So with the crappy and cold finally settling in... I put out a little dish of cat food and a box lined with a snuggly towel in the garage. We have a feral cat or two running around, and even though I put stuff out kind of late in the cold snap, there is still signs of it being used now. Along with some nice paw prints in the snow. And yes, I would for sure rather have feral cats in my garage than anywhere else- this encourages them to help keep my yard clean of rodents, lol.
And I made up some suet cakes and put out a couple along with a feeder full of black oil sunflower seed... Well, the first afternoon, no one showed up. The second I saw a few birds. Then the word got out, dinner up at our house! Now every bird in the neighborhood is stopping by for a snack.
So far I've seen some seriously fat bluejays, cardinals, black capped chickadees, dark eyed juncos, rose breasted grosbeaks, titmouses, goldfinches, Downy woodpeckers and red bellied woodpeckers, and the usual assortment of sparrows and wrens. It's kind of nice because all of their birdcalls make it sound like it's spring outside.
Making suet cakes is easy, and I have found that mushroom tubs are the perfect size for cakes. I started using them last year. And honestly, mushroom tubs are one of the most used items I recycle between projects and gardening needs. I finally used up the big bucket of veggie shortening, so now I will get a block of lard next time I make cakes, that's what I should have been using all along, lol.
And dinner.... I've started this years preserving tally, kicking it off with 46 jars of pickled mushrooms and a half dozen jars of spicy pickled edamame. This is my first time pickling edamame, but the raw form tasted pretty good, so I'm hopeful the canned form will be even better. But I couldn't resist when I saw them at Hardings on clearance for 99 cents instead of four bucks. I picked up five 10 oz boxes, and used three to pickle, though I could have used two and that would have been fine for a smaller batch too. But hey, now we know, right? I tinkered the recipe a smidge, leaving out the oil, but I kept the vinegar/water proportions right, and the salt good.
I'm a wee bit bummed that I seem to never find brussels sprouts on sale anymore now that I discovered how damn tasty pickling them is. So I guess a large part of the brassica patch this year will be brussels, yay!
It's been difficult to stave off the depression and hopelessness I've been experiencing for several months, like fighting against a monsoon. But I keep forcing myself to keep trying.. and keep focusing on the zen and happiness in the good things I know I enjoy. It's helping a lot. The plants are really having a lot of impact, taking care of them and knowing that they will do the family good soon. I now have three of the greenhouse stands in the kitchen in front of the windows, and several pots and starts are already there.
I seriously need to spend time in the solarium and really clean. Everything is stacking up in the cold, and too chilly to really spend much time out there doing anything. But it has been staying above freezing for the most part, and hitting above 40 a lot. That is wonderful. Still really chilly for working in though, lamo.
But right now I need to pop off and clean up a turkey carcass.
Welcome to Growbox Hill
Welcome to Growbox HIll!
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Snow a fallin, seeds a sproutin...
So yeah, it is January, and yeah... I have already started seeds.
Well, lol, really I started seeds in July :) Hellebore seeds. It's a facinating winter flower, because it will only sprout in the cold, and blooms during the coldest months. Kind of feels like the opposite of what plants do, right? I thought so too, but they really are such lovely little things.
And extremely expensive as plants, so much so they have been cost prohibitive to me till now. Last June a friendly GW member sent me seed, and a nice goodly lot of it. So I let it scarify in the fridge, and oops.. totally forgot about it. I was supposed to plant the seeds in August, but screwed that pooch till December. So I planted up the paper towels full of seeds at the end of December. Two of them showed signs of sprouting, and those got put into pots in the solarium, and the other four got put into kitty litter jugs for wintersowing.
And lo! Just a few days ago I helped a bunch of tiny little hellebores break free of their paper towel in the solarium... Squee with joy! These little beauties, if I'm careful, will yield blossoms in 2-3 years. That's part of the reason why they are expensive, they are one of those super patience kind of plants, lol.
So yay for those sprouts! I also started up the earliest of the basils, and just the regular basil has sprouted, still awaiting lemon and lime basils. I also planted the black pepper seed I've had for ages, and who knows if that will sprout or not. Got all the kitty litter jugs done and outside on their racks now. Horehound, Vervain, Feverfew, Valerian Hyssop, Borage, Wormwood, Butterfly Weed, Wild Lupine, Evening Stock, Allium, and Large Mixed Hyacinths. Keep yer fingers crossed that they all send up sprouts. I will also be starting indoor pots of all this stuff too when their indoor sowing times come up.
My Silvery Fir Tree tomato finally finished out it's last fruiting, or at least the last one I was willing to wait through. So those seeds are now stripped out and fermenting. And I cut the plant down, took a half dozen cuttings off of it to hopefully clone up for this year. I also took a half dozen Totem cuttings off the two plants I currently have and are either in fruiting or blooming stages. So far after a few days the cuttings still look really healthy, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will continue on well too. The Copper River cutting from last fall is doing very well, as is the best of the Beaver Lodge Slicer- the two weaker BLS's are not doing so great, but are still valiantly fruiting on. Hopefully we will get some seed stock yet off of those.
The 7-pot Brain Strain Yellow, Fatali, and Aji Lemon peppers I brought in are doing right fine. The one Aji Lemon I brought in way late after freezing temps from the solarium never recovered and I scrapped it. The Martians Carrot that is still out in the solarium is still doing remarkably well considering how cold it has stayed out there now for a couple weeks.
