Nice weather makes everything go faster and nicer on the homestead, especially this time of the year when we’re running around like chickens with their heads cut off. There’s so much to do before snow comes. And, here in northern Minnesota, it often comes at Halloween or sooner. Not much time left! Will’s tuning up the chainsaws, getting ready to hit the firewood again while I’m picking peppers and getting the onions ready to store.
This morning, I dumped two 5-gallon buckets of onions out on the greenhouse table to sort through. Then I picked out the nicely cured onions I’d put on another bench a week ago. With scissors, I cut off the tops and roots and laid them in a crate to eventually take into the house to store over winter. The ones with any green on the tops, I put in another pile to use up soon. We really have nice onions this year, despite the lack of water (no watering in the Wolf Garden this year).
Yesterday, Will dug another bucket and a crate of potatoes, and I picked them up. Like the onions, we are having an excellent crop, despite being in our dry Wolf Garden. The soil there is a mix of sand and clay. It seemed just perfect for the potatoes with a little rotted manure that we mixed in this spring.
With the current world situation, with North Korea joining with Russia in Ukraine, vowing to go to war with South Korea, the coming contentious elections and its follow up, I’m thinking it’s wise to really get stocked up. And we’re very grateful to have the harvest we do.
Last evening, we went to town and bought more half-pint jars. I was only going to get three cases, but Will said, “Get everything they have.” and filled the cart. I guess I’m not the only one who’s worried, huh? (Will is a Vietnam vet.) Kind of a been there/done that guy.
I picked half of our remaining dry beans yesterday and will finish them up tomorrow. Then there’s just the rest of the carrots and potatoes to dig and the gardens are about done, but for the cleanup. In between all that, I’ve been canning daily. Yesterday I canned 13 half pints of Cowboy Relish. I didn’t have time to slice all those jalapenos, so I ground them, instead. I’m sure it will taste very good, despite everything.
I just picked a nice box of nicely mature-colored Sugar Rush Peach peppers from the hoop house. I didn’t know there were so many mature ones! I’ll make a batch of Gaucho Relish from them. (Chopped, seeded peppers in Cowboy Candy syrup.) No, it’s not hot, just nicely spicy and fruity. Then there are literally thousands of peppers left in there. Maybe it’s a good thing Will got all those jars, huh?
— Jackie
In our hearts and being realist, I venture to say most, if not all, of us who post on this forum know the supply chain we once knew no longer exists. Greed and tax laws sent far, far too much of our manufacturing out of this country. Which puts us at the mercy of others. Add in those who do NOT understand how tariffs work to make the trifecta of potential hard times.
I have not yet planned PTO to use up by the end of the calendar year. I will be using this time to shore up supplies. I’d love to use auto-ship for pet food but monthly does not work out for me. I also plan on suggest a neighbor who feeds more pets than I to think about getting ahead. I think she already is given the supplies I saw when I pet sat for her a couple weeks ago. Dad is pretty well stocked up. Having storage space is so comforting.
Even for local suppliers, I fear the lure of money might put them in a bind with their suppliers.
So good call by Will to buy the canning jars while you are able.
I am a firm believer of sand in soil when growing potatoes. Reminds me that we should pick some up to amend the area where we’ll plant taters come spring.
Growing up, I knew a few families/people who struggled. As an adult, it seems there are even more.