We have our first winter storm heading this way for the Christmas season, and we think we’re ready for it. The worst part will be the single digit temperature and 40 mph winds.
One of the things I had to do was go to the cellar and stock up on things on our menu for the next 7-10 days. I was shocked!! One of the green bean shelves was empty and I didn’t realize that I had cooked them up so fast!!! They were canned in 2020 and as fresh as if I had just picked them from the garden and cooked on the stove for dinner.
I thought I had taken a photo of what was in the cellar at end of gardening season, but I can’t put my eyes on it so I’m using the 2021 photo to explain. The bottom two shelves of green beans were three shelves, and the potatoes were in another area. At the moment the shelf with the potatoes is now empty of green beans. I’m shocked and planning for the next gardening season will be including enough green beans to fill up that shelf.
The dry beans that I canned is now down to half so in the near future I will be looking for about five pounds each of pinto, great Northern and yellow-eyed peas and will can them in early spring while things are relatively quiet. I believe we’ll have plenty of potatoes to do the winter and still have some to can while waiting on 2023 taters!!
I have about 15 quarts of tomato juice from 2021 that I want to cook up as pizza and tomato sauce and those will be done when I can’t get outside to help the Mr.
Like gathering firewood for next year, I will be accessing the needs for the cellar and produce to sell. Hopefully, we’ll have a better growing season than 2022 was with sparse rain and high temps. Climate change is real!!!
Living the Country Life My Way 