- Joined
- Oct 12, 2020
- Messages
- 407
- Climate
- Cold, Cool, Mountains, or Artic
- Thread starter
- #181
Yeah, I've heard Australia has a few nasty critters. That's one nice thing about a cold climate...we don't really have to worry about significantly venomous critters.
The nice thing about the aurora is that it's different every time you see it. There are colour changes and shifts. I'd imagine The Netherlands should have been far enough north to have seen it, but if you were in among city lights, that pretty much eliminates visibility. There's a southern aurora as well, but not having ventured to the southern hemisphere (yet), I can't comment on it.
I'm not entirely sure I have a good answer. I think it depends somewhat. One of my preferences is the least amount of effort, so those foods that cure with time / sunlight / temperature, is probably the best. Drying is easy, makes food shelf-stable, and lasts a long time...our dehydrator is a fairly small, simple unit. I'd love to do some sun-drying since that would eliminate electrical costs. This is my first season fermenting, so I'm not sure yet where that fits in the ranking. Of course, whether fermenting with salt, pickling with salt or vinegar, it means you have to limit how much you eat somewhat.
On to today's adventure...this morning the weather station closest to the country place recorded a mild, but extended, frost, so we ventured out to check on things and do what was necessary. It does make me with we'd gotten more done in the last week. We definitely did have frost.
Melons and Galeux D'Esynes.
Spaghetti squash to the right, Mandan squash centre left, and others farther back.
Frost apparently sweetens Brussels sprouts...we brought home two stalks.
Mandan squash in the trailer.
She Who Must Be Obeyed working on the Swiss chard while I'm working on Galeux in the background...our daughter was operating the camera.
Same trailer with 17 Galeux D'Esynes doing a much better job of filling it.
There was some rain to the north of us...we got the edge with a bit of a sprinkle, but received a gift afterward.
Sunset keeps getting earlier...of course, every minute the light changes.
Pumpkins (winter luxury) and spaghetti squash we'd harvested in the dark Monday.
Monday's harvest of Turk's Turban, Mandan, and Patisson Panache.
Galeux D'Esynes harvested Monday...we have at least two in the city, so that means we got 22 from the two or three hills.
Today's small squash harvest.
You can see some of the frost spotting on some of the spaghetti squash...we'll be keeping a closer eye on these and consuming / giving them away first. At worst, they will spoil. At best they won't cure properly so won't keep as long. There's more than one per week's worth here anyway, which is much more than we've ever used before. At a farmer's market, one vendor mentioned that you can cook them up, shred out the innards, and freeze in whatever portion size you'd like to avoid spoilage. I'm not sure we have enough freezer space as we'll be getting a whole pork and a turkey this month.
Phoenix decided he had to get in on the action.
Soon we will have to see how these taste. If these cure properly, they are a nice salmon colour and the bumps become a pale gray...I'd rather use these for Halloween decorations than plain old orange pumpkins.
One last sunset shot before we headed home. Happily we got everything done in the daylight today. There's always more to do. A few hills of potatoes were also harvested to help make space for planting hardneck garlic, which I plan to do Sunday.
Looking at what we did today and the photos, I can't but think about some of the abundance we've been blessed with. If you factor in our time and fuel going back and forth to the property, it certainly isn't free, but considering the volume of food that has come from a small packet of seeds, along with some sweat equity, it really is quite amazing. While we won't be able to eat everything that's been harvested, we should certainly be less reliant on grocery stores over the coming months. We have given away a few care packages and I can see more of that, as well as offering some to charities that feed others in the coming days.
The nice thing about the aurora is that it's different every time you see it. There are colour changes and shifts. I'd imagine The Netherlands should have been far enough north to have seen it, but if you were in among city lights, that pretty much eliminates visibility. There's a southern aurora as well, but not having ventured to the southern hemisphere (yet), I can't comment on it.
I'm not entirely sure I have a good answer. I think it depends somewhat. One of my preferences is the least amount of effort, so those foods that cure with time / sunlight / temperature, is probably the best. Drying is easy, makes food shelf-stable, and lasts a long time...our dehydrator is a fairly small, simple unit. I'd love to do some sun-drying since that would eliminate electrical costs. This is my first season fermenting, so I'm not sure yet where that fits in the ranking. Of course, whether fermenting with salt, pickling with salt or vinegar, it means you have to limit how much you eat somewhat.
On to today's adventure...this morning the weather station closest to the country place recorded a mild, but extended, frost, so we ventured out to check on things and do what was necessary. It does make me with we'd gotten more done in the last week. We definitely did have frost.
Melons and Galeux D'Esynes.
Spaghetti squash to the right, Mandan squash centre left, and others farther back.
Frost apparently sweetens Brussels sprouts...we brought home two stalks.
Mandan squash in the trailer.
She Who Must Be Obeyed working on the Swiss chard while I'm working on Galeux in the background...our daughter was operating the camera.
Same trailer with 17 Galeux D'Esynes doing a much better job of filling it.
There was some rain to the north of us...we got the edge with a bit of a sprinkle, but received a gift afterward.
Sunset keeps getting earlier...of course, every minute the light changes.
Pumpkins (winter luxury) and spaghetti squash we'd harvested in the dark Monday.
Monday's harvest of Turk's Turban, Mandan, and Patisson Panache.
Galeux D'Esynes harvested Monday...we have at least two in the city, so that means we got 22 from the two or three hills.
Today's small squash harvest.
You can see some of the frost spotting on some of the spaghetti squash...we'll be keeping a closer eye on these and consuming / giving them away first. At worst, they will spoil. At best they won't cure properly so won't keep as long. There's more than one per week's worth here anyway, which is much more than we've ever used before. At a farmer's market, one vendor mentioned that you can cook them up, shred out the innards, and freeze in whatever portion size you'd like to avoid spoilage. I'm not sure we have enough freezer space as we'll be getting a whole pork and a turkey this month.
Phoenix decided he had to get in on the action.
Soon we will have to see how these taste. If these cure properly, they are a nice salmon colour and the bumps become a pale gray...I'd rather use these for Halloween decorations than plain old orange pumpkins.
One last sunset shot before we headed home. Happily we got everything done in the daylight today. There's always more to do. A few hills of potatoes were also harvested to help make space for planting hardneck garlic, which I plan to do Sunday.
Looking at what we did today and the photos, I can't but think about some of the abundance we've been blessed with. If you factor in our time and fuel going back and forth to the property, it certainly isn't free, but considering the volume of food that has come from a small packet of seeds, along with some sweat equity, it really is quite amazing. While we won't be able to eat everything that's been harvested, we should certainly be less reliant on grocery stores over the coming months. We have given away a few care packages and I can see more of that, as well as offering some to charities that feed others in the coming days.