Food security and the garden, 2021

Food security is an important topic for me.  I have mentioned before that I have tried to build up a supply of food storage over many years;  much of this is storebought food in jars and tins.  However, I added to it over 2020 with more preserved garden food than ever before.  I hope to continue in 2021, by planting extras specifically for preserving (this was the plan for 2020, but life got in the way).

I have three cupboard shelves in my kitchen dedicated to dried and bottled garden foods; there's a couple of big jars of sauerkraut in the fridge; plus some garlic, squash and pumpkin in the dry store.  There are bags of berries in the freezer as well as applesauce and pumpkin puree.  There are bottles of cider and hedgerow wine, and two new demijohns of it bubbling away still.  If it was all we had to eat it would last us maybe a few weeks, but added to meals it should last us till May or June--the end of the hungry gap.

This year in particular I want plenty of extra runner beans and French beans both frozen and dried.  Dried peas.  Stacks of onions, garlic, squashes and pumpkins.  Dried and bottled fruits: cherries, plums, figs, apples.  Frozen berries.  Plum cider, apple cider.  Lots of root veg:  I had almost no root veg in 2020 and I definitely need to change this.  Pickled zucchini, dried zucchini: lots of it.  Dried everything, really.  Cabbages for sauerkraut, for freezing, for drying (this is one thing I managed last year).  Tomatoes for salsa, either green or red.

I have space at the allotment to make this happen, provided the slugs don't overwhelm me.  I'll be filling up the beds at home too;  this is the year to start producing some real calories and get them into my pantry. 

Gardening goals 2020 revisited

 1 Year Goals (by 1 Jan 2021)

• Extend vegetable self sufficiency by 1 month (7 months total) This goal is canceled for 2020
  
• Set up a chicken coop at the allotment

5 Year Goals (by 1 Jan 2026)

• Fully self sufficient in vegetables and seasonal fruit
• Greenhouse erected 

Other than that, I'll try to get a few other projects done in 2020, but won't put them on the official list:

• Revamp the pond to be prettier and easier to drain/refill (now that our ducks have made it disgusting)
• Set up a rotating firewood store and split all remaining sycamore branches
• Preserve some garden food every month during the Vegetable Challenge
  

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I wrote the above goals back in January 2020, back when life was simpler and no one in our little household had any ideas of any troubles ahead--I simply reduced the amount of goals because I was pregnant and unable to exert myself much.  While I did know Brexit was looming (and has now happened), little did I know there would be an ongoing worldwide pandemic.  

So.  I struck off the first goal!  We got the chickens up at the allotment full time in secure housing this summer.  They are currently not there, being subject to an enclosure order due to an avian flu outbreak:  they're at home in their old yard here.  Goal accomplished nonetheless.

The five year goals are still on unfulfilled.  I think we were close to self sufficiency in seasonal fruit with a lot of it still preserved, whether dried, frozen or bottled.

The unofficial goals--well, at least they were unofficial, because I didn't do them either.  The pond is prettier--as in less ugly.  It's not pretty, and while it's certainly easier to drain, it's a lot harder to fill:  it doesn't really hold water at the moment.  The ducks aren't actually on it--they're stuck with the chickens under cover--so at least it's not disgusting either.

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Goals for 2021?  Probably going to cancel them before I even start.

Grand total for garden food, 2020

 I haven't been posting monthly totals on here on the blog, so I hope you'll believe me as I post the final tally without any corroborating evidence.

Vegetables: 160 lb 3 oz

Eggs: 2178

Fruit: 16 lb 4.5 oz (incomplete: plums and apples were counted by number not weight)

We beat totals for fruit and eggs from every previous year, but went down on vegetables from last year.  However, I still have two medium pumpkins and three small squashes hanging out in my living room, unweighed;  I estimate this would bring us up by another 15 lb or so, bringing us about in line with last year's total.

I can only resolve to work harder in this coming year and make 2020 even more productive than ever.  Now that the daughter is just about 10 months old, gardening should be a little easier for me to get around to (dirt: yum! leaves: yum! sticks: yum!).

See previous grand totals:  2019, 2018, 2017, 2016

Catching up quickly before Christmas 2020

Well, the chickens and ducks are home and enclosed--and very dissatisfied with their lot.  The husband and son set up the yard on the Saturday, then I assisted in putting the netting over the top on Sunday, while the daughter was asleep;  it was windy and rainy and we all got very cold and wet.  The husband and son said only a couple chickens escaped (!!) during the transfer from allotment to garden, but they're all safely home now, and none have escaped here.  Yet.

We're looking forward to another lot of fresh garden veg for our Christmas dinner, including Brussels sprouts, a very fine cauliflower, and greens.  Not to mention some pumpkin (does it count as fresh if it was picked in October? It's hanging out with some friends on the dresser in the living room).  I also made the Christmas pudding last month, after saying I would, then saying I wouldn't, then relenting again.  I made it with our own dried plums, dried figs, and of course our own eggs;  unlike last year, a few hens are still laying for us.  

