600-some

That's how many jars of stuff I have down in my cellar.  All put up by me.  Lard, maple syrup, jams, pickles of various kinds, beans, beets, tomatoes (and sauce and paste and juice), applesauce and pear sauce, pears and peaches, salsas galore. . .

And there is more yet to come.  I have yet to do the sauerkraut, which first gets fermented in the big antique crock that DH's grandmother gave me years and years ago.  When it is done fermenting, I can it in quart jars.  Although this year I'm thinking with such an awesome cabbage harvest I will have enough kraut to can and also to experiment with leaving some in the crock to eat "fresh".  I also have yet to make apple juice out of the bushel of apples that never made it into the press last Sunday.  And there is two pigs' worth of fat in my deep freeze, awaiting an opening in my schedule for a lard making day.

It is a lot of work, to be sure, putting up that many jars of foodstuffs.  But the hours of work seem to disappear in a giddy haze when I open my cellar door and gaze upon all those jars.  To grocery shop my own cellar, with it's array of preservative free organic offerings is the most enjoyable kind of grocery shopping there is.