Root cellaring, essential for the self sufficient home...

Having a large storage of your own home grown produce is one of the biggest steps to self sufficiency there is.  While canning and drying are very time and energy consuming, root cellaring, when done properly, is the best low energy food preservation option out there.  The most energy put into it is making a root cellar.  Once you have this done you are pretty much good to go indefinitely as long as you keep your cellar in good shape.  We were lucky enough to move into a house that already had a room in the cellar on the NE side of the house that was put there for just this purpose.  The only problem we face now is that the room have pretty much no insulation.  When the house was built I assume there was a wood burning stove in the kitchen and the fireplace was used for heat.  Now we have this monster of a furnace on the other side of the root cellar wall...

Seriously this thing is huge but it pumps out heat like a champ and is really not that expensive to run....

The duct work is HUGE!  I might be able to crawl through those if I wanted to...lol! Here is the room on the other side...

Yup, this is it...our root cellar.  Did I hear you scream?  Oh wait, that was me.  Kind of Silence of the Lambs creepy isn't it?  The brackets on the right are some kind of shelf I suppose.  I thought I could put some sturdy planks across and store my canned goods but it is slightly wobbly.  I would hate for hours and hours of canning to be wasted so I want to make sure that sucker is sturdy before I put anything on it.  The window will need to be taken out and replaced with some kind of vent.

The door is made of various planks, some are leftover pieces of flooring and the others are probably other left over pieces of construction from the house.  This needs done first.  Also above the door is a 3 inch gap that needs filled.  Around the door is another 1/2 in gap that was filled with old crumpled newspaper.  I am not sure what good that was supposed to do seeing as there are 1/2 in gaps in between the planks on the door and the 3 in gap on the top, but who am I to judge?  A year ago I read Root Cellaring by Mike and Nancy Bubel.  This is the source for root cellaring knowledge.  I got it from the library a couple of times but this is a keeper so I went ahead and bought it recently.  Even if you live in an apartment they cover how to convert a closet space to a make shift root cellar.  A really great resource.  I suggest you take it out from your local library if you are interested but I will bet you will want to buy it when you are done!

Cookin with jersusalem artichokes and some market pics....

So this year was the first time we planted Jerusalem Artichokes....

Here they are stuffed on the side of the house.  We had to tie them up because they kept falling over. 

They have also been a nice addition to cut flowers we sell at the market.

Here they are all scrubbed up.  Most recipes say to peel them but I read a couple places that said that wasn't necessary so I just made sure they were really clean and chopped them up.  As you can imagine they are really hard to peel so this is a big time saver.  I had never cooked with them before so I just kind of winged it.

Ta da!  Jerusalem Artichokes sauteed with chard, garlic, walnuts, sage, and olive oil!  The artichokes have a nice smokey flavor and they have the same texture as a water chestnut.  Very very good.  We will be growing LOTS more of these next year.

Also the market is booming.  Lots of people and produce, it has been a lot of fun.  I wanted to get some pictures since things will be winding down here soon.

Looks like Black Opal Basil?  I do know the flowers are edible and really nice on a salad.

Heirloom maters....

Tiny little peppers....

Look at those cute little baskets...awww....

Flowers that look like brains (lol!)....

It should be mentioned that none of this stuff is mine.  I have 2 whole eggplants and 2 rotted ones on my plants..haha oh well maybe next year.

Uses for expired olive oil...

So I have become a bit less enthused about Sam's Club in the past couple of years.  I have noticed that most things are cheaper to buy in a regular size at another store (like cereal for example...a HUGE rip off at SC).  Some things are still a good deal like parm cheese (the mega super duper size), cottage cheese, and sometimes fruit.  At least these are the things I get that I find are good deals.  Plus I don't like the fact that they basically sell a bunch of regular size boxes in one giant box.  One of the great things about buying in bulk is less packaging.  I would rather have one giant bag of spaghetti then 6 boxes and an extra giant box I have to recycle.  Now SC isn't the only culprit.  I went to buy some Annie's mac and cheese and wanted to get the large one.  A regular box was $1.70 and the large which is equal to about 2 reg. boxes was 4.99.  Really?  I mean I will just get 2 regular boxes.  Even when I buy in bulk a lot of times I can't use it all which I guess would be the benefit of the individual packaging.  So my point is, is I have a bottle of expired olive oil that I need to use on something else.  I searched the internet and a few things I found were...

Use instead of conditioner: Well this might work if my hair wasn't super fine.  I think I will try it but I will do it on a day I don't have anywhere to go as I have a feeling I will look like a big old grease ball.

