[NickieL]

I'm trying to figure out how much of everything I need to put of for the winter for two people, as veggies and fruits are easy to get and cheep this time of year, while its a lot harder in the winter...

that being said, how many jars of pickles, jams, fruits, tomatoes etc do you put up for the winter?

 

[sugarbush]

I will put half a steer in the freezer in another 8-10 weeks, that is just for my wife and I. If either of us gets drawn for an elk tag we will be putting one of those in the freezer also. We put up 32 quarts of tomato sauce, but that will only last 6 months or so. We have a year around garden so we eat in season and don't put too much vegitables up.

 

[Queen Bee]

I try to keep a record of how much we eat in a month and record those things that we now eat and those things that we have weeded from our diet..

I record a month because it seems to even out better than a week.

We ususally have:

1-whole beef for the freezer. (kids will get some)
#venison as needed (our farm it over run with them)
wild turkey, quail, dove what ever they bag during season
45 pkg. of chicken (almost once a week)
45 pkg. of fish (catfish, flounder, salmon, bass)
20 pkg. of shrimp, clam, oysters
100 jars of tomato or tomatoe based items (spg., salsa, tomato & orkra,
tomatoe juice
45 jars each of greenbeans, corn, butterbeans, okra
60 bags of fruit such as apples, blackberries, blueberries, plums, figs, peaches, strawberries etc.
25 jars each of grape juice and apple juice
I make jelly, jams...what ever I have in season

We grow all our own veggies, fruits, have honey bees and chickens=eggs.

I also put butter, flour, cornmeal in the freezer when I find it on sale. Don't drink coffee but want to try to freeze my tea--gotta have my tea..

Cheese, sandwich meats (for dh's sandwiches), milk and bread are purchased as needed...

Hope this helps some...Bea

 

[Wolf mom]

I believe there is a site from the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) that has a good chart to answer your question. It's been asked here before - anyone remember the site?

Just me, here, I eat wierd so can't help you.

 

[Shadow]

We have just finished our canning and freezing for this year. Squash,, greenbeans, white beans pinto beans tomatoes, black berries, okra, corn alittle over 500 jars. Will can and freeze deer when season gets here. No fish this year as I was working on the pond and we just did not get around to stocking it. We can more than freeze because of the danger of loosing frozen food if the power is off for long peroids of time as it is at times.

 

[Gercarson]

I believe there is a site from the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) that has a good chart to answer your question. It's been asked here before - anyone remember the site?

Just me, here, I eat wierd so can't help you.

Is this the one you are referring to? It's called: What to store.
http://www.providentliving.org/content/list/0,11664,2003-1,00.html

 

[simplefarmgirl]

WE have a family of 5. We can one pig,usually kill one beef critter, can alot of that and only freeze things like steaks and burger. I make at least 20 jars of jam and jellies. Dry alot of apples, also make 30 jars of appleasauce at least, I freeze apple pie fixing in freezer bags already to pout into pie crust. Put up as many fruits as we can pick depending on weather and season. We can all our vegetable hopeing for at least 30-40 jars of each, string beans, carrots,yellow beans, can small potatoes,green beans and salt pork in jars all together, this depends on amount of small potatoes, put rest of potaotes in basement for winter storage along with carrot when we want some fresh ones. dry and put in canning jars all our beans, shell beans.freeze alot of shredded zucchini, most of this is to just get us thru the winter until gardens start, We have our own cow so winter time milk and butter is fresh, eggs are something that is already here yr round. I do store about 50 lbs of rice,flour,sugar oils,I render down most of my own cooking fats. We put up a crock of salt pork. I always have at least 2-3 boxes of baking soda,baking powder, salt and yeast on hand yr round,, I know theres more just this is what I can think of at the moment. almost forgot chickens, I can alot of chicken soups already to eat, with rice and vegies in them, can chicken in pieces ready to eat and freeze at least 50 bags

 

[MtnGranny]

Could you share your chicken soup recipe???

 

[Shepherd]

I can't say a specific amount; I just can or freeze everything I can while it's available, because the next year we might have a bad crop from drought, insects, etc. One year's crop might be needed for a year or more. Last year our garden was incredibly abundant and I canned tons. This year I appear to have a blight, so altho I have more than enough right now for eating fresh and extra for canning some, it wouldn't be enough for a year. Last years' abundance will tide us over nicely.

