Preparedness Challenge - mid-week

1. Garden work:Starting to harvest - didn't plant a lot of variety, but have eggplant, summer squash, tomatoes and peppers. Need to weed...

2. Preserve something:Yup - heading into the heavy, heavy canning time - raspberry-jalepeno jam, "Rosy peach jam" (with bananas and maraschino cherries), peaches, pears, tomatoes.....

3. Work on food storage:Oh my heck, yeah. Available $, plus good sales equal tons (did I mention TONS) of stocking up. Got pasta, cereal, cake mixes, crackers, Hamburger Helper (for the kids to fix when we go out on date night), chicken and more. I can tell wheat prices have dropped....the sales are MUCH better this year on wheat-based products. If any of you have seen my food storage room, you'll be impressed when I tell you it's almost over-flowing - and we don't have most of the canning completed yet.

4. Other preparedness tasks:Emergency prep kits for the kids in school. Ordering fruit trees for fall planting.

5. Try a new recipe or a new variation:A variety. Tried a no-bake cheesecake with shortbread crust. Pretty good, but not very "solid". Chicken enchiladas with zucchini in them. Bethlehem made up a dish that's pretty darn good - pasta sauce with fresh veggies, chicken, etc. I'm impressed.

6. Financial preparedness:We are now out of debt except our home. Trying to focus as much as possible on self-sufficiency.

7. Work on local food systems:Yup. Picked 23 pounds of raspberries at a local place, then came home and stayed up until 3 am processing them (turned 'em all into jam - freezer and jalepeno). Bought all my fruit from an orchard in my same town - peaches and pears.

8. Learn something new:Yes! I learned I better be diligent about labeling my jars! I did so much "creative" canning last year - new recipes, new combinations, etc - and for the most part, I did NOT label my jars. WHAT WAS I THINKING?! I have no idea what some things are, nor where I would find the recipe to duplicate if I wanted to again. Duh.

9. Serve someone:Family. :-)