Food preservation - A squirrel’s pantry

This years food preservation list is extensive already.  I’ve been working in all my free moments to put up food for the winter and my little squirrel’s pantry is shaping up beautifully. 

This is this years list so far:

I harvested my patch of oregano tops and dried them.  I ended up with a full quart of dried oregano.

I dug up my potato bed and ended up with 45lbs of potatoes and 2lbs seed potatoes that I will put back into the garden just after the first frost.

I picked my friend’s little tree clear of tart cherries and got 6 quarts of cherry pie filling, only 5 of which made it to the pantry.

 

I pulled up my onions and I am so frustrated I didn’t weigh them as I weighed everything else.  But in the end I got 2 1/2 bushel baskets of onions.  I am guessing, but I think that is about 60lbs because after using a ton of them for daily meals over the last two months I still have 45lbs of them in the garage.

 

I’ve gotten over 50 lbs of cucumbers from my three plants which I made into 12 pints of dill pickle spears and 10 pints of hamburger dill slices.  (I gave away a TON and just got 8lbs this morning.)

 

I bought 45lbs of blueberries which I put into gallon bags in the freezer.  It ended up with 12 freezer bags full, and 16 pints of lavender blueberry jam.

I bought 120lbs of peaches and turned that into 5 gallon bags in the freezer, 38 quarts of canned peaches and 12 pints of peach syrup and 4 pints of peach jam.

A friend gave me 1 1/2 lbs of jalapenos which I turned into 3 pints of pickled jalapenos. 

I harvested my parsley tops and got two quarts of dried parsley. 

Harvests that we have just eaten and haven’t preserved:

It has been a wonderful harvest year!  I am looking forward to getting those huge zucchinis that I have to grate and freeze, and the pumpkins that are starting to turn orange, and tomatoes… oh glory!  The tomatoes!  They will be coming in force in the next two weeks or so.  It will be time for sauce…

Happy Gardening!

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