For those of you who have commented that I never seem to rest....
I definitely have my moments! (ask Paul; I'm sure he'd say I don't do nuttin') :)
But remember... I have NO STRESS in my life right now (or at least...not much). When I wake up in the morning (6:00 lately to get Cassie to Cross Country practice), I wake up raring to go on most days.
HA! Okay....raring to go ONCE I've had my cup(S) of coffee and have caught up on blogs and emails :)
So, this morning.... the counter needed major de-cluttering from our Saturday of harvest!
DUH! No picture taken... we (kids and I) were already scurrying about to put everything away before I thought of this post.
As I was organizing the canned goods on the shelves in our cellar.... I kinda wondered if anyone was interested in seeing how we store everything we've been harvesting. ?? I never really know what holds the interest of all of you blog readers out there; yes, I mostly quilt, but I've also been turned into quite a preserver thanks to the push and guidance from hubby, Paul.
This shelving unit is in the basement, in a secluded, cement-surrounded cubby that we use as a storm-shelter if weather ever hits. It's unfinished; still a dirt floor; no heat, no AC..... So we (Paul) turned it into a root-cellar last summer once we realized we were outgrowing our previous pantry.
Beans, tomatoes (whole and juices), corn, pickles, salsa, ketchup, pizza sauce, chicken stock, peppers....everything we "can" comes in here for long-term storage. We keep a couple cans of everything in our kitchen pantry to have "on-hand."
Eventually, potatoes will also be placed in here in Paul's homemade potato-crates.
Out in the garage, we have a chest-freezer inherited from my Grandmother. More corn, all the meat Paul processes (pig, deer), berries, rhubarb.....not even sure of EVERYTHING that is in here :-}
Paul picked up another Freezer/Fridge combo from a buddy, so that's also getting used; mainly with Chicken and stock (and he hides some freezy-pops from the girls. You might be able to see a slight glimpse of red and green...below the ice-maker boxes on the left) ;D
Inside the house in the freezer, I have this year's batches of jam, although we still have a bountiful amount in the chest-freezer from last year's harvest. (Yup! Ice cream pail on top. I'm not a huge ice cream fan--I think that's a good thing. But chocolate.....oh....put chocolate in front of me, and I've lost all will-power!)
I think I am going to try to attempt to finish the corn-sealing process. With everything going on around here yesterday, it didn't even CROSS my mind that we hadn't done it yet :\ If you go back up to look at the chest-freezer pic, you'll see the bags aren't sealed yet. I'm a little worried that the top bit of corn in each bag has been 'burned' :{ So, wish me luck. I think the directions are still in the box ???
Happy Monday
5 comments:
Wow, you've worked hard and have a lot to show for it. I'm so impressed with what you've done. My husband keeps telling me that we need to work on food storage and you are an inspiration.
Been telling dear hubby I want to do this for years. Not that I had the time, but hopefully soon. I love seeing what all you guys get done. What did you do with all that cabbage? Did you get your sauerkraut all done yet?
Look at all that hard work! Pretty impressive! Stocked freezers and pantries save soooo much money and time. And the food you put in there is as fresh as can be. Good job family!
Love seeing how you store everything. I would kill for a root cellar or even some place that is cool and dark down here in Florida. I miss my basement =).
I just need to remember to pull things from the freezer in time for it to defrost for dinner!
It looks as if you've got enough preserved food to feed the whole of Wisconsin this winter! It's interesting though, how we do things differently. I freeze any surplus vegetables rather than preserve them in jars, but jam doesn't go in the freezer, it stays on the shelves.
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