This is the time of year in our home that we're busy storing up food for the rest of the year.
We have two very happy apple trees in our yard. We'd picked apples before leaving for vacation, and they were waiting in our fridge upon our return. We've picked one more box in addition to these you see here:
I usually make applesauce, but we still have some from last year (and two of my children won't eat it anyway), so this year I decided to use our apples for apple pies. As you can imagine, this idea was met with great delight by my husband. Apple pie is hands-down his favorite dessert.
This past week our evening activity has been peeling, coring and slicing apples.
So far I have 9 bags of apple pie filling.
I broke down on Saturday morning and made three batches of applesauce afterall (just to change things up a little). I'm down to one more drawer of apples, so within the next couple of days we should be done with the apple season (and have nearly 20 bags of apple pie filling! How many apple pies can one make in a year? Mark says, "Never enough!") I'll be glad to get down to the last apple. I'm a bit appled-out!
Most of what we stock up on is fruit. Each year we go strawberry, raspberry and blueberry picking. We end up with bags of frozen fruit that I use for smoothies or an occasional berry pie. Every other year I make jam. This year I made raspberry freezer jam- and lots of it! This past month we did the strawberries and raspberries, and this week we'll go blueberry picking. (And yes, based on my last experience, the thought of heading back to the berry fields makes me nervous, to say the least.)
We've also been pulling zucchini out of our garden. Last night I made two loaves of bread and froze a number of 2-cup portions of grated zucchini, which is what my zucchini bread recipe calls for. There's many more where that came from. I'm sure I'll be grating zucchini for weeks to come!
Later this week the beans will be ready in our garden, and then we'll be snipping, cutting, and canning. The corn from our garden we'll freeze. There will be carrots and onions and hopefully cucumbers (although those don't look too promising; we'll see).
I'd love to hear what anyone else does to stock up your freezer or pantry for the winter months!
Jul. 31, 2006 - Busy Busy
ReplyDeletePosted by Dana
In all the good way's!
We do apple pie filling too.
Are you saving and apples to eat now? They last forever in the fridge especially the Granny's.
What do you do with your cucumbers?
Mine are prolific right now.
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Jul. 31, 2006 - Dana
Posted by reformingmama
We don't keep them in the fridge. Our apples are Transparents (I think). They're one of two types and I forget the name of the other type so lets just say they're Transparents... and they are very soft apples, so don't keep for too long.
This is our first year to do cucumbers... so I'm not sure what we'll do with them. They're still tiny, so we're not sure they're doing well (unless they'll get a big growth spurt here soon!) What do you do with yours?
Do you do zucchini, too? Any good zucchini recipes for me?
:) Stacy
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Jul. 31, 2006 - Well..
Posted by PreschoolersandPeace
Being 8 weeks pg and feeling super icky, I've been smashing the fruit and freezing it. When the weather turns chilly and I start feeling better, I'll can jam!
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Jul. 31, 2006 - Yummy zucchini recipe
Posted by Sarah
My boys eat applesauce like there’s no tomorrow! In 4 months they ate all the jars my mom canned for them last year….so we can’t wait for apples to come in, so we can start again….lots this time.
This is a yummy recipe that my sister just gave me last week. I’ve not made it, but tried hers and it’s really good.
3 cups zucchini
1 cup Bisquick
½ cup onion
4 eggs
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
½ cup oil
1 clove garlic
½ t. salt
Bake in greased 9x13 pan at 350 for 25 minutes
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Jul. 31, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by
Kendra, I'm impressed you're even smashing the fruit at all! :)
:( Sorry you're feeling so icky!
Sarah- Thanks for the recipe! Do you know if you're supposed to mix all of the ingredients together or layer them?
~Stacy
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Jul. 31, 2006 - Ingredients
Posted by Sarah
Sorry bout that....guess it would help to know! :)
Mix them all up!!
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Jul. 31, 2006 - Sounds fun!
Posted by AussieinAmerica
Lots of work but fun. I was able to do apple pies last year and it was so handy. I only had 6 apple pies in my freezer though!
Stacy
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Aug. 1, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by MicheleinNZ
As we are in the last month or so of winter, I'm just using up everything that I saved from the summer. It's so nice to pull out berries from the freezer in the middle of the winter! I usually just flash freeze berries that we pick just after Christmas - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries. And then we used them in desserts, smoothies, or just a handful of blueberries for a snack. I just recently bought a box of slightly wrinkled pears for only $2, so I've been stewing them and freezing them, since we have a big freezer. My kids eat so much fruit that this was infinitely cheaper than buying canned fruit. We're planning our vege garden now and we're planning with the intent to freeze a lot of what we grow. Last year with a new baby we just didn't get much done. But corn we'll freeze directly on the cob. Zucchini we'll grate and freeze (my mom once made so much zucchini bread one summer that I didn't want to see it again for years). We're growing pumpkins, too, which I'll cook and puree and then freeze for use in pies, muffins, etc. And DH's uncle has a huge orchard and I'm hoping we can get some serious apricots from him so that I can make jam. I've only ever made jam once but I'm keen to try again. Since we eat so much peanut butter, we also eat a lot of jam and I'd rather make my own.
Sorry for a long comment! I'm feeling very chatty tonight :) I'd be interested in easy jam ideas from anyone.