And tee-hee, I've planted up diakon radish for spring seed production now. My sister brought home a huge bag of the stuff last fall, and I simply didn't have time to pickle the stuff, and she sure wasn't going to do it.. So the poor roots just languished out in the solarium till one day I noticed some of them sprouting fresh greenery. So I potted the best couple of them up in the tall cans I usually reserve for growing horseradish, and now they are slowly coming along out in the solarium. Sooner or later it will get warm enough for them to really take off, and then I will get my own seed stock... I hope.... or at least that's how radishes are supposed to work, as biannuals. But this is the first time I'm trying this off of completely unknown stock, so hey, let's all hope for the best right? Some of my experiments fail, but a lot of them sure do work out fine :)
And all in all, I'm pleased as punch with how warm the solarium is staying. Now that I have a growbot out there, I can monitor the temps and a bunch of other stuff too. And it's hit freezing a couple times, but is generally staying between freezing and fridge temps- which is a full ten degrees warmer than outdoors! This is huge. This is a whole growing zone difference huge. If I can keep this up, it will be a game changer. If I can apply myself to some more serious larger greenhouse/hoophouse action outdoors too... why, this whole gardening thing will really change around here. Being in a micro climate is incredible, but some of the growing and season extending abilities is monumental for getting food and such produced. And having a growbot in my solarium is making a marked difference too. Before I was just using a digital thermometer with a high/low mark that would reset every day. Now I get to take hourly readings and can compare them to the actual temps outside to find out what is going on when. Plus I track humidity, lumins, and I have a camera to capture data as well. Mega fucking badass!!
Etsy shop is slowing waaayyy down. I've had some repeated problems with people ordering custom printings without knowing what size they need printed, so I haven't relisted 3D stuff for weeks. And it's so darn cold in the solarium working at my jewlers bench on anything is right out because it's kind of impossible to string beads when you got the shakes from sitting in a 35 degree room, heh.
I need to get off my figurative ass and rework my etsy stuff. It would help if I had someone to take good photographs of my stuff so it looks and sells better- but the one offer I got to photograph stuff never amounted to anything more than words. Sigh, maybe I just need to suck it up and learn how to take good pics, hehehe.
I do have a lot of materials to work with out there, just piling up awaiting my artistic talents. I got a heap of painting to do too, adjusting a lot of stuff to work into the Nightvale scheme. Always a lot of beautiful art I want to work on... always a lot of reality and work I have to dedicate myself to instead. Ain't that always the way of it. I really need to start sneaking in some me and zen time with this.
And today I think I'm going to roast up a turkey- I need to get it into the oven SOON. It's been defrosting for days, so it's well and time. This is one of the four turkeys we picked up for 52 cents a pound. 52 cents, holy fuck good price on meat. But after Thanksgiving, three turkeys sucking up most of the freezer space is pretty ho hum, especially when I have to pass by super good other meat sales because of lack of space! So today is a roast off a turkey day. Mmmmm, means yummy turkey soup soon. And I need to make up a batch of sloppy joe mix out of some ground turkey that's been in the fridge and needs to be used up.
So off I go into cooking land, better get off my butt here... literally this time :)
Well, lol, really I started seeds in July :) Hellebore seeds. It's a facinating winter flower, because it will only sprout in the cold, and blooms during the coldest months. Kind of feels like the opposite of what plants do, right? I thought so too, but they really are such lovely little things.
And extremely expensive as plants, so much so they have been cost prohibitive to me till now. Last June a friendly GW member sent me seed, and a nice goodly lot of it. So I let it scarify in the fridge, and oops.. totally forgot about it. I was supposed to plant the seeds in August, but screwed that pooch till December. So I planted up the paper towels full of seeds at the end of December. Two of them showed signs of sprouting, and those got put into pots in the solarium, and the other four got put into kitty litter jugs for wintersowing.
And lo! Just a few days ago I helped a bunch of tiny little hellebores break free of their paper towel in the solarium... Squee with joy! These little beauties, if I'm careful, will yield blossoms in 2-3 years. That's part of the reason why they are expensive, they are one of those super patience kind of plants, lol.
So yay for those sprouts! I also started up the earliest of the basils, and just the regular basil has sprouted, still awaiting lemon and lime basils. I also planted the black pepper seed I've had for ages, and who knows if that will sprout or not. Got all the kitty litter jugs done and outside on their racks now. Horehound, Vervain, Feverfew, Valerian Hyssop, Borage, Wormwood, Butterfly Weed, Wild Lupine, Evening Stock, Allium, and Large Mixed Hyacinths. Keep yer fingers crossed that they all send up sprouts. I will also be starting indoor pots of all this stuff too when their indoor sowing times come up.
My Silvery Fir Tree tomato finally finished out it's last fruiting, or at least the last one I was willing to wait through. So those seeds are now stripped out and fermenting. And I cut the plant down, took a half dozen cuttings off of it to hopefully clone up for this year. I also took a half dozen Totem cuttings off the two plants I currently have and are either in fruiting or blooming stages. So far after a few days the cuttings still look really healthy, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will continue on well too. The Copper River cutting from last fall is doing very well, as is the best of the Beaver Lodge Slicer- the two weaker BLS's are not doing so great, but are still valiantly fruiting on. Hopefully we will get some seed stock yet off of those.
The 7-pot Brain Strain Yellow, Fatali, and Aji Lemon peppers I brought in are doing right fine. The one Aji Lemon I brought in way late after freezing temps from the solarium never recovered and I scrapped it. The Martians Carrot that is still out in the solarium is still doing remarkably well considering how cold it has stayed out there now for a couple weeks.
