Processing the Harvest

Thanks sheal, I have been self conscious that I am going on way too much. I live in a town along a developed coast, not too far from New Orleans - but I happen to live on a dirt road in a part that has never been built on much because of the flooding. My bayou is only about a mile long, and mostly 100 foot to thirty foot wide, but the upper bit goes through a marsh and the lower is wider, to 250, but with a rich guys land on one side, and houses thinly scattered on the other. Only 12 houses on it in total because of how it happens to fall, in an otherwise sort of developed area. It finishes into a bay and then the Gulf of Mexico; the land across from my road, from my house, has no houses near because of flooding too - it is low mixed pine and hard wood forest. Having ties to London I know the realestate costs in England but land where I am is almost worthless unless on the water, and then not worth much either unless higher. You could buy a low budget two bedroom house on low land near here for forty thousand pounds - in a safe neighborhood with a fair sized yard and OK schools. I keep thinking the land has to be worth something here one day but only Beach properties or really nice houses, or higher land, are expensive. This land is just too low in an area of plentiful land. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the whole region and building back never really happened too much, not in the low parts. Difficulty getting, and high costs, of insurance keep low lying properties down.

I like the solitude of my street, only 1 resident car, and the postman, go by daily, like living in the country, but in a town. I would not like to live in the country; too far from anything. I also would no longer like to live in a city because living in cities is only fun if you have lots of money, or are a urbanite - and I am not. So I am resigned to staying here with my gardens, 4 dogs, - occasional visits to London, and not much else but reading.

I built this house (my house - where I am sitting now) with my wife and one helper - I do wiring, plumbing, all of it really - I also did the structural plans - all of it but drive the pilings and put the steel on the roof, but I did the wood deck of the roof. That is the school bus we lived out of wile building, and for years before.



This is in the woods across the road from my house, my library on the pond spoil pile




Here is my house



My land is six inches above high tide rising to a foot and a half above high tide on one bit - My house is 14 foot high above the ground on pilings and is 4 foot below current building codes - they changed the flood heights a few years ago. Wildlife is thick here though.

 

Sorry if my personal posting annoys -

I left 8 eggs out in the rain in a bowl yesterday - I take the chickens some feed out in a bowl, well two - one with any veg scraps and their pogie bread, the other with bought feed, (another post - something I feed them to make them and their eggs all healthy) and bring the eggs back in inside in the house bowl (which is washed afterwards). And I left the eggs out to get soaking for a couple hours in the rain - so needed to use them instead of mixing them with the sanitary eggs in the refrigerator.

And this is what I make when I need to use a bunch of eggs and do not want to spend any time or effort on it - magic pie - it forms its own crust wile baking. mix it up in one bowl, pour into pan, bake - done.



It is very good.

put 6 eggs in a bowl (I used the 8) with 2 cups milk and 1 cup sugar (I use 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 c sugar substitute usually - or more sugar, less substitute as I wish) Beat with an electric mixer till blended - add 1/2 cup flour and dash vanilla and beat till smooth again. Stir in 1 cup unsweetened coconut strands (the kind used for cooking sweets). If sweetened reduce sugar. I get the unsweetened but it can be hard to find.

pour into a deep baking pan like above, bake 1 hour. It will rise so you need the pan to be deeper than the liquid by an inch, kind of like a weak soufflé - then falls back and is all brown on top, and a curst forms on the bottom from the flour.

Takes 5 minutes to make, hour to cook, cool and refrigerate or serve room temp. We love it, and it is healthy. I believe eggs do not harm you, eat lots of them - they have cholesterol - but good more than bad.

 

I'm not annoyed! I find your posts and way of life very interesting. Amazing house by the way ....it must be fantastic to live so close to that much wildlife. I'd be chuffed to see otters from my porch.

 

Thanks fern, I am back for my saw to make a screen for a small job and am waiting for my helper to phone, and was cleaning up the kitchen of gardening waste from last night. We had some small broccoli plants I had seeded on a bit of edge ground that never headed up and decided to bolt. I pulled the leaf off the ribs to boil as greens and then had a pile of stalks left over for today's

JUICEING



That in the background is my $5 juicer from the dog shelter used stuff shop. I think it may be worth buying a new one if beginning again (Wal-Mart $40) because this ancient one is weak and overloads - tripping its internal heat sensor so one has to give it minutes to calm down a couple times a use. But it works so I am not going to throw it away - I have had it for two years now; and the blade is dull too.......

