Something for the Freezer!

10 pounds of broccoli

 Something for the Freezer!

Terry and I have worked very hard at filling our cupboards with Lynchburg grown foods. Not only to support the local farmers, of which we some day hope to call ourselves, but also to improve the quality of foods that we consume. Each Saturday morning we have a date at the Lynchburg Community Market, AKA  Lynchburg Farmers Market, where we fill our basket with enough produce and meat to last us the week and beyond.

This week as the greens are starting to leave our market, we found broccoli to put into the freezer for the weeks to come. No, this is not a cheaper way for us to eat by any means. We bartered with the growers to buy all they had left and still paid on average of $1.75 per pound. But we know, that we know, this broccoli is not filled with pesticides, is not a GMO,  has not been shipped across the country, we know the farm that grew it and on average 48% of what we spend with a local business will be recirculated locally into our economy.

Getting the broccoli into our freezer was super easy.  

I have had the privilege of growing up with an amazing mother who taught me how to can and preserve the abundance that was grown on the farm. I was also taught that The Ball Blue Book was authority for all things canning, freezing, and dehydrating. While I now have a number of books and sources to help out with improving our families diet, I still head back to The Blue Book to help out. It made putting this broccoli in the freezer painless.

Soaking the water/salt brine

 

Steps to freeze broccoli - The Ball Blue Book Style

1) Wash, remove leaves and cut off any woody portions (This was picked yesterday and early this morning...no woody portions here).
2) Immerse and soak in a water/salt water brine (1 gallon of water to 1 cup of salt) for thirty minutes. --This is to remove any insects. For organically grown broccoli, we were both surprised at the few insects that we found.
3) Rinse and drain.
4) Blanch for 3 minutes.
5) Drain, Cool and pack into containers.
6) Seal, label and freeze.

Broccoli cooling after being blanched

We are looking forward to next weeks market. The brussels sprouts have been amazing this year. When we get to the end of February it will be nice to pull some green from our freezer and know that not only do we have some amazingly healthy yummy-ness but that we have supported the farmer who has worked incredibly hard to secure our food system here in Central Virginia.

Broccoli ready for the freezer

I do have to admit I am looking forward to starting some seed in the spring, and watching our garden grow. Until then I will see you Saturday at The Lynchburg Community Market. 

~Julie

Planting Garlic

Planting Garlic

10 Varieties

         After one failed attempt to purchase some organic garlic starter bulbs, our seed garlic finally arrived. Julie found a small farm in New Mexico (through, of all places, Amazon) who still had two pounds of seed but only sold a variety selection. We are just a bit late getting our garlic planted, so we were happy to find seed still available and put in our 2 pound order.

         I opened the box and discovered 10 different types of garlic including both hard neck and soft neck varieties, the two primary categories for garlic. Each type was in its own paper bag with hand written descriptions of each one.

Estonian red: Marbled purple stripe from Talin Market

Takayama: A highland city in central Japan—Rocambole/Asiatic variety

Persian star: Purple stripe hardneck from Uzbekistan

Transylvanian Artichoke: Transylvanian

Shavot: Wild garlic from Tajikistan

Susanville Artichoke: A long keeper, California white

Ron’s Single Center: Also called Trueheart

Spanish Roja: Rocambole- A favorite of chefs for its quintessential garlic

flavor brought to Portland, Oregon over a     century ago.

Rosewood: Porcelain variety from Muldalvia

French Red Artichoke:

         So I headed out to the waiting raised bed and happily set to work planting. Spaced 6-8 inches apart and planted 4 inches deep, I got one full bed and one row in a second bed planted.

Nice Straight Rows

         While I worked in the soil, I was glad to see plenty of worms. The soil looks, feels, and smells great, and the worms confirm that there is a good amount of organic material.

A Garden's Best Friends

All planted and tagged

       All that is left is to mulch over the beds with straw about 3-5 inches deep and then wait……..the hard part.

