We already have a good pantry but when the man who used to own this house offered us free tomatoes because they had fell off the vines (he called them seconds) and he doesn't sell them at the auction , we went to glean them...
Hubby on his tractor with the new tiller preparing the south garden (the one that will have seasonal plants) He already did the north garden which is perennials and the garlic.
After we was done gleaning the tomatoes Hubby mentioned the freezers are pretty low on meat. I told him Kroger's had a sale of roasting chickens (7-8 lbs) for 69 cents a pound. Don't see it lower than that anywhere around here. So we decided to go to Kroger's before home.
We had decided the other week over our morning coffee to have 730 meals in the pantry. That is lunch and dinner for a year.
We save 1/3rd of what we bought... they had other meat on sale but it wasn't listed in the weekly ad. I now have an additional 75 meals of meat (not meat, I list things by how many meals it will make us to make sure we have enough food to go a solid year)
We got 10 dozen eggs (for less than $1/dozen) which is not counted in the meals as I will use part of them to make noodles,2 pork butts, 1 boneless rib roast (for Christmas as the price was cheaper than I have ever paid at Christmas) 2 racks of ribs (one for New Year's),3 roasting chickens, 2 pkgs of rib eye steaks (for when Hubby craves a steak after so many casseroles and soups)2 bags of frozen thin chicken breast, 2 pkgs of fresh chicken breast,3 pkgs of ground pork,12 lbs of ground beef, 2 pkgs of chicken thighs, and 2 pkgs of chicken wings (for when we miss our favorite wing place) I cut the wings in 3 pieces and bagged the tips for broth. I broke the pkgs down to meal size and vacuumed them. What is already in the freezers is 4 prime rib roasts(from Christmas) a pork tenderloin, a pork loin, 10 meals of pork chops, 2 roasting chickens, 2 hams, 40 meals of pepperoni, 1 rack of ribs, 1 qrt of beef cubes for stew or noodles, a bottom round roast, 1 pkg of thin chicken breast, bacon, bulk sausage, and smoked sausage. Total meals in freezers are now at 117.
I then checked the pantry.
Dried beans : cranberry , navy, black, red, great northern, lima, garbanzo, cannelline, and blackeye peas.
Canned beans: refried, baked, lt kideny, dark kidney, chili beans, blackeye peas, garbanzo, pinto, cannellini and black.
I have red lentils and green lentils
Soups: chili(mild and zesty), beef veggie, asparagus,tomato,and beef stew, turkey white bean chili.
Canned meat: corned beef hash, corned beef, tuna, mackerel, salmon, pork, spam,dried beef and turkey pot pie.
Potatoes: canned sweet potatoes, canned whole white potatoes, canned sliced white potatoes,dried hash browns, dried diced potatoes, and dried sliced potatoes.
Grains: Rice-Jasmine, parboil,long grain, basmatic,arborio,brown, black, and minute. Grits, quinoa,barley, farro,millet,polenta, corn meal, oats and cream of wheat.
I have 28 varieties of pasta all bought on sale
My to buy list is now
1 roll of G&R bologna (8 meals as it is 1 inch thick)
4 Aldi's hams (20 meals)
6 turkeys(use carcass for broth) (36 meals plus broth)
1 case of Walter's dinner sausage (12 meals) or more hamburger.
12 winter squash
50 lbs of white potatoes
20 lbs of sweet potatoes
20 lbs of onions
10 lbs carrots
4 bunches of celery.
We figured out after buying what is on this list we would be short 213 meals... that we decided to have them be vegetarian. So we listed 54 meals we enjoy that have no meat/beans(though might have scraps of what ever meat was leftover aka ham bone, or eggs) so we can rotate through those meals. Hubby doesn't care much for soup but I added 7 soups (ThePrudenthomemaker.com has several) so we can rotate through the soups 4 times in a year. He will do better not eating the same one a lot.
I baked 2 loaves of bread and froze one for when I don't have time to bake. Hubby didn't realize that baking bread takes about 4 hrs. Told me I needed to buy another bread pan so I could do 3 loaves at a time. Considering he already ate half the loaf I might agree with him though I know he won't eat the same bread all the time, something both of us don't care for. I baked Amish white bread this time. I plan to make oatmeal bread (Owlhaven.net) then a potato bread (simplyrecipes.com), and my favorite English muffin toasting bread (Kingarthurflour.com).
