Pantry Reserves Getting Low!

photo: kelly hunt If you, (like me) are new to this whole “eating a little more locally” concept – than that may mean that you (just like me) were not as well prepared for eating locally throughout this long, and what seemed like a never ending winter. At the end of the summer last year, I had my most treasured cousin come over and we “put up” some veggies – which basically means that we did some canning, also known as preserving to some folk, or storing local, fresh food for the winter. We spent a whole day chopping, peeling boiling, stirring, sterilizing,bonding,and eventually canning all kinds of things. It was very long work and not easy by any means, but it is true what all of those old farm wives say, it was so rewarding at the end, and absolutely worth all of the sweat time. I felt I had accomplished a great many things and was simply amazed at how much food we had chopped and bottled up. That is of course, until recently, when my husband proclaimed that he has just polished off the last jar of beets, which made me go wandering into my happy place (the pantry) for a peek at what was left. We are now in the middle of April, and basically are down to a few bottles of barbeque relish, and one lonely jar of delicious tomato chutney, eek! Not much, but asparagus and lettuce are just around the fresh and locally grown corner. I am making a mental note to make even more food next year as I now know the basics and won”t be doing it all in one day. I will spread out the “putting up”. Thank you Nicole, as I have told you before, you are the best country cousin ever and I had a great time. To my readers that may be reading all the way to the end, there is an amazing recipe that that calls for tons of tomatoes and peaches and all kinds of other summer goodies that will yield 3 seperate delicious recipes as the end product, that I will be posting in the recipe section.  Read More