Fall has settled in, the leaves are turning into amazing colors, the weather is sometimes cold and windy but we still have really nice fall sunny days with temperatures turning around 15 to 20 degrees. This time of year is a time of "cleaning up" and getting ready for the colder months.
The Garden
In the garden, I have harvested the last potatoes and carrots. I have stored everything in boxes filled with dry sand. The boxes are stored in a cool room in the dark, that is our "preserve room" which also have the canned goods and the various winter squashes.
I will still leave the cabbages in the garden and harvest only what I need for now. There are more then enough! As soon as colder nights will come, I will either cover them to protect them from frost or harvest them. I'll see.
The cabbage heads are nicely formed, they are crispy and their taste is mild. LOVE cabbages: sauté, salads,stuffed leaves, soup! So many ways to use them all through the winter months. And cabbages are soooo healthy!
As winter approaches, it is time to plant outside the small onions and the cloves of garlic. This year I have planted 90 cloves of garlic instead of 50 mike last year. More to use and more to keep as planting cloves for the next year.
I have soaked overnight the broad beans and have planted them in pots in the green house. In February, when the plants will be small but strong, I will plant them in the garden. IN South of France, I could plant broad beans directly in the garden but the mole could eat them from under. Why take the risk?
The green house
In the green house, I have removed all the tomatoes that were still ripening and laid them in the sun on the kitchen counter. I got rid of all the tomato plants and have placed them outside to dry. We will burn them later as I do not want any tomato diseases in our compost pile. I did kept some nice plants to make a "tomato-tea". After 24 hours of maceration; I have sieved the liquid which will be stored in jugs and kept for next year. I will use this "potion" on the cabbages to help control the cabbage worm population. I did it this year and it seemed to help.
In the green house I still have a hump of kiwano fruit (African cucumber). You may remember the picture on my last blog. The ripe fruit is bright orange, quite juicy inside, tasting somewhere between a kiwi, a banana and a cucumber. I am pretty please with this new discovery and will probably grow them next year again.
I add kiwano mostly in the salads.
In the kitchen
Lots have happened in the kitchen but something I would like to share with you is my fermenting success!
In August 2017, I have rasped carrots/beetroots and zucchinis together. I then salted them, wait until their own water released and stamped them firmly in an air tight jar. I had left the jar at room temperature (around 20 degrees) for about 1 week and placed it after in a dark cool room. On November 20th 2018 (more then 1 year later), I have decided to open the jar and give it a taste. Quite surprising!
The vegetable mix is smelling nice, the colors are bright and the taste is salty. Fermented foods (everybody know "sauerkraut" right?) are a source of beneficial bacteria which acts as probiotics in your digestive tracts. A healthy digestive tracts plays an important role on your immune system! Fermentation also makes food easier to digest, increasing their food value. Adding fermented products to your diet in small amounts, avoid killing the good stuff by heating them is quite a healthy thing to do.
Fermentation is a preservation process that excluded the use of sterilization, it is perfect for a self-sufficient lifestyle. But ya, I would have to see how to reduce the salt to a minimum.
Sprouting beans and seeds is another good thing to do because it increases the digestibility of the legume or seed allowing to eat them raw! It takes no fancy material either. I use a jar with a piece of gauze. I soak the beans in fresh water overnight. The next morning, I rinse them twice, straining thoroughly through the gauze. I lay the jar sideways allowing more space for each beans.
I rinse daily and after 3-4 days it is ready.
The second picture shows the sprouting process after no more then 2 days.
You can add sprouted bean to anything. They are nice and crunchy and serve as a protein equivalent.
A place to sit
For those who have visited us, you all know that there is hardly outside a flat place to sit. Well this have changed! Welcome to our new terrace!
Leftover wood from the roof was used to build the fence.
There is a place to store wood close to the entrance of our apartment. The terrace is in the sun most of the day and will offer shadow at the end of the afternoon. A perfect combination for the hot summer months.
I will treat the wood of the table and the bench probably with linseed oil.
Dan has returned to Canada!
But before leaving, he helped cover the container with the leftover wood we had from the roof. The container disappears making the scenery much "more natural. From the street, the container looks more like a wood fence.
Dan, we could not say it often enough but THANKS FOR EVERYTHING !
As I write those last words, the wood stove is going and we will start focusing on the renovations inside.