I spy with my little eye...

....Something green in February~ONIONS~

Nice to see seedlings sprouting upon the window sills!

Last night was the first meal I cooked since my procedure.
I am not 100% but definitely better then I was pre-procedure.
Today was the first time in a while I did not have to lay down and did not take ANY meds.
Wooo hooo!
Nice to be back in the kitchen!
Many (not all) of the meals we cook come from the farm.
When we first started raising our own food each homegrown meal created a stir of excitement.
Now we often take it for granted.

We had pork chops from H1 who went to the butcher shop last week.
MM has processed some of our pigs in the past but with everything going on as of recently it was best to pay someone else to do it.

I also cooked up some mashed potatoes from the root cellar, we have enough left to bring us into summer I think.

For a vegetable I cooked up some Butternut squash. That stored nicely in cool storage...(Country Boy's closet) He was real impressed with me :/
Buttercup is my favorite but it was the worst for storage. Had I paid better attention and in the future I will Always eat those up first. Acorn squash & Spaghetti squash stored quite well but the Hubbard & Butternut by far stored the BEST! I am certain we will have enough until next years crop.

Growing Herbs

Year #2 of growing herbs. Would have done long ago had I known how easy it was. This year Maine Man even allowed me my own little section of the garden for this purpose. You see he is the true green thumb in the family, so in the garden (this being the only place.....I assure you!) I follow his direction and do as I'm asked.
We grew cilantro, dill, oregano (pictured here), basil, rosemary, and parsley.

The kiddos entered a few vegetables in the fair taking first place in everything including Flower Girl's oregano. Next Year we plan to do a Farm Display. That should be a lot of fun. You must display 2o varieties of produce and it has be educational. I have it all plotted out in my busy little head. Can't wait, it will be a good experience for the kids. There is incentive as well, first prize gets $100. Not sure about your kids but my two are always looking for ways to make a buck.

A few weeks back while visiting my sister-in-law I noticed several canning jars filled with herbs and I inquired how she dried the herbs. I have previously attempted the hanging upside down method but was never impressed with the results.....dried, brown, super crispy leaves. Did a little research then I thought to use my dehydrator. Love those AH HA moments! It worked PERFECTLY. I dried basil and oregano, took no time at all. Placed the whole dry leaves in canning jars and I crumple them us as I use them. Cannot wait for next year's herbs. Plan to grow and put up MUCH more.

Winter Storage

One of the benefits of buying a 200 year old house is a built in root cellar. Our foundation walls are constructed of brick and ledge and the cellar floor is dirt. This past fall we we put up lots of root vegetables including: carrots, onions, garlic, potatoes, and several varieties of squash.

The potatoes were a success. I could not tell you the last time I bought a bag. We stored those in wooden bushel baskets. Carrots were stored in a plastic tote buried in sawdust, they are still crisp. The onions did ok but are starting to sprout and soften a bit. MM thinks they may have done better in an environment with less humidity. The garlic has done well stored in the kitchen.

Our squash didn't fair so well in storage. We had a very wet, rainy end to our summer which made for a great environment for mold to grow. In addition, we had issues with fruit flies when we first brought the squash in the barn from the garden.

We further hastened our successes with poor storage methods. We had tried to store in a refrigerator in the shed. They stored nicely when it was running but shortly after we unplugged it they started to mold. MM had also stored a batch in a tote in the cellar and they also molded from the moisture and inability to breathe.

What will we do differently next year?

Store the squash is a closet upstairs (directly after picking from garden). It is cool and dry with lots of ventilation.

Check on our vegetables frequently. One bad vegetable can ruin a bunch.

Pick top quality root vegetables (without blemishes)

Grow more potatoes! We have enough for another month if we are lucky.

Does this picture above look familiar? Anyone get the 09' Johnny's Select Seed catalog? I'd say they got their picture the same place I did, The Common Ground Fair. They had a much better shot but I had to chuckle when I saw it because it was a great looking display and I even had an eye for that.

On a final note, totally unrelated... I want to grow lots of gourds next year so I can make some of these. This was also a display at this past CGF. Wouldn't they make a nice Christmas present?

Here are a few good websites that have lots of great information on root cellars and many other topics if you would like to learn more.

http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/rootcellar.html

http://www.earth-house.com/

Thanks for the references City Girl!