Thursday, September 20, 2007

Storage Dilemma Solved!

We were blessed with an abundance of produce from our garden this year. We are looking forward to when we will be picking peaches, pears, and cherries from our newly planted orchard. Until it begins producing, we are fortunate to live in an area that has these available for a very affordable price.


I have spent many hours canning and freezing this summer and now I have a dilemma. Where do I put all these jars? We were freezing peaches, but with all the corn and green beans, and blueberries, our freezer is full. So, I started canning peaches, as well as pears, and tomatoes, pickled okra, grape jelly and grape juice. My kitchen counter and the dining room table was full of these beautiful jars. Bob built shelves at the top of the basement stairs which I quickly filled with tomatoes early in the season. Bob said he would build more shelves in the basement. But when? He has to repair the barn roof before winter, a priority, and he leaves next week for evangelistic meetings in Rochester for two weeks, and when he returns, he starts evangelistic meetings in one of his churches. Which takes us to the middle of November and I can't have all these jars on my counter and table until December. I had to solve the problem myself.

So I started looking around my kitchen. Maybe I could store them in my kitchen cabinets if I re-arranged them. So I took a look. Nope, that wasn't an option. Where was I going to store these jars?

Then I had a bright idea. And my idea was behind this door in my dining room.



When you open this door, there are stairs that lead to my office. But, we rarely use these stairs. We use the staircase in the foyer. So my dilemma was solved. The stairs would serve as my temporary pantry until Bob has time to build my shelves.


Once I wash the sticky off the jelly jars, they will be placed in my new pantry too!

I think my freezing and canning days are numbered at this point in the season. But, I'm looking forward to sharing my summer labor of love with family and friends.

3 comments:

Rachael said...

Oh, I'm looking forward to it too. You can "store" some of that stuff at my house when you come.

Very ingenous solution.

Lori said...

I think that storage spot is perfect. Why bother with the shelves?
I can't wait to try some of that stuff. Don't forget to bring some when you come. I will give you some spaghetti sauce, it turned out really good.

Shannon said...

I'd still want the shelves built. That "door" is the perfect stash for when you run out of time and someone is at the front door. ha.

It looks like it worked great for now though.

When will you be getting your computer back?