Even though summer just got here, I'm thinking winter

[Blonde Granny]

I've been working of getting the pantry a little less crowded and I noticed over the weekend that it is actually working. There are some empty spaces.

Since we're not going on our usual winter trip this year, I need to rethink what is in the freezer and pantry. So, on our trip to Walmart Friday I bought round 1 of necessary items to make chili. DH likes homemade marinara sauce, so I think that I will buy those items next.

We had lunch yesterday at our local grist mill, and their beans and ham are delicious. Even though DH wouldn't touch that with a 10' pole, I've decided to make myself some and freeze it.  I'll add those items to the list.

I've already bought raspberries from the Fresh Market and will continue to do so, maybe blue berries too. Still plenty of room in the freezer.

So, in getting ready for another dreadful winter season, are there things you buy little by little or do you just make one big winter shopping trip and then fill in what with what you need?

[simser]

I live in a state that doesn't have winter. In fact, I find myself doing all the "winter" things I'm used to in the summer (because summer is when we stay indoors more). But I buy everything when the mood strikes, rather than all at once.

[Iggy aka IG]

I need to try and remember to stock up on berries NOW and freeze them, because in winter they are not only more expensive, the quality is less than desirable.

[kittensaver]

I go to the u-pick farm a couple of times in the spring/summer for berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries). It's a couple of trips because they ripen in succession over a 3-4 month period. I make jams for Christmas gifts and the rest goes into the freezer for the winter. Saves a ton of money and as Iggy pointed out, preserves a much better quality product.

I go to the same u-pick farm for roma tomatoes at 25 cents a pound (yes, you read that correctly). In one weekend I can put up about 75 lbs of tomatoes for recipes and dinners for the entire year. I started doing this a few years back after reading some pretty bad things about BPA in can liners. Plus again, it saves $ at the store.

I hate hate hate waste, so whenever I come across "found food" I work to preserve it. I also live in a place where food grows year around, so this is not as far-fetched as it sounds. The freezer, the canner and the dehydrator are my friends  when large quantities come my way. Many other produce items grow year-around; we are extremely lucky and I know it.

Like others on this board I buy organic chickens and quarter sides of organic grass-fed beef from local ranchers for the freezer, reducing my costs and saving expensive trips to the butcher counter. I try hard to use the "whole animal" and turn the bones and trimmings into stock for the freezer. Have you SEEN the price of those boxes of stock in the grocery store?  Plus, the cans of stock have that darn BPA lining. PLUS they are usually chocked full of preservatives and chemicals. I wish I had a reliable source for wild caught fish, but I don't . That is my next "hunt."

That's pretty much the sum of my "stock up for the winter" activities.

Pretty much everything else fresh comes from my community garden plot or the farmer's market. Ingredient "staples" (flour, sugar, salt, spices, olive oil, vinegars, dried fruits, grains, pastas, beans, etc) come from Costco or the bulk bins at the health food store. I could probably do more, but "life" can get in the way. But I do find that "winter stock-up" - even though it involves short periods of intense work - provides better food and reduced costs down-the-line.

[Wisconsin Beth]

  La La La La.  I can't hear you talking about winter. 

[ZaireinHD]

Jun 23, 2014 7:55:10 GMT -5 simser said:

I live in a state that doesn't have winter.

that breaks my heart!
no winter

[Blonde Granny]

If I had my choice, I'd be living again in Florida.  Living without winter was pure joy!

[simser]

Jun 23, 2014 20:30:09 GMT -5 ZaireinHD said:

Jun 23, 2014 7:55:10 GMT -5 simser said:

I live in a state that doesn't have winter.

that breaks my heart!
no winter

Let me rephrase that. I live in a city with no winter. There's winter about 3 hours away in the mountains. I just choose not to go there

[TheOtherMe]

Jun 23, 2014 16:14:05 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

  La La La La.  I can't hear you talking about winter. 

[marvholly]

Since my big stand alone freezer died last fall I am MUCH more conservative in what I buy/stock. I still have things that were in that freezer to use (pork roast, ground turkey, chunk of chuck,....). I have changed my eating habits so I have WAAAY too much cereal & pasta stock piled.

I am thinking winter more in terms of weather. Here in metro Chicago It was colder than Donna was in AK and I think we get nearly a record amount of snow. That eqans I stay home - a LOT. Also, my north & south neighbors shoveled. However, the north one has moved so doubt I will be as lucky this year.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Hmmmm .... in the summer, I wear shorts and tank tops and tennies with no socks.
In the winter, I wear shorts and t-shirts and tennies WITH socks.

Theoretically, we get a winter here in central California. It can get down to the 20s and freeze my poor ferns (I cover them with plastic and sheets), but normal temps are low 40s overnight and 50s+ in the daytime. It's also, theoretically, our "rainy season" ... though we are in Year 3 of an extreme drought and got a total of 6" or so of rain ... for the whole year. (Our normal is 11") So ... no snow, no sleet, not much ice .... heck, without the rain, we didn't even get much fog this past winter.

We've lived here 11 years and haven't turned on the whole house heater ... yet. (I like it cold!) We do have a space heater for the bathroom. If it's cold enough, my shivering husband can usually persuade me to close the sliding glass door at night. (Did I mention I'm a polar bear?)

That being said, my winter prep consists of:

1. Finding the plastic for the ferns
2. Getting the heated cat beds out of the closet and plugging them in for the cats
3. Getting the heated blanket out of the closet and plugging it in for the cats
4. Getting the afghans out of the closet and decoratively draping them on the sofa.
5. Putting the pool float in the storage shed. (I'm in the pool through mid to late October)
6. Filling up and turning on the hot tub (usually by Thanksgiving)

I don't really buy different groceries in the winter, except maybe for a few crock pot recipes.

