Its time to preserve roots. I built a simple root cellar years back that works very well. A simple walled off and insulated corner of the cellar that I bring cold air into from outside passively.
Everything is still in great shape but everything will go south soon now that the nights are not consistently freezing so I am fermenting everything that is amenable to it. I do a simple dry salt method. Veg. Salt, and any seasonings. Veg gets cut or grated up, seasoned, rubbed with salt, and put into the clay croc and weighted down. Ready in 4-6 days. Delicious and nutritious, they are a great side dish or snack with lots of probiotic goodness. No waste.
Pictured are carrots and ginger, beets with coriander, mustard, and caraway seeds, and spring dug parsnips with habeneros that were frozen from last fall, garlic, ginger, and fresh dandelion and nettle leaves.
[emoji106] we just put in this year’s garden.
Cool. We have the garlic up, onions in, and early stuff like peas, faves, spinach, and lettuce. Brassicas and roots going in this weekend.
Are you already able to put tomatoes, squash, peppers and such in? What’s your last frost date?
Our threat of frost is past. It’s been getting down to mid 40(s) at night. Of course there could be a freak frost but it’s unlikely.
We always wait until after Tax Day to put in peppers, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. I sowed some green bean seeds I had on hand a few weeks ago and had to cover them one night.
We usually sow more seeds but we wanted to support our local general store so we went down and bought some plants from him.
Nice set up, we did something like that for my MIL, who has a bad hip, for Mother’s Day last year.
Here Memorial Day is when hot weather crops go in. I believe May 27 is our local last frost day. A few years ago we got down to 17F one night in mid May and ended up with no peaches in the entire state that year and very pour apple and pear crops.
The wife pickled carrots about 3 weeks ago. She split it 4 ways in Mason jars. One each infused with either ginger, garlic, green Hatch Chile flakes, or smoked hot Chile flakes. We’ve almost polished those off already. Great snacks at happy hour.
The raspberries are going great guns already and the rhubarb is almost ready to harvest.
We planted everything last weekend. A freeze is still technically possible but unlikely. Everything is looking great so far.
I started radishes and kohlrabi’s this year and we transplanted them. I’ve never done that before but they seem to have taken really well.
We planted vegetables in all the backyard flower beds this year as a hedge against the whole ag impact of COVID this year. Tomatoes and peppers and squash are pretty plants, right?
Hopefully we have good production this year. We are on year 3 of having a garden again. It seems like you have to relearn everything.
Paul
We have 5 small gardens all around the yard not including container tomatoes. SWMBO uses her veg truck for small stuff. She loves it.
We have a large garden and do a lot of pickling to preserve things, but I don’t think we’ve ever fermented.
Fermenting is worth trying and just as easy if you like sauerkraut, Kim chi and such. More health benefits too.
I love them all! It’s just a question of logistics
Yea, there’s dozens of things I would like to try but one thing takes away from the other timewise. That being said, the amount of active in time fermenting veggies is pretty little, and you don’t need special equipment. I do small batches in mason jars.
It’s more a question of a storage space. But I’m intrigued.