Last week I joined Jessica from Three Rivers Homestead on her #everybitcountschallenge Even though it is the end of winter, and quiet time of year produce wise, I still managed to do something every day. And it has been fun! Definitely motivating. I am excited about a new week as I have quite a bit lined up already!
Monday.
My obvious first task was to put my celery crop to good use. In my container gardens I have three patches that have grown to be huge. I keep picking it and it keeps growing. I never harvest a whole head, I just cut the stems I want and it just grows more.
I didn't even know I could grow celery until I planted these. Apparently I can! So I picked a big bunch and dehydrated it over the fire.
I get a whole celery to one jar, once it is dehydrated. When I pick my own I try and make a bunch equivalent to what you would buy as a head of celery. That way I kind of know how much is in my jar.
The leaves are so valuable. I think celery leaves make the most beautiful silky broth and make chicken soup especially good. Green goodness.
I finished conditioning some other things I had dried in recent weeks. Putting them away I realised how doing a little bit at a time soon adds up. Every bit really does count. I keep my dehydrated goods in a cupboard so they are in the dark. My selection is growing.
I write on the lids the contents and quantity. It is staggering how much food is in a jar. For instance the jar of mixed veggies is a kilo of veggies dehydrated.
Tuesday.
I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce then some extra pasta bakes to put in my ready meals freezer.
They are wrapped and labelled ready for when I need them.
Wednesday.
I juiced the oranges I got in Adelaide and froze some.
Thursday.
I went to Mums. I took the opportunity to pick bunches of Bay Leaves from her giant Bay Leaf trees. It has been raining so they were so fresh and green.
I took some to Lucy along with three cartons of eggs. I gave away two branches as gifts. The rest are dehydrating near the fire. Then I will package them up for gifts and for trade. (After topping up my supplies of course.)
Friday.
Friends used the cabin Friday night. They brought me a nice box of veggies.
Most of this will be worked into the meals for the week. I did chop the bunch of Celery and freeze it in batches.
Saturday.
I was travelling south so I picked two big bunches of Celery to take to the swap tables. From this I ended up with quite a few small lemons.
Because I have plenty of eggs I will make Lemon Butter. I can't quite count this one as something put up it is more of a "get the ball rolling project!"
Sunday.
Froze Blueberry Muffins.
I have arrived here on Monday with a fridge full of fresh produce. I have dehydrated Celery to pack into jars and Lemon Butter to make. It is raining so I think I will get cooking!
Overall I give myself a 6 maybe out of 7. Some of my projects weren't complete but I did something everyday. And it does add up!
Jessica posted her week which you can see at Three Rivers Homestead. It is beautiful to me that we can be all around the world working together! I just love it!
What were you able to put up over the last week? Some of you are harvesting with loads coming in and it is probably hard to keep up! This is true making hay while the sun shines! xxx
Like you Annabel, this is not the season for a great deal of produce, however today I will start this challenge of just doing something every day. I have Kale to pick and dehydrate into powder, so I can pop in quietly into casseroles etc as my husband does not fancy it. It’s such a great source of nourishment that I just have to add it. We have started growing tomatoes in our sunroom and we have tiny tomatoes 🍅 on the plants already. I also bought some cheap red apples and will add them to some rhubarb for on top of our breakfast granola. Tomorrow I plan to make a big pot of chicken soup which will be our main meal and then meal size quantities frozen. Mending is also on the agenda this week and some drawers need to be tidied. There always is much to do, however that is my role as a wife and homemaker. Things take longer these days as I’m now in my 70s, but life is still good in this land unlike so many other part of the world today. Australia really is a blessed country. I would encouraged folk who follow our Lord to read 2Chronicles 7:14. Such an encouragement to us.
ReplyDeleteBlessings Gail.
Amen to 2nd Chronicles 7:14.
