Processing the Harvest

the coast is pretty well rebuilt.... as much as it is going to be. I was wiped out by Katrina - it is why I am still here, money was gone. We were just finishing building my house (no insurance, I hand built it myself with one helper - did the whole thing, wiring, framing, siding, roofing, plumbing - only contracted out the pile driving) when Katrina put 27 foot of water on us. My land is 3.5 foot elevation and my house is on 2 foot of fill dirt and then on 13 foot tall pilings, so it was completely wrecked - and so I rebuilt it my self.

I am just back from mowing 1/4 acre of land in town (with hand, gas, mowers and the grass was way too deep - it was hot!) and on each side of the property is a big derelict house with all the windows gone and roofing missing, stairs washed away. Not too much of that now, but half of the building lots that had houses are now empty. It was a wild time after the storm 80% of all the buildings destroyed. The stink was amazing from the meat in destroyed houses, bodies and animals - it took months till the prevailing smell was not rotting meat and garbage. I was one of the very first to move back, it was rough - looked like a war set for a movie. Every power line down, every tree stripped of leaves, houses in the middle of the roads - even houses sitting on cars. Bulldozers had to make roads through the rubble - miles of houses were completely gone, just ground to rubble and left in piles miles long at the high water mark - we are a beach town so had crashing water - not the slow, calm, water like new Orleans, and way deeper.

Biloxi is building back - most of the Casinos and much of the town. But the whole coast is a mess because the insurance doubled, the 2008 bank collapse so no one can get mortgages, and the flood elevations at my house went from 13 foot to 21 foot. And those flood elevations are not guidelines - they are Federal - it is completely unlawful to build new below them but you could rebuild below them for legal damaged houses after the storm. Here we have to have windstorm insurance (state wind pool, just ten thousand thousand buildings (through Lloyds) in it, it is state subsidized but costs us about $1500 per year for $100,000 coverage. Then flood (Federal subsidized) insurance is about $800 per $100,000 and fire (just an insurance company) about $750 per $100,000. So imagine what it costs here - then Tax, $1000 per $100,000. So you have to have all 3 forms of insurance to have any debt on your house or building - and the feds are saying they may no longer subsidize flood insurance so that could go up to $1000 a month! That is what it would cost if unsubsidized.

But then life is up and down; lots of things have tried to kill me, and I have been broke several times, just how it goes.

 

Building to take floods is easy - I am working on my designs for a cottage now and plan on putting it 15 foot off the ground - on ground with an elevation of 11 foot. My problem was I did not expect such a storm - now I do. Also you can build to take hurricane winds (a tornado mixed in is not going to be survived though) I see a tropical depression has left Africa and is expected to become hurricane Bertha.

I have a question for anyone:

I produce more veg than I need, or really, want. I do not know people to give any excess to because they grow their own or buy it from the farmers markets or regular outlets if they need it - and having to sell the eggs has shown what a hassle it is getting stuff to people in prime condition so cannot bother to do it for free to people who do not need it. So... I want to find someone who wants to partner in my garden. Take care of the veg and fruit with me for half - even help with the chickens for what ever share of eggs is wanted. Here almost everyone has a large yard so there is certainly not the allotment culture - and I know people soon tend to lose interest; is this a realistic possibility? Unfortunately the hippies live in a town a fair bit away and naturally proximity is paramount.

There is virtually no cost for me gardening now I am established. I produce tons of compost, seeds are no cost at all, fertilizer a few dollars a year, and that is it other than the few dollars a year to run my pump for irrigation. Well, chickens eat about $20 a month, but I sell over three times that in eggs.

Has anyone shared their garden? I am fairly territorial but would enjoy having someone to work with - or just do some work. (my wife is not a gardener) That is if I could find someone, which I am not really confident I could. My garden has the capacity to massively increase output as well, if wanted.

Something I always wonder - how do the proper gardeners here use all the stuff you produce? It seems so easy to - with seasonality - to grow more than wanted. I should work more on freezing I suppose.

Last night, 2 kinds peppers, okra, dried carrot and onion, in a hot and sour soup. Salads have cucumber, pickled eggs and beets (we love them), tomato, - typical, all from the garden, but it barely touches the daily ripening of more veg. Tonight will be fish and crab I caught - soup and salad from the garden, and even more goes to the animals.

 

Colne,
I think you have connection to the Church. Could someone there , a priest or layman, not guide you to a someone who needs a "helping hand" and in return could help you?
Jenny
your comment about "maybe I should freeze more" ...when will you eat it ? You have more than enough on a daily basis anyway.
I can't be bothered to watch TV but I have friends who record hours and hours of stuff that "they haven't time to watch"... but will watch it later
????
when?
I'm just a simple bumpkin,
Jenny

 

jenny - I freeze some root crops, and greens, but then you are right, so do not bother much because all year something is ripening. Like how I do not usually freeze much fish because then I would no longer have a reason to go fishing, which I enjoy. This summer and fall I will freeze a couple dozen packs of fillets, a dozen packs of crab meat, and if shrimping goes well, fifty pounds of shrimp. I really do enjoy those for when the seasons are not good fishing. Also vacuum packing makes the seafood last a year in a proper deep freeze (90 days in a refrigerator freezer). Fish and shellfish have been a large part of my food from when I first left home.

