Sorting in the Root Cellar

Last Saturday was time to do one of our routine sorting jobs in the root cellar.  We knew it was needed since our 30+ degree weather is causing the temp in the cellar to rise degree by degree.  Not good for keeping the environment cool for as long into spring as we can.

Papa Pea hit on a great idea for trying to keep the cellar a little cooler and at the same time add moisture/humidity which we're usually lacking in our cellar.

He filled pails with snow which we carried down.  I thought we were just going to let the pails full of the snow sit on the gravel floor, but as he explained, if we dumped the snow onto the ground, it would still give off cold air, the melted snow would seep down into the gravel (and ground) and add some needed moisture.

I wanted to build little snow people to play among the apples, beets, potatoes, etc., but for some reason he didn't want to take the time to do that.  (He's such a spoil sport.)

Sorting the apples was first on the agenda.  Yes, we did find quite a few that had started to spoil, but still have several remaining boxes of them that look really good.

We even have a few of the sweeter eating apples left (the rest are for cooking/baking) like these we brought into the kitchen.  They've developed a few blemishes but are still firm.  We have maybe twenty more of them left.  (Funny how the tastier apples are always the first to disappear.)

Nearly everything else in the cellar looked good considering the time of year.  

The cabbages we stored hanging from their roots have lasted longer than with any other method we've tried.  The remaining green ones are looking better than the red.  (Drat.  I prefer red cabbage.)  The outer leaves are wrinkled and soft and not nice, but the bulk of the heads of the green cabbages are still firm.  The red ones, not so much.  Most of them are on their way to the poultry.

We did pull out and toss the pail of kohlrabi we thought we would cook up and feed to the poultry over winter.  Even though Papa Pea simmered the chunked up kohlrabi over night on the stove in the garage, the . . . um, uh, . . . aroma . . . okay, AWFUL SMELL was too much for us to tolerate.  I guess an old kohlrabi is not a good kohlrabi.

It will be interesting to see how long the clumps of snow last in the root cellar.  We strive to keep the temperature about 35-37 degrees, but it's already in the low 40s.  Another sign spring really is approaching.

This Is What Our March First Looks Like

So, okay.  These pictures weren't taken on March 1st, but rather March 2nd.  (As usual, I'm a little slow.)

I got it into my head yesterday that I should take a picture of my raised bed part of the garden on the first of each month from now until the end of this coming gardening season.  Just to chronicle what a difference in the landscape a few months can make.   Looking out of a window in Papa Pea's upstairs office, I think I captured the whole area of the raised beds.  (Please excuse the corner of the roof line that insisted on being in the picture.)

Raised beds, you say?  What raised beds?  It took nearly to the end of our winter season for the beds to be totally covered, but covered they are now.  (The box-like structure in the back of the picture is a compost bin which is about three feet high.)  What will the same scene look like on April 1st?  Stay tuned.

This was one section of our driveway when we took a walk out yesterday to our mailbox.

Certain parts of the driveway melt sooner than others.  The gravel showing in this picture was actually dry.  Papa Pea commented that's the way you like to see snow and ice melt.  Slowly and drying out as it disappears. Unfortunately, that doesn't usually happen.  Most often (and I'm sure it will be the case most everywhere this year) we have to slog our way through the dreaded Mud Season with plenty of the gooey-gloppy stuff in abundance.

How does the landscape around your place look currently?  From some of your pictures recently, I've seen both spring flowers blooming and lush, green grass showing and, from those of you in the northeast, three feet of new snow!

Linguine Casserole with Spaghetti Sauce

The beginning of the organic co-op in our town was a humble one . . . on the enclosed front porch of a couple several miles out of town.  The original idea was to enable folks to buy nutritious foods economically in bulk.  We formed a buying club of sorts and it quickly became very popular.

That was the co-op's infancy.  It quickly grew into toddler stage and beyond and moved to a (very small) store front in town.  During this time, no meats were carried and many of the members were vegetarians as we were at that time.  I was asked if I would submit and post a vegetarian menu weekly highlighting a dish containing an ingredient (or ingredients) that could be purchased at the co-op.

One of those recipes was Linguine Casserole with Spaghetti Sauce.  But somehow, someway, I lost my recipe and couldn't make the dish for many years.  Well, I just found a thick folder of all the recipes I submitted to the co-op during that period and now had the "lost" recipe in my hands.  (You can guess where I found this folder, right?  Yep, in THE BOX!)

I eagerly made this casserole a couple of nights ago and it was as good as I remembered so I'm sharing it here.  It would be great with pre-cooked, crumbled sausage or bacon in with the pasta and cheese (if you didn't want to keep it vegetarian) or by adding meat to the spaghetti sauce or adding some pre-cooked, baked meat balls as I did.