I will point out that we have long, hot, disgusting, smoggy summers here. We hit the upper 90s in April, the 100s in May, and the 110s in June. With July, August and September all in the 100s. Heck, we can get 100s in October. Seriously, we get like 7 smogging sweltering months of hot, dry summer.

[Sam_2.0]

Not really stocking up for winter, but I plan to start putting away meals for maternity leave soon. I want to make up a batch of 20 or so freezer crockpot meals for us to have handy - someone can toss it in around noon and dinner will be ready by the time DH gets home. Trying to save as much $$ as possible between the baby and the new house so the plan is to get the ingredients a little each time at the store between now & then. If I put back 4-6 meals/month then we should be set.

Our stores also do big freezer item sales right around now. If DH's favorite pizzas go on sale I will buy about 20 of those as well. I don't usually cook a lot of meat but I need to get better about that. I have this thing about raw meat - just really can't handle it even when I am not pregnant. So our freezer mainly holds veggies and pizzas

[Blonde Granny]

I'm planning on doing some soups, chili. marinara sauce. Buying pizza (maybe a domino special) or the WMT supreme. Fresh Market has some wonderful small chicken pot pies that are big enough for the two of us, so load up on those. They also have half apple pies, again for the 2 of us. We both really like the bacon wrapped mini meat loaves I made awhile back, so more of those too. I find if I have this stuff in the freezer, it really eliminates all the eating out we normally do.

Neither of us are big on casseroles, but could do some pulled pork & precook a lot of chicken then freeze it too.

Anyone have any other ideas.

[busymom]

We are in the process of eating what's in the freezer & pantry right now. In the Fall is when I'll be restocking those 2 areas for Winter.

One thing we do in the Summer, is when we've got the grill up & running, we grill WAY more meat than can be eaten in one meal. The other cooked meat goes into the freezer to use another time. The kids LOVE it, because they get the flavor of grilling in the Wintertime.

[Deleted]

I don't have winter food shopping or summer food shopping - I just go to the store and buy what we need/want.  why wouldn't you just wait until you want chili one day in the winter and buy the ingredients and make it fresh?

[Blonde Granny]

I have a lot of ground chuck in the freezer from a sale. I like to make at least a double batch and put some in the freezer for those days I don't want to cook , which btw is most of them.  Same with soups and marinara sauce. Living where we do, ice storms are the norm rather than snow, and it's not unusual to lose power for a few days at a time.

I do think differently between summer and winter food. Winter food for me is more comfort food: big pot roasts, soups, stews.....may as well make the best of hating winter with some good warm foods.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Blondie ~ It might be worth your while to look for a great price on dried beans that you can use for crockpot soups and chilis ... shop around now and look for the best prices. You might also look for some ham bones and freeze them? Also ... now may be a great time to get some fresh herbs and freeze them for use later this winter in cooking.

Since you have ice storms, do you ever stock up on things like shelf-stable milk that can be used in a pinch? (I put unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze on my cereal and know that it comes in shelf-stable small cartons as well as the standard refrigerated size I normally purchase.) I know that some people freeze milk, too.

I do like to buy fresh grapes this time of year and then freeze some for winter-enjoyment. It can be delightful to fish a few out of the freezer and just enjoy ... or add them to sparkling water! You could cut up and freeze all sorts of berries, I would think!

[Blonde Granny]

I used to freezer grapes, I had forgotten all about doing that. I keep skim milk frozen in the upright freezer in the garage, it freezes better than the milk with more fat. In addition to extra water in the pantry, which I need to buy more of, I keep some also in the freezer.

I love beans & ham, DH would run screaming out into a snow drift if I tried feeding that to him, but he does love my chili.

I just finally broke down and ordered a Ninja from QVC. It's one of the smaller ones, to use for smoothies, soft serve ice cream etc. Should be here next week. The raspberries at The Fresh Market have been incredible, just put my 3rd container in the freezer. I also freeze bananas to use later for banana nut bread. With the cost of nuts right now, it's probably just going to be banana bread.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

What kind of nuts do you like to use?

[Blonde Granny]

For the banana nut bread I use walnuts....but I've noticed in the stores all of them have hit crazy high prices. I think I have one small bag in the pantry...probably bought in a moment of weakness....lol.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I have a friend who makes bone broth in the crockpot

[dancinmama]

We don't really have a winter where you have to make sure that you have items in the pantry or freezer because you might not be able to get out or make it to the store due to weather.

I shop pretty much the same year round, stockpiling a year's worth of products when they are on sale: baking items during the holidays, barbecue items in the summer, etc.

[skubikky]

I had some raspberries and blueberries in the freezer from last year. Made a pie with them...came out pretty good. The new raspberry bushes that DH planted for me last year are yielding a good amount of berries.
Picked strawberries and made jam a few weeks ago. More than enough for a year.
The Marzano and cold pack tomato plants are doing well, will plant some more Marzanos for a later harvest so as to spread the canning out a bit.

DH and DS were able to get a log load of wood from someone who had a tree fall in their yard. Nice solid maple. Almost $1000 worth of log load for the price of gas to go over and bring it home. DH and DS can split it and have it ready for winter. What a gift.

Hoping to get walnuts again from DH's co-worker. We vacuum sealed and put them in the freezer. Great for baking.

Waiting for corn season which should be in a few weeks. Will blanche and freeze as Pat does as much as I can.

We don't eat much beef, more chicken and turkey so haven't bought the 1/4 cow as I did a few years back. It lasted a year and half. I buy the organic beef and pork from a friend who raises and sells it. I buy it as I need it

[Blonde Granny]

I just got my potato casserole made. It made 5 containers for later use and 1 is in the fridge for tomorrow night. I've been buying raspberries and have 3 large containers in the freezer already.