Done

So in early October I posted my to do list.

Here is how that went:

Apple Sauce - 15 liters made and canned solely because a friend came and helped and pushed through with the boiling and mashing while I ran after and fed kids.

Beet chips: after 3 batches in the dehydrator and two in the oven failing to produce a lovely terra chip crisp snack - I decided to stop messing around with beets until I REALLY have time to mess around with beets.  And am ready to eat multiple kilos of them since Alister and Saphira both declined my experiments.

Carrot chips - didn't happen - but I did make a lovely ginger carrot soup.

Apple chips - lots.  Thanks mom for buying me the apple slicer for my birthday! It was a hit with Saphira too.

I also did about 4 kilos of peppers that I chopped up and froze.  I never got to the tomatoes before the prices went up (out of season) so they can wait for another year or two before I attempt it.

Pears: two batches - also extra tasty and hope to do more of them next year

Watermelons (2)- figured while I was at it - Picture something the consistency and sweetness of a starburst - but totally natural.  I actually prefer the dehydrated version to the real melon and Saphira eats them like candy (esp since we don't give her candy . . . . ).  The only depressing thing about watermelons is that you spend 18 - 20 hours cutting and drying the thing and to show for it you have 1 pint - that's right - a 1 pint jar of watermelon pieces.

I also managed to do the apple chutney and the mince pie filling.  Both were a bit more time consuming than in the past since I didn't have a food processor.  The food processor was one of the furnishing with the other apartment and while we have money set aside for one, I just haven't gotten around to doin ghte research and buying one.  So this year, the mince piece might not be so evenly minced - but I still reckon they'll be tasty.

Cranberries - you can't find the dried ones here and so I am experimenting with a tray of them now - burst and sweetened they taste almost like  craisens - though I think in the future the easiest thing to do would be to pureee it and then chop finely for fruit bites rather than try to preserve the integrity of individual berries.

I did stock up on lots of meat - but have done no grinding.  After various inquiries we learned that we would need to buy an electric meat grinder as the manual ones aren't good quality here anymore and its hit or miss to get one to grind.  We decided the cost of a new appliance didn't balance out the cost of saving on meat by grinding it ourselves (and then having all the clean up too).

Broccoli and cauliflower - This finally did happen, but only because a friend came and helped twice- getting the veggies cleaned and blanched and the kids looked after.  Until she came I kept buying huge amount of of cauliflower at the market only to eat it frantically throughout the week.  There were two weeks where the only vegetable we ate was cauliflower.

Zuchini - Did several batches of these because Saphira can actually help with it and I figured it would be good for quickbreads and muffins

Pumpkin - Froze one but didn't quite get to it before it started to spoil on me, so lost about half of it.

Besides my friend coming and helping out several days, the only reason I was able to do much of what I did was because Alister took a 10 day teaching trip to Siberia.  Now, Alister is a great help with the kids, and I really don't know how single moms manage - but still, I didn't really have to cook or clean much while he was gone, which leaves you a surprising amount of time for big projects.