A stash of goodies for the winter

Anyone else keep a store of produce on hand in the winter? Nuts, fruits, wines, veggies? Here are a couple of pictures of what I have on hand in the winter just in case. Winter is hard on people here so I spare no expense keeping fresh things and canned goods on hand! Some of my canned goods are nearly 5 years old so I’m working hard at rotating those out. What do you have stashed?

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My winter stash is mostly dried fruit. Fresh runs out pretty early in fall. Dried carries me until fresh starts again. I usually eat dried at every meal all winter long. Had oatmeal with Sweetcrisp blueberries for breakfast.

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as my plants and trees start to produce more ill be able to build up my stores like that. thats why i like berries. they’re the easiest to keep just frozen till you need them and take little space. can’t wait until i get enough hazelnuts to store for winter!

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I keep home grown sweet potatoes, garlic, and squash in a cabinet in my kitchen. We have frozen tomatoes and canned tomatoes for sauces and soups. Chopped up peppers and onions for various dishes. This year I blanched and froze collards, kale, and chard to be used in soups. I also froze green beans and made dilly beans. My wife makes a great eggplant parm dish and will always make one to eat now and one to eat later. We pickled cucumbers, jalapeno, and beets. Love the pickled beets. I think I still have some jams somewhere but all the extra frozen berries are long gone. Still have kimchi and Do Chua, which is pickled carrots and diakon radish. Dried herbs. That is all I can think of currently.

Oh yeah, I also have 5 gallons of a Chinook IPA in a keg in my fridge.

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I have at least 15 quarts of applesauce still in the freezer along with 7 quarts of tart cherries. I am finally down to the last 20 apples still stored in the refrigerator then time to hit the cherries (too busy in July to do anything with cherries but freeze after pitting).

Lots of jam/jelly left too. I always make too much as we enjoy giving it away as gifts (peach, grape, cherry, black raspberry ect).

I should have canned up some peaches and pears but we didn’t get around to it last year so ate them fresh and gave a lot away. My kids are now basically all out of the house so my wife and I are having issues with too much fruit. I like to grow it but our family of 4 has shrunk so now just the wife and I.

I hate to cut any fruit trees down but I am not getting any younger and the work seems more each year. I will have to do some serious thinking on what to keep and what to remove in a year or two. I know the apples and peaches will stay but the rest is up for debate.

I know this sounds weird but even with too much fruit I still ordered from Nourse Farms for this spring (currants and rhubarb). So hard to stop and I always find room for just a few more fruits. I got a hot lead on Debbie’s Gold apricot trees (potted) so debating about planting just one this spring. Just for ‘testing’ as I keep telling my wife. I guess she is right as she claims I am “Possessed” about fruit.

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My fruit production gets eaten straightaway by the g-kids. :grin: Hopefully as my little orchard produces more, I can put some fruits by.
I can mid summer through fall. Mostly veggies. The usual, tomatoes, salsa, spaghetti sauce, pickles, potatoes, beets, beans, peppers. I also can meats and broth for quick meals.
Have sauerkraut, sweet potatoes and onions still. Ran out of garlic. :disappointed_relieved:
Been harvesting (mostly for fresh salads) lettuce, celtuce, cilantro, salad turnips, spinach, some carrots and celery and pak choi stalks from the unheated hoop house - in which, with very cold weather, I cover the veggies with an additional layer of fleece.
Just harvested cabbage, leek and rutabagas which keep nicely in the ground here under just poly - even with the extreme cold we had. And the kale seems totally unphased by winter, lol, so still harvesting that.
I also keep dehydrated foods - like ‘meals in a jar’ that I made up for a fall back.
I hope to dehydrate more this year, esp tomatoes.

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