It's kind of engrained in me that if for example, we have a great berry crop - I can't let it go to waste... because I can't be guaranteed the following year will produce much.

 

[trixiwick]

We are two people, so we don't put up as much as some do, and we typically can pints rather than quarts. I keep track of everything we preserve and use up, so I know exactly what I raised each year and what we have on hand at any given moment. Organization helps!

Last year, I surpassed my goal of 200 "items" put up (one "item" is a pint of pickles, say, or a freezer bag of cut corn kernels or turkey meat). The year is still young and we have a lot of harvest ahead of us still, but we may wind up doubling that this year. I've become more efficient, our fruit trees are bigger and more productive, and it's been an extraordinarily good veggie year. We're making wine for the first time and may end the year with 50 bottles, so that's a lot of "items" right there! :dance: (of course, we will give away a lot of that, lest you think we're total lushes )

I'll be canning potatoes and soup for the first time this year, so I've got my work cut out for me all the way through October!

 

[hmsteader71]

I would like to put up more than what I actually do. We live in town, have only rabbits so I don't have a way to put chicken up. I could buy a half a beef but never have the money at the time needed. I do can and freeze what I can out of the garden.

 

[NickieL]

Thanks for the replies all, definiatly food for thought

I guess I have a LOOOONG way to being more self sufficiant :Bawling: I don't keep much in my freezer because we have a lot of power outages (for days at a time due to storms) and I've learned the hard way not to have $200 worth of food in it (though the neighbors appreciated the bar-b-que ) which is why I'm trying to go the canning route. Od course dh and I don't eat a lot of meat, mainly chicken and fish and very rarely (like once a month) we may eat a little beef.

 

[Shepherd]

NickieL do you know how to can? If so, you could can up the meat in a situation like that, instead of letting it go to waste (or having a neighborhood bbq).

 

[Callieslamb]

I can't say a specific amount; I just can or freeze everything I can while it's available, because the next year we might have a bad crop from drought, insects, etc.

It's kind of engrained in me that if for example, we have a great berry crop - I can't let it go to waste... because I can't be guaranteed the following year will produce much.

I agree! I store what there is to can or freeze and make do with it. Last year, we didn't eat all the green beans I canned but this year, I canned just as much again! You just never know. I plan loosely - as in, we need 1-2 vegetables a day; 2-3 fruits; etc. I try to have this much, but it doesn't always work out. We might have a year when we have to eat a lot of beans and wish we had more corn, but if we were really starving.....I don't think we would care. We will have no red raspberry jam this year - luckily, I made 15 pnts of strawberry - more than twice as much as we will eat. Oh well. What I can't can for myself, I usually buy at the store now. If it comes down to it, we won't go to the store.

 

[DW]

There are three of us. I estimate by the week or month. When my son was small, I needed a qt of peaches/wk but no longer. I'm actually going to try them in pts this yr. We usually have green beans once/wk. I like to do pickles every other yr so I can skip growing them every other yr. This is more room for experimenting in the garden. I always do a few extra just in case we should have a bad garden. If we end up with too much left over, the dog treats are very healthy! I don't think I've ever had too many tomatoes. I have one qt left and time to start canning them.

 

[thequeensblessing]

We put up whatever we can, either in jars or in the freezer. I've made spaghetti sauce, salsa, stewed tomatoes and homemade catsup this year and I still have a ton of tomatoes waiting for me. I'll make some preserves with them, and I'll probably pick some green and make green tomato mincemeat. Our corn didn't do very well. We were hit hard by corn smut, but we did manage to get 16 jars put by. Our greenbeans and wax beans did very well and I canned all I could. Our beets, chard, broccoli and carrots have all done well too, and either have been or will be canned soon. I have huge heads of cabbage waiting to be put in the fermenting crock and butternut squash to be put in the root cellar. I'll have to buy onions and garlic this year because mine were a bust.
I'm feeding 3 people here. We put away a half a beef (our own, and we split it with our grown kids), and either a pig or a lamb, and sometimes venison when we get it. We freeze and can our chicken and turkey, and freeze rabbit every year. We try to buy very little and try to have enough of everything stored away to survive very nicely in any disaster.

Good for you on trying to be more prepared!