And tee-hee, I've planted up diakon radish for spring seed production now. My sister brought home a huge bag of the stuff last fall, and I simply didn't have time to pickle the stuff, and she sure wasn't going to do it.. So the poor roots just languished out in the solarium till one day I noticed some of them sprouting fresh greenery. So I potted the best couple of them up in the tall cans I usually reserve for growing horseradish, and now they are slowly coming along out in the solarium. Sooner or later it will get warm enough for them to really take off, and then I will get my own seed stock... I hope.... or at least that's how radishes are supposed to work, as biannuals. But this is the first time I'm trying this off of completely unknown stock, so hey, let's all hope for the best right? Some of my experiments fail, but a lot of them sure do work out fine :)
And all in all, I'm pleased as punch with how warm the solarium is staying. Now that I have a growbot out there, I can monitor the temps and a bunch of other stuff too. And it's hit freezing a couple times, but is generally staying between freezing and fridge temps- which is a full ten degrees warmer than outdoors! This is huge. This is a whole growing zone difference huge. If I can keep this up, it will be a game changer. If I can apply myself to some more serious larger greenhouse/hoophouse action outdoors too... why, this whole gardening thing will really change around here. Being in a micro climate is incredible, but some of the growing and season extending abilities is monumental for getting food and such produced. And having a growbot in my solarium is making a marked difference too. Before I was just using a digital thermometer with a high/low mark that would reset every day. Now I get to take hourly readings and can compare them to the actual temps outside to find out what is going on when. Plus I track humidity, lumins, and I have a camera to capture data as well. Mega fucking badass!!
Etsy shop is slowing waaayyy down. I've had some repeated problems with people ordering custom printings without knowing what size they need printed, so I haven't relisted 3D stuff for weeks. And it's so darn cold in the solarium working at my jewlers bench on anything is right out because it's kind of impossible to string beads when you got the shakes from sitting in a 35 degree room, heh.
I need to get off my figurative ass and rework my etsy stuff. It would help if I had someone to take good photographs of my stuff so it looks and sells better- but the one offer I got to photograph stuff never amounted to anything more than words. Sigh, maybe I just need to suck it up and learn how to take good pics, hehehe.
I do have a lot of materials to work with out there, just piling up awaiting my artistic talents. I got a heap of painting to do too, adjusting a lot of stuff to work into the Nightvale scheme. Always a lot of beautiful art I want to work on... always a lot of reality and work I have to dedicate myself to instead. Ain't that always the way of it. I really need to start sneaking in some me and zen time with this.
And today I think I'm going to roast up a turkey- I need to get it into the oven SOON. It's been defrosting for days, so it's well and time. This is one of the four turkeys we picked up for 52 cents a pound. 52 cents, holy fuck good price on meat. But after Thanksgiving, three turkeys sucking up most of the freezer space is pretty ho hum, especially when I have to pass by super good other meat sales because of lack of space! So today is a roast off a turkey day. Mmmmm, means yummy turkey soup soon. And I need to make up a batch of sloppy joe mix out of some ground turkey that's been in the fridge and needs to be used up.
So off I go into cooking land, better get off my butt here... literally this time :)
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Finally snow.. woah snow!!
So after fall seemingly extended itself till December 28... now winter has hit us. Pretty good too. First we got some craptacular raining ice- whatever, because it melted off in the 40 degree weather... Now we got our first snow in, several inches of lake effect snow. Had to call in to work because the roads were so nasty.
No matter, I will probably get written up for missing one day of work- good thing I am soooo beyond ready to get a different job. I want to work for the nursery, but when I dropped in the other day to make sure they still had my application on file, the gal was less than thrilled, and told me to put in another application again when they posted help wanted- and it was only seasonal. I was a little put off by her coolness, and by the fact that there was a new employee, a young guy I've never seen before. Hermmmms...
Anywho. Despite the winter weather, or maybe because of it, it's time to start getting on with some gardening. I've wintersown up over half my jugs now, mostly hellebores, poppies, and a variety of herbs. Still got about 10 or so jugs to go, and those are for various flowers.
Decided to start up a thin strip tray of herbs too. Finally used my black pepper seed, we shall see if they grow at all or not, they might not because the seed is old. Also seeded up basil, lime basil, and lemon basil.
It's getting to be around that time that I need to figure out what I'm doing with the peppers and tomatoes I brought in for winter. Silvery Fir Tree is finally getting ripe fruit on it, I just pray it got good seed in it- I need to take clones from it soon before it's too late. The Totems are looking rather troubled, dunno if I should keep trying to hang on to them or not. The Copper River and Beaver Lodge Slicers are looking frail, but putting out blooms, so here's hoping they do well enough for some seed too. Peppers are a bit more difficult since they are really healthy. The Fatali is a beautiful tree in it's own right, lovely with yellow peppers, and the 7-pot Brain Strain Yellow is doing excellent too. The Aji Lemon I pulled in early is just plugging along and not doing much, and the one I pulled in the other day is looking sad as hell and might only be useful to pull it's final peppers off before scrapping.
I'm currently testing the very last of the summer tomato seed for germination. Today I get to set up test plates for all the pepper seeds, and boy is there a bunch of those!
Did some pricing for plastic to encase the dog run with, for my notion of making it kind of a hoop house come spring. About 100 bucks for reinforced plastic in a 20x100 roll, and around 75 for non-reinforced. I think it would probably be worth it to pay the extra for reinforcement. If I'm careful, I can re-use the plastic for at least a few years. Still not sure if I want to do this or not though, but I got some time to think about it.
Tarps for the pop up though- that's not quite so easy to dismiss. I will end up needing four of them if I really want to make walls. Good thing they aren't too bad price wise for the size I need. It will take a bit of messing around, but I think I can get it to work out nicely for plant sales this spring... I hope.
