Winter Stores

Trying to figure out my schedule is a chore.  I've never been very good at setting my own schedules and sticking to them.  Ideas I have.  Execution not so much.  Especially when I have things like canning going.  I'm pretty over the canning right now.  There is so much to do yet.  I feel like have canned every day for a month now.  I know it hasn't been every day but it has been close to that.  Of course I have to remember that every little bit I can now is something I don't have to purchase this winter.  And when I say can, I also mean drying or freezing.  Basically just putting up food for the winter.  I have a pile of it.  It still probably won't last the winter with the four of us but it should at least help.

There is a blog I read called Throwback at Trapper Creek.  She had a post about estimating how much to can and using the number 52 for the 52 weeks of the year.  Now, she is producing a whole lot more of their own food than I am.  And probably more than I care to.  I don't think I'll ever get to the point of milking my own cow.  One, I'm not a huge fan of raw milk, and two I don't want to be tied to milking twice a day every day.  Can't do goat milk either.  No matter how hard I try I don't like the stuff.  Don't like goat cheese either.  Sheep I don't know.  Can't say I've ever had sheep's milk.  Now, I'm pretty sure feta cheese is sheep.  I like that.  Not enough to warrant keeping a dairy animal though.

Anyway, back to the canning stuff.  I have oodles of tomato sauce, salsa, and whole tomatoes.  Probably close to 52 jars of the stuff.  I have more to can too.  I have a few carrots canned and a few frozen.  We aren't huge carrot fans so we only put up a little of those.  I have one jar of pickled beets.  That is probably more than enough.  I like them at Thanksgiving or Christmas but that is it.  No one else really likes them around here.  Bear likes plain beets so I may put up some of those now that I have my pressure canner.

Mostly I just want my kitchen back.  Canning supplies take over the kitchen this time of year.  The actual canners are huge.  The stock pots for prepping the recipes are big and there are all sorts of accessories that lay around needing to always be at hand.  Ladles, jar lifter, funnel, food mill, rings, lids, jars, towels, and other basic kitchen utensils.  There are also always the baskets and bins of the produce.  Big baskets of tomatoes take up a lot of my counter space.  Ugh.

Can you tell this is what I'm putting off?  Canning more tomatoes.  I probably should actually do more salsa since I have a pile of peppers.  Well, never mind, I don't have any hot peppers.  Maybe I'll do a roasted pepper and tomato ketchup.  That might be good.  And it is pretty easy.  Easy is good at this point.

I suppose I should go swap my laundry around so I might make it through that stuff today too.  I'm seeing that in addition to the canning it is a good thing we are headed for Colorado in a couple of weeks.  We need a Costco run something fierce.  Peanut butter and olive oil are almost out.  Funny that those are the things we go through the most from there.  I also need to re-stock some things like aluminum foil, Ziplock type bags, and some of that type stuff that is so much cheaper in bulk.  Plus then I only have to worry about buying it once, maybe twice, a year.  That is my favorite aspect of Costco purchases.

Oh, and recently I say the food dehydrator I'm interested in on one of their ads.  I wonder if it is in any of the stores.  I'd like to actually physically look at them before buying one.  Okay, I'm off to swap laundry.