Homestead update : Foraging and prepping food for winter supply
We have been foraging for berries and canning some of our crop.
We went blueberry picking for bog blues.
It had just rained and we got soaked but we got about a quarter gallon total.
We went to get silt and found a huge patch of raspberries.
We then went to our high bush blueberry patch.
We found a black bear print in the mud, you can tell it’s black bear because there are no claw prints. Black bears retract their claws, like a cat, when walking.
Beautiful blue stained fingers like it should be when picking berries.
On the way out we found a huge pile of bear scat, we also found sign of humans and packed out their garbage:
We had a weigh off when we got home to see who had the most.
Then it was time process beets.
The beets are in lightly salted water.
We have been busy, to say the least.
I bought some cucumbers and made bread and butter pickles.
I went to the local farmers market got some broccoli, kolrobi and zucchini.
I bought 8 super zucchinis, I plan on making relish and perhaps bread.
So I will be busy in the coming week(s), with the berries, zucchini and beets.
Oh and I forgot to mention that my corn is growing hairs!
That raspberry patch looks really good! It also looks like you did well on the blueberries.
You can do a lot of things with big zucchinis. I cut them into chunks and can them to use in my stew. :-)
What kind of corn are you growing? It looks like it's doing well.
Yeah the raspberries were right next to a hive. They pollinated the raspberries then they started on the fireweed. They have prime real estate!
I am stoked about the blues, I plan on getting more soon. I go out when all the city people are at work. 😉
It’s an early sweet corn, I believe its a 60 day or so. That’s what we try to grow, 60 day harvest stuff. Because we have a very short growing season.
The husband (@alaskatactical) wants me to plant all corn in my little garden next year. He says we will make another garden for beets and green beans. We shall see. It was hard breaking grown with all the damn roots and vine moss. Then the stumps. 🤦♀️
How do I can the zucchini for stews? I have never heard of that. I am interested in all ways of preserving food! I’m a squirrel, I like to stash and store food. Growing up food was tight, so I like to prep for the hard times.
I just cut up the zucchini into chunks, roughly 1 inch or so, and then I pressure can them in water and a bit of salt. I think the salt is like 1 teaspoon per quart. I use quart jars for the zucchini because I like using it as a filler in the stew. It takes on the flavors of the rest of the stuff in the stew.
I've also canned some quarts with half zucchini and half tomatoes, that also has to be pressure canned, not enough acid content for water bath canning. That also works out really well, but the zucchini shrinks a bit when you can it so the jars come out of the canner looking like you didn't fill them quite enough.
Almost forgot, I always peel the zucchini before I cut it up. The big ones have tough skin that's not really edible , and I don't care for the skin on the smaller ones. Just my preference.
Congratulations @alaskahippie! You received a personal award!
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!