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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The # 10 Can and A STORY




food packaging at honeyville


 image from Honeyville Grains

On our group offering free items, a woman wanted to offer #10 metal stuff full of food. You know that I replied. I waited until exbf got to me and we started. He was bf at the time.

was Copied.)  At  least, I Had written tHe post. Grrrr  THe Cap started working on tHis paragrapH.(I wrote tHe first two statements witHout some letters working, like tHe letter between b and d in tHe alpHabet. Plus, tHe H only works as it is written. It is really Hard to write witHout proper use of use at all of some letters. I Had to rewrite tHe first two sentenCes after tHe piCture

I got the directions and we started out sort of late in the day. It got later faster than I thought it would. Plus, he did not follow the directions well. I made mistakes in interpreting them. However, he still made mistakes separate from mine. We argued a bit. He became frustrated but patient. He was still trying to impress me, I guess.

Mind you, these were country directions: when you get past the third stand of trees...; turn on the only paved road and.....; go over two big hills and when you get to the third hill...; turn left when you get to the biggest barn...when you pass the old Baptist church....you get the idea. I like road signs, church names and I don't like to figure out what counts as a big curve when the road is full of curves, just a curvy road in general. Stand of trees? Give me a break. There are trees all over, and I am just trying to hold it between the ditches.

We got to the end of the road and I told him to turn in the driveway. Only, it was not a driveway. It was dusk, almost dark, and it was just a yard. I ordered him to back out, and to spite me he just kept going. He was going to drive across the yard to the driveway and drive out. Okey dokey! Soon, we were mired up to the axle.

Luckily, the homeowners came home because they saw us in their yard. There were three pickup trucks! They were pretty rough looking and I was afraid. These guys were nice as could be. They tried to tell exbf how to get the car out. Finally, one of the guys got in, put the automatic transmission in some appropriate gear and we roared right out of the mire.

They directed us to the right house. The freecycler told me her house was low, below the road. Good Grief! She was in a hollow, about 70 feet or more almost straight down. We were going to have to climb a fence and try to walk down. I told her we would pass on the food since I had knee problems and he needed a hip replacement, that we were sorry.

She was so nice and brought up a dozen #10 cans. I was happy as a pig in mud. Exbf was not happy at all, just grim, but not yelling or fussing.

Exbf drove me twenty miles back up the interstate to home and then turned right around and drove 75 miles back to his home. I did not mean to be so much trouble. I just hauled the cans in and went to bed.

Back to the woman who gave me these. She was talking to us, telling us that the cans had been stored in the shed for so many years that she decided to get rid of all of them. I worried about storing the #10 cans in a metal shed that sits in the sun all summer in the South and in the winters where it freezes often enough but not for long freezes. I really worried.

I gave exbf a can of apples that I opened and put into a couple of gallon bags.  He brought them back last year, saying he did not like them. The hens got those. All the rest happened about five years ago.

All the cans were canned at the LDS place near here, well, in Nashville. The expiration dates were about five years prior to our having received them. Between the bad expiration date and the storage conditions, I worried more.

Several weeks after receiving these #10 cans, I had exbf to open one that was mightily bulging. I handed him the can and can opener and asked him to go outdoors and open it. He insisted he was going to open it right in the kitchen. We argued. It was sort of loud. He assured me a bulging can would not explode all over.

Finally, when I told him "never mind," he went outdoors. I followed him shortly, just in time to see canned peanut butter or butter, forget which, explode all over him and the great outdoors! There hung a yellow haze around the yard for hours. He was covered from head to foot. mostly from hair to waist. He had set it on a retaining wall in the back yard, making the can chest high. Only his glasses saved him from being blasted in the eyes.

The blasted wall remained yellow for days. I think the blast drovc the powder so hard that a hose would not clean it, not that he tried hard.



Nothing was edible in any of the cans. Store your #10 cans properly and don't mess with bulging cans and please watch the expiration dates!

Your turn
Have you ever had any powdered food stored in #10 cans explode in your face? Even worse, has it exploded indoors? Were you laughing too?

21 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For anonymous whose comment I accidentally removed: No, a bulging can is not always indicative of botulism. And, as for your question about what was the idea in opening it? I wanted the can.It was a gallon can. I have only had half a dozen cans in forty years that have been swollen. All those were wrapped and put in the trash.

      Delete
  2. Hahaha! That can exploding gives new meaning to the expression Big Bang Theory :-)

    I have not done much in the way of long-term food storage...I have a lot of book knowledge, but have never been organized enough or had enough cash on hand to get past a year's storage.

