My pantry additions (FOOD!!)

[KDbeads]

So I don't annoy y'all too much on the other threads..... Here's one devoted to my current expansion of the pantry. I'm doing this from foods we can grow or get cheap/free because we have bare pantries and would like to eat this winter without having to pay a boatload of cash for groceries. Everything will be made here at the house, canned, frozen or dehydrated, by me in this cramped sweat box I call a kitchen.
Feel free to drool, ask question etc. I just wanted to showcase my hard work to those who won't automatically think I'm a die hard theist because I'm frugal

To recap to date for the moth of July:
Zucchini: http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... r-not.html
Limed Pickles: http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... rivel.html
B&B Pickles: http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... ckles.html
Plum Butter: http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... crazy.html
Giardinere: http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... inere.html
Pickled Red Onions: http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... nions.html


Today's additions
Pickled Cantaloupe: http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... loupe.html
Banana Butter: http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... utter.html

Not to mention the ongoing peach preservation that has reached 3 quarts, 19 pints and 2 half pints of peach butter, with plans for canned peaches and pickled peaches in the next few days depending on how many fully ripe one I can get my hands on. And I have a half bushel of tomatoes waiting for me to start on them in the morning.

[Tank]

I'll go for the option!

You have inspired me to work over part of my back garden next year for tomatoes and possibly some carrots and spuds. I don't have a large garden and I HATE gardening because I don't see it as particularly productive. So it's time to make it productive! The first thing I'll have to do is re-home the half-dozen frogs that inhabit a little pseudo-pond I put in about 5 years ago. It's a large plastic storage container dug into ground level filled with water loosely covered with a dust-bin lid covered with turf. When you lift the lid they sit there for a while as if you won't notice them and then jump into the water.

[Tom62]

In the early eighties my brother used our garden to grow plants like these. That was the only time in life that I liked gardening.

[KDbeads]

In the early eighties my brother used our garden to grow plants like these. That was the only time life that I liked gardening.

[KDbeads]

I'll go for the option!

You have inspired me to work over part of my back garden next year for tomatoes and possibly some carrots and spuds. I don't have a large garden and I HATE gardening because I don't see it as particularly productive. So it's time to make it productive! The first thing I'll have to do is re-home the half-dozen frogs that inhabit a little pseudo-pond I put in about 5 years ago. It's a large plastic storage container dug into ground level filled with water loosely covered with a dust-bin lid covered with turf. When you lift the lid they sit there for a while as if you won't notice them and then jump into the water.

Depending on the size of your yard, you could probably do container gardening or small raised beds without having to evict the frogs (I like the frogs, have a garden tub pond thing myself).
One of the self sufficient books I have talks about raised beds and over planting them, which is what we did this year and it has turned out fairly good minus the sudden jump in temps that killed off half of the start up crops and the dry conditions.

[KDbeads]

Today's additions:
http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... erent.html
http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/07 ... atoes.html

[Tank]

Now you're just plain upsetting me

[KDbeads]

:( Now you're just plain upsetting me

[Tank]

:( Now you're just plain upsetting me

Don't worry, I'll survive. Trouble is you can't even send me any to try and I really, really would love to as I love home cooked stuff. Actually I thought your 'Butters' were really exotic, until I realised they are Jam!!!

[KDbeads]

Well, in the states 'jam' still requires a pectin of some sort added, according to the FDA idiots in the latest book of preserving I have. Butters don't, they rely on the natural pectin of the fruits, sugar, and great evaporation of the product to ensure gel state is at least somewhat reached.

Today is zucchini candy and possibly onion jam if I can find a recipe that uses dry pectin instead of liquid pectin, they were out of the liquid in town this morning. Maybe even a few more pickled peaches if I gather enough courage to face the peeling of the fuzzy things again. Peach fuzz and fiberglass insulation have a LOT in common when it comes to being an irritant.

[KDbeads]

Zucchini candy.............. Damn this stuff is good! It has been declared totally eat-able!
http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/08 ... -able.html

[KDbeads]

2 pints pickled peppers
2 more pints pickled peaches
6 pints onion jam
6 more pints peach butter


And.......

a batch of fresh, homemade ricotta cheese It's good even still warm!


I am sitting either on the couch or at the computer the rest of the day, with breaks to deal with laundry.

[Tank]

Would it be polite to apply the epithet 'Domestic Goddess'

[KDbeads]

You can call me goddess all you like.... it's the domestic that gets me in trouble

[KDbeads]

Links to today's stuff:
http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/08 ... d-way.html
http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/08 ... nions.html
http://strayneedle.blogspot.com/2010/08 ... ppers.html