~Terry

Burning Brush

Burning Brush

I’ve been hard at work with my chainsaw removing trees, brush, and vines. One of the biggest challenges that I have encountered is dealing with all of the brush that is cut. At first this was a challenge because I wanted to pile the brush in a clear area that would allow me to safely burn it. The problem was that I only had limited “clear” areas. The more I’ve cut the less this has been a problem.

The next challenge is more of a time issue. Because we don’t live on the property yet, any time that I burn, I need to stay and monitor the burn. If I start burning as soon as possible in the morning, I usually need to hang out until about 8 or 9 o’clock at night to ensure that there is no chance for hot coals to be blown around and starts an unintended fire. This isn’t a big challenge, but it is a challenge nonetheless.

The last challenge has been a little unexpected. Getting the piles to ignite. All the material in the piles is very “green” and although it will burn fine once the pile is lit, getting it lit has been problematic. An old Vermont logger once told me that if you put enough diesel on it, it will burn. I’m thinking that he wasn’t paying $2.49 a gallon for his fuel either. With 8 brush piles ready to burn, I needed to come up with a solution soon. What I found was a blowtorch set up that attaches to a gas grill tank.

I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I headed out to the property ready to burn.

Success!

 I am happy to report that the blowtorch idea worked like a charm!. My son-in-law Brandon came out and helped me, and together we were able to get all 8 piles burned. With those piles gone, I can once again fire up the saw and start cutting.

~Terry

A Tune-up For My Axe

A Tune-up For My Axe

         While de-liming a tree last weekend, I ended up pinching the chain on my chainsaw and had to dig out my axe to cut it free. Pinched saws happen to the best of us and a relief cut will almost always free it from the vise like grip of whatever branch or log has grabbed ahold of it and refuses to let it go.

         We moved to Virginia about 3 ½ years ago, and I had not touched my axe in all that time. It has been stored in rather damp area and to my dismay, it was not only rusty, but terribly dull as well. After closer inspection, it was clear to see that the last job my axe had performed was the grim task of cleanly removing the heads of our last batch of meat chickens (there where still feathers stuck to the blade).

Sad Shape

         So I figured it was time for a tune-up. I first removed the surface rust with a wire wheel. This didn’t take to long and made vast visual improvements. Next, I clamped the axe in a bench vise and dug out my flat file. It is possible and quicker to use a bench grinder or angle grinder to put an edge on an axe, but it is often uneven and leaves small highs and lows in the edge that make it difficult to get a fine edge on the blade.

        I use a 12-inch flat bastard file. This is a medium cut file that removes  just the right amount of material. Working from one end of the blade to the other, I file each side evenly so as to maintain about an 18 degree angle on the blade. 18 degrees of angle will give you a good sharp blade but will also hold up and not bend of ding easily. Depending on how dinged up the blade is, this can take a while. My axe is a double bit so I had double the fun. Once both sides of the blade are smooth and damage free, I use a sharpening stone to hone a fine edge that will give you the best cut you can.

Good and Sharp

With all of that done, I rubbed the steel surface down with a heavy oil to help prevent rust from forming. When I chopped out my pinched saw, I had to swing hard and often just to cut through a 6-inch limb. Now, with a good sharp axe, the axe should do more work then me, and it should take far fewer strokes to cut.

~Terry

 

Ready for chopping'

More Clearing

More Clearing

      Of it seems like clearing is what I do the most, it’s because that IS what I do most. Today I started clearing the area where we hope to build our small cabin. I have avoided this for a while because the area is over grown with a couple of hundred miles of face reddening, profanity producing, and stubborn vines. It feels rewarding to fire up the chainsaw and clear a portion of land. With that many vines, you can work for hours and when you done, you have made very little progress. The only encouragement I find is that once the vines are gone, I’ll never have to fight with them again.

Vine super highway

More logs for our growing wood pile

I pinched the chainsaw and had to chop it free.
Boy is this axe dull.....I need to fix that!

Ahhhhhh------Progress

At the end of the day I can stand back and see progress and that makes me smile. How do you eat an Elephant? ONE BITE AT A TIME.

 ~Terry