Oh Happy Day! We’ve Got A New Addition

Yep, it’s true. We have a new addition to our happy home. I have been wanting this for a very long time, longer than I can remember, and finally it’s happened.

Monday morning, as I sat on the couch, avoiding opening the refrigerator and facing the 25 pounds of plums still sitting there waiting for me to do something with them, I made a decision. I was NOT going to can one more plum this year.

Nope! Not me. And if I don’t do it, no one will, so other options needed to be explored.

The only method for preserving plums that I don’t think I’d tried was to freeze them whole, or at least in half, seeing as I would definitely want them pitted first. In order to do this, there could be no more excuses, delays, putzing, or any other form of putting this off — I needed another freezer.

Financially a new one was really out of the question, so off to Craig’s List I did go. Knowing selling this to Hubby was not going to be an easy task in the first place, I decided to make sure to look at freezers within a 15 – 20 mile radius. Luck must have been on my side, because I found two that had been listed within the past three days. Crossing my fingers I shot off an email to both sellers inquiring if their freezers were still available. Within minutes I got a response from one indicating she still had it.

This freezer was only 12 miles away, upright, less than 9 years old, in great condition, clean, in the garage (Hubby would not be receptive to having to lug a freezer up basement stairs, seeing as he’d be lugging it down ours), frost-free, and she could let me take a look at it that afternoon. I called Hubby and asked if he wanted to come with me or if he just wanted me to make the corporate decision.

Now me giving Hubby the option of coming or not might seem a bit harsh, because there was no discussion as to whether or not I was going to get one, just that I was going to, but we have been at odds on this subject for far too long and I don’t ask for a whole lot. Plus, I had $100 from my birthday in June that has been burning a hole in my pocket, so if this is what I chose to spend it on, I think I should be able to.

I’ve done my homework and know how much an additional freezer will cost per year to run, measured the area out in the basement where it is going to go, and have been sending baked goods and fresh picked veggies from our garden home with Hubby’s buddy that he works out with that has a truck for months now, so I felt fairly comfortable that I had everything pretty well thought out.

Hubby chose to come with me, in fact, he was all too cooperative — it made me nervous. Still, I was too excited at the prospect of just pitting and freezing the rest of my plums that I didn’t over-think it.

At 3:15 Monday afternoon we headed out to the woman’s house and found ourselves looking at an upright freezer larger than anticipated (a good thing), newer than I thought, ice-cold inside, and in excellent condition. She was asking $125 for it and from our conversation on the phone I knew she REALLY wanted it gone, so I offered her $100. She accepted. In fact, she jumped at it.

All the way home Hubby kept talking about how nice this freezer was and what a great deal this was. The one thing he did say that stung just a bit was, “Why do I think though that you’re just going to fill this up and then want more space.”

OUCH! What could he be thinking? Hasn’t he lived with me for nearly 23 years now? Where was this accusation coming from? I was hurt — but far too excited that I was getting a new freezer to even acknowledge his comment. I just diverted him by asking him how big he thought it was. I had figured by the dimensions it was 16 cubic feet, but Hubby said it was at least 17 possibly even 19. Perfect! That’s exactly what I wanted…I mean needed.

Tuesday afternoon Hubby’s buddy picked us up and we picked up the freezer at 2:30 and unloaded it into the garage by 3:30. At 4:30 I was at Wal-Mart picking up some baskets for the shelves. By 6:00 I was home with my baskets and started cleaning the new freezer. I bleached it inside and out, although it really didn’t need much cleaning. Still, I felt better sterilizing everything and making it smell absolutely new. I plugged it in, put a cup of water in it to freeze overnight, and went to bed.

 

Wednesday morning I checked the freezer and the cup of water was frozen solid. Later in the afternoon Hubby and I moved the freezer into the basement, ran the extension cord, and plugged it in. It purred like a kitten. Right away I set to work at pitting my plums and placing them in the freezer on cookie sheets to freeze. By Wednesday night all the plums I wanted frozen were done.

Then today it happened. Remember Hubby’s questions/premonition about me filling the freezer…

Okay so I filled it. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do? Now I didn’t go out and buy a bunch of stuff to fill it with, I just reorganized my other three freezers and moved all the things I wanted in this new freezer in it. So although my new freezer is pretty full (I’m sure I can still get quite a bit in here), I have freed up a ton of space in my other freezers and can organize them a lot better so I can find what I’m looking for when I want and see what might have been forgotten about because it was buried at the bottom of my chest freezer or tucked away somewhere in the back of my refrigerator freezer.

