Have you ever read Laura Ingalls Wilder's "On the Shores of Silver Lake"? Remember when her family had the good fortune to spend the winter in the surveyors cabin? One of the most memorable experiences for Laura was the pantry - filled to the brim with barrels of food, overflowing with provisions and packed with every good thing to eat. Laura had never seen such abundance, and the Ingalls family had never experienced such ample bounty. Not only did Laura and her family benefit from the wealth of provisions cached in the surveyors cabin, numerous settlers counted themselves blessed by the Ingalls women's industrious use of the cabin's bounty.
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| Alphabetized list for the storeroom |
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| Our storeroom master list |
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| Empty (or nearly empty) jars to be filled |
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| Filled and ready for the shelf |
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| Another crate full of jars |
Our stored food brings to me the same feelings of security and plenty that the surveyors cabin brought to Laura. I love to see barrels, filled to the brim, line the walls of our storeroom. I think jars full of dry good, tidily labeled and standing at the ready, are a beautiful thing to behold. I take great comfort in the knowledge that my family will be well fed, even in times of want, along with anyone else who seeks refuge in our humble home.
Every fall I scrub our kitchen shelves, cleaning the jars, tidying the china and organizing all the utensils. It is a huge job because the shelves are large and our shouse seems to magnetically attract dirt. I clean shelf by shelf, scrubbing the shelves with hot, soapy water and washing each jar as I go. I organize and clean, getting ready for the fall harvest and fill my gallon jars with dry goods from our storeroom.
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| Oatmeal |
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| Dehydrated potatoes |
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| Hard White Wheat |
Today was the day to tackle the shelves with the gallon jars. I have roughly 30 (1) gallon jars, filled with dry beans, various types of wheat, cereals and baking supplies. I have jars filled with chocolate chips, pecans and homemade granola. Popcorn, dehydrated potatoes and apple slices sit next to turbinado sugar and powdered milk. These are jars I use every day while making meals for my family. Some, of course, are refilled frequently while others are only filled two or three times a year.
As I write this, I am gazing upon true beauty - freshly cleaned kitchen shelves with row after row of jars filled to the brim with an abundance of provisions. We are blessed beyond measure.
If you don't mind me asking, where do you get your one gallon jars?
ReplyDelete- Blind Ambition
Don't mind a bit! Actually, Sir Knight stopped at restaurants for years (seafood joints and ma & pa diners) and asked about 1 gallon glass jars. Sometimes they gave them to him, glad to have them out of the back room, other times he had to pay .50 cents a piece. Either way, we ended up with cases of jars. I use them in my kitchen and also when we have a milk cow, for fresh milk. His perseverance paid off!
DeleteDear Enola,
ReplyDeleteI am wondering if you just simply cap the jars, dry can them or vacuum-seal them?
And, yes, filled jars are beautiful to behold. Love the way your plant on the shelf is framed. What a novel idea.
Ramona
Ramona;
DeleteThank you! I love the plant in the frame too! I just fill the jars and put the lid on them. I use everything on those shelves frequently, so nothing is really in long term storage there. Everything we have in long term storage is stored differently.
Yours,
Enola
Indeed!
ReplyDeleteLove the photos and so glad to have you back on line. We are truly blessed indeed.
ReplyDeleteIt is so wonderful to be back, visiting with all you wonderful people!
DeleteI too like your jars.
ReplyDeleteMy husband too gathers for my pantry. We were at Costco 10? years ago and they were sampling some kind of candy. The candy came in these square, clear plastic containers. He thought those would be perfect for our pantry. He hunted down the manager of the sample people and asked if he could have the containers. She said Yes, as they were just throwing them away. We also got approval from the Costco manager on duty. We came home that day with about 10 containers. Over they years we have picked up many more.
Now we have so many he stores screws, bolts, nails, anything in the clear containers.
I saw the same containers on the Container Store website for $4 each!
I love having a clear view of what is in my pantry. And yes, all those full containers of full food for my family is a wonderful sight to behold.
Thanks for sharing!
BTW, I bought your two books this past weekend. The medical book will go with others on that subject, hopefully not to be used, but ready if need be.
The cookbook will be well used. My daughter has already gone through and marked the recipes she wants to try.
Beautiful, indeed!
ReplyDeleteSO glad to see you able to post more frequently.
Forgot to ask earlier ...
ReplyDeleteDid you paint the chalkboard "labels" on your jars? Or are they indeed a label?
I tried painting my own labels on my plastic containers and failed miserably.
Now I use a Dymo label printer with a pretty font. Though I really like the look of the black with white writing.
They are indeed labels! I order them from Amazon. They are waterproof so I can wash the jars - I use them on everything!
DeleteYou and Patrice are wonderful examples to all of us women. Although envy is a sin, I must admit I'm jealous of your wonderful marriages and families. While I was married, caring for my children, taking them to church, my husband was out having affairs with men. When I finally threw him out my children sided with him and so at 73 I find myself alone, doing all that you two women do, without the benefit of having a wonderful man by my side to share the work. Today I am dehydrating onions, freezing zucchini and closing up my garden. Then I am going to figure out how to install some more bookshelves to hold all my preparedness books! Didn't know you had a medical book out but will check out Amazon. I love your cookbook! So glad you haven't given up blogging!
ReplyDeleteLady Clare