Foot softener:  I would wipe out on my kitchen floor for sure!  I never wear shoes.  The plus side to this is it would be a funny story after a couple of months.

Lubricate doors and hinges:  This could work!

Make your own furniture polish:  Here is a recipe on The Family Homestead

Rub on candle holders to prevent sticking

Stuck zipper

So there you have it.  Some useful and not so useful ways to use expired olive oil.  Also make sure to store it somewhere where you won't get it mixed up with the good stuff!

Garden happenings, and our "work" truck...

So last week we planted the fall garden.  I would like to have waited a bit more but I wanted to make sure that we had some stuff for market.  It seems the bugs really go after the fall seedling.  We also started putting up more of the fence so we will have more room to make a second planting of everything...if we can get it up in time that is!  Some great fall crops are arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, kholrabi, radishes (which we will plant a bit later as they don't take very long), and turnips.  There are lots more.  This year I am trying black seeded simpson, and cilantro as well.  We also started some basil late that I was hoping to sell in the fall in pots for herb gardens over the fall and winter but they got gnats like everything else did so into the ground they went!  They seem to be doing well and I don't think I can have too much basil!

And here is the "work" truck.  I mean this in two ways, we hope it will help us do more work and it needs some work too!  Haha!  Ok and don't go getting mad at me either.  I am still into the tree hugger stuff.  New trucks are waaaay too much and most of them don't get good gas mileage at all.  This sucker isn't too bad on gas.  A huge benefit to this truck is that we can do most of the work it needs.  We don't know anything about it but my dad does and is willing to help.  Plus if we are going to move out to the farm someday we can't be taking out tractor in to get oil changes or when it starts making a funny sound.  We are going to need to do it ourselves...all a big part of this self sufficiency stuff ;)  Also more canning, and hoping that we have more tomatoes to can!  I just made the best sweet and sour sauce recipe which I will be making more of and will post the link when I have more time.  As it is there is lots to do so I better go do it!

-Mama G

Venting...

Well today was rather upsetting.  We went to the farm and our squash has been destroyed by the stink bugs.  I seriously hate those little jerks!  They always prevent me from growing squash later then August.  The corn has corn ear worm, the tomatoes have the blight and aren't ripening, the beans have some sort of bug that is making them look like swiss cheese, the cuc's have cucumber beetle and aren't producing as well, cabbage worms ate all our collard seedlings, and there are horse flies that I swear are attracted to me and want to suck my blood because they will not stop buzzing around me!  Argh!  Ok I feel better...lol!  Anyways this got me thinking, back when families depended (and in a lot of areas of the world, still do) on their crops to feed themselves...I can certaintly imagine why they started using pesticides.  I still think there is a better way.  That is why small farms are so important.  Like next year we are going to use a lot more row covers and raised beds.  That should prevent the squash bugs, as well as protect most of our other plants.  On a small scale this is possible.  Not so much on a large scale.  I did look into BT which is supposed to be organic and "safe", but then I found this website and I have changed my mind!  I think if we want cabbages this year and from now on it is floating row covers!

Rain rain...thank God!

This has been an all or nothing kind of summer.  Either way too much rain or way to little.  We haven't had much lately so when I saw this...

I don't think these pictures do justice to just how dark it really was.  That house in the picture is a forclosed house next door.  It really started coming down and all of the sudden this guy parks his truck in the alley, jumps out of his truck, unloads a weedeater and mower and starts mowing the lawn!  It was really coming down in sheets and the sky was churning.  Lightning was crashing everywhere and the wind was insane.  I think the guy must have been a little crazy.  I thought banks didn't really care about foreclosed homes but apparently this one is different!

So with all this rain I am hoping the garden really goes crazy.  Things have begun to taper off, I believe it is due to the lack of rain.  It is funny how much my perspective on things has changed.  I never thought the weather would effect my life so much but it really is important for us!  We have one little baby watermelon that should really love this!  Now we have gotten quite a bit of summer squash.  Some of them are rather large so I have been stuffing them...

This one is filled with dirty rice and topped with mozzerella.  This is the one area in my life I take it easy, it is just Zattaran's Dirty Rice which is really good and really easy to make.  I usually use Morning Star fake ground meat.  I have also stuffed them with ricotta and sauce, and quinoa.  I am also working on some new stuff to sell at market.  We do well, but I think we really need to find our niche there.  I will let you know how it goes.  So I hope you are finding all sorts of good stuff to do with summer's bounty, and I hope your gardens are staying watered!