August 6, 3011 - I'm in a Jam!



The nice thing about making freezer jam is that it doesn't take a lot of berries. I don't have a huge strawberry patch, and the day neutral variety I grow doesn't put forth a lot of berries at once, but bears almost constantly from July until a hard frost puts a halt to them. So far the berry patch has given us enough for several strawberry shortcakes, and today I made my second batch of jam.


I now have ten jars of delicious strawberry jam in the freezer, and the berries will continue to yield. But I'm in a jam with my jam.......I have no more room! Yes, I bought a second freezer last month.


It's nearly full. It was supposed to only hold meat, but I've already had to use it for cheese, bread and butter. There is barely enough room for a small basket to fit in on the left side, which I suppose will have to hold the jams and some fruit packages. That means no more chicken until the bread is used up.


The larger freezer was supposed to hold all the fruits and veggies, but there's only a small space at the left rear to put a few more bags of green beans, and I'll have a lot more beans to freeze!



Even the refrigerator freezer is packed full. It was supposed to hold breads and ice cream. It holds much more than that already.



I really should have bought a larger freezer, rather than a smaller one!


25 comments:

  1. I think you have to stop going to Costco or open up a soup kitchen. At least everything is all neat and organized..my freezers would make you cry even more.. :0

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  2. Mrs. Pickles, I think you're right. I'm a food hoarder. We'll never go hungry.

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  3. We like to have a good stash of food too. I think we could live at least 6 months out of our freezer. I think I got that from my mother. Her basement was a regular storehouse---I think she had the grocery store beat.
    :)

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  4. You just need to eat more. Or rather, go ask Otto for help. He'll be more than happy to oblige. ;)

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  5. I used to be like that - a food horder. Costco was my friend. I had a huge pantry at my last house. And a pantry area in the basement. My friends said if an emergency ever hit they would just come to our house to eat.

    But when the kids left I quit doing that. The two of us just don't eat like a couple of teenagers and I live right next to the supermarkets now. I do stock up on things, but not like before. My freezer is practically empty. In the fall it will be mostly full. I'll have it filled with meats and veggies. I get the best meats from the farmers market, but they close down in October so I stock up then. Maybe you need an intervention. I know my mom does with her freezer.

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  6. I know how you feel, and I only have one of those little freezers! I think that's why I decided to get more into pressure canning this year, just so I'll be able to FIND my food later, LOL! It's always something, isn't it!?

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  7. LOL! If you bought a large freezer it would probably be full too. At least you won't go hungry.

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  8. Sue, my mother had two freezers and did quite a bit of canning. My grandmother had a huge freezer and canned and gardened and made cheese and butter. It's in my genes. But, even with all this food, I still have days when there's "nothing for dinner". That's my cop out to get taken out to eat ;-)

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    Ribbit, it would be Annie that helped. Otto would look at it, poke at it, and probably puke it back up after he ate it. I just mixed a little bit of brown rice with his chicken and green beans this week.....he holds it until 4 a.m. then upchucks on my bedroom rug. Two mornings in a row I've been shampooing carpet. But he can eat a cow pie and never blink an eye!

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    Daphne, with all my kids living nearby, I never know when I'll have somebody here to eat. Kids and grandkids seem to come out of the woodwork at mealtime :-)

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    Erin, my canned food shelves are full too, and I haven't even canned anything this year! Boy, I'm just trying to restrain myself from buying a pressure cooker. If I plant this many green beans next year, I really need to do it. Besides, I don't like that lemon juice in my tomato juice. I think I'm going to open them all up and boil them down to make ketchup!

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    Oh, Rachel, of course it would be stuffed. I'd just buy larger quantities of stuff at Costco! It's probably a good thing we don't have a Costco near our AZ home.

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  9. Us too, us too...we made Saskatoon freezer jam yesterday and also need much more freezer space as ours are filling up fast.:) Strawberry shortcake...mmm.

