The Full Cupboard

Tonight my kitchen is filled with the fragrance of vanilla, cloves and cinnamon.

I am canning pears for the first time.

It is a rich, spicy aroma reminincent of Christmas cookies baking and oranges stuck with cloves. It makes me look forward to winter and evenings when I can enjoy the foods I've put away this fall.

The pears are the latest in my efforts to stock the pantry instead of relying upon the grocery store. To date I've made two batches of salsa, chokecherry jam and blackberry jelly (the fruit I picked along the edges of our fields). Tonight's efforts netted three large jars of pairs and one small. I think I will probably make more, but use the middle-sized jar the next time. Rob isn't the biggest fan of fruit and the large jars will be too much for one sitting.

I feel really good about our efforts this year. Our goal is to eventually produce half of what we consume. Although we were late starting this year and the garden was small we're pretty pleased with ourselves.

We put butchered 26 chickens this fall and our freezer is now full of poultry. The meat kings ranged from a low of seven pounds to a high of just over 10. The cockrels from the layers weighed in around four pounds each. We cooked two earlier this week and enjoyed them for supper. The meat was darker than grocery store fare, and I felt it was more flavorful too.

The pigs are weighing in around 200 pounds each and I expect we'll have them butchered in another few weeks.

Plus, from the garden, we enjoyed lettuce, peas and beets. I was also able to grow a good crop of onions and shallots. I planted a late crop of carrots, beets and turnips, we'll see, I may yet run out of growing time.

The hens should start laying soon. I expect to see the first egg in the next two to three weeks.

As apple season kicks into full gear I'll acquire some fruit and makes apple sauce, as well as freeze some for pies later on.

This winter I'll be looking at the seed catalogs with new purpose as I plan for next year's bounty.