Monday, September 12, 2011

in my freezer

I'm still relatively new to the idea of "putting by" food for the winter months. However, this year I've done a bit more than ever before. Now, please keep in mind that three years ago I froze nothing from summer's bounty. We're starting from pretty close to scratch here. And considering that I have a baby coming in December, I could've, should've done a lot more. But here's what I've got....so far.

Jam:
68 oz. strawberry freezer jam
24 oz. raspberry freezer jam
64 oz. marionberry freezer jam

Berries:
3 gallon bags marionberries
2 gallon bags raspberries*
2 gallon bags strawberries
3 gallon bags blackberries*
1 gallon bag blueberries*

Vegetables:
7 gallon bags blanched beans (green & purple)LinkLink1 1/2 gallon bag green peas
15 oz. roasted tomato sauce

Meat:
3/8 of grass-finished beef
10 pastured local chickens


In other news, not freezer-related, I've done just a few jars of lacto-fermented pickles. These include:

3 jars LF dill pickles
2 jars LF bread & butter pickles.

I'd really like to do more pickles, but I'm frankly running out of jars. We need to work that into the budget for next year.

I'm not (quite) done yet. I have only begun to make roasted tomato sauce, as the tomatoes are really starting to come in just now. I hope to get a lot of that in the freezer - it's delicious, versatile, and oh-so-much less expensive than buying organic pasta/pizza sauce from the grocery store (especially the sugar-free kind). It's such a treat to have that fresh summer taste in the "bleak mid-winter."

As you can see, it's not a ton of food. But I wanted to share what I've done, and also to have the record of it, so that next year I can use this as a sort of benchmark. I love the idea, and I'm getting there, but I still have a lot of growing to do!


1 comment:

Mama said...

Sounds like you've been a super busy lady! Good job!