Frozen

 

The view from my back door, Jan 2025

After our two week break from school/work, we got a snowfall;  I was hoping it would melt in an ensuing rain, but there was too much snow and not enough rain--it froze and stayed that way for more than a week.  No harvesting vegetables in those conditions.  I'd missed our allotment visits the week before too as the daughter had been sick--in fact she had such a high temperature on Christmas day we took her to the hospital.  Thankfully she's fully recovered now but it meant no trips out until she recovered.  Then it snowed.

Cranberry flavor, Jan 2025

At least she (and the rest of us) were well enough to enjoy the surprise snowfall.  We made snow ice cream (above)!  I would have liked to make it with homegrown ingredients, but as we had such short notice, we made do with half a liter of cranberry juice poured over a bowl of snow. 

Made by the daughter (age 4), Jan 2025

The kids also made a snowman each, we had a short snowball fight out on the street, made hot chocolate and cookies, played board games...it was a fun snowy day.  It was the first day back at school the next day, so we tried to make the most of it.  

And since then, complete frost, with the whole garden iced over.  I had wanted to pick leeks and turnips at the allotment, but I knew they wouldn't come out until it melted;  I'll try to get over there later today.  I've got some cardboard to sheet mulch with too, but again, no point sheet mulching on top of snow.  I'll have to see if the turnips survived;  hopefully my overwintering cauliflowers at home are also ok, buried in snow with temps down to -6C at night.  In fact, I was so worried about the ducks in that cold, I let them have full free range including the patio and left the garage door open for them just in case (they won't normally sleep in a shelter;  they're waterproof after all and prefer to be in the open).  They were ok, as were the chickens who mainly stayed in their coop.

Grand total of garden food, 2024

Vegetables: 318 lb, 10.5 oz (incomplete)

Fruit:  2 lb, 7 oz (incomplete)

Eggs: 1262

What a year!  I broke my record of 2023, which was 277 lb.  However, I must state that some of 2023's veg wasn't recorded until 2024:  of the more than 100 lb of squash (!!), around 82 lb of it was grown in 2023.  We ate fresh squash every month of the year except August (and then we ate it from frozen!);  we ate our last 2023 squash in July of 2024.

Other notable amounts:  26 lb of plum tomatoes and 20 lb of cherry tomatoes (unlike the previous year, almost every tomato ripened by the end of the season), 16 lb of beet roots (plus 12 lb more of the greens) and 15 lb of kohlrabi.  I marked the total as incomplete as there are indeed some more squashes from 2024 to be weighed and eaten in 2025 (though probably not a full 82 lb).

Fruit was actually better than the previous year (though still rather sparse), but like most years I didn't record it faithfully, so the totals are similar.  We had probably 20 lb at least of apples, plus a couple more lb of raspberries, but I only recorded a few ounces of the berries, few figs and one pear.  I don't have a good method for recording fruit like I do vegetables, probably because I don't prepare fruit like vegetables (I weigh veg before cooking, but fruit rarely gets cooked in our house, just eaten).  

Our newest adopted four hens, the Specklies, did us proud and really bulked up the egg production in the last year, more than double the previous.  Sadly we've lost two of them this winter;  as a high-production breed, they are also short-lived.  Hopefully we can adopt another four to join our flock later in spring, when it warms up a little. 

See previous grand totals:  2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016

Last bit of work for the end of 2024

This past week I haven't done much outdoors--it's been dark and miserable.  However I did manage to visit the allotment twice for sheet mulch--I'm back to collecting cardboard boxes from my work, a few at a time.  I've got the tomato bed covered and am now moving on to the (large) squash bed.  Little by little.  Over the summer one of my allotment neighbors brought in several stacks of large cardboard pieces from his workplace, I assume a warehouse.  These were wonderful for sheet mulch!  But I haven't seen him for a few months now, so I'm collecting what I can--small pieces are better than nothing.  I've been covering it with used stable bedding from onsite:  horse manure and straw.