Back to canning tomatoes
Blessed Be
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Whenever I read about your food stash I have to pick my jaw up off the floor. You folks will never go hungry. It's probably the biggest stash I have ever read about, possibly bigger than Brandy's. :D I know you worked as a chef, but I have to wonder if you ever went hungry as a child to feel this strong a need to stockpile food.
ReplyDeleteCertainly you could take care of your grown children also if the need ever arose. And if I may ask where did you get your love of cooking?
My parents grew up during the Great Depression and kept the practices they learned as children when they had us kids. We always ate in season and canned(no freezer) to feed us through the winter. Daddy hunted and fished for our meat. When my parents divorced I took over the garden, but didn't hunt or fish so we didn't eat much meat unless I had a good week of work. Mother didn't work for a couple years so I was the "bread winner" at age 13. Yes I've went hungry but we really started stocking for a year or more when the company Hubby worked for went from ALWAYS having overtime to only 3 days a week for two solid years. We had no garden and lost 2 houses . We were grateful they worked their people the 3 days so everyone kept their health insurance instead of laying them off which would have been cheaper for the company.Daughter 4 and her hubby and a friend from out of state put the food on the table for a year until I could get a garden producing enough for us. We decided them to go back to how we were raised of having a pantry for a solid year if not 2 yrs.
ReplyDeleteMy love of cooking came from my great uncle's mother in law. I spent a lot of time in the summers helping her with her gardens. Nonna was from Italy...the northern part of the country.She taught me how to grow herbs also
That is a lot of tomatoes and what a blessing. Sweet potatoes could be higher this year becuase of Hurricane Florence but I think theey will still be a loss leader at Thanksgiving so we might as well stock up then
ReplyDeleteYou should be able to get around 50 quarts of canned tomatoes, at least, from all those. How exciting! It seems like a ton, until you realize that's only 1 per week! I'm looking forward to hearing how many you actually get. I'm sure you will accept as many as that kind man wants to give you. That's such a nice gift.
ReplyDeleteWe love to stock up, as well. The hundreds of jars of food I put up each summer save us so much money each winter. The garden I grew this year blew me away with how much it produced. It enabled me to feed everyone very well for 2 months on a bare-bones budget. I will need to buy more produce this winter for salad, etc. then during the summer, so will spend more of that, but I was very happy with what I got, considering it's in the backyard of a town lot.
We are expecting 1/4 beef, as usual, purchased from a farmer, later this fall. A friend has started a pig for us on his farm, and my husband has been very involved with building a feeder, getting straw, etc. We are exploring canning on-sale chicken for the first time, and continue to can broth. We made a big batch of vegetable soup and canned it from our garden veggies, and have just realized we have enough to do more.
We have never gone hungry, even through many hard personal economic times. I like to think part of that is due to the fact that we have always practiced food preservation. When my husband decided to go to college after we were married, I remember one winter where the only fresh fruit I purchased all that winter was one small bag of oranges (probably 2-3 pounds) and one bunch of bananas. We used our home-canned and frozen fruit for the rest. That was the most extreme winter we've ever had, bar none, but we never went hungry. During those times, I sometimes followed the 30-meal plan, where you made 30 dinners, froze them, then pulled them out all month and made sides to go with them. I used that method for a few years, and it worked. After college, he made very little, and we made out fine, even though we had gathered 5 children by that time. By doing that, I knew I had enough food for the whole month, then added the home-canned and frozen fruits and veggies to it, along with lots and lots of potatoes bought in bulk from farmers, and tons of home-made bread. I don't do that now, but sometimes make a few meals to freeze ahead.
Good luck getting it all done--it's a lot more work than it looks like when written down:)
we used the 30 day freezer meal when all the kids were home. Saved my sanity along with money. Hard enough baking 3 loaves of bread and 4 batches of biscuits on a daily bases.
DeleteWe do potato salad,German potato salad, pasta salad, macaroni salad and carrot salad or salads made with jello and canned fruit during the winter.