Growing up, my mother-in-law tells about her single, widowed mom who had a goal every year to can at least 200 bottles of each crop she had access to. And she knew if she had 200 bottles of peaches, 200 bottles of applesauce and so on, that she would have enough to feed her family through the winter.That's a lot of bottles! I don't even think I have 200 bottles period! And that would be for only one of my crops and there is definately more than one crop! I don't even think I have shelf space or room for 200+ bottles. At least not currently. That's where I really need to figure out and plan for shelves and space to put them all.
In this NYTimes piece, Elizabeth Cromley, a professor of architectural history at Northeastern University, said that at one time, “just about every house had special facilities for preserving food.”
"She said that understanding food preservation is not a frivolous pursuit. More than 400 books instructed 19th-century Americans on how to plan a functional house, with a practical larder, basement and outbuildings."
Wow! That's a lot of books on it! Where can I find some of these? They might be really helpful as I try to figure out the design of my food storage.
4 comments:
You must have a newer house because I find that Utah houses tend to have spectacular storage spaces. My house was built in the 1970's and has a great giant pantry but I am pushing it's limit - it doesn't hold a year's worth of food - well the way I have it organized at least.
I think I canned somewhere around 300 bottles this year (total). Well I did a lot more but I canned with a neighbor and split the bounty and then we each took things to the people who own the garden land.
It was only after much summer canning and bottle purchasing that I began to even consider how many of what would need to be put up to be self-sufficient, so I really appreciate how your relitives figured things.
My figuring included at least 1 qt of food per person per day - of course they're need to be variety, but everyone would get a portion of a quart. That would be a little thin for fruits and soups, however.
I'm stocking up on lids this year as I hear (rumor?) that there could be a shortage next summer. Who knows but I thought I'd get ahead of the game.
Yep! Newer house. 1999. I've actually got a big cold storage room, well long really, but it has no shelves in it and I'm all about maximizing the most space in it which means I'm thinking about shelf heights and all that fun kind of stuff!
And shortage eh? Well I guess I'll start stocking up too. I've got my local grocery store that still has a selection and so I think I'll just pick stuff up each time I go.
Your comment here just answered my question on the previous post, so you can ignore that :)
I hadn't heard of a shortage of lids, but that's good to know. I canned over 300 jars myself this year; I stopped counting and some jars have been canned several times because we keep eating the contents.
A friend of mine just canned 500 jars (she lives on the east coast) but she said that the women there normally can 1000 jars a year.
I look at my jars and see the past three months of my life and I wonder how I could can 1000 jars.
My family is growing, so I plan to get more jars.
The grocery stores here still have lids, but Walmart was out long ago; they say they're seasonal.
The grocery stores are also out of quart jars and have been for months.
Wow! I'm impressed with 300 jars but 1000??? I can't even imagine that! Holy cow!
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