The Possibilities Are Everywhere

This summer I ran across the book Success With Small Food Gardening by Louise Riotte that really opened my eyes about edible landscaping. I now literally see possibilities everywhere!

The book is very inspirational. It illustrates a few plans for several different types of situations including places like mobile homes that I bet most people wouldn't think they could really grow much food at.

Copies of the book are hard to find, but it really is a gem in my library!

Thanksgiving Week Stock Up!

Things you should take advantage of for your food storage this week since they're on sale for the holiday:

• Pumpkins--canned or fresh


• Sweet potatoes/Yams--fresh from the farmer stand if possible for the root cellar, or canned


• Potatoes--fresh from the farmer stand if possible for the root cellar


• Turkey--grab extras if you have room in your freezer, or if you have a pressure canner


• Baking supplies--flour, sugar, chocolate, etc


• Cranberries--fresh to dry them for trail mixes, to throw in salads, and for baked goodies


• Other root veggies like parnsips, turnips, rutabagas etc--fresh from the farmer stand if possible

So if you're just learning what to do with some of these and want to put them in your food storage, then hurry and gather up some recipes online to try out, because heaven forbid we don't want any of you to get bored by eating it the same ol' way each time.

The Root Cellar

{via Mary Jane's Farm}

I have grown up my whole life knowing that I should have a year's supply of food because that's what my church encourages. But I like to eat naturally and for years the basics of food storage stumped me on how to store natural foods. I just kept envisioning shelves lined with green jello and processed junk which I knew I didn't want.

So about four years ago I ran across Root Cellaring and a lightbulb went off! I didn't realize you could store fresh food this way. I mean, it made sense, how else did people eat for centuries during the long hard winter months? I just never thought about it before!

You can store whole grains, beans, rice and even fresh vegetables in a root cellar and eat a natural healthy diet! It is soo cool!

How Soon I Forget

I know I officially declared my canning season over with the last grape juice fiasco, but I looked out my window this weekend and noticed all the leaves had fallen off the grapevine but there were still lots of grape clusters hanging on.

So I trudged out and lo and behold, they were still good grapes! So I picked a box, brought them in and canned more juice!

This time everthing went ok {mostly}--no burnt pan or burnt stove top. This time only a burnt finger which I iced for six hours before going to bed then put a frozen gel pack wrapped around it while I slept and worried if I was going to wake up to a frostbitten finger.

What was I thinking??? Did I mention how awesome I am at canning? Oh how soon I forget!

Food Storage Design

Growing up, my mother-in-law tells about her single, widowed mom who had a goal every year to can at least 200 bottles of each crop she had access to. And she knew if she had 200 bottles of peaches, 200 bottles of applesauce and so on, that she would have enough to feed her family through the winter.

That's a lot of bottles! I don't even think I have 200 bottles period! And that would be for only one of my crops and there is definately more than one crop! I don't even think I have shelf space or room for 200+ bottles. At least not currently. That's where I really need to figure out and plan for shelves and space to put them all.

In this NYTimes piece, Elizabeth Cromley, a professor of architectural history at Northeastern University, said that at one time, “just about every house had special facilities for preserving food.”

"She said that understanding food preservation is not a frivolous pursuit. More than 400 books instructed 19th-century Americans on how to plan a functional house, with a practical larder, basement and outbuildings."

Wow! That's a lot of books on it! Where can I find some of these? They might be really helpful as I try to figure out the design of my food storage.

Apple Storage

I mentioned the apple rack my hubby said he could help me build a while ago but realized I never showed it to you. So voila! Here it is!

{via Country Living UK, Nov 2003}

You can purchase an apple rack like that at R. K. Alliston from the UK but hubby says if you're handy it really doesn't look that hard to build.

Or this Gorm clip-on basket {only $4!} could also work in some instances.

Apples need to be stored in shallow layers so that they don't bruise each other plus it makes it easier to check on them this way. That's why I like the above two options, but half bushel baskets and slatted crates work well too.

They like nice cold temperatures, as low as 32 degrees, but can also be kept a little warmer, they just won't last quite as long. So depending on the temperature they're kept at you could possibly have fresh apples clear til spring. Wouldn't that be lovely?

But if they become softer than you'd like for fresh eating you can always serve them as baked apples or applesauce. Mmmm!

Aaahhh! Autumn!

I did end up taking a vacation. And it was refreshing. But now I need to get back into the swing of things. Just because we are getting deeper into autumn doesn't mean that gardening and preserving is over yet.

I still have beds to clean out, leaves to rake, and hopefully I can still get my fruit trees in, then I still have shelves to build in the root cellar and containers to get for some of my food. Then comes the planning for next year and the managing of this years food.

But the brisk autumn air feels exhilirating so I don't mind squirreling around, cleaning and cozying up the place.