Christmas break 2017

Poor frosty celery--it perked up the next day with the thaw

After a productive gardening year, I'm taking my break with pride this Christmas.  I easily met my target of five months without buying vegetables, providing my family with plenty of good variety from the garden the entire time.  I've broken last year's record for food produced too;  I'll post the full year's total next month.

I can hardly believe it's that time again.  I'll be taking the rest of December off blogging:  and gardening too, no doubt--it's cold!  I'll be back here on 2 January, 2018, with the food totals for December but unlike this time last year, there are already a few things on the vegetable tally.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

The end of the line for celery?

After some hard frosts and a light dusting of snow, my celery looked pretty sad yesterday:  all wilted and limp.  I went to take a photo, but had to charge batteries first, and they only finished after dark (the sun sets around 3.45 PM now).  I'm sure you can imagine how they looked, all slumped in the snow.

I dug up half of them and asked the husband to trim and wash them while I emptied the contents of the chicken house.  I thought I gave him the easy job, but as it turned out, I finished way before he did!  But the happy result is that we have a drawer in the fridge filled to the brim with celery, which will probably last for the rest of the month if it doesn't go moldy before we can use it all.  It's a lot of celery.

I left the other half in the ground because a) I knew we didn't have room to keep it in the fridge, and b) I'm hoping it can perk up again once it thaws out.  But if it doesn't make it after all, it still gave us a good run;  we've been eating celery regularly since October, and it's been a relatively easy and trouble-free vegetable to grow.  I'll definitely grow it again in 2018.

I spread that chicken manure on the old Roots bed, where the celery was.  Next year it should be the Potatoes bed according to the rotation specified in The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency, but as I'm not doing a dedicated potato bed in 2018, it'll be the Misc bed, with a corner of it the Holding bed.

How I dry greens for winter use

I use:

• A sewing needle threaded with a long piece of sewing thread.
• Two nails about a meter apart in my kitchen wall, close to the ceiling, but far from the stove or other direct heat source.

Take some fresh greens

Take a handful of greens, trimmed of their stems (and mid-ribs, such as on chard leaves) and stack them together.  I have some nasturtium greens here.

Pierce with a threaded needle

 With the threaded sewing needle, carefully pierce through the center of the stack.

Right through the center

 Pull the needle through the stack and along the thread.  Continue doing this with all the leaves.

Keep going

Carefully spread out the leaves on the thread, making sure not to tear them off accidently.

Don't let it slip off

When all the greens are threaded, wind the ends of the thread around each nail to secure.  I even leave the needle on the end of the thread so I can reuse it for the next lot once these ones are dry.

Very decorative--the curtain hides our fuse box

Let dry fully (it takes two weeks in cool weather, but less than a week in the warmth), then slide the leaves off the thread into a labeled container:  I use a clean glass jar, but ziploc bags also work fine.  I try to crumble the leaves a little as I put them in the jar, but it's not necessary.

To use:  add to soups, sauces and stews as normal, allowing for a little extra cooking time so that the greens may rehydrate.  In my experience, chard and nasturtium greens each taste the same whether fresh or from dried.  Further experiments are needed for other greens in the future, such as young kale and sorrel.

November 2017 garden notes

Cauliflowers for next summer with self-watering jug, Nov 2017

Roots

Still beets in the ground, but mostly just leaf, no real root.  None harvested in November.

Been eating plenty of celery throughout the month of November, though it started looking a little sad by the end of the month:  frost maybe?

Winter grazing rye sown earlier was scratched up by escaped chickens.

No sign of garlic and shallot bulbs sprouting yet.

Peas and beans

Pulled out runner beans and hung up the vines in the garage, to finish ripening/drying the pods.

Broad beans planted out at the beginning of the month and starting to sprout by the end.

Brassicas

Brussels sprouts small and purple sprouting broccoli big, but none harvested in November.

Kale and spring cabbages in the ground had some damage by escaped chickens;  cabbages in the cold frame looking big and lush, starting to form heads.  Cauliflower in planters also had some damage, but still growing well in the cold frame.  None of these harvested.

Also a little chicken damage to winter cabbages.  Picked a few outer leaves this month.

Harvested two rutabagas/swedes and two turnips, all small but tasty.  None left worth eating.

Miscellaneous

Harvested the last few tomatillos in November.  Harvested four more pumpkins, with two still left on the vine at the end of the month (they are close to the house and fairly protected from frost).

Leeks growing slowly still.  None harvested.

Picked a small amount of miners and lambs lettuces this month and three heads of forced chicory for a salad.  Trying to force one more crop from the chicory for December.

Potatoes

Ate most of the potatoes in storage, but still a few left at the end of November.  Although we had a good harvest this year (and they made up the bulk of garden veg for this month), I probably won't dedicate a full bed to them next year.

Fruit

Picked a few yellow raspberries this month.  Mulched all soft fruit with used chicken bedding (straw and manure) and/or fallen leaves.

Perennials and herbs

Mulched artichoke, asparagus and rhubarb with chicken bedding.

Still a little growth on chives and thyme this month, but everything else finished/gone dormant.

November 2017 Food Totals

Williams pear, Nov 2017

Vegetables:

282 oz potatoes
34.5 oz celery
23 oz chard
10 oz tomatillos
12.5 oz bean sprouts
1 oz onion
2.5 oz chicory heads
1 oz salad greens (miners and lambs lettuces, arugula)
10 oz rutabaga (swede) and greens
10.5 oz cabbage
1.5 oz turnip

3 pumpkins (small)

Does not include fresh herbs which were too small a quantity to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz, or the above 3 pumpkins which were unweighed. 

Total: 388.5 oz, or just over 24 lb

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc. 

Fruit:

5 yellow raspberries

Eggs:

Total: 65 eggs from 10 hens
Total feed bought: 2 bags layers pellets (40kg total)

Preserves:

1/3 of a large jar dried chard leaves
1/3 of a large jar dried nasturtium leaves
5 large jars and 2 medium jars green tomato salsa (tomatoes and garlic from my garden, peppers and onions bought)

Homebrew:  

Cider still fermenting

No new homebrew begun