Of Kale and Turnips and Cabbages and Garlic

Yesterday something beautiful happened.

For weeks I have struggled with the reality of a baby who naps early, a toddler who naps late, and an Annabelle that only sometimes naps but mostly just keeps her baby sister awake. By the end of the day Ruthie is falling apart, Joshie is in need of an early bed time, and Mama is just a bit frazzled.

Yesterday was a little different.

Joshua and Ruthie snoozed for a good couple of hours in the afternoon and with Daddy and the boys occupied with work and building, it was just Annie and I. We scrubbed some laundry and washed some dishes but the highlight, as usual, was a trip to the garden. The chicken field is right next to the chicken coop (as you might have guessed) so it is here that we spent our time.

A struggle of mine since we moved off-grid has been the battle to get enough vegetables into our meals. My previous system of gathering produce from local farmers and storing it in our giant refrigerator was no longer an option. I have often turned to lactic acid fermentation as a means of short- and long-term vegetable storage for our family. Still, I knew the solution in the end was to have enough vegetables growing in succession to fill our needs.

So I probably don’t have to tell you how grateful I am for the daily bunches and bunches of kale that have made their way into our salads and soups and pastas and stir-fries. This big bed has nourished our family for weeks now. Thank you, Lord!

This has been the first year in which our early summer garlic harvest has lasted us through to the next planting, with loads of garlic consumption in between. After we harvested the sweet potatoes, Stewart planted this garlic in two successions. I believe there are other garlic patches in the Pallet Garden and Abram’s Garden, but this is the largest bed this year.

This big bed of turnips is about to find a home in jars of Homestead Chi, Lord willing. Our cabbages are still in the early heading stage so I’ll most likely purchase some cabbages to mix with our turnips, spring garlic, and green onions not pictured. Turnip gratin and hash and baby turnips in salad have filled in the vegetable gaps as well.

Whenever something grows in abundance I figure we’d better find some good ways to eat it. Nobody loves turnips (like tomatoes or potatoes or watermelon) but we take a don’t fight it, eat it approach to food production.

Cabbages are one of the most lovely garden vegetables, I think, with their sprawling leaves and sweetly forming baby heads. I counted approximately twenty in this patch the other day. They are flanked by the turnip bed, a big collard plant, and some self-seeded tomatillos at the end there. Not pictured to the right are beets and cilantro.

For some time we have wanted to expand the chicken field to at least double its size. So we have put the chickens to work just outside of the western fence. Here we pile manure and straw and kitchen scraps and watch the chickens turn it into soil.

In the late afternoon light, Annabelle and I collected eggs and headed back in to can applesauce and chop vegetables for supper. Dark falls early these days so Stewart set up our lanterns while I finished supper. The boys headed out to milk just as the daylight slipped away. As the screen door swung shut behind them you could feel the arrival of fall in the crisp November air.

We lit lanterns and ate supper and I pulled warm cookies from the oven.