Greetings from Flat Tack Farm! It's been a few weeks since our last share and we've been working hard getting all of the old crops out, planting garlic/shallots & crops in the green house, pulling tarps onto beds to keep them covered and healthy over the winter, inoculating beds with mushroom compost, mulching and preserving lots of veggies for winter. We're really excited about the final harvest share, or Cornucopia Share that is going out this week. We've been stocking up on storage crops that will keep over the winter, like dry beans, winter squash and pumpkins, potatoes, onions and root crops. Here is a good guide to vegetable storage from A Way to Garden.com
Many veggies like cabbage, carrots, potatoes, rutabaga and turnips will keep for months in cold storage. Drying is another great way to preserve crops, we've been dehydrating peppers like crazy! We use them to make our chili powder, seasonings and to preserve them for making sauces and cooking into soups and stews. We also freeze lots of items during the late summer and fall to later cook and can.
Traditionally people would salt and brine things like cabbages to keep for months on end without need for electricity. They would also store root vegetables in sand like carrots, rutabagas and potatoes. Even napa cabbage and celery was stored in sand to keep them crisp and regulate the humidity. Pumpkins and squash with a hard skin can sit on counter tops for months.
We also freeze dry items like fruit and vegetables to retain more nutritional value than dehydrating and keep them crunchy. Once freeze dried, items sealed in a mylar bag can keep for up to 25 years! The ultimate doomsday prepper must have! We love freeze dried apples, berries and I also like to freeze dry cooked items like soups and other meals to take out on camping trips. Our freeze drier is from Harvest Right, they make home scale freeze driers that are easy to use. Let us know if you'd like a referral and we can help you get free items to go with your freeze drier!
We will be at the Downtown Vancouver Farmers Market this Saturday Nov. 21st and also at the final weekend market on December 19th with lots of hot sauces, preserved goods and gifts for the holidays.
See you all soon and hope everyone is staying healthy, warm and happy!
Your farmers,
Kelly & Patrick
