops and has the tomatoes divided up between how many pounds to grow for juice and how many to preserve whole. It even gives days to maturity, distance between plants, yield per 100 ft, (in lbs) If your library has a copy on the shelf, grab it!

TC

Goosegirl wrote:FarmerValerie - in the Ball Blue Book there is a Garden Planning Guide near the back of the book that has the "Amount of food to be grown and preserved for a family of 6 persons." It lists 13 different crops and has the tomatoes divided up between how many pounds to grow for juice and how many to preserve whole. It even gives days to maturity, distance between plants, yield per 100 ft, (in lbs) If your library has a copy on the shelf, grab it!

TC

When I saw this just now, I grabbed my own copy of the Ball Blue Book. My version is the Centennial, copyright 2009 but I bought in 2010 which I think was when it was released. It doesn't have a garden planning guide. It has a "home canning planning guide", though. It lists 12 vegetables, 12 fruits/berries. It is divided into peak seasons for north, central, and southern, purchase unit, purchase weight, number per pound, and pounds per quart. Nothing about days to maturity, spacing, or yield per 100 ft. CRY!!! Apparently they think we are all buying our produce now.

Megan wrote:

Goosegirl wrote:FarmerValerie - in the Ball Blue Book there is a Garden Planning Guide near the back of the book that has the "Amount of food to be grown and preserved for a family of 6 persons." It lists 13 different crops and has the tomatoes divided up between how many pounds to grow for juice and how many to preserve whole. It even gives days to maturity, distance between plants, yield per 100 ft, (in lbs) If your library has a copy on the shelf, grab it!

TC

When I saw this just now, I grabbed my own copy of the Ball Blue Book. My version is the Centennial, copyright 2009 but I bought in 2010 which I think was when it was released. It doesn't have a garden planning guide. It has a "home canning planning guide", though. It lists 12 vegetables, 12 fruits/berries. It is divided into peak seasons for north, central, and southern, purchase unit, purchase weight, number per pound, and pounds per quart. Nothing about days to maturity, spacing, or yield per 100 ft. CRY!!! Apparently they think we are all buying our produce now.

Mine's a 1999 for canning, freezing, and dehydrating. A friend of mine has one from the early 20th century and it has some of the most amazing info for growing and preserving!

TC

Goosegirl wrote:Mine's a 1999 for canning, freezing, and dehydrating. A friend of mine has one from the early 20th century and it has some of the most amazing info for growing and preserving!

TC

Mine has canning, freezing and dehydrating too, just not the growing part. Very sad.

Also, I will attempt to channel Ander for a second here and say something along the lines of "For your safety, always make sure to follow the most recent canning guidelines, as they are constantly being updated according to the latest food science." (She would say it better, of course! )

Megan:

I just searched the Ball website and they have several helpful PDF's available, but not one that addresses the chart in my book. I e-mailed the company to see what is up with removing it from the latest versions of the book, so hopefully I will have an answer and a chart to give to you soon. Otherwise, search thrift stores or check on ebay for older versions!

TC

Hey, how sweet of you to do that, thank you!

I don't have space to grow enough to put up all our food, even with just the two of us, but I'm making a stab at partial supplementation, and I'm sure that many forum members could profit by that information.

Megan, you channeled my words perfectly.

Although I have a 2009 edition of the Ball Blue Book for using, I keep my old 1984 edition around for "perusing". On page 10 is the Garden Planning Guide. It is only a guide, and your family's needs may be different. For example, it recommends 32 onions to do a family of six for a year. That amount would last my husband for about one month. It recommends 22 qts. of peppers for a family of six, but dividing that by three for a family of two still gives 7 qts. of pickled peppers. The two of us would never eat that many in a year's time. Still, I think it is a good basis to work from in making your own plan.

According to that guide, the amount of food needed to be grown and preserved for a family of six is as follows: (sorry, it's only in rows, not SF.)

Spinach - 40 lbs to make 20 qts; 90 ft. row
Broccoli - 48 lbs. for 24 qts; 60 plants
Carrots - 40 lbs. for 20 qts; 60 ft. row
Sweet potato - 48 lbs. for 24 qts; 100 plants
Winter squash - 40 lbs. for 20 qts; 60 ft. row
Tomatoes - 120 lbs. for 60 qts; 50 plants
Tomatoes for juice - 240 lbs. for 120 qts; from same 50 plants above
Peppers - 44 lbs. for 22 qts.; 65 plants
Cauliflower - 72 lbs. for 36 qts.; 60 plants
Peas - 48 lbs. for 24 qts.;120 lbs. of pods from 300 ft. row
Green Beans - 120 lbs. for 60 qts.; 200 ft. row
Okra - 30 lbs. for 15 qts.; 55 ft. row
Sweet corn - 72 lbs. shelled corn for 36 qts.; 170 lbs. of ears from 200 ft. row
Lima beans - 48 lbs. for 24 qts; 100 lbs. of pods from 400 ft. row
Beets - 24 lbs. for 12 qts; 40 ft. row
Cucumbers - 20 lbs. from 20 ft. row
Lettuce - 15 ft. row
Onions - 32 sets
Radish - 10 ft. row
Turnips - 24 lbs. for 12 qts.; 25 ft. row
Turnips greens - 40 lbs. for 20 qts.; 100 ft. row
Pumpkin - 24 lbs. for 12 qts; 10 ft. row

ander217:

It looks like with progressive editions they assume that less and less people are actually trying to grow food! Your 1984 edition has WAY more veggies listed in the guide than my edition 15 years later. I have been looking on ebay and have found several old editions for sale (even back to 1932). I think I may order a few of them to see if they have even larger lists!

TC

Oh, boy did I open a can of worms. And who grows 1 200 ft row of corn, most know you need at least 5 rows wide and I need another cup of cofffee to remember how long. I'm not one to figure pounds, I know that the canning books go by pounds, and I try, but my only scale is the cheapest bathroom scale I could find, and it's not always right. Oh bother (quotes pooh bear) I need more coffee before I start to tackle this one. I also need to dig out my canning book.