Independence Day Update: Taking Credit Where None Is Due
Sharon July 20th, 2009
Given that I was gone for almost four days this week, much of what’s listed here actually was done by my husband or children, but of course, I get to take credit for it 
. After all, there’s no box here for admitting what you didn’t do yourself. Still, not bad given the chaos – profuse gratitude to my Mother In Law for coming and making everything go smoothly with the kids.
The boys finished their camp week, and Eric and I discovered we’re not nearly as slobby as we thought, our children are simply greater forces of entropy than we’d remembered. It was amazing what we were able to do with 3+ hours per day with no children. But it did mean that taking full advantage of it meant pushing our other work to the side and working full out, which was tiring, if productive.
I’ll be writing more about my trip to Chicago shortly – I actually had an epiphany (where better for a nice Jewish mother to have an epiphany than among Catholic Activists ) about what my next step should be, and where I might actually be able to make more change. More about this soon!
We finished off cherry season mostly, which is my new favorite , and are moving solidly into currants, raspberries and blueberries – yay more fruit! I started my first attempt at black currant wine. Many of the medicinals that get harvested in flower are now ready for attention as well, and of course, the summer squash and zucchini are in full attack mode. I’m having a bad cucumber year, which is ok, since last year was a great one, and I made way too many pickles. It all evens out, I guess.
The coming week should be eventful as well – my Mom and Step-mother are coming, and I’m hoping to get the barn on the hillside ready for the laying hens to occupy it over the winter – we’ll need the space for our expanding goat herd. And the goat herd expansion will occur tomorrow, when Bast, Mina and Jessie arrive (along with our friends). This is good, because Maia and Selene are definitely pregnant, and Selene is dry and Maia on her way. So we’ve missed having milk. In the fall, when all four adult does are milking, we’ll be flooded – yay, cheese!
Ok – onwards!
Planted something: kale, fall peas, arugula, lettuce, more nasturtiums, more sorrel.
Harvested something: Blueberries, raspberries, cherries, carrots, beets, zucchini, summer squash, green beans, tomatoes, apricots, meadowsweet, marshmallow, chamomile, mint, currants (black, red), gooseberries, cucumbers, various greens.
Preserved something: Blueberry cobbler/pie filling, strawberry rhubarb jam, cherry pie filling, black currant wine, dried zucchini, made meadowsweet and marshmallow tinctures, dried chamomile and peppermint, eggs and milk (not much milk).
Waste Not: Attempted not to waste cherry pits by making cherry pit vinegar. Did not proceed well. Otherwise, just the usual, plus not allowing the housekeeping staff to touch my hotel room until I left, so that they wouldn’t waste time and resources cleaning something that was already far cleaner than anything I normally live with .
Want Not/Prep: Acquired new down jackets for Eric and Eli, thanks to generous family member getting rid of stuff. Otherwise, too busy.
Build community food systems: Got some great ideas for local community models in Chicago from Michelle, talked about the importance of food growing to lots of people at Pax Christi.
Eat the Food: Lots and lots and lots of fruit. Boy did I miss it while stuck in a hotel .
How about you?
Sharon
- Independence Days Challenge
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While I haven’t posted an update in a couple of weeks due to travel, I did accomplish a good amount in the garden and home this week. Here is the update for this past week:
Planted Something—Blue Lake Pole Beans, Emerite Filet Beans, 2 types of cucumbers (finished the packages from last year)
Harvest Something—Beets, green beans, bell peppers, almost all of the onions (they are starting to rot from all of the rain we’ve had in our area), green onions, tomatoes—Early Girl and Romas for now, dill, oregano, basil, parsley, zucchini, cabbage, jalapeños, cucumbers, carrot, flowers for arrangements, and the first blueberries! We planted the blueberries last fall, and we are thrilled to have picked a few. This season they will all be eaten as soon as they are picked, never making it into the house. I love it! We also went to Pioneer, TN to Hidden Valley Farm and picked 2 gallons of organically grown blueberries and a handful of boysenberries. We were disappointed that we missed the boysenberry season, but there is always next year.
Preserve Something—Refrigerator Pickles; Canning—3 batches of Pickled Beets, Caramelized Onion Relish, 5 quarts of Tomatoes, Hot Pepper Jelly; Freezing—grated zucchini, chopped onions, green onions, zucchini bread, chopped parsley, 1 3/4 gallons blueberries; Dehydrated/Dried—zucchini and dill
Waste Not–I made some hodgepodge meals to help reduce the food waste while with our extended family. I made a strata from eggs that needed using up and the heels of bread that we save in the freezer. I made banana bread from bananas we pop in the freezer to prevent them from wasting. We continue to recycle, compost, and use our rain barrel. We’ve been keeping track of our energy and water usage over the last three years in a graph. We have been very pleased to see how it continues to go down. I made a conscious effort while traveling to be mindful of our waste, gas, and energy usage. We brought home most of our recyclables so that they would not end up in the trash. We cleaned out the freezer.
