After so many nice sunny fall days, suddenly the rains are upon us. I finally got the last of the carrots canned up and, boy, do they look great in the jars. Yesterday I gathered up all of the onions that have been curing on the enclosed back porch and bucketed them down to the bins in the basement, next to the potato bins. The potatoes are in covered plastic bins as they need humidity to store well. But the onions are in slotted crates so they get lots of air circulation, which prevents rot. Both the onions and potatoes did very well this year.
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It was supposed to snow last night so we were real happy that it rained instead but there’s mud everywhere!
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We finished the final edits on my third Western novel, Winter of the Wolves, and it should be out about December 1st, a little later than we first anticipated. (For those of you who don’t typically read Westerns, you might want to give the first book in the series, Summer of the Eagles, a try. There are a whole lot of Amazon reviews that say things like “I couldn’t put it down!” and “I don’t read Westerns but this one hooked me from the first page.” No extreme violence, sex, or rotten language. Your pastor or grandkids could read it with no gasps. But it does move right along. The books are available through Amazon and are also available as Kindle reads.
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I had a jar crack during processing my carrots. This is the first broken jar for years and years. (I use old mayonnaise jars and antique odd shaped jars…anything a canning lid and ring fit on, as opposed to what “experts” recommend. Hey it seems like they say I’ll go to hell for using mayo jars! But it wasn’t one of those “alternative” jars that broke; it was a relatively new Kerr. The side cracked enough to let the water drain out but didn’t totally break. — Jackie

9 COMMENTS

  1. Ann,

    Good point! That is, indeed, just why I can up everything I can when it’s available. Like this year when the cows broke into our corn patch and ate it all. Luckily, I did plant a smaller patch in our garden! But I had canned up a huge amount of corn last year so we didn’t have to worry a bit. (We weren’t too HAPPY about those cows, though!!!)

  2. Margy,

    There is humidity in the enclosed boxes and that keeps the potatoes nice and firm….right until fall harvest the next year. I do check as I take potatoes out to use. If there are condensation droplets on the bottom of the top, I leave the top cracked open for a few days. It works great.
    We can’t leave our carrots in the ground over winter. First off, the ground freezes down many feet, solid, even under mulch. And second, there’s often four feet of snow or more in our garden. I’d rather have ’em handy in the house! I’m a wimp.

  3. Nancy Foster,

    My old basement in Sturgeon Lake, MN was damp. I first cured it by using a dehumidifier. That worked wonders!!! I emptied it into our sump. Then I installed a small wood stove down there. Not only did we no longer have occasional frozen pipes but the dampness was gone without using the dehumidifier.

  5. That pantry full of food looks great, we had a very wet season the garden was drowned out, ended up with a few green peppers and five small winter squash, didn’t can anything only some raspberry jelly and also strawberry jelly. Thank goodness I had a lot left from last year, that is why we can everything we can get our hands on when it is available!! Grand daughter did get me some “free”apples and we have been enjoying them cooked, sauce, crisp, and just fresh slice, Love your column Keep it up, it is an inspiration for all of us who read it.

  8. Don’t potatoes sweat in a closed container? I’ve always kept mine in open sided boxes. I’ve leaving my scarlet nantes carrots in the ground. With our fairly mild winters they “store” fresher that way. – Margy

  9. My basement is so damp that I can’t store food there unless it is in jars. And it is to cold up in the attic stairs.

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