Planning Ahead

 

Some of my favorite memories of summertime, growing up as I did next door to my grandparents, involve working with my granny to "put up" the abundant harvest her garden produced.  Now that I'm a mother, I see where Granny was probably doing my own mother a favor by watching me for an afternoon, but she used my curiosity and youthful exuberance to her advantage by putting me to work:  husking corn, shelling peas, snapping beans.  I don't remember her ever paying me money to help with those jobs, but she fed us often and well, so it all evened out in the end.  Plus, I loved her and liked hanging out in her kitchen.

She blanched and froze a lot of her fresh vegetables; I think by the time she was that old, all the canning supplies were a hassle for her to deal with.  Heavy, clunky, and very time consuming.  My mom did the canning at our house (green beans, tomatoes, blackberry jelly and vegetable soup) but Granny stuck to freezing.

This year, with the kitchen renovated and the garden bigger than ever, I made a solemn vow to my husband that I will put away a sizeable amount of our abundance so we can enjoy it in the winter.  Since I made that promise (last winter, when there wasn't enough summer flavor in our freezer) our grocery bills have climbed steadily north.  So beyond just the flavors and quality of our harvest, I'm looking at saving some money by taking our extra and making it work for the months to come.

The summer squashes began to ripen this week and it is my goal to have 12 squash casseroles in my freezer by Labor Day weekend.  I need to take one to a potluck lunch tomorrow after church, so I doubled my efforts and made an extra one towards my goal.  One down, eleven to go.   

On the aluminum foil:  since I only have three pyrex 8 X 8 baking dishes, I can't load up the freezer-bound food directly in the dish.  EB Jackson (home management expert, mom of five, and expat to Hungary to save the lost for Jesus) taught me this trick years ago.  Once the brick of casserole is frozen, it can be removed from the pyrex dish, sealed in a large ziploc bag, and the dish is clean and ready to use again.  I make peach pies this same way, only in a 10-inch round pie plate.  And only when the peaches are sublimely fantastic. When it's time to use the freezer food, put it back into the same-sized pyrex dish to defrost overnight in the refrigerator and then bake and serve.  Voila` and all that. 

Here's my afternoon's work (well, that and bread for the week and washing eggs and washing clothes, and feeding a baby and.....you get my drift.)