From Pumpkin to Pantry and Back Again

It all started yesterday when we ran out of green pumpkin seeds for our morning oatmeal.  We had planted a special variety of pumpkin that was supposed to grow these shell-less seeds and so we cut into them hoping for a windfall.

We got the seeds as anticipated but this created a whole new problem of a bunch of pumpkin flesh that now had to be used up.  After my pumpkin soup fiasco last time where I made a dozen jars of delicious pureed pumpkin soup only to find out that it is highly discouraged to pressure can them (they all ended up taking up precious freezer space), I decided to can whole raw carrots, celery, onion and garlic with chunks of roasted pumpkin in broth.

This created 18 jars of soup base that just have to be tossed in the blender with a bit of liquid (cream or coconut, cashew or almond milk) and some spices and heated.  Voila - instant lunch!  It also made lots of yummy vegetable scraps for the animals, which they devoured.

However, when I went to put the jars into the pantry, I realized there was no room.  This led to a huge reorganization.

We now have all our jars easily accessible and organized by food type and canning date.  We have canned tomatoes, pizza sauce, salsa, green tomatillo salsa, apple sauce, crab apple preserve, turkey broth, pheasant stew, venison borscht, venison chilli, vegetable stew, pickled turnip, canned green beans, pickled beets, cider beans, and pickled garlic scapes.

We also have the jam corner.  Varieties include: grape, apple grape, crab apple, chokecherry, dandelion, sweet chilli, elderberry, blueberry, blueberry mint, and blueberry crumble.  Yikes - we have enough jelly and jam to last into the next century.

Finally, everything came full circle when we roasted the pumpkin seeds for tomorrow's breakfast.  Looks like we will be having oatmeal with pumpkin seeds and toast with jelly.  

Our pantry is now officially full to the brim so it puts us on a canning hiatus for 2018.  No more preserving - now it is time to eat!