Missing

I’m really missing that extra sunlight from summer. Technically it’s still summer, but the days are getting noticeably shorter. It’s getting dark around 7:30 here and that’s just too soon for me. Even in summer there aren’t enough hours in the day to get done what I need to, but this time of year it’s a constant race against sunset.

Last night I mowed until I couldn’t see any more and I still didn’t get it all finished. With all the rain we’ve been having, yesterday was our only dry day. I was trying to mow the entire yard before the rain comes again, I almost finished the job, but not quite.

Are you noticing fewer daylight hours?

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Mushrooms

This past Sunday, Mr Chiots and I attending a mushroom identification class at the Hidden Valley Nature Center.  We spent the morning inside, learning about mushroom identification features.  The class was taught by Greg Marley who wrote the book Mushrooms for Health: Medicinal Secrets of Northeastern Fungi.

After class room time we went out into the woods to forage.  We picked every mushroom we saw and identified them as either edible or not edible. It was a real hands on class about mushrooms, which we really liked.













Overall it was a great day and we learned a lot. Mr Chiots and I love mushrooms and are looking forward to finding more wild ones on our property. When it comes to mushroom hunting, a little direction from a professional will certainly give you the peace of mind you need!

Have you ever foraged for wild mushrooms?

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The Corn Bee

Yesterday, we celebrating Labor Day by processing corn with our neighbors. Having a bee, is a great way to make a big job much more fun, the work goes much faster when you have someone to talk to while working. It ended up being their best year yet. We spent the day husking, cooking, cooling, cutting and freezing dozens of ears of corn.











We ended up coming home with quite a bit of corn for our freezer. This will certainly bring the taste of summer back on a few cold winter days.

Do you ever have group work days?

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Cultivate Simple 43: Intro to Lacto-fermentation

“Agiculture doesn’t make sense without ways of storing the harvest.” –Sandor Katz

Ana & Roy Antaki from Weeping Duck Farm

What is lacto-fermentation? Traditional preservation of food in a brine solution.

Works through the activity of the lactobacillus family of beneficial bacteria.

• It’s is lactose-free.
• Applies to many food items, vegetable, dairy, meat.
• Suitable for long-term storage.

Benefits:

• No energy required in the preparation.
• Long term storage without energy requirements.
• A method perfected & tested through centuries, millennia.
• A living food that supports the body’s systems for health, adds beneficial bacteria to the intestinal tract, notably from the lactobacillus family. inhibits & neutralizes numbers intestinal pathogens.
• It is probiotic. Contains anti cancer agents, rich in anti-oxicdants, detoxifying agents, anti-funagl, immune-system booster & partner.
• Improves the ability of the body to absorb needed nutrients from food.
• Increases the nutritional value of the food. Synthesizes vitamins B & K. Protects and preserves heat sensitive vitamins.

Given recent large disease outbreaks trace – from sandor katz book – about safety of fermentation.

She uses Le Parfait jars, you can find them here.
Le Parfait French Glass Canning Jar – 1 Liter

General Rule for Amount of Salt to Use:
For Salting
Use 3 Tablespoons of salt per 5 lbs of veggies
For Brining
Use 2-3 Tablespoons of salt per quart of water

Books of the Week:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:41:45 — 70.6MB)

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Quote of the Day: Melissa Coleman

Fall arrived with its honey light and cool evenings, and the maple leaves brightened to match the reds and yellow of ripe apples. It was time to put away the bounty of the warm months for fortitude during the cold ones, as humans had done for centuries.

Melissa Coleman (This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone)

I don’t do a lot of canning, but I do love to ferment things. Over the coming weeks I’ll be making batches of fermented cucumber pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi and other fermented goodies.

These will help augment the root vegetables in the cellar and the bitter winter greens from under the hoop house in the garden throughout the winter. The full-sour dill pickles are probably my favorite fermented food, we gobble them up quickly, eating them at every meal if we have them.

What’s your favorite kind of pickled food?

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