DeleteDear Gail, I do believe the time is coming where many many more will turn to God and He will heal the land. And Im excited to see it! You have had a lot of baking, dehydrating ad growing happening! All just beautiful! I have not done powders yet. That is next for me. I think being able to add things in with a powder is brilliant. Like vitamin pills! Yes there is always so much to do. I am freezing garlic cloves today and going through a cupboard of baby items. We are preparing for Spring planting. I am getting excited about what I can grow this year as I have many containers now waiting to be planted up. Thank you for your great report! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteIf you want the blessing in Chronicles you need to obey Deuteronomy. That is what Chronicles is calling the Israelites back to, to keeping the Law of The Creator. Life and death, blessing and curses is from Deuteronomy. You can not have the blessings of obedience without the obedience. May you all be blessed :)
DeleteAnnabel you are my inspiration. This week I got the dehydrator working and have added more green leaves to my greens powder jar. I experimented and made delicious fruit leather using passionfruit and left over pie apple. Bluey was given ten bananas where the skin had large areas that were black. The fruit wasnt too bad at all. I peeled these and vac sealed them in bags before putting in the freezer. They will be great for smoothies or for baking. I havent put something away daily but have been putting things away. Like you say it is amazing just how quickly this all builds up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jane, you have inspired me with so many things so it is mutual! The Passionfruit leather looked beautiful and a lovely colour. The bananas were a bonus too! Yes it sure does add up. I think I will do better this week than last week. Today I have pizza dough rising... I expect to get enough to freeze some spare pizza bases. I am trying to work smarter too as I can see buys season is coming. I have thought of a few ways to make life easier so Im working on that. Have a good new week! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteDear Annabel, I have been watching Jess and Love following you- I think that you are fantastic. I love what you have achieved. I love celery leaves too and your bay leaves are magnificent, I wish I could grow them here. I must keep trying to grow new things. If I have a home day, I might plant some more things- thank you for the encouragement. I have been trying to do more each day. I used up eggs and made cakes/ sweet potato (like zucchini) slice, dehydrated tumeric and made rosella jam. I am keen to learn as much as I can. Lots of love, Lily
ReplyDeleteDear Lily, Thank you so much! Your baking, dehydrating and jam all added up to be a beautiful menu and things put on the shelves as well! I ave never made Rosella jam. Can I ask where you are located Lily? Jane in QLD makes rosella jam and the colour of it is gorgeous! Well done on the Tumeric! That is something I also need to grow! I counted my planters and looked at how much space I have today as I will be planting like mad in only a couple of weeks! Im pretty excited. Adding a bit extra works! Have another very good week and thank you for reporting in! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteHi Annabel. Happy Monday! Your celery looks wonderful, how amazing to see it grow out of a container. I bought a vacuum sealer this weekend, so will start reading and looking at YouTube to learn how best to use it. I am very excited ;). I also have decided to learn how to ferment (starting with sauerkraut) from watching Offgrid with Doug and Stacy….so the next few weeks will be full of learning. Love your blog and appreciate the time and effort you spend. Last years 30 day program that you ran was incredibly valuable! Hilogene in Az
ReplyDeleteHi Hilogene,
DeleteSeriously with the container garden I am just having so much better success than before! I am surprised! It is fantastic you got a vac sealer! That will be such an asset. I see how Stacy does a lot of fermenting. I hope your sauerkraut is a big success. Thank so much for your kind comments! with love Annabel.xxx
I have a small garden that is not producing a great deal, but every little bit does help. This week I froze 2 packages of bok choy and one of chard for future meals. After watching Jessica's video I was inspired to make nasturtium salt -- it is very good and I was pleased to have something new to do with nasturtium. I canned 5 and 1/2 pints of corn purchased from the farmer's market. I found local peaches on sale and canned 9 pints, and put up 3 jars of peach pit jelly. We cut a cord of firewood in the national forest. Now we have the 4 cords we need for winter, but our permit allows for two more cords, so we hope to get those before snow closes the roads. It is already feeling like fall here in Colorado!
ReplyDeleteDear Cindi, I recently planted two Nasturtium patches and they look to be taking off. I saw Jessica dehydrating the Nasturtiums too! Now you saying you like the salt is encouraging me to try this.
DeleteGood job on the canning and also on the firewood! I think firewood is so important and if you can get extra then it is a good idea. The book ahoy and chard in the freezer is wonderful too. You really added a lot to the pantry and I think the wood is so good I think better than money in the bank! Great work! With love Annabel.xxx
You had a great week!
ReplyDeleteMonday I saw the smart canner we use was down in price so I ordered one and listed my two big Presto canners for sale on Marketplace. I sold both of them and the new canner only cost $37 out of pocket! This will be a huge help to us.
On Tuesday we grocery shopped for the best deals in the sales ads. Notable is 6 half gallons of shelf stable orange juice for $1.25 each and cantaloupes for 1..49. We picked all of our green grape tomatoes because the squirrels were eating them. We have been ripening them in a paper bag.
Wednesday we harvested banana peppers from our container garden and cut them and froze them for future meals. We fed all our veggie plants a good dose crushed egg shells that we had saved. Zucchini plants were cut back in hopes that they will produce.
Thursday I made red beans and rice using hot sausage that we can buy for $1 a pound at the salvage grocery. I cooked the sausage with peppers and onions and garlic and divided it onto five portions. I used one with a can of red beans for supper and froze the other four for quick meals. I have home canned red beans to go with these packs. The meat for each meal is only 20 cents. This was a delicious meal and now I have a use for that inexpensive sausage.
