As you can see, after a few years of fear, I was inspired by my yogurt success to finally tackle homemade pasta. I did it! And here’s a little secret for you… I used an electric pasta maker! Gasp! Andrew’s grandma had kindly gifted us a pasta maker a while back that I think came from a garage sale. With my previous feelings about appliances, I was ready to chuck the thing to a thrift store but as I said in my last post, I’m a changed woman so I decided to give the thing a shot and I’m so glad I did. Once I got the hang of the consistency for pasta dough (much different than bread dough or pie dough consistency) I had beautiful pasta ready to be frozen and pulled out whenever I need it. Brilliant! Since none of our bulk stores carry pasta, I’m now looking forward to being able to have less waste pasta meals.

But enough about that. Onto how I’m approaching my plans for the season ahead…

Last year was my first year that I canned anything. I kept it simple (50 pounds of tomatoes) and I’m glad I did but now that I’ve got the system under my belt, I’ve got plans for more. Since our change in diet (less meat more veggies) I’ve been trying to pay attention to what vegetables we enjoy the most so that I can preserve them during the summer to enjoy throughout the year. I will be utilizing both canning and freezing preservation methods. I don’t want to only can because freezing is less work which means I can do more that way but I also don’t want to only freeze because not only would I not have enough freezer space, if our power goes out, there goes all of my preservation work and the tears would flow freely.

Here is what I’m thinking so far:
– 100 pounds of tomatoes (every dish I made with my canned tomatoes this last winter was unbelievable and not because I’m a good cook but because I was able to preserve the incredible essence of those summer ripe tomatoes and I want to have plenty this year to be able to use without fear of running out as well as gift to others so they can enjoy them too)
– Corn, lots of corn (we love corn but can only get it frozen in a bag or canned once season is done so I want to be sure to preserve lots of it this summer to avoid that packaging)
– berries (strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. My sister in law inspired me with her gift of a frozen bag of blueberries this year that we enjoyed in yogurt, pancakes and muffins. I will now be looking for u-picks to buy cost effectively and freeze for goodies later in the year.)
-peaches (I froze a few quarts of peaches this year and enjoyed making peach crumbles with them a few times this winter. They were the perfect warmth in the midst of those cold winter nights)

That is it for this summer. I’m putting “making jelly” as a bonus round and anything else that gets accomplished is extra credit. I’m also paying closer attention this year to the “peak months” to get better prices when farmers have an abundance. I’m hoping that with a little more experience from last year and plan ahead this year, I can get more preserved to cut down on waste in fall, winter, and spring.

How about you all? What do you like to preserve or what’s your plan of attack? Is anybody trying anything for the first time? Any tips or experiences we can learn from?

Hope you all are well and are enjoying the spring!