The Preserving Challenge

Preserving food is much more than just canning. It includes freezing, dehydrating, pickling, root cellaring, and more. Anything that you can do to store food for your family counts as preserving! That is what this challenge is about. Preserving food! It doesn’t matter if you are a novice or an expert canner. These free 2024 Preserving Challenge sheets will encourage you to fill up your pantry and increase your food preservation in 2024.

Whether you are completely new to canning or have years of experience under your belt, the free Preserving Tracking Sheet will help encourage and motivate you to preserve more.

I’ve made a few changes to what was previously named the Put ’em Up Challenge. First off is its name. I wanted to simplify the name of the challenge and worksheets to reflect that. Now it is titled the Preserving Tracking Sheet. I also went with a simple black and white design for ease of printing and to help waste less of your colored ink. The first two pages of the Preserving Challenge Packet are the same for ease of double sided printing.  I hope you enjoy these changes too.

Sign up for our newsletter below to get your FREE Preserving Challenge Tracking Sheet, Planning Pages, Sustainability Sheet, and End of Year Congratulations page sent right to your inbox.

Why Preserve Your Own Food?

Have the recent grocery store shortages made you second guess the reliability of your food supply chain? Are you looking to save money at the grocery store by buying in bulk and preserving it yourself? Do you want to have control of the ingredients and quality of the food you eat? Do you want to make sure that you are not wasting the bounty you have in your garden?  Or maybe you want to learn a new skill, become more self-sustaining, make unique gifts for friends or family, or just fill your freezer/pantry with your own food. Whatever your reason may be, preserving food is VERY rewarding and the free Preserving Challenge Printables will help encourage you on your preserving journey!

The Preserving Challenge Printables are a great resource to help you focus on what you and your family actually eat, recipes you want to try, and help encourage you to continue to fill your pantry and freezer with quality food!

How the Put ’em Up Challenge Started

When my husband and I first started to can, we had a lot of fun learning this skill. We picked up a few good canning books and tried to can everything we grew. One of our favorite books starting out was Put ’em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton. It inspired us to preserve as much as we could and to try new recipes. In her book, storing food is referred to as “putting it up”. This was a new term for us since we are born and raised in the north. But, we liked the term and her book.

When we got the hang of canning, we started a little competition amongst ourselves. I created a tally sheet for us to track our canning and preserving. I titled it the “Put ’em up Challenge.” We would put the date, recipe canned, item preserved, how much we made, and who made it. Most of the time it was both of us. But, it did add just add a little excitement and we couldn’t help but want to beat each other and push ourselves to can and preserve more food. My husband feels it is important to let you know that he won that first year, I did come in a close second.

Most of all, it was just fun to have a large end-of-year number! The friendly competition motivated us to can more than we ever had before. The first year we did this we made enough jelly and jam that we did not have to purchase any from the store. That in itself was so rewarding. In fact, we still have a copy of our first canning competition, the original one is pictured below comparing it to last year. It’s fun to look back and see how far we have come.

Our Previous Years Preserving Totals

Our 2023 Preserving Totals

This past year we preserved 624 items, which was one less item than the previous year’s 625 total preserved items. We added 492 canned jars to our pantry, 109 bags of frozen fruits and veggies, 23 root cellared, and dried fruits and herbs.

Our 2022 Preserving Totals

This past year we preserved 625 items. We added 427 jars of food to our pantry, 172 bags of frozen fruits and veggies, 17 things root cellared, and 9 jars of dehydrated fruits and herbs.

I wasn’t expecting to beat last year’s total of 507. Baby number 6 was due to arrive in September. He came right when the tomatoes were ripening and the September harvest was just gearing up.  But I had a lot of help and we did a little at a time.

In 2022, goals my goal was to learn how to can more fruit. That is something that my kids love and I was purchasing from the store. I live in Wisconsin so my fresh fruit is limited. But, I canned mandarin oranges, and pineapples that we found on sale, and did more with my peach order and local apples. I also froze more cauliflower and broccoli than ever before. I will be planting those plants all over my garden again next year.  Another success was ground cherry jam. I have been meaning to make that for years and finally did it in 2022. It’s the small victories that are sometimes the best ones.

Our 2021 Preserving Totals

I am not going to lie, I printed this sheet off 3 times today because I kept thinking of things that I forgot to add to our final 2021 total. And since I am in charge of our final number and it is meant to encourage me and be a record for how much we “Put’ Up” for the year, I didn’t feel bad about it all.

Our total items preserved for 2021 were 507 items. That was not as much as the previous year’s 619 items, but it is still nothing to scoff at.

