Preserves!

It's the time of year when there is very little fresh, but we are behaving as though we are still in the Vegetable Challenge (only eating what we have, not buying veg).  Currently fresh:  leeks, a little chard and pak choi (both will soon be gone), herbs.  This means most of our five a day comes from preserved veg.  So what's on the menu?

Dried veg  

A lot of my dried veg came from 2024 to early 2025, though I did dry a few jars worth of zuc and toms during the Challenge.  Carrots, parsnips, swede (all bought on special);  also some squash chunks and cabbage greens from the 2025 harvest.  There are still a lot of jars but I am using the oldest ones up gradually in stews/casseroles/etc a couple times a week.  

Stored veg

It's only squash and chilis left in the dry store;  I have six or so squashes left (most of them pretty big) and a chili plant still alive on my kitchen window.  The plant is only barely alive;  its compatriot already bit the dust and those chilis are in a little basket on my counter.  However, I expect them and the squashes to last a good while longer (even if the plant dies).

Frozen veg

My freezer was jam packed at the end of summer but there's a lot more room now.  Still remaining:  half a bag of broad beans, three months worth (I hope) of minced garlic, and three or four large bags of toms.  I'm still adding squash puree once in a while, as we cook our squashes--we can eat the smaller ones quickly enough but we have to freeze some of the excess from the big ones.

Pickled veg

I made two kinds of vinegar pickles in 2025:  cucumber and beetroot.  I still have a large jar of refrigerator cucumbers and several smaller jars of sealed beetroot in the cupboard.  We've eaten about half of these preserves so far.

Fermented veg

Now this may be my biggest form of preservation, or closely behind the dehydrated veg.  I made loads and we've eaten loads--and we still have loads.  My personal favorite is kimchi of course, and I've been making it regularly throughout last year.  

I also made a rather large batch of what I labeled "mixed veg salsa" as an end of season catch-all;  the major ingredient was green tomatoes but I also had cauliflower, leeks, zuc, green beans, fennel...I can't actually remember everything I put in it!  Whatever it was, I whizzed it all up in the food processor and added a few chilis so not too spicy.

I experimented with a mustard/turmeric mixed veg, aka chow chow, but I think it's a little too overpowering.  It's sour and mustardy, and we do like it, but it's more of a condiment:  use sparingly.  I might make a small batch next time, not a big one like last year.

The last main category of fermented veg was sauerkraut, in all its glory.  I made it with cabbage, I made it with shredded kohlrabi, I made it with turnip mixed with beetroot.  It all turned out so good.  I think the turnip/beetroot combination is the best and I managed to make several liters of it.  

All this fermented veg has lived happily in my cupboard until needed; once I open a jar I put it in the fridge, but unopened it seems to seal itself quite nicely--none of it has spoiled yet. 

Fruit

Ok, not veg, and not part of the Challenge, but I do have some frozen berries and cherries, and some dried figs and apples.  Also some jars of apples, plums and one of blackcurrant jam.  And a couple jugs of homemade currant wine.  Nowhere near the amount of fruit in my stores as veg--just enough for an occasional treat.

A few jobs, nothing too strenuous

To my surprise, there was a dry sunny-ish day at the weekend;  all week I've been getting rained on whenever I left the house.  Not only did I finally put my laundry out (it mostly dried), I did a couple small jobs in the garden.  

First off, the daughter helped me roll my small potted peach tree into the garage--it's on a little plant "skateboard."  I grew this peach (or possibly nectarine) from the seed of a supermarket fruit many years ago.  Unfortunately it gets bad leaf curl every year, first dying back and then putting out spindly new growth;  in fact I thought it had completely died two years ago.  But it held on, just.  Last winter I put it under cover and for the first time it didn't get leaf curl;  the idea is that if the tree stays dry as the leaves emerge, the fungus can't attack it.  Maybe it can grow and actually fruit this year.  Maybe.

While we were in the garage we did a little tidying (the garage is more like a big shed) and crushed our winter's collection of eggshells, in preparation for scattering around transplants later on in spring.  We save all our eggshells and let them dry on trays in the garage.  I also give some back to the chickens for extra calcium.  When he was small, the son used to enjoy crunching them up, and now at age five the daughter likes it too.

Then I got out my hand secateurs and nipped off the new water shoots growing straight up from the Sparta apple tree.  I prune this tree once a year to keep it within my reach, no taller than the 2 m fence it grows next to.  I also cut out any shoots growing perpendicular to the fence, to keep it somewhat espalier.  The Laxton Fortune tree needs less pruning as it doesn't seem to be such a vigorous grower, but it has a couple to be taken off the top too.

