First thing in the morning (before I was totally awake even), I filled a small dish with blueberries from the freezer and set them on the counter to thaw as an addition to our breakfast oatmeal.
While in the deep freezer, I also grabbed a pound of butter along with a package of cooked duck meat to use in making B-B-Q for lunch sandwiches. Buns for the sandwiches came out of the freezer, too.
This was lunch again today.
Buns are gone so bread
was used for the B-B-Q sandwiches.
A trip to the root cellar yielded a head of cabbage for coleslaw, and I also got some carrots and apples.
The last morsels in a jar of blueberry jam bit the dust a few days ago so I grabbed another jar off the pantry shelf. Remembered I'd just used the last of the dill pickles and also a quart of applesauce so I tucked a jar of each of those in the crook of my arm.
It's for certain these "put-by" foods didn't magically appear in the freezer or on the shelf, but doesn't it make the work involved in raising your own fruit, vegetables and meat all worth it when you can go food shopping without leaving home? (Or putting on any make-up or combing your hair?)
So agreed!
ReplyDeleteSundays are my day to "shop"--I bring up things from the downstairs and garage freezers to my little refrigerator freezer. Taters and onions are in the front hall (what a greeting!). I have breads/buns/crescents/dinner rolls/english muffins. Every vegetable known to man. Even frozen milk and broths for recipes. I could literally not go to town for a month...but dear Don reminds me I get a little "wooly" from too much home time. Sigh.
Sue - I know you no doubt could not go to town for a month! And still eat very well. What I want to know is what does getting a little "wooly" mean??
DeleteI think he means I get "anti-social"...or something like that. He says humans need socializing. Um. Ok. Give me my internet!
DeleteTeehee!
And there's something wrong with being anti-social??? ;o}
DeleteHow fun is that? I love days when I can eat from the cellar and eat healthy.
ReplyDeleteodiie - "Eating healthy" is the bestest of it all!! The coleslaw I made from that head of cabbage . . . hubby says it tastes fresh out of the garden. Can't beat that! They won't last forever in the root cellar, but so far, so good.
DeleteI love eating the "spoils" of our hard work. I got a bit overwhelmed this year so I got behind. Time to start planning now. I want a root cellar but it's hard here on the coast because the ground is soaked all winter long.
ReplyDeleteRuth - Yes, there definitely are areas in our country where a root cellar is an impossibility. Would there be the possibility of building something like a cement block cellar under ground (with really good drainage pipes around it) or would it always stay too warm in your climate?
DeleteThat's a good way to do it!!! I believe in eating healthy. No junk from a box for me!
ReplyDeleteSandy - I've read that in certain instances you'd do your body less harm by eating the box rather than the junk in it! Hee-hee.
DeleteYeah but potato chips, omg! I can't buy them because I eat them all in one sitting. No self control, sigh.
DeleteKatie C. - Your comment could have been written word for word by me. Matter of fact, I'm sure I HAVE written exactly the same thing. Because I know sugar is so bad for us and I try (I really do!) to watch how much we ingest, I've almost talked myself into thinking a small dish (okay, a big bag) of potato chips is much, much, much better for me than a sweet treat. You would agree, wouldn't you?? Huh? Huh??
DeleteYup. ��
DeleteIt just warms the cockles, doesn't it? What a wonderful sense of security!
ReplyDeleteSusan - At this time of year, we can use all the warm cockles we can get! (After the third meal of that B-B-Q'd duck, though, I froze the remainder of it today. Not that it didn't still taste yummy, but this gal needs variety!)
DeleteMama Pea,
ReplyDeleteShopping for groceries from your very own pantry store is every woman's dream! We work hard to grow, can, freeze, slaughter, hunt, and process food. Now it's time to enjoy the fruits of our labor :-)
I can't get over how nice your cabbage looks. I'll have to try again next season.
Sending hugs and love you way.
Sandy
Sandy - My cabbage (with the exception of one or two) didn't get very big this year, but in truth that's not a bad thing. I mean for just the two of us, once I cut into a mammoth sized head, it's sometimes hard to finish the whole thing without having it look a little "old." Sending good luck for your cabbage growing this coming season!
DeleteThats my kind of shopping, I often say to hubby I am popping to the shops, he knows I mean the growing garden, poly tunnels and store areas, I am happy to be anti social :-)
ReplyDeleteDawn - "Popping to the shops . . . " I love the sound of that and may have to use it on my meal preparation excursions to the garden from now on!
DeleteShopping at home is very addictive, so much so that we have an ever growing dislike for going 'out' to shop, except for our occasional jaunts to a patisserie up the road which sells the most divine cakes!
ReplyDeleteVera - Oh, to have an actual, bona fide, authentic patisserie up the road!! How wonderful and I don't blame you one bit for occasionally stopping in there. What a treat!
DeleteI just came from another blog where she posted about the horrors of trying to go grocery shopping the other day. I'll take your method please! LOL
ReplyDeleteLeigh - I know my home-stocked food doesn't come without expense or sweat, but I, too, much, much, much prefer it to motoring to a commercial store, selecting food that comes from another country and may have been raised with poisons, standing in long check-out lines and then having a fender-bender in the crowded parking lot. Those of us who are like-minded in our efforts to be as self-sufficient as we can are a little strange, aren't we? ;o} Happy New Year!
DeleteI love gathering things from the pantry or freezer, though we don't have quite the supply that you do - it is still a pleasure that makes me happy. Love your dishes - I got a set exactly like it for our anniversary this year - they are quite popular in WA because of all the apples that are grown here - so hard to find (especially at a price that is not too princely) - they are perfect, and your food looks so attractive and delicious on them. Happy New Year.
ReplyDeleteJoAnn - I've had my Apple dishes by Franciscan for going on 52 years now. Surprisingly, I haven't had to replace too many pieces in all that time. Good thing, too, because as you know they are now quite pricey! Happy New Year to you and yours!
DeleteI am looking forward to doing more canning this year. Between the kids having their own families and Geoffrey having a totally changed and minimal appetite with his chronic leukemia and the chemo I haven't done a lot of canning of late. I did get 26 pints of Yukon Gold potatoes up this year plus some tomatoes. A drop in the bucket compared to what I did when the kids were living at home. Good for you!
ReplyDeleteGoatldi - When our regular routine is changed for whatever reason, things don't get done in the usual manner. Your lack of canning recently is absolutely understandable! I'm betting you'll get back into it though. Happy and healthy New Year wishes to you and Geoffrey.
Delete