    Sorry the cans didn't work out for you, but isn't freecycle a great idea? I got my kitchen stove (with self cleaning oven) and lots of other items from there...and gotten rid of loads of stuff too. I love freecycle.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sue,
    It certainly was a Big Bang!

    I was going to use it to see what it was like in case I ever did get money to buy any. However, when I saw how far past the expiration date they were and saw where she had stored them for the last dozen years, I sort of gave up and was going just salvage the can.

    A year's storage is more than I have.

    Yes, the same woman gives away stuff all the time. However, since I know where she lives, I never try to get anything from her.

    You must live in a great area for freecycle.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So, what would you think causes a can to swell if it's not botulism? If it's acidic (tomatoes, things processed with ample amounts of vinegar) it could be hydrogen gas. Not good. If it wasn't an acidic product, then they bulge from microorganism --which can include yeast, or botulism. The bulging is from Carbon Dioxide, a byproduct of the microorganism waste (poo, if you will). Since you cannot tell from THE OUTSIDE of the can if is swollen because of hydrogen or carbon dioxide gas, it's a foolish thing to mess with. Since you DID NOT KNOW what was in the can, what you did was insanity. How did you KNOW it wasn't dangerous? Or were you just being silly? The reality is, even rotted food in a no-oxygen environ will smell bad. Messing with far, far past dated foods from the description of the storage area is a death wish. Seriously. No amount of shucking and jiving will make it cute and not concerning.
    No bulging can is worth messing with, for any reason. Plus, with a bulging can, the amount of pressure can be pretty immense (as you found out). Most cans fail before they can become explosive, but a well made, well sealed can can be a grenade (as you found out). There have been people injured, and exploding cans have damaged pantries. Haven't you ever taken physics? What were you thinking? This is hardly cute or amusing, but seriously confusing and confounding. Are you daft, woman?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All I can say is lighten up! Geesh!

      Delete
    2. Sue,
      Agreed. Thanks.I just posted that she exposed herself as a racist, also!

      Delete
  5. Deana of Dixie,
    Could you ever impart information without being insulting, demeaning, and obnoxious. By the way, this falls in the realm of biology not physics, both of which I took in high school and college.

    "Shucking and jiving?" You also accuse me of lying!

    I suppose I am daft to have published this comment!

    If you really live in Dixie, you skipped the lesson on manners.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Deana of Dixie,
    You just exposed yourself as a racist!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bulging #10 cans + BB gun=memorable 4th of July display next year.

    I've got a bunch of overcarbonated beer bottles I've got to defuse in the garage. Not looking forward to the job.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr. Homegrown,
      Are you sure they will last until then? They sound like they could be dangerous. Just wear armor and make a video.

      Delete
  8. Not racist, just tired of stupid women.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anon aka Deana of Dixie,
      Yes, shucking and jiving refers to the clever and facetious actions of Blacks when they did not tell the truth to Whites. Google "shucking and jiving racist." Yes, there are those who say it is not racist. It is. You are so far from Dixie that you are not aware of this.

      Delete
    2. If Linda's blog bothers you that much, maybe you shouldn't read it. Just a thought.

      Delete
    3. Pamela,
      Good thought!I was so flabbergasted by the vitriol in the comment that I posted it.

      Delete
  9. Linda, maybe you can include this story in a link roundup on April Fools Day on frugal entertainment. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pamela,
      You made me laugh! Okay, remind me next year. "Send Your Boyfriend Outdoors to have a #10 Can Explode in His Face." How is that? And, someone should have a camera. Okay, maybe reading this is enough entertainment.

      Coincidentally, Root Simple, on my blog roll had a post that fit this perfectly, so I told him about this post of mine.

      My wiping jalapeno peppers in my eye was funnier after two weeks when the swelling and burns went down than it was when it happened.

      Delete
  10. Oh, I guess I missed the uproar. It was a different comment that was removed.

    Does powdered food get botulism?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wendy,
    The cpmment I accidentally removed was saying a bulging can always meant botulism. Then Deana of Dixie was nasty and anon, also Deana, said she was tired of stupid women. Nice people. I explained the racist part.

    I don't know if powdered food gets botulism or not. From now on I will not post nasty comments. Anyone can disagre with me and point out why, and leave the anger and insults out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I don't get why people follow blogs they aren't interested in, disagree with or don't like. Seriously, don't they have anything better to do with their time?

      Delete
    2. In the last few months, I have quit following several blogs that upset me and that I don't agree with, especially after the husband of the blog woman started getting nasty with me when I asked questions of offered a suggestion after the woman asked what to do about a situation.

      That is just what I figured--this is a waste of my time!

      Delete

Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.