My favorite homesteading blog is whistlepighollow.com, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in homesteading on a slightly grander scale than what I've got going. They've been at it a lot longer than I have, for one thing; they have about 50 times the land I do, for another; and the author has the much coveted job of caring for her farm, family and animals full time, without having to work outside the home. They raise their own meat, slaughter their own pigs, and even hunt! I will never reach their level, but I find it very inspiring.
June saw the addition of berries, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers,and the very earliest new potatoes.
July brought us the summer apples, plums, tomatoes, and jalapeños; and by august we were enjoying green beans, carrots, onions, bell peppers, and turnips.
Recently she posted a year-in-review, which I thought was a great way of looking back AND planning ahead. Thus inspired, I created my own.
We started the harvest with rhubarb, chives,and parsley in April, and the first radishes were pulled up in May.
June saw the addition of berries, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers,and the very earliest new potatoes.
July brought us the summer apples, plums, tomatoes, and jalapeños; and by august we were enjoying green beans, carrots, onions, bell peppers, and turnips.
October, of course, was all about the pumpkins.
1.We got a greenhouse! This was the big event that prompted the start of this blog. In its warm, cramped space we grew 55 cucumbers, 9 jalapeños, 7 bell peppers, and 43 kg tomatoes (that's over 90 pounds, ya'll!) Great results, and more than enough for our family of 8 to eat, with plenty left over for preserving.... except the peppers. This year we'll need more pepper plants.
2. We made a few permanent additions to the garden: 4 blueberry bushes, 1 gooseberry bush, and my favourite thing... An asparagus bed! We won't be able to harvest any asparagus this year, and probably won't get more than a cup or two of berries from the new (and still small) bushes, but in terms of long-term planning, I'm proud of these choices.
3. Prior to 2014 my food preservation efforts consisted of applesauce and a few preserves. I have come a long way in one year, and now consider myself competent at canning tomatoes, making pickles, drying tomatoes, pickling jalapeños, and making currant jelly. Not to mention my first-ever experience processing pumpkins. I loved learning these things, and take great pride in my creations. My pantry was far from fully stocked for the winter, but I learned skills and stretched the vegetable season in many ways.
4. Cider making! This is perhaps the event in 2014 of which I am most proud. I love that we used our fruit, instead of it going to waste, and I loved that we made alcohol! Perhaps that sounds strange... I'm not a heavy drinker, but it was so satisfying to produce something significantly different than fruits and vegetables. The results were good, but it is going to be great fun tinkering with the recipe and techniques next year, and the year after, until we're producing a superior craft cider.
5. Composting is a no-brainer in vegetable gardening, but it took us a while to get going with it. This year we fertilized exclusively with compost, coffee, and egg shells (a separate post in the works about these two marvels of gardening), and we had excellent results. No chemicals! Not even those marked eco-friendly. Very proud.
6. More mindfulness at the grocery store. 2014 saw a huge increase in our organic purchases. We buy almost exclusively organic dairy products now, and opt for the eco- fruits and vegetables whenever the option is available. We have also reduced our consumption of produce that has to be shipped across the world (No more bananas!) and choose locally manufactured products, from sandwich meat to honey, every chance we get.
7. In the realm of reducing waste, we have a long way to go. We are great recyclers, but I would prefer to generate less waste overall. So in a first step towards less consumption, we have gone old-school with napkins, returning to cloth. Every member of the family gets a clean napkin every Friday, which they use all week. Some of the kids barely use a napkin anyway, and their's are nearly immaculate on laundry day. No more paper napkins!
Several of these fruits, vegetables and herbs were harvested as needed, and were available for picking over several months. We pulled up the last carrots and picked the last apples and blackberries in November. So fresh produce from April to November. Not bad! But that wasn't all...
1.We got a greenhouse! This was the big event that prompted the start of this blog. In its warm, cramped space we grew 55 cucumbers, 9 jalapeños, 7 bell peppers, and 43 kg tomatoes (that's over 90 pounds, ya'll!) Great results, and more than enough for our family of 8 to eat, with plenty left over for preserving.... except the peppers. This year we'll need more pepper plants.
We tried to use the greenhouse for a winter garden as well, but everything got planted too late, and it was a bust. Live and learn, we'll certainly try again next year.
We also saved seeds from our 2014 tomatoes and pumpkins, so that is a couple things less to buy this year!
In looking back over the year, I've been inspired to do even more in 2015... but that is a post for another day. Happy New Year!
3 kommentarer
Tim
23 Jan 2015 20:42
Fantastiskt älskling vilken blogg du har gjort♥kan knappt vänta tills våren börjar♥(får nog börja förbereda nu!!)♥
Emma
26 Jan 2015 22:37
So proud of you mom!!
Christina
29 Jan 2015 11:03
Great post, Jennifer! I love the From the Freezer series too. Already starting to plan my garden in my head!
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