Harvest Time is Approaching!

We are quickly approaching full out harvest season and I find that my mind is wondering to the prepping season. A lot of time goes into the planning and prepping phase.  How many jars of jams and jellies will I need to last a year?  How much fruit does that equate to? How many jars of pickles will we need? How many canning jars will I need? It goes on and on. This year was also our test year to determine how much veggies we go through in a year and how do we figure out how much to grow? So I actually decided to write down what we use in a year, and just about fell out of my chair.  I know, I should have done this BEFORE I planted my garden, but I wasn’t sure just how much we use.  I knew this year would be our gauge for both freezing and canning. Just to give you an idea of what I am planning for this harvest (which will also help for planting next year):

·         35 jars of jams and jellies- 24 pint size jars and 10-20 8oz jars

o   A total of ~28lbs of fruit, most of which will be home grown, will be used.

-  6lbs of plums-from our bush

-  13.5lbs of grapes-from our vines

-  3.5lbs of peaches-palisade peaches

- 6.5lbs of apples-mostly grown in my friends yard

-  2-3lbs of strawberries-bought (can’t get my strawberries to come back)

·         12 jars of pickles- All pint size

o   Total of about 36 cucumbers

·         Other-Depending on the amount of tomatoes we get, we could be canning our own stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce this year.  (This is a wait and see)

We will eventually be adding to what we can.  We have been saving jars for a few years, and purchasing them when they are on sale.  They are an upfront cost, but are reusable (just buying the sealing lids). But before I get overly ambitious on canning, I would like to save some money and buy a decent pressurized canner. 

·         Frozen Veggies-For the veggies, I calculated how many of each we go through in a week for various meals.  We will prep and bag the veggies according specific meals.  The veggies will be a combo of what we grew in our garden and what we will hopefully gather on our trip to the farm.

o   52 onions

o   52 Bell peppers

-  We will cut them up and divide them like this

·         26 bags of mixed onion/bell peppers for fajitas

·         12 bags of both cut for kabobs

·         6 bags or so of both chopped for Hobo Stew

·         20 bags (or so) chopped of both for homemade sloppy joes

·         Remainder will be bagged for whatever else we may need them for (homemade salsa, etc.)

o   2 bushels of mild/medium hatch green chilies

-  We will divide them into about 50 (or so) separate bags to be used for various dishes we make

o   3 heads of cabbage- chopped and divided for cabbage rolls and whatever else we may need

o   Green beans- we will freeze whatever we have which will be about 3lbs or so.

o   3 Stalks of Celery- We will chop and freeze for stews and soups

o   26 carrots- We will chop and freeze for stews and soups

o   Corn-we probably will freeze about 30 ears of corn.  We will freeze them both whole and in niblets (taken off the ear).

o   Jalapenos- We use probably about 3-5lbs of jalapenos a year for various things.  We will freeze whatever we grow and gather from the farm.

o   Pumpkins- We will divide and freeze whatever baking pumpkins we grow.  We usually go through about 3-5 baking pumpkins a year.  I use them for soups, breads, cookies, muffins, and pies.

o   Zucchini- We will divide and freeze whatever we grow in our garden.  We will use them for breads, muffins, cakes, and dice them for a few dishes we eat at dinner.

o   Summer Squash-We will divide and freeze to use with kabobs, dishes for dinner, and soups.

o   Potatoes- We will divide and freeze most of the potatoes that we are growing for stews, mashed potatoes, hobo stew, etc.  We could have close to 70lbs (or more) of potatoes.

·         Veggies we will store: Some veggies can be stored in a cool/dark place for most of the year, so we will do this as well.

o   Onions- We will store what we don’t freeze

o   Garlic- We will store what we grow

o   Potatoes-We will store what we don’t freeze.

 Some of the list above is grown by us, but not all.  We will have to supplement it with a trip to the farm, which is ok.  I knew it would take us a few years to figure out how/what was needed for a year.

My freezer will be full and the shelves will be filled with the bounty of our harvest.  It is a great feeling to know that our food storage will be almost all 100% organic, with ¾ of it grown by us, GMO free, and NOT processed.  It is also pretty rewarding to know that we did this ourselves, not to mention the $$$ we will save eventually.