In an attempt to make up for the lack of pictures (or other interesting perks) in the past 2 posts, I offer a pictorial status check and tour of some of my storage for local fruit/veg to use during the winter and early spring in order to sustain my local eating. Things got off to a late start this year, as I only moved into my home in late June and started the 100 mile project in the fall. No canning as preservation either, I was too late to get my act together for that during late spring. It’ll be interesting to see what the status check looks like this time next year.
A Stash of Winter Squash and Potatoes – these are being stored in a “cool dark place” aka my unheated garage and basement. I am learning that some squashes store better than others (e.g. butternut is supposed to store well) so I’ve left those kinds whole while freezing or drying others. I’ve also got almost 40 pounds of assorted local potatoes (not pictured)
The Freezer: This is likely the most important part of my food preservation this year. I’ve gotten a full size freezer (looks like a fridge/freezer combo but works as a freezer only) and put it in the garage to help out this winter. Ha ha, my garage is more like a food storage resource than a place for my car! I’m using freezer specific containers and bags, in particular, those that remove excess air and seal around the food to help lower “freezer burn”. Most veg is sliced/trimmed and then frozen, though a good deal of soup has been made for the greens (e.g. collards, kale, swiss chard, etc). Fruit is mostly apples and pears. There is also some tomato “freezer jam” and cranberries (local source!).
The Dehydrator: This is a recent foray. I’ve started dehydrating both fruit and veg so as to have another storage option that doesn’t take up as much space as regular storage. I use an Excalibur 9-tray dehydrator. The apples have taken up most of the dehydrator’s efforts to date – I’ve gotten more of those than I can imagine, and have been dehydrating most every day to stash them. Below is just a peak at them. Next to them you’ll see some dehydrated veg: carrots, parsnips, and turnips I think. I’m always amazed at how much veg shrivels and shrinks when dried.
Matriarchy said,
December 1, 2008 at 10:05 am
Beautiful! Almost too pretty to eat. We are omnivores, so our freezer will always look different. I just bought a freezer this year, so I am just learning the ins and outs of freezer storage. Did you buy a big stack of those pint-size plastic deli containers to use?
jak said,
December 1, 2008 at 10:16 pm
your freezer stash is EPIC! it’s interesting that storing winter squash for a bit of time allows them to “cure,” with some of the starch converting to sugars… just read that recently in an article on sfgate.com.
Late Bloomer said,
December 2, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Wow! I can’t believe how organized your freezer storage is – I’m so envious!! I have only the little freezer on top of my fridge…and it’s jam packed, but not organized. I have to dig to find things and sometimes other things fall out…
You’ve inspired me – perhaps my little freezer will organized today
mangochild said,
December 3, 2008 at 7:04 am
I’m not sure if I should post my replies in this comment area or in the next post – let me know what you think! I’ll put them in both for now, I want to make sure to talk to each of you
Matriarchy: Yes, I got a huge stack of the pint (and quart) size deli containers – they work really well and are air-tight, so do well to keep out freezer burn (I tested a few over the fall). I also use the vacuum ziptop bags. Its fun to see the air get sucked out, and then the seal forms around the food. Per my test runs, it does work. Neat that you are getting into freezing – did you get a chest freezer or an upright? And how were you preserving food before? I need to learn more about canning/preservation – it scares me!
Jak: Thanks for the info about the winter squash storage, I didn’t know that before. Sweet is a good thing indeed. Do you store winter squash? Where have you found works best?
Late Bloomer: Your blog is one of the first I started reading in the local quest – you inspire me too! I’m a digger too normally – the regular freezer attached to the fridge inside is a wreck by comparision to the storage freezer. But I figure in the depths of winter, I’ll be too cold to rummage around in there and will need something quickly, so organization it was. I think it might be harder for omnivores though – from what I’ve read, it is important to store meat at the bottom (?) for safety/anti-contamination reasons?
vegyear said,
December 6, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Your freezer looks like mine but oh-so-much more so! We bought a large CSA share instead of a small this year and figured we’d freeze all the extra for winter. Instead, we ate a lot more vegetables and didn’t overflow our regular freezer until October, at which point we bought a small chest freezer. If we didn’t have a winter CSA we couldn’t last the winter.
In my experience, delicata and little dumpling squash rot and mold relatively quickly, while butternut squash and pumpkin, even stored in a heated house, can last for months.
Jennifer said,
December 18, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Wow, I just read this post, but seriously, you are really stocked up! We were able to buy a bunch of winter squash and freeze a few things, but other than that, we were pretty unprepared. I didn’t get a boiling water bath canner until faily late in the year, we live in an apartment and thus have a very small freezer, and I didn’t realize how short the window of getting and stocking up on certain things was. I will be much more prepared next year. Seeing your stash helps me know the way it SHOULD be done though.
Laurel from Simple Spoonful said,
December 21, 2008 at 5:55 pm
That is incredibly impressive. If you’re interested, I’d love to have you do a guest post on this at Simple Spoonful: why you decided to commit to it, how you chose what to preserve, and the side effects of going localvore (cost, health, time commitment/free time, etc). Or something totally different you’d want to talk about!
Let me know if you’re interested!
In any case, I love all you have going on here. I wish we had a house–the space would be amazing for storage.
Simple Spoonful » A Locavore Talks! Interview with Mangochild, Pt. Deux said,
February 17, 2009 at 10:11 am
[...] as the readers can see in the above picture, you have some pretty impressive winter stores! How on earth did you decide how much and what to [...]
Feeling Daunted: seed starting, planting, and using winter stores « Living In A Local Zone said,
February 20, 2009 at 4:45 am
[...] thinking how long I should be planning to eat out of my winter stores. I haven’t touched my freezer stores yet – so far its been a lot of winter squash, beets, turnips, potatoes, etc. There are still 40 [...]
Food Storage: Early April Status Update « Living In A Local Zone said,
April 6, 2009 at 7:28 am
[...] winter squash I thought it would be a good time to update my storage check. Last fall I posted here about my winter storage, which I since added to in the way of more winter squash, potatoes, apples, [...]