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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Garden Plans (and snow)


The view towards the rabbit hutches: the girls have been making trails :)


My poor little car!

We have been hit with snow like the rest of the midwest, maybe 8 inches? It is hard to tell with the drifting. The wind shifted to the north last night and the poor bunnies nest box opening face north-they had a bit of snow in their little houses. We got the plastic up for them this morning! I have been pretty complacent with this long mild fall.

Tom has been reading 'The Good Life' by helen and scott nearing. I read it a while ago and got it out to re-read part again...We were both struck by their sense of order and doing things the 'right' way. Their disciplined approach appeals to both of us-something to file away for future use. Tom is interested in being more involved in the garden this year! I would love that-it is good to work TOGETHER on something.

With a couple of months of eating foods we have grown and stored, I have a better idea of what works for our family. The dehydrated carrots are WONDERFUL for casseroles and soups. We certainly want to plan for more carrots -planted in succession, next year. The frozen green beans have also been really good in casseroles and soups. I don't think you can beat dried beans for ease of growth and storage. More varieties next year! The sun dried tomatoes in oil are little treasures too. We certainly need to get the solar food drier running next year.

The 150 Lbs of potatoes are doing well. We dug them up too early and some are beginning to show some sprouting activity. The yellow onions are fine in the basement closet too. (Don't try to store red ones!)

I can hardly wait for the seed catalogs to start arriving!

Tomorrow I pull out the snow shoes and 'supervise' the surveying. It has gotten more complicated now that we are buying a 4+ acre portion and creating a 15 acre 'sublot' to put on the land contract; more fees to pay the county government.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the reminder about the red onions - I have a bunch that I was thinking of adding to the storage area, but I see now that instead there will be onions in my immediate future meals.

I have a question about carrots. I was horribly unsuccessful storing them last year. Left in cool dark storage they shriveled and turned, well, flabby is the best way to describe it. I dehydrated some, but they turned rock hard and a carrot slice the size of a dollar-coin turned into one smaller than the nail on my finger. I tried rehydrating them to no avail. Help!!

Hickchick said...

Mango--I sliced the carrots with the mandoline-they were in long ribbons which were thin enough to be flexible instead of stiff. Dried until crispy. I have only used them in soups and casseroles so they had every opportunity to re-hydrate. Keep trying!
Kris