Preserving Food

Connie's Kitchen

 {From the Archives of Connie's Letters, July 2007.}

Part One:

Dear Housewives,

Ya know, when Wild man got saved and we had 3 more children my life was so changed. . I had to figure out how to feed a houseful of 6 children and a husband. . 

One of the first things I did was to pray for a freezer and the Lord got me one at a garage sale. . It was one of those big beasts from the 60's and I loved it. . When it died and couldn't be fixed . . . oh getting rid of it was like getting rid of an old friend. . 

When we first got the freezer in the mid 80's Danny would do acrobats on the handle of the freezer and we would yell at him to stop it. Finally, the handle broke off. . Oh man I about croaked. . So we got one of those elastic car carrier straps and hooked it to the door and to the back of the freezer. . And that is how it stayed for many years. . But it worked well. . and we forgave Danny for being part monkey. . 

Anyway, I had a huge garden and froze many vegetables. . And then I would buy vegetables on the fly from the back of the store for cheap as they were outdated. . so I might get a box of broccoli for a buck or cauliflower or whatever. . I would can some things like pickles but I froze more things as it was easier if I was dealing with odds and ends of vegetables. . 

Now some veggies you have to bring to a boil first and then take them out and put them in bags to freeze. . Here are some of the veggies you have to bring to a boil first or it's called blanching. . Things like green beans. . Just clean the beans and take the ends off and cut them up and bring to a boil. Then turn the fire off and drain them and then sack them up for the freezer. . You would also blanch cauliflower and broccoli. . Stuff like carrots, and beets and other root vegetables I never canned or froze as they will last almost forever in the fridge it seems. . Sweet potatoes I would blanch. . . ok some vegetables you don't have to blanch and are so easy to freeze. . 

For tomatoes just wash them and cut them up and put them in a bag and freeze them. . you don't have to blanch them. Also peppers of any kind are great frozen. . Of course you would use these in cooking and for making winter soups and stews. . Grated zucchini can be easily frozen in bags to make breads during the fall and winter, or it could be used to put in soups and casseroles. . If I ran low on cucumbers when making pickles, I would use zucchini instead and pickle it right in with the cucumbers. . No one knew the difference. Zucchini is wonderful for many things. . I used it to make an apple pie once and it was great. . You just cut it up to look like apples and season it like apple pie and bake it and no one knows the difference . . 

If during the summer I have the family over and say all of the veggies aren't eaten on the vegetable plate, I just throw it all in a bag and put them in the freezer for winter soups. . If you want your hot peppers to stay really hot, then you would want to dry them instead of freezing them. . I would take my whole hot pepper plant out by the roots and hang it up in the house. . The peppers can dry on the bush that way and you don't have to string them up to dry.

Part Two:

When we used to sell baked goods at the Farmers Market, we met Barbara who had 11 children. . She gave me some good tips on freezing food for the winter. . She said she always made her jams and jellies in the fall. . She would freeze her grapes and berries, rhubarb and other fruits. . Then in the Fall when all the rest of her canning was done, she would thaw out the berries etc. and make jam. . 

Things like green beans and corn you have to can up or freeze right away or they will spoil. . and that can take up the whole summer. . Making pickles is something ya gotta do pretty quick or the produce will spoil. . But jams and jellies you can have fun with in the fall if you have the fruit right in the freezer. . And it's fun to make jams and put them in cute jars to give away during the holidays. . When I bought fruit on the fly, I sometimes got whole boxes of different varieties of grapes. . I would freeze these to make jelly and also grape juice in the Fall. . 

You can slice up apples and all kinds of fruits to store in the freezer for winter use. . I have a wild plum tree, and I just freeze these plums whole as they are small and have a pit in them. . I make plum butter in the Fall. . I just put the plums in a pan and cover them with water. . bring them to a boil and boil until they are just soft. . Then just mash them with a potato masher and then strain them of the seeds and skin. . And if you end up with 5 cups of pulp then put in equal amounts of sugar. . 5 cups. . or 2 cups or whatever equal amount. . Then just boil this and stir it until it is thick and you will have made plum butter. . Then just jar it up for your winter pantry. . You can make peach butters like this too. . If I got grapes from the store that had no seeds, I would often make grape pies. . Just slice each grape in half . . you don't have to take the skin off. . I think this has to be my favorite pie of all. . Usually the grapes are very sweet, so you don't have to use a lot of sugar. . 

