Thursday 5 September 2013

Projects and Preserving



The front verandah project is coming along...  I've been painting a lot of trim and other things outside while the weather is warm.  Fingers crossed it holds!


This garden area in front of the verandah is FULL of weeds and is compacted from all the disturbance of construction.  I've put a healthy layer of compost on top of it and have included some wood shavings for boosting the fungal component of the soil.  I'd like to plant this area to a combination of veggies, herbs and flowers next year so in preparation, I've heavily seeded it to a fall rye cover crop.  The rye will outcompete the weeds and add fantastic biomass to the soil when it's mown down.  Fingers crossed that it works because it's already all sprouted!  I've never seeded fall rye as a cover crop before, so this is a good learning experiment.  I'll keep you updated.  


I've got WAY too much celery in the garden, so I've been bartering some and prepping the rest for the freezer.  I think those little bags of chopped celery leaves will be great for flavouring winter soups and stews.  


Our apple trees are giving in abundance for the first time ever!  They are SO sweet, crisp and juicy, none of us can stop munching on them.  At this rate, I'll not have to worry about storing them because there won't be any left!


My summer sowing of peas is nearly finished producing.  It's a little hot for peas right now, but who knew we'd have such glorious weather with warm nights in early September?  The cucumbers are growing well, too - these long greens are awesome eaten right in the garden but have also been making their way into school lunch boxes.  The pickling cukes are fermenting jars as I type :)


With a little strategic planting, I've managed to keep us in greens without much of a hot weather gap.  With this sudden heat wave some of the lettuce is bolting, but that's ok...  I won't have to seed next spring! 


With the exception of the sweet peppers (ours aren't ready yet!), our supper salads are gloriously garden born.  Herbs, lemon cucumber, tomatoes...  mmmmm so tasty and fresh with intense flavours - a real highlight of the season for us.


In other news of bounty, a friend works part time at an organic farm and had some extra produce to barter...  This huge box of beet greens was slowly washed, trimmed and blanched,



then dehydrated and pulverized into powder for winter smoothies.  While it's easy to forget in this time of nutrient dense harvest, winter colds and flus are best held off with stellar nutrition.   Hope this works! 


That same friend also bartered a big box of organic potatoes for my canned applesauce and fresh bread still warm from the oven.  Good deal, I say! 


I peeled, chopped and pressure canned them all into jars ready for winter hash browns.  Before I canned the whole lot, I tested a jar and BOY were they good when fried in a bit of lard from our pastured pig!  Healthy fast food for winter that will make Sunday morning "fry ups" easy peas y.   All in all, I have 2 dozen quarts put up - worth the time and effort, I think.


I'm nearly done painting the garage doors and the concrete parging on the foundation.  The place is finally looking "together" and "finished" after 4 years of renovations.  Now, for the GREAT tomato harvest...  stay tuned!







22 comments:

  1. Wow Sherri, you are so busy at spring planting and autumn harvest times!

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    1. Well, it's particularly busy now with all the finish work on the outside of the house. Better busy than idle, I suppose :)

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  2. Looking good! I planted rye in the garden and was surprised at how quickly it came up and how much it grows each day.

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    1. Yes! I can practically WATCH it grow... I hear that when the root system decomposes, it is excellent for soil building.

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  3. Sherri I feel healthy just looking at your harvest! :)

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  4. I feel a bit lazy looking at all of that. I should try dehydrating some of my swiss chard, as that's the only green I have in abundance.

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    1. Go for it, Evelyn! My permaculture instructor and his wife dehydrate massive quantities of greens (even their broccoli leaves) and they eat it all winter added to smoothies and soups, etc.

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  5. Wow you have been so busy, I think I may have to get a bottling kit myself.

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    1. Good for you, Sharon! It's interesting to look through preserving recipes ~ there's so much we can put up. I like having my freezer available for meat, so canning is a good solution.

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  6. It is interesting see what you do with your summer harvest, Sherri. I guess we are fortunate in that we can grow vegies all year round so don't appreciate how much work you have to go to to preserve your food for the winter months. Your salads look lovely.

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    1. Yes, you ARE fortunate! It's a LOT of work to grow and preserve in such a short season, but I suppose the benefit is that we have winters off (which is when I sew and do indoor projects). The change and variation is nice, too :)

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  7. Your deck looks lovely. I'm inspired to bring out the dehydrator for the greens this weekend. The potatoes look lovely. I have some Russian blues about to come out of the ground--I wonder how they will handle pressure canning?

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    1. I have russian blues in the ground as well. I've never canned them because they seem to keep well in our garage over winter. I felt that I needed to can these bartered spuds as they had scab and looked like they wouldn't keep...

      Let me know how you make out with your greens this weekend! My instructor doesn't separate them out - he dehydrates all kinds mixed together - whatever comes out of the garden on any given day, basically.

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    2. The dehydrating was really slick (even with my crappy dehydrator) and turned a lot of beet greens into about a quarter of a cup of powder. I got some HUGE potatoes today (blue caribe) that could each feed a family of four or five!

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    3. NICE :) Hilarious about the potatoes... You only need ONE spud for supper and will have leftovers, LOL! My kinda potatoes.

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  8. Sounds very productive! I'm really looking forward to Spring planting!!

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    1. I bet you are, Bekka :) I'm at the point where I'm kind of looking forward to the rest of winter now... I'm tired!

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  9. what a great idea for the beet leaves. I have some chard I might try this with. thanks Sherri

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    1. Go for it, Sue! it's super handy to have jars of dried greens on hand. I put some in a smoothie recently and my teen daughter had no idea she was eating her greens as well as her fruit!

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  10. I am exhausted after reading this Sherri. You have been very busy. I am amazed at how much you get done, especially with a family at home.

    I love the idea for your front garden. Mine is dying because I am not going to water it. I am going to start pulling plants up that are not drought resistant. We were just going to pave this area, but haven't decided completely yet.

    That is a great way to use beet leaves. I usually throw them to our chickens. I have used them in stirfry's and stews before but never thought of drying them :)

    Those apples do look nice, and I like what you have done with the potatoes. A pressure canner would definitely come in handy!

    Take care,
    xTania

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