Dry Kitchen?

Recently we detailed the transformation of our dining room. We have really been at a loss of what to call the new room. It’s more than a pantry, but canning kitchen seems to ignore the fact that the room is so versatile. A fellow blogger made a “dry kitchen” in her basement as an entertainment space for small group gatherings. I think that is going to be the best moniker we will be able to use for this room. It has all the amenities of a kitchen without the plumbing and appliances—that is until we buy an upright freezer and get it installed!

Here are some small decorating changes we have made. We have found that we are actually more limited on wall space that we originally anticipated and we keep finding really neat stuff for that room.

I found this adorable butcher print cow cutout at JoAnn’s craft store one day and snatched it up. I really wish they had more than just cows. Justin and I think we are going to do prints or vinyl butcher prints of all the animals we eat and frame them up somehow.

 

Amanda and Michael have been renovating their kitchen and they gave us this wood shelf. It’s perfect for all of the canned items we accumulate. These are the 50 cans of potatoes Justin has canned over the past month and the strawberry jam we made!

 

I saw this on Pinterest one day, texted it to Justin, and he bought all of the parts and had it made within hours. I love that about him!

Justin smoked the first of his three hams and we got it hanging up in its muslin sack. I was actually afraid it would smell smoky in there but it doesn’t!

 

Daddy and Justin salvaged this amazing cart from a building that was being torn down in Ashburn. It is AMAZING! We worked off Amanda and Michael’s kitchen renovation again and got the scrap of butcher block that came from cutting out their sink. I love the character and the fact that I’ve not seen anything else like it. We actually have the ham hung under the countertop on it now.

 

This is my latest find for the dry kitchen. These are old sign inserts from a grocery store. They can be moved around if stores change their layouts. I snagged them up for $4 each at Pickin’ Peanuts in Ashburn. We haven’t hung them yet. We are still waiting to finalize the layout of the room when we install the upright freezer. I like the idea of hanging them vertically on the wall, but Justin also thought about hanging them from the ceiling. I like it because I was able to sort through all of the sign inserts and get out the signs for stuff we actually keep in the dry kitchen!

Canning Tomatoes

Last weekend, Justin, Wyatt, and I picked tomatoes at a local farmer’s patch. We ended up picking 5 five-gallon buckets full. We headed to the local school-run canning plant where Justin works on his off days to can tomatoes and sauce.

At the canning plant we washed, cored, blanched, peeled, and stuffed tomatoes into cans. These will be used for chili, spaghetti sauce, etc. We ended up with 32 cans of crushed tomatoes.

 

 

We also juiced a little less than half of those tomatoes. They were blanched but didn’t have to be peeled.  When it came out of the juicer, we cooked it down a bit to thicken it. We added a pinch of salt to each can too. We got 22 cans of sauce.

 

 

 

 

Jake helped us get it done. I joked telling him he was out to get Justin’s summer job and he laughed but he thought he would really like it. I think we might have a replacement for Justin in a few years.

The canning plant is a great place to save the seasonal produce that we love that’s grown right here in Georgia. We can can items and don’t have to be afraid of spoilage if the power goes out and we know exactly what we’re getting when we open up a can. I can’t wait to go back up there and make some homemade soups and can those too!

June Happenings

Earlier this month, Justin went to Calhoun Produce and got strawberries to make some strawberry jam. It is fabulous! I’m so glad he likes doing this kind of stuff.

 

Our sunflowers are finally blooming and I love using a variety of jars and bottles to show them off. I have a milk bottle that sits on the dining room table. I put my sunglasses on one to show the scale. These flowers are big and getting bigger every day!

 

I put a sunflower for Mama and Daddy in a Georgia wine bottle at their house.

 

Last Saturday we ate some fresh watermelon at Mama and Daddy’s house and I was snapping pictures of Wyatt. Mama remembered she had the Watermelon Days Festival magazine that featured him when he was a year old. It’s neat to see two years later he still loves watermelon and he has almost the same expressions!

Justin came home from the fire department Sunday morning and we welcomed him home with bacon, grits, and eggs. I coached Wyatt earlier to tell him, “Happy Father’s Day!” but he shouted as loud as he could, “Happy Mother’s Day, Daddy!” We got a laugh out of that. Justin got a new pair of sunglasses after I realized a week ago that his were older than Wyatt. We’re going to get his old glasses repaired so he has a backup pair in his little truck.

After church and lunch at Mama and Daddy’s house and a nap, we headed out to Sheldon and Desiree’s house for dinner. Amanda and Rivers took Wyatt out in their kayak in the pond and Justin helped the kids shoot his .22 rifle. Wyatt kept saying, “I can do it ‘gain?!” We spend a lot of time teaching Wyatt what to do if he ever finds a gun and the importance of not touching them without an adult.

 

 

This is how Wyatt welcomed Monday morning. I got him up and told him to come in the bathroom to take his vitamin and brush his teeth. I kept getting ready and when I realized he didn’t come in, I went looking for him. I found him passed out back asleep on the pile of dirty laundry. Crazy boy!

Apples galore

We have had a busy weekend. We made 11 pints of apple butter, 6 quarts of applesauce, and 24 quarts of apple pie filling. I am about sick of apples! At least my house smells delicious.