Friday we shopped at the salvage grocery and found green peppers 2/$1, cabbage for .39 a pound and huge fresh onions for .59 a pound. We also got over four pounds of turkey breast lunch meat for $7. The peppers where chopped and frozen and the lunch meat packs went straight on the freezer for future use.
Saturday we had family here for brunch and I did not have to purchase a single items to make the company meal. Every leftover was packaged up and reheated for breakfast Sunday morning for the two of us. I have found that leftover scrambled eggs reheat well if you add some butter. They were moist and really good that way.
Another chore that got done was stacking our firewood in a new wood rack that Hubby built. He built it from a section of wood fence that he tore apart and other wood that we had on hand.
Thank you for the great report! Fantastic about the canner! I really like some fruit juice on the shelf... especially if anyone is sick and in winter I crave fruit juice! That was a good buy!
DeleteYour garden sounds very productive and great to add the egg shells, I am doing that too! Great deals at the salvage store! You made some tasty meals and added to your shelves as well!
The meal for the family would have been lovely and I LOVE leftovers they are like a day off! Also money saving!
I am counting firewood as adding to provisions... I think firewood is just so important. I really like the sound of the rack your husband built. Well done on doing something every day! A really good week! xxx
Dear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteI loved seeing all that you accomplished this week. Due to a medical condition that has to do with histamine I am unable to eat any canned foods and can only use dried herbs, so it's into the freezer with everything. This week I made 4 pints of no'mato sauce. It tastes just like tomato sauce but is made with beets carrots and some recipes call for butternut squash. The zucchini from the garden was shredded and divided into packages to make zucchini fritters. I was gifted with some summer crookneck squash and made Patsy's squash casserole for the freezer meals.4quarts of beautiful freestone peaches that we got at the farmers market were frozen and there are still more that need to be processed. I dried a huge amount of basil that will be used by us and also to be given as gifts. I baked 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies for the freezer and added chocolate chips to the dough. We applied fertilizer to all of the container garden and to the raised bed garden. This is the first year we've used fish emulsion and it has been fabulous. Blessings to all. Cookie
Dear Cookie,
DeleteI really like the sound of your no tomato sauce! The peaches sound beautiful! I just love peaches! They are maybe the best part of summer!
The basil... that is something else I just love! The smell of basil! It is so good. I bought some fish emulsion to have ready for summer here. Good to hear it worked so well for you. The cookies are good, I used the three ingredient recipe too. I really like them and they are really filling. Very good week! With love Annabel.xxx
Your celery looks wonderful, Annabel. The leaves are my favorite part of the stalk. I use them in tuna salad and stir-fry.
ReplyDeleteI dehydrated 8 pounds of frozen peas and carrots and one pound of broccoli at the end of last week. I let them cure for a couple of days and then vacuum sealed them.
I have been dehydrating herbs daily. We have oregano, dill, rosemary, thyme, french tarragon, lemon verbena, lemon balm, basil and lovage. The lovage tastes like celery and is much easier to grow in our climate. I have been dehydrating lavender, yarrow, calendula and comfrey, also
Tomorrow, I need to pull beets and prep them for pickled beets. Today, I dehydrated beet leaves to crumble, vacuum seal and add to soups this winter. They are very nutritious.
I still have a lot of cucumbers and zucchini to process. Can't seem to keep up right now 🙄
We have quite a few green tomatoes that I was eying today and thinking about piccalilli. It is so good with beans and rice. We shall see as John is hoping they turn red. 😁
Have a wonderful mid-week.
Love,
Glenda
Wonderful work on the peas, carrots and broccoli Glenda. I really love using frozen veg.. so easy and good results. You have a beautiful variety of herbs! So much goodness. And the fragrance! Very good idea on saving the beet leaves, they are quite lovely and a good colour. More goodness.
DeleteIt is great you are getting so many cucumbers and zucchini. I really hope I have success with these this year. Your garden is really producing so much!
What a productive week!
ReplyDeleteI was always under the belief that celery was hard to grow, but after seeing your efforts and those of a friend of mine, I think I will try it! Celery goes in so many dishes it’s as versatile as carrots and onions!
Hubby and I are on a week long holiday in our caravan, we are driving to Western Qld to attend a wedding! So I won’t be able to participate in the every bit counts challenge. I have however popped into a country op-shop and poked around a bit, I got a jar opener for $1 and a pair of long BBQ tongs for 50 cents! 😂
Have a lovely week Annabel and Bluebirds 🐦🪺
Dear Cheryl, I put a handful of blood and bone in with every celery plant. Beyond that I did nothing special. I cant believe how prolific it is!