Prep/Want Not—Hubby began work on the ground where the play area will be. He spoke with a neighbor who wants to give some old pecan boards to him for turning (hubby does lathe work). We were very excited about this, as pecan is a lovely wood. In the garden, I tied up some of the smaller tomatoes that were planted later. I weeded a bit, but there is a lot more to do in that area. I hilled the leeks a bit to help with blanching the bottoms of the stalk. I pulled the onions to prevent more from rotting. Since we couldn’t dry them for storage onions, I chopped them for the freezer (the dehydrator was already full of zucchini). I pruned back some of the tomatoes that are getting a bit overgrown to help prevent mildew. I sorted through a bag of clothes that a sweet friend has given us for our daughter to plan for school clothes.
Build Community Food Systems—Taught my cousins about couponing, and now one says he wants to be known as the Coupon King of the South. Continue to blog about food preservation and food security. The classes on mozzarella and food preservation have been put on hold, as my grandmother is still in intensive care at the hospital. I picked up some items for the food pantry this week at the grocery. Worked in the food pantry for a bit to take stock and organize as needed. Shared veggies from the garden with a friend. We brought home a five gallon bucket of beets from the church garden to can.
While not having occurred this week, I think it bodes noting that we bought locally as much as we could while away from home. Many people do not give any thought to buying locally when they are on vacation, but for us it is one of the perks. We delighted in having fresh shrimp and crab fresh from the boat. We gorged on figs, peaches and peanuts as snacks. We were also happy to bring home sweet potatoes for storage, as the ones in our area have not started to come in yet.
Eat the Food—Our favorite this week has been opening up some of the caramelized onion relish and having it with cream cheese and crackers. Delicious! We all enjoyed eating the apple and zucchini bread, too.
Sharon- re: cherry pits- if you wash and dry them you can put them into a flannel or other material “package” that you can then warm in the oven or under the woodstove and then place at the foot of the bed at night to keep your tosies warm……
sounds like you’re having more luck at your place than I am here though- the snails are taking out everything they can- all the cukes and melon plants,the squash plants- what they didn’t take out they are consuming the flowers of and or the squash itself, the strawberries,pepper plants, etc
the woodchuck, who I’m trying to trap has taken out the beans and is working at the strawberry plants
the deer took out the sweet corn
it has been so cool and wet that the tomatoes are really behind, the eggplants are never going to do anything and neither will the basil it seems
the potatoes and onions and blueberries look good and if I can save the greens from the chuck and deer they will do ok too and that’s about it……. what a season……can’t wait til it’s over really….
and this is how I supposedly earn my living too……sigh…..
Hey Sharon, I have been hoarding my cherry pits thinking that I would dry them, grind them, and use them in an exfoliant soap for my face. Do you think that would work? I’m getting really frustrated at how much that costs at the store, and how much packaging gets wasted with it!
I’ll post about my week on my blog, but we’re starting to get into the heavy harvest season here too (finally).
we were on vacation and not good at all – I have nothing to report – Here are my headings for the last week and this week…
Compost something: The carrots in the fridge were beyond use as food for humans, as was the lettuce that froze. harvested the rest of the radishes and spinach, which grew poorly along with the pathetic peas that actually came up and then stopped growing….all into the compost bin –
Grow something: re-staked tomato plants – they are doing well – we’ll just eat those all winter I guess….
Harvest something: Hope to hit the PYO berry farm and get some blueberries to make Jam, ice cream and Freeze for winter baking
Stock up on something – have good coupons for TP will hit the Warehouse club for that, baking soda, white vinegar, chewable vitamins for the kids and toothpaste.
Catch up on something: The mountain of laundry that came home with us. My outdoor painting project, weed the front beds, spread mulch – housework…
PS. I noticed yesterday that when I typed “Casau” into Google, it’s auto complete function suggests Casauri (a bag company), Casaubon’s Book, and Casaubon as the 3 most likely things your trying to type.
My update here: http://smallvictoriesgreen.wetpaint.com/page/July+20+09
Big hit of the week for me was getting new shelf units into the basement and reorganizing my 200+ jars of preserves. I now have this season’s in one unit (with empty space to fill) and the older stuff and empty jars in the other two units.
Slow week last week, but a few things got done:
Plant something: Planted my butt next to the fan, perhaps, but otherwise nope. Too hot yet. Slowly gearing up to start seedlings. Trying to decide between a newspaper pot-maker or a soil blocker for seed starters.
Harvest something: Eggs from our girls, as usual. Two tomatoes from the garden. The tomatoes are suffering terribly in this heat.
Preserve something: Aha! Progress! Cooked up & pressure-canned chicken broth – my first time with a pressure canner. Also started a batch of kombucha. Will see if the grocery store has beef soup bones next time I’m there – wish to can beef broth next.
Reduce waste: Washed & set aside bottles for upcoming kombucha batch. Screw-top wine bottles for the win!
