Since I last wrote, a whole Summer has come and is almost gone. The Summer was beautiful, and the gardens have had a great year! I wish I could say the same thing for 2020, which I would like to toss, in it’s entirety, into the compost pile! Trying to keep a good perspective, in this very historical, never should be forgotten, year is not easy. Covid-19 aside, I am hoping this year of unrest is a year of growth for this country. One can only hope. I remind myself to be grateful for any tiny thing that went well in 2020, even if the list is very short and I have to search hard to find it.
The Summer Garden:
This is the first year I finally grew more than enough beans and tomatoes to last until next Summer. I did buy 7 lbs of beans from my neighbor, just in case, but with all the beans I am still getting, I definitely would have been ok without them, but extra is never a bad thing.
The garden at the end of May.
The garden at the beginning of August.
Currently I am in the the last phases of food preservation as we head into Fall. The freezers are almost at capacity as well as the pantry shelves. I am looking forward to the stillness of the cold months and the good food that the many months of planning have culminated into, finally.
After breaking off the stems, I lay them on the sheet pan this way. It makes it easy to grab a pile and slice them all at once into bite sized pieces. The freezer is loaded with beans that will last us until Spring.
The beans that didn’t get eaten or frozen became spicy dilly beans.
This is the first year I canned peaches and peach jam. These peaches will be saved to be eaten as treats this Winter.
I have canned quarts and quarts of tomato puree and I still have so many tomatoes on the vines! By the time that I finally finish canning I will likely have over 40 quarts. I have been selling my tomatoes too, and giving some away to family which totaled about 100 pounds! This has been hands down the best tomato year ever! These jars will be used for a quick tomato basil soup, in beef stews, for making BBQ sauce, ketchup, pasta sauces or other various tomato based soups.
20 pints of salsa should do us for the year!
I love having Hamburger Stew on the shelf. It is loaded with our Highland, grass fed beef, beans, tomatoes, carrots, garlic, onions and local corn. It’s a delicious quick hot meal. Sometimes I add potatoes or pasta when I am heating it up, and occasionally I add a bit of shredded, aged cheddar on top, and it becomes Wisconsin cheeseburger soup!
The apples are just starting! I jumped ahead by getting one batch of applesauce done early. There will be more for sure, and dried apples too!
Just picked veggies are so pretty!
I was thinking that I would have to start soaking some of our shiitake logs soon because we just weren’t getting many mushrooms, and 2 days later I went out and found these! Jackpot! Mushrooms are always a mystery! Most of these got dehydrated for Winter soups and veggie dishes.
We haven’t gotten into growing corn yet, so I stopped at a local farm and picked up about 100 ears, which got blanched, cut, bagged and frozen.
The chicken freezer is full! And guess what the farm is SO much quieter with all those roosters gone. Just 10 quiet hens now. So much more peaceful! We will have plenty of delicious roasted chickens this year.
In addition to the corn, beans, Kale and Chard that are in the freezer, we are also loaded with peppers. I had no idea, till last year, that they freeze fabulously. I let them thaw just a little and then dice them, they cut very easily this way. I use them in all kinds of dishes and soups during the year.
This just pulled garlic is now dried and stored. Now we are waiting for the onions to finish drying and then when they are off the drying rack it will be time to bring in the potatoes to dry before storing.
Tomorrow I will be planting spinach in the tunnel for Fall and Winter eating, and ahead of us still, is cider making, pumpkin puree for pies and breads, more freezing of kale, and chard, and covering the tunnel w plastic for Winter.
It’s been a great year in the garden but I confess I am so ready to wrap it up! Bring on the sweatshirts, the knit hats, the extra blankets and roaring fires in the fireplace. I hear that this Winter will be a hunker down Winter more so than any other Winter, due to Covid-19, so count me in, I am ready for the great hunker of Winter 2020-2021.
Incrementally Stepping Towards Homesteading 