Homesteading where you are: Preserve

Week four in the series.

 

Week one: Intro
Week two: Make 
Week three:  Grow


This week is "Preserve".

To be honest, preserving is not my most favorite part of the DIY life.  Pick-wash-prep/make-freeze/can.  It's tiring with two littles.

I do it because it is important to me to have homegrown food available year round.  And I'm cheap and try to put off going to the grocery store as long as possible.

Instead of telling you what I do, I thought I'd give you inventory of what's homemade/homegrown/home preserved in my home right now. In my pantry, root cellar and freezer. Certainly, there are other things I have in these spaces, but I will stick to home grown. Questions, just ask.

Pantry.
 Dry goods I buy in bulk.
Bread cubes and bread crumbs.
Pancake mixes I premake.
Lots of dried kale.
Dried oregano, basil and parsley.
Apple cider vinegar.
Citrus cleaner.
Plethora of laundry detergent.






Root cellar (This was taken before harvest season. These jars are all full now).

Lots and lots of Apple Sauce.
Lots of Pear sauce.
Apple juice.
Peaches.
Sliced apples.
Apple pie in a jar.
Apple butter.
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
Peach Rhubarb Jam
Grape jam.
Dill pickles
Tomatoes.
Grape catchup.
Zucchini relish.

Whole sugar pumpkins, butternut squash, acorn squash and spaghetti squash. Potatoes. Onions.






Freezer.
Cinnamon rolls and a couple other breakfast treats.
Muffins/quick bread.
Cookies.
Pies.
Homemade pizza.
Fritatta.
A couple main dishes (I like to cook for an army and freeze half)
Garlic bread.
Sandwich bread.
Frozen waffles.
Meats my dad hunted for.
Pesto.
Cilantro.
Garlic scrapes.
Pasta sauce.
Gravy.
Green grape juice that I haven't done anythign with yet.
Veggies-corn, broccoli, cauliflower, green and yellow beans, kale.
Fruits-strawberries and rhubarb
(And I'm sure I could go on if I had a memory on me.)



So..that's a partial list of what I have preserved now.  It's different given the time of year and the whim of the cook/baker, but there's always something homegrown to eat.

Good thing, as I hear we're getting a foot of snow today.  Might as well dig those cinnamon rolls out of said freezer. 


And now your turn-are you a preserver?  Tell me what you preserve!

And do check out these other fantastic Homesteaders.  They will surely have lots to tell you.

Daisy, at MapleHill101, currently homesteads with her family in the suburbs of Central Florida.  Her vision is to move to a more rural property in North Carolina later this year and continue fostering a self-sufficient lifestyle, which includes chickens, a large garden and a permanent clothesline. 

Mary, at Homegrown on the Hill, lives in Southwestern Ohio with her family on a 5 acre homestead. Their goal is to be as much self sufficient as possible. In helping with this goal, they raise a big garden and keep chickens, rabbits, and cattle for food.



Staci, at Life At Cobble Hill Farm, was bitten by the homestead bug in 2006 and although she began her homesteading ventures in a rented condo, is now homesteading on less than an acre in Upstate NY.

Sue – at The Little Acre that Could, shares her body with an auto-immune disease, and life with her husband. They live in a once-working Victorian farm cottage now bordered by a modern subdivision. She has dreamed of homesteading as long as she can remember and continues to strive toward that goal in rural Atlantic Canada.


9 comments:

  1. Very impressive! You are one busy homesteader!

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  2. Oh you are a homesteader for sure I am impressed like your commentor above. I cannot imagine doing that now with no children around me. I used to do it with children but I think now our needs are less so my desire to preserve seems to have also decreased . Beautiful. Hug B

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  3. I want to learn how to do preserves! It's something I have wanted to do for the longest time but I've been scared of screwing up and making my family sick. I really should take a lesson.

    Your post and photos are inspiring.
    xoxo

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  4. Your list is so impressive! One of my goals for the upcoming gardening season is to be better at preserving our harvest!

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  5. You have quite an abundance! That is impressive with little ones. I am going to write down your list for some reference for myself. Those cinnamon roles sure would be good on a day like this! Great post!

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  6. Make room! I'm movin' in. :-) Wow! Your photos of home baked sweets look mouth watering. We are getting 30cm of snow today too. It makes me glad for the wood stove. Now, all I need is one of those cinnamon rolls and a hot chocolate....

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  7. You definitely have a full schedule! Love seeing your pantry - just beautiful. Can I ask who you get the bulk dry goods through? I've been trying to find a source for bulk rolled oats and don't know where else to look. Love the root cellar - that's one thing I'm working on. :)

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  8. Omgosh!! Everything looks amazing and you make a lot!! Where do you find time? I'm jealous of your root cellar....I wish we had one.

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  9. Jackie, for some one that don't like preserving you sure do preserve a lot of food. As for me a single bachelor, I don't have much in the store room and it's mostly store sale stuff. I am working toward a much higher home canned content but so far all that's in the store room is tomatoes and tomato soup that I have preserved from last year's garden harvest. It's a start and hopefully this will be the year to increase the home preserved storage. I love growing food but usually end up giving it all away. It's a lot of work to can it or pressure can it and that usually happens in the hottest time of the year. I might actually do more preserving when I get my outside canning station built. It's still in the idea stage without any real planning given to it yet. There are some things that can be stored without canning or freezing. Pumpkins, squash, onions, potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips can all be stored either in the store room or in the ground until extremely cold weather hits. Even then a good layer of mulch can keep the root crops stored in the ground.

    Winter gardening is just not my thing. It looks to be a lot of work for just a few winter salads. I hope you are enjoying all your preserved food during these cold winter months. Have a great day in the pantry.

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