Preparation & Storage: Prep via reading – currently checking out “The Solar Food Dryer” by Eben Fodor (Mother Earth News). Stocked up on poultry & dog food. Going to try out alfalfa pellets for the geese, as there’s so little tender greens available on the property due to the heat & drought.
Build Community Food Systems: not specifically food systems, but all our farms and gardens are in need of rain. There’s a half-serious “rain dance” (by Mr. Bunny) scheduled in the Town Square today. Might stop by.
Eat the Food: garden tomatoes and CSA produce.
1. Plant something – no, but made and set up the shade cloth for a fall/winter bed that will be in the polytunnel.
2. Harvest something – a few TOMATOES (!!) … yellow zucchini, green zucchini, turnips, turnip greens, peas, chard, lettuce, potatoes, dandelions, elephant garlic, onions, strawberries, basil, chives, stevia. FINALLY there is more zucchini than I can eat in a day.
3. Preserve something – froze peas, dried and bagged basil, marjoram, chives, onion blossoms, zucchini, cilantro, curly-leaf parsley, lavender, blackberry leaves.
4. Reduce waste – Recycled burlap into shades for the garden. Washed and re-used bottles. See also “8,” below.
5. Preparation and Storage – collected kale seed, almost a cup of the stuff! Went through some dried foods that we kept too long and consigned them to compost.
6. Build Community Food Systems – selling duck eggs; giving away kale seed (of course).
7. Eat the Food – from frozen: pear sauce (we made lots last year), blueberries, pecans, filberts, chicken soup. From the land: Duck and chicken eggs (the Rhode Island Reds have come on line!) bok choi, turnips, turnip greens, potatoes, zucchini, elephant garlic, onions, kale, chard, dandelions, peas, lettuce, spinach, strawberries, mint, basil, chives, stevia. Made quite a lot of mashed turnips, yum! From storage: wheat, cheese, oats, rye, red beans.
“8.” We’re eating quite a lot of blueberries, fresh, sauced, and frozen, bought from a farmer about five miles away. He’s u-pick, but we didn’t have time that day, so he said, “Well, I got a coupla grocery bags full, here, can’t sell as fresh, but if you get to them quick they’re all good. If you don’t want ‘em, or anybody by the end of the day, they’re all to the chickens.” We got a super deal and the ones that looked like they might moosh soonest went straight into the sauce pan.
I’ve been getting lots of zucchini, yellow squash, green beans and strawberries. My raspberries (about a dozen in all, since they are new plantings) will be ripe soon. My daughter, husband and I took a stroll with a bucket and picked wild blackberries, enough for a cobbler (very yummy!) There will be loads of them soon, if the birds don’t get them first. I’m going to the local farmer’s market today to see if someone else’s plum tomatoes did better than mine. If so, I plan to buy enough to can in various forms. I relearned how to make granola (More With Less cookbook has some excellent recipes). Also made more yogurt and some sour dough starter and bread (I don’t buy it anymore). Put the grass clippings on the compost heap and my husband turned it.
Cleaned my daughter’s closet and organized the items to pass down to various-sized younger cousins. Cut out fabric for skirts and tops. Stocked up on TP. I am going to attempt to make soap this week (new skill) and I actually crocheted the inner section of what will hopefully become a sachet (Yay! I finally did it!) which will become one of many holiday gifts. Life is sweet!!
By the way, will you share your carmelized onion relish recipe, or is it a secret?
Preserved something: Made pickles! Just refrigerator pickles, but they should last a good long time anyway. The pickling cucumbers we got this week fit just perfectly in one of the empty half-gallon glass kimchi jars.
Eat the Food: Cold sesame-peanut noodles with tofu when it was too hot to think about hot food. Similarly, just fresh chopped raw vegetables with dinner last night.
Harvest Something: It is now officially summer, and we have a plethora of cucumbers and squash from the farm. No tomatoes, though. They have late blight, which our awesome farmers are valiantly combating, but there’s not a lot they can do. The rain spread the blight everywhere in the region.
Bought bread and tortillas at the store because while it would be ideal to make my own, I haven’t been doing it reliably lately, and storebought bread with homemade jam and storebought quesadillas with local cheese is better than storebought packaged stuff that I don’t actually like for lunches. I’m getting better at learning how to pick my battles.
My update, such as it is, is here
http://kirbanita.typepad.com/take_joy/2009/07/independence-days-12.html
Sharon, when I lived in Switzerland, the family I lived with used to make kirsch from the cherry pits by putting them in a jar by the window with some clear liquid (I thought it was water at the time, now I’m not sure, my french skills were pretty mediocre and I wasn’t there for the result).
Very busy with my day (round the clock this week) job.
Plant: Transplant the last nasturium and moss rose plants and oriental poppy and echinecia augustfolia seedlings (these are a hail mary attempt) to fence bed. Tied up tomato plants and added the last cages. Pruned volunteer chokecherry tree.
