Bring on winter!

My canning season has finally come to a close. I love canning season...not so much the mess of it, but I love filling all my jars. I filled all my jars this year and then some. I think that I had to run to the hardware store at least 5 different time to buy jars, not to mention all the ones that I would pick up randomly at the second hand stores. What this all means is that I filled a lot more jars than I did last year. I was given about 3 dozen empty jars last winter. I filled all of those this year plus of course all the ones we emptied over the year.
Here is the list of all that I did this year
2 pints and 10 half pints of Bumbleberry Jam
7 pints and 4 half pints of Raspberry Jam
12 pints and 1 half pint of Strawberry Jam
4 pints of Plum/blueberry/strawberry Jam
5 pints and 1 half pint of Peach Jam
2 pints and 1 half pint of Peach/Blueberry Jam
8 pints of Crab apple Jelly
5 pints of Pear Jam
13 Pints of Apple/Cranberry Jam
(do you think I'll have enough Jam?)
30 quarts of Peaches
26 quarts of Pears
23 quarts of apple sauce(with crab apples)
12 quarts and 4 pints of apple/pear sauce
14 quarts of crab apple cider
7 quarts of apple pie in a jar
20 pints sweet relish
12 pints Zucchini relish
12 4oz jars of various beet relishes
4 pints pickled beets
8 quarts salsa
11 quarts tomato sauce
about 40 3cup bags of corn were also frozen
and I have a cooler full of fresh garden carrots.
Sadly, no pickles this year...my cucumbers just didn't produce very much. I would have liked to do more tomato sauce, but I ran out of tomatoes. I didn't do as much salsa, but that is because I still had 5 jars left over from last year. It's possible that I may still do another batch of apple pie in a jar...maybe...we might just eat all the apples instead. I was in desperate need of jam, I only had I pint of each of peach, blueberry and crab apple jelly left in my storage room, I think I did a good job of remedying that problem. We'll have relish to eat for the next 5 or so years. All in all a good year. We'll see if we make it through till next summer and make adjustment were necessary. I always keep track of how much I put up so that I know if I need to do more or less of something the next year. With kids growing, we all know how that changes from year to year. I love looking in my storage room at all my pretty shelves. Next year I want to invest in a pressure canner and venture into that world...it could be fun.

Aren't they pretty?

Another step to replenishing food storage...Our little local grocery store was having a case lot sale, and since I have been neglecting that part of my food storage for quite some time in order to fund the previously mentioned food storage, I decided to go and take advantage. $245.66 later(and two shopping carts full) I had nearly restocked my mostly empty pantry. It is only a start of course, but now when I open the cupboard I don't feel like there is nothing to make supper out of...always a bonus. Now nobody can say that there isn't anything to eat in the house.