It's the start of summer here so it's time to prepare the ladder for summer produce.
I like going through the produce and remove any older vegetables, if they're going soft or
starting to sprout they need to be used. I put them aside so they can be turned into a broth,
soup or stew and anything that is rotten or no longer salvageable can go into the compost
all the produce is checked and a decision is made as to whether it's going to store
a bit longer or whether it needs to be used up today
if in doubt i use it up at this point, it makes room
for the new produce that will be coming in and i can be sure that it's not going to go rotten
i check that all the lids are still securely on my can jars and that they're in order of
date they were canned, so that we can use them in the order they were made,
this is why it's important to always label what's in the jar and the date it was canned
while i'm doing this, i'm taking note of what we've run out of,
what's getting low and what we still have a lot of. I'm also thinking about what's
growing in the garden and is there anything else that i need to grow,
i'm also thinking what is coming in in this season, because we grow things in different
seasons, we don't grow everything through the summer, we do grow some things in the winter
this is all taken into account when i'm going through my jars
and my shelves. Obviously it makes sense that i have
more winter produce on the shelf at this time of year and not so much of the summer produce
i like to clean the shelves and jars and remove any foods that my family just isn't going to eat.
Sometimes i try canning something that our family just doesn't end up liking
or we just don't use it, so it may as well be given to someone who will use it
or feed it to the chickens, if it's suitable for them
when i clean the shelves i also wipe down the lids.
Thankfully this part of my home doesn't get too dusty, it's just luck that the dirt road
is on the other side of the house so this only needs to be done a few times a year
i do a small section at a time so that i don't have too much chaos, otherwise if you're pulling
off everything off the whole shelf then you've got to have somewhere to put it
and you've got to be okay with the mess in the meantime
i look at my dry goods and see what needs to be filled up.
This is my last grapefruit and it needs to be used up
and i need some more peel so i'll dehydrate this peel and juice the rest
i don't know about you but when i have a clean organized kitchen larder and pantry
i'm inspired to create and using up a few things from my pantry will make room for
what's about to come in. At this time of year the apricots are starting to come in,
so i can use up the last two jars to make a tart because i'll be able to can up some more next week
my pantry goods that i don't grow, the things that i buy like rice and flour, get replaced
in the jars when i run out, obviously i have them in backup buckets so that they're always on hand
it has been fairly cold here, my fire's going! I'm not sure where my Summer is but
it will be warming up tomorrow and the days should be hot from then on so having plenty
of cold bottles of bubbly kombucha will be much appreciated to get me through the hot long days
i now feel well prepared and organised for the summer produce to start coming in
and i even have some empty baskets ready to fill them up
my apricot pie tart is ready and i'll leave the recipe in the description below
in case you want to make it too
and at the end of a cold stormy summer's day we are blessed with
another rainbow at the end of filming. Thanks for watching, i'll see you in the next video.