Other than that, not much else I can talk about right now. I need to get off my butt and into my now barely freezing solarium and get some work done :)
No matter, I will probably get written up for missing one day of work- good thing I am soooo beyond ready to get a different job. I want to work for the nursery, but when I dropped in the other day to make sure they still had my application on file, the gal was less than thrilled, and told me to put in another application again when they posted help wanted- and it was only seasonal. I was a little put off by her coolness, and by the fact that there was a new employee, a young guy I've never seen before. Hermmmms...
Anywho. Despite the winter weather, or maybe because of it, it's time to start getting on with some gardening. I've wintersown up over half my jugs now, mostly hellebores, poppies, and a variety of herbs. Still got about 10 or so jugs to go, and those are for various flowers.
Decided to start up a thin strip tray of herbs too. Finally used my black pepper seed, we shall see if they grow at all or not, they might not because the seed is old. Also seeded up basil, lime basil, and lemon basil.
It's getting to be around that time that I need to figure out what I'm doing with the peppers and tomatoes I brought in for winter. Silvery Fir Tree is finally getting ripe fruit on it, I just pray it got good seed in it- I need to take clones from it soon before it's too late. The Totems are looking rather troubled, dunno if I should keep trying to hang on to them or not. The Copper River and Beaver Lodge Slicers are looking frail, but putting out blooms, so here's hoping they do well enough for some seed too. Peppers are a bit more difficult since they are really healthy. The Fatali is a beautiful tree in it's own right, lovely with yellow peppers, and the 7-pot Brain Strain Yellow is doing excellent too. The Aji Lemon I pulled in early is just plugging along and not doing much, and the one I pulled in the other day is looking sad as hell and might only be useful to pull it's final peppers off before scrapping.
I'm currently testing the very last of the summer tomato seed for germination. Today I get to set up test plates for all the pepper seeds, and boy is there a bunch of those!
Did some pricing for plastic to encase the dog run with, for my notion of making it kind of a hoop house come spring. About 100 bucks for reinforced plastic in a 20x100 roll, and around 75 for non-reinforced. I think it would probably be worth it to pay the extra for reinforcement. If I'm careful, I can re-use the plastic for at least a few years. Still not sure if I want to do this or not though, but I got some time to think about it.
Tarps for the pop up though- that's not quite so easy to dismiss. I will end up needing four of them if I really want to make walls. Good thing they aren't too bad price wise for the size I need. It will take a bit of messing around, but I think I can get it to work out nicely for plant sales this spring... I hope.
Other than that, not much else I can talk about right now. I need to get off my butt and into my now barely freezing solarium and get some work done :)
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Wow, two months and the end of the year...
I haven't written a post in two months, whew. I can't say nothing has happened, though life has mostly been a blur of split up days of work mixed with losing my mind and depression trying to get everything done.
So a few brief highlights... Sold some stuff on Esty, yay! Still have that last small handful of tomatoes from this years garden to eat up, which is a triumph in and of itself. Weather has been bizarre- just yesterday was our first real drop down into freezing and icy snow crap. It was in the 60's for Christmas. The plague went around here a few weeks ago, and that totally sucked ass. Got to see one of my brothers happily married, and that was supremely joyous.
I am already in midst of plans for the 2016 yard of course. So far, I've been able to overwinter quite a few plants. And have a ton of seed planting planned too- the veggies are starting to really form up, now I need to figure out the flower and herb planning, lol. I sowed the first of the wintersowing jugs today, four of them full of hellebore starts. I had kind of forgotten about the seed packets in the fridge, and sure enough, some of them had sprouted. So potted up they needed to be.
There will be extra rotation going on this coming year with all the problems that erupted this year- that will teach me to try to keep the beds static, lol. Right now the kennel beds, the north side is planted in with garlic, and the west side is empty- I want to give that one a serious digging in and work over before doing anything else. The three lasagne beds need a good digging in too. The raised beds need a serious weeding and turn over. The "new" beds need a lot too, heh. And I still want to seriously consider digging in some more front border.
Yipes, what I wouldn't give for a tiller, lol.
The close of this year also brought us the greenhouse that blew away- and needs to be fixed. Sis and I ended up traveling around the whole pond and back 40 before finally finding it in the neighbors back 40, lol. It was for sure an adventure walk, I ended up waist deep in a ditch. Good times of living in the boonies, hehe. I really loved having that season extender on hand. I'm starting to kick around ideas of wrapping the kennel runs in plastic and seeing how that works for an "instant" hoop house. I have some pretty high hopes that we can get the chicken coop up and running, and probably get a hive or two set up in the year to come.
This year coming brings our first round of comparison tomatoes. Jaune Flamme will be coming back along with Snow White to go up against a main crop of blacks, and some container varieties of interest- including a second year of Dwarf Wild Fred. I will be growing fewer super hot peppers, and more mild and sweet peppers- but overall reducing the total number of pepper plants. Back on deck for sure are Aji Lemon and 7-pot brain strain yellow so long as the plants I have inside fare well. My mystery CA pepper too if the cuttings I took fairly late into the season ever decide to start doing well. Fish and Black Hungarian for beauty and tasty. Going to try to get a cherry bomb crop again. And for sweets- not sure yet.
I put in my 2016 seed order already- 12 packets of seeds spread across three companies.
High Mowing had my Jaune Flamme and free shipping- so I ordered those and a pretty sounding bread poppy seed.
Since Garden Watchdog listed Seedsnowas a good source, I picked up a few 99 cent packets. Ordered a couple packets from my long standing favorite, Pinetree Seeds- and for the first time ever, I didn't order any veggie seed from them, only some flowers.
But I guess I should pop off this post while I can... try to get my shit together for next year.
