Sense of Home Kitchen
Made at home. That is the simple goal I have for my kitchen and pantry. Of course, simple does not mean easy or a lack of effort. I have been very busy this summer and fall so that my pantry will be filled with homemade goodness. I have been canning, freezing, dehydrating, and storing. The garden has now been put to bed. The last of the green tomatoes have been picked in preparation for the frost we are forecast to receive next week, they are now ripening in the house. The potatoes have been dug, raspberries thinned, and all the annual plants have been pulled and composted. We added sand, finished compost, and we are piling leaves inside the fenced garden in an effort to make the soil more friable once they are tilled in next spring.
The apples have been picked and I have been making apple juice with several more buckets and cloth bags to go. If I had more time I would stop by the many, many homes that I see have apple trees that have not been picked. People are often happy to have someone pick their apples so they don't have to clean up their yard later, you just need to ask.
This apple juice needs no sugar added and I can trust the source of the apples. No sprays or chemicals have been used on the plants or during the juice making process. With this particular juicer all I have to do is rinse, cut these, on the small side, apples in half and toss them in the juicer. The sterilized jars seal themselves after the steaming juice is placed inside. This really is simple canning.
The remaining pulp and discarded leaves are added to the compost so that it can provide nutrients for next summer's garden. This is my compost bucket, an old ice cream bucket. There was no need to purchase a fancy compost container to set on my counter, I store this well-used bucket under the sink.
We are finally, as of last week, finished putting drain tile in our basement. Now our basement will stay dry next spring and we can use all areas of the basement. We have swept, scrubbed and started filling the pantry shelves again. Unfortunately, in the process of putting in the drain tile we had to tear out our cold storage room. This has not been replaced yet so my potatoes are on the bottom shelf of the pantry and we will keep the basement unheated and hope they keep until we can provide cold storage. We had smaller yields of potatoes this fall (thanks to a very wet spring and summer) so I think we will use them up long before they get soft.
I have several more jars to bring down to the pantry yet, these shelves will be full before long. I am just so thrilled to have my pantry in one place again. I have been living with jars of food lined up in front of all my books on the bookshelves for a couple of months now. I don't even know what I all have anymore it is in such disarray. I do like the made at home look of these shelves, and I know the quality and nutrition of the food in these jars is top notch.
Sense of Home Kitchen / Homemade Living / A Homemade Life / Kitchen and Pantry
