On another subject...

  I have decided to get more disciplined about writing here (my bad)--and I KNOW I have said that before! lol

  I'm also going to expand the subject matter a little, back to how I started with gardening and stuff too. It's that time of year here...

  I have been reading all these wonderful authors and bloggers lately who are teaching me so much, and reaffirming things I already know, but have pushed to the back edges of this cluttered mind of mine. SO--that being said...I want to start today with a serious pantry inventory, and I'm sorry, but to make it more fun for me, I' dragging you along.

 Let me first say that I have repurposed 2 mostly unused closet spaces in my house for pantries. They were both good sized walk-in closets (something I have always coveted, but never had in my entire life).  I bought metal shelving at a hardware store and made more shelves in addition to the ones that were already there. These closets both have big deep pine box-shelves in them, which are a godsend.  I left the clothes hanger rod in one, and use it to hang bags of drying herbs in the fall. I use big brown grocery bags and put the plants, roots up, into the bag and then use wooden clothespins to attach them to clothes hangers and hang them up to dry.

  I have collected glass (my favorite, but harder to find) and plastic gallon jars to store dry goods in, like flour, sugar, oats..that stuff.  I buy in bulk when I can and order online only if I absolutely have to. I grow a lot of vegetables, as most of you know, and I can like crazy.

Jellies and Jams

Salsas

Green beans

...well--you get the picture. So I need storage space, and you can find it, if you really look. However, keeping it organized can be another whole ball of wax. And knowing what's in there at any given time...that's what today is all about.  lol  

Inventory.  Any thing I can not figure out how to use has got to go. I know there  are some bottles of sauces and stuff that I got for a song thinking I could use for something..that are still there a couple of years later.

 They gotta go!

 Also I have not replenished some of my stores of flour and things lately because I started feeling like a hoarder and was afraid one of those tv shows might find me out and descend on me and humiliate me. lol But I've been making a LOT of bread and bagels and stuff lately, so the stores might be winding down. I need to know this stuff.

Though an inventory can be a daunting endeavor, it's absolutely necessary.  So I'm going to get busy with that, and come back later and give you the results of my findings.  I know I can knock my grocery bill back with a little more mindfulness. And be a better steward of my family's assets. And get a handle on things. lol

  Join me in this scavenger hunt through your own pantries and closets and if there's stuff that can be donated to food banks, well and good. If there's stuff we need to eat more of--yippee!!

  Ready--Set--GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

February 12, 2009

[Early spring gardens-click to enlarge]

Today I have spring fever. I have been in the midst of this for a time...the temperatures around these parts have been strangley un-February like. lol Today is the mid-fifties. It has been high sixties. It is stunningly gorgeous out there.

I have a rose of sharon clump that is in dire need of trimming and needs to be done soon., before the poor confused branches start to bud out. This is a problem this time of year...the global warming sets things in motion, the (peach trees blossom early , for instance, and then there is a typical freeze that kills all the flowers and then there are no peaches.) You can see the problem. I just finished reading that the Arbor Day Foundation (you know them, right? The free tree planting people??) has reconfigured the hardiness zones based on the last 10 years of changing weather. I am sooo pleased to report that we have been upgraded from a Zone 5 to a Zone 6 !!! All that really means is that we can plant a little earlier and maybe not have to buy only plants normally for Siberian temps. lol

Mostly gardening is a trial and error thing anyway. You plant something. It grows, or it doesn't. Or it produces or it takes so long the frost kills it before the food is ripe. We have a pretty long growing season here in the southern midwest. Gardens start going in in April late and we harvest sometimes until Novemeber, and always into October. So, that's long enough (if you have the energy) to put in a couple of staggered plantings of beans and greens and some other things. That's almost half a year of growing time. And with things being the way they are these days, I am glad for all the time to grow all the things I can. I have 2 small freezers, one an upright and one a medium sized chest. Both are pretty full and I am in the process of inventorying and organizing them both, as well as my dry pantries. I have 2 large walk-in closets, one in this room that I use for the office and one in the guest bedroom. Both have shelving I have put in and are lined with jars of garden foods I have canned, as well as dry goods like beans and flours and rice and stuff. Jars of olives and artichoke hearts that I find on sale. Catsup. Bouillion. You know...indispensables. lol I want to buy a dehydrator this year too...I used to have a small tabletop one and when I didn't use it for several years in a row, I sold it at a yard sale. That and my (OUCH) Champion Juicer. It must have been a moment of insanity...

Well, better get back to my initial endeavors. I love to garden and plan to expand the herb garden this year as well. I have dried parsley, oregano and sage in the closet now that needs to come out an be packaged. So much to do....

Namaste.