I am very domesticated... I used to bake all of my own bread and brew my own beers - but I am cutting down on the carbs. I still make country wines from my berries and sugar free jams too. I also make the best tomato sauce and freeze it for winter.

@FrostyJim I try to stay away from freezing except when it comes to things I might need soon. Do you know about Pomona's pectin. It is for low sugar recipes. If guys like us want to have a modicum of comfort we need to become domesticated. i have been told I would make someone a good wife. lol

@JackPedigo - I always prefer fresh frozen vegetables over canned - they seem to hold their color and nutrients better. I have done steam blanching too that is supposed to preserve even more nutrients. It is certainly easier and faster than pressure canning. Many people up here in Alaska do pressure can fresh salmon - but I just never did pressure canning myself. I also prefer fresh frozen salmon when done right in vacuum bags. I still do water-bath canning for pickles and jams or with high acid tomatoes. Since I have been making my roasted tomato sauce, I prefer to freeze it in thin sandwich containers. Once frozen I will pop my sauce out of the plastic container and seal in vacuum bags for long term storage. I also freeze all of my loose blanched vegetables or fresh berries on sheet pans first and then seal in vacuum bags and store in my deep freezer out in my garage. My home does not have a basement for storing many jars of canned foods like I did back in Iowa where every farmhouse had a root cellar room in the basement or canning shelves for preserved foods.

@FrostyJim I do understand how freezing can preserve more flavors than canning and I do some. But mostly, I guess I like to see rows of jars sitting on the shelf that requires no energy and can last for years. I did learn a trick with plums and that is to crack the pit and place several almond nuts in the canning jar. These nuts will return any flavor back to the fruit.

I always found beans easy to grow back in Iowa. They need warm soil to germinate and that can be a problem here in Alaska as our soil takes a long time to warm up even when the spring days are warm and sunny. The saying up here is "There are Bean years and then there are Lean years." ...depending on the spring weather. I always grow bush beans that don't need a trellis and Italian Roma were my favorite variety - but these purple beans are very easy to pick as the beans stand out from the green foliage. I usually just blanch and bag green beans for the freezer - but I like pickled Dilly Beans too and have made them in the past. Sitting on the porch with Grama snapping beans was usually a family ritual in Iowa and most people would pressure can green beans with bacon or salt pork.

@FrostyJim Pressure cooked with a bit of bacon was how my grandma made green beans. I still enjoy them cooked that way but rarely do it. I did discover, years ago that if I cook canned (tin can) beans the same way, they still come out with that strange, overcooked, bacon taste that I enjoyed. Still prefer them sauteed however.