Harvest: Kirby cucumbers, red and green leaf and oak leaf lettuce, chard, nasturium leaves and flowers, “big leaf” shiso, thyme, sage, rosemary, chives; italian, spicy globe, cinnamon, and thai basil. Compared a few wild purslane leaves with cultivar leaves. Sampled a few chokecherries (these were unusually sweet – yum, I like even more bitter chokecherries).
Preserve: Strained out the pulp from my working batch of pineapple vinegar and started a new batch; put dried oregano, beebalm, and cinnamon basil in jars.
Waste Not: More like salvaging something from the waste this week – Composted almost all the nectarines and peaches that I bought for the week after they grew long moldy “hair” overnight. Added a layer of stored leaves to compost pile. Hauled a lot of really weedy brush out to the curb for town recycling rather than spending another year weeding my compost and mulched beds.
Prep: Got the master rain barrel swapped out for one with an overflow connection on the other side, weeded the unplanted vegie garden area and the remaining brush around the compost bins in the “squirrel yard;” replenished a few low volume cooking staples from a regular grocery store.
Community: The usual farmer’s market and garden talk; went to a lawn chair drive-in film in Philadelphia on the site of a really neat community park/garden.
Eat: Mixed herb and leafy garden salad with h.m. tarragon vinegar; white pizza topped with roasted summer vegies; whole grain rotelle tossed with roasted summer vegies; roast farmer’s market chicken and more summer vegies; cantelope with berries; blueberries everywhere.
I have to say that I’m a little jealous of the cherries. I haven’t found local-to-me cherries this far north, yet, but I keep looking. I’ve found a couple of types of cherry tree that will do okay in my climate. The question is where, in my small yard, to plant them. I’m toying with the idea of espalier-ing them, but I don’t have a clue as to how to accomplish that technique … and I don’t have fence that would suffice … and my husband would have a coronary if I tried to attach it to the house. My neighbor is taking down a couple of his trees, though, and so that will open up a couple of sunny spots for me.
Of course all of that is merely me thinking outloud – as usual. My update is on my blog
.
Plant: transplanted 3 indeterminant tomatoes from self-watering containers into raised gardens. I have learned that this type of tomato grows too big too fast for this type of container. The plants are *huge* and are now adjusted to their new homes. Tied up other tomatoes to metal fence posts my DSIL had in the garage. They work really well. Hacked back over-grown basil to get second crop. Removed diseased/dead cucumber to compost bin, same with pumpkin. Having a big problem with squash bugs. Laid out flagstones for paths around raised gardens. Need to dig around & under them to install at ground level with grass in between.
Harvest: handful of cherry tomatos, two cukes, mint. Beans were a bust due to bugs and birds. A lost of things haven’t grown well this year. But, I figure that is ok since it is my first year and I’m learning a lot.
Preserve: Unfortunately, jam and jelly canning class was cancelled due to broken air conditioner at cooking school. But saurkraut is perking along just fine. Ordered 3-gal. crock and wood board insert from Lehman’s for making more saurkraut. Continued trying to figure out how to can on my SIL’s silly stove. Found a round cake rack that fits inside of largest pot (that still fits stove burner) for BWB canning. The canning rack I found at the hardware store was way too big. I figure I could but towels or wash cloths as spacers between jars on the cake rack, to prevent the jars from knocking against each other and breaking.
Waste not: composted vegie kitchen waste, gargen waste. Discovered recycling bin being Starbucks, on way to work, that takes mixed cardboard, plastic and metal. Got collection bins that will fit in back of my car (will live in garage). Paper recycled at local schools. Still looking for glass recycling.
Prep: Priced bulk grains and freeze-dried foods. Picked up 3 respirator masks. Got flash light for desk at work (for the next power outage).
Community: none
Eat: cuke-mint salad from above. Cherry tomatoes. Cooked non-pearl barley for breakfasts during the week. It is great for diabetics since it doesn’t raise your blood sugar. But, man, does it take a long time to cook (even with o/n soak). Trying to incorporate new, storable foods into family diet over time.
I wouldn’t know where to begin on breaking down the week as you do, but I can report that a farm-mate, who has been my jam partner, is currently writing up an article on fruit & berry preserving for our local newspaper. We offer our gratitude to you for your teaching and inspiration.
I personally would love to hear how the black currant wine turns out and hints if you have any, as we also are moving on to currants & josta berries (?)
Not a true report but here’s what we’ve been doing around here:
One of my upstairs neighbors has finally figured out that she can actually hear and talk to plants. For the longest time, she thought she was nuts when she heard the raspberries asking to be watered. Recently, she attended a gathering of herbalists and found that not only was she not nuts but the other seven women there also had the same skill. She came back on fire and has been harvesting and wildcrafting (respectfully) like there’s no tomorrow. She’s also become our community’s plant talker and now gets consulted about the garden on a regular basis (who knew flowering parsnips would want additional potassium?). My dehydrator has been pressed into service to dry all manner of plant material. It was interesting to wake up one morning to the scent of drying devil’s club bark (hard to describe but rather invigorating).