There's still a little more tidying to do out in the veg patch, and some more sheet mulch at the allotment;  and maybe I'll start one tray of onion seeds indoors at the very end of the month, but really that's it for gardening for 2020.  I'm taking the rest of the month off for blogging, and will return in January 2021 with a grand total of food--I've still been recording my daily/monthly totals on paper, just not been logging them here;  it'll be a big job totaling it all up.  I look forward to seeing how it compares with previous years.  

Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The best laid plans...

A few days ago I received a package in the mail from the village council, the body in charge of allotments at our village.  It contained a detailed booklet ennumerating all the new requirements for hygiene and risk management regarding avian flu.  Once more, bird flu is a problem in the country and once more, all domestic poultry and fowl will need to go under cover--probably until spring.  

This last happened in the winter of 2016/2017, when we had to keep our chickens in a small yard with netting on top in order to completely exclude wild birds, as well as some other biosecurity requirements.  We had 14 chickens in total, and they were confined for about three miserable months in a very small enclosure.  

After reading over the allotment requirements, we have decided they are just too restrictive and would be cruel to keep our chickens confined there;  one of the stipulations is that they not be outdoors--not even with netting overhead--unless someone is physically supervising them.  I can't lock them up in their coop there--it's way too small.  They'll have to come home, where I can supervise them all day.

To that end, the husband went and got some tall posts and has started to put them up, to make a permanent yard here at home;  thankfully we still have a good sized coop here.  He'll get the gate up and posts in, put up wire around them, and then net the top.  It should be about as tall as the yard at the allotment allowing us to go in without crouching, and covering a larger area than their yard at the allotment.  All this needs to be done by 14 December--just about a week away.

Our three ducks will be going in too, as they are included in the order.  They've been free ranging for a few weeks, and I even moved the fence surrounding part of the veg patch to give them access last week.  I'll leave them out for as long as possible, but they'll have to be under cover by 14 Dec too.  It's going to be a hard winter for birds.

Tidying up for winter 2020

Pretty, but not very large kale

First frost was right on time, in the last week of November.  It wasn't hard enough to actually touch most of the garden, only slightly affecting the lawn and front.  We have had cold enough temps to frost for several nights in a row now, but I haven't really seen it--not even at the allotment which is much more open than our sheltered garden at home.

I did a little bit of tidying up here at home anyhow, pulling out some spent plants and weeds, laying them down on the soil to break down in place.  There are a lot of brassicas still standing such as the somewhat measly kale pictured above and a couple of good looking cauliflowers (a strong candidate for Thanksgiving but ultimately passed over in favor of cabbage and Brussels sprouts). 

It's really about time to let our three ducks in to do a bit of work flattening what I've missed, and to do some slug hunting.  They were confined to the Perennials section for most of the autumn so that we humans could enjoy a poo-free lawn;  however, they are free ranging again and I need to move the chicken wire surrounding the veg patch so they can access it but not the patio or gate.

I'm still working on digging out grass at the allotment;  the husband has dug out a little and also sheet mulched a corner of it with cardboard and horse manure/straw.  The son and I have had a few more fires up there in the evening--enough to scorch some small circles of grass.  It's a more fun method than digging, but not making a very big dent!  I wish our fencing situation there was robust enough to let the chickens have at at, as I know a winter of ten busy hens would go a long way towards grass eradication. 

Self seeded winter salads

 

Radicchio:  bigger than when I transplanted it!  Oct 2020

After a few months off, we're eating little side salads again.  Even I can see the incongruence:  summer is salad time, winter is cooked vegetable time, right?  Well, I just so happen to be lousy at growing actual lettuce and stuff.  I mean, the slugs and bugs almost always get them--I even lost some once to a rogue rabbit (how did it even get here?  We're a long paved maze of side streets away from the nearest field)!  I've mostly given up on traditional lettuce--though I do have a few small ones at the allotment from a free packet of seeds, still alive.  But very small and not likely to get much bigger now at the end of November.

However, this time of year I have some non-lettuce salad greens which have been successfully self seeding for me for a while;  the best of them are chard, miners lettuce and mizuna.  The celery I have is a cooking variety, though when blanched it makes for a tender and mild salad addition.  I'm not currently blanching any, though I really should do a few.  These are all self seeded plants too.

When there's a heavy frost these plants can't be picked for salad, but they tend to shrug it off once it thaws again.  My kind of food!

The radicchio pictured above is a new experiment for me, and though the plants are marginally bigger now than in the photo, I really don't know if they're going to be salad worthy this winter.   They were not self seeded:  I sowed them in trays and transplanted.  I do however, have self seeded Belgian endive growing in various places which I am attempting to blanch for later salads.  I cut down the tall flowering stems and put a bucket over the plants.  Hope the slugs aren't having a party under there.