Week 36 - Vegetables

Week 36: VEGETABLES 150 lbs per person per year. Can or freeze from garden or purchased fresh, or buy canned.

Purchase or preserve fruits and vegetables to supplement your core foods.(taken from food storage madness)

Key Points

• While not critical for sustaining life, fruits and vegetables are a welcome addition to any food storage program for the health benefits, variety, and to help you save money on your day to day grocery shopping.
• There are three different options for obtaining your preserved produce:
  • Grow your own and dehydrate/can/freeze it yourself
  • Purchase it in bulk and dehydrate/can/freeze it yourself
  • Purchase commercially preserved fruits and vegetables

Growing Your Own Fruits and Vegetables

• We HIGHLY recommend learning to grow your own foods. This can range from just planting a peach tree and growing some tomatoes in a container, to a full-fledged farm-type situation.
• Our favorite method to use for growing vegetables is square foot gardening which allows you to grow a LOT of veggies in a small space.
• If you have space and don’t mind the mess fruit trees and vines can be a great cost-savings. You can also try to ask neighbors with fruit trees if you can pick their excess fruit.

Our next door neighbor has a wonderful peach tree so I have already asked if I could have peaches from the tree and I will make peach jam for them and us!  They were so excited when I asked that we got to talking about food storage and the different things we can do with what we have!  I can't wait for the peaches to be ready!   

Canned/Bottled

• You can bottle a wide variety of things such as salsa, pie fillings, applesauce, juice, spaghetti sauce, almost any fruit or vegetable, pickles, all sorts of jams and jellies, etc.
• If you can get fresh fruits/vegetables for free or at a significant discount, then canning them yourself can save you a LOT of money over cans from the store.
• Home-bottled foods have less preservatives, taste better, and you can adjust the amounts of sugar you use to fit your family’s preferences. So we feel like it is worth it to can them on your own even if you have to purchase the produce.
• Bottling can be a fun bonding experience with friends/family and also it is a great way to build up your whole year supply of items all at one time.
• If you choose to purchase cans of fruits and vegetables, you can either purchase a extra few cans each time you shop until you have built up your year supply or stock up when there are good sales.

Dan and I have kids in California that we love to go and visit.  Each time we go down during the summer months we pick up fruit and vegetables from the farms that sell them.  We try to freeze them to use during the year! One of my favorite ways to cook vegetables is to grill them on the bbq.  

Homemade applesauce is the best!  I raised our kids on it.  I thought I would share the recipe with you.

HOMEMADE APPLESAUCE 4 med. apples 3/4 c. water 1/4 c. sugar (brown or white) A few shakes of cinnamon Peel, core, and cut the apples into quarters. Put cut-up apples, sugar, cinnamon, and water into a 2-quart saucepan. Cover and cook at medium heat (simmering) for 15-20 minutes. Let apples cool, then mash them with a fork. 4 servings.

NO COOK APPLESAUCE

6 apples
Cinnamon, to taste
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. water
Blender

Peel and chop apples. Mix all ingredients in blender. Enjoy!