Food hoarding?

I ran into the grocery store on Saturday at noon to get supplies for having our friends Corey and Shawna over for dinner. Shawna was an AOII with me, and Corey's the guy who got DJ into brewing beer. 

Exciting sidenote: Shawna is 18 weeks pregnant. Which is SUPER exciting for them. They're also selling their house in hopes of building a new one next spring. Which is EVEN MORE EXCITING to me. Seriously. You could give me the option: have a baby, or put our house on the market and build/ remodel a new one? I'd pick the house options. Don't get me wrong, I love our current house. I'm still house-fluffing it even. But... redesign stuff? squeee!

But back to my point, which is: holy shitballs, veggies are so much cheaper in the summer!!! I know, this isn't news to anyone, really. But I've paid $2.50 for a red bell pepper in January. Saturday? They were $.79 apiece! I bought four of them, despite only needing one for the salsa I made. So cheap! So yummy! 

That reminds me, I need to go home and slice the remaining three up for take-along-to-work veggies. 

And now, with this veritable cornucopia of cheap, delicious fresh veggies around, I'm trying to think of ways I could buy up a bunch of cheap fresh veggies in the summer and... hoard them for the winter. No, we're not of the mindset that we should have a three-year supply on hand for the coming Last Days. We just like good food, and I prefer to not pay out the ear for bell peppers during the winter. 

And part of me likes playing old-timey housewife. But I'm not dressing up in a hoop skirt to do it, like those reenactors you see in Virginia City. Those people are just grown ups playing dress up, and when thy subject their kids to playing dress up too, it's wrong. Borderline child-abuse. No kid wants to come back to school and show and tell that they played "ye olde timey shoppe" with their parents all summer. That's a recipie for getting beat up on the payground. 

Speaking of recipes, this post does have a point. Hopefully will have hoard-worthy veggies later this summer when all the tomatoes and peppers in my garden come in. But what if I don't? What if I'm in Europe when all the bell peppers ripen? 

And how the hell can I hoard them for winter use?

I don't know how to can things, but I'd be willing to learn. 

We have a food dehydrator. 

I could make a LOT of salsa. 

Can I freeze bell peppers? I heard once you can char them on the grill and then freeze them?

I think I'll be spending some time with the googles this weekend. And the MSU extension office!