like having your very own grocery store in your home.  Minus the outrageous prices and hard to pronounce ingredients that belong in scientific experiments.

I am winding down on canning season, my big ‘ol canning pot will soon be put away for another year.  It is time to enjoy a well stocked pantry and take pride in knowing the food we will be eating is actually that – food.  Not genetically modified, disease resistant and/or hormone filled products that the government deems safe.  What is safe about ingredients that have more than 12 letters in its name?

Me, I prefer produce grown locally which is then turned into ‘real food’.  No chemicals, no preservatives, just good, old-fashioned, hand made pantry staples.

Here is a peek at my pantry, located in the crawlspace (sorry for the dingy lighting, no amount of editing made it look any better) and just about filled to the brim.  The only thing left to do is to make more spiced blueberry jam (later in winter, the precious berries are all frozen at the moment) and tomatillo salsa, the tomatillo plant aka Green Monster, still has a thousand fruits left to ripen on it.

I have 54 jars of my spicy pasta sauce, 50 was my goal as we used all of last years up by June.  All my jams are done; chipotle peach, peach jalapeño jelly, mint jelly, strawberry lemon marmalade, spiced blueberry jam and tomato basil jam, along with dill pickles, green tomato relish, pickled serrano peppers, tomatillo salsa, pickled beets and canned tomatoes.  I still have regular salsa left from last year as well as a few jars of peach salsa, but I need to make some more mango nectarine salsa as that stuff is awesome on chicken and pork or try it with home-made cinnamon tortilla chips.

I hope I have inspired some of you to venture into canning/processing your own grown (or locally obtained) produce.  Trust me, it is better for you and your family plus it ensures you are supporting your local farm community vs items shipped from over 3,000 miles away.

Now that Fall is all but officially here, it is time to wrap up in something warm and comfy and maybe head to a nearby apple orchard…after all….it is apple season!

Apple Pie anyone?