The beginning of the year is a good time to check supplies...If you garden, this is the time to see what and how much you ate over the year...so you can plan your garden accordingly. Even if your purchase all you supplies, it still a good time to take stock. First I began by looking at my spices and mixes. I knew I was in dire need of re-supplying some of these. The holidays always deplete my stores. This took me 1/2 a days work to rebuild these stores. Among some of the things pictured below is Biscuit Mix...this is a base of a lot of yummy things...pancakes, biscuits, cornbread, muffins, banana muffins and more. If you ever decide to make a mix...this is THE one I would recommend! Very economical and can be kept on the shelf for a long time...although we use it up pretty quickly. (Please excuse the unfinished window frame...my husband is busy working on the kitchen as we speak and this frame is his next project...)
Now on to check the vegetables in the pantry....
The potatoes were kept in 5 gallon buckets with a cardboard top....the cardboard loosely lays on the top of the bucket. This enables the potatoes to get air, but keeps Mr. Cat out....because potatoes should not be washed when storing, there is still dirt on them...and they smell like dirt...and Mr. Cat doesn't discriminate between potato dirt and his litter box...not his fault...he is just a CAT! But he is invaluable to have when gardening and storing your produce...No rodent dares step foot in our home...I once saw Mr. Cat actually climb a wall after a squirrel!
Quick check of the potatoes reveals that they are still doing nicely...they for the most part are still crisp and firm. Some of the small ones are just beginning to soften...still good, but they must be used up first.
There were a few that had begun to rot, and these had to be removed. Here is a picture of why. The rotting ones will attach themselves to the good potatoes and spread the rotting process to them.
Surprisingly there were few rotting potatoes. You will see though that they are beginning to sprout. This is a natural process, but the potatoes need to be used up. I had 3 five gallon buckets left, so one will be kept for seed potatoes, one will be kept to eat, and the last bucket was peeled and canned.
One five gallon bucket of potatoes will give you approximately 15 quarts of potatoes. See how the water is cloudy...This is perfectly ok...it's only starch..I drain off the water when using the potatoes...the water will make the BEST home baked bread...for the yeast LOVE potato water. Now I will date these jars, 2009...because these potatoes were grown in 2009...that way I won't mix them up, when I can some potatoes for 2010.
Some other things that you can do with your potatoes are dehydrate them...this is a little more trickier, but still easily done. These were done last fall...now you won't get the pristine white potatoes like you do if you purchase commercially processed ones...those are bleached...but once you bake or fry these, you won't know the difference. Also in the picture you will see little round potatoes that have the skins on them...this is what we do with the tiny potatoes that didn't finish growing...and these happen to be my husband's favorite...he loves them fried in butter with some corn beef!
Now to check the squash...you will see some with a little white mold on the delectaca squash...these must also be removed...this is something that just occurs...no matter where you store your veggies...nothing will keep forever...
These are put into a bucket and I will cut them open later and take out the seeds...these seeds are still good and are heirloom seeds....you can also see that the butternut, hubbard and acorn squash still look good. Since I have a good quantity of squash left, (the round basket is a bushel basket) I will bake most of the squash up this week and then puree them and then dehydrate them. A wonderful way to preserve the squash even longer. And we won't be planting any delectaca squash this year...no need to!
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