Harvest and keep. Storing, preserving, fermenting and saving seed so your garden feeds you all year.
8 postsFifteen kilos of carrots and one salad drawer in the fridge: how to build an earth clamp, what belongs in the sand box, and why the old natural cellar keeps root vegetables plump until March.
Why potatoes and apples never belong in the same room, why the cellar should sit neither below 4 nor above 10 degrees, and how carrots and beetroot stay crisp in damp sand right into spring. With wound healing, the solanine rules, rot diagnosis and the weekly check.
Herbs at 35 to 40 degrees, fruit at 50 to 70, vegetables at 50 to 60: which temperature each crop wants, how an oven and a dehydrator compare, how the bend test and the snap test tell you when a batch is done, and why the sweat test in a screw top jar is what really decides how long your store keeps.
Why acidity decides whether a jar is safe, and how to handle beans and squash the right way.
Sort every crop by two numbers, temperature and humidity, and find the right spot for carrots, potatoes and apples in the cellar, sand box or earth clamp.
From elderflowers in May to the apple press in October: how to bottle the summer and enjoy it all year long.
Sauerkraut, salt-brined cucumbers and more: how to preserve autumn vegetables with just two percent salt, keep everything under the brine, and tell harmless kahm yeast apart from mould.
Why F1 seed segregates, how to spot open pollinated varieties, and how to ferment and store your own seed.
