Sunday 9 October 2011

Gardens Don't Keep

Gardens wait for no man.  It doesn't much matter that I'm tired of gardening and want to be sewing :)  The last of the vegetables are ready to be harvested, so everything is grinding to a halt and food is rolling into the house in record quantities!  We are digging 50-60 pounds of carrots each day ~ it seems we've hardly made a dent!  The rows just don't stop. We top the carrots in the garden, hose the major dirt off outside, scrub and rinse in the kitchen sink, sort and bag, then pop the bags into the basement fridge.  I've got room for another day's harvest in there but the rest will have to go into sand in the garage for the winter.  I hear it's an effective method to keep them all winter but time will tell that story.


 The last of the tomatoes were pulled from their tired vines today and hauled inside.  Such color and tangy, sweet taste.  Tiger Stripe and Taxi Yellow were the last ones standing this year.



The last of the onions (approximately 50lbs) are basking in the sunshine under the eaves on the sunny side of the house to cure for a few days before they join the 40lbs already stored.  I've been saving mesh bags to hold them and they are working well to suspend the onions in the cool dark corner of the garage.

We haven't even touched the potatoes yet, and frankly, I'm a little scared to!  We must have at least 500lbs of potatoes to unearth.  What an incredible and fortunate "problem" to have - so much food!  We've shared quite a lot of veggies already and I suspect that we will have an abundance to share once again...

What to do with all those gorgeous root veggies that we are harvesting?  A splash of locally grown, organic cold pressed canola oil from Mighty Trio Organics a sprinkle of seasoning and a slow roast yields the MOST incredible flavour...


I pull the pan out half way through roasting to turn and thoroughly mix the veggies for even cooking and to re-distribute the oil and juices from the bottom of the pan.


Carrots, potatoes, onions and beets all just dug from our warm soil...  absolutely fresh, 100% organic simple fall food at it's best.  Fancy, no - but delicious, YES!





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5 comments:

  1. Mama Rachael11 October 2011 at 19:14

    Wow -- that is a ton of food! Do you think it will take your family through to the next harvest?

    I'm learning how to get done what needs to to be done now, even if I don't want to (or want to do something else). I think this is an aspect of maturity.

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  2. Little Home In The Country12 October 2011 at 03:13

    Rachael, I think this will get us through till February - mainly because I don't think that I can successfully store it all for any longer than that. I don't have a root cellar so we are using the coldest darkest spot in the garage. We won't actually be harvesting again until mid-summer next year, so sad to say it won't last until next season :( We can sure try, though! I'd rather give away what we can't eat in that time as storing it and having it go bad is not the best use of food...

    Yes, it really is an aspect of maturity to do what needs to be done now instead of what we want to do. I think balance is key though, and a little dabble in something that inspires us evens out the must do/want to do in times like this :)

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  3. Mama Rachael13 October 2011 at 07:32

    I tried asking for fruit that I would pick via our local freecycle. But the admins said it wasn't allowed, as the fruit wouldn't end up in a landfill if thrown out. Kinda poopy, as we also don't have any "you pick" places around here.

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  4. Little Home In The Country13 October 2011 at 10:17

    That is so ridiculous, Rachael! So, preventing good food from going to waste is somehow not environmentally friendly or not wasteful? Oi!

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  5. Reginas Cottage14 October 2011 at 05:45

    hello sherrie,
    what a big harvest.all the veggies from your garden looks wonderful.your veggie meal sounds great.
    i use my dried carrots in soups.
    have a nice week,
    love regina

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