The temperature is above freezing, but that has not deterred the first snowflakes from forming and drifting down from the sky. The snow is not accumulating, but it certainly is falling with enthusiasm.
As usual the weekends are extremely busy in the Mist Cottage kitchen. That is when Attila is here to harvest the garden. Today we vacuum sealed the frozen diced celery, and just over a dozen “pucks” of frozen pureed mashed sweet potato. The celery is from our garden, harvested yesterday, and the sweet potatoes were purchased as “almost perfect” produce at a reduced price, so five pounds were purchased to preserve. I love sweet potato, Attila not so much, so a muffin cup size serving is perfect for one.
The vacuum sealing was not on our list of projects for today, BUT I was mixing up some Orange Chocolate Chip muffins, and ran out of my silicone muffin liners. The liners were in the freezer downstairs, full of mashed sweet potato. So a detour was taken to get out the vacuum sealer, to bag the sweet potato, freeing up the muffin liner for my muffins. Since we had the vacuum sealer out, the frozen diced celery was also vacuum sealed. When that project was completed and cleared away, the muffin liners were washed and I proceeded to bake the muffins.
At the same time, there is kale dehydrating in the dehydrator on the back porch, and there is a batch of vegetable broth under way on the range in the kitchen, using the steam juicer to extract the broth from frozen vegetable scraps we save as we peel or process our vegetables.
At the same time I am cooking potatoes and carrots in the instant pot, to use in a Potato and Corn Chowder, which will also be made in the instant pot.
At the same time a loaf of bread is baking.
Right now I am taking a short break from the activities to write this.
I just had to record the first snowfall!
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Sun, Nov 13, 11:05 AM
2°C
Mostly cloudy
Wind 10 NW km/h
Humidity 72 %
Visibility 25 km
Sunrise 7:00 AM
Wind gust 15 km/h
Pressure 101.4 kPa
Ceiling 700 m
Sunset 4:43 PM
Quote
“Rest is the sweet sauce of labor.”
Plutarch
46 AD – 120 AD
I hope you enjoyed your meal. (We have steak, sweet potatoes and spinach awaiting us, only two minutes left on the spinach, which is steaming.)
I am envious of how you manage to use/preserve every last bit of your harvest. It’s so much work but very satisfying. We’re running out of garden time now. Still harvesting potatoes, cabbage, kale, carrots and chard. The garlic isn’t planted yet but will be done this week. Interesting to hear you juice vegetable scraps. I usually freeze them and then make a stock on the stove but now have a steam juicer. So far I’ve only used it for fruit. I wonder if the veggie stock would be as good using the juicer. It would certainly be less work.
Joan, the soup was great, almost as good as my Mom used to make. Your meal sounds delicious!
Sandra, I have always loved the idea of preserving food. One of my favourite images as a child was the burrough pantry, from the Wind in the Willows. That was such a wondrous thing to me. I think I linked that to my Granny and Grandpa’s General Store, which was also wondrous. So although it is a lot of work, it feeds not only my body, but also my soul.
You harvest list is so similar to ours! All hardy plants for cold climates. Hmmm… that is a good question, how does the taste compare between the two methods of creating broth. I would guess that the broth made on the stove would be tastier. If you try out the steam juicer method, I would be interested in knowing if there is a significant taste difference. The steam juicer method is very easy, set it up and leave it alone, then turn off the burner and wait until it cools, the cleanup is really easy! Both methods do provide a healthy broth, full of good nutrition.
Maggie, I have to admit I’m fascinated by you growing your own celery. Do you grow it from seed? It would be great if next year you could take pictures of it in various stages.
We have about 2 inches of snow here. We had snowsqualls almost all day long. When the snow would stop it would start melting, so the amount on the ground pretty much stayed the same all dy long.
Teri, yes, Attila grows it from seed. It starts out in a peat pot, in the little greenhouses Attila builds on top of my raised beds. This year he transplanted the seedlings to the raised bed, and we have been harvesting it for quite some time, it just keeps growing, the latest harvest being yesterday. I think it is done now though, due to the -5C temperature tonight. The variety we grew was a leaf celery, Amsterdam Leaf. It is different than the type you buy in the grocery store, not a bunch, more a bunch of stems with leaves.
Two inches of snow on the ground!
The orange chocolate Chip muffins sound especially appealing. Wish I had one tonight, to munch while having my evening tea. It’s not snowing here on Vancouver Island, but it’s very chilly!
Hi Maggie…you sure did have a busy kitchen going on today. Bet it smelled delicious in there!
Love,
Cookie
Hi Cookie! We sure did have a busy day in the ktichen today, and yesterday too. It smelled sooo good, we just had to try the muffins as soon as they came out of the oven! Love Maggie
Diane, the muffins were really good! I use the whole orange, minus the stem and the seeds, chopped up in the food processor, which makes the muffins really tasty. They would be great with a cup of tea! I hope you are keeping warm in the chilly weather!