The Homestead Experiment

It’s time for “puttin’ up” for the winter! (Did I pull that off? Is that the right word? he-he…)

We’ve been doing small batch canning as much as possible this summer. Today was pickles and yellow squash.

I used a Garlic Dill Pickle recipe from my fellow Ohio homesteader and blog friend Old World Garden Farm. They have been really encouraging to us as we’ve been experimenting with homesteading this year. And their recipe looked entirely doable. So like the recipe said, I put all of the seasonings in the bottom of each jar:

Sliced the cucumbers into spears (the recipe said it could be in any shape – whatever you prefer), packed them into the jars tightly, filled them with the liquid, and processed them in a water bath.

We can’t wait to eat these pickles come winter time. I’m sure they’re going to be de-lish!

While the pickles were processing, I also worked on our yellow squash. There wasn’t a lot of yield this year, so all I had were 4-5 squash that I set aside for preserving. I cut all of it into cubes and blanched it.

Once done I bagged them in individual portions in freezer bags and put them in our deep freeze.

At least I’ll have a few meals this winter that will benefit from these homegrown goodness. And really, when you begin to tally what we have been able to put up, we’re kind of impressed. To date, we’ve canned pears, roasted red peppers, red pepper jelly & pear raspberry jelly, and now these pickles and squash. We’re planning to go apple-picking soon and we always get oodles of apples. And then I’ve got herbs to process, and carrots to pick from outside and process. Not bad!

Hmmm – maybe this homesteading thing is working afterall…