Love Connie

{Note from the administrator: This writing has been gleaned from the archives of Connie's letters. Find out more about the posts on this blog by reading this introduction. }

* Order Connie's book, "Dear Kitchen Saints."  It is autobiographical and tells the beautiful story of her marriage testimony! You will be encouraged in old time homemaking.* 

Storing Food for the Winter

{From the Archives of Connie's Letters, December, 2012.}


If I got up in the morning and said to Jim.."Honey we need a miracle today." he would say, "Well we have needed one before..."

Well, yes we lived in a nest planted on a branch that hung over troubled waters........As long as ya didn't look down you were ok.. God often made a way for us where there was no way...Often I prayed for food.  We had 6 children to feed..One day in prayer the Lord told me to clean out my cabinets as the Lord was going to give us a lot of food.  And that was when I started buying the fruit and vegetables at the back of the store that was outdated...  I would pay like a buck or 2 for a box filled with lettuce..Most of it would be good but some of it not so good.  So I would throw the rotten parts on my compost pile. . I would have a garden in the summer with mostly tomatoes and green peppers..and cucumbers.. I always grew herbs and country flowers around the house.. I dried some of the herbs and some I froze..I loved the different basils and I would plant them in pots and then bring the basil pots into the house when the weather turned cold.. The basil would last a few months in the house by a sunny window..

At times I would get up to 15 boxes of produce from the back of the store..You had to take all of the leftover produce or not at all.  Once we got about 4 boxes of bananas..Oh mercy the boxes wouldn't even fit in the car..So we took all the bananas out of the boxes and stuffed them in the car in every available place..I had this huge freezer we had bought for a song...So I froze a lot of the bananas just as they were in the skins..  These are good for banana breads..or I would just put them in regular yeast bread.. Now this was back in the 1980's.. But we lived on about 50 bucks a week for food. . In the produce boxes I would maybe get a whole box of grapes.. I would just freeze these .. I would take the grapes off the stem and put them in Ziploc bags... I made grape juice by putting the washed grapes into a gallon jar..Then I poured boiling water over the grapes..Then a few cups of sugar..Then you just let it sit for a few days .Then sift the grapes out and throw on the compost pile. You could make a lot of grape jam too.. But I had grapes growing in my backyard and so I used these for making jam in the Fall.

I got a lot of fruits like apples and all kinds of different fruits..So I would freeze the fruits in Ziploc bags..And then in the fall when most everything was stored away, canned or dried.. Then I would make jams and jellies..We had a wild plum tree and in the Fall I would make plum butter..and can it..I didn't can the stuff from the store because they spray a lot of it ..And washing the fruit doesn't get all the spray off.  So to store the produce from the store I would freeze that..  But I made ketchup and tomato sauce etc. from my fresh tomatoes from my garden...  And about my tomatoes.. If I was real busy and didn't have time to can my tomatoes ..then I would cut them up and freeze them..Then I would use these tomatoes for chili or any kind of tomato based soups.. You can just throw these tomatoes in frozen.. I didn't even peel them if I was in a hurry, because the peeling will float to the top in the hot soup anyway and you can just ladle it off and throw the peeling away..

I guess I think to write this as winter is coming. . And it was always harder to feed my children in the winter then in the summer..love connie

* Order Connie's book, "Dear Kitchen Saints," available on Amazon. It is autobiographical and tells the beautiful story of her marriage testimony!* 