So a few brief highlights... Sold some stuff on Esty, yay! Still have that last small handful of tomatoes from this years garden to eat up, which is a triumph in and of itself. Weather has been bizarre- just yesterday was our first real drop down into freezing and icy snow crap. It was in the 60's for Christmas. The plague went around here a few weeks ago, and that totally sucked ass. Got to see one of my brothers happily married, and that was supremely joyous.
I am already in midst of plans for the 2016 yard of course. So far, I've been able to overwinter quite a few plants. And have a ton of seed planting planned too- the veggies are starting to really form up, now I need to figure out the flower and herb planning, lol. I sowed the first of the wintersowing jugs today, four of them full of hellebore starts. I had kind of forgotten about the seed packets in the fridge, and sure enough, some of them had sprouted. So potted up they needed to be.
There will be extra rotation going on this coming year with all the problems that erupted this year- that will teach me to try to keep the beds static, lol. Right now the kennel beds, the north side is planted in with garlic, and the west side is empty- I want to give that one a serious digging in and work over before doing anything else. The three lasagne beds need a good digging in too. The raised beds need a serious weeding and turn over. The "new" beds need a lot too, heh. And I still want to seriously consider digging in some more front border.
Yipes, what I wouldn't give for a tiller, lol.
The close of this year also brought us the greenhouse that blew away- and needs to be fixed. Sis and I ended up traveling around the whole pond and back 40 before finally finding it in the neighbors back 40, lol. It was for sure an adventure walk, I ended up waist deep in a ditch. Good times of living in the boonies, hehe. I really loved having that season extender on hand. I'm starting to kick around ideas of wrapping the kennel runs in plastic and seeing how that works for an "instant" hoop house. I have some pretty high hopes that we can get the chicken coop up and running, and probably get a hive or two set up in the year to come.
This year coming brings our first round of comparison tomatoes. Jaune Flamme will be coming back along with Snow White to go up against a main crop of blacks, and some container varieties of interest- including a second year of Dwarf Wild Fred. I will be growing fewer super hot peppers, and more mild and sweet peppers- but overall reducing the total number of pepper plants. Back on deck for sure are Aji Lemon and 7-pot brain strain yellow so long as the plants I have inside fare well. My mystery CA pepper too if the cuttings I took fairly late into the season ever decide to start doing well. Fish and Black Hungarian for beauty and tasty. Going to try to get a cherry bomb crop again. And for sweets- not sure yet.
I put in my 2016 seed order already- 12 packets of seeds spread across three companies.
High Mowing had my Jaune Flamme and free shipping- so I ordered those and a pretty sounding bread poppy seed.
Since Garden Watchdog listed Seedsnowas a good source, I picked up a few 99 cent packets. Ordered a couple packets from my long standing favorite, Pinetree Seeds- and for the first time ever, I didn't order any veggie seed from them, only some flowers.
But I guess I should pop off this post while I can... try to get my shit together for next year.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Preserving tally
Started April 27, 2015... Yeah, I know it's kind of off, and I've lost a bit of time here, but whatever, lol.
Couple weeks ago I dehydrated up a quart of shredded from raw sweet potatoes.
The other day I dehydrated up a quart each of clementine and lemon slices, and dehydrated 4 pounds of kale (on sale 99 cents baby) to about 6 quart jars full.
Made up three pounds of chive butter for the freezer, and a quart of chive-peppercorn vodka.
5/8- IQF and sealed up 6 packs of asparagus for the freezer- about 12 pounds overall.
Dehydrated a quart of clementines, a quart of lemon slices, and a pint and a half and a pint of lime slices.
5/13- did up a quart jar of fridge mushrooms from 2 pounds of baby portebellas. It was a super tight pack, but it would have been too loose in two quart jars. Note to self, each jar packs a pound and a half perfectly, keep that in mind for future reference.
5/19- canned up 9 half pints of dandelion jelly. I actually did 10, but lost a lid during processing on one, so it ended up being a fridge jar instead of a shelf stable jar.
5/28- canned up 7 half pints of roselle jelly. It's beautiful, a lovely red color. Bottled up a 24 oz bottle of sage blossom simple syrup.
6/6- two half pints of pectin free yellow nectarine jam. It was an experiment in doing pectin free, so it has the skins on. Tasted good, and set perfectly. Also IQF two pounds of whole strawberries.
6/9- 7 half pints of white nectarine and lemon verbena preserves. A different style of canning than the pectin free jam, but still has no additional pectin in it because the skins are kept on. It's even tastier than the pectin free, but kind of sweet.
Also made up three batches of tofu jerky- killed my dehydrator.
6/10- 4 wide mouth pints of garlic scapes. One raised bed of garlic makes about 2 pints. Since I still have one raised bed that the scapes aren't ready to go on yet, I should be making another 2 pints soon.
6/12- 2 pounds each of white and yellow nectarines sliced, and IQF- now in vacuum sealed bags in the freezer.
6/17- one pint and a half of garlic scapes pickled. I did them up fridge pickle style using a different recipe than the canned ones. All the garlic scapes are now out of the garden. Most of the scapes were smaller, more delicate than the first batch, and I reserved the stems for cooking with instead of packing up.
6/19- Two quarts of fridge pickled mushrooms. Hardings had six of the tiny baby button mushroom boxes on clearance for 99 cents each, and three fit perfectly into one quart jar. I took it as I was meant to make pickled mushrooms, lol. I am dead out of allspice berries, so instead I used some pickling spice, and a pinch of whole cloves, with a shake each of cinnamon and nutmeg to make up for it. They tasted really good, and smelled really good, here's hoping my substitution was a good idea :)
6/22- dehydrated up a pint or so jar of savory. Still have a bunch of sage and oregano on the box fan drying out. It sure is a PITA not to have a proper dehydrator anymore, but it is handy to use the trays I have on the box fan to at least get some herbs set up. Picking time in now, and we do need to stock up on a bunch of herbs. Pickled two pints of brussels sprouts, using Food in Jars recipe.
