On Tuesday, I made a massive, massive shopping trip. 232 pounds of food, most of them perishable items. I don't have a spare freezer, nor a massive fridge, and I don't want it to spoil before I use it all up. I also don't have a basement to make a root cellar, so what am I going to do with all this food?
That's what I've been spending my day today doing. Busy as a bee, preserving, and making space for more preservation to take place
The following is either what I've done so far or what I plan on doing within the next few days:
Chopped up cilantro and parsley and froze them.
Chopped up peppers and froze them.
Pureed tomatoes, cooked them up into tomato concentrate, and froze them.
Removed all the chickens from the freezer, cutting them into smaller parts, dividing them by type, and refreezing, making them take up less room in the freezer, making room for other frozen things.
Froze yogurt.
Froze milk.
Chopped up and froze apples.
Rendered chicken fat from the freezer, so it takes up less room, making more room for other things.
Froze cabbage (for stuffed cabbage, etc...)
Juicing oranges and freezing them.
Juicing lemons and freezing them.
Freezing celery stalk and leaves.
Dehydrating celery.
Pickling cucumbers.
Picking cabbage and making sauerkraut.
Freezing carrots.
Dehydrating carrots.
Dehydrating potatoes.
Making spicy beets sauce that lasts forever in the fridge.
Pickling radishes.
Freeze cheese.
Freeze bananas.
Dehydrate onions.
Freeze chopped onions.
The rest of the food doesn't need to be preserved, as it can last a while regardless. Right now, for example, my 5 large bags of organic potatoes are sitting in my living room, and they won't spoil. Carrots also won't spoil if left out for a few days. The other root vegetables need refrigeration, but they, along with cabbage, can easily last more than a month if uncut in a cool place.
We're using up the perishable vegetables first, like the cucumbers, tomatoes, fennel, eggplant, and zucchini. Once those are used up, we'll be having the rest of the non preserved, hardier perishables, and once those are finished up, we'll be using what is preserved.
I'll try to take stock and if I do end up having something spoil on me before I can use it up, I'll let you all know.
Ok, back to my preserving!
That's what I've been spending my day today doing. Busy as a bee, preserving, and making space for more preservation to take place
The following is either what I've done so far or what I plan on doing within the next few days:
Chopped up cilantro and parsley and froze them.
Chopped up peppers and froze them.
Pureed tomatoes, cooked them up into tomato concentrate, and froze them.
Removed all the chickens from the freezer, cutting them into smaller parts, dividing them by type, and refreezing, making them take up less room in the freezer, making room for other frozen things.
Froze yogurt.
Froze milk.
Chopped up and froze apples.
Rendered chicken fat from the freezer, so it takes up less room, making more room for other things.
Froze cabbage (for stuffed cabbage, etc...)
Juicing oranges and freezing them.
Juicing lemons and freezing them.
Freezing celery stalk and leaves.
Dehydrating celery.
Pickling cucumbers.
Picking cabbage and making sauerkraut.
Freezing carrots.
Dehydrating carrots.
Dehydrating potatoes.
Making spicy beets sauce that lasts forever in the fridge.
Pickling radishes.
Freeze cheese.
Freeze bananas.
Dehydrate onions.
Freeze chopped onions.
The rest of the food doesn't need to be preserved, as it can last a while regardless. Right now, for example, my 5 large bags of organic potatoes are sitting in my living room, and they won't spoil. Carrots also won't spoil if left out for a few days. The other root vegetables need refrigeration, but they, along with cabbage, can easily last more than a month if uncut in a cool place.
We're using up the perishable vegetables first, like the cucumbers, tomatoes, fennel, eggplant, and zucchini. Once those are used up, we'll be having the rest of the non preserved, hardier perishables, and once those are finished up, we'll be using what is preserved.
I'll try to take stock and if I do end up having something spoil on me before I can use it up, I'll let you all know.
Ok, back to my preserving!
Tags
canning
dehydration
extreme frugality
frugal shopping
frugal strategies
lacto-fermentation
preservation