Oh my how cold it was this tuesday! We had frost monday also, but it wasn't nearly this freezing...
On sunday I thought there might be a cold night ahead - full moon and clear skyes and all. I didn't cover my courgettes, beans or corns - corns are miserable this year (too little watering, I suppose) anyway and I have had enough courgettes and beans. And I also have three courgette plants in the polytunnel as well as few beans. Enough is enough!
Yesterday I did however pick all rest of courgettes (over 5kg I think), and last two strawberries (there is still more on plants, but they will not ripen anymore). Today I'm going to get all corn cobs (there is only few) and runner beans.
At the moment I have too much vegetables to handle, I got a cardboard box full of brassicas (brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower (purple and green) and cabbage heads. And I have my own red cabbages and kale. I really should be making sauerkraut.
It's been a busy week, d has been doing her work experience internship at a funeral parlour - she originally wanted to go to local art museum, but they weren't interested. Their loss I say. D has been thrilled to bits, she has been cleaning windows and dusting coffins and has told me "This was the best day ever!" every day... She has also learnt how to use local trains, so far she hasn't got lost. I'm sorry, but my children are different.
Next week I'll be off for few days (a work trip) and I have no idea how os is going to manage with 'Suma and cats. Hb is of no use, he has first ever night sifts in this millenia - last time he did night sifts it was 90's and he was 20 years younger... Actually I have done night sifts more recently.
I have lit a fire in the dining room stove three last evenings. Good thing we have loads of fire wood ready, most of it stacked already. I load wheelbarrow to the brim and push it to the shed and kids stack logs. Only one load a day, slowly but surely they will be stacked.
Friday 28 September 2018
Thursday 13 September 2018
Foraging and other autunm stuff
I have mentally given up summer. September is here, and even though temperatures exceeded 25℃ last week, nature is turning to autunm. (But on the bright side - no frost so far, last summer we had first frost on July!) Yellow leaves all around.
Autunm means foraging. I don't pick wild berries, it takes too much time and requires too much effort to clean, conserve and store the haul (lazy me). I've run out freezer space already! So foraging means mushrooms. Chanterelles, horns of plenty, ceps (porcinis), other boletes (mostly orange birch boletes), albatrellus ovinuses, hedgehog mushrooms etc. They are eaten right away of dried (chanterelles don't dry well, so I freeze them).
Well, foraging might be a bit grandiose term. I get out of the house, walk about 50m (or less) and bend my knees to reach 'shrooms. Longest trek I take is to find porcinis and that's about 200m from my back door. I don't use nice baskets, usually I have some old plastic bag stuffend in my jean's pocket to pull out when needed. Last week I used IKEA's plastic cover for a pillow, basically a long tube, it didn't even had a handle. 'Suma bit into it yesterday, so I have to find another bag.
I pick mushrooms very carefully, I clean them before I drop them to my bag. At home all I have to do is to slice them and rinse off remaining gunk. Of course boletes are always a gamble, you have a beautiful white speciemen and then you cut it half and find maggots have eaten most of it... But most of work is already done while picking. I have a knife in my pocket ('Suma ate it yeasterday, too - we were spending too much time with plenty of horns) or I just use my nails. That's why you have to have long nails!
We only pick mushrooms that don't need boiling before use. Kids like mushrooms fried in butter, and sometimes I make stir fry with mushrooms (usually with winter mushrooms or yellow foots, but any will do). I crush dried mushrooms with mortar and pest and use as a seasoning in soups and sauces - although now that hb can't eat any mushrooms I can do that only on foods he will not eat.
I have been picking mushrooms all my life. As a child I didn't like mushrooms (because they were always cooked with onions and yes, I have been allergic to onions all my life - I just didn't know it then, I was just sick and miserable all the time) but I loved to pick and clean them! I can recognize dozens of mushrooms - learn to know poisonous mushrooms, pick only mushrooms you know... But I forage only about a dozen different mushrooms. I have thought of that and I realized I don't have to pick anything else.
If our survival depended on mushrooms, I would pick milk-caps (I like them, but I don't care to add another step to my cooking, some of them requires boiling before consuming), russulas (well, they don't need boiling but I prefer other mushrooms because there is about a hundred red russula species and some of them are not edible and I don't want to taste every mushroom I pick), and in springtime false morels - I don't usually pick them with kids because they are highly poisonous without thorough preparation (boiling two or three times with plenty of fresh water at least 5min at the time, I boil them three times) but sometimes it grows in our garden so we pick it then.
I found out there's something else 'Suma loves more than dehydrated courgettes. Dried parsley!
I might move my dehydrator to porch so 'Suma can't reach it.
Fire wood have been stacked. So far I have piled about 4 or 5 cubic meters of wood withs kids help. It's not nearly enough, but better than nothing. If we have a very mild winter, we might be ok, but I suppose we'll have Blast from Siberia or something like that - this summer has been too warm, so winter has to be mean.
I harvested my garlics last weekend, they were already split so won't preserve well, but I'll freeze some. I let two plants to grow scapes (we ate rest of scapes while young and tender), I just have to build a frame for them to grow. Here in north I have to plant garlic in autunm, preferably in October. If I wanted to be self sufficient on garlic, I'd need about 70-80 bulbs to eat and then about 20 bulbs for antoher years crop. So about 100 plants. Oh dear, that's quite a big frame I need... (not really. garlics can be planted only few inches apart).
Courgettes have been eaten and dehydrated (mostly for 'Suma), as well as herbs. I have made another batch of nasturtium capers, they were suprisingly nice.
I got a big bag of apples from my co-worker, who got them from her neighbour. I'll freeze some to be used in pies, some I have already dried...
For the first time ever I have had cabbages, first one I gave to old man's sister, but I made tasty coleslaw out of one half head (another half went to wild board stew). I'll make cabbage casserole (or bake) soon.