7/5- pickled 4 pints of brussels sprouts- one didn't take the seal, and went into the fridge.
7/8- pickled 3 12 oz jars of spicy wax beans- first decent crop from the garden!
7/13- pickled up 3 pints of dilly beans, again from the garden, yum!!!
7/17- pickled up 3 pints of dilly beans
7/25- pickled 6 12 oz jars of spicy wax beans, 2 pints of mixed pepper rings, 2 pints of pickled summer squash, one quart of regular pickle mix fridge pickled summer squash, and one quart of lime and garlic and lime basil fridge pickled summer squash. Vacuum sealed for the freezer 2 one pound packages of smoked pork roast, and 1 two pound, 2 one pound packages of smoked ham.
Eating notes.. the fridge pickled garlic scapes were utterly delish!! But the canned ones were a bit better, because they were a little bit softer due to the canning process. The fridge brussels sprouts and another jar have been demolished- apparently those are the only way my sister will now eat her hated brussels sprouts, lol.
8/4- 15 half pints of pickled cubed zucchini. I used the recipe from the ball book, but left out the sugar and added garlic. We shall see if that was good or not.
8/5- 7 pints of dilly beans, 4 pints of spicy mixed pepper rings. Set up one quart of lacto-fermented zucchini chips. Froze two bags of garlic roasted zucchini, and one big bag of mixed beans. Shredded up five quarts of zucchini and vacuum sealed it for when the dehydrator comes in in a few days. Got a bundle each of oregano, thyme, and sage off their drying hooks and into jars.
8/12- catch up post. Got a dehydrator last week Friday!!! Happy birthday shipment from my hubby. Of course I've been drying every day since then. Sooo.. ..
5 quarts of shredded zukes dried down to 1 quart. 3 bundles of celery dried down to a pint and a half jar. 6 pounds of mushrooms dried down into 3 quart jars. One dozen half pint jars of pickled mushrooms. Got 5 pounds of blueberries and 4 pounds got IQF and in a freezer bag, the other quart given to sis for fresh eating. 3 full sized casserole bags of raw zuke slices vacuum sealed in the freezer. 3 quart and 1 pint of pork stock in the freezer.
8/17- got another round of herbs done up. Sage, marjoram, oregano, and thyme. A round of tomatoes dehydrated- a mix of Wild Fred, Tumbling Tom, Beaver Lodge, and Yellow in Red out. And eight pints of white tomato product canned up early this morning- 1 gallon pitcher of diced tomatoes makes 8 wide mouth pints.
8/19- one quart of dehydrated corn and two quarts of dehydrated mixed veggies done up and put away.
8/22- got three quarts and one pint of Italian tomatoes made up in the crockpot. It's going into the fridge for now, not sure if it will be frozen off or canned up yet. I got a goodly couple gallons of tomatoes to can up first. I also have a heap of various peppers and a bunch of Wild Fred tomatoes in the smoker.. we shall see if those are going to end up in the freezer, fridge, or right into the dehydrator overnight or not, depends on how they turn out after I pull them out of the smoker in a few hours. But at the end of the whole shebang, they will get dehydrated.
8/27- another catch up listing, lol. I got the peppers and tomatoes off the smoker, one quart of smoked wax and banana peppers, partial pint and a half jars of hot peppers, sweet peppers, and tomatoes that I need to fill the smoker again to top those jars off. Got another quart of tomato slices dried. Six 12 ounce jars of Habanero beans pickled up, one quart of regular fridge pickled beans, one large pint of pickled garlic tucked away in the back of the fridge. Eight more pints of tomato product canned up.
8/30- Got a smoker full of tomatoes smoked up and are now in the dehydrator. Got four pints and 6 half pints of white tomato juice canned, and four pints and five half pints of white and copper tomato juice canned. Got another couple gallons worth of tomatoes into the freezer for later canning, I now have three gallon batches in the freezer that will need attending to sooner rather than later. I am now a full blown convert of freezing to remove tomato skins rather than blanch and shock.
9/3- four quarts of Italian stewed tomatoes and five pints of spicy enchilada sauce cooked up and into the fridge under vacuum seal- might not have the time to get them into the freezer proper tomorrow, but under seal it will keep in the fridge for weeks if needed. Two quarts of chicken stock into the freezer.
9/4- one quart of yellow tomatoes dehydrated and packed up. Got called off work so was able to get canning done today. The five pints of enchilada sauce and eight pints of stewed tomatoes are now canned up and shelf stable instead of needing to go into the freezer :)
9/9- been crockpot and canning today... So cooling down right now is 12- 8 oz jars and 5- 4 oz jars of white hot fatali salsa. Four pints and one half pint of enchilada sauce. Almost four quarts of sloppy joe mix up for canning tomorrow, got a crockpot of mild enchilada sauce set up. Vacuum sealed up and put into the pantry a pint and a half of dried radish greens, and white tomato sticks.
9/10- Four pints of mild enchilada sauce canned, seven pints of sloppy joe mix.
9/16- twelve 8 oz jars of "not so hot garlic" salsa.
