Preserving Food

Reddening Tomatoes, Canning Pickle Chunks, Fermenting

Things are getting busy!

This past weekend we hosted a family-neighborhood picnic (with a couple of overnight guests) so we were super busy – but NOT in the garden. Putting up food was put on hold. Getting in the garden had to wait.

But the garden waits for no one, as you shall see! 🙂 [Read more…] about Reddening Tomatoes, Canning Pickle Chunks, Fermenting

Wow – Celery!

Garden, Preserving Food

I am amazed at how well our celery has done. Amazed and very happy.

We’ve never grown it before, so we have been excited at our first success. Now, I’m not a big fan of celery, per se, but in soups and used for aromatics and mirepoix, it’s what we use.

We grew the Tall Utah variety (seems to be pretty popular) and I started it indoors and also did direct sow. The indoor seedlings looked so frail, I was convinced that [Read more…] about Wow – Celery!

Part 2: Video Update on Building a Root Cellar in the Basement

Preserving Food

An update on our Root Cellar!

In this new video, Mr. Gordon explains how he attached the DRICORE subfloor panels to the cement floor. (The first video can be found here.) [Read more…] about Part 2: Video Update on Building a Root Cellar in the Basement

Pickling Has Started!

Canning, Preserving Food

It’s all about the Pickles… and flexibility!

This blog is less of a step-by-step on how to pickle than it is an example of staying flexible and altering your way as you go. I had pretty highfalutin ideas about only fermenting my veggies because of all the health benefits. But my circumstances don’t allow for that, so I adjusted, embracing the different methods and anticipating the different outcomes of a variety of ways of putting up our harvest. Hope you enjoy! [Read more…] about Pickling Has Started!

Putting Up Beets (and Carrots and Zucchini)

Garden, Preserving Food

We have begun to bring in our 2019 garden harvest and we’re “putting up food.”

We’ve started by blanching / freezing and pickling. By the way, we have read quite a bit on “to blanch or not to blanch” fresh veggies before freezing. In this post, we blanched our veggies (actually, beets are not simply blanched, but cooked with skins on for about 35 minutes). [Read more…] about Putting Up Beets (and Carrots and Zucchini)