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Gardening. Canning. Preserving. Freezing. Slicing. It is so much work.
I really don’t have time for this. But I also don’t have time not to do it. So I make time, or somehow, as always, God provides the time. The family pitches in to help, and eventually we get it all done.
The beauty of working so hard to get garden veggies and orchard fruit preserved in the summer and fall is that this winter it will all be convenience food for our family! It will be super easy to pull these goodies out of the pantry or freezer and serve them quickly with our meals. That’s why I make the time – that and because it saves us hundreds of dollars. That’s pretty nice too. :)
It’s been a few years since we canned any peaches. We’ve only had enough to freeze some for smoothies. This year, we got ourselves set for smoothies, and filled several jars to eat plain or with cottage cheese. These peaches turned out so pretty!
We’ve made loads of applesauce. What you see below is barely a sampling. Thanks to cucumbers a friend passed along to us, we are all set with dill pickles and sweet pickle relish for the year. I also made a few jars of salsa (my mom’s recipe). Sometimes, I just open my pantry to stare at all the pretty jars full of food. That alone makes the hard work all worth it. :)
It was ironic that I was gawking at my jars of home-canned produce and taking pictures to share with you today. Just as I was doing that, the UPS man showed up on our porch with part of our Amazon Subscribe and Save order. FUN!! (See many of the specifics here.)
I snapped a picture of the packaged food (and household items) too. I thought it would be good to show you those along with my home-canned produce. Yep, sometimes I rely on packaged cereal on busy mornings. Sometimes we like chips for a treat. It’s all about balance, right?
I just LOVE a full pantry, and thank God that he has provided so much (mostly) free produce to preserve. I also thank Him for the great deals I find online that are delivered to my door. How fun that I got to stare at so many household blessings for my family today. Thank you, God for the bounty!
I thought I miss our tomatoes and peaches season due to working but due to our cold weather. I haven’t miss it. So now I have peaches and tomatoes to can and I am very thankful so it will be pear and then apples.
Laura you always seem to be able to do so much. But it is lovely that the family will help too.
I am thankful for the lovely restful time we had on holiday.
http://www.sandrasark.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/zoning-out-dose-of-encouragement-36.html
Wow! I’m so impressed by your gardening and your harvest!
I’m thankful that we can trust when God says no.
http://lisaappelo.com/when-god-says-no/
I am thankful for neighbors who are willing to share their harvest with others. I love canning, especially when I get the produce for free. Makes it so much more fun to share the jars with others, too!
I am grateful to be able to see!!!! My toddler jumped on me last week and scratched my cornea by accident. The pain was worse than when I had her!!!!! I could not open my eye for a day and then had blurry vision for a day. Praise the Lord He healed me so quickly!!!! My eye was perfect after day two!!!! We don’t realize how blessed we are just to be healthy!!!!!!
I am so glad I got my bundle yesterday! I’ve already been devouring it, LOL. It’s also nice to know that I’m not the only who likes to look at and take pictures of food, Ha!! Our garden was a huge flop for us this year, but apparently a great success for the deer :( I did manage to get a few tomatoes and cucumbers, but that’s it. In another couple of weeks though, my mom has an elderly lady neighbor that gives me all the cooking pears I can handle, so I’m looking forward to making and canning pear preserves. They go great with homemade biscuits!! :)
jars should be stored without the rings and they should not be stacked. If you has a bad seal,you might not know as the lid might restick etc
Please help promote safe canning.
The end of red tomato season means time to make green salsa! Yum
I, too, am thankful for food today. Thought I haven’t canned at all this year, I have put produce in the freezer so I’m thankful for that. I visited with a friend today who is trying to keep 9 kids fed on a very small budget, so I am very thankful for full bellies. We are blessed. Now may we remember those with less and consider blessing them. Thanks for the post, Laura!
I love to can produce from my garden and have done a lot this year! Just finished up all of the tomatoes and working on apples. We have several different kinds of apple trees. I love seeing pictures of other peoples food stores. I just wanted to let you know that you should not stack your canned jars on top of each other and also you should not leave the rings on your jars. All of the canning info state that if the seal should fail and the ring is left on it can reseal and you would not know. The food could be contaminated. You may have just done this for your pictures but just in case I thought that I would pass the info along.
My daughter calls it “getting ready for winter”. :) She is a huge “Little House on the Prairie” fan, just like I was. We’ve been drying apple chips and fruit leather…I still need to make applesauce. :)
God just continues to bless me. We rent a farm house and do to a new septic system being put in the land lord would not let me have a garden. I was so upset crying. Then I sat to pray God said she allows you to plant flowers why not plants that flower. I planted green beans, strawberry’s, tomatoes, cucks, green peppers, melons, and pumpkins popped up all on their own. God is such a wonderful gardener. I have canned salsa, pizza sauce, stewed tomatoes, DIY Rotel, Froze strawberries, green peppers, greenbeans. Maybe not as much as what I would like but God knows what my family of 6 needs.
Thankful it’s apple season! Hoping to put up more apples this year than last year, because we sure missed our homemade applesauce last winter :)
Question: do you do anything to make sure your jars don’t break in the canner? I’ve had a few jars of applesauce break, and it just kills me to lose whole quarts of I-paid-good-money-and-time-for-this applesauce! Salsa is the same way. Would love to hear how others address this issue :)
I have heard of this happening for a few different reasons. One could be that the lid is on too tight. I have also heard that some jars just come with tiny hairline fractures that make them break. Also, if you over fill the jars that can be problematic as can varying temperature issues. Hopefully that helps!
Thanks! Hadn’t thought about the lid being too tight, but that’s a good thing to remember.
I heard a new strategy this year which was to dump out part of the hot water and refill with some cold water, insert new jars, and bring back to a boil. That took care of my problem this year–no broken jars!–even if it did take a little longer.
Hopefully the hairline fractures will be rare and maybe I can do better research on filling and tightening to minimize breakage altogether. Thanks again for the tips!