solar drying celery leaves before they go into the dehydrator (stalks went into mirepoix) Well, we had a gorgeous weekend. DH and my parents put the roof up onto our toolshed. It only needs a tarp now as an enclosure and we’ll fix it up nicely with a floor and siding come Spring. DH and …
Category Archives: food (growing, cooking, preserving)
Struggling
As you can see I am alive and doing things, like playing around with my new dehydrator. Let me tell you, it was a bad idea to keep the apple skins on, and to start the process at 4 pm. Live and learn! I’m waiting for the rain to stop so I can put my …
Note to Husband: *This* is What I Was Saving Them For
Hoop house biomass The one surviving cabbage: enough for Sauerkraut? Today’s harvest Next month’s harvest
Fall Coming On
It may still, officially, be Summer, but the day I put on my woolen socks is, to me, the first day of Fall. That was yesterday. Last night the temperature dropped to 47 F and my mind races to what we need to get done before the frosts come. Give our hoop house a “spine” …
Colorful Garden, and a Hive Update
Tricolor pepper harvest Fat buds and flowers on my two Sochi tea plants. Mushrooms in my schroom bed, but are they the anticipated King Stropheria? ~ I did a quick inspection of the hive today and found an amply supply of honey, nectar, and brood in all stages of development. There were lots of newly …
Pain in Its Contexts
I am growing several sweet as well as hot peppers. One evening I witnessed my Bengali family try the Habanero. Now, these are people used to hot and spicy food. At first they claimed not to be impressed with the pepper, but by some fluke they must have tried a part of it that wasn’t …
Homemade Quince Atchar (Chutney)
You may remember the quinces (2 lb. 4 oz.) I was given by my friend. My MIL tasted them and after her face stopped puckering she happily concluded that we could make an Indian atchar (a kind of chutney) out of them. I cut and cored the small, hard and dry quinces – peeling them …
Back in the Garden
We’re back from a week at the Cape. We stayed in a little salt box cottage among the stunted pines, under the constant screep of the mating (and molting) cicadas. We saw the Perseids, built castles in the sand, went looking for beaches with waves not too intimidating for a four-year-old and a six-year-old. It …
Feeding the Family from the Garden: Is It Possible?
Magnificent espaliered pear tree at the Cloisters I investigated my tomato plants more closely today and to my consternation all the green tomatoes – at least 50 of them – have disappeared. The stems have been chewed through. I also found 6 chewed off stems on the eggplants. There are a lot of husks in …
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We Get to Eat Too
The cucumbers are finally coming in. Amie was happy to harvest some, though she won’t eat them. These, maybe… Still no zucchinis or squashes in sight, just like last year. Of the dry beans, Jacob’s Cattle is the first one ready for picking. I love the sounds of the hard beans rattling in their dry …