Our Week in Words

'Twas a good and profitable week gone by.  Lots accomplished around here, but the most effort by yours truly was put into getting the last produce out of the garden and processed.

All the cabbages were harvested, stripped of their outer leaves and stored snug in the root cellar.

I kept this red cabbage head to start using right away.  (The other red heads are underneath the green ones shown above.)  We both like boiled cabbage (with butter, salt and pepper . . . mmmm, good) as a vegetable, I use cabbage in a few soups, stews and casseroles, coleslaw is a favorite, I'll make some of the cabbage into kimchi and we'll probably make a batch or two of sauerkraut sometime early this winter.

The Brussels sprout "trees" were logged taken down with a saw (no fooling), the roots dug out with a spading fork and a little muscle, the sprouts cut from the monster stems (the denuded stems Papa Pea suggested we use as firewood . . . I think he was half serious), then the gazillion sprouts cleaned (only took me close to three hours . . . ugh) and then processed for the freezer.  I ended up with twenty-two servings (meals) of Brussels sprouts waiting to be consumed over the coming winter months.  (I regret not taking any pictures of this whole operation, but simply failed to do so.)

Oven roasting the pie pumpkins, prepping the pulp into puree, and getting it into the freezer took most of one day.  (Isn't it just amazing how long a "simple" task can take?  When it's jotted down on the To Do List, time allotted for it is guesstimated to be . . . oh, a couple of hours, at the very most.)  I ended up with seven 2-cup packages of pumpkin puree.  Papa Pea said, "Oh, good.  We can have a pumpkin pie each month from now on for seven months!"  I saved all the pumpkin seeds and now need to look up how to roast them for our snacking pleasure (and nutrition).  It's something I've never done before so this will be a new experiment adventure.

This past Wednesday, daughter and her guy (a first-time experience for him) jumped in to help us butcher some old hens and the over-run of roosters from chicks started this past spring.  It's great to have some chicken meat in the freezer once again.  And a good job to have over and done with.  Many thanks to our willing helpers!

As you can see by the smaller eggs in the above basket, our new pullets have been spurred into action.  (Rest assured we did keep the chicken butchering well out of their sight, but I think word may have gotten out, "No eggs produced, no happy home in the hen house.")

Unbelievably, the long-range weather forecast calls for our unseasonably warm weather to continue for the next 10-day period.  Down to only the 40s at night (no frost) and pleasant temps during the day.  Simply . . . wow.  We can't remember a year when our late fall/beginning winter was this mild.  All the better for a myriad of things to do work-wise and recreation-wise.  Hope to experience some of both!