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Shelf life of home canning?

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

Rule of thumb for pressure and water bath is a year.  We try to stick to that, but sometimes things get pushed to the back.  Have been putting things up for winter.  Found a hot dill relish from three years ago.  Top looked fine, haddnt popped.  Opened, looked, smelled, seemed good.  Had it with lunch and I am not puking.

Curious to know where other folk draw the line.  Do you do the rule of thumb?  Do you have different rules for pressure vs. water bath?
 
When you say canning, I assume you mean glass jars. Honestly I've opened jars of grandmas jam that are probably 4 or 5 years old and it is usually fine. 
 
most "rule of thumb" for pressure or BWB canned is 2 years.....but as Erol~ stated, some things 4-5 years.  Maybe not green beans, meat or fish, but jams? for sure 4-5 years.  Fruits and pickles seem to stay good 2-3 years.  At some point there will be some degradation in texture and color, but as long as the jars are properly sealed and they PFFFT when opened, the food should be safe to eat.  
 
Noone ever does this anymore, but I remember my mom processing jams with the wax on top.  Now-a-days, we all do the pectin and hot pack method.  I wonder what the difference is?  I'll have to google that up~
 
She would save the wax off the top, wash it and remelt it for the next year.  
 
I have some AJ puree circa 2009. I ain't skerd either.
 
I just used some puree 2011 (which had been shelf stable for 5 years then refrigerated) in my lunch today~
 
salsalady said:
She would save the wax off the top, wash it and remelt it for the next year.  
Click to expand...
Not sure what she used the wax for.  But some of my relatives reused lids by covering them with parafin.  Today, preppers tend to stock up on wax so they can still do canning should they not be able to buy new lids.  I use cheese wax to battle rust so I can keep using the same rings.  After everything is cool and dry, you dip top into melted cheese wax.

I think you said you sell at farmers markets.  My jam sales almost doubled when I started doing the wax thing.  I would dip red and then decorate with green using a turkey baster.  I think they were going as Christmas gifts.  With the new plan to have an on farm mini market, might do it again and take photos.
 
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