At home I'm mainly only going out to give scraps to the chickens and ducks.  We are letting each flock take turns free ranging the lawn for an hour or so in the evenings;  the seven chickens are still laying a couple eggs a week but haven't seen any eggs from Girl Duck for a while.  She may have laid some, I just haven't gone looking--too dark and miserable.

I picked a few sprigs of fennel and mint the other day to make some tea (cutting back on caffeine).  I'm also still harvesting a few radishes and beets;  I've had all the big ones now, it's on to the smalls.  Also leeks, cabbage, turnips.  I'm whittling down my squash stash, still hanging out on their own rug in the living room;  and the bags of various frozen summer veg (I can't believe how many tomatoes I froze!).  And of course, eating kimchi, sauerkraut, pickled cucumbers, etc.

I'm ready for my Christmas break, though work and school don't finish till the end of the week (and not till next week for the poor husband).  I will be away from the blog until January, when I will reveal my grand food total of 2024.  I know I haven't been logging it here, but it's all written down on my wall calendar in my kitchen.  Will I beat 2023, my best year yet?  I better get my calculator out:  I can't wait to find out.

Revisiting the Vegetable Challenge?

Last Christmas, supermarkets had a special on certain vegetables, much cheaper than usual;  this has happened for a few years in a row and we knew to stock up.  So for about four days, we went in and bought around 10 kg of various fresh veg;  we froze some, dehydrated some, and kept the rest for fresh eating.  It was mostly carrots, parsnips and swede, but a few kgs each of potatoes, cabbage and Brussels sprouts too.  So obviously, 10 kg a day for four days was about 40 kg in less than a week.  We were in production mode for several weeks afterward, keeping the dehydrator and freezer trays going.

But here's the thing:  we still have nearly all the dehydrated carrots, parsnips and swede in the cupboard.  It's not that it's inconvenient to use;  on the contrary, it's so easy to just tip some into a stew (and we eat plenty of stew!), curry, stir fry, whatever.  And I haven't forgotten it's there either--it's just that this year I've had so much fresh veg from the garden, my dehydrated veg hasn't been needed.

In past years I've done a no-buy vegetable challenge for several months at a time, eating only veg we grew ourselves, were given/traded, or otherwise got for free.  The longest we officially went without eating bought vegetables was seven months (however, I did buy some veg at the six month mark, which officially broke that challenge).  This is something for myself, setting and keeping my own rules;  I stopped doing it after Brexit because of food security worries (luckily unfounded, at least so far).

So this year yet again, no official challenge, yet we really have gone nearly all year without buying much veg;  the only vegetables I've put on the list are onions, something I still haven't succeeded with yet--and one weekly carrot for the small daughter's lunchbox (somehow I didn't buy carrot seed until too late for this spring).  

We really could have gone without these two, although I would have missed onions, as I use them every day (I'm trying again next year).  My freezer is a third full of garden/allotment veg (the other two thirds are meat and berries); I have two shelves in my cupboard full of dried, pickled and preserved fruit and veg;  and my fridge is half full of jars of fermented vegetables/kimchi.  Not to mention the fresh veg still standing, waiting for harvest at both the allotment and garden.

Will I restart the Challenge next year?  Can I officially go the whole year?  I'm not sure!  But maybe 2025 will be the year to try.

Harvesting, cooking and eating; and a goodbye, December 2024

Thanksgiving was a success;  we had a green vegetable medley with fresh cabbage and leek and frozen green beans;  I also made my pumpkin pie recipe with our own eggs and squash, and a cherry tart with the last of the freezer cherries (which were more than a year in the freezer).  Along with our turkey, stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes and our friends' three delicious side dishes, we even had a glass of home brewed currant wine.  I ate and ate and ate...

On Sunday (the only day I can usually collar the son) we went up to the allotment to pick all the remaining beets, mostly small but a few big ones left:  about three pounds altogether.  Once home I immediately dumped these into my big slow cooker to cook for later pickling.  I also brought home five or six turnips, another big mini daikon (I need a better name for these--mini implies small, but they aren't small! How about just white radish?) and a nice big leek.  I also cooked and seasoned the turnip greens (the chickens got the frostbitten radish leaves);  the roots are for cooking during the week.

