Read below to see what we canned and freeze dried this year.
Our total freeze drying projects this year was 35. This was 11 less than we did last year. We did not do any prepared foods this year. We definitely need to make an adjustment and do more of those for next year. Here is what we freeze dried this year:
- Spinach
- Spaghetti sauce
- Dill pickles which we powdered
- Applesauce
- Rhubarb
- Bananas
- Blueberries
- Kale which we powedered
- Broccoli & Cauliflower
- Green Beans
- Peaches which we powdered
- Zucchini slices with ranch seasoning and plain zucchini shredded
- Strawberries which we powdered
- Mashed potatoes which we powdered
- Herb roasted cut potatoes
- Shredded potatoes
- Pumpkin which we powdered for pies
- Butternut squash which we powdered for soups or desserts
- Pear puree which we powdered
- Sourcream which we powdered and
- Raw beef liver chunks for dog treats.
If you want to learn more about freeze drying take a look at my prior blog post here.
Here’s what we canned in 2023:
- 18 pints kidney beans
- 170 jars of jam
- 13 1/2 quarts fruit pie filling
- 41 1/2 quarts of Spaghetti sauce
- 106 pints Bread & Butter pickles
- 34 jars zucchini relish
- 9 2/3 quarts juice
- 7 quarts potatoes
- 8 pints ketchup
- 58 pints pickled beets
New this year was our first try with canning fruit filling for pie. We did apple and wild blueberry. It was a success. All we need to do is make the pie crust open up a quart jar and dump the filling in the pie shell and you are ready to bake. Very convenient. We will definitely do that again. Also new was the kidney beans. Great for chili. We did make refried beans once which was very tasty.
All and all we were pleased to get done what we did. As mentioned above, we will make an effort to freeze dry more prepared foods next year.
