Now that we are in December and the garden and preserving is pretty quiet, it’s perfect timing to reflect on the 2019 garden season. This week, I’m focusing on our year end totals for the pantry.
I’ve gone through what I wrote down for each week in preserves. It’s a combination of canned, dehydrated, fermented, and frozen.
One thing I need to improve on is getting the frozen category in weight, instead of weight and size which is where I messed up this year.
But enough about that… on to the totals!
March
- 5 quarts chicken broth
April
- 3 quarts fermented lemons
- 3 half pints dandelion jelly
- 6 snack size bags frozen caramelized onions
- 4 quart jars dehydrated onion slices
May
- 1 gallon kimchi
- 2 quarts sauerkraut
- Froze 6 gallon bags strawberries
- 1 quart jar dehydrated Strawberries
- 1 pint jar dehydrated strawberries
- 8 half pints strawberry jam
- 3 quarts chicken broth
June
- Froze 30lbs blueberries
- Froze Pesto
- 45 bulbs hardneck garlic
- 20 bulbs softneck garlic
- 3 quarts chicken broth
- 1 pint chicken broth
- 7 pints blueberries in honey syrup
- 1 half pint of blueberries in honey syrup
- 1 quart jar dried blueberries (Dehydrated 5 pounds blueberries)
- 1 pint jar dried blueberries
- Dried herbs
- 3 lbs frozen kale
July
- 27 jars peaches in syrup
- 10 half pints peach bbq sauce
- 36 pints salsa
- 6 quarts dehydrated leeks
- 9 pints dill pickle chips
- 13 pints dill pickle spears
- 1 pint dried blueberries
- 11 half pints blackberry jam
- 3 pints pickled hot peppers
- 8 pints pickled banana peppers
- Froze 14 lbs blueberries
- Froze Pesto
- 50 lbs potatoes
August
- 1 quart hot sauce
- 1 gallon size bag frozen corn
- 4 quart jars dried sweet red peppers
- 1 pint dried heirloom tomatoes
- 1 quart dried sweet peppers (various colors)
- 6 half gallons fermented dill pickles
- 4 pints dried peppers
- 5 quarts chicken broth
- 18 pints whole tomatoes
- 4 pints pizza sauce
- 8 half pints Pizza sauce
September
- 2 quart jars dried beans
- 8 pints dried beans
- 120lbs sweet potatoes harvested
- 16 half pints tomato sauce
- 2 pints tomato sauce
- 6 quarts grape juice
- 3 half pints grape jam
- 5 half pints grape jelly
- 10 trays worth of fruit leather
- 1 pint jar of dehydrated summer squash
- 1 pint jar dehydrated heirloom tomatoes
- 5 quarts of chicken broth
- Harvested 23 butternut squash
October
- 1 gallon apple chips
- 3 pints and 1 half pint salsa verde
- 7 quarts chunky applesauce
- 9 pints apple butter
- 1 quart dried whole green peppers
- 1 pint dried sliced peppers
- 1 quart fermented sweet pepper salsa
- 3 quarts fermented green tomatoes and peppers
- 35 quarts applesauce
- 10 dehydrator trays worth of grape fruit leather
- 10 quarts sliced pears
- 8 pints sliced pears
- 4 half gallons apple chips
- 1 pint pear chips
- 1 quart poblano dried
- 1 quart jalapeno dried
November
- 18 pints cranberry jelly
- 1 gallon kimchi
- 3 quarts beef broth
- ½ gallon apple chips
- 2 quarts sauerkraut
Year end totals:
315 canned jars (110 quarts, 139 pints, 66 half pints)
35 quarts fermented food
51 jars dehydrated food (31 quarts, 20 pints)
120 lbs sweet potatoes
50 lbs potatoes
23 butternut squash
~150 Onions
Frozen- not sure (note to self to weigh as things go in the freezer in 2020)
This was definitely my best year ever for preserving. Each year I get more honed in on how much own family needs for a year supply.
It’s really important to just focus on improving your own totals and preserving numbers and not to get caught up comparing because this will look different for each family.
I exceeded my expectations with cucumber, sweet potatoes, and peppers from our garden this year.
Areas from my pantry that fell short were tomatoes, green beans, potatoes and corn. Corn and potatoes are a lack of space issue and tomatoes and green beans had some disease problems this year.
I’ll go into detail on this next week as I talk about successes and failures in the garden in 2019.
In the garden this week
- Harvesting bok choy, carrots, radishes, turnips, lettuce (its about done for though), kale, and collards.
