Have More In Winter, Too!

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NOW we come to a part of the "Have-More" Plan that probably gives Ed and me the most satisfaction of all-preserving food in various ways so that we "live off the fat of the land" all year round.

Food preservation also has very practical compensations. Vegetables cleaned and prepared in the summer or fall save hours of shopping and of preparation in the kitchen during months to come. Furthermore, home preserved food costs less. For example, our home preserved tomatoes cost us about 5¢ per quart.

Folks today are lucky to have two wonderful modern ways of conserving food: quick freezing and pressure canning - besides that dependable old stand-by, the root cellar. One obvious rule applies to them all: use only the best of your fruits and vegetables, those just ripe and free from blemishes. If you take tough old string beans and freeze or can them, you're still going to have tough old beans. At first it hurts to throw away even one bean you've raised. But it isn't long before you realize you have plenty of the best and you can afford to give the few tough ones to the pigs or chickens.

If you want to keep your preserving to a minimum, enjoy your food to the fullest extent while it is at the height of its season instead of trying to have something different every day of the week. We certainly do not get tired of eating sweet corn nearly every day for weeks when it comes fresh from our own garden.

To show you how we have a lot of variety in our home-grown food with the least effort, here is a list of foods we emphasized, each in season. We don't claim we ate only these items at these times, but we used them primarily - we supplement our home-grown list with things we don't grow, for instance, seafood, beef, etc.)

SUMMER (July-September)

Fresh garden vegetables - tomatoes, peas, string beans, lima beans, beets, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, summer squash, egg-plant, new potatoes, etc. Fresh fruits, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc. Broilers, roasters, rabbit. All kinds of frozen meat (from winter killing). Milk, butter, cottage cheese, eggs.

FALL (October-December)

Root cellar vegetables - cabbage, beets, carrots, turnips, Hubbard and acorn squash, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes (leave in ground). Greens still in garden: kale, broccoli, chinese cabbage, collards. Stored fruits - apples and pears. Baked beans and stews. Chicken, fricassee or pies (culled hens), broilers and roasters. Other fowl - (geese, turkeys, ducks). Lamb, chevon, rabbit. Milk, eggs, cheese.