A lineup showing just a couple jars of what we've been able to put up over the last two weeks here at the half-acre homestead. Our shelves in the garage are now over-flowing with food to last into the winter season.
As I enter the fifth week of unemployment, I’ve started purging my magazine racks scattered throughout the house. It’s been a welcome sight for my Homestead Hottie, seeing a few magazines trickle out the garage door and into the recycling bin destined for bigger and better things than collecting dust and taking up valuable space.
I got a bit ticked though thumbing through the November 2009 issue of Organic Gardening though. A brief article flipped my lid, informing me for the first time that canning jar lids produced by Jarden (brand names include Ball, Kerr, Golden Harvest and Bernandin) contain BPA. Bisphenol-A is the very industrial chemical that we have diligently tried to purge from our home and food supply, tossing storage containers, water bottles and even commercially canned food. Now I come to find out my freshly preserved organic goods from the garden might be tainted with a chemical linked to reproductive and developmental problems, diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
The news disgusts me since Homestead Hottie, Darling Daughter and I just wrapped up two very busy weeks preserving this Summer’s harvest. So far we’ve proudly home canned and shelved:
4 jars of cinnamon apple slices
4 jars of pickles
12 jars of strawberry jam
4 jars of halved tomatoes
8 jars of apple sauce
3 jars of apple butter
8 jars of tomato sauce
3 jars of whole tomatoes
5 jars of chicken stock
Some websites claim the only lids containing BPA are those with a white coating on the inside. One or two mention that Jarden quit using BPA in their products. Still others yet warn of chemicals used in the competitors lids (Tattler) called POM which apparently contains formaldehyde. Now I’m so confused I don’t know what to think. I’m trying to put a call into Jarden to see what info they can give me about the situation. Stay tuned for updates!
In the meantime, I’ll keep looking at the alternative to avoid BPA in our home canning. What have you done to keep the chemical out of your food supply?
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You can dehydrate your food at 118 degrees or less and preserve all the nutrients!
Thanks for the tip Lisa! We tried dehydrating some tomatoes last year and they looked amazing stored in a mason jar all winter. They tasted amazing when added to soups and sauces too.