Gardening has suddenly taken on a whole new dimension. It will be interesting to find out what the seedlings have to say next year when we start the process all over again. I’m hoping that I won’t practically kill off the tomato seedlings during the hardening off process. In a lot of ways, I’m very excited because now we can fine tune our actions and help our plants in better ways.
We continue to harvest lettuce, chard and kale and just began harvest of broccoli. Strawberries are done for the year, the shell peas are coming along, the green Primax cabbages already have small heads and the kohlrabi are thickening. The cucumbers and squash are flowering their brains out but not producing much fruit but there are a few small yellow straightneck squash that should be harvested soon. Raspberries, tomatoes and peppers are ripening. The potatoes look like they should flower soon (even if they’re grumpy). Bush beans are flowering and producing pods.
I’ve not as been on top of eating the food we grow as the folks upstairs. I demonstrated a simple stir fry to one of them since it’s an easy way to get people to eat vegetables and that seems to have become the meal-of-the-moment for them. Our plant talker has not been interested in eating much meat because it doesn’t agree with her so we talked about sustainably raised meat animals and I gave them a chunk of the local steer I purchased last fall. Reports back indicate that she enjoyed the meat and it gave her no trouble at all. I figure that she’s more sensitive to factory raised foods than I and that it was probably something of a relief to eat something that lived a happy cow life. She and I have been distributing lettuce to friends and neighbors with the same idea of engaging people in eating locally.
She’s been drying various plant parts but also making salves and tinctures. I’ve dried the outer peels of some lemons and oranges I had. I NEED TO MAKE KIM CHEE. I’ve got the stuff to do it and it’s starting to go off. No more excuses!
This is the second day of rainy weather. It’s been sunny and dry for weeks and weeks so this is a blessing!
Kerri in AK
Ah, Independence Days!
I’ve mostly been behind on everything: the planting, the cooking, the making a living, the preservation…
I did get the last of the basil seedlings into a bed and started transplanting flower starts to my future flower and herb pollinator attracting beetle sheltering stealth spot for medicinals flower border. Last year it fizzled totally. I am trying again.
That time has hit, the time in the summer when there are herbs to dry and then remember to get out of the dehydrator and vegetables to ferment, dry, and freeze, last year’s THINGS in the freezer to eat up or clear out, menus and schedule to figure out, cooking to do for the THINGS, the winter garden to plant and the summer garden to water and harvest. All at once while making a living, of course.
Community, eh, not so much. Gave away some of the bounty to various extended family members.
I do love harvesting fresh herbs and veggies just before cooking them. No berries, but I have snap peas right off the vine. We are really eating well.
Shira in Bellingham, WA
Sharon,
I see that you preserved dried zucchini and have never heard of doing that. How do you use dried zucchini? The only way I have ever preserved zucchini is to freeze it and then use it in breads and sauces. As this is the time of year that we gardeners get more zucchini than we can eat and give away does anyone else have other ideas for preserving it for later use.
DiElla,
I slice zucchini is quarter inch rounds and dry in a dehydrator. So far, I’ve used it in soups but I’d like to experiment with using dried zucchini in dishes with some stewing involved. In particular, there’s a Moroccan zucchini dish that is stewed in chermoula (grated onion, chopped parsley and cilantro, olive oil, spices and water) that I think could be done using dried. I’d rehydrate the zucchini and then prepare the dish. Too bad I’ve eaten all of last year’s dried zukes! We’ve just gotten to zucchini season so I’m not quite ready to dry the first fruits.
Kerri in AK
Plant Something:
Chard, Spinach and Mache. Did lots of weeding! Two jars of sprouts for sandwiches and salads.
Harvest Something:
A few raspberries about half of our garlic and lots of green beans
Preserve Something:
Froze green beans, froze extra whey and bottled more raspberry cordial
Waste Not:
Planted a few sprouted onions in the onion nursery. Gathered up another bag of unused clothes for donation and found more goods for freecycle and donation.
Want Not:
Our monthly “Big Shop” Added some condiments and beans to the food storage area.
Build Community Food Systems:
Bought eggs, meat and greens from the local farm. Talked with a friend about organizing her pantry and food plan.
Eat the Food:
No new recipes. Made sourdough pancakes to accompany local breakfast sausage. Ate lots of stir-fried garlic green beans yum! Yogurt cheese seasoned with fresh herbs on whole wheat bagels topped with slice pickling cucumbers and sprouts. Delish! Made sourdough whole-wheat pizza with mizuna, garlic, asiago and cheddar.
Plant something: planted out the broccoli and cabbage starts, beets, chard, lettuce
harvest something: blueberries, lettuce, beets, zucchini, cucumbers, beans, sugar snap peas, blackberries, mint, basil
Preserve something: froze blueberries, beets, beans, peas… made triple berry jam, blueberry jam, cherry blueberry jam, mint jelly and nectarine jam… dried mint and basil
waste not want not/prep: got bulk coop order, received complete wardrobe of hand me down clothes for daughter for next year,
Build community food systems: helped friend with elderly father in law pick blueberries from his enourmous garden, set up a class for teaching pressure canning, talked with other coop members about buying bulk purchases of nuts, chocolate and dried fruits for baking and trail mix
Eat the food: grilled zucchini, zucchini fritters, cucumber salad, salsa from last years garden, green beans, sugar snap peas, lots of jams , made whole wheat bread from a soaked grain recipe that was a huge hit.
