Old Cold Taters

My potato garden (about 35 feet of garden bed)  was a total bust this year. Himself thinks it was chipmunks, I think it was bad juju and lousy weather.  Whatever it was, all that work was for nothing and we got about 4 pounds of spuds  when we would normally harvest around a hundred. Everything has been strange this year. And my pantry was looking a little bare.

  People are often so intrigued with my canning and gardening and food storage habits.  And inevitably they will say (at some point in the conversation)..."Oh I wish I could do that, but I don't have room for a garden...I don't have a canner...I don't know how..." Some people really want to do it but don't know how to get started. Others want to want to do it, but it's too much work. lol  And it is. I have often thought that you have to be a certain kind of crazy to do this stuff.  

  I am that certain type of crazy. I admit it. When the store ads come out (here it's the Aldi's ad that comes on Saturday and the 2 local markets come on Monday) I'm like a kid with a Sears Christmas catalog.  I got this weeks ad Saturday and nearly wet myself.  Aldi's had red potatoes in 5 pound bags for 99 cents.  99 CENTS PEOPLE !!!!  I did a little dance. Red potatoes are my favorites. They don't keep as well as russets but they still keep pretty well.  (The other stores red potatoes are like minimum 2.49, just to put this in perspective for you.).   They also had button mushrooms for 69 cents a package. I bought a few (6) of those too.  I am not a fan of canned mushrooms, but they can be handy to have in the pantry when you need them for a soup or something, or in winter when the price of 'shrooms skyrockets, and I refuse to pay that much.  I bought 12 bags of potatoes. 60 pounds. I am going to keep a couple of bags in the cold room and can the rest. 60 pounds of taters for under 12 buckaroos.  I started the canning today, after a visit to my bone cruncher and a long nap. I only got about 20 pounds done, and it yielded 14 quarts of diced potatoes. Potatoes for soup, for breakfast potatoes, for potato salad..for anything I want to make with them. lol

 The first thing I did was to put the taters into a sink full of cold water with a healthy cup of vinegar in it. Then I proceeded to scrub the life out of those potatoes.  They have to be very clean to can with the peels left on, which is what I intended to do. 

Got the regular mouth jars all washed, lids in simmering water, and pressure canner at the ready as well.

I cubed the potatoes and put them in a bath of ascorbic acid and water, then drained them and put them in the jars. Filled with cold water, left an inch of headspace, added a half teaspoon of fruit fresh (ascorbic acid) and canned them at 10 pounds of pressure for 40 minutes.

Voila ! All sealed and pretty. in 24-48 hours, they'll be labeled and dated and go in the pantry. 

  So, even if you can't grow a garden (for whatever reasons) you can still can produce for your winter stockpile.  One year I got a 25 pound bag of organic carrots for 17 dollars and canned carrots to my hearts content. There are farmers markets. There are neighbors giving away stuff. There are all kinds of ways to stock your pantry with food to feed your family if a catastrophe strikes. If you cannot fathom canning or dehydrating food, buy it. Buy it while you can, as you can. The average big box store carries THREE days of inventory. If trucks cannot deliver food, then what ? If the electrical grid goes down--then what ?  I am responsible for feeding my family, that's my job. I don't entrust that responsibility to anyone or anything else. I care about what I feed myself and them, so when I do this stuff, I do it for reasons that make a difference to me. I am watching what is happening in Mexico and Puerto Rico in the aftermath of weather disasters...I don't want to be a helpless victim when something happens here in my yard. And it will...it's just a matter of time. We are having earthquakes in Illinois at an alarming rate. Tornadoes are a given. Flooding and devastation from the rising waters of the Mississippi is historical fact and a certainty. I am looking at the variety of foods in my pantry and thinking what else do I need ? I have protein sources (beans, meats, fish and quinoa).  I have vegetables (tomatoes, green beans, dried greens, carrots and tomatoes both canned and dried. Bell peppers dehydrated. Onions and mushrooms dehydrated. Celery dehydrated. I have fruits-- peaches, apples, pears, pineapples, persimmons, pumpkin - all canned and dehydrated. Not dependent on electricity to keep it from rotting. Oats, rice, flour, sugar, honey, olive oil and vegetable oil. I even canned butter. The texture is a little different, but it will still be better than no butter. I even canned coffee creamer for heavens sake. lol  And I keep canned evaporated milk on hand at all times for cooking. We don't drink milk, but I do use it sometimes. I keep shelf stable packages of almond milk and coconut milk stocked for cereal (granola. That I make.). I have 7 kinds of jam/fruit butters.  I buy all natural peanut butter and keep it stocked and rotated...at any time there is at least 6 jars of peanut butter in there.

  I guess all I'm saying is--it isn't that hard to stay ahead of the bad times. Whether those times are financial or disaster driven or what ever.  And I'm gonna leave you with this:  


                                                          Little Jimmy Dickens