DeleteEnjoy your trip and the wedding! And the op shops! How much fun! Many thanks! Love Annabel.xxx
We had a graduation party this last weekend, and I chopped many vegetables for vegetable trays. I remembered to save the broccoli and cauliflower stems to peel and chop up for our family. I froze them. I also chopped and froze the leaves and ends of lots of celery. We had a lot of vegetables left over, so we are eating the fresh ones this week, and I’m chopping and freezing what will spoil quickly.
ReplyDeleteI am frustrated that a 10 pound bag of potatoes I bought a week or two ago got moldy in the fridge already…I’m not sure how, as I’ve not had that happen before. I usually wash them when I get home from the store, this time I did not, I thought I’d wash as we needed them, so I’m thinking the potatoes were probably on their way to bad when I got them.
When you dehydrate in front of your fire, or perhaps out on racks or between sheet (as opposed to a dehydrator or oven), do you ever have problems with pests, such as ants or other insects?
Good job on saving the left over veggies. Love leftovers! You can put them to good use.
DeleteI havent had potatoes go mouldy. I would suspect they were already going bad.
Nothing gets to the food dehydrating over the fire as ants or anything else would have to get past the hot part of the fire. But green leafy things I am usually doing aren't really bug attracting. And things are generally done and put away within 24 hours. So it works really well. I think our fire will only be going another week or so and then my electric dehydrator will come back into action. Great job on the veggies! xxx
Dear Annabel, This week I have been dealing with a glut of courgettes (zucchini) and patty pan squashes. We have never had such a harvest of patty pans and I can only put it down to the very hot weather we have had recently in England. I have made bread and butter pickles, piccalilli; and 3 batches of 7 veg pasta and 2 trays of roast vegetables which I have added to pasta bakes to freeze, like you, for quick meals. Today I will be peeling and freezing shallots and tiny onions which I also intend to freeze to add to soups, stews, casseroles and roast root veg this coming winter. Usually I would pickle these, but we have a lot of pickles already and this way I’m hoping they won’t be wasted. The onion harvest has not been good this year so every little should help.
ReplyDeleteMy sister, who lives in France, has been following Jess’s challenge with me and we have really enjoyed comparing notes together. It is lovely to read your responses to it as well.
With all good wishes to you and yours.
Lesley
Dear Lesley, All the zucchini and squash are just fantastic! Yes maybe the hot weather! The seven veg pasta sounds beautiful. I just love trays of roast veggies and they are so useful. You have a lot coming in! Doing this along with your sister is really lovely! You can encourage each other and share progress! Please invite her to join us here I would love a French Bluebird! You really got a lot done! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteCan you please share your Lemon Butter recipe? I can't seem to find it. Is it available on your old site? Thanks! I look forward to your posts every week and love how you are living your best life!
ReplyDeleteHi Kathy, If you google The Bluebirds are Nesting Jars of Sunshine it will come up. It is so easy and quick. It also freezes perfectly! xxx
DeleteI'm not participating in this week's challenge--yet--because I'm still working on extra projects you encouraged two weeks ago! I seem to move at the rate of an arthritic slug, but I am getting a lot of things done.
ReplyDeleteLast fall, I attempted to rehab my overgrown strawberry bed by removing all of the plants, topping up the bed with soil and homemade compost and replanting the strawberries. This was a total failure. Very few berry plants survived the winter. Then, the mystery plants started coming up from the compost. They looked to be some kind of squash, but not zucchini (which is the only squash I plant in my very limited space). They have completely taken over the strawberry bed and grown up the fence to the dog run. Today, I happened to look into the run and noticed two green...what?...growing through the fence. CANTALOUPES! The stripes were the giveaway. I went outside and spotted 4 more! They are currently about the size of a large navel orange or smallish grapefruit. I assume they will get bigger (?). We will be having our first frost in 5-7 weeks, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they ripen.
I only planted one Early Girl tomato and I have harvested 11 ripe tomatoes so far. I have two more volunteer tomatoes coming up in the middle of the cantaloupes and they are loaded with fruit! I hadn't planned to can tomatoes this year because I canned so many last year, but of course I will, if I have extras. My zucchini is not doing well this year and I've only harvested two so far.
Every year, I talk about planting a fall garden, but I never do it. Last week I planted lettuce and bush green beans. This was a result of your encouragement to get things done. In 4 days, everything was up! I don't know if I'll actually get crops before frost (praying that it's late this year) but at least I tried!
Dear Maxine, I am no good with Strawberries so far. It sounds like you are going to have beautiful Cantaloupes! It is funny how we will try so hard to grow something and fail and not try at all and succeed! haha! But any harvest is good!
DeleteSounds like you will be canning tomatoes! You could freeze or dehydrate also. You have a fair bit of time left... so Im hoping to hear you had plenty more to harvest yet! xxx