Jewell, Frank, marlingardener, sgmgarden, eileen, Kiasmum, and especially Sjoerd, these are beautiful compliments. A big thank you. They feel good. It is greatly satisfying to grow and put up my food for the Winter but I am no different than many others here. They just aren't posting. I believe it's just a family trait. My grandma and her family before her, saved food for Winter. I like the fact that we don't eat all the additives in our food like from the grocery store. Although I eat things that are bad for me at times. It's kind of counter productive but, no one's perfect. I like to be organized. Things run smoother, and cheaper, and there is less waste, including time. Not everything in my home is that clean and tidy. I wish is could be. Sometimes, even the pantry gets messy and I have no guilt for it. I will clean to it at a later date. As carolyn keiper and my mom have said to me, the dirt will be there waiting for me tomorrow. I think that's what life is all about. You know, It's not for saving money or eating healthy or any of those things as much as the nature of saving the basic needs for life. I have done much work at times knowing that I would be giving it away to someone who would like it. Thank you all again for your kind words. I wish more people would post about preserving food.
Well Ware--what a nice posting. I found it a bit philosophical as well ad thankful--I do not say this in a comical way (note the absence of quotation marks). I like philosophical comments and personally I can see philosophical aspects to gardening in particular, as well as life in general. Quite a thoughtful posting, Waretrop.
With all the produce you grow, can, cook and eat you certainly have a full time job. If your hubby ever wants to know how much you bring to the economy of the household price tags on those jars wouldn't be a bad thing I admire all your hard work. It certainly takes your hobby to a whole new level seeing your pantry. When I was a kid everyone's pantry looked like that. There was also a freezer full of meat grown from animals we had met. Doesn't happen often any more.
It may not be what I raised but I buy in bulk, cheaply. I also can things like my bacon along with freezing some. You probably can't see it but hanging on each shelf of this freezer is a label of what is on that shelf. Like beef, chicken, fish, etc. You see, here is where my mom went wrong. She told me that a full freezer was much more efficient and saved electric.
Barb, one of life's great joys is looking at the rows of jars at the end of a day of canning. The other great joy is stashing bags or containers of frozen food in the freezer. I can some vegetables, freeze herbs and vegetables that don't lend themselves to canning, and swap/trade with others for fish from the pond, and grass-fed beef. I must admit, I don't have tags identifying what is on the freezer shelf--I'm more of a hunter/gatherer, finding little frozen surprises toward the back, and "Oh, my, there's the Hunter's Stew from last November!" I admire your organization, and your enthusiasm!
Labeling the shelves takes less time to find things and you will use less energy. BTW, I have a fridge (only) and a freezer (only)for meat, in my kitchen and a freezer (only) for veggies, in my pantry. They are set at different temperatures. I also have a fridge just outside my hot tub room for our eggs that I will be selling. It goes into the hot tub room for the Winter. Maybe I am not so anal but just eccentric.
mart, Last year I did whole pints and just squeezed and strained no sugar. I has a very large bag of lemons. This year I only had a little bag so I did half pints with strained and sugar added. We use it in our iced tea. I tasted it and it's a little too sweet so I won't do that anymore. I water bathed them for 10 minutes and I'm at 1001 feet.
I have been getting a pot full of tomatoes every day so I saved yesterdays and this morning and after I got Donna S's green salsa under way, I chopped all the ripe tomatoes and let them cook forever. I was able to can up 4 pints of very thick sauce. Can you see how thick it is?
Spend about 10 hours today in the kitchen. Canned 7 pints of Lima beans and 10 quarts of pickled beets and 8 pints of regular beets. All the jars are now washed and labeled and on their shelves. As you must realize I got a great buy on both veggies. If the Lima Beans are good we will go back and get more next weekend. I don't use allot of them each year and probably next year I will grow them and dry them as well as can them but I would like to have more during this Winter.
I did tomato paste today. Two half pints and 3 quarter pints. Looks very good. tomato paste 2013 tomato paste 2013 Does anyone do tomato paste? Now I have to figure out what to do with Kiwi and Tomatillo. I don't have much of these things.
Barb I have a question. Do use a pressure canner or a water bath for your spaghetti sauce? I have heard negative results with the water bath method from what I have read online. I have canned using a water bath canner for years but never spaghetti sauce. Or should I forgo the canner and just freeze the sauce?
Chrisle, It depends on your like as to whether you freeze or can tomato sauce. My mom liked frozen and I do not. One is the percentage of acidity and non acid stuff. If you don't know or don't want it more acid, pressure can it. When you add 'things' to tomato sauce you change that acidity, like onions, carrots, and celery, and things. That's why you hear so many different things. If not sure you will see people add lemon juice. So when you hear water bath or pressure can, look and see if they added lemon juice. That'll help you understand. So like, my tomato paste...I didn't want to add more liquid (lemon juice) to the tomatoes for it took 5 hours to get paste as it was, so I wasn't sure what the acid content was so I pressure canned them. Explaining about canning is difficult so I hope everyone understands this. It's not worth making a mistake.
Thanks for some understanding on this. I have added onion and green peppers with the spices and that is all. Recipe calls for lemon juice. I still feel a tad bit uneasy with the added green peppers and onion so I don't know about the acidy level. Guess I will go with freezing it this year since I don't have a pressure canner. Thanks again, much appreciated!
