We miss our garden!

I really miss our garden!  It is the middle of winter and I just crave fresh lettuce, strawberries, potatoes, carrots, etc. 

The next best thing to our garden is all of the canned produce that came from it.  We canned green beans, potatoes, carrots, applesauce, venison (this didn't come from the garden obviously), salsa, spaghetti sauce, tomatoes and corn.  The picture above is the shelf in our basement with all of our canned goods. It is so nice to be able to come down and grab a few cans and put together a meal very quickly.  I wish we could preserve even more though, nothing beats fresh food from a garden.  Next year my mom and I are going to try to can or blanch summer squash and zucchini.  If you currently do this, please let me know, I would love to hear how to do it. 

As much time and effort it takes to prepare and can the vegetables, it really is worth it.  This summer we even had the kids helping peel the potatoes, cut up the green beans, etc. And the little girls got to help stuff the jars.  I am very thankful for my Mom to help and teach me though!  It is great mother/daughter time for us and I love traditions.  This is something that I will always remember and I hope to pass on to my children as well.