Free Food

I says free food but truly is anything free in this world?

The next big purchase I recommend is a pressure canner. This is one I would buy because you don't know what you're getting in a thrift store or how good the seals are and you don't want this sucker blowing up on you. You are going to need that canner and freezer after my next post.

Would you like free apples, peaches, oranges??? Do they grow them in your area? If they do it's time to talk to your local grower because if you didn't know, once the fruit hits the ground they can no longer sell it. Because of this a lot of them will let you come in and pick up the ground fruit for free. Now mind you this fruit isn't pretty and is most likely bruised but when you're freezing and/or canning it it doesn't matter, you just cut that part off. Now all farms don't allow you to do this for free but they still may allow you to do it at low very low cost.

Now onto free meat and I'm not talking beef people. This time you need to contact the police department to see if they have a road kill list. NO I'm NOT joking!!! When people hit deer with their cars the police come out to do the paperwork for the insurance. So there's this big slab of venison on the side of the road and if you hit it they are going to ask if you want it. Id not they will call the next person on the road kill list or they will call whatever department is needed to come haul it away.

As long as the deer's gut hasn't been ruptured then the meat is fine. I can't stomach cleaning the deer myself but my husband is a hunter so he does that part. One thing to remember is you aren't used to venison is make sure you cut off any blood shot meat. This is the bruising from the impact. Also when cutting up the meat make sure to remove all the fat you can. Deer fat is what gives it that gamey taste that so many people complain about. Once you have it cut off the bone you can freeze or even can it. We prefer to can ours because it lasts longer.

If you enjoy canning you can find even more free food as small grocery stores and farmer's markets. Ask them if you can have there throw aways. This is the produce that is starting to rot. My mother in law was given 7 flats of strawberries one time. We sorted threw them and were able to save and freeze about 60% of them. The rest went to her hogs.