Preserving harvest by Fermentation - leafy green recipe

Dear Family & Friends

While we are at the stage of planning intensive gardening for the purpose of growing our own organic food, we also have to start thinking how to keep and preserve our harvest excess. The food we grow last us all year around. One way of keeping seasonal harvest is by fermentation.

Some of the earliest crops that will arrive from the garden

Fermenting greens alters their nutritional value in several ways. In a sense, fermentation moves our leafy green harvest up the food pyramid chart. Fermentation introduces bacteria to our food. (Don't be afraid of bacteria...our bodies are full of it and so with our living environment no matter how clean we think we keep them) After the bacteria have had their fill, there is less energy, or calories, remaining in the veggies as many of the nutrients are pre-digested, making it easier to be absorbed in our intestinal tract. Fibrous cell walls are softened, making their contents more readily available to our digestive enzymes.

While some vitamin C and beta-carotene is lost, the levels of B-vitamins, especially vitamin B-1 and B-2, are often increased. Protein quality is also enhanced as the bacterial enzymes alter the vegetable’s amino acid profile. Fermentation also can break down some of the compounds that inhibit nutrient absorption. It's all good for us, but I must admit that a taste of fermented leaf vegetables is an acquired thing.

eat your greens

Now and again, I will be writing and keeping lacto fermented food recipe here for our record and hopefully you will profit from them too. Would you like to journey with me on this? Let's have a go:)

We have quite a lot of argula/rocket leaves that have over wintered, they will be my first bottle to do this year. Mustard green is also another good candidate.

Ingredients:

• 2 or more bunches shredded leafy greens, enough to fill a quart jar
• 1-3 tablespoons sea salt
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl combine greens and salt. Massage the leaves with the salt and let rest 10 minutes so that the juices come out of them.
2. Add half of the greens to a quart jar. Throw in the garlic cloves and pack the rest of the greens tightly on top, pushing them down so that the juices cover them.
3. Cover tightly and ferment 3 days or until they are bubbly and tangy to your liking. Transfer to cold storage.

Opening a jar of greens is always handy specially when you had a busy day yet still need greens with your meal.

Enjoy and make the most of your day today.

Yours

Annie

How I Grow My Sweet Potato Slips

Dear Family & Friends

In countries where we get a share of  winter season, growing sweet potato is not as straight forward as in the tropics. Our family enjoys eating sweet potato, but it is not common stuff in the market and a bit pricey in the supermarket. So, growing your own has become my goal.

My sweet potato buried in moist compost for the purpose of growing 'slips' to plant out.

Sweet potatoes are started from slips (rooted stem). You can purchase slips or start your own. Starting slips using sweet potato bought from grocery store may be problematic. There may be varieties that do not grow well in your area, and/or the roots may have been treated with sprouting inhibitors unless they're grown organically.

Sweet Potato sitting in the water inside a bottle cloche to grow some slips

At first, I was so anxious about the process of growing sweet potato slips, that my husband went and found a distributor in the UK who sells ready slips for £2/slip!  No, I'm not paying that!! I insist on growing my own and refuse to be defeated!  I did had my share of failure in the past. I tried placing the sweet potato in a bottle of water to start with...but after a few days, I've noticed it starts getting moldy...so I quickly changed my tactic and half buried it in a tub of moist compost...and gave it a lot of tender loving observation, and kept it warmth by placing it inside the warmest room, even sat the tub in a heated paving stone placed on top of the log burner at night. In 3 weeks time, I got my success! It's still growing more slips... so far, with two sweet potato I can see 10 slips...£20!! Ha! Ha! I can just see pound sterling!!

Another half buried sweet potato growing it's first two slips...more to come!

If you want to grow your own slips, start 6-8 weeks before planting time. Select 1 1/2 inch diametre sweet potatoes. Soak the sweet potatoes in water for two hours, then place them in a flat or pot half filled with soil or screened compost. Cover with 2 inches of lose soil. Keep the soil consistently moist in a warm and sunny spot indoors. When you are ready to plant, cut your slips an inch away from the  "mother sweet potato" to avoid transferring any plant diseases. Slips should be 8-10 inches long when pulled.

Weather is unpredictable.. started some direct seed sowing last week, but this week, it's snow building fun!

Our next process would be the planting side of it. I will post again later on once the weather warms up for us to get things going in the garden.

Hope you have a happy gardening day today too:)

Yours

Annie

Gardening is way way of life

Dear Family & Friends

I don't know what to classify myself when meeting people. I'm not retired, laid off, unemployed or between jobs. I'm just simply no longer part of that accepted routine that many knows as 9-5 to 65 merry go round! It started years ago when we had our first born daughter.

Nothing beats a homegrown sweet corn.

Since we moved to Bulgaria, I became more conscious of becoming sufficient and fancied a simply way of living...more homegrown sort of stuff. It suits us well. After all,  I'm homeschooling our two girls too. With the privacy of a walled garden, I try and test my gardening skills...and no one is really at my back as unwanted supervisor:) I've learned through trial and error...and enjoyed what I'm doing. The whole family benefited:) 

Fruit trees just yield year after year once established

We grow a lot of food for our year's consumption, never had the need for those things from supermarket since! Forsook frivolous amenities, battering with neighbours and mastering the art of re-purposing. We live without air conditioning, TV and much of everything else modern society deems essential. This is not life of deprivation. It's just mean that it doesn't include relying on government aid or charity. Instead, we focus on and build for ourselves what we truly want from life.

Daily harvest - a bit of everything, depending on what the season brings

Life at home is busy...wonderful kind of busy. As you can see, one cannot afford to be lazy. Yes, I'm not working...but I've got a list of jobs to tackle and tick each day:) Gardening is just one of them.

Yours

Annie