Our House—The Addition of a Pantry

When we were finishing out the house here on Cedar Ridge we didn’t consider the storage needs we were going to have.  We had not been doing much canning and food preservation while living in Bloomington, Illinois.  We had always grown a garden and froze and canned much of our food while living in the country but when we moved to Bloomington we no longer had a garden space.  Consequently we didn’t have available to us the fresh fruits and vegetables we once had.

Getting back to the country we got back to gardening, canning, freezing, etc.  Where to put all of the canned goods?  I had built a small pantry just off of the kitchen but that was very small and filled up in a hurry.  We considered various ideas to create storage space.  The idea that made the most sense was to add onto the house.  So, in July of 2007 I undertook the project of building a 6’ by 12’ room for a pantry, primarily for the storage of canned goods and other food related items.

Our bathroom is fairly large and was already used as a utility room with our washer and dryer and a small chest freezer in there.  It was decided to build onto the house directly out from the bathroom.  I could remove the window, open up the space to create a doorway, and relocate the window into the outside wall of the pantry.


The photo above was taken of me getting the walls set.

The framing is done and the OSB sheathing is on.  The metal is also on the roof.

This picture was taken of the hole created by removing the window and enlarging it to make a doorway.  The opening in the far wall will be the location of the window that was removed.

Here you see that the window has been hung and most of the siding has been put onto the outside of the room.

The shelves that are shown here are to the left as you come through the doorway from the bathroom.  From the floor to the top shelf is a full 8’. 

This photo was taken recently after the canning activity of this past Summer.  Most of the vegetables were grown here on the farm.  The fruit was obtained locally.  We do eat well!

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Fresh radishes and salad greens in December

After completing the work on our house there was a small quanity of sand left over. I decided the grandkids needed a sandbox. I built a box out of treated material that measured 6 feet by 8 feet. The kids loved it. I don't think that love extended to their mother, Anne, since sand seemed to stick to clothes, end up in pockets, etc. and was carried into the house. The major problem that was encountered was that the cats found the sandbox to be a BIG litter box. That just wasn't pleasant or healthful for the kids, so the sand was removed and I had a big box to do something with. I filled it with soil, built a framework and covered it with clear plastic making it into a small greenhouse. I used it last Spring to start some garden plants. I am trying to use it now to extend our growing season a bit. I planted several types of "greens" earlier this fall and have harvested a few items.

Wednesday afternoon I pulled several radishes. I saved the most tender looking leaves and added several turnip leaves. This made a very good green salad with a bit of oil and vinegar dressing. Hopefully we will have chard and spinach before very long, as well as more radishes and turnip leaves.

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Mush

Almost everyone is familiar with mush which is usually made from ground corn. I guess that is okay but I was introduced to mush made with wheat many, many years ago. I hadn't had any to eat for quite some time until this morning. Oh, it was good! To make it I ground some wheat, the wheat berries just as they were combined in the field. Yesterday we cooked a couple cups of it in water, just as one would cook rolled oats, etc. Some of that was our breakfast with honey and fresh cream on it plus some canned blackberries. Of course we cooked extra so there was some left over. This was put into a rectangular dish and was placed in the fridge until this morning. Connie sliced it into slices about 3/8 of an inch thick and fried them in a little olive oil in a cast iron skillet on the wood cook stove. With some good maple syrup it is just hard to beat.

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