Harvest time

[British Red]

Here we are then, the first twenty odd jars of pickled onions


Pickled Onions by British Red, on Flickr

Should be a dozen more or so when the second batch have finished brining.

Got the second crop of onions in (Spring planted sets). As always the whites have yielded better than the reds.

Onion Harvest by British Red, on Flickr


There is one variety called Picko Bello that has yielded really nice even large bulbs, almost bolt free and reputed to store really well. If it does keep well I may have a new favourite.

Picko Bello Onions by British Red, on Flickr

 

[Goatboy]

That's quite a haul going there. Bet the smell in the house is wonderful.
On the onion smell don't know if you did it down there but growing up we used to put a skinned halved onion on a saucer on the window-sill. It was used to keep flies at bay (though wouldn't work on onion flies I suppose).
Pickles are such a good thing, onions and beetroot being the best I think. The larder must look like a jewel chest with all those glinting lovelies in there.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Pandabean]

Just catching up with this thread. Not got anything to harvest (except 2 pea pods) yet but I can't be far off.

With onions, what is the best way to store them? I tried growing some a few years back and when I hung them in the shed the developed mould. I am guessing it was either too damp or the onions were not dried properly.

 

[British Red]

Dry them really well. The ones you see in the photos are on wire racks. Separate any with damage, flower stalks or rot. Use them immediately for soups, pasties or chutney. They won't keep. Make the rest into traditional strings (I have a tutorial on here somewhere). Hang the string in a cool, DARK, place. A shed or garage, not in the house.

 

[British Red]

.lThe larder must look like a jewel chest with all those glinting lovelies in there.

.

Can't get it in one photo, but this should give some idea


Pantry by British Red, on Flickr

 

[Pandabean]

Dry them really well. The ones you see in the photos are on wire racks. Separate any with damage, flower stalks or rot. Use them immediately for soups, pasties or chutney. They won't keep. Make the rest into traditional strings (I have a tutorial on here somewhere). Hang the string in a cool, DARK, place. A shed or garage, not in the house.

Can't get it in one photo, but this should give some idea


Pantry by British Red, on Flickr

I will have a look around for that post. Would drying the onions (and other veg/herbs) in the greenhouse be ok if they are kept out of direct light?

That is a great amount of stuff you have stored away. I can only dream of having a pantry like that.

 

[British Red]

Drying in the greenhouse should be fine. Storing clearly not.

Here is the how to.



http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94751

 

[richardhomer]

Can't get it in one photo, but this should give some idea


Pantry by British Red, on Flickr

Wish our pantry looked like this ! You seem to have a very good haul come in this well done

 

[george47]

Amazing gardens! Red, I looked at some of your Flickr pictures - gorgeous.

I I am a bit in your lifestyle, also am a carpenter - but a bad one who hates carpentry, but it is how I made my living. This house I am sitting in I built in its entirety with one hired guy and a little help from my wife. It was the last full house I had in me - and was 10 years ago.

And I garden, can a tiny bit, and keep chickens - actually I have a broody hen sitting a marked egg and 26 eggs in a incubator I fixed up ($29). The last thing I need is more chickens but I like hatching them - all mine are mongrels I hatched over the years - being free range in the forest they have an attrition from animals though.

But I do everything extremely casually as I have come to just want to relax and not worry, or work much. I am nothing like your beautiful pictures. I will try posting a flicker picture - also fishing is my main thing, I live on a salt water bayou and we fish, crab, and shrimp a lot. so here is some shrimp I net and a couple fish and one of my 4 dogs

(edit) Wrong picture - this is in my truck bed. I may go out in a bit to hang out on the water for the sunset. Also I see I made the picture too big.

 

[george47]

here is the picture I meant, just trying to learn posting flickr stuff - how do you post a flickr video?

My wife is coming home in a bit and she said to have the boat loaded and we will go out to the mouth of the bayou with some live shrimp(I have them in a floating tank) and see how the fishing is - I have not fished from the boat in a long time, I fish from the harbour mostly.

 

[British Red]

Looks like fun .

We live on a salt marsh here, but I have never learned to fish. We do gather shellfish and shoot though.

 

[george47]

I have an extensive firearms past but have not done any shooting for years. I live in a town which prohibits discharging firearms, although I have the room, being in this wetland, but cannot. I may shoot doves this fall with a pellet gun but would have to buy the hunting licenses and dove stamp. (they are a Federally regulated migratory bird) (if there is one, I forget) My wife really wants to get back to shooting deer but I cannot seem to bother as the nearest public land is 60 miles away and my camper is broken down, possibly un-recoverabley.

Red, you should learn to fish - do you have mackerel off the shore? I would guess flounder and plaice in the marsh channels. Great fish. Tell us about your shellfish gathering. We have only oysters and they are in 6 foot of water which requires oyster tongs - expensive things. The pro oystermen make their own. Then you need a $5 recreational oyster harvesting license.

 

[British Red]

Plenty of mackerel and flatties, but you need a boat.


Shellfish are plentiful but dangerous to forage. The marshes are amazingly shallow which means the tide moves fast. It is riddled with deep creeks and quicksand. Here's a favourite mussel bed. You can see how flat it is and how far from the shore


Mussel wreck stern by British Red, on Flickr

This is a cockle bed. Every little dimple is a cockle


Cockle bank by British Red, on Flickr

There also huge beds of samphire


Wash beds samphire by British Red, on Flickr

The streams are full of crab

Shore Crab by British Red, on Flickr


There are also huge amount of wildfowl especially geese. It as though as I said a dodgy place for the unwary, drowning ng or being pulled under are a very real possibility. That said it is also hauntingly beautiful.