The winter weather has finally improved to the point that I can believe spring may come eventually. Hard frosts followed by sunny days…I find winter quite bearable when it is like this
Planted: Added a few more asparagus plants to the asparagus patch. The crowns are terribly expensive, so I only bought 5. Dug up all the Jerusalem artichokes and yacon to clean out the perennial weeds among them. Replanted the small tubers and harvested the big ones. Transplanted lots of self sown alpine strawberry seedlings and parsley.
Harvested: Jerusalem artichokes, kale, carrots, eggs.
Preserved: Nope.
Reduced waste: Well, we seem to be eating a lot of leftovers……….
Prep and storage: As we had the loan of a car, we went to a feedstore and I used the money from sale of last season’s chickens to stock up on chick feed and bought a good sturdy chicken waterer and a chick feeder. Also researched new woodburners, and talked to the woodburner installer to get an idea of costs – we’re looking for one with a cooktop and a wetback, as our old fire will become illegal by next winter.
The seed catalogs arrived so I’m planning the spring planting now. Must exercise self restraint and not buy more varieties than will actually fit in the yard.
Build community: Loaned out seed catalogs, does that count?
Eat the food: Eating home grown dried beans – way, way better than store brought ones. And lots of Jerusalem artichokes in casseroles. Used home dried apricots in a tagine. Used home grown hazel nuts in cookies (I have finally mastered the art of consistently baking edible cookies – the latest chocolate ones were a little too edible, unfortunately
Maybe I should try my hand at baking some bread next……..
7/20/09: We are so spoiled living here in northern California with options for year round CSAs! Focus this week was on getting younger dd ready for 3 weeks at camp and the next 3 weeks will be spent sorting through her (piles of) clothes. Dh works for UCSF and will be furloughed 2-3 days per month starting in September. This equates to approx. 10% cut in salary so we are looking to cut back on our expenditures instead of having to cut our retirement savings allotment. One way we (I) can save is to cut our food waste and and not eat out as much. Decluttering and organizing are ongoing!
LisaH
Planted: no
Harvested: weekly organic CSA veggie box and flowers
Preserved: no
Reduced Waste: community composting/recycling; saved glass jars and plastics for reuse; donated clothes, household goods, magazines, books and audio books; received 5(!) bathing suits for younger dd (swapped for use of 35mm camera)
Preparation and Storage: all from the same estate sale: 6 cloth hankies, wool lap blanket, 2 large glass jars for food storage, metal water bottle
Build Community Food Systems: no
Eat the Food: CSA green beans, potatoes, peaches plus hamburger from freezer; CP veggie stew w/CSA eggplant, green beans, squash, potatoes, carrots, garlic, parsley with HM pesto and HM preserved lemon; local plums, CSA peaches and apricots;
Just back from vacation, so not much happening here except a small harvest:
one fig the birds didn’t get while I was away, some sweet potatoes & coriander.
I’ll start my summer seeds in the mini-greenhouse after this week’s new moon.
Looking forward to hearing about the epiphany! Hoping it might have to do with faith based groups… John really enjoyed meeting you in Chicago.
Hello from Colorado
After weeks of rain and hail and chilly temps summer is finally here. I lost the peas, the beans and the first set of tomatoes to the hail and moldy weather. The tomatoes and peppers in patio pots have done much better than those in the garden. I am not above a little dumpster diving to get a good pot. The cherries, raspberries and gooseberries have been the best ever. My jam came out nicely. The first garlic is about ready. Last year’s turnips and chard went to seed and I collected that.
Market sales are brisk. Yeah! I am attempting to make all of my bags, aprons and kitchen textiles from fabrics from the thrift store. The nylon totes made from shower curtains are a big hit.
We’ve been alternating between clear and cold days and serious, set-in rain. Like sealander, I’m starting look forward to spring – especially now the days are marginally but noticeably longer. We’ve had round whatever of visitors arrive – individually, all our visitors have been lovely, but we’re also counting down to having some time to ourselves.
Plant: strawberries – cambridge rival, hokawase, kunawase (arrived at the beginning of the week and spent six days in the fridge, so I hope they do okay now they are planted out); potted raspberry x2, thornless blackberry from tube stock; proper french shallots.
Harvest: mushrooms (first from the box!), thyme.
Preserve: nothing
Waste not: usual compost and recycling.
Prep and Storage: salvaged wood from friends shack – plan is to make a mini greenhouse to start off seedlings.
Community Food Systems: local market for vege shopping. (Does drinking lots of local wine with visitors count?)
