Tucking The Garden In For Winter

11 Comments

The first frosts have come and our summer garden has been tucked in for winter.

Herbs have been dehydrated or frozen for soups and stews.

The last of the tomatoes provide the lingering flavor of summer.

Four pounds of the green tomatoes were turned into pints of chutney.

Our long Tokyo onions were pulled… some almost as tall as our four-year-old.

The bottoms are great in salads and soups.

The tops were placed into small baggies which filled up a gallon of freezer space.

Make shift root cellars are being prepared for potatoes and turnips.

All that remains are leeks and cabbages, brought to my kitchen door by a sweet little two-year-old. I am starting to see the light at the end of the food preservation tunnel. These stores plus our winter garden will hopefully keep me out of the grocery store for a while. It’s freeing.

How are you preparing for winter?

Similar Posts

When the Rain Rolls In

I can’t exactly remember the last time it rained. I suppose it might have been just before I posted this update on the gardens at the beginning of July. That would have been over six weeks ago now. Since then the solar pump coming from the ponds died and died again and something in the…

Calling The Cow Home

Apparently the time changed on us a couple of weeks ago. But do you know who doesn’t get the memo on such events? Livestock. Not a single rooster has heeded the new schedule, not a single goat, and certainly not Miss Mabel. I’m not even that sure that we, as a family, have fully embraced…

Welcoming Abby and Daisy

We’ve had those lovely cool mornings in which hot coffee seems just the thing but by breakfast the sun’s warmth has erased any memory of such thoughts. By afternoon we are into the 90s and sweating again and by nightfall little Ruthie gets jammies or a blanket. Along with a slight change in seasons has…

11 Comments

  2. great post! i’m curious about your makeshift root cellars – could you describe/explain? thanks!

    1. @kat, I will ask the papa if he would share it with you all. He took a lot more pictures than what I put up, so perhaps a photo tutorial will be in order.

    1. @jessie, I will ask the papa if he would share it with you all. He took a lot more pictures than what I put up, so perhaps a photo tutorial will be in order.

  4. ditto on the root cellars.

    later today – I am going to go out and cover up my garden with the leaves that are all over yard!

    1. @denise, I will ask the papa if he would share it with you all. He took a lot more pictures than what I put up, so perhaps a photo tutorial will be in order.

  7. Do you happen to have a list of all of the items that you stored/preserved this year?

    Andy by the way – just love your blog and all of the recipes – thank you!

  8. I have been out of town for 3 weeks and tomorrow I go to see our CSA farmer and he and I will figure out what I missed and come up with things to take the place of perishables that he couldn’t keep for me. I can’t believe that I am so excited to go get a car full of fall & winter veggies that I will have to freeze, dry or ferment within the next week. Thank goodness my 97 yr old Dad loves to come help. Our farmer said he would recommend digging a hole in the ground and put in a large trash can with holes in its bottom for drainage–and that would make a good root cellar. I have not even considered it yet. Getting too old to dig that kind of hole and our neighborhood is controlled by an HOA and I KNOW they would all frown on our “cellar”. However, I am thinking of using one of our deep window wells in our basement. I could put a styrofoam cooler inside the window well, add the root veggies and place a heavy blanket of some type over the top. Then all I would have to do is slide the window open and lift the lid to get to our veggies. Can’t wait to see if it will work. I am going to try apples and cabbage first.

Comments are closed.