Ways to Stock the Pantry with REAL Food

We don’t want to live in fear but we want to be smart and keep our Storehouse full in times of plenty (Genesis 41:33-36). One thing I can do as a wife and mother is prepare a healthy and full pantry. So I spend time, which I have more of than budget, to can, dry, and freeze food that is in season, free, or cheap.

From year to year the harvest is different so I put up whatever I can get my hands on for free or almost free. I grow a small garden but my father has a large garden and I have several friends that pass along extras. So my pantry, and much more fills up quickly.

Here is an example of how to gleam and stock your pantry.

I took a trip to a friends since she had more garden than she could handle. We came home with about 5 gallons of Roma tomatoes, 5 cucumbers, gallon bag of cherry tomatoes, about 3 gallons of banana, bell, and jalapeno papers, and 2 grocery bags of apples. Now this is not a huge amount of produce but helps when stocking up.

Here’s what I have did with it along with sending a grocery bag full to a neighbor (which is a great way for them to keep me in their minds if they find a source for free goodies, and in turn a few days later she gave me 2 boxes of mason jars). The Green bowl on the left are tomatoes that are not quite ready yet or that I am saving to eat on the next couple of days. The white basket is full of peppers for Meat Loaf Stuffed Peppers for dinner one night, and for some Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos for another dinner.

Then I did some canning 6 quarts of tomato juice, 5 quarts of apple sauce, 4 quarts of Diced Tomatoes, 5 pints of Bruschetta Mix, and 13 jelly jars of Candied Jalapenos which are great for parties or gifts. The plastic bags are full of banana peppers, and bell peppers Ready for the Freezer. Then I put my dehydrator to use, the jars without the lids have dried cherry tomatoes, and dried bell peppers, then I have 5 trays of apple chips going on the dehydrator.

I AM NEW TO, the world of dehydrating, but this is what I am discovering.

WHY would anyone want to dehydrate food?

to have on hand in case of an emergency
budgets get tight and this way you can still feed your family real food
dehydrated food is also great to take on camping or hiking since it is so light weight and takes up very little room.

WHAT have I been using to dehydrate?

We have a discount grocery store, Aldi, and each week they have very cheap specials so that is mainly what I have been using at this point so I am not out a lot of money. For example one week mushrooms were 49 cents, bags of onions for 50 cents, I got 5 pound bags of potatoes for 69 cents, etc. So I have been buying the specials to use and an extra bag or two to dry.
I have also been using some of my garden harvest, peppers, cherry tomatoes, free apples from friends.

Freezing

While I prefer things being shelf stable I also freeze fruits (berries are the only thing I spend money on), Herbs in oil and broth, Peppers, etc. I also buy a half of a beef at a time. I also shop the discounted bread racks at the store and throw those goodies in the freezer too to have when I need them.