One morning earlier in the week while I cleaned up the kitchen and made breakfast, Jeff and Bracken headed out to the garden where Jeff started harvesting our garlic. (Remember when we planted it in the fall?) After he had got it all harvested, I called them in for breakfast and when we came back out I brought the camera and Jeff started washing all the garlic with the garden hose. After all our focus had been preparing for the show recently, we were feeling really behind around the house and garden. Everything got put on hold for “after the show” like it always does when we do a show. So when we were back, I started cleaning around the house like crazy, washing all the bedding, getting caught up on laundry, vacuuming and sweeping everything. Jeff wanted to get the garlic harvested and the garden bed prepared for the next things that needed to be planted there.
We were pretty excited because this was our largest garlic harvest yet! (With how much garlic we eat, though, it’s hard to imagine that we could ever plant enough garlic.) We plan on setting some of this garlic aside to plant again in the fall, but we’ll see if we can keep from eating it all.
Then Jeff started peeling the husks (?) and cleaning the garlic even more. I watered the garden and smiled happily every time I passed the garlic.
When he had finished part of the pile he wrapped a thrifted leather belt (worked well for holding it and hanging it from) around it and I got some more pictures.
Of course Bracken wanted to join the picture too. This one is my favorite.
The garlic is all hanging in the house now while it dries.
We were quite surprised to get some raspberries from the tiny raspberry plant that we planted not too long ago. Bracken of course was the ones who found them. They were delicious. Maybe even more so because they were unexpected. (Of course from a gardener’s standpoint, it would have been best to remove the flowers before and let the energy go into the roots, but I’m glad we’re having a few berries to enjoy this year.)
Our thornless blackberry started flowering. We put up a trellis for it awhile ago. They say for it to be 6 feet tall and I think ours is right at that height. I’ve been amazed how fast the plant is growing. Bracken loves that he can touch the vines and there are no thorns on them.
The blueberries are starting to ripen in our yard. We’ve discovered that the robins have been eating them. They land on the bushes, grab clumps of berries with their feet, pull them to the ground, and take a peck at the blue-ish one, leaving all the rest of the green ones behind on the ground. We finally decided to get some bird netting, knowing it’s the only way we will be able to enjoy any of our blueberries this year. We’ll be putting it up soon. Yikes, it’s spendy stuff, but we plan to use it over and over again so it will get a lot of use.
Bracken and I spotted the first mullein flowers blooming. I was so glad we collected and dried the flowers last year for making mullein garlic ear oil. We’ll be collecting flowers again this year.
And we’ve been collecting more St.John’s Wort flowers too.
On the sunny days this week, before the rains came, the white clover all over the front yard was covered in honeybees. It always makes us so happy to see them.
And finally, we jarred up some sauerkraut. I joked with friends that we were suffering without our sauerkraut. I was only halfway joking. Our home fermented foods are truly a staple for us and I notice a difference when we go without them. We have tried sauerkrauts and kimchis from three different local farms and they were all very delicious, appreciated, and enjoyed, but unfortunately I had a hard time digesting them. Raw cabbage gives me stomach cramps and if sauerkraut is not fermented for long enough, my body doesn’t like it as much as my taste buds do. Many are fermented for a few days, one for two weeks at the most. We ferment ours for longer and my body does love it that way. This last batch we fermented for a little over a month. It really varies with the temperature, how long it will take to ferment. When we checked ours once it was really crunchy and not finished yet and then the next time we checked it (not long later) it was a tad overdone and a bit on the mushy side. So I wouldn’t say it’s our favorite batch we’ve ever made, they all turn out unique, but I’d rather have long fermented sauerkraut that’s a bit mushy that I can actually eat than the lightly fermented kraut that gives me a stomach ache. We put about two gallons of sauerkraut in the fridge. Jeff left one container plain, for Bracken. The other two containers he flavored with turmeric, garlic, and fresh dill and cilantro from the garden. The flavor is really incredible. A few weeks ago I was craving our ferments so much that I dreamed about our sauerkraut and pickles. I woke up feeling ravenous for them. When we made sauerkraut this last time, I wanted plenty of sauerkraut juice. We always save a lot of the juice, but somehow we’ve been out of it for quite some time and I didn’t want that to happen again. I kept telling Jeff: “let’s add a little bit more water so we have plenty of juice.” And he kept assuring me we had a lot and then finally said: “we better not put any more or our culture will get too diluted.” He was right, we ended up with more than plenty. I ended up putting four and a half gallons of sauerkraut juice in our fridge. That’s all I could fit. (If I put them in quart jars I can squeeze quite a few in the back on the bottom shelf.) After that, I gave the rest to the chickens to drink. You might be wondering why in the world I would save so much sauerkraut juice. For one, it’s delicious. Plus it has so many good probiotics I don’t want to throw it out, I want to make use of every last drop of it. I put it over salads with some olive oil for a delicious dressing. I usually pour a little bit over every meal I eat. I drink sips of it on occasion too. It would be great in guacamole or…. the possibilities are endless. When we run out of sauerkraut again, I know we’ll still have sauerkraut juice to tide us over until the next ferment is ready. The more I learn about health all the time, the more it comes back to the bacteria that our guts and bodies are populated with, and fermented foods are one of the best ways to make sure we fill our bodies with plenty of the good stuff. When I came here to write, I didn’t intend to say so much about sauerkraut, but once I started writing, it’s clear I’m in love with fermented foods.
By the way, I wanted to mention that we will not be at market tomorrow. We’re going to our friend’s wedding. Jeff just finished a gorgeous handmade gift for them and today I dug through drawers to find something nice (and unstained) for Bracken to wear. Wishing you all a lovely weekend, friends.
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