It has a been a crazy few weeks of trying to keep my head above water when it comes to all things homesteady... and Etsy.
Last year, with the "Rona" making it's landfall and the subsequent shut downs that followed; my little Etsy shop took off. It went from down 11% to up 48% by the end of the year. I thought once tings opened up again; things would slow down a bit. They did for a short while and I was only up slightly over last year. Then the last three weeks happened and I'm up another 7% year over year. The extra money, still not enough to be considered a full time income just a side business, has helped make ends meet due to hubby's surgery, recovery, and now cut hours at work. The cut hours are not because of his recovery, but rather a situation in the company.
In addition to Etsy taking off, the garden has as well! I've started to put up tomatoes in the form of sauce. That's just started so only a few quarts at the moment. I have, however put up three quarts of fermented salsa, which is AMAZING! Rubic has been plowing thru it daily. Needless to say, It's hard to keep on hand. I'm pretty proud that, aside from the onions, everything else has come from the garden.
To date I've put up
14 quarts of yellow squash ( final tally). We actually still had squash from last year, so this is more than enough.
3 quarts of dehydrated squash. (final tally)- That's equal to about another 9-10 quarts canned
2 ish pints of sweet peas ( first time ever! Planting more in fall)
3 quarts fermented sauerkraut ( final tally, but planting more green cabbage in the fall)
3 quarts fermented cucumber pickles
6 quarts of tomato sauce ( ongoing). The tomatoes are just starting to really come in, and in , and in.
5 quarts of tomato juice( ongoing)
3 quarts of fermented salsa (ongoing)- with Jalapenos coming in.
1 half pint of sundried tomatoes with fresh garlic and basil stored in olive oil ( first trial run. Will do more I think
4 pints butternut squash (ongoing). I had to cook these because I didn't leave enough stem at the end to cure them. They're in the freezer.
10 butternut squash curing to be stored as is.(ongoing)
1 pound dried navy beans (on going)
1 pound of pinto beans ( and saved some to plant next year) (ongoing). These were organic Non GMO beans I had bought last year for eating. I tried my hand at planting a few just to see. I got a few beans last year and planted them this year. They provided this pound of dried beans and 95 additional seeds for next year. Next year will be a good pinto bean year and they will have been free, free!
Countless bulbs of garlic
8 pounds of frozen blackberries (ongoing)
4 quarts canned blackberries (ongoing)
19.5 quarts of green beans ( ongoing)
3 gallon bags of corn on the cobb. ( final tally) We weren't wanting very much corn. Just wanted a few ears for fresh eating.
6.5 quarts of grated zucchini( final tally, but planting more possibly in fall)
10 pints spiced red cabbage ( final tally, but planting more in the fall)
In addition to that I've made 4 half pints pear butter and 3 quarts pear sauce. These pears were given to us by a friend and I gave her eggs. I've dehydrated various herbs as well as green bell peppers which have just started to come in with the jalapeno peppers. I've set aside black berries ( not included in above tally) and raspberries to make jam later on in the fall. I try not to can any more than I have to in the summer. Many of the items above were fresh eaten in addition to those portions preserved for winter storage. I did have broccoli, but only enough for fresh eating. I'll plant more in the fall to see how it does. Strawberries and blueberries have been hit or miss. We had a late freeze that took out the blueberries, and the strawberries aren't putting out near what they did last year. I had some sweet potatoes that sprouted in storage, and so I planted the slips. I was about a week late, but maybe we'll get something. I'm not out anything. I had the space.
We also incubated 39 eggs and have added 17 healthy baby chicks. Not all the eggs were fertile. Plus we did lose a few babies the first time around in the incubator. Of the 17, it's estimated about a half and half split between hens and roosters.
I've frozen about 15 dz eggs for winter, for when the hens aren't laying.
Wow! This ended up being quite a list. Longer than I thought. I haven't listed all this as just a pat on my back "see what I did" post. It's rather more like a praise report in that in the middle of cut hours, surgery, financial tightness, God has provided. It's my job to put a seed in the ground, and care, but God brings the increase. There have been times over the last few months when I thought we wouldn't be able to make ends meet, but something always happened to fix that and we would be okay.
Hubby's hours are still cut, but Etsy is still going , and the garden is still growing. We are so blessed, and I can't be more grateful.
No comments:
Post a Comment