Workin' it

This has been a productive day.  Had a nice breakfast with Big Ag (husband) and then came home to start on some pleasant and necessary chores.  I harvested and blanched a bunch of carrots (our fall harvest seems to have turned into a winter harvest this year, but as long as it's some kind of harvest I'm good with it).  I also started a batch of marmalade, and used up two quarts of apple pie filling I put up last year to make the delicious pie you see here:

This is only the second time I've made a crust from scratch, and I must say it came out flaky and delicious.  Not for those dieting among us, however -- each crust has one stick of butter in it, so while this is a great crust, I think I'll probably keep the recipe for just an occasional treat.


All this kitchen work is going on right now because it's the time of year when you want to clean out last year's stores of preserved goods, use them up, and replace them with new jars of the same. The apple pie filling I used today was about a year old, and while I've heard preserved goods can easily last two years, I prefer to use them in one, whenever possible.  (A great excuse to have apple pie, no?) I also needed to add to my stash of marmalade jars.  This is citrus season, so it's the best time to make things like lemon curd and marmalade for the upcoming year.  


In addition to the citrus preserves, since it's currently the end of apple season, I'll also put up another few quarts of apple pie filling soon, although perhaps not quite as much as last year, since I obviously had leftovers.  That's the trick, isn't it?  To put up enough without overstocking.  Well, either way, on winter days like this, having the oven going and something simmering on the stovetop is not a bad thing, as it warms the entire house.  preserving is much easier in winter than summer.


On a completely different note, we watched "Contagion," last night, and it made me think even more about food preservation.  Could one good pandemic quarantine us and force us to live out of our pantry for a few months?  Could we do it?  I'd like to think the answer is yes, however, I think we would need more dry staples, like beans and rice on hand.  But it's nice to know we could still have luxury items like apple pie and marmalade and live comfortably out of what's been put up in our mason jars instead of scrambling (along with everyone else) for crappy BPA-filled canned goods from the supermarket.  


With a good garden, a filled pantry and enough water, I'd like to think one could make it through just about anything.