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  10. Mr. H., I guess we should be thankful we have so much food for our freezers! It sure beats going hungry. My children won't mind taking what I don't have room for :-)

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  11. Well, I'm loving hearing everyone moaning and groaning about being out of food space ..that means we have all been blessed :o) Something told me I should buy a larger second freezer..but I didn't want to have to fight Cecil about a second one..so I just went with the small one (knowing I needed a larger one). Now he is saying "we should have gotten a bigger one"
    Men < ugh! from Mars.

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  12. See, Ginny, Cecil and I must be twins separated at birth! I agree, Cecil, we both should have gotten a bigger one!

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  13. Well, now, our meat freezer is full but we've been moving through the other one pretty well. Just puff pastry, chicken broth, and some berries and tomatillos so far. I think I've eliminated the bagged tomatoes! Getting on top of the freezer is high on my priority list.

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  14. Stefaneener, the bagged tomatoes are just beginning here, The big problem is that I just cleaned and organized all the freezers a month ago, and now they're already full of new stuff! I have to stay away from Costco, and to stop growing all those green beans ;-) This is also the first time in years I've made freezer jam.

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  15. Gasp!! I don't believe it! Is that Marie C's frozed food I spot in the freezer? How could you granny? You have so much fresh foods baked and growing....how could you? :)

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  16. I got sauced yesterday (tomatoes)! Today I'm getting pickled. ;-)

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  17. Granny, I was wondering when you bought the new freezer why you bought a small one. I know I know, you have a bigger one in Arizona. Well, it's not doing you any good in Washington!

    We have two side by side refrigerator/freezers and one good size chest freezer. By the looks of things...they will all be full by the end of the gardening season.....and we don't freeze much meat and other stuff. I usually just freeze harvests from the garden, some butter and baking supplies.

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  18. LOL, Random! Even Granny needs to take a break from cooking now and then. Marie makes better chicken pot pies than I do. If you look closer, you might even spot a couple of Banquet pot pies!

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    Villager, just don't get snockered!

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    Robin, I don't have room for a bigger freezer. I figure if I end up bringing the AZ freezer home, the new small one will fit nicely in the laundry room, and the AZ one can go in where the new one is now. It's either that or Mr. Granny will have to throw away all of his junk and take down one set of shelves in the garage. That's what I wanted him to do.

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  19. We just had to buy two more huge shelving units to fit all our canned goods and supplies from the gardens this year. I haven't even started on the tomatoes yet. We were gone for the weekend and when I got home tonight I picked between 20 and 30 huge tomatoes and maybe 50+ cherry tomatoes. This week I'll be putting up tomatoes and more zucchini pickles.

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  20. Langela, I'm not even close to getting enough tomatoes to can! At least I'm getting quite a few cherry tomatoes. I think I'll be making Villager's slow roasted tomatoes and freezing them.

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  21. Granny, you will never get out of food...may be you should stop going for grocery till you create some space for you garden harvests. :) I am sure the tomato totals will start shooting up. I have a question about storing bread in freezer (I have never done that before). How does it taste? you just have to take it and put it in toaster or you need to thraw?

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  22. Is the slow roasted tomato recipe one you can share in a post?

    And I counted the tomatoes this morning--34, with the smallest being a baseball size and the largest was almost twice the size of a softball. They were all good, but the carbon purples are so sweet and delicious that I'm not sure I'll plant anything else next year. I wonder how they compare to the cherokee purples.

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  23. Sarada, make sure the bread is tightly wrapped, and it keeps very well in the freezer. I can open the wrapper and just remove a few slices if I want. Usually it has thawed by the time I get the sandwich made. It takes very little time. I eat whole grain breads, but my husband will only eat white. I keep four slices in a sandwich bag to use and keep the rest of the loaf in the freezer. That way I always have fresh bread and it never goes bad. It can go straight from freezer to toaster if you want toast, but it is just like fresh untoasted, and the flavor is unchanged.

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    Langela, Villager posted his recipe here:

    http://www.ourhappyacres.com/2011/08/slow-roasted-tomatoes/

    I think I'll be making some today.

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  24. No more room for jam? Sounds like a good problem to have :)

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  25. Ben, I finally got another basket and put my jam in the meat freezer. I had another 6 jars, plus five in the fridge freezer (16 jars of strawberry jam). I had no choice! Of course, now I have no room to stock up on meat.

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