A Year of Plenty

I don't know that I've mentioned how much preserving I've done this summer. It started with the cherries. My mom stopped by one day in late July and saw the cherry tree red and ripe. So we started picking and before we knew it, we had done 28 quarts of cherry pie filling. Then someone else had a tree to pick and we did another 60 quarts or so.

Then peaches came on and I did a bunch of peaches and peach pie filling. Then I had beans and peas in my garden and froze them. Then 40 quarts of corn fell into my lap. My mom made me some applesauce and apple pie filling. Just today I canned 18 quarts of tomatoes and I have more coming.

And now my shelves are pretty much full. They were near empty at the beginning of the summer. And the best part is that a lot of the food was grown in my own garden or free. It cost me more this year to buy canning supplies than it cost to buy the food I was putting away. Not to mention that I got to spend a lot of time with my mom and sister-in-laws canning it all.

I've also had the opportunity to go to the cannery a couple of times this year and put away flour, sugar, rice, oats and other dry-pack items. I'm planning to go again early in November. And last week my mom and SILs and I did tons of dry-packing with a rented canner, although I only put away flour that time.

I'm so thankful that our family has been blessed with this food storage opportunity. You never know what the future will bring, but for us, it looks like lots of pie.