At school the daughter learned a song about Five a Day (she's four years old).  I try to serve her and the son five veg a day, and most if not all is homegrown;  she really enjoys counting out our daily veg, and often it's even more than five.  Sometimes she says she doesn't like something, but almost always eats it anyway.

But on a sad note, we lost one of our rescue hens last week;  we adopted her cohort of four in September of 2023, so she was with us for just over a year.  She and the other three we christened the Specklies, as we gave up individually naming hens many years ago;  we were sorry to say goodbye to this Speckly, and hope the rest of her flock mates will stay with us for a good while longer.

After the snow, looking forward to Thanksgiving

The daughter in the garden, November 2024

Our first cold snap lasted almost a full week, with daytime temps just a few degrees above freezing, and snow still lingering until Saturday afternoon when it finally washed away in a rainstorm.  It looks as though most of my lettuce, cabbage, radishes, pak choi, komatsuna, cauliflower and fennel in the kitchen garden survived.  I had to rearrange the netting covering the cauliflower and komatsuna as it had been knocked down by the weight of the snow--also one piece of wire at the edge of the bed (chicken and duck deterrent) was also dragged down--but no lasting damage.  

Most things standing at the allotment were actually laying down when we visited on Sunday.  While the purple sprouting broccoli and leeks looked much the same, the leaves of beets, radishes, turnips and artichokes had all flopped over, looking a bit sad.  The son and daughter cleared away the last of the cherry tomatoes and achocha vines, then the remaining corn stalks;  these all went into our composters.  I, meanwhile, pulled some veg for the week:  beets (plus extra for a friend), radishes and a big leek.  The roots were undamaged by the frost and I was able to still salvage some of the radish greens for eating (chickens got the limp beet greens).

It's Thanksgiving this week!  What are we making?  The husband is in charge of the turkey and mashed potatoes (both bought this year), and our friends are bringing a vegetable dish (possibly including the beets I gave them earlier) and a dessert.  We are definitely serving something from the allotment/garden but I don't exactly know what--possibly some green beans out of the freezer, and maybe some squash puree as a vegetable dish too;  there is potential for a fresh (small) cabbage, some radishes or turnips.  The son is in charge of stuffing which will use some fresh thyme and sage, both still leafy.  I will also use some herbs in the gravy and I am in charge of my favorite pumpkin pie, using one of my beautiful squashes.

Before the frost

I saw that we were due for a cold snap, our first real frost of the season;  though I've seen a little frost on cars and at the park, none of it had touched the allotment or garden yet.  So with this news in mind, I've been gathering in the last of the autumn harvest over the weekend.

At home the only thing left (the only thing I'm not confident about, that is) was the lettuce;  accordingly, on Saturday I picked every large-ish leaf I could find, soaked them and put them in a container in the fridge, loosely covered.  We ate these within a few days.  The plants still remain in situ;  maybe they'll survive the frost to grow a few more salads.

On Sunday the son and I trekked up to the allotment with two big bags and filled them:  the last of the cherry tomatoes, green and red;  all but the smallest achochas;  every ear of corn (all baby corn, the kind you might find in a stir fry);  and the last few artichokes.  

We also came home with some more beets, radishes (black and white) and three huge purple topped turnips.  I'm proud of those turnips, never having grown any larger than a golf ball.  I have quite a lot of all of these still growing, but I'm not too worried about them as they are somewhat frost hardy.  I considered bringing home a leek or two but thought I'd wait till next week as they actually improve after a frost.

And I cleared away all the climbing bean vines, purple- and green-podded, and stashed them in our little allotment shed for drying;  these will hopefully be seed for next year, so long as the rats don't eat them--they did once when I left some pea vines to dry in our garage.

I can rest safely now, knowing I got everything in on time, and that I have plenty of standing veg to come.