9/18- Seven pints of enchilada sauce canned- have already cracked open the first can, very tasty :)
9/30- catch up listing... 9 pints of enchilada sauce, 9 pints of smokey enchilada sauce, ten 8 oz jars of smokey enchilada sauce, 1 quart of dehydrated white tomato sticks, 1 quart of dehydrated anhiem peppers, two pint and a half jars of smoked tomatoes, two quart jars of smoked and dehydrated inferno banana peppers, one pint of smoked and dehydrated chinese 5 color peppers, 8 oz of smoked and dehydrated aji lemon peppers, two trays of clarified tomato juice concentrate cubes in the freezer, one half tray of smoked ham reduction in the freezer. Seven pint and a half of lemony cauliflower, 4 pints of tomato sauce, and six 8 oz jars of tomato sauce.
10/2- two quarts of dehydrated onions- one is already filling the stove jar, the other on the shelf. Only a couple more quarts worth to go, lol.
10/3- seven pint and a half jars of lemony cauliflower, one quart of holy shit hot pepper rings.
10/5- another quart of dehydrated onions.
10/6- a dozen half pints of pickled mushrooms, a half dozen pints of rotel style tomatoes, five 8 oz jars of creole sauce, ten 8 oz jars of chili sauce, and five pint jars of Indian tomato chutney.
10/12- six pints of tomato puree, one quart of dehydrated onions
10/16- 6 bags of jiffy mix, 10 bags of six muffin mix, one olive jar size of veggie stock powder made.
12/30. Been eating the hell out of everything. Need to can more tomatoes for sure next year. Pickled brussels have been an unexpected hit. Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes were a fail, but the pickled ones were good.
Looking forward to preserving a lot more in the new year :)
Couple weeks ago I dehydrated up a quart of shredded from raw sweet potatoes.
The other day I dehydrated up a quart each of clementine and lemon slices, and dehydrated 4 pounds of kale (on sale 99 cents baby) to about 6 quart jars full.
Made up three pounds of chive butter for the freezer, and a quart of chive-peppercorn vodka.
5/8- IQF and sealed up 6 packs of asparagus for the freezer- about 12 pounds overall.
Dehydrated a quart of clementines, a quart of lemon slices, and a pint and a half and a pint of lime slices.
5/13- did up a quart jar of fridge mushrooms from 2 pounds of baby portebellas. It was a super tight pack, but it would have been too loose in two quart jars. Note to self, each jar packs a pound and a half perfectly, keep that in mind for future reference.
5/19- canned up 9 half pints of dandelion jelly. I actually did 10, but lost a lid during processing on one, so it ended up being a fridge jar instead of a shelf stable jar.
5/28- canned up 7 half pints of roselle jelly. It's beautiful, a lovely red color. Bottled up a 24 oz bottle of sage blossom simple syrup.
6/6- two half pints of pectin free yellow nectarine jam. It was an experiment in doing pectin free, so it has the skins on. Tasted good, and set perfectly. Also IQF two pounds of whole strawberries.
6/9- 7 half pints of white nectarine and lemon verbena preserves. A different style of canning than the pectin free jam, but still has no additional pectin in it because the skins are kept on. It's even tastier than the pectin free, but kind of sweet.
Also made up three batches of tofu jerky- killed my dehydrator.
6/10- 4 wide mouth pints of garlic scapes. One raised bed of garlic makes about 2 pints. Since I still have one raised bed that the scapes aren't ready to go on yet, I should be making another 2 pints soon.
6/12- 2 pounds each of white and yellow nectarines sliced, and IQF- now in vacuum sealed bags in the freezer.
6/17- one pint and a half of garlic scapes pickled. I did them up fridge pickle style using a different recipe than the canned ones. All the garlic scapes are now out of the garden. Most of the scapes were smaller, more delicate than the first batch, and I reserved the stems for cooking with instead of packing up.
6/19- Two quarts of fridge pickled mushrooms. Hardings had six of the tiny baby button mushroom boxes on clearance for 99 cents each, and three fit perfectly into one quart jar. I took it as I was meant to make pickled mushrooms, lol. I am dead out of allspice berries, so instead I used some pickling spice, and a pinch of whole cloves, with a shake each of cinnamon and nutmeg to make up for it. They tasted really good, and smelled really good, here's hoping my substitution was a good idea :)
6/22- dehydrated up a pint or so jar of savory. Still have a bunch of sage and oregano on the box fan drying out. It sure is a PITA not to have a proper dehydrator anymore, but it is handy to use the trays I have on the box fan to at least get some herbs set up. Picking time in now, and we do need to stock up on a bunch of herbs. Pickled two pints of brussels sprouts, using Food in Jars recipe.
7/5- pickled 4 pints of brussels sprouts- one didn't take the seal, and went into the fridge.
7/8- pickled 3 12 oz jars of spicy wax beans- first decent crop from the garden!
7/13- pickled up 3 pints of dilly beans, again from the garden, yum!!!
7/17- pickled up 3 pints of dilly beans
7/25- pickled 6 12 oz jars of spicy wax beans, 2 pints of mixed pepper rings, 2 pints of pickled summer squash, one quart of regular pickle mix fridge pickled summer squash, and one quart of lime and garlic and lime basil fridge pickled summer squash. Vacuum sealed for the freezer 2 one pound packages of smoked pork roast, and 1 two pound, 2 one pound packages of smoked ham.
Eating notes.. the fridge pickled garlic scapes were utterly delish!! But the canned ones were a bit better, because they were a little bit softer due to the canning process. The fridge brussels sprouts and another jar have been demolished- apparently those are the only way my sister will now eat her hated brussels sprouts, lol.
8/4- 15 half pints of pickled cubed zucchini. I used the recipe from the ball book, but left out the sugar and added garlic. We shall see if that was good or not.