Eat the Food: Experimented with medieval recipe for lamb with a quince/pear sauce; morrocan style salad using preserved lemons and harrisa; carrot and ginger soup; BB made curry (my green tomato chutney was ready to eat and has turned out okay); visitors made mushroom risotto.
Planted something: too hot for seeds to start here right now- 108 all week
Harvested something: zucchini, yellow summer squash, green onions, garlic, onions, nasturtiums, turnips, basil, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, cantaloupe, apples, potatoes, tomatillos, ground cherries, spinach, chard, sweet and hot peppers, coriander, milk, eggs, oats for seed
Preserved something: nope
Waste Not: used moldy hay for mulch, fertilized with grass clippings
Want Not/Prep: stored 35lb homegrown oats for next years seeds for animal feed.
Build community food systems: told friend about easy way to bake her own bread.
Eat the Food: Only new thing was using half ground cherries and half blueberries in a fruit crisp. Pretty good. Ground cherries are kinda weird. Summer squash every night, frittata with tons of homegrown veggies, potatoes every day, tomatoes night and day. I really am at the point where I can hardly list it all, because every meal is mostly homegrown plus a little storage. Neato.
My update is here: http://supermomnocape.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/independence-days-challenge-update-jul-13th-to-jul-19th/
I just found your books and your blog and am enjoying both. Thanks you for your writing and inspiration.
I only have a tiny little urban garden, but I’ve been going outside the city to pick blueberries regularly and have filled the freezer with bag after bag. My naturopath tells me blueberries are one of the few foods which actually become more nutritious after freezing!
Cherry pit vinegar? I will have to explore that one….
My update is one my blog http://robj98168.blogspot.com/2009/07/loveseats-and-license-plates-weekly.html
Had a really good week! The Victory Garden at the community garden is about to give up it’s first harvest for the food bank! And I am about to pick the plums of the golden plum tree (provided I get up early enough to beat the heat!)
Sorry I havent posted in a few weeks – lots of travel (and planting and eating, etc.
Plant: bush beans, michili, beets, parsnips, collard, kale, broccoli raab, cilantro, snow peas, more buckwheat
Harvest: basil, cilantro, kale, collard, purple pod beans, parsley, nasturtiums, a few blackberries, nardello peppers, asian mustard greens, buckwheat greens.
Preserve: kombucha
Waste Not: building more compost with spent brewer grains, veggie scraps from a retreat center, and straw.
Prep: built new bed for peas. prepared beds for fall garden. ordered barley grain. filled rainbarrels in garden with water from rain barrels near house.
Community: beginning plans to show cover crop video.
Eat: omelettes with kale, stir fries with greens and zuchini, beets, lots of parsley and kale, potato salad with nasturtium flowers and dill. pasta salad with mustard, parsley, nasturtiums, zuchini, basil
rain, clouds, and cool weather are wrecking my efforts this year. Although I see it as a practice run for when climate change really kicks in.
Tomatoes still green and tiny on the vine – should be eating them by now.
Beans not doing a thing – but I planted another crop of blue lakes.
Finished radishes, getting the brussel sprout beds ready – think I can plant in a few days. Lettuce still growing cause of the odd weather. Usually bolting by now.
Almost all the peaches knocked off the trees by heavy rains and hail. So much for the peach jam we all love.
But – got strawberry jam jarred. And red currant jelly too. Have decided currants are the easiest thing to grow – I pay no attention to the bushes, don’t fertilize, they are in half shade – yet year after year – a grand crop and enough jelly for til the next year.
And those hungry local critters – eat all my flowers. But at least that keeps them away from the veggies.
planted – too cold yet
Harvested parsley, rosemary
preserves all done for the year and being eaten – the tomato relish is
particularly good. So is the cucumber relish.
Waste not – always! recycled and mended clothes. Reused shelving for my jams and jellies etc. Put in an old larder cupboard and filled it.
community – I took one knitting class (informal) and start teaching at school tomorrow again.
Eat – relish, jelly etc
viv in nz
I’ve been good about updating on Sundays (or sometimes Mondays) on the ‘blog, but really bad about putting it here!!
Tough week for us-lost almost all our chickens and all the rabbits to stray dogs. I have more coming along (chickens anyway), but eggs will be far and few until they are old enough to lay.
Otherwise, it was a productive harvest and preserve week!
Love reading all the updates and, as always, get so many ideas!
Oh, Gina, I’m so very sorry about the animal losses – we’ve had that too – one year we lost all of our poultry to neighbor dogs. It was *awful.*
Sharon
Sharon- you might want to consider just canning some blackcurrant juice, not making wine out of all of it. If it’s not too late.
I’m a teetotaler, by physiology, and it’s always a little awkward sharing toasts at celebrations with my friends who have lovely wines in their glasses. And I have- water, or cran-apple, or coffee.
I discovered “Johannisbeeresaft” in Germany decades ago- “swarz, weiss, oder rot?”
Blackcurrant juice is an R rated beverage- (you’ll probably have to dilute it to make it drinkable) beautiful accompaniment to a fine dinner, and when you toast with it; it feels right.
