Doomsday Preppers?

The last two weeks have been busy ones for us, and I haven't had time to go through all the photos and write the post about our trip to Saginaw yet.  I promise to try to get that done this week.

One of the things we do when we travel to Saginaw is SHOP, and I mean shop until we drop.  Our Traverse was packed so tightly on the trip home that we probably looked like Doomsday Preppers.  We can assure you that we are not Doomsday Preppers, but we do like to keep a well-stocked pantry.  If Doomsday should occur, feel free to make your way to the Keweenaw.  We'll have plenty of provisions!  When you live this far north and so far away from most chain stores, many things tend to be more expensive.  Therefore, we take advantage of any trips downstate to save money on things.  Yes, I admit I'm pretty frugal, but I prefer to think of it as being a wise steward.  (You can't believe how easy it is for me to talk myself out of spending a dollar at the dollar store.)  Some of you are thinking:  C'mon, how much could you possibly be saving?  The savings I computed on the items purchased at just one store alone covered the cost of our gas to make the trip to Saginaw.  Anyway, I wish we had taken photos of the way Steve had the vehicle packed.  When you opened the back doors, you would see things like bottles of salad dressing packed in every nook and cranny.  It was quite amusing.

I noticed that grape tomatoes and strawberries were on special in Saginaw, so we brought lots of them back to the Keweenaw.  I took care of the strawberries first, as it was obvious they weren't going to last as long.  It was time for more strawberry freezer jam.  I didn't think to take a photo of the whole berries, but here's a photo of the mashed berries.

The next step was to stir sugar and pectin into the mashed berries and ladle the mixture into 8 oz. jars.

I ended up with a total of 25 jars:  24 jars in the freezer and 1 jar that went directly into the refrigerator.  Yum.

It was then time for me to work on the grape tomatoes.  We purchased 24 pints, and I was very impressed with the quality.  I didn't have to throw away a single tomato.

First, they had a bath.

Then, I sliced them in halves.

After tossing them with olive oil and some seasonings, I placed them cut-side up on cookie sheets.

I slow-roasted them in the oven for several hours, put them into freezer bags, and popped them in the freezer.

We'll pull out one bag at a time as we need them.  We love the taste of oven-roasted tomatoes on our salads especially during the months when fresh garden-grown tomatoes aren't available.

So, the strawberries are done and the tomatoes are finished.  The pantry shelves and basement shelves are overflowing.  We spent some time on our Eagle Harbor property on Saturday.  All is well in the Keweenaw.