And that is where my odds and ends go. Especially during the greens months. When you get hard core like me you will even throw in whole radishes with the leaves and stalks - astringent, bitter, and nasty, with the rest- but I love it. Then a quartered apple, carrot, whole green pepper, stems and leaves of any cabbage group, beets, citrus (Cut off peel with sharp knife and stuff in the rest) Just about anything.

And for the pulped remains; the worm farm.

Anyone juice? It is a real jolt, especially if I have a hot banana pepper at hand.

 

No Colne, your personal posts are not annoying but interesting to read. There's not many of us living the lifestyle you do and I for one am a tad jealous! Thank you for the pictures.

Strangely I hadn't heard of juicing until about a month ago, I was sitting listening to a chap on the radio in my car talking about it and he said it helped the gout he suffers from. Apparently it's very healthy but I'm not sure I would like some of the diverse flavours.

 

You haven't juiced till you go wild with it - my wife used to be vegan and she cannot take the real stuff - like pure collard greens juiced! Like thick, deep green, paint - and then the colors,,,, the beetroots really make it:



that is a glass of juice.

Here is a good basket of garden stuff for the juicer:

 

The vegetables look good! I really don't know if I could drink a whole glass of it! I'm one of the few people in this world that drinks nothing but water, no alcohol, coffee, soft drinks etc.

 

Not Tea?

I do not drink alcohol either, sigh.

Another walkies with the pack and another ratty flushed - W dog caught it, the last few days he has been catching them all; we are having a bit of a rat explosion because I gave the trapping a let off; it happens so quickly. W is a Chihuahua and also they were bread for rodent killing. That and guarding. The new world did not have domestic cats and made these little psycho dogs for that.



Today I must finish drying the onions, they just keep expanding. This is a picture from three weeks ago of some of those multiplying onions in a couple pots I am growing pecan trees in. (the pecan trees are small sticks that I will plant out this winter if they flourish - next to them are small palm trees I collected for planting along my road, I have planted 20 so far and these will get a year in the pots like the last batch did - the ones I just set into the ground.) The picked onions in the basket came from thinning the ones in the pots - and now the pots are even more full than they were before - amazing onions.

Now the onions fill the space, no time to take the picture, have to take my word for it - and I have these little batches of them all over. That was a good idea - last October I bought a bag of the small sets and just pushed a couple in any spot all over and they went wild. The bag was $2 and had about fifty in it from my local farm supply store.

 

No tea either Colne, just water! I'm not a veg grower as such, just tomatoes in my greenhouse and sometimes cucumbers. I have a sandy soil and can't be bothered with the challenge of getting it to the point where vegetables would be happy growing in it.

 

Is there a reason in particular for only drinking water? I do not think I have ever met someone who does that.

How about a grape in your sandy soil?

I am about crazed by doing paperwork - I am finding boxes of the stuff packed away from 2008 and on. Then keep finding things I should act on. I was sued over my land a few years ago and finding the old paperwork I am now reminded I need to sue the surveyor for their error and get the $1200 I paid them back - I found all that mess in a box. I made a call to her and left a message to call me -- ha, right. I will need to file a small claims at magistrates court (costs $75) and tell it to the judge.

Then wile on side issues I renewed my boat registration ($10) which expired last October, renewed my recreational crab trap license ($5) and looked into getting a commercial hook and line fishing license for a lark (I had a commercial license a couple times in other states) but found that the fish I could actually catch now requires documentation showing you are a actual commercial fisherman by showing landing documentation that you landed $5000 worth of legal fish and sold them with a license in the year previous. They are blocking hobbyists like me from playing at professional fisherman. This is new this year and fair enough.

By the way, all the bays and bayous and tidal parts of rivers are closed to commercial harvest of anything - I could not fish here off my property, but just out in the Gulf - that has been the same for years, but I fish in the Gulf too so thought 'why not', but oh, well. These excellent rules are why we have fish for the recreational fishermen to harvest.

