Prepping for Fall

The last month of "summer" has been a busy one for us. I like to get all my major organizing/cleaning projects done. (I can relax and enjoy homeschooling so much more when I don't have messy corners).The majority of my food canning and freezing is done. All the kiddoes medical appointments are uptodate. It took a lot of careful scheduling and hard work to get all of this done before the first day of "public" school!

We peeled and peeled and peeled some more...

Several hundred jars were washed...

Sweet peppers in a pickling juice, free from local produce stand.

Pears canned for pie filling, free from a friend!

The rest of those free pears in a sugar syrup and the last 2 quarts of peaches.

My outdoor tomato set up. Tomatoes are a messy, dirty not fun job!

We canned 20 quarts of tomato soup, 45 quarts of pizza sauce,  50 quarts of tomato juice and approx 25 pints of salsa. That was a big, messy, extremely tiring job!

We also canned and froze peaches, 7 quarts of frozen peaches. I am still working on canning peaches. I am doing one bushel every couple days. So far we have approx 30 quarts. I may have to quit... Depends on my energy level.

We are doing 100 quarts of applesauce on Friday, with the assistance of several church ladies. That will be a huge project.

But I feel blessed to have shelves of food prepped, food that is healthy and has very little "crap" in it. The kids LOVE opening jars of food they helped prepare. There is an incredible sense of satisfaction that comes with the hard work of canning.