Thinking Pumpkin Pies - Wordless Wednesday

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole

Food Storage Planning For Self-Sufficiency

The squash & pumpkin plants

I have been very busy working so hadn't gotten a new post on in a couple of days. Finally have sat down to update my eBook, My Homesteading Journey. So many things have changed since I wrote that book back in April of 2007 that it needed quite a lot of updates. I am planning on offering it for sale on Amazon on their Kindle. So the updating process is in progress.

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

Spring Time Garden Planning

As I am planning my garden this year I am struck by how many people do not take the time to do this themselves. People will always comment to me about how great it is that I garden but they don't do it themselves. It makes no sense to me why all people do not do this. Once you have put it in, it does not take that much time. You can mulch it so the weeds won't be a big problem. The food is so much better grown in your own garden.

Look at what a head of lettuce cost in the grocery store or even a local farmer's market. Many people are getting premium prices at the farmer's markets and farm stands due to the fact that the food is fresh and mostly organic. Some can't be labeled organic due to government regulations but it is organic just the same. You can grow that food yourself. Instead of paying those prices, use that money to pay for the seeds and some hand tools. Find a local horse owner to buy some rich compost from. There you go!

I use raised beds that my husband built of out of boards and then we have some we built out of rocks and one with cinder blocks. The cinder block ones are really easy to do. Another way to build a raised bed super easy is to buy the bags of soil at WalMart or Lowes or wherever. Lay it on it's side so it is flat on the ground. Then cut a big square on the bag almost to the ends, but not quite, leave some room there. Plant your seeds or plants in it just like that. It is like a little raised bed. You can have it on your porch or deck or in the yard. Very simple.

The idea is to plant wherever you can. Who needs those big lawns? I laugh at those people......complaining about the price of food, or about how the food in the stores is so full of bad stuff or horrible tasting (Why can't you get a decent cucumber or tomato in a grocery store is beyond me! I quit buying tomatoes in stores long ago.). Containers are also another good idea. I use a few containers too. I put them around my yard or on my deck too. Lettuce is something I grow a lot of. Salad vegetables.

Since I follow a low carb food plan, I make sure to grow lots of low carb foods. I also have many berries growing here and they are a low carb fruit. It does not take much money to get started. Just a piece of dirt or a few pots of dirt and some seeds. I do not use a rototiller as we feel it is not good for our dirt or the air. Bad enough that my husband uses a chainsaw, though soon he is planning on upgrading to a crosscut saw for our firewood.

So pick up a few packets of seeds next time you are out. Buy dirt if you have to or find some in your yard. If you have a chemical put on your lawn....STOP doing that! Just think of your lawn as future food. You can grow a lot of food out there and save so much money if you learn to preserve it for winter. If you have children it is so good for them to learn the skill of gardening. Times are getting worse and worse.......the days of gardening can save your family's life, now............and in the future.

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole