No I haven't tried preserving foods yet except for dehydrating. I don't want to have to carry the water. you can dehyrated about 100 lbs of veggies into a about 10 lbs. Here in Washington, there's water everywhere so that can always be added later.
And no I haven't tried the winter garden yet. I just found out about that recently, so I'm getting ready for next year. I'm getting a green house and hopefully build, I forget what you call them, but plastic and plastic tubes two or three feet high to cover the rows of plants in early spring and fall. There's some kind of mess you can get too, to cover your plants. Anyway, that's the way I'm going. A big greenhouse and little mini ones.
This winter is supposed to be the coldest and wettest winter in 50 yrs according to the weather forcasters too.