Cleaning up

I’m cleaning up the blog—it’s gotten a little messy over there on the side.

Here’s the 2009 Food Preserved List, for posterity:

Rhubarb: 3 1/2 pints jam; 7 pints, frozen
Spinach: 18 pints, frozen; 5 10-oz bags, frozen
Strawberries: 12 quarts, sliced with sugar; 5 1/2 pints, dried
Peas: 8 pints, frozen
Snow Peas: 1/2 pint, frozen
Snap Peas: 5 1/2 pints, frozen
Red Raspberries: 8 1/2 pints, frozen
Swiss Chard: 7 quarts, frozen
Broccoli: 7 1/2 quarts, frozen
Basil: 12 recipes pesto (11 pints), frozen; 2 pesto tortes, frozen
Garlic Scapes: 1 pint pesto, frozen
Zucchini: 10 1/2 pints relish, canned; 7 pints, frozen; 2 gallons, soup, frozen
Garlic: 21 heads, braided
Green Beans: 49 quarts, frozen; 24 quarts, canned
Oregano: 4 recipes “pesto” rub, frozen
Peaches: 46 quarts, canned; 7 pints (runny) jam, canned
Applesauce: 102 quarts of Summer Rambo, canned; 39 quarts of Ginger Golds, canned
Sweet Pickles: 15 quarts and 2 pints, canned
Corn: 36 quarts and 64 pints, frozen
Beets: 11 pints pickled, canned
Roma Tomatoes: 8 quarts and 1 pint red wine sauce, canned; 15 quarts and 11 pints and one-half pint salsa, canned; 5 quarts and 4 pints stewed, canned; 17 pints pizza sauce, canned; 6 quarts oven-roasted, frozen
Juice Tomatoes: 23 quarts and 1 pint juice, canned; 15 quarts and 9 pints stewed, canned
Nectarines: 2 pints jam, canned; 3 quarts dried
October Sky Beans, dry: 1 pint for seed, frozen
Nicaraguan Red Beans, dry: 3/4th five-gallon bucket
Apples, dried: 18 quarts
Grape juice: 25 quarts, canned
Cherokee Trail of Tears black beans, dry: about ½ gallon
Butternuts: A few measly ones
Chickens: Butchered 34, about 20 were for us

Notes to self:
*Don’t make garlic scape pesto again. It’s too strong and no one likes it.
*Never grow garlic again. It all rotted. It’s cheaper (and lots easier) to get it from the grocery store.
*Plant more black beans, three times as much.
*Double the applesauce. That means buy eight bushels. Summer Rambo is good and has the best yield.
*Stayman apples (October) are good for fresh eating, but too dry and mushy for baking. When dried, they taste grainy and draw your mouth. They store beautifully.
*Jonathan apples (September?) are good for baking, but they don’t store very well.
*Empire apples (October) are delicious baked and dried.
*Double the rhubarb patch and double the harvest.
*Plant fall lettuce because you crave greens in the fall.
*Grow a small row of sweet potatoes.
*Grow potatoes and don’t let them catch blight next time.
*Six basil plants should be enough.
*Plant yellow sweet corn instead of white. Yellow is more visually appealing. The bi-color might be nice.
*Plant lots and lots of yellow cooking onions and less Vidalia.
*Do more oregano “pesto” rub, enough for at least eight roast chickens.
*You’ve always had more success growing flat-leafed parsley. If only you could remember that.
*12 Roma plants and 12 juice tomato plants was a perfect amount. You even had some to share.
*Plant the same kind of heirloom green beans that you did last year, but don’t plant them too early. Use a full pound.
*If you’re going to plant mustard greens, it might be nice if you actually use them.
*Two hills of zucchini is perfect.
*Plant six hills of cucumbers.
*You can not successfully grow butternut squash. Give up, darling.
*It’s time to plant a new bed of strawberries.
*Prepare a plot for blueberry bushes. Do it right this time.
*The leeks were a failure.
*The kids don’t like canned green beans. But you do.
*Buy two bushels of nectarines and make lots of tarts.
*You’ll want four bushels of peaches.
*A basket of plums might be nice.
*Plant hull peas, please.

About One Year Ago: A leftover creation.