Monday, October 19, 2009

Independence Days challenge, week 25



Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:

1. Plant something:
Nope.
2. Harvest something: Eggs. One last basket of tender greens and herbs from the garden. 3 bushels apples from Quonquont Farm.
3. Preserve something: Dried comfrey and carrot tops to feed the chickens. Dried the last bits of sweet cicely, lemon balm, bee balm, feverfew, mint. Dried 1 watermelon, 2 pecks apples. Canned 3-1/2 qts. pickled bean salad, 4 qts. potato-leek soup (this is the first time we've tried pressure canning). Froze 4 lbs. cauliflower, 2 lbs. beans, 1 qt. stock.
4. Waste not: Favorite fall trick--I use an apple slicer to cut and core apples for the kids, and I hate to throw away the big core it leaves. I put them in a bag in the freezer, and they'll get added to our next batch of applesauce. It's amazing how quickly they add up to something useable.
5. Preparation and storage: Stored 1 bushel apples, 1 crisper drawer full of carrots.
6. Build community food systems: No.
7. Eat the food: We've eaten a ton of potato-leek soup and apples this week. I've also been trying my newly-dried goldenrod as a tea for my cold. And we've been using tons of the elderberry syrup I made.

1 comment:

gardenmama said...

I enjoyed reading your post!
I am intrigued by your goldenrod tea and elderberry syrup!