I didn't have linguine, so substituted spinach fettuccini.  Close enough. 

* * * * * * * *

Linguine Casserole with Spaghetti Sauce

8 oz. linguine, cooked and drained

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons dried parsley

8 oz. mozzarella cheese, grated

Combine cooked linguine, eggs, Parmesan cheese and parsley.  In a greased 11" x 7" (approximately) shallow baking dish, layer half of linguine mixture and half of mozzarella cheese.  Repeat layers.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Cut baked casserole into squares and serve with your favorite spaghetti sauce on top.

This recipe can be doubled to serve a large group.  Leftovers freeze well.

* * * * * * * *

Mixture in baking pan.  Only needs

top layer of cheese.

Topped off with cheese,

ready for oven.

Just taken out of oven.

And served up on plate.

We made a good dent in it 

the first night.

Then I warmed it up the next night (flavor was even better, we both thought) and still had a smidge bit left that I served with scrambled eggs (cooked right in with the leftover casserole) this morning.

Enjoy! 

More Snow!

Saturday night/Sunday morning brought us more snow.  The blueberry bushes are finally no longer visible and the area of the garden containing my twenty-six raised beds resembles a perfectly flat, white, fleece blanket.

We think we got about 8" of the heavy, wet stuff but this picture taken (as I was taking a break -- puff-puff) while shoveling off the walkway and heading for the deck makes the level look like a bit more than 8". 

Papa Pea snow blowing a path to the poultry yard.

On the deck looking out at part of our orchard.

Standing outside our back door looking to the right.

And looking to the left.

The snow could hardly have been more beautiful yesterday morning.

Forecast for this coming week is temps in the low to mid-30s and no precipitation in sight.  Should be a good week for getting some things done outside.  For me that will probably involve using my hand hatchet to make some more kindling.

The kindling bin is still about 1/3 full, but we use more kindling in the spring (and fall) because we don't keep the fires burning all day long.  That means the need for more kindling for restarting fires.  We've got lots of dry cedar slabwood cut and stored in bundles that I use for making the kindling.  My handy-dandy chopping block is right in front of the kindling bin and under cover in our smaller wood shed.  I can listen to an audio tape while splitting the slab pieces.  Makes the job fly by!

They Don't Make 'Em Like This Anymore

Our daughter, otherwise known as Chicken Mama, is the historian in our family, and I asked her this past week the year in which Papa Pea's paternal grandparents were married.

She reminded me that she's never been able to find that particular information although she knows the dates of their births and deaths, and the pertinent dates of their three children of whom Papa Pea's father was the eldest.

Here's the little story that led me to wondering when they were married.

Right after we were married in 1963, Papa Pea's grandfather died.  His wife then broke up housekeeping and went to live with her oldest daughter.

We had very little in the way of our own furniture (matter of fact, we were renting a furnished house at the time), so when we were offered Papa Pea's grandparents' set of six kitchen chairs, we readily accepted.

The reason I wanted to know the year these grandparents were married is that we were told they received the six chairs as a wedding present.  As close as we can guesstimate, we think they were probably married around 1904.  That would make the chairs approximately 114 years old now.

This summer we will have been married fifty-five years and are still using these very same chairs around our kitchen table.

Several of the chairs have had minor repairs made to them over the years, as was again necessary this past week.

After all this time, they're still just about the most comfortable straight-backed chairs I've ever sat in, and I hope we can keep them serviceable for many more years.

Wouldn't it be interesting to know how much this set of six wonderful chairs cost that many years ago? 

We May Get A Winter Yet

Even though we're nearing the end of February, we're finally starting to experience some nice snowfalls.

We had snow last Sunday night into Monday, but it was hard to tell how many inches fell as there was much wind and drifting.  We're guessing somewhere between 8" and 12".  (Papa Pea immediately declared the house felt much warmer with the snow banked up around it!)

A couple more inches have fallen kinda helter-skelter since then.  And now the forecast is for heavy snow tonight into tomorrow morning.  A little respite and then more heavy snow Saturday night into Sunday.

Yippee-skippee, I say!  Even though our outdoor fun snow activities kinda went by the wayside because of someone's swan dive off the ladder, we are both snow-lovers and delight when winter time gives us ample amounts of the white stuff.

Of course, being old (not), retired (we are??) codgers (ahem), we don't have to get out and drive snow-covered, hazardous roads every day as some of you do.  For that you have my sincere sympathies, and I will try to refrain from waxing poetically (as if I could) about snuggling down in front of an open fire with a second cup of java on such mornings.

When we have a light snow year, among other things like the frost going down too deeply into the ground because of not enough insulation from the cold, there's always the threat of spring forest fires because of lack of moisture.  So we're looking forward to any snow we may get from now until the temperatures start creeping upward and spring looks like it really will arrive once more.