The Barn and Fields > Preparing for Winter and Disasters

Prepping your pantry for winter

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Cheryl:
Is anyone prepping their pantry for the winter?

Normally I'm canning all I can get my hands on and storing it away, but after seeing how much we had left after last winter, I decided to go easier this summer and use up what we have before canning more.

We had several jars of jellies and jams so I didn't make any of those this year.  We planted just enough green beans to eat fresh because I have lots of canned ones.  I also have enough canned tomatoes to get through the winter, along with tomato juice, tomato puree, salsa, and my homemade Rotel.

It's a good thing I hadn't planned on canning a lot of tomatoes because ours aren't doing so great.  I've been freezing a bit too.  I've put up blackberries, squash, a few peppers, and made freezer spaghetti sauce. 

Are you planning for winter yet?  I'd like to hear how others are filling their pantries and/or freezers.

MissMandy:
Halfheartedly :). 

We've had a huge influx of cucumbers (our own and some given to us), so I've been making pickles.  I also stocked up a bit on a couple of canned items (tomato paste and black beans) from Aldi yesterday.  Also, picking and freezing the blackberries around our yard and watermelon chunks when we find watermelons on sale.  Lastly, Jean and I were just talking about any bigger or unusual purchases we want to make before the first snow flies, such as a snow blower, chains, extra grill propane.

Love planning this sort of thing and hear how others are prepping!

Mandy :)

Cheryl:
Oh yeah, I forgot about our cucumbers.  I made refrigerator pickles out of them and also froze some cucumber chunks.  This is the first year I've tried that.  I got into putting cucumber slices/chunks in my ice water and loved it, so I froze some to use in the winter like this.

I used to do a six month stock up of basic items.  I'm planning on doing that in October.  I need to work on my lists and would love to hear ideas.

Alice:
So this year for the first time we are not going to "fill the pantry". We will be living with just the two of us and the grocery store is only two minutes drive in any direction! We've decided it's not really worth stocking up. We still have a good freezer full that I keep adding to and going to the store once a week for our small shopping will be easy. When the college kids come home during Christmas we'll just get the additional stuff as we need it.   When we lived in the country (35 minutes from a store) we HAD to stock up and fill the pantry since we couldn't get to the store just for a can of this or that. We also use very little when cooking for two so I just don't want a pantry full of stuff that will just sit there and get stale in some cases. Going to get fresh stuff is better for us at this time.

Alice

MissMandy:

--- Quote from: Cheryl on July 24, 2014, 06:53:19 AM ---I got into putting cucumber slices/chunks in my ice water and loved it, so I froze some to use in the winter like this.

--- End quote ---

GREAT idea!!

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