Hunker Down Its that time of year again, when the farm gets ready to hunker down and hibernate. The eggs will peak for a little in the cool of fall and then begin to slow to a trickle over the cold, short-day winter months. There will be no goats this year. Benevolence in housing stray goats resulted in a sad incurable virus, so now our freezer will be filled with goat, which is a good thing, as there was no pig this year. The canning shelves however, are bursting with goodies from the summer garden. I scramble through every, non-gardening-non-momming-waking-hour canning up a storm. Eating from the cupboard over the winter months is such satisfying joy! The allium baskets are finally full this year. Skimping through for many years trying to master the little buggers. A meal is simply, not a meal, unless it is loaded with alliums. The fresh-sweet onions are coming to an end as I race the sprout or rot to the canning jar. Hot pepper and sweet onion jelly has been hot-on-the-stove this past week. Ive done 36-1/2 pint jars. That should do. I still have yet to do sweet pickled peppers. Those will take place with what is left after market tomorrow. Some people think a gardener eats best in the summer, oh we do eat well, mostly raw as we work, fresh bean, mustards, cherry tomatoes and snap peas, full by the time we go in to feed the rest of the crew. But the reality is, the best meals bloom in the winter months. Fresh wheat ground into wheat flour for fresh hot homemade bread. Minced garlic drying over the wood stove for garlic powder in every meal. Shallots are the key to onion storage; a half bushel of both red shallots and yellow shallots shall tide us over. Chillis with fresh dry beans from the garden, stew in cans of hot pack tomatoes. Roasts with storage potatoes & carrots. I look forward to the winter months, as that is when I have time to cook with all the fare I put up. Some people think gardeners eat best in summer, I think we eat best in winter when we get to hunker down.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 23:02:39 +0000
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