Christmas break, 2018

Spring cabbages, Nov 2018

Well, overall it's been a productive year;  I managed a full six months without buying vegetables and still have enough to tide us over for the near future.  I feel like I've earned this Christmas break and am looking forward to a homegrown feast including vegetables, eggs and homebrew.

I'll be back on Tuesday the 8th of January, 2019, with the food totals for December 2018, and later on with the grand total for the year.  Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Lessons in self reliance

Big and tasty, Nov 2018

Over the past two years, documenting my gardening successes and failures, I've learned a lot about becoming self reliant.  Although I've been documenting my vegetable harvests for several years, I'd only begun my No Buy Veg Challenge and that first year showed me the importance of preserving the excess.  In terms of self reliance, while growing food during winter is helpful, preserving food for winter is key.

When first I challenged myself to five months without buying vegetables, the last month was particularly difficult.  I hadn't saved enough summer food to tide us over once the main beds stopped producing.  This was a big mistake, and a big lesson to learn.

In 2018, I made the decision to relinquish the pleasure of eating certain vegetables fresh in order to preserve them for winter.  We ate very little fresh turnip or beet, as I pickled most of what I grew (though not a particularly large harvest, unfortunately).  Every tender cabbage heart went to make sauerkraut--only the tough outer leaves were cooked fresh.  When we were sick of chard, I was still picking it to dry for later (though at the time I doubted we'd be able to eat it all, I'm now very glad I did).  Even the best French and runner beans were salted away;  it was important to me to have a variety of different vegetables put up.


I hope that in the near future, with the addition of my new allotment, I will have the ability to grow specifically for preserving, rather than skimming off the top of the summer harvest.  It will take some planning, but I will be trying it this coming year.

What's left?

Purple sprouting broccoli, nicely staked, Nov 2018

While 2018's No Buy Vegetable Challenge is over, that's not to say the vegetables are over.  We're still eating from the garden every day, whether fresh or preserved.  I'm saving the last big green squash (picked in September) for Christmas dinner--the Brussels sprouts too:  they're still hanging out in the Holding bed, waiting to be harvested.  In fact, we'll probably have some fresh chard and/or celery for Christmas while we're at it.

I didn't harvest a lot in November, but we ate plenty from our stores:  all but one of the big squashes (plus the little Halloween pumpkin), some dried chard and kale, two big jars of sauerkraut as well as some frozen cabbage, a big jar of zuccini relish, and more. 

I still have a lot of dried chard (it goes best crumbled into a stew), two small jars of pickled beetroot, another full jar of sauerkraut, and the big batch of salsa I've finally made, now that I'm allowed bought onions.  Actually, there's half a jar of fermented salsa fresca still in the fridge which I'm savoring as slowly as possible (it's so tasty, and I won't be able to make it till next autumn/late summer).

In the allotment, December 2018

Cabbage cutting (not at the allotment), Nov 2018

I'm gradually adding to the sheet mulch at the allotment;  between a quarter and a third of it is now covered, smothering grass (and some nettles, thistles and dock).  A fellow allotmenteer gave me some big sheets of cardboard, and I'm collecting boxes from work--about four at a time, none particularly big!  Well, it's better than nothing.  I also collect weeds and trimmings from the communal waste area, to pile on top of the cardboard;  this weighs it down (the cardboard smothers weeds underneath and also prevents new seeds germinating);  it will also compost slowly in place, adding to soil fertility.  The husband set up a ramshackle compost bin from pallets;  some of these trimmings go here too, and hopefully we'll have a bit of compost next year.

Four of my chickens are still tractoring the uncovered portion, strip by strip.  I think they're a bit fed up, now it's cold, wet and dark;  all of them are either currently or have just finished molting--none are laying. 

There is one bed with Savoy cabbages in it still, also growing grass and a thistle or two;  I keep hoeing, but I think they're winning.  A couple of the smallest cabbages have disappeared, but the rest are holding on.  Earlier in autumn, the husband brought home a few big sacks of spent coffee grounds from a cafe at his work, which he generously mulched them with--most of it has been incorporated into the soil now (hoeing, rain, but hopefully earthworms too).  It really could do with some cardboard as well, but I don't want to attract the slugs.  Instead, I better ask the husband for more coffee grounds.

