Good night Nammah

Thanksgiving day we went from the 50's to snow and cold.  Nammah is tucked in for the winter. The newspaper said 12 inches in South Range.

 

The end of the season, perhaps I should introduce Nammah to you. Her name comes from a sermon I heard at the Duluth Unitarian Church several years ago. It was spring and the story was about a Jewish midrash telling of Noah's wife - the woman who saved the seeds from the great flood! Her name was Nammah. We do some seed saving of our own. I appreciate the full circle on so many levels.

So, for the next few months the musings will be about the continued feast from Nammah's bounty this year. We are sure that we eat something from the garden every day. The larder and freezers are full-plus overflow in the studio turned root cellar.

Much gratitude for a bountiful harvest!

Mid November

The ground is still workable and the garden harvest, clean up and canning continue.  Last year the first snow was Nov. 20 and the garden was put to bed by the 6th.  Though we are behind schedule, so is winter!

Due to the overgrowth of tomatoes, new products are emerging from our kitchen.  5 quarts of BBQ sauce from Sara's favorite cookbook
"Sacramental magic in a small town cafe."

Plus 3 pints of tomato paste!  Just puree tomatoes in the crock pot for a couple of days. This is the end of the green harvested - studio ripened tomatoes that are usable. The rest...into the compost.  Our studio floor is now open for yoga!

What happened is that my heritage tomatoes planted from seed went from beautiful and lush to "OMG what is wrong with the tomato plants" prior to transplanting in the garden. Hindsight Sara thinks we need more air circulation in the nursery - it looked fungus like. I was teaching in the Badlands so she did two things: re potted ALL of the tomato plants (I think there were between 40 and 50 - you never know how many will survive!); PLUS she bought and planted more tomato plants in case none of them survived.  And our friend Kathleen gave us her extra plants!  They ALL survived and we have been canning tomato products like crazy!

Friday I harvested the remaining Kale. It was a difficult kale year. Little flea beetles would eat the seedlings (one tiny hole at a time) until there was nothing left to grow.  There were about 4 plants that produced well. I will just cook it up and not bother to freeze any this year.

Some went into mom's favorite Whole Foods "super food salad" and some into the harvest bread pudding (brussel sprouts, carrots, turnips, sweet potato).  I also used the top of the brussel sprout head instead of cabbage in the salad.  It seemed to work. There were a few cherry tomatoes left to put in the salad.  I added red quinua for even more super food.

There were still brussel sprouts in the ground until Sunday (18th).  These are the tallest I have ever grown.  They produced a lot!  Some went into the roasted vegetable bread pudding and a quart bag worth blanched and into the freezer.








The garden is officially put to bed for the winter.  It is a bittersweet feeling.  Gratitude for the harvest and for beating winter with a thorough clean up - yet a melancholy as we all (garden and tenders) head into the darkness for reflection and regeneration until spring.

First week in November

It's not winter yet which is a good thing because as usual, we are not ready! A few days at home (finally) helped to get closer to that place of never quite ready.

Stan, our local mechanical man, came over this week to fix the riding mower (becoming an annual event) so we can move it into its new home in the garden shed!  He also brought his air compressor and they blew out the pipes that run under the road to the garden.

Lots of tasks to prepare for winter...I rolled up the hoses and put them away, stacked and covered the gazebo furniture to protect it from snow, put away all of the outside sitting places (I think I sat in them all this year), washed the front windows and put the storms on (a bit late but oh well), dumped out the bags of leaves from Joan onto the new garlic bed (built and planted a few weeks ago).

I also finished the last of the raised beds inside the fence and planted more garlic on a few of the ends. All 18 are now double-much easier to add the composted cow manure from farmer Ed.  We get milk and poop from the same cows that eat the grass from the field just outside the garden.  Ed bales it once a year and brings us poop in exchange.  We give a donation for the milk!

The cooking continues...this weekend more sauce from the tomatoes (still some left) - cooks for 5 hours and then made into lasagna with layers of roasted vegetables from the garden and a layer of pesto from the freezer made this summer.







All but the onions are from the garden.  I need to figure out why I cannot seem to grow an onion!!















A new Harvest Chutney recipe that used the last of the apples, zucchini and more of the tomatoes!  I made WAY too much chutney this year - but it's nice for gifts and last a l-o-n-g time!

I also waxed the turnips (first year growing turnips) - and put them in the new harvest basket Sara got for her birthday!  More pantry fun!!

Wood splitting day - Oct. 28

A full row of logs cut by Sara last fall/winter and stacked by Paula to dry a bit for the following year.  These were trees that were downed in the storm the previous year.  What a long and work filled cycle to get to our wood stove!

The Godsey's were kind enough to take a sunday to "play" (town folk can be funny) ;) Chris loves to split wood.  Lucky for us...we had wood to split!

Sara built "walls" and Shannon stacked.  I donned an apron over top my carhartts to serve zucchini bread, muffins, coffee and a lunch of venison root vegetable stew!  The neighbor delivered venison just harvested the night before.  It doesn't get more fresh or local!

With gratitude for the help of friends, the pile has been transformed and transferred to the wood shed - outdoor pallets ready for another cycle of wood cut from the forest.