8/5- 7 pints of dilly beans, 4 pints of spicy mixed pepper rings. Set up one quart of lacto-fermented zucchini chips. Froze two bags of garlic roasted zucchini, and one big bag of mixed beans. Shredded up five quarts of zucchini and vacuum sealed it for when the dehydrator comes in in a few days. Got a bundle each of oregano, thyme, and sage off their drying hooks and into jars.
8/12- catch up post. Got a dehydrator last week Friday!!! Happy birthday shipment from my hubby. Of course I've been drying every day since then. Sooo.. ..
5 quarts of shredded zukes dried down to 1 quart. 3 bundles of celery dried down to a pint and a half jar. 6 pounds of mushrooms dried down into 3 quart jars. One dozen half pint jars of pickled mushrooms. Got 5 pounds of blueberries and 4 pounds got IQF and in a freezer bag, the other quart given to sis for fresh eating. 3 full sized casserole bags of raw zuke slices vacuum sealed in the freezer. 3 quart and 1 pint of pork stock in the freezer.
8/17- got another round of herbs done up. Sage, marjoram, oregano, and thyme. A round of tomatoes dehydrated- a mix of Wild Fred, Tumbling Tom, Beaver Lodge, and Yellow in Red out. And eight pints of white tomato product canned up early this morning- 1 gallon pitcher of diced tomatoes makes 8 wide mouth pints.
8/19- one quart of dehydrated corn and two quarts of dehydrated mixed veggies done up and put away.
8/22- got three quarts and one pint of Italian tomatoes made up in the crockpot. It's going into the fridge for now, not sure if it will be frozen off or canned up yet. I got a goodly couple gallons of tomatoes to can up first. I also have a heap of various peppers and a bunch of Wild Fred tomatoes in the smoker.. we shall see if those are going to end up in the freezer, fridge, or right into the dehydrator overnight or not, depends on how they turn out after I pull them out of the smoker in a few hours. But at the end of the whole shebang, they will get dehydrated.
8/27- another catch up listing, lol. I got the peppers and tomatoes off the smoker, one quart of smoked wax and banana peppers, partial pint and a half jars of hot peppers, sweet peppers, and tomatoes that I need to fill the smoker again to top those jars off. Got another quart of tomato slices dried. Six 12 ounce jars of Habanero beans pickled up, one quart of regular fridge pickled beans, one large pint of pickled garlic tucked away in the back of the fridge. Eight more pints of tomato product canned up.
8/30- Got a smoker full of tomatoes smoked up and are now in the dehydrator. Got four pints and 6 half pints of white tomato juice canned, and four pints and five half pints of white and copper tomato juice canned. Got another couple gallons worth of tomatoes into the freezer for later canning, I now have three gallon batches in the freezer that will need attending to sooner rather than later. I am now a full blown convert of freezing to remove tomato skins rather than blanch and shock.
9/3- four quarts of Italian stewed tomatoes and five pints of spicy enchilada sauce cooked up and into the fridge under vacuum seal- might not have the time to get them into the freezer proper tomorrow, but under seal it will keep in the fridge for weeks if needed. Two quarts of chicken stock into the freezer.
9/4- one quart of yellow tomatoes dehydrated and packed up. Got called off work so was able to get canning done today. The five pints of enchilada sauce and eight pints of stewed tomatoes are now canned up and shelf stable instead of needing to go into the freezer :)
9/9- been crockpot and canning today... So cooling down right now is 12- 8 oz jars and 5- 4 oz jars of white hot fatali salsa. Four pints and one half pint of enchilada sauce. Almost four quarts of sloppy joe mix up for canning tomorrow, got a crockpot of mild enchilada sauce set up. Vacuum sealed up and put into the pantry a pint and a half of dried radish greens, and white tomato sticks.
9/10- Four pints of mild enchilada sauce canned, seven pints of sloppy joe mix.
9/16- twelve 8 oz jars of "not so hot garlic" salsa.
9/18- Seven pints of enchilada sauce canned- have already cracked open the first can, very tasty :)
9/30- catch up listing... 9 pints of enchilada sauce, 9 pints of smokey enchilada sauce, ten 8 oz jars of smokey enchilada sauce, 1 quart of dehydrated white tomato sticks, 1 quart of dehydrated anhiem peppers, two pint and a half jars of smoked tomatoes, two quart jars of smoked and dehydrated inferno banana peppers, one pint of smoked and dehydrated chinese 5 color peppers, 8 oz of smoked and dehydrated aji lemon peppers, two trays of clarified tomato juice concentrate cubes in the freezer, one half tray of smoked ham reduction in the freezer. Seven pint and a half of lemony cauliflower, 4 pints of tomato sauce, and six 8 oz jars of tomato sauce.
10/2- two quarts of dehydrated onions- one is already filling the stove jar, the other on the shelf. Only a couple more quarts worth to go, lol.
10/3- seven pint and a half jars of lemony cauliflower, one quart of holy shit hot pepper rings.
10/5- another quart of dehydrated onions.
10/6- a dozen half pints of pickled mushrooms, a half dozen pints of rotel style tomatoes, five 8 oz jars of creole sauce, ten 8 oz jars of chili sauce, and five pint jars of Indian tomato chutney.
10/12- six pints of tomato puree, one quart of dehydrated onions
10/16- 6 bags of jiffy mix, 10 bags of six muffin mix, one olive jar size of veggie stock powder made.
12/30. Been eating the hell out of everything. Need to can more tomatoes for sure next year. Pickled brussels have been an unexpected hit. Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes were a fail, but the pickled ones were good.
Looking forward to preserving a lot more in the new year :)
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