The squash & pumpkin plants
Our weather here has been pretty nice, not as hot as many parts of the country but not really cool yet either. Our Maple trees have been changing color already. Too soon! When it gets breezy now we see many leaves dropping from the trees. Makes me kind of sad to see this summer coming to an end. It has been our best so far. Every summer since we have lived here, my husband will complain about not having a summer. Last year was the worse and was even titled, "the year of no summer". Not this year. This year more than made up for last summer.
This is the time of year I start making my list for what I need for food and supplies. How much of this, and how much of that. I like to buy the vegetables that I don't grow or didn't grow for some reason or other. This year I am planning on buying a 50 pound bag of carrots at a local produce market I go to. These carrots are shipped from Canada and are big, thick and very tasty. I will pick them up in the morning and start canning. It usually takes me a few days to get the whole bag done. Then I will go back and buy a couple of bushels of beets and do the same as I did with the carrots. I am thinking of also doing the same with potatoes. You can do that with any vegetable you do not grow yourself. A large quantity is usually cheaper and easier to can at one time.
Squash & pumpkin plants spread out and need room!
I have been canning green beans and will continue as long as I have them. I may pick up an extra bushel of them if they have them. So for the time being my list will include these fruits and vegetables:
1. Carrots
2. Beets
3. Potatoes
4. Pumpkins
5. Winter Squash
6. Pickled Hot Peppers
7. Applesauce
8. Apples
9. Pears
10. Grape Juice
12. Elderberry Juice
13. Dehydrate celery leaves & celery
14. Dehydrate green peppers
15. Dehydrate onions.
16. Dehydrate wild plants for medicinal as well as for eating.
I will be canning meats but I can them after I get done with all of these. That will be another list itself. It looks like a lot of work but this is our food for the year and some of it lasts longer. One year I canned so many pumpkins that we ate them for a good four to five years. This is my favorite part of the homesteading life. The gardening and the harvest and food storage. Self-sufficiency is the end result.
Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
7 comments:
Katlupe, I am really intrigued by your lifestyle! I'm so glad you're sharing about it on the internet! Some day I want to learn to can. :)
On cannin: I'd like to learn one day also. I've heard so many horror stories on botulism that I'm kind of nervous!
Mary
marynate.blogspot.com
It is my favorite thing to do! There is nothing better than to look in your pantry and see all that food. Mary, I've heard many more stories about the food in the stores. I'd get nervous relying on that! If you follow the directions it is perfectly safe. You open the jar, smell it and make sure it looks okay. Then heat it up and boil it for 15 minutes before serving and it is usually fine. I have never had a problem with any of it.
That is one thing I have absolutely no experience in doing. I know mother did but after she and daddy divorced, she didn't do it so I never learned.
I'm not saying it is not work......it is. Especially cleaning and cutting up the vegetables for processing. But when I see my jars of food lined up it gives me a good feeling.
Ooh, you make me well, sort of jealous! I would love love love to be doing what your doing! Especially if I was 25 years younger because of my kids! What a wonderful lifestyle you have. I'm following your blog,hon.
Thank you Lauren! I wish I was 25 years younger too.....wow, then what I could be doing!
I want to thank everyone for their comments and for coming to my blog. I really appreciate it.
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