I’m happy, oh so happy and Hubby is gloating because he was right, but at the same time not exactly, and for this I am — Simply Grateful.

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Stocking The Pantry

After weeks of sitting in boxes and blocking access to the pantry, I finally got Hubby to finish cutting the shelves to expand the metal shelving units to accommodate more jars.  I wish I’d thought to take before pictures of the 20+ boxes of canned goods that sat on the floor, but hindsight is always 20/20.

The pantry is now organized exactly the way I want it — today.  Tomorrow might be a different story, but for now, everything has a place and there is a place for everything.

This shelving unit has vegetables: Beets, beans, pickles, peppers, and tomatoes.

This shelving unit is full of jams, jellies, preserves, and spreads.

This shelving unit has all syrups and canned fruit.

This unit, which needs another shelf added to the top, has all pie filling.

This unit, the only one not full yet, contains juice and concentrates.

Can you believe someone was throwing this bin out? Found it in the garbage a week ago and knew it’d be perfect for my potatoes.

These two units hold any store-bought stock as well as home-canned dehydrated food, relishes, sauces for cooking, granola, canned cakes and stewed tomatoes.

With all the jars organized and put on their respective shelves, it makes using them all that much easier.  Today I used home-canned jalapenos, green chili peppers, and cut tomatoes to make some salsa.  I found them quickly and easily.  Four empty jars to add to the ever accumulating surplus of jars out in the garage.  That’s my next project — organize all the jars and make them accessible.

I am still going to need at least one more shelving unit for sweet potatoes, more pickles, more peppers, more tomatoes, pumpkin, and whatever else fall brings.  When I find that unit, hopefully in someone’s trash, I’ll no doubt have to reorganize again, but for now, the pantry is up-to-date.

Being organized is a great thing.  It leaves me feeling accomplished and for this I am — Simply Grateful.  

My “Pantry”

“The preparation of good food is merely another expression of art, one of the joys of civilized living…”
― Dione Lucas

Yesterday I spent nearly all afternoon in the basement where I keep all the things I’ve canned. I’m not sure you’d call it a pantry, because it is just a corner in one of the sectioned off rooms, but it is “my pantry.”

For weeks I have been trying to get down there to add another shelving unit so I could get all the canned goods I’ve made in the past two months out of the boxes that were stacking up on the floor. It was nearly impossible to find anything down there.

What I thought would just be a quick project of throwing together the shelving unit and putting it in place, turned out to be a complete re-hauling of that area. Of course, nothing ever goes easy, but this was exceptional. All of the old shelving units had to be moved which meant every can on them had to be moved as well. This was very time-consuming. Thankfully my kids gave me several hours of their time and that part of the job went smoothly.

All the boxes on the floor hold home-canned goods.

These are where the kids helped me move all the canned goods that were on the shelving units — this in only half of it.

After the shelves were cleared and removed from the “pantry” I had to empty the chest freezer so I could move it. Knowing I was going to be working on this project, you’d think I would have planned ahead and started reducing the stock of meat and vegetables in there — not me. I went to SAM’s just last week. Not much on thinking ahead.

Once that was done the shelving could be put back in the room and the organization process began. It took me nearly two hours to somewhat alphabetize the canned goods and organize the shelves by Jams/Jellies/Preserves, Whole Fruits & Pie Filling, Concentrates & Juices, and Vegetables. With all the boxes emptied and all the cans that had been removed put back on shelves I have less than a shelf to spare.

The chest freezer was moved so three of the shelving units could run along one wall.

Going completely across, the top two rows are jams/jellies/preserves; next two rows are fruit; next row is juice and concentrates; and last two rows are vegetables.

I couldn’t get a picture of all three units, but this is pretty close.

Now comes the difficult part: Where am I going to put the beans, apple chips, and guava jams that are sitting on the kitchen counter? I thought that one shelving unit would be enough, but I was wrong. Trouble is, there is no space for another unit and no other spot in the basement I can use. Typically we go through a minimum of five or six jars of something or other every week, but at that rate, there still won’t be enough space once canning season is at it’s heighth.

The good news, I now have an excellent handle on what is in my pantry and know that I definitely do not need to make sweet cherry jam, prune plum jam, apple syrup or sauce, or szeghetti peppers for at least another year, possibly two. Instead I can experiment with rhubarb, work on pie filling (which I just started making this year after discovering Clear Jel), green chilies, jalapeno peppers, pickles, and various types of beans.

My pantry project is behind me (for now) and I am getting organized, almost ready for summer canning; and for this I am — Simply Grateful.