I’m back in the routine of working full time, spending my afternoons trying to stay ahead of the garden weeds and filling the woodshed ahead of winter. By the time I sit down to relax, the thought of looking at my computer to write these updates is downright odious.
It’s important, though – as much as these updates are written to share my progress for anyone who might want to work towards the same goals someday, I also use them as a record for my own reference. This is my best attempt to catch up!
Food Production
Despite the signs of autumn imperfection that are starting to creep in, the garden is a huge source of pride. The zucchini is on its last legs, although it’s still producing fruit. The peppers look fantastic and the tomato jungle, although chaotic, is incredibly healthy with hundreds of green tomatoes just waiting to turn red. The corn is tall and growing multiple ears per stalk. The green beans are piling up so much so that I am letting a few of the varieties mature for shelling. I should have enough butternut and honeynut squash to last the winter, with excess.
There is plenty that I hope to improve on next year, which I discuss here:
Aesthetic Utility
I received another load of free wood chips from ChipDrop. This one is larger than any of the previous loads, which is a bit daunting. I needed more to finish covering the paths in the garden, which will both improve the soil quality and drastically reduce the amount of time I need to spend with the string trimmer. I will also use them in the orchard, chicken run, and upcoming berry patches.
I planted hard red wheat in trays as an experiment, in hopes that it would serve as high protein enrichment for the chickens. It turned out to be a great success – it took less than a week to grow several inches tall, and the chickens loved it. Hard red wheat is very inexpensive when purchased in bulk and I can use my adopted mom’s greenhouse to sprout it through the winter, so hopefully this will help cut down on feed costs and increase egg production in the long run.
Resource Acquisition & Preparedness
I’ve been focusing on preserving the garden excess as much as possible before I’m completely overwhelmed with tomatoes. I prepared individual slices of zucchini bread as well as eight packages of shredded zucchini for the freezer, and I’m up to seven gallons of frozen green beans. I have continued to dehydrate herbs, although the herb harvest is definitely slowing.
I acquired dill through a friend from work, which I used with the last of my cucumbers and my homegrown garlic to make pickles. I’ll bring several jars back to work to share. Since they’re fridge pickles, they aren’t shelf stable – but that’s fine, because they’re much more crisp than canned pickles and they’ll be eaten quickly!
I had purchased pears and nectarines from a local farm stand, neither of which turned out to be very good. As they started to go bad on the counter, I made my first attempt at fruit leather. It’s outstanding! I simply cut off the bad parts, blended them, poured it out on a tray, and dehydrated overnight. I left the peels on the nectarines but not on the pears, since they were pretty thoroughly blemished. I look forward to doing this again with local apples, and then many more times in the future with my own homegrown fruit.
As for foraging, I gathered three gallons of wild grapes and a few more pheasant’s back mushrooms. The mushrooms were dehydrated for future stock, and the grapes were washed and frozen. I’m due to make an enormous batch of grape jam, since I never got around to processing last year’s harvest.
A tree fell near the woodshed. It has been thoroughly dead for years, so I guess it’s about time, but that didn’t stop me from being surprised by this development! It was blocking the path that I usually drive through with the gator, so I did not delay in cutting it up and adding it to the pile of rounds that need to be split for firewood. The next day, I doubled the pile with wood found on the side of the road, leftover from tree work. I still don’t have nearly enough, but I will put a pause on firewood collection while I get ahead of the splitting.
Moving Forward
By the end of September, I hope to have spread all of the wood chips from my latest ChipDrop and I hope to have filled the wood shed to the brim. These are two lofty tasks, especially considering that routine chores must also happen, but they’re both important. By filling the woodshed before I start using wood, I’ll be able to better measure just how much I use over the course of the season – which will help me better prepare in future years. And by getting rid of the wood chips, I won’t have to look at them every time I walk outside.
The sun sets a bit earlier each day, so I definitely feel the time crunch after work. I’m also fatigued from working with students all day – more fatigued than any of my manual labor days over the summer, if you can believe it. It is all rewarding, though I can’t help but imagine a winter snow day when the only thing to do is lounge on the couch…
KC