An Old Time Kitchen

{From the Archives of Connie's Letters, May 2005.}

And ya know if ya make jam or jelly and it dont turn out or set up then pack it
 in your cupboard and use it for pancake syrup..Or you can use it in bread for a
 cup of the liquid..Or in muffins or whatever..The old time mothers didnt use
 recipes.they used what they had in the cupboard and nothing was wasted..I use a
 pressure canner to can beans. Yet the old time mothers didnt use .anything but
 the waterbath method to can their beans..For my tomatoes i use what we have
 always called the "open kettle method"..I just have 2 pots on the stove..One is
 the tomatoes boiling and the other is the jars and canning lids and rings
boiling..And then you work quickly to fill the jars while everything is boiling
 ..Then you cap the jars and you are done..I think Kelly does this in a more
 simple way..Kelly when ya have time wud you tell the ladies how ya do it? With
 my way you have to work real fast and make sure the children arent around at the
 time..or they cud  get burned from splashing hot water..I am thankful to say i have never burned
 any of my children during canning time..But my kitchen is so small that there is
 no room in there for more than one person anyway.I have the Little Rose today
 ..later this morning..Jim used to help his mother can when he was a boy. She
 canned outside and it was Jims job to dig 2 fire pits and put bricks around
 them for the big washtubs to rest on..One wash tub held the jars and the other
 one held the food to be canned..Mom Hultquist made all sorts of things in her
 washtubs..She made ketchup , pickles and canned many vegetables for the
 winter..She made rootbeer for the neighbor children in her big wash tubs...She
 canned her corn on the cob on the cobs in big jars..She made many different
 kinds of pickles.All the old timers made a barrel of saurkraut for the winter to
 keep in the root cellar..But you can make saurkraut in a few canning qt jars.Its
 easy, it just has to ferment.  I am good at fermenting.  No snickering from the balcony..thanks you so very much..In the fall i make blender ketchup,Jim loves it and even puts it on his
 fried potatoes..it is so delicious !! i make it in the fall after all the other
 good tomatoes have been canned...My sister in law Kris used to let me come and
 glean the rest of her tomatoes she didnt want in her garden after she had canned
 ..And in the fall i wud take the less than perfect tomatoes and clean them up
 and make tomatoe sauce and ketchup..Kris had the big farm garden and often
 planted extra for me, plus i had my own town garden..The old time Mothers wud
 make picklelilly in the fall...Just before a frost they wud pick the last of the
 vegetables in their gardens..They may have a handful of beans and some small
green tomatoes and some onions and dill..A few small peppers ..and a few
cucumbers.Some lil heads of cauliflowers, cabbage or brocolli.that grew back
 after the big heads were  cut..But whatever it was they picked it as they wudnt waste anything..They wud  take these odds and ends into their kitchens and put it all thru their steel
 grinders mixed with vinegar, sugar, fresh herbs and spices....And they made a
 pickle relish and canned it for their winter family tables..Most old time
 families had pickles on the table for most every meal and snack..Also homemade
 breads and berry jams and home churned butter..And this was not so long
 ago..And we can do all of this now if we need to or if we just put our minds to
 it..And Mom Hultquist had to have all her canning done by Saturday as she needed
 the wash tubs for the Saturday nite baths.Then Monday she had to have them for
 wash day.She had 13 children and never lost one thru any kind of neglect..That
 says alot for her..Never had a miscarriage.and raised her children right thru
 the Depression era..What a woman..Love connieh

An Old Fashioned Kitchen Garden

Dear Wives and Mothers,



In the old days on the farm the folks wud plant big gardens..But the mothers wud plant little kitchen gardens up by the house.. if Mother was busy with the children she cudnt leave them and walk down the road to get vegetables for supper..Our family had a large garden at the end of our property..Jim took care of this garden ..Then i had a little kitchen garden up by the house..Its just a friendly little Housewife Garden that you plant for convenience..In my Housewife Garden i used to have some herbs , and a few tomato plants and green pepper and a few cucumber plants..You cud plant all different kinds of lettuce too if you have room..But anyway my Kitchen is right out the side door of my diningroom..i could run out the door and gather a few vegetables before my Babies knew i was gone ...Now days i just have a smaller garden, in the back.

Our House Plants

I miss seeing house plants in a home..They were so much a part of my growing up yrs.. Mother and her sisters all traded slips of each others geraniums.. My favorites were the dark pink rose geraniums..My Aunts wud have little glass jars with branches of flowers sitting in the kitchen windows.. "When the sun shines on the stems of the flower then this causes the little roots to form..Then when the roots are formed you can plant them in the dirt in a flower pot.. " i remember being at Aunt Eileens farm..i wud see her flowers in her big windows in the diningroom.. She loved African Violets..and had every kind and color she cud find..i thot they were hard to grow and not hardy enuf for my family to have around.. Love, Connie 

Our Gardens

I have to laugh at my dear friend Bonni..We have been friends since she was  19 and i was 22 yrs old..She and i went thru alot together...She said to me  on the phone lately .."Connie sell that big old house and buy a  condomenium.". i said "Bonnie that wud kill me off for sure The outdoors  is a part of my home.." ..Each morning in the summer Jim wud get up early  in the morning..and go check the garden.. i wud look out the window to see  him with his coffee cup in his hand..Pretty soon he wud yellll "Mother  your tomato plants have little tomatoes on them" .,,i wud be busy in the  kitchen fixing Jims breakfast ..But i knew i wud have to go out and see the  garden with Jim before i did anything else..He loved his garden and i did  too...We really needed our fruits and vegetables .. Some of the neighbors  wud plant a garden and then let it die.,,i cud never figure that out.. i  used to take our children for walks in the neighborhood and we wud admire  the neighbors flowers..i always told my children that the poorest people  wud always have the prettiest flowers ..Well the poor people cudnt afford  to remodle so they wud plant pretty flowers to hide the broken foundation  on their house..Thats what the old time Mothers did too... And i did the  same thing with the tiger lillies in our front yard..when our foundation  was crumbling.. The old time Mothers decorated alot with flowers.. i miss  having the old time house plants too.. Love, Connie