I am going outside, the paperwork is traumatizing me, too much put off for too long.

 

Like yourself I'm of mature years and as those years have past various things have put me off drinking anything but water. Twenty plus years ago I had a bad bout of gastric flu and for some reason it put me off drinking tea and coffee, alcohol I gave up as I'd got to the point where I didn't enjoy it anymore, that's got to be at least ten years ago too. I only drink tap water too, I'm lucky to live in a soft water area and unlike most of mainland Britain the water here on the island has a bit of a 'zing' to it and I prefer it to bottled spring water. There is no fluoride in the water on the island either.

Living off the north west coast of England the atmosphere here is damp, there is a fair bit of rainfall and temperatures only reach to approximately 21C during the summer.....if we're lucky, therefore grapes would be grown in a greenhouse. I'm hoping to move house sometime in the coming year so perhaps I will gain a better soil elsewhere.

Some people thrive on sorting out paperwork, I'm with you on this one and would rather be outside.

It certainly isn't cheap for you to fish is it? I know absolutely nothing about fishing but there are a number of GC members that do, perhaps they can make comparisons for you.

 

No the fishing is cheap. $5 for crab traps, $10 / 3 years for boat registration, $12 for sport license = $20 a year. I catch that many times over. The cost is the gear, I have thousands in my boats, but then I have always had a boat - even in London, and they are modest ones. My rods, reels, nets, and general gear must be $1000 and has been acquired over thirty years - but then I have good stuff that will last most of my life so is not much for how important it is to me. Bait I net.

I mostly used my Zodiac in the Far North, this is The North West Territories North of Yellowknife - because it is good in rugged water, here I use my all aluminum boat because it is so indestructible - I rarely use the motor anymore. Sorry about gratuitously sticking in a picture. That is a Northern pike which were our staple.



You mentioned moving to somewhere, where would you like to move? Do you like being on an Island? I have lived inland and always miss the sea. My greatest love is the Arctic and sub Arctic - but I am no longer wanting winters. I would move back to Alaska immediately if I was younger or not physically worn out. I have a hard time being so stationary as I am - but am resigned to having to remain so.

 

I picked the few large globe turnips yesterday and will have them mashed with potatoes unless someone has a better way. Here in the South turnips are mostly grown for their greens and less for the turnips. Boiled greens are a staple with all soul, creole, and Cajun meals. Mostly collard, the favorite, turnip, and mustard. Because I let the turnips get big the greens went to the ever appreciative chickens. They do love any plant top.

My collards were eaten by my chickens (twice) and they are the very best for drying in the dehydrator upthread. I have a late bunch just up but it may be too late. Chop into 1 to 2 inch bits, blanch for 2 minutes, cool with tap water, dehydrate - and just pile them in. 5 pounds at least. They do not stick together - or to the machine. Have a big jar of them and throw a handful into any soup for a lovely green look, and mild green flavor. I love them!

 

Wow, a new way to copy from flickr, this is just a test. May only do thumb nails - anyway dogs with one of the dozens of wheelbarrows of compost headed for the terracing and pond side asparagus bed.

 

I'll be staying on the island Colne. I moved here twenty two years ago from southern England and the pace of life is a little slower. I have to downsize my gardens (although they aren't big) due to health reasons and I'd also like to move out of the village community I live in at present. Being a small island, approximately 35 miles by nine, property turn over is slow so it could take me a year or so to find what I'm looking for. I have always lived within easy reach of the sea, from childhood onwards, and I'm only 200 yards from it now, but obviously with an island this small it's pretty much within walking distance. My elder daughter and family still live here and ties of the heart stop me from moving back to the mainland. I've never felt the desire to move abroad. My son and younger daughter both live abroad having emigrated nearly three years ago within four months of each other. My son currently lives in Columbus, Ohio and my daughter lives near Vancouver, Canada.

Have you tried cooking and mashing turnips with carrots? I do the same with swede and carrots, it's quite a strong flavour but makes a change from green vegetables.

If any of your pictures are stored on your computer you can use the 'Upload a File' button at the bottom of the posts. They have to be reduced in size first if they are large. There are instructions on how to do this elsewhere on the site.

I like the picture of the dogs, I bet they get themselves into mischief!