our maine home – zone 5b
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!
I harvested all of this Afina leaf celery. It seemed like a small patch, but there is lots of it. A pound and a half of fluffy leaves took up the whole counter. I triple-washed them and was trying to dry them somewhat before packing them in freezer bags and popping into the freezer. I had already de-stemmed them, washed the stems, and frozen them in separate bags.
We don’t eat a lot of celery. But this is easy to grow and has good flavor. This was the only plant that thrived in the rather shady spot under the cucumber trellis. I tried cilantro there, and lettuces, carrots, kale and fennel – they all missed the full sun and grew halfheartedly.
This makes an excellent addition to vegetable stock and is a good parsley substitute. This year I barely grew any parsley and I’ve missed having it around.
Someday I will have a dehydrator. That would work better than the freezer for this leafy stuff, I think.
This project took all afternoon. There was an overabundance of broccoli in the garden. It was impossible to keep up with unless we wanted to eat broccoli every day, twice a day. Some of it was flowering, some of it was way past its prime. I decided to harvest all I could find and go through it, removing the bad and preserving the good.
Result: five pounds of broccoli, chopped, blanched and frozen. Probably equally that amount tossed onto the compost. I’m glad that’s done.
Early spring is a sparse time of year food-wise. The hoophouse greens were mostly eaten by voles last winter, except for the arugula and some kale. We still have garlic and a few squash stored. But no onions, carrots, parsnips or potatoes. Our root-saving capability is just not there. I tossed a fair number of potatoes into the compost because they were shriveled and sprouting. I could have planted them, but I have no desire to dig in the ice-cold soil yet.
On the upside, I found a baby garlic sprout under the mulch the other day. Very exciting!
So, feeling somewhat lacking in fresh food, it’s time to get serious about what is still in the freezer. It’s so easy to forget what’s available right here at home. So here goes.
Freezer compartment above refrigerator:
Chest freezer:
Looks like we’ll be eating a lot of squash. There’s so much frozen squash because of the bountiful harvest and the need to rescue a lot of it during the winter as rotten spots appeared.
Goals:
I received a gift of jalapenos from my friend’s garden. I didn’t think to photograph them until I had chopped them all up. These will go into the freezer on cookie sheets and then into bags for use as needed.
Of course, I didn’t have rubber gloves. Now my hands, nose, and upper lips are suffering with the burning sensation. At least I haven’t touched my eyes or other sensitive parts yet.
I harvested the last of the tomatillos today. One more batch of salsa to be made.
This was my first time growing them. I’ll grow them again. I like the flavor they add to salsa. They did okay in the hoophouse, but I wish they matured earlier. Maybe more water?
I harvested one row of the remaining basil patch in the hoophouse. Following this blog post’s recommendation of the best way, I washed and dried the leaves and stuffed them into freezer bags. Easy. Much easier than attempting to freeze as pesto in ice cube trays, which was honestly a disaster.
More basil to process, about three times that much again. I like it fresh but it’s starting to get brown.
An Oregon Cottage – Freezing Basil Leaves 6 Ways: Which is Best?
I feel like we’re moving into survivalist mode, but it’s also probably just the right time of year to do this. I went through most of last year’s crops that are in storage and evaluated how much we have. As usual, some crops were a big success and others not so much. Note: This is not very scientific!
Carrots.
Stored in refrigerator. Mostly Purple Haze, a variety I really like. Trimmed off their tops and washed off some slime. They are still good eating. About 2-1/2 pounds. There are more in the garden to be dug!
Garlic.
Hung in a net bag in the pantry. 3-1/2 pounds left. Not sprouting yet, but I expect they will soon.
Onion, red.
A great crop, but coming to an end. Sprouting as you can see. Only about 1-1/2 pounds left.
Onion, yellow.
Still have about 7 pounds! These were in Jeff’s basement, then moved into our utility room in an attempt to keep them cooler. Some sprouting.
Parsnips.
Sam dug these out of the garden today now that the soil is unfrozen enough. About 15 pounds! Trimmed and froze some with damaged tops.
Pumpkins and squash.
These were in Jeff’s basement. We lost a lot to rot, but we had a lot to begin with. I’ve been striving to process these for the freezer or to eat them, but I can only do so much with that much squash!
Also have about a half pound of non- photogenic leeks in the fridge.
Not to mention quantities of frozen stuff, mostly squash and green beans. We finished the apples today and coming rapidly to the end of the blueberries.
Complaints:
Today felt like the last grocery shopping we might do for some time. We went to the Blue Hill Co-op and stocked up on bulk items. The only shortages that affected us were black beans, red lentils and fresh ginger. Our pantry stock is finally naturally winnowing itself down to the things we actually cook with. And we determined that the large jars hold about 6 pounds, which should be helpful next time we need to replenish. Assuming there is a next time! (Feeling very apocalyptic due to the Coronavirus outbreak.)
Canned this year:
8 half pints green tomato relish
2 pints dilly beans
10 pints bread and butter pickles
9 full quarts tomato sauce, plus 1 pint