Lastly, and before the daughter started crying of cold hands (she started making mud pies while I was pruning), I split some little green logs using our small hatchet (I use it as a wedge and whack it with a mallet).  We'd coppiced a smallish ornamental pear tree for firewood during the Christmas break, with the husband using the reciprocal saw while the son and I wielded loppers.  The sticks and twigs were collected in one pile and the short trunk pieces stacked in another;  I worked a bit on this second pile, keeping myself warm with the exercise and enjoying the sunshine.

The Vegetable Challenge: victorious! (and more kimchi)

Although I'm posting this on the very last day of the Vegetable Challenge, I hereby declare it finished successfully (at 11.59 tonight).  No vegetables were bought (mushrooms were bought by another member of the household which was not against the rules, but it was agreed no more buying fungi until the end of the Challenge)--not even onions, which were allowed per the rules.  The Challenge was set for seven months, and the whole target period was achieved.

We almost exclusively ate vegetables that I grew at the allotment and in the kitchen garden.  A few vegetables were obtained for free (for example, other allotmenters' excess zuc), and we already had some from before the start date of the Challenge (for instance, vegetables I dehydrated in 2024).  But at 578# of veg in 2025, obviously we had plenty to eat.

What next?  I'm continuing with the spirit of the Challenge until Easter I think.  The husband wants onions badly!  So for now we buy onions and nothing else.  At Easter there is usually a cheap veg sale at the supermarkets (there was one at Christmas but I wasn't even tempted);  I may replenish my frozen and dehydrated veg stores at that time.  After this I will consider starting anew, with a target of eight months.

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I'm still making kimchi:  around 6 L at the beginning of January using turnips, white radishes, leek/garlic, and 7# of Chinese cabbages (I got them all picked before the start of a two week long frost);  last week I made another L of water kimchi with my rather small harvest of pink winter radishes along with garlic/leek and chili peppers from my nearly dead plants.  Right now I'm eating some fennel kimchi:  it originally started as fermented fennel with dill but was rather uninspiring so I poured in a cupful of leftover kimchi brine to make it magical.

The year in fruit

 2025 was an incredible year for growing in my garden and allotment.  As I mentioned before, I almost doubled the amount of veg grown from the previous year, and as for fruit, I've never grown so much in one year.  I can't prove this conclusively, as I've not been consistent about recording my fruit harvest (ever);  I can accurately state however, that it was the best year on record for fruit, at over 42 lbs.

I can hardly believe it, but half of the above total was from figs alone!  My Brown Turkey fig tree grew from just a little cutting which I think I bought off ebay (I can't remember exactly, but I do remember it was a cutting and I bought it online).  It grows in the sunniest, most sheltered spot of my garden, my most favoured tree.  We ate a Lot Of Figs;  I dehydrated some and gave some away too, but mainly we ate them:  so sweet and juicy.

The next best spots in the garden are given to a Morello cherry tree (on a mini dwarf rootstock, only about as tall as me), a Phoenix grapevine, a Czar plum, and a Robijn almond.  I harvested various amounts off all of these, but only recorded cherries and plums.  The grapes were disappointing, some going moldy before ripening;  and the pigeons picked off most of the plum blossom resulting in a sparse harvest (a problem I don't know how to prevent, except maybe with a pellet gun and pigeon pie?).  But I have cherries in the freezer, plums in jars and unshelled almonds in a box.

Moving to my less auspicious garden places, I have two apple trees, two young quinces (from seed, but not produced yet), two sweet cherry trees, and several currant bushes of different colours;  and a small bed of strawberries in the main veg patch.  I got a good amount of most of these, barring the sweet cherries--the pigeons gave them the same treatment as the plum (I think the branches of the Morello tree are too spindly for pigeons to perch on, which is why it was spared).  Unexpectedly, I got an apple harvest in 2025, from my two trees which have produced biennially up until now (though it too went unweighed).  I don't know if this is the new trend, or if they will go back to their old habits and take 2026 off:  I hope not.

Lastly, I have raspberries, gooseberries and redcurrants at the allotment, which is in full sun but exposed to winds, not sheltered by trees, fences and walls like my garden.  Since all of these are pretty hardy, I still got a good harvest, though again unweighed.

Grand total of garden food, 2025

Vegetables: 578 lbs, 6.5 oz

Fruit:  42 lbs, 3 oz

Eggs: 799

My goodness, did I smash it last year!  I almost doubled my previous year's total of veg, itself a record breaker.  Best performers this year were squash at 92 lb (though about half this total was from 2024's harvest, more than half of 2025's large harvest is still hanging out in my living room waiting to be weighed and eaten), cherry tomatoes at more than 66 lb, and plum tomatoes at just under 47 lb.  Honorable mentions include almost 36 lb of cabbage;  and a close finish of potatoes, zucchini, cauliflower and lettuce(!) each hovering in the 26-28 lb range.

