Month: November 2021

Thanksgiving 2021

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We had a wonderful relaxed get together at Tim and Jerry’s house. I didn’t take a lot of photos. I cooked a lot. As vegans, we tend to bring our own food so we can make sure of enough to eat.

I experimented with winter squash. I roasted both a pumpkin (“Winter Luxury”) and a buttercup squash. Then pureed them separately and together. Then performed a taste test.

Clockwise from upper left: pure pumpkin, mixture, pure buttercup squash

The pumpkin easily pureed but was watery and had little flavor. The buttercup was sweet and delicious, but very dry and didn’t easily puree. There are major chunks in that bowl. The blend was just about right. The taste of the buttercup still came through, but the wet pumpkin really helped the texture. So our pies were a blend! And I brought the remaining mixture as a side dish, completely unadorned with spices or anything else.

My other big innovation this year: sage powder. I dried a few branches of sage in the house, then stripped off the leaves. Removed most of the stems. Then put it in the spice grinder. It came out delightfully fluffy. I don’t think it’s dry enough to jar yet, so I’m letting it sit out in this pan for awhile. Maybe it will lose some flavor…

Homemade sage powder
Men in the kitchen – Jeff, Jerry, Sam

Brussels sprouts

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In a marathon session, I harvested and cleaned six pounds of Brussels sprouts. My sprouts dreams came true this year. Four pounds blanched and frozen, one prepared for dinner, and one in the fridge.

It seemed to take forever. Next year, do this task one or two stalks at a time!

Some were rotten. Others were just partly rotten. Some bug damage but not nearly as bad as it could have been. All in all, a successful crop.

The stalks.
The tops, leafier, in a different pile.
All picked and ready to clean.

No after picture. Too eager to get the job done and get over to Paula’s for dinner to remember to photograph.

Lotta leeks…and beets

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Sam helped me harvest at the community garden today. He dug the leeks and I dug beets. Then I processed them back at home. A messy muddy task.

What was I thinking! This is a huge quantity of leeks. And there are more in the home garden. I will have to look for more leek recipes.

The beets seem more reasonable in volume. A good selection of medium ones and another of baby beets. A few greens were harvested, but most were not edible.

And this always seems to happen. No matter how painstakingly I try to harvest all the onions and shallots, some slip by. I found this glowing plateful today.

Fall crops

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I am appreciating these fall greens in the hoophouse. They are looking about the right size going into winter. No vole damage for a while now.

Spinach
Escarole
Arugula

I spread more hay mulch today. The ground was too frozen to rake the raised beds in the fruit yard. Tomorrow I think I’ll have to harvest leeks. I’ve put it off too long. I also have to remove the asparagus stalks which have dried up and fallen over. And mulch those beds too.

Cold room

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We have a new cold room! Something we’ve really needed for better conditions for storing grains, apples, onions, potatoes, etc.

Sam drilled a hole in the wall of the pantry right to the outside. And put a sweep under the door. It’s in the 50’s in there now, while the rest of the house is in the 70’s. Nice!

The mystical hole
With light on

Camp – painting trim

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The carpenters are back after some time doing other things. They are installing the baseboard and door trim.

Sam likes to urethane first because it’s faster and easier painting. So we were there this weekend applying 3 coats to the trim. Still more to do but most of it’s painted.

Cut and labeled
Cut and labeled pieces
Not cut yet
View from loft

And the wood for the bedroom floor has been purchased and is acclimatizing in the loft.

Wood for bedroom floor

Lots of things

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Much of raising food seems to involve dealing with innumerable small things. Beans – maximum potential in a small package, need to be shelled (done) and dried (in progress). Nuts – harvested these hazelnuts weeks ago but haven’t cracked them open yet. Ground cherries – each one has to be dehusked individually. This bowl is the last harvest, probably almost ready to toss in the compost. And finally, just for the visual pleasure, a spray of blossoms on the angel wing begonia.

Vole proofing – maybe

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We put up a short fence of hardware cloth all around the hoophouse. It’s buried in the ground about six inches. I don’t know if it will work, but can’t hurt. We lost a lot of greens last winter to voles.

Escarole, arugula, kale, spinach are planted in the beds. Ready to overwinter. The squash are in there curing.

Pumpkins

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I pulled all the squash vines from the garden in anticipation of frost this week. The lack of vines revealed 12 (twelve!) greenish pumpkins. Winter Luxury variety, supposed to be good eating. And a few small buttercup squash.

So these join the rest of my winter squash to try to cure / ripen them. I’ve put them all in the hoophouse for now.

Just harvested, mostly Winter Luxury pumpkins
A late dragonfly resting on a warm pumpkin

Garlic planted

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It’s a relief to have this done. I planted half on November 1st and the rest on November 2nd. Approximately 220 cloves. The soil was pretty good, although somewhat wet from the weekend’s rain. I believe the varieties were German Extra Hardy, German Red (smaller), then Music. I don’t think I saved any of the Spanish Roja.

This is the first year I have had enough to save my own seed garlic. Garlic is one of my success stories. But I still felt anxiety planting it, fears that something will cause my garlic crop to fail. It’s the climate crisis, affecting everything, even my trust in the most reliable of crops.