What are You Putting up for Later Use?

Lead, Ramen, Tequila, Gold, Silver

Froze peppers for chili.
Made 5 lbs of ham balls and froze in smaller containers.
Almost always have cookies frozen for grandchildren to take home.
Tomato plants didn't do much this year, so no juice canned, instead froze a dozen jars for chili and hot dishes.
Canned 12 pints of beet pickles.
Will make jam or jelly for small gifts at Christmas

Wow, you've been busy! We are closing up the house for the winter, so I've been trying to empty the freezer and pantry.

Dehydrate tomatoes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, cabbage, onions and garlic, and strawberries. Can green beans, meats when they go on sale, baked beans, bean soups, other beans for various uses, all my broths. Make and can apple pie filling and apple ice cream topping. Freeze various peppers, various ways. Make and can apple pie filling and apple ice cream topping. I make sauerkraut, that I bottle and store in an extra fridge. Don't can it, just vacuum seal it.

I try to go to the store as little as possible, in the winter and want convenient foods on hand.

I also turn leftovers into frozen meals, by lining foil pans with parchment paper and freezing, for nights I don't want to cook. Great for camping, too. With the parchment, they are also microwave ready, by lifting out the parchment wrapped meal and popping it in, or they are toaster oven ready, in the foil pan. Could even go into a Dutch oven.

I like to make lots of zucchini bread, to freeze, while zucchini is in season.

Not much anymore. We used to load up canning supplies in pick up and head out to farm country with RV. Usually late summer. Sort of fun in a state park spending the day canning. Had a little 3 burner stove that sat right on picnic table and extra bottle of propane. Lots of newspaper for peelings. We haven't done our canning trip for several years. And not much of a savings if that's your plan. And the canning supplies you'll get a work out to ...load up (empty), unload empty, fill up, load back (full)into truck, unload at home, and then put away. And then get them jar by jar as you use them. But still good, don't know why we stopped really.

Couple months ago we did bring home a 1/2 steer with freezer in pick up bed. Generator keeping freezer going. Now there's a money saver, about 50-60% less than retail. But more less a neighbor thing with in-laws.

Corn, jams and jellies was our main "put up for later use".

Thanks for bring it up in posting, I kind of miss it.

We are planning on moving next Spring/Summer so I've purposely tried to not make more work for myself. Actually will force me to eat down stuff that has been in the pantry too long already.

Jalapeno & Serrano peppers........home grown

Chopped and bagged then frozen.

Great for adding to chili, salsa, sauces, soups etc.

NYCgrrl wrote:
I flash froze 15 lbs of peppers the last week of September since they are historically less expensive then and I use about that amt throughout the winter.
Flash froze 10 lbs of onions sliced in a variety of cuts. Not enough for the entire winter but might get me through December. Thank goodness for whoever invented the food processor and sealer!

Also found a good deal on quartered chickens and dedicated the majority of 'em to replenishing my stock/broth supply.

Finally, put up a full bushel of tomatoes: some were confitted; others roasted and of course, various forms of tomato sauce were made and stuck in the freezer.

What are you doing on your end?

My, my don't you have the energy and time on your hands to to ALL that, wow!! :B

I'm lucky if I find the time or energy to pull in a CG for the night and make a big stock pot of chicken soup and put it in containers and freeze for quick easy healthy meals while on the road.

My wife froze 6 dozen ears of corn. She blanches it and then cuts it off the cob and freezes it. There is a local farm that got the luck of the draw and their dirt grows the best sweet corn in our county. We also have folks coming in from surrounding counties to that farm.

We are also going to do crab apple jelly. The birds sat on the old horse fence from when we had a couple horses and started some crab apple trees. We have one that tastes similar to a Gala, one similar to a Red Delicious and one close to a Yellow Delicious. The crab apples are around the diameter of a quarter or a little bigger. They make wonder jelly. We tried it last year and it came out great.

We still have blueberries and sour cherries left from last year. We have a couple orchards close to us and we buy in bulk and freeze.