In today's Q&A, I wanted to give my thoughts on a question that I got in my Facebook group,

the Beginners Garden Shortcut, that I thought was a fantastic question, yet it's so simple.

I asked, is there anything that intimidates you about preserving?

And someone commented, is it even worth it? This person recognized that it's a good

skill to have, but with the canned goods on the grocery shelves not being that expensive,

is it really worth the time and the effort that it takes to preserve? And I think that's a fair

question. And to be quite frank, I pretty much ask myself that

every year when I get exhausted in the canning process over the summer. Many of you guys saw the

Instagram story I did last year where I was just like, I'm exhausted. Is this worth it? I'm so tired.

So it really is a good question, especially if you do work a full-time

job or you have young kids or time in general as scarce, is it worth the effort to start preserving?

First, let's talk about the practical side of preserving. After all, that was the whole reason

I got into it. My first season, I grew my garden to save

money on groceries. And so the question does present itself, is it even worth it when if you're a good

cue potter or a savvy shopper, a lot of times you can get some of these canned goods for cheap.

I remember buying canned corn for 39 cents a pint. Now these days, who knows if you'll ever be able to get that again.

But the point is, if you're a savvy shopper, you can get canned goods pretty cheap.

But the reality is you probably aren't going to get those canned goods that cheap.

I don't know if it's the same now as it was then because I've been canning most of my products

for so many years. But when I was doing the couponing and savvy shopping and all of that,

the canned goods that you got on sale, they were that cheap, usually one time of year. And that

was right around Thanksgiving. Sometimes there would be sales and other times. But for the most

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