I decided to take a peek around the pantry, freezer and cold room to see how the old "planting enough from one season to the next" is working out. I don't think I'll quite get there but this will be the closest I've come so far. Things are on the right track.
Frozen Stuff: Still have carrots and snow peas; it looks like they'll last another couple - three months. They taste great and are superb on their own as a side dish and make stews and soups delish. Lots of frozen pumpkin and zucchini. They're the staples in my muffins and loafs. I also throw a bit in the dogs' dish every now and then. They're going to last until the next harvest, for sure. There's still a little bit or corn-on-the-cob left, a few bags. Probably could have planted a bit more of that. Ran out of yellow & green beans. Well, I can't have everything... I will plant more next year because everybody likes them here and I like having extras to pickle.
Stored Stuff: I harvested about 1 1/2 feedbags of yellow onions. Still have about 1/2 a feed bag left. Boy are those suckers STRONG! They taste good, just a little goes a long way. They're hold up well, I might have had three that went bad on me so far. They'll probably last till June or so. About 20 pumpkins left. I do lose one or two every couple of weeks or so. They're just baked up and given to the chickens. I totally grew too many pumpkins.
Canned Stuff: Still have about 30 jars of tomatoes of various sizes left. They should go till next season. We have about 10 jars of salsa left, wouldn't kill me to put up another 12 or so next year. Tomato juice was a by-product of the salsa making, I'd drain the cut up peeled tomatoes before making salsa, it's all gone. So is the tomato sauce.
Pickles: Well, they're all gone except for the dills. I don't think there is a way that I could make enough to last one season to the next. They get eaten a lot here and make great gifts so I make what I can and then we just do without when they're gone.
Dried Stuff: Just about ran out of all the herbs and weeds I dried for the rabbits. Still have a bit of cornstalks, lemon balm and dandelion left but it will be gone this week, for sure. I still have a wee bit of herbs for us left.
So that's about it. I'd like to say all that hard work last summer was worth it but when I open a jar of my own salt free, organic tomatoes or bake up a scrumptious pumpkin bread , it's not the work I remember, it's the delightful, long summer days.
Love Food, Not Waste - Dining Hall campaign
2 weeks ago
2 comments:
I'd love to know what you did to keep your onions this long! Mine start going bad as soon as I pick them. I still have a few left but I've thrown lots out!
Gina
I think you are doing ok if you still have some left :)! I do too, but I'll probably run out in a month or two. Out of the whole bunch, I'd say I lost about 5. After trying several different types, I plant the yellow onions. I find some do store better than others. When I harvest mine, I make sure I do it when it hasn't rained for a while so the earth is dry. I don't wash them, just brush them off. I don't trim the roots but I cut the tops leaving about 1 - 2 inch ends. Then I put them on a rack which gets no direct sunlight and is in the coolest area of the house with good air flow. When the skins are brown and crispy, I'll put them in old clean feed bags and store them in my coldroom. If you want to see what my rack looks like, there's a picture of it in my post "The Laughable Greenhouse" May 28, 2008. I use it without the plastic covering for the onions.
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