A Root Cellar Is Essential At Peaceful Forest Homestead

Our Food Supply Begins here

As anyone who knows me, knows, I LOVE to can. I love the whole process, from starting a seed in April, to taking my jars out of the canner. It gives me a good feeling, I am proud of doing it. I know many people are afraid of doing it, not enough experience. Or like my friend, Dawna, they take the bull by the horn and take off. She cans a lot and everything she can get her hands on. She is a true homesteader in every sense of the word.

The last step before cooking and eating it!

That said, I recently read some old newsletters that Richard Fahey (of the Christian Homesteading Movement) wrote a few years ago. He didn't like his family canning their foods (Not that HE had to do it). Of course, they didn't have a stove. They use a hearth, and I imagine that would not be easy to do. But they did can pickles and tomatoes. Both are foods that can be done in a water bath canner, so easier on a hearth than a pressure canner.

Buying Potatoes In Bulk to Store

They left much of their root crops in the garden in ditches and covered them with straw or hay. I can't imagine that stuff did not freeze, but he says not. When my husband and I lived in Bainbridge and was in our early stages of homesteading, we lived on an old farm and had the use of one of the barns there. It was metal though, and and had no insulation. We bought a 50 lb. bag of potatoes and a new metal garbage can. We thought we'd store the potatoes out there in the barn, but they froze. We were heartbroken to say the least.

  Root Cellar now

Now a root cellar, that is underground is completely different. You can bury a garbage can underground, but make sure it is at least below the frost line, which is 18 inches here. In the cellar of most old houses, you will find an old root cellar that is still usable. Our root cellar never got cold enough in the coldest winters to freeze a canning jar. I kept jars of canned food down there when we first moved here. The root cellar has windows and one of them will be able to opened a crack, to let the night air into the cellar in the warmer weather. In the morning, I close that window and open the pantry door to let that cool air into the pantry. At night I close the pantry door. That is how these house were built to use the natural sources to store your food.

Stairs to pantry have been replaced

Now we are working on it again. My husband rebuilt the stairs so they are safer now. He built a stone bench along the back wall, since the stone was already down there. I am planning on making some wooden boxes with metal screen covers on them so that the critters can't get into them. We are going to put up some kind of shelving but will have to keep the food inside a container of some sort due to mice. No matter how much I try, I cannot eliminate them for good. So to combat them, I am keeping the jars in Rubbermaid containers. The fresh produce that I want so badly to store, will have to be protected. No hanging my cabbage from the rafters. No open baskets of potatoes and other vegetables. Everything has to be protected. Don't tell me to get a cat, I have 4 very good hunters and they get mice almost daily, as do our garter snakes who are in abundant amounts this year.

Callie Cat

Making plans is part of homesteading. Planning for the future and your food supply is a major part. Do you have a plan? If not, why not? In any emergency, food is essential, whether you are a homesteader or not. Gardening is the most important thing you can do for your family. Don't let them down!

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2013  Kathleen G. Lupole

The Art Of Canning Food

Photo Credit: The National Archives

I am so afraid the art of canning could be lost if us older women don't teach the younger ones how to do it. So many women will post on one of the cooking forums or homesteading forums how they are afraid to do it. They are afraid of the pressure canners. They are afraid of the food not being safe. So they don't do it. The ones who take the big step and do it are usually quite pleased with themselves when they see the jars of food cooling on the counter. Not to mention how great it is when you put the food away in your pantry on your shelves. That is indeed a great feeling! I have to admit that I love canning food. But I always hate using it up or seeing my jar count going down.

You need a pressure canner for canning all meats and most all vegetables. If you are canning tomatoes, it depends on the type of tomato as the newer ones do have the acid in them. Or you can add lemon juice to each jar, which is what I do no matter what. Just to be on the safe side. The heirloom tomato varieties are the ones that are acidic so you can use a water bath canner for them. The water bath canner is used for your fruits, jams, jellies, preserves, juices and  dairy products.

There are a few good books that will help you. The most famous canning book is The Ball Blue Canning Book. It gives you good information and is easy to follow. Not very much money and is definitely worth the money. I learned to can from my father, who is 91 now. He taught me how to can grape jelly and grape juice from the wonderful grapes he grows. I took it from there and learned to do all the jams, jellies, preserves, fruits and juices. Then wanted to do more...........which led to me buying my first used pressure canner from a garage sale for ten bucks. I still use that one but added a new one as my Christmas present to myself last year. 

This 23-quart Presto Canner is the one I bought and told about it in this post "My New Pressure Canner Works Great!". So I won't repost that topic here. You can read it on that link. I like this canner very much and have used many times so far. I also can use it as a water bath canner which is very handy. There are many different sizes, price ranges and styles available so just study them and research the ones you might want to purchase. One thing I always do on whatever I purchase is to read the reviews on Amazon. Even if I am not purchasing it there, I read the reviews which are written by other buyers and are quite honest. The women who reviewed this canner were VERY helpful and gave me some wonderful advice. So be sure to check them out.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Fall Is On The Way

It is Fall already here in upstate New York. We have been feeling it in the air for a couple of weeks already. Our Robins are gone. The only birds I hear now are the Blue Jays and Woodpeckers. I miss the Robins singing while I work out in my garden. Every year, that is what I look forward to - seeing my first Robin. Now, it's time to stock up on bird food, especially for the chickadees. They come right up to me and demand to be fed, all winter long.

I canned more green beans today. And made some banana bread. So I wasn't on my computer this morning. Some days, I just have to get my household chores done. Neither one of those chores are really chores to me. I love to can food! I buy it in the grocery store on sale and bring it home to can. Once I mastered using my pressure canners, I became the canning queen! My father taught me to can, and what he showed me how to make was grape jelly. As he grows lots of grapes. Now I usually can it as juice, and if I need jelly or jam, I can can that. Last year, I canned lots of Elderberry Jelly, so this year, I plan on canning the Elderberry Juice. As it is good to have around, as a preventive measure for catching the flu - even the bird flu!

My husband knows how to can food too. Our first year that we had a garden, he canned 40 quarts of corn, 49 quarts of green beans, over 50 of pickles and I canned 48 quarts of pumpkin. I was working at that time, and he was home, so he was left to do most of the gardening and canning. And we have never used a gasoline rototiller to do our gardens. My husband has one of those wheel hoes, that he plows our gardens with. Both houses we had gardens at had never had a garden before. So he had a lot of hard work to get it in. But he doesn't like the fumes in our garden area. Last year, he started building beds for our garden, and we both like them so much better. I built some stone beds too. And we plan on adding more of those. Our plan is to grow as much as our food as possible.

My tomatoes are still green as I got them in late, due to heavy rains we had here earlier in the spring. So if they don't turn red, I will bring them in and wrap them in paper and turn them red inside like that. Or I will, slice them and fry up some good ole fried green tomatoes, which is something we love! A couple of years ago, Jackie Clay (my favorite author, who writes at Backwoods Home Magazine) said that you could put them in a pie, and tell everyone it was a apple pie and nobody would know the difference. Well, I did that. My husband knew immediately that it was not a apple pie! He ate it, as he will not waste food (unless you give him onions or mushrooms!), but he was not crazy about it. Sorry, Jackie.

My brother, Mickey Dran, better known as "The Marshall", puts on a wild west show called "The Spirit of The Old West", and he has been doing this for a number of years now. Tomorrow his show will be robbing the Cooperstown Railroad in Cooperstown, New York. His show uses black powder guns, and the kids usually love it. They dress in period clothes, and he is a stickler for detail. So it should be a fun time for all!

Well, I'll try to be back tomorrow. Have a great week end!