preserving 2009/ dilly beans

Today I canned 5 pints of Dilly beans with my own homegrown green beans. The only other thing I have preserved this year so far are strawberries about 6 quarts and some rhubarb. I went down to the cellar to see what is left from previous years. There are lots of pickles,beets,mustard pickles and corn relish. I will need to make bread and butter pickles and more ketchup and relish. I also will need to can more salsa, it seems a lot of things I can take me about 2 years to finish. I guess from now on I should take count of what is left before I plant so I do not plant more than I need. I also need to get better about using what I have canned.We made a lot of vegetable soup this winter with the veggies I canned and It was delicious.Our nephew gave us two huge chickens he raised this year can't wait to try one.

midweek no grocery shopping

I have not been to the grocery store for anything except milk or cream since Friday.trying to only use what is in the house. Running low on bread and English muffins. Bread making is not as much fun when you have to, as it is when you do it on spur of the moment and your in the mood. I made homemade whole wheat bread and Boston brown bread. The brown bread is good for breakfast and will also go with the baked beans I made the other day. Tonight we will have garlic soup from the nourishing traditions cook book. This will use up my potatoes that are starting to sprout and some garlic since we have so much,and some summer squash I canned. We do not seem to be using as much garlic as last year. The soup sounds really good. I checked on the cranberries in the garage attic and I will need to freeze some soon the are starting to get soft. We store them in a cranberry crate covered in blankets. I ran out of wheat thins so I wanted to make crackers today but I guess it will be Ritz if I want a snack. I planted some lettuce seeds in a big pot today to see how they would do. I also bought some seeds for pea sprouts.