Food putting up time on the homestead.

[TnAndy]

Been a busy week. Canned 60 quarts of new potatoes, dug the week before, and working on cutting up a beef we put in the cooler last week. Got one last hind quarter to work up tomorrow.

 

[newbury]

Looks like your a meat and potatoes family!

 

[whistlepig]

You are definitely set up for it! A spacious place to can and a nice walk in cooler to hang your meat. Just for your family?

 

[charlz]

How do canned potatoes turn out? Do they get soft/mushy?

 

[Ed of all trades]

How do canned potatoes turn out? Do they get soft/mushy?

They do well, we like them for those times when you need supper in a hurry.
We are putting up as well so far 90 quarts of green beans and 40 or 50 pints of corn, more of both to come, much more.

 

[EddieWalker]

You are living my dream. One of my long term goals is to be able to grow and store enough food to survive on for the year. I don't know if it's possible, but every year we get a little bit more done towards making that possible.

How long do the potatoes last?

Eddie

 

[farmer2009]

It's nice that you can hang beef. We have put up 17 quarts of dill pickles this year. Our first try at it. What do you do to the potatoes to can them?

 

[TnAndy]

Looks like your a meat and potatoes family!

ahahaaaa.....yeah, it would appear that way from this weeks work ! The corn, green beans and tomatoes are just starting to come in, the broccoli/etc went in the freezer a month ago along with 15 gallons of strawberries our beds produced this year. No pears, peaches and few apples this year....late hard frost got 'em.

You are definitely set up for it! A spacious place to can and a nice walk in cooler to hang your meat. Just for your family?

Yes, just for us, and a few friends/neighbors from time to time. (we raise several feeder pigs each year, and do a 'group' butchering) This is our auxiliary, or summer, kitchen.

Several years ago, I knocked a hole in the back wall of the garage, and added a 12x22' slab on, found a used cooler door unit (door in frame). commercial 2 compartment sink, and wood cook stove on Craig's List...built the cabinets, (still got one to go for a stove unit) tiled most of it up 4' so I can hose the whole thing down.

The lumber is timber off my place, sawed on my Woodmizer mill.

Cooler framed in. Used 4" rigid foam on walls/ceiling + 12 more inches of blown fiberglass over the entire ceiling, then finished the inside with white 4x8 fiberglass panels. Cooling is a 10,000BTU window AC using a CoolBot controller. Finished cooler is about 6'x6' inside, and the AC will keep it at 35-36F degrees once the meat cools. Space to the right is a walk-in pantry. Put a separate small subpanel in on the left side wall so I can cut everything off (cooler, water heater, dishwasher, etc) when room is not in use.....which is most of the year.

3 pigs chilling one fall.

Pantry door and stove

Walk-in pantry

Right side of the room. Sink/counters. Dishwasher got 're-purposed' when I remodel the main house kitchen. So did the Andersen window...wife wanted a taller version in the kitchen, so I save this one and moved it out here. Served us well for 25 years before, and will do fine for the next 25 here ! Put a 30gal water heater with a hot water hose on a valve I can wash the whole place down with. Cabinets are more done now with doors/drawers.

All in all, it's a real nice place to work on stuff like this.

 

[TnAndy]

You are living my dream. One of my long term goals is to be able to grow and store enough food to survive on for the year. I don't know if it's possible, but every year we get a little bit more done towards making that possible.

How long do the potatoes last?

Eddie

Oh, it's entirely possible....it's just a LOT of dang work ! You spend 75% of your time thinking about and working on raising food. We probably raise about 80% of what we eat.

The potatoes: (several of ya'll asked).

We grow Yukon Gold, having found they store the best in the root cellar, but even they tend to get sorta soft/sprout toward the end of winter, so this is when the canned ones are nice ( plus, as Ed said....nice to grab a can for a quick meal). We usually can the early dug one, leaving the rest in the ground to get a harder skin for root cellar storage.

To can, we simply peel/quarter/halve/etc, or rub off the light skin on the smaller ones, and pack in jars....1 tsp of salt, and cover with hot water (we've found if you cook them ahead, they do get more mushy in the jar....this way, they stay fairly firm), and pressure can 10lbs for 30 minutes.

We try to only can enough for a year, but they will last a lot longer......good way to store them if you have a bumper crop one year ( we are this year )

 

[Knight9]

TnAndy,


I am VERY impressed by your setup! :thumbsup: Some great ideas to consider for us all.