Originally, I only had the jars and the frozen items for a total of 478, but it just didn’t feel right. I went into the pantry to sweep the floor and tidy up the jars and remembered the 7 totes/buckets full of homegrown potatoes, the large tote of carrots, and 3 buckets of turnips that are resting in our root cellar. I remembered the 4 large batches of vanilla extract I made and the 2- 1/2 gallon jars of apple scrap vinegar in the pantry. And don’t forget the 15 pumpkins that are on my orchard rack. Those items all count too, so I added them.

This year I canned a lot more sliced peaches and am hoping that it lasts our family most of the year. Salsa Verde, jardiniere, and black beans & Navy beans were a few new things I canned. I also added a few jars of canned water to my pantry shelves when I had room in the canner. This will be a nice item to have on hand in case of a power outage or emergency.

The number may not be as high but I am still really happy to be able to grow, preserve, and provide for my family in this way. I know what went into each of these jars. This is food security!

2020 Preserving Totals

In 2020, I would have never imagined that we would have our best preserving year yet. Our 5th child was due in April and we knew that it would be harder for us to spend time in the garden and sleepless nights may wear down our bodies leaving little extra energy for canning when the time came. When there is a will there is a way. We worked hard to get out into the garden and weed, we stayed on top of our vegetables, tried to pick and preserve small batches, and in July, August, and September we had the canner going almost every evening. That hard work paid off and we had our best year of preserving yet!

In 2020 we demolished our previous year’s total and preserved  569 jars (many of which were quarts) and 50 freezer bags of goods. Making our 2020 total to be 619 total preserved items!

Some of our favorite items were The Best Homemade Salsa Recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe, Stewed Tomatoes (Recipe in the Ball Canning Book), Corn Cobb Jelly (my eldest daughter’s new favorite), canned venison, and lots of delicious bone chicken bone broth from the 100 chickens we raised and got butchered this year. We also made our own soups for the first time: Beef Stew, Creamy Tomato Soup, and Cream of Celery Soup.

2019 Preserving Totals

In 2019 we preserved 154 and a 1/2 pints, 51 quarts, and 50 frozen items. Making our 2019 Total to be 306 preserved items. It’s always good to look back and see how much you improved throughout the years.

I shared all about it and TONS OF TIPS in Preserving Totals: Canning Tips & Top 10 Pantry Staples.  Some of our successes included falling in love with canned meat, finding a salsa recipe we all love, filling our freezer with our amazing celery harvest, and becoming more proficient in small-batch canning. You will want to check that article out!

Join the Preserving Challenge Today

We’ve had so much fun tracking our preserving the last few years that we wanted to share the tracking sheets and planning pages with  EVERYONE!

I created this 9-page Preserving Challenge Packet to share with you. And best of all, it’s FREE! Subscribe to our e-mail list, at the end of this post, and we’ll send these reproducible pages, right to your inbox. It includes a 2022 Preserving Tracking Sheet, 3 planning pages (garden, recipes tried, and equipment needed), a blank ideas page for you,  and my personal favorite a “Congratulations I completed…” page. It also includes a Sustainability Sheet to help you know how long your canned items are lasting you throughout the year. They are a great resource to help you focus on what you and your family eat, recipes you want to try, and plan out your garden accordingly.

TIPS: I recommend printing the Preserving Challenge Tracking Sheet on lightweight cover stock. I have the most success using 67 lb (148g/m) cover stock from Staples and found that my printer takes this paper well. Also, the thicker paper can withstand a year in our kitchen with splatters and spills. We use these sheets as preserving records and are always looking back on them to see how long the jars lasted us and give us an estimate of how much more or less we should grow and can next year.

I also recommend placing this sheet somewhere where you will see it. On your refrigerator or taped onto your pantry door. If it is in view you might just find yourself making some new in the middle of winter, such as Orange Marmalade.

What are you waiting for? Subscribe now to get started and take control of your food quality and supply chain.

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Share Your Preserving With Us

If you are participating, I would love it if you would share your excitement and successes with us. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Tag @lifeonmistyacres in your post’s and use #preservingchallenge2023. I don’t want to miss out on any of the fun!

I hope you enjoy the Preserving Challenge as much as we have! Tell me, what is your reason for wanting to preserve your own food?

Not sure how to get started? Here are a few of our favorite recipes: Strawberry Jam and Perfect Pesto. You may also like to read Canning… the Great Mystery and Quickstart Guide to Canning.

Happy Preserving!

-Lindsay from Life on Misty Acres