Wannabefree...guess what I got in the mail today!?!?!?!?

[Wannabefree]

Sauce didn't get done until midnight. Need to can it this morning, so no church for me :/ I hate to stay home and do that, but what can ya do? The neighbors AC has crapped out and it's supposed to get up to 96 today. They may bring tomatoes down here and can them rather than heat up their house any more than they have to. I guess it's another canning day around here. DH and DD are gone to church. I hope they have a nice time. I'll just be sittin here.....at home....alone...canning.....alone...by myself.....( )

 

[pinkfox]

in the quiet...lol

hopeits a smooth day for you.
ive probably got another week of harvesting romas before ive got enough to can...but my fridge draw is starting to look quite full

 

[Wannabefree]

I got 7 quarts of spaghetti sauce, and 6 half pints of pizza sauce Pinky, the neighbors bought these tomatoes from the Amish folks down the road. I will NEVER try to can them for sauce again! They are TOO juicy. I do not remove the juice, I cook it down when making the sauce. And out of about 20 quarts of tomatoes.....8 1/2 quarts of sauce and 4 hours to cook down. Nope, not doing it again I will wait for my Amish Paste's and make more sauce then. We(the neighbors and I) are trying to put up enough for both families for the year. We have a good start. Most vegetables are getting stored in their pantry that DH helped build, and the dry goods we buy gets stored here in my spare room. We share everything anyway I still have a few things down here, but the overstock goes there. I gotta get pics of that pantry for you guys to drool over It is AWESOME! It's 10x30 with two walls almost entirely made up of shelving. We have a lot of things stored in there, but it still looks bare because of the ginormous massivosity of the thing

 

[SSDreamin]

I love Amish Paste's for sauce - all meat, less cook down!

I want a pantry with ginormous massivosity! I'd actually like one that comes filled with all my favorite things

It's great that you are working with the neighbors. Wish we could do that here - I gave one neighbor some hm apple butter, and she looked at me like I had a third eye. Once she heard I bake our own bread, I'm sure I became the butt of a lot of jokes among her/her friends :/

 

[Wannabefree]

My neighbors are great. They LOVE that I do all that stuff, and the 17 year old wants me to teach her too. She is learning to can this summer, and i will teach her cooking from scratch once canning season slows down some.

Here are a few very poor quality pics of the pantry, and just to give you all an idea of size....that is 128 quarts of green beans. We have just gotten started. The quart jars sit 5 deep. We love it That will hold everything a family of 9 could possibly need in a year, including water and any soaps, detergents, etc. We just have to get it all done, and organize everything once we have it more full. We have a really good start, though it looks quite bare at the moment.

 

[BarredBuff]

I wish I had one like that! Or even a small one....

 

[pinkfox]

VERY nice!

 

[Bettacreek]

I LOVE pantry pics! I'm not organized enough for a pantry to look nice, lol. My current stock is basically a bunch of random boxes, a tub or two, buckets, etc. The one and only thing that is organized is the soap, lol. But that has to be organized as a finished product, or I'd never be able to set up for a show in the timelines they give you!

 

[Wannabefree]

That was a 3K build over an unused back patio. I think it turned out great too! We are thoroughly enjoying it. It has given me lots of questions though...like how much home canned stuff for a family of 9? Still pondering on it. Any suggestions would be nice

 

[lazyday]

absolutely beautiful Am I seeing corn in the third picture?