I do like drying stuff - because it is in recloseable jars so can just be used in pinches into dishes without having to use the whole package once opened.

I thought of a young man who once said he would like to garden - I will ask him. I do love my garden but I think having help with it in exchange for the produce would be good. I met a couple young Oceanographers (one of the world's foremost oceanographic centers is here) who are into vegan stuff and will try them too - but most likely have a place with room by now.

Off outside again. I have to keep coming in to get cold tea, you must drink 2- 3 gallons a day here if working in the heat - it is a lovely day.

 

been a lovely Summer's day here too Colne. In fact, this month has been superb and the harvest is well underway. Apples, plums - indeed most fruits look generous this year and I look forward to making greengage ,jam, plum jam and chutney, and bramble jelly, dry roasting my tomatoes and storing in spiced oil in jars and making fruit crumbles to have with cream. We are having a good year with potatoes and wheat too I understand,
Jenny

 

I just put a basket load of peppers on the dehydrator - mild ones, but still my hands are burning a bit from so much pepper juice from seeding and chopping the lot. filled the dryer to the max.

A basket of things I picked an hour ago



And the dehydrator - I do most of my processing, fish cleaning, processing (I will be boiling shrimp on an outside gas burner there in a bit) on the truck tailgate.

I chopped the bell peppers too - a mix of hot and sweet banana peppers, mild jalapeno, and bell. Hope it is worth drying - I have not tried doing this.

 

jenny - if possible tomorrow, but I am busy, I want to make Pavolvas to freeze - and then cream puffs with the yolks - to freeze too. Your fruit sounds very good. What is your crumble recipe? I use some instant oatmeal and walnuts in mine. I have loved the ladyfinger rounds and pavolva equally - I have good hopes for the cream puffs - I have not made them before but they are all egg yolk, so perfect.

Edit: Mississippi coast shrimp - although some let the shrimp soak longer, I do, to work in the salt mixture, it brings out the flavor and texture. The seasoning blend is salt and cayenne mostly - Shiney, this is hot if you tried a shrimp or crawfish boil here

 

Crumble topping
I put 2 oz semi-softened butter in a bowl, add 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar and , with a fork, mix them together quickly but still "gritty". Then add Self Raising flour to make a breadcrumblike mixture. It mustn't be sticky or gooey but not too dry either.
I place it on top of cooled,cooked fruit and bake in a hot oven until crisp and browned. It smells and tastes like posh shortbread. Nice with humble custard, ice cream or cream,
Jenny

 

So boiled the shrimp, I still had the shrimp I bought off the boat last week - I like to let it age but this was a long aging - although fine. So we went off to check 2 traps I had out getting 4 small keepers.

I use about 1/2 a cup of salt, 1 cup of Zaterans seafood boil, 2 gallons water (it comes in that 4.5 pound jar and is sold at every place that sells food, costs about $4.5 and lasts me a season. I use some plane salt because my wife finds she likes the shrimp with less of the hot the cayenne gives.

the boiler is sold everywhere food is sold too and cost about $30 for the burner. Most people already have the gas tank (can be filled anywhere, holds 20 pounds of propane and the tank costs $40 - $50 full. The tank will last many years and is what fires the gas grills - and the hurricane cooking with the power down. b

So basically a couple gallons water, couple cups salt and seasoning - shrimp dumped in to a rapidly boiling pot, back to boil, cooked 2 minutes and then soak 2 - 6 minutes in the hot water, cooled with ice unless it is a party and then served hot. Crabs boil 8 minutes, soak 2- 15 minutes depending. Video of me cooking it on 'International gardeening'


I mostly freeze shrimp with the head and tails off but the peel on - in 1/2 or 1 pound bags. Then 1/2 pound of cooked, peeled, shrimp too. We eat a lot of shrimp 'Shrimp is the fruit of the sea'.

The pepper drying goes great - they look beautiful and are crunchy - will break into pieces if mashed. Bell, hot banana sweet banana, mild jalapenos. I mixed them up and an letting them go another hour to finish and wet ones - the dryer is uneven.



I like my dried carrots, boiled a couple minutes before the peppers and beans go in, then the okra - they are good, and you use so little because those tiny chips get big. I hope these peppers are also good. I have another dryer full still on the plants ready to go. I piled the dryer's 5 trays till the tray above was touching thee ones below - I think 5 pounds of peppers and look how they shrink. Next I have a lot of bushes with fully ripe cayennes which I will do separately and crush into sprinkles to put on slices of pizza, or into soups and anything really.

And - my fingers burned from the deseeding and chopping for hours. You really get loads of their juice on you. Shiney - How can you eat 3 of those hot ones? Do you just have them raw?


The peppers looking close, are so pretty. Every colour bright and varied, the dehydrating made them very attractive in this mix.

 

Would look visually pleasing in cous cous or a rice dish,
Jenny