Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Existential Autumn (or – all good things come to an end)
It’s been a bit of an existential few weeks in my life as of late, timed perfectly with the end-of-summer-garden phase the rains have brought with them. I’ve got photographs from last weekend’s harvest that I need to post yet, but suffice to say I have pulled a lot of pattypan squash, rhubarb, beets, carrots and the last of the beans out – and on Saturday afternoon after that day of miserable rain, I pulled most of my green tomatoes off the vines for fear of rot and blight. If it looked like it was going to get drier in the next couple days I would leave them on, but the forecast tells me that to leave my tomatoes out would most likely be all risk and no reward. I’m trying the apple-in-paper-bag trick and hoping they will ripen.
I’m thinking it might be time to pull up the storage beans as well and hang them to dry, though I’m going to wait until a dry day to do that. After they are husked I should have at least one good meal (maybe two) of black beans in there 🙂 Which doesn’t seem worth the space they take up in the garden all summer, does it? I went overboard this last summer with everything I wanted to grow – which has been awesome – but next year I think I’m going to focus more on what makes sense to grow in a small garden plot. At least until I can procure more space! As I think I’ve mentioned earlier – more garlic for sure!
It’s definitely garden clean-up time in any case, and I’m hoping for at least one not-too-wet day this weekend to focus on just that.
I haven’t mentioned here yet – but I am now also blogging at the Vancouver Fruit Tree Project periodically. At the moment the only post up is one that was previously posted here, but later this week there should be a post on canning apples which I will link to here when it appears. Additionally, I am working on getting advance copies of gardening and food security books so I can focus on doing more reviews in the fall in addition to writing about fall and winter projects (including workshops!)
Hellloooo!
Oh my I’m feeling a bit nutty at the moment. Just had the soil delivery for Boulevards Alive confirmed for Saturday. Finally got the workshop dates and times confirmed at Kiwassa for the Food for All series. And in sixteen days I’m getting married. That’s not to mention the Green Jobs conference this weekend, the start of high school for M. this week, or the social media plan I’m supposed to be developing at work right now. Oh, and I promised the Vancouver Fruit Tree Project some blog posts too. Damn, that’s what comes from being involved isn’t it?
But I’m feeling less anxious at the moment than I was yesterday, mostly because I’ve ironed out a couple of small project wrinkles, and B. is so awesomely helping me figure out the logistics of our boulevard garden by doing some digging up of turf today – not to mention bottomlining the Saturday delivery. (You wouldn’t think a soil delivery would be problematic, but we’ve got four drop points and some confusion among participants….. anytime you involve more than one household things get challenging!)
In any case, I’m just waving hello here with the acknowledgement I’ve got to write something more substantial soon! And I’ve got some sewing photos to post too…. Why is it that I have to work 40 hours a week anyway?
Ain't this exciting?
Food For All! Workshop Series! Hastings Sunrise!
Please check out the above page and then send an email if you want to register for any of the workshops! Coming together!
Already?
It seems ridiculous to say, but the cooler weather of early September has taken me by surprise. Last night I was perusing my garden, doing the daily just-ripe tomato pick, and noticing the new chill in the air that has just settled in this week. In the middle of summer when everything is just bursting to grow new life, it seems impossible that it should all come to and end. But here it is, almost true autumn, and I’m pretty sure I’ve picked my last cucumbers off the vine. Almost time to start the clean-up as I put my last winter veggies in – collards and january cabbage that I picked up Saturday at a plant sale in Richmond (we were out there for a wedding, so I stopped by to see what was on offer for fall planting).
I ordered a little more garlic yesterday – and am thinking of a run over to Gardenworks to see what’s on special as people turn away from gardening and into their homes. We’re going to plant our boulevard this fall (with help from a grant that we received for a project called Boulevards Alive) – and I’ve got my eye on some cranberry and huckleberry bushes that I’m pretty sure will do well in our shaded front. I’m not decided on a garden plan just yet, but since we’re getting our soil in a couple of weeks, I’m going to be working on it this weekend. It’s a good excuse to go to the garden store anyway.
In other projects, I’m preparing a spot to move my raspberry cane to in the early spring, and I’ve got a top-bar-hive to get built, and hopefully we’re going to get started on our frontyard permaculture project as well in October. Just as long as it doesn’t start raining too early – I should have lots of time to wrap up my summer garden and get some work in that will make next spring just that much easier.
In the Bookshed: Keeping the Harvest
Now that it’s food-storage season (so quick! where did the summer go?) I am once again reaching for canning, preserving, drying advice in the form of this most excellent book, first published in 1990: Keeping the Harvest.
I picked this up several years ago as part of my first forays into food storage, and since then it has become a part of my late-summer and autumn kitchen. It describes all the procedures you would want, including pressure canning, and has a good starter-set of food preserving recipes (for more canning recipes I recommend Ball’s Blue Book of Canning if you can find a copy or the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving).
What I particularly like about this book is that it lists each type of vegetable and fruit and all the possible storage techniques for it. Got too much summer squash? This book has suggestions for the best ways to store it (grate and freeze, puree and freeze, drying). Want a few sure-fire pickle recipes? They’re in here too. Along with dehydrating-time charts, freezing tips and curing suggestions written in easy-to-understand language. This is the best all-round reference I’ve found on any of these subjects, and definitely the one I would recommend for all food-preserving newbies out there. Supplement this with some canning recipes from the Internet and you’re pretty-much good to go!
Red Cedar 