There's no more room on the shelves in the cellar, he said. Nowhere to put these jars of pickles.
Let's go through the stuff in there and empty some jars, I said. There's bound to be some that need to be emptied.
It will only take us 20 minutes or so.
I said that. Three hours or so later, I am dusty, filthy and worn out.
The wheelbarrow is full of empty,dirty jars.
But there is room for a lot more good stuff in there now.
I realized that we have w-a-a-a-y too much jam and jelly, so in the spring a lot of that will be tossed too. But not today.
Definitely not today.
What I did find was a big tote full of blue canning jars, many of them half-gallons. We found them in one of the old log cabins we moved. I thought that we'd used or given away almost all of them, but surprise! All these years later a tote full of them was sitting quietly in a corner of the cellar. When I get some energy back in me, those will come in and be washed up.
As for the other dirty jars, after I clean them up I will keep just enough to fill my cellar shelves, no more. The others will be sold because really, how much food can two people eat? There's 50 quarts of green beans, 50 of tomatoes and pasta sauce, pints of salsa, enough applesauce to make a kettle of apple butter, 50 quarts or so of pickles of various kinds, cabbage relish and pickled beets and mincemeat and gallons of cider. There's apple butter, jars and jars of it, about 30 quarts or more of vegetable soup, 8 quarts of sauerkraut. There's grape juice and pumpkin and even spiced crabapples. That's not even talking about what's in the freezer.
We have plenty. We don't need the extra jars, so out they go. I'll keep all the pints and half-pints because those sizes are more what we need these days.
Now I am getting in the shower. I feel dirty from my head to my toes, but I am so glad we tackled the cellar and got it straightened out for another year.
Even if it did take a little longer that 20 minutes.
Let's go through the stuff in there and empty some jars, I said. There's bound to be some that need to be emptied.
It will only take us 20 minutes or so.
I said that. Three hours or so later, I am dusty, filthy and worn out.
The wheelbarrow is full of empty,dirty jars.
But there is room for a lot more good stuff in there now.
I realized that we have w-a-a-a-y too much jam and jelly, so in the spring a lot of that will be tossed too. But not today.
Definitely not today.
What I did find was a big tote full of blue canning jars, many of them half-gallons. We found them in one of the old log cabins we moved. I thought that we'd used or given away almost all of them, but surprise! All these years later a tote full of them was sitting quietly in a corner of the cellar. When I get some energy back in me, those will come in and be washed up.
As for the other dirty jars, after I clean them up I will keep just enough to fill my cellar shelves, no more. The others will be sold because really, how much food can two people eat? There's 50 quarts of green beans, 50 of tomatoes and pasta sauce, pints of salsa, enough applesauce to make a kettle of apple butter, 50 quarts or so of pickles of various kinds, cabbage relish and pickled beets and mincemeat and gallons of cider. There's apple butter, jars and jars of it, about 30 quarts or more of vegetable soup, 8 quarts of sauerkraut. There's grape juice and pumpkin and even spiced crabapples. That's not even talking about what's in the freezer.
We have plenty. We don't need the extra jars, so out they go. I'll keep all the pints and half-pints because those sizes are more what we need these days.
Now I am getting in the shower. I feel dirty from my head to my toes, but I am so glad we tackled the cellar and got it straightened out for another year.
Even if it did take a little longer that 20 minutes.
A job well done! An d now you know just what you have there.
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