ecoyear

I have read several lists of what to preserve for winter.  I have hesitated to adapt them to my situation because we are such a work in progress with the kids slowly acquiring a taste for a greater diversity of foods.  Also, my overriding goal is to re-localize the food supply, so it makes sense to try to get a rough estimate of our staples to source locally, and not to worry so much about being complete or perfectly diverse.

So this is how I did it:

1. The first step was to make a decision that I would try to cover 30 weeks, or roughly 7 months form November through May.  I calculated that I would store food for roughly 5 days out of 7.  The rest will come from leftovers, eating out, and winter share, which will have some things that appeal to our kids (potatoes, carrots, greens). Guests will cause us to use stores faster.

2. The second step was to make a list of what produce I think I can get at least some of the kids to eat: tomato sauce, corn, broccoli, peas, pesto, tomato soup.  I also included some items I could not resist having for myself, such as edamame. roasted eggplant dip and a few prepared summer dishes (ratatouille, moussaka).

3. Then I made a guess as to how much of each of these we might eat each time we defrost some, and how often I think we would want to have that item.  I figured a quart of tomato sauce per week (between pasta sauce, pizza sauce, and some to enhance the flavor of soups or other dishes).  If I'm wrong, tomato season only begins in late July anyway, so Ill have sauce left over for early summer.  I figured we might eat a quart of corn kernels every other week, a half-pint jar of pesto, one tomato or other summer soup, a serving of broccoli, or a pint of either peas, carrots or bell peppers.  Finally, once a month, a pint of snap peas or green beans, a half-pint of eggplant dip, a pint of edamame, a prepared dish.

4. The fruit I have been stockpiling whenever I come across a surplus of it.  We will likely end up with a half-pint of jam for each week, and 15 quarts of frozen fruit, at best, as well as 8 quarts of canned peaches and apricots.  We also have 5 quarts of peach puree, which will make popsicles in June when they are extremely popular, as hot weather is a novelty, and an as yet unknown quantity of applesauce, as it looks like a bumper crop year for Boulder apples.

5. I have not planned for breakfasts, beyond the frozen fruit.  Snacks will likely be either popcorn, or bread with butter and jam, yogurt with granola, apples with peanut butter.  The kids get most lunches at school, still, and I might need a whole grocery store of well-traveled food options to slowly change that.  My husband just began getting lunch from home, so this may cause me to run out of food sooner.

6. I have a dozen or so frozen egg whites, but have not planned seriously for having farm-raised eggs all winter.  I'll just deal with the Longmont "free range" eggs and maybe keep track so I know what I need next year.  Defrosting eggs will be another component of the learning curve.

So in order, the questions to answer are:

- How many "dark day" weeks do you have where you live?

- Which seasonal foods do you want access to in the "dark day" weeks?

- How much of each food would you eat at one time (freeze or can in those quantities)?

- How many times per month would you enjoy eating that food?

That gives  you a certain number of "family portions" of each food that you can now target.  Keep track of what you finally end up with on Day 1 or "dark days".  Cross off each time you have an item, and mark the date you had it.  This should help with planning the following year.  Families with kids of course add a certain percentage to account for the kids getting older and needing more food (and no longer turning up their nose at your favorite vegetable - will you  need to freeze okra? Brussels sprouts?),

Good luck!