Lancelot Acres

Planning food storage amounts for garden produce...

Ok, I'm just tossing around some ideas here, so I thought I'd write them down.  My goal is to can/freeze enough veggies to last us through the year...from one gardening season to the next.  I am not exactly sure how many of each I'll need, but here are my ideas...

Tomatoes (cold packed/pressure cooked, with green peppers) - 100+ quarts  *Used for Chili, Ghoulash, and Soups

Spaghetti Sauce - 50 quarts

Salsa - 20 pints

Pizza Sauce - 40 pints

Corn - freeze - 50 bags (standard size freezer bag-gallon?)

Green Beans - can - 60+ pints

Winter Squash - can - 50 pints

Asparagus - can - 80 pints (if possible, we'll have to buy it though)

Green Peppers - freeze - 50+ bags

Cukes/Pickles - can - 40 pints

Potatoes - cellar - ?? as many as possible, we eat a lot

Onions - cellar - ??  we use a lot

Turnips - cellar - ?? we don't eat a lot, but might if we had them

Kohlrabi - cellar - ?? no real goal, have never tried it...

Carrots - cellar - ??  we use a lot

Cabbage - cellar - 30 - 40 head?  Have not had good luck growing previously

Lettuce ??  can you store lettuce?

Celery  ??  can I even grow celery?

Honeydew, Cantaloupe, Watermelon (freeze?)  as much as we grow

Strawberries - freeze - 40 bags

Blueberries - freeze - 40 bags

Apples - dry - 2 bushels +

Cherries - freeze - 10 bags

Peaches - freeze - 30 bags

Ok, so there is no way we will get these totals from our garden.  I will buy from local markets when they are in season, and the canning/freezing will go on until I get as close to my goals as possible.  We will raise as much as possible, but I doubt we will hit these amounts.

Ok, so this is just ramblings really...some ideas that were going through my head today...

Hugs,
Lisa

Potatoes and celery

{ 12:10, 2006-Jan-4 } { Posted by spinninggrandma }

My sister used to have a big garden and she had tons (almost) of potatoes. We traded and got 100 pounds of the lovely white things. We had a family of 4 and the potatoes lasted until late June. We could have eaten them more, perhaps, but we were pretty impressed.

Yes, you should be able to grow celery - not to the extent that you buy in the store. I grew it once, and it was a bunch of little ones, not big bunches ... but it was celery, all the same ... just in rows, kind of like baby trees. But you could do it "properly" with burying it and blanching it and having it look right. Don't know how to store it, though.

Good luck. I like your numbers. I will have to think on them.

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{ 05:55, 2006-Jan-4 } { Posted by CarlinsDarlin }

Hi Lisa,
I can't help you with numbers either. It will depend on the number of people in your house and the foods you like to eat regularly, but it does sound like a good list. A couple comments:
re kohlrabi - it's related to cabbage and may take the place of much of your cabbage needs if you have trouble growing cabbage this year. I love the stuff, and it's very easy to grow. You should try it.
I've never found a good way to store lettuce. You might as well just plant a small bed and eat it while it's in season. The good part, though, is that you can grow it twice a year - spring and fall, or even over much of the winter if you have coldframes or a greenhouse.
I haven't had success with celery, so I wish you luck. As the previous comment showed, though, it can be done :).
You can freeze the melons you mentioned. They make wonderful smoothies when frozen, but they're not good for much else after that. If you're growing watermelons, you might try one of my grandmother's recipes for Watermelon Rind Preserves. There's nothing more delicious - I'll post it on my blog.
Good luck with the garden and your resolutions! Sounds like you're going to have your hands full!
Kathy @ Phillips Phamily Pharm

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{ 02:48, 2006-Jan-5 } { Posted by DonnaJoy }

I will be following your garden plan and see how you are coming along - I am starting my first garden this year and it will be small.

I have a question...

{ 07:35, 2006-Jan-6 } { Posted by newsteader }

...did you learn your freezing/canning processes through someone teaching you personally or through a book? For the total newbie, what resources would you recommend to learn proper canning/freezing procedures? Thanks in advance :)

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{ 12:18, 2006-Jan-6 } { Posted by farmgirl929 }

I like your list, I'm hoping to do the same thing this year and have no idea the amounts I'll need. I'll be watching to see ho it goes for you!