Pantry 14" Update

I thought I was done with tomatoes until the ones in my garden started coming in. I was wrong. Keegan and my MIL went back to the you-pick and brought me back a few more buckets of tomatoes. They were romas this time. I finally got them all put up. The blueberries are still coming in as well. To the pantry I have added:

- 12 quarts of crushed tomatoes
- 6 pints of Blueberry Pepper Jam (My Favorite!)
- 3/4 gallon of dehydrated blueberries ( about 2 gallons hydrated)
- 3 gallons blueberries frozen
- 1.5 gallons of dehydrated onions
- The rest of the onions (maybe 8 gallons worth?) that were dry storage stable put up to use fresh
- 2 cups diced jalapenos frozen

*UPDATE* plus 3 gallons blueberries, frozen 7/19

Day Off

I have begun to reclaim my house. Shampooing the carpets last week meant that every single piece of furniture had to be moved, including everything that was formerly sitting on it. Because the carpets took a couple of days to completely dry, not everything could be put back in its home immediately. That, paired with going to the you-pick the next day and bringing home nearly 200 lbs of produce that had to be dealt with immediately turned my whole house upside down!

Slowly... very slowly, things have been returning to normal. Brad has been doing a lot of organizing and moving things to storage to free up some space for baby. I have been doing a lot of food processing. Keegan has been tending to most of the animals' needs, which thankfully have been few. The roosters are being very mean, though. They need to be dealt with soon. He also helped me pick almost 4 gallons of blueberries yesterday, which I also processed. That was a hot and miserable task that seemed to take forever! In reality it took nearly 3 hours, and because it has been storming every evening, and I wasn't up until late, it had to be done in the heat of the day. We had put it off for 4 days instead of our usual every other day picking schedule, because it has been storming. No more of that!

The current pantry total for this week is:

Salsa
    - 10 pints
    - 3 half pints
    - 3 quarts
Tomato Sauce
    - 7 quarts
Crushed Tomatoes
    - 5 quarts
Blueberry Jam
    - 14 pints
    - 15 half pints
Frozen Blueberries
    - 1 Gallon
Bell Peppers
    - 3 Gallons Frozen
    - 1/2 Gallon dehydrated (equivalent to ~3 Gallons chopped)
Onions
    - 2 dehydrator loads in progress and many more to go

Onions are the only You-Pick produce left to finish processing. They are still on the back porch drying out between storms. I have been covering them with a tarp and uncovering them when the sun comes out. I'm proud of myself for processing everything before one single thing went bad. Usually I have to toss at least a few soft tomatoes and peppers. I was on top of it this year. I may still have a few soft onions after it is all said and done. Brad was a huge help. He washed a good deal of it while I processed. We have some left over bell and hot peppers to use fresh and about 2/3 gallon of fresh blueberries that wouldn't fit in my 5 gallon stock pot last night. I will probably use some fresh and freeze the rest. Lots of bags of stuff need to be taken to the deep freezers at my in-laws'. We don't have room for a chest freezer here yet. I am going to try to process much more this year that can be stored at room temp.

The garden is doing well, despite my having spent very little time tending to it. Thank goodness for the rain and my having mulched heavily last week to help combat weeds. I need to spend some time out there soon retying tomatoes, checking for insect damage, and weed eating the rows. Cucumbers should be ready soon! That means pickles will soon join my pantry.

For now, another storm is echoing in the distance. Maybe I will get to take some pictures after the rain passes. I really need to get some cleaning done inside. Brad is at work and I miss having him home. Mostly, I think I will take some much needed down-time. There will be plenty to do soon enough. I need a lazy day.

U-PIK

 Yesterday we went to pick veggies at Charlie's U-Pik. This is our haul. We got 3 5 gallon buckets of onions, 3 of tomatoes, 2 of peppers, 2 cantaloupes, and a watermelon.

It didn't seem like nearly enough when we were picking and I was really wishing that we could have gotten more. Once we got home, however, I felt a bit differently. I was wondering what I had gotten myself into! All of these veggies have to be put away, and soon!

 The onions are on the back porch drying out. It looks like it may rain for the next few days so I may have to bring them in.

The first order of business was to make Pico de Gallo with some of the tomatoes that got damaged in transport paired with some peppers and onions. This is a gallon sized bowl. Half of it was gone within minutes. Keegan and Brad are good sports and love helping me out when it comes to taking care of some damaged produce. Today I made 10 pints, 3 half pints, and 4 quarts of salsa. I got to use my newly fully functional stove that Brad fixed for me. I only have one big eye and it has been broken for nearly 6 years. He was amazing and fixed it for me so I would be able to more easily can this year. It barely looks like I used any tomatoes. Tomorrow will be tomato sauce day. Once the kitchen table is cleared a bit I can cut up some peppers and onions to dehydrate and freeze. We also picked another gallon and a half of blueberries this evening.

The chicken shuffle happened this afternoon. We had a bully rooster in the babies' tractor so we went ahead and transferred two of the most bullied roos and the 8 hens from the babies' hoop coop to the big coop. The 3 silkie roos that we have been having problems with have been moved to the new gentlemen's club. The hens followed Keegan around all day. He has laid claim to them all as his now. So much for him fussing about having to take care of my chickens. He even caught each one and put them in the coop tonight. He is amazingly proficient at catching chickens and he made quick work of it. It probably didn't hurt that it got him out of picking blueberries for a while. Hopefully they will learn quickly that they belong there and go back at night on their own soon.

We saw a raccoon in the big oak tree behind the turkey coop last night. We will have to keep a close eye on that situation. The game cam crapped out so I can't set it up to keep an eye out. Brad has been working of fixing it all day.

Just a Note

Mostly for myself so I will remember. I really want to try to keep up with how much produce we produce on the homestead this year. It will be really neat to be able to look back on it at the end of the year. Keegan and I picked a gallon and a half of blueberries this evening. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, other than standing eating them straight out of the basket, which I may or may not have been doing... They will probably go in the freezer because we are supposed to be going to the you-pick tomorrow and will be overflowing with fresh produce that will need to be put up immediately.

Also, we shampooed the carpets yesterday. Finally! Wow that was hard work. Very much worth it though. A huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders.