Let The Preservation Begin!

After a delayed start, the garden is finally beginning to produce!  And that means my favorite season is upon us:  canning season!  Time to haul out the canner and the canning jars and the bungee cords full of canning lids!  Time to dust off the Ball Blue Book and pull out Mamaw's old recipes for bizarre relishes!  Time to make room on the shelves for the preservation of the bounty! 

So far this year, I've canned up some strawberry jam, dehydrated herbs and frozen berries, but now it's time to really ramp things up.  The cabbages are ready to be made into chow-chow, both mild and spicy.  The beets are ready to be pickled.  And to top things off, my mom brought over a bushel of cucumbers. 

Sounds like the next day or two will be quite busy at our homestead, but it's going to be so delish this winter, when it's cold and snowing outside and we can enjoy a taste of summer.  And it's great comfort to know the pantry will be full as we watch food prices go up and food availability goes down.

Or in case of zombies : )

To keep track of the bounty, I added a gadget,  "Puttin' Up 2011", at the bottom right and I can't wait to see how much we can preserve over the course of the next 2 or 3 months.   

What are you puttin' up for winter?