Just getting started so no real report as such.
Harvested: cucumbers, a few peppers and finally our first tomato!
Been eating locally as much as possible, primarily via CSA.
Mainly been working on loose end projects around the house to prepare for sale. Looking at land in the country to purchase. It’s a bit overwhelming, especially trying to figure out how much we need and evaluating the “quality” of the land.
Still conserving as much energy as possible. We only have electricity and I’ve been keeping detailed records for over a year now. We’ve been able to run the A/C for only an hour or so before bedtime and it’s maintained a comfortable temperature throughout the night and following day (opening windows whenever possible). It’s driving me CRAZY listening to all the A/C compressors constantly going off throughout the neighborhood when the temperatures have been in the low-mid 70’s and often upper 60’s!!! ARRRGH!
Plant something: starts of basil and lemon cucumbers. My basil seeds sprouted and then the slugs ate every single one. And the lemon cukes didn’t come up at all — thank goodness there were still a few last starts left at the farmers market and garden center.
Also planted window boxes of petunias, lobelia and woolly thyme.
Harvest something: raspberries, strawberries, apricots, blueberries, peaches, cherries, red currants, dill, cilantro, mint, lemon balm, lemon thyme, oregano, chard, eggs from local farmer, csa basket. Apricot pits, to roast and crack for bitter almonds.
Preserve something: raspberry jam, dried apricots, dried mint, lemon balm, oregano and lemon thyme.
The cherry pit vodka started a week or two ago is starting to smell like cherries — I wonder if I’m making kirsch? Too bad it’s only a little bottle! I think I’ll put some vodka in with the roasted apricot kernels and see if I get almond extract.
Waste not: Finally got out into the garden and weeded! This felt wonderful; it’s been getting ignored. It rained all of June, which I enjoyed, and now we’re having heat waves, which I don’t, but had a furlough day yesterday, and was very productive; the 92 degree temperature really didn’t seem too bad. The house only got up to 80.
Cleaned the fridge freezer.
Prep/storage: Sweet husband gave me a cast iron corn ear muffin pan and a giant bottle of good vanilla for our anniversary. Bought some heavy ceramic storage canisters.
Community food systems: went to a talk on dehydrating, by our Slow Food group. Talked a bit with one of the participants about her dehydrating questions.
Eat the food: Blueberry muffins; fresh steelhead brought to us by fisherman neighbor; granola with home dried fruits (gave some to fisherman neighbor in thanks for the salmon); tea from homedried mint, lovely to keep in the fridge for these hot days; chocolate cookies with home-dried cherries; scones with homemade candied citron, pesto.
It got cold for July in St. Louis (high of only 73 on Saturday!) so I was able to plant seeds for fall crops.
Plant: bok choy, two varieties of lettuce, kale, two varieties of large radishes for storing, arugula, tatsoi, a mustard green, dill, and cilantro. Moved extra pumpkin, butternut squash, and beet seedlings into holes in their respective plots.
Harvest: cabbage, collards, turnips and turnip greens, parsley, cutting celery, mustard greens, calendula and nasturtium flowers, a couple cherry tomatoes
Preserve: yet more calendula flowers, by drying (I’ve never had calendula last this long into the summer). Locally-grown cabbage, by making it into sauerkraut.
Waste not: rescued illegally-dumped windows that the guilty party put into the yard-waste dumpster in the next-door neighbor’s driveway (we didn’t report him because we removed the evidence). Otherwise the usual efforts.
Prep/want not: after thoroughly researching and working on the design for glassing-in the south-facing front porch, I learned that if instead we replaced the current porch roof with a retractable awning, we’d get as much solar heating from the existing windows and door as we would from a glassed-in porch, plus by extending the awning in summer, we’d avoid getting heat into the windows and door through the summer. So that’s the new plan.
Community food systems: nothing this week.
Eat the food: had two dinner parties this past week including foods out of our garden, such as coleslaw made from the cabbage, stir-fried greens made from the outer leaves of the cabbage, miso soup including the shiitake mushrooms my DH grew, and the peach wine we made last year from our friend’s peach crop.
Sharon and fellow cultists,
Blackcurrant juice is lovely hot in the winter when my throat is raw. Mmmmmmmmm.
Picked garden huckleberries and ate them. Nice. Sheet-mulched and planted corn, which hasn’t come up, and onions, which died.
Knitted the start of a scarf on my knitting loom.
Living without a car for a while. Yay Rioters!
It’s nice to get something done.
My update is here. http://www.matchfactory.blotspot.com
I have to thank you all for the inspiring updates. I think I do a lot more around here than what I list. It just seems like part of life but it’s all work in the right direction isn’t it?
Thanks!
Jim: “Blackcurrant juice is lovely hot in the winter when my throat is raw”
Interesting! Hadn’t tried that. I’ve used hot lemonade for years, but this sounds better.
We made ours with a “steam juicer” – which works beautifully. (Bushes currantly not producing.)