MikeR
Slightly Addicted
- Messages
- 331
- Points
- 470
There are plenty of lists from various other sites floating about the forum telling you what to store and how much, so I'm not going to be too specific. More a general idea of what people here in the UK think is important and if you buy or grow your stores, or like us a mixture of both.
Our own stores are mainly of ingredients. Most of our cooking is done from scratch so it makes sense for us to have what we use. We buy flour in bulk direct from a millers we store large amounts of oil, honey, sugar, raising agents, herbs and spices and some animal fats. Our biggest investment on that score is Slanina or smoked pork fat, it's incredible stuff.
I suppose our biggest investment calorie wise is in our fruit and veg garden. We produce a great deal of the food we eat and preserve almost enough to feed us summer and winter.
We freeze a great deal but we also dehydrate, pickle and ferment as well. How we preserve things depends on which preservation method suits that particular veg. We love fermented Ramsons so always try to get a few jars in, red Cabbage sauerkraut is another favourite, French and runner beans freeze so well and onions, peppers and mushrooms are the best dehydrated, we bottle Tomatoes and make pickles, chutneys and jam.
Meat doesn't really figure in our stored food, apart from SPAM, I love a bit of SPAM If there were an event We have the lake for fish, I trap a few Crayfish and grow a lot of drying beans and would rather not get involved in the whole hunting and trapping thing, just me but I'm happy with or without meat in my diet as you can see, we have alternatives.
Our two biggest investments for preserving have been a good electric dehydrator and a couple of hundred Kilner jars.
Our own stores are mainly of ingredients. Most of our cooking is done from scratch so it makes sense for us to have what we use. We buy flour in bulk direct from a millers we store large amounts of oil, honey, sugar, raising agents, herbs and spices and some animal fats. Our biggest investment on that score is Slanina or smoked pork fat, it's incredible stuff.
I suppose our biggest investment calorie wise is in our fruit and veg garden. We produce a great deal of the food we eat and preserve almost enough to feed us summer and winter.
We freeze a great deal but we also dehydrate, pickle and ferment as well. How we preserve things depends on which preservation method suits that particular veg. We love fermented Ramsons so always try to get a few jars in, red Cabbage sauerkraut is another favourite, French and runner beans freeze so well and onions, peppers and mushrooms are the best dehydrated, we bottle Tomatoes and make pickles, chutneys and jam.
Meat doesn't really figure in our stored food, apart from SPAM, I love a bit of SPAM If there were an event We have the lake for fish, I trap a few Crayfish and grow a lot of drying beans and would rather not get involved in the whole hunting and trapping thing, just me but I'm happy with or without meat in my diet as you can see, we have alternatives.
Our two biggest investments for preserving have been a good electric dehydrator and a couple of hundred Kilner jars.