I still need to blanch and freeze some spinach and kale and swiss chard, but as I said earlier my freezers are too full. Oh, I got some common sea buckthorn berries. Because no-one else in the family likes them, I froze them - I'll have some luxorius smoothies! That is a plant I might be able to grow in my field.
I thought courgettes are finally giving up. Yesterday I tried to find a small courgette to add to my tomato sauce (made Nigella's meatballs in tomato sauce, well, it was the inspiration anyway...) and checked the last frame I have one courgette plant. Jep, found one. More like a marrow - or a pumpkin, couldn't weigh it on my kitchen scale! So used ordinary scale which isn't very accurate. About 7kg, maybe a bit more...
But still perfectly edible, I took seeds and springy middle part in big pieces and put them to dehydrator - 'Suma loved them! So nothing goes wasted.
Today: wood stacking, laundry, 'Suma walk, no idea what to make for dinner.
Autunm means foraging. I don't pick wild berries, it takes too much time and requires too much effort to clean, conserve and store the haul (lazy me). I've run out freezer space already! So foraging means mushrooms. Chanterelles, horns of plenty, ceps (porcinis), other boletes (mostly orange birch boletes), albatrellus ovinuses, hedgehog mushrooms etc. They are eaten right away of dried (chanterelles don't dry well, so I freeze them).
Well, foraging might be a bit grandiose term. I get out of the house, walk about 50m (or less) and bend my knees to reach 'shrooms. Longest trek I take is to find porcinis and that's about 200m from my back door. I don't use nice baskets, usually I have some old plastic bag stuffend in my jean's pocket to pull out when needed. Last week I used IKEA's plastic cover for a pillow, basically a long tube, it didn't even had a handle. 'Suma bit into it yesterday, so I have to find another bag.
I pick mushrooms very carefully, I clean them before I drop them to my bag. At home all I have to do is to slice them and rinse off remaining gunk. Of course boletes are always a gamble, you have a beautiful white speciemen and then you cut it half and find maggots have eaten most of it... But most of work is already done while picking. I have a knife in my pocket ('Suma ate it yeasterday, too - we were spending too much time with plenty of horns) or I just use my nails. That's why you have to have long nails!
We only pick mushrooms that don't need boiling before use. Kids like mushrooms fried in butter, and sometimes I make stir fry with mushrooms (usually with winter mushrooms or yellow foots, but any will do). I crush dried mushrooms with mortar and pest and use as a seasoning in soups and sauces - although now that hb can't eat any mushrooms I can do that only on foods he will not eat.
I have been picking mushrooms all my life. As a child I didn't like mushrooms (because they were always cooked with onions and yes, I have been allergic to onions all my life - I just didn't know it then, I was just sick and miserable all the time) but I loved to pick and clean them! I can recognize dozens of mushrooms - learn to know poisonous mushrooms, pick only mushrooms you know... But I forage only about a dozen different mushrooms. I have thought of that and I realized I don't have to pick anything else.
If our survival depended on mushrooms, I would pick milk-caps (I like them, but I don't care to add another step to my cooking, some of them requires boiling before consuming), russulas (well, they don't need boiling but I prefer other mushrooms because there is about a hundred red russula species and some of them are not edible and I don't want to taste every mushroom I pick), and in springtime false morels - I don't usually pick them with kids because they are highly poisonous without thorough preparation (boiling two or three times with plenty of fresh water at least 5min at the time, I boil them three times) but sometimes it grows in our garden so we pick it then.
I found out there's something else 'Suma loves more than dehydrated courgettes. Dried parsley!
I might move my dehydrator to porch so 'Suma can't reach it.
Fire wood have been stacked. So far I have piled about 4 or 5 cubic meters of wood withs kids help. It's not nearly enough, but better than nothing. If we have a very mild winter, we might be ok, but I suppose we'll have Blast from Siberia or something like that - this summer has been too warm, so winter has to be mean.
I harvested my garlics last weekend, they were already split so won't preserve well, but I'll freeze some. I let two plants to grow scapes (we ate rest of scapes while young and tender), I just have to build a frame for them to grow. Here in north I have to plant garlic in autunm, preferably in October. If I wanted to be self sufficient on garlic, I'd need about 70-80 bulbs to eat and then about 20 bulbs for antoher years crop. So about 100 plants. Oh dear, that's quite a big frame I need... (not really. garlics can be planted only few inches apart).
Courgettes have been eaten and dehydrated (mostly for 'Suma), as well as herbs. I have made another batch of nasturtium capers, they were suprisingly nice.
I got a big bag of apples from my co-worker, who got them from her neighbour. I'll freeze some to be used in pies, some I have already dried...
For the first time ever I have had cabbages, first one I gave to old man's sister, but I made tasty coleslaw out of one half head (another half went to wild board stew). I'll make cabbage casserole (or bake) soon.
I still need to blanch and freeze some spinach and kale and swiss chard, but as I said earlier my freezers are too full. Oh, I got some common sea buckthorn berries. Because no-one else in the family likes them, I froze them - I'll have some luxorius smoothies! That is a plant I might be able to grow in my field.
I thought courgettes are finally giving up. Yesterday I tried to find a small courgette to add to my tomato sauce (made Nigella's meatballs in tomato sauce, well, it was the inspiration anyway...) and checked the last frame I have one courgette plant. Jep, found one. More like a marrow - or a pumpkin, couldn't weigh it on my kitchen scale! So used ordinary scale which isn't very accurate. About 7kg, maybe a bit more...
But still perfectly edible, I took seeds and springy middle part in big pieces and put them to dehydrator - 'Suma loved them! So nothing goes wasted.
Today: wood stacking, laundry, 'Suma walk, no idea what to make for dinner.
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