November 2018 garden notes

Brassicas bed, Nov 2018

Roots

Harvested the (small) early leeks; they're not frost hardy, so had to pick them despite their size.  Long season/perennial leeks even smaller:  none of these harvested yet.

Started picking the celery:  good size, though not as big as last year.  Plenty more growing for the winter.

Planted 87 garlic cloves (from own grown garlic) in 2019's Roots bed (2018's  Brassicas).

Spread a load of partly composted chicken bedding (manure and straw) over the empty sections of this bed.

Peas and beans

Runner bean plants still standing, slowly maturing a few pods for seed;  one pod collected this month.

Brassicas

Staked purple sprouting broccoli, and attempted to stake Brussels sprouts.  Harvested a few sprouts this month, but no broccoli yet.  Harvested last cauliflower:  good size.

Transplanted curly kale out of the Holding bed to Brassicas and staked.  None harvested this month.

New spring cabbages growing a little;  the six in the cold frame more strongly than those in the garden.  Savoys at the allotment still growing, despite half of them wilting last month (some degree of wilting remains this month, and a couple have died).  Cabbage cuttings, few kohlrabi and Tuscan kale all growing slowly.  Harvested a small amount of cabbage regrowth (from last year's plants) this month.

Miscellaneous

Still picking a small amount of leaf lettuce, miners and lambs lettuces, and spring onion this month: all in containers.

Finished the achocha harvest (finally) by the end of the month, though the plants still left in situ.  Aztec broccoli finished, but also not cleared away--hopefully to drop seed for next year.

Harvested a couple regular and cherry tomatoes--a few more hanging on at the end of the month, despite most of the plants succumbing to frost.  Harvested a couple more red chilis, with some still ripening on the plants at the end of the month.

Harvested a modest amount of chard throughout the month.

Fruit

Nearly all fruit trees and bushes gone dormant by the end of the month, though there were still a few flowers and one tiny fruit on the yellow raspberry.  Finished eating the Sparta apples in storage.

Perennials and herbs

Only thyme and chives still have leaves by the end of November;  all other herbs finished/gone dormant.

All perennials gone dormant/died (hard to tell the difference this time of year), except artichoke which has strong new growth from the base;  I cut down the old growth at the end of the month.

I brought home some asparagus ferns with berries from the allotment communal waste, and put them down whole, covered, in my own Perennials section, but I think my three chickens might have found and eaten them all.  Also repatriated a handful of Jerusalem artichoke tubers;  not sure about the current state of these either;  the three chickens are free ranging through the whole of the garden, sans veg beds.

November 2018 Food Totals

Still ripening, Nov 2018

Vegetables:

8 oz salad greens (leaf lettuce, lambs and miners lettuces, baby chard)
4 oz runner beans
23 oz achocha
6 oz leeks
2.5 oz cabbage
0.5 oz spring onion
2 oz chili pepper
3.5 oz chard
9 oz celery
1 oz nasturtium leaves
29 oz cauliflower (including leaves)
7.5 oz Brussels sprouts
4.5 oz tomatoes

Total: 100.5 oz, or 6 lb 4.5 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include some fresh herbs which were too small a quantity to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Fruit: 

No fruit harvested this month

Eggs:

Total: 21 eggs from 5 hens
Total feed bought: 2 bag layers pellets (40 kg)

Preserves:

1/4 very small jar fermented hot sauce
9 medium jars unsweetened applesauce (from a neighbor's tree)
1 large jar dried apple chips (from wild harvested apples)

Homebrew:  

4 L cider started from a neighbor's apples

4 L cider vinegar started using pulp leftover from cider making

Bottled up 4 L of previously made cider vinegar

Elderberry/blackberry wine still fermenting
Fizzy elderberry/blackberry wine still fermenting

Previously made cider still fermenting

Previously made cider vinegar still fermenting