My fruit totals were much higher this year, both because I recorded more (failure to record fruit harvest has been an ongoing issue over the years) and because I grew more.  It was a bumper year for figs, and a good one for apples, berries and Morello cherries.  However I still didn't weigh the apples (counted them by volume, though I estimate they weighed around 40 lbs themselves) and some other fruits;  this official total includes Morello cherries, blackcurrants, figs, pears and plums (does not include apples, strawberries, gooseberries, sweet cherries).  Regardless, it was a good year and we still have jars in the pantry and bags in the freezer.  

The chickens rather slacked off in the egg laying department for 2025, but what can I say?  They're all rather old:  when they die off, we replace them with younger but still somewhat old chickens, so no wonder the eggs aren't as bountiful.  Oh well.  We like our feathery friends the way they are.  Eggs are just a bonus these days. 

The weather was for the most part in my favor this year, but the work I've done on the soil (no dig, plus copious amounts of manure/compost over the years) has definitely played its part.  My soil held plenty of moisture, enough to see my allotment plants through to harvest;  we had a very dry, hot year and a hosepipe ban from summer onward.  Nearly all my plants enjoyed the heat without being too affected by the lack of rain;  it also meant a huge decrease in slug pressure.  Note:  I still needed to water my containers once or twice daily.  A few things finished earlier than I'd hoped, such as the snap peas and first sowing of turnips--and my carrots and parsnips were a bit small--but nearly everything else produced well.  Exceptionally well.

I grew that much in the past year I don't expect to beat it for 2026:  in fact, it was so much work I almost couldn't handle it all.  Even tallying it all up over the weekend was somewhat of an ordeal!  I would like to grow a similar amount of veg or slightly less.  Maybe over 318 lb (2024's total) but not more than 578 lb.  I have my seeds ready to start, and I have some standing veg still to be harvested; I will go over last year's plan to hopefully make it a little easier on myself.

See previous grand totals:  2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016

A new path across the lawn

Taking advantage of sunshine, the son and I placed some strategic stepping stones from our patio gate to the chicken and duck yards (they share a wall).  The son is in charge of their daily chores (mainly feeding/watering) and he was slipping on the too short grass;  now we can all safely traverse without any more damage to the lawn.

As a result however, all domestic birds are locked away in their yards until spring.  The grass just can't take any more abuse.  The two ducks have had regular free range until now, though the eleven chickens haven't had much, sadly.  While they have a fairly large yard, it's got no greenery.  I'm trying to keep it topped up with wood chips to soak up the mud/poo (an uphill battle).  The ducks like mud, so I'm not quite as concerned with the state of their yard at present.  If it gets too pooey, they can have some wood chips too.

Our two oldest hens, Rock and Cookie, are still with us at age nine;  if they make it to April, we will be able to celebrate their tenth birthday!  Before these two, the oldest chicken age we've ever experienced was six;  Rock and Cookie are true record breakers.  The son asked me if we would be getting any new rescue hens (of our flock, seven of the eleven are rescues) and I think we will wait till we're back down to around six chickens or so.  Rescue hens in particular are fairly short lived (getting to age four is pretty good and we get them at around 18 months old) so it's not outside the realm of possibility that we will get new ones in the coming year.  It's not been quite a year since we adopted the Birthday chickens.

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I'll be taking my Christmas blog break from now until January;  I'm hoping for as much homegrown food as possible for our festive meals.  I'll be back with my grand total of food for 2025:  have I beaten last year's record?  I'll try to get a last few things harvested and tallied before the deadline and we can find out together.

Keeping warm

A while back, the son and I (and occasionally husband) would go out on bikes into the woods near us every few weeks.  We'd collect as much fallen dead wood as we could into a couple large bags and cart them home on the bikes;  this was the kindling for our wood stove.  Now however, and for the past several years, I've instead been saving almost all our own woody prunings, large and small.  

I'm not sure if our current system is less work than the previous system.  For example, we need to cut and trim the wood ourselves instead of collecting it off the ground (and simply breaking it into pieces).  It also needs to dry several months, up to a year, depending on thickness;  the dead wood in the forest was ready to burn as soon as we brought it home.  True, we don't need to make much of a trip for our own wood, but we do need a place to store it while it dries;  and it usually ends up needing at least two piles if not more:  one for green wood drying out, one for dried wood ready to burn.  I collected the forest wood as needed, and kept it in the transport bags until time to burn.  I could also collect fairly thick pieces and not bother with the twigs;  now I even save my twiggy trimmings and tie them into kindling bundles (more work but great fire starters).

As I've mentioned in the past, we buy in the majority of the fuel for our stove, which is our main source of heating in the winter (we have a gas boiler which we rely on for hot water--we almost never use the central heating).  We also keep a large pot and a smaller kettle of water on top of the stove, for washing dishes/hot water bottles/tea/coffee.  

Being able to light the fire with our own (free) wood isn't the biggest money saver, though we think it's worthwhile.  I'm happy to have that little bit more of self reliance.  Although not directly related to my food, my homegrown woodpile is still a part of my garden.