I want/need to get these things done before December 1st. HA HA Some will actually get done, others, it depends.
♥ Butcher last turkeys. (I’m fairly certain this will happen)
♥ Make Castille soap for xmas presents.
♥ Finish canning/preserving: last of the apples, kiwis, peppers, and make sauerkraut.
♥ Clean greenhouse 1 and prepare for, and plant cover crop. (after the sheep get done)
♥ remove deer netting from carrots and beets and start hilling soil on all root crops that are stored in the ground. Carrots, beets, rutabagas, daikon, and celeriac.
♥
♥ Drink more kombucha.
♥ Enjoy more sunsets.
I just found your blog… I’m not quite sure from where, perhaps Sharon’s blog… Anyway, I’m certainly bookmarking your blog! You are living the life I dream of… perhaps a bit bigger than my dream, but it’s fantastic to hear another PNW’er talk about the life on their farm, where they grew up, growing their food, loving their animals, and living their life… Keep it up!
–Erika
Hope you get it all done! I’ve got a few things on my to-do list as well. I already made my sauerkraut, but I have enough cabbage to make one more batch.
Catching up on all your posts.. I’ve been reading but not leaving comments.
You still amaze me with all you do, but I realize that this is the life you’ve chosen and you WANT to do these things, just as I have chosen my own life. What looks busy and crazy to others, is perfectly normal to us.
I’m hoping next year I’ll do better with a winter garden, as it is now, I only have 2 broccoli plants that are thriving and I can’t wait until they’re ready to harvest.
Thank you for sharing that yummy praline squash pie!! Oh my gosh! That looks so yummy! I have to wait until my mom comes over before I make it, because the husband doesn’t like pumpkin and I’m afraid I’ll eat it all by myself!!
)
excellent plan – especially that last bit about the sunsets.
Question on the veggies that are left in the ground – can you cut/use the greens, or do they continue to contribute to the health of the root? Are the greens (and I’m thinking mostly beets, turnips) gone after the first hard frost, or do they hang on a bit?
Eliot Coleman’s book identified that some greens can look miserable after a cold night, but if left until the sun revives them be completely harvestable again – but he’s using cold frames.
Any thoughts on this? I’m a HUGE fan of beet greens, I never seem to get enough.
How do you preserve kiwi? I have heard that there is a variety that is somewhat hardy here (zone 5a) but don’t have any room to plant anything new. But for the house of the future they’re a possibility. I’e never done anything with them but eat them fresh.
Kombuchaaaaaa, mmmmmm! I have a question…I thought for some weird reason that the nightshade family was not good for livestock..the tomatoes, potato vines…but looks like I was wrong! Can they be eaten by all livestock without harm?
How do you use your daikon? Inquiring Floridians want to know
Robbyn
You make your own kombucha? That’s AWESOME! I like it with wine. Quite a nice spritzer as the yuppies might term it. LOL.
XOXO
Joce
I can’t believe how green it is there still. I almost hope that winter sets in sometimes just so I don’t have all these clean up type chores anymore. The Bossman is talking about going over some more fence again:(
That’s a pretty big list but no doubt you will get it done
Your root veggies look awesome. It amazes me how long of a growing season you have. The gardens here have been put away and dormant for a month now. The ground is as hard as a rock! Yesterday morning it was 9 degrees….
seed catalogs have started arriving so I’ll thumb through them and dream about a new garden in the spring
Hoping to have some baking time soon, would love to try your Praline squash pie.
Erika, Hi thanks for reading.
Susy, I hope my list isn’t too ambitious. I keep looking at the cabbage and putting it off.
Jenny, you’re pretty amazing yourself, you have 4 little itty bitties, you are much busier than me. My daughter is a teenager and likes to garden so I have a lot of help! She’s not too keen on dishes, laundry, etc… oh well.
I know what you mean about the pie, I could easily be tempted to eat the whole pie too!
Hayden, the greens will for the most part die back, I try to wait for them to do that before I hill them, but we haven’t been too cold yet, so I may wait. I’ve had better luck with chard than beets for greens, especially Fordhook Giant, and 5 color Silverbeet. Those two varieties are the hardiest here.
If the greens do freeze, I wait until they thaw out to harvest. Otherwise they will turn to mush. But most do pretty well, I use row cover which gives about 10* difference, which is usually enough to keep things plugging away.
Judy, we have the hardy kiwi, which tolerates -25*F, they are like grapes and don’t need peeling. I’ve had limited luck drying them, but last year I made jam from the Ball Blue Book and it was pretty tasty. We don’t eat much jam, so it usually ends up in Xmas baskets.
Robbyn, me too, until the sheep got in the greenhouse and ate all my tomato and pepper starts one year. Normally I feed the plants to the turkeys or hens and this year I specifically planted kale for the turkeys, so it was easier to let the sheep go in and eat everything. They loved the green tomatoes that had been frosted! And as a thanks they let me some fertilizer.
The daikon is mine and the dogs treat that no one else wants to eat – I like having one thing that I don’t have to hide…(snicker, snort, don’t tell anyone about the ganache hiding in the fridge.) The daikon is fussy though, you need row cover if you are at all bothered by root maggots – they love it too. We just eat it raw.
Joce, arggh wine gives me a headache. It is pretty easy to make, get a mushroom from someone, make some tea and your in business!
Linda, I don’t want winter, can’t you teach the new neighbor how to fix fence so you can stay inside? We have dodged the bullet this year – usually by this late it has been much colder and not so green. But I’m not complaining.
Debi, I finally had to break down and clean off the cookstove, it’s been cool here, but not 9! Too cold for me, I’m not hardy enough. Most of the time we will get snow before the ground freezes so it insulates the veggies pretty well. But we haven’t had frost enough to really kill the carrot tops yet…
I don’t know if I will get my list done or not, but at least if I write it down, I have a better chance of not getting distracted.
The picture of the sheep in the green house is priceless.