 

[Alreetmiowdmuka]

You eat those little crabs red?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[British Red]

I don't eat shore crabs but there's lots of different sorts in the Wash. Crabs in the wider sense are about my favourite food!

 

[santaman2000]

I have an extensive firearms past but have not done any shooting for years. I live in a town which prohibits discharging firearms, although I have the room, being in this wetland, but cannot. I may shoot doves this fall with a pellet gun but would have to buy the hunting licenses and dove stamp. (they are a Federally regulated migratory bird) (if there is one, I forget) My wife really wants to get back to shooting deer but I cannot seem to bother as the nearest public land is 60 miles away and my camper is broken down, possibly un-recoverabley.

Red, you should learn to fish - do you have mackerel off the shore? I would guess flounder and plaice in the marsh channels. Great fish. Tell us about your shellfish gathering. We have only oysters and they are in 6 foot of water which requires oyster tongs - expensive things. The pro oystermen make their own. Then you need a $5 recreational oyster harvesting license.

Where are you that's so expensive? Here in Florida I get the Gold Sportsman's License (covers everything but commercial freshwater fishing, saltwater fishing, mall game hunting, deer hunting, archery stamp, muzzle loader stamp, state duck stamp, wildlife management area fee, etc.) Only $20 a year for military or retirees and less than $100 for others.

 

[george47]

Oh, Red, that is hauntingly beautiful! And I know very dangerous. I used to fish on The Ouse when young. Those cockles and mussels - how do you cook them? I have gathered hard shell clams in many places, but never cockles. Mussels I have gathered all over - but we get neither here, oysters being the only thing, and that requiring a boat and special gear.

My favorite thing with clams and mussels is a seafood Chowder, the New England kind, something I miss. I make a corn/crab chowder though - usually with a couple shrimp thrown in.

And Samphire; I have only collected it in the North Pacific and it was amazing - I remember it tasting like asparagus.

Are there cheap mackerel boats for a couple hour trips? I took many of those when living in Britain. They were actually good value for money if the catch was good, and great fun. It is so nice to be on the cleat water and hand-lining in those beautiful fish, and excellent to eat.

I have started a thread in food about cooking things we grow or collect, if you could tell us about your seafoods there or here I would love to hear of it.

Where are you that's so expensive? Here in Florida

I do not know the prices, but I have this frugal thing where I dislike spending money on growing or collecting things. An irrational prejudice, but unless I feel I am getting the product for less than I could buy it for I do not enjoy it as much. I am talking about shooting half a dozen doves with a pellet gun for a pie, not taking up hunting again. In the garden I start seed from 4/$1 seed packs from the Dollar Store, or buy an ounce of seeds (like my Siberian kale seeds - our staple) from the farmers supply place for $2, which lasts a couple years. I almost never buy packs of transplant seedlings because spending so much means I am straying close to the line where it would be as cheap as just buying the veg. Growing your own is really more expensive than just buying it - if you value your land cost and labour as anything - and so I have this mania of keeping the spending down.

 

[British Red]

Cockles just cook like mussels. Just steam them with a splash of vinegar in the water. They are always hand dug, always wild too, there is no way to farm them or mechanically harvest them.

As for your seeds, do get into seed saving. I rarely have to buy any seeds and indeed supply a good few forum members from our surplus seed supplies . Some are trickier than others, but i5s a skill worth cultivating.

 

[santaman2000]

......I do not know the prices, but I have this frugal thing where I dislike spending money on growing or collecting things. An irrational prejudice, but unless I feel I am getting the product for less than I could buy it for I do not enjoy it as much. I am talking about shooting half a dozen doves with a pellet gun for a pie, not taking up hunting again. .....

Still don't know exactly where you are, but obviously it's a southern state. Most southern states also have a "senior's" hunting license for a token fee of $1. I doubt that'd break your budget. Remember also that due to recent (within the last 3 years or so) changes to federal law, ALL saltwater harvesting also requires a license. Again, here in Fl it's only a token $1 for shoreline harvest (just enough to satisfy the federal demand)

 

[george47]

Red, I looked at some flicker, and you are amazing - so encyclopedic in your use of craft, trades, and plants. And so meticulous, I am completely impressed. I see why you chose a red squirrel - the energy they have. I realized what a dilettante I am with my letting stuff always grow weedy, and just digging in things and see if they live - typically not.

This is how I do stuff - my chickens, just any sort all let mix and breed as they want. I get the odd new one like the noisy rooster, but just hatch out random eggs every year to cover attrition, as they have the run of the forest, being locked up at night. The nest boxes usually kept with clean wood chips, but not here. I pick up bagged leaves from town where people set them out for trash pickup and compost them en-mass for garden use.

[video]https://www.flickr.com/gp/35311573@N05/77M91J[/video]

My garden shown here produces soup veg during the hot months (peppers, okra, cukes, beans, aubergine), and masses of greens and root things during cool months. It is not well tended, but the fecundity of a 30X10 foot bed is enough, even when only working at 30% optimal, it seems. We get lots from it.