howardgillis
Handyman
Reged: 07/22/07
Posts: 1146
Loc: Fort Mill, S.C.
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My father passed away and we found about 175 jars of home canned home grown vegetables and fruits. Dates range from 1991 to 2005. Now, he always gave me boxes of green beans, tomatoes, and greens. There are a good many jars of greens. They look very tasty and fresh, but the date is 1997. A neighbor who cans, says the standard on safety, if it smells ok when you open the jar, is about 12-13 years. Then we have me, who picked out the 60 jars of stuff I did not want like asparagus, peaches, sliced apples, pear jam, soup(too many potatoes), things I do not eat. My idea was to throw these away. My sister wants to donate them to a food bank. We have a place called Pilgrim's Inn and I called them and they said YES, we accept donated home canned foods and we will look at each jar and decide if it is safe to give away. DUH, not with my signature or my car tag number within your view. Suppose someone got sick or poisoned by old food and tried to take legal action.
What is the rule on age?
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notnew2diy
enthusiast
Reged: 08/18/06
Posts: 326
Loc: harvard, il.
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1 - Has the seal poped-up? Push down on the lid.
If it "clunks", toss the contents. Jar and ring can be reused.
2 - Remove lid. Does the top look good? Anything sticking above
the liquid? Smell good? Any discoloration? The fruits may have browned.
Toss em if in doubt.
3 - Try one. How's it taste?
4 - How/where was it stored? You'll have better luck if it was in a cool
dark place (ie under basement stairs).
FWIW...My parents had a bumber crop of strawberrys for a few years.
I just finished my last jar of s-berry preserves dated June, 97. Im not
saying there wasn't a bad jar or two over the years(you could tell immediately),
but over all I was suprised they still looked and tasted good.
HTH..have fun...notnew....
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howardgillis
Handyman
Reged: 07/22/07
Posts: 1146
Loc: Fort Mill, S.C.
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Quote:
1 - Has the seal poped-up? Push down on the lid.
If it "clunks", toss the contents. Jar and ring can be reused.
2 - Remove lid. Does the top look good? Anything sticking above
the liquid? Smell good? Any discoloration? The fruits may have browned.
Toss em if in doubt.
3 - Try one. How's it taste?
4 - How/where was it stored? You'll have better luck if it was in a cool
dark place (ie under basement stairs).
FWIW...My parents had a bumber crop of strawberrys for a few years.
I just finished my last jar of s-berry preserves dated June, 97. Im not
saying there wasn't a bad jar or two over the years(you could tell immediately),
but over all I was suprised they still looked and tasted good.
HTH..have fun...notnew....
stored in climate controlled kitchen cabinets and some in the garage. I can look at the tomatoes and tell a potentially bad one, but the green beans and greens all look good to me, despite age. The 1991 peaches look very bad. My sister insists on giving all the 1991 thru 2005 jars, that I do not want for myself, to the food bank. They'll then decide what is good or bad.
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