Freezer Space

We picked up our pork from the butcher last week.  Between the two pigs we finished with exactly 300 pounds of pork.  We have lots and lots of pork chops, shoulder steaks, picnic steaks ribs, and sweet and hot italian sausage.  Wow!

I'm very happy that we sold half of a pig because my freezers are stuffed so full I can hardly put another thing into them and we still haven't picked up the three hams and three sides of bacon that are being smoked!

Freezer space is at a premium!  

Luckily, large part of the freezers will be freed up when I take out the frozen elderberries to make elderberry jelly and maybe some elderberry wine.  

Last August the kids and I picked about three trash bags full of berries.  A friend told me that the very best way to get all those tiny berries off the stems is to freeze them.  You then bang the bags and the berries fall right off.  It's a nice change from using a fork and trying to pull off all those little BB's and it works beautifully!  

This will be a chance to test out the berry attachment of my Squeezo Strainer.  I think it'll cut out the the very messy part where I hang the mushy, cooked berries in a cheesecloth to strain into a bowl.  I have white countertops and boy do elderberries stain!

Another future project that will clear up some space is my attempt to make wine.  A friend gave me a couple of trash bags of concord grapes.  I've never made wine before, but I'm part Italian, so of course I have to give it a try.  I like a pretty sweet wine, so any wine making suggestions will be greatly appreciated!