It’s all go in winter (From Smallholder)

It’s all go in winter

10:00am Sunday 20th November 2011 in Grow your Own

There never seems to be a single time of year that there isn’t something to be doing on the allotment. Obviously there are times, when it doesn’t matter if something doesn’t get done, but this self sufficiency lark can be hard work.

Spring time brings all the sowing and weeding and for what seems like, sometimes, no reward. Then summer time is more sowing, more weeding and, hooray, picking of crops.

Autumn time brings small amounts of sowing, even more weeding (you’d think the weeds would give up eventually) huge amounts of harvesting and, oh dear, preservation time.

Then winter slows a little. At the moment, it’s preservation time,so whilst the weeding has to wait for now, the kitchen beckons. I do sometimes wonder how many gardeners go to the doctors from repetitive strain injury from podding bags of broad beans? Quite apart from the fact that you can develop funny coloured callouses on your thumbs, where you have been ripping the tops off the pods. Ah but it doesn’t finish there. If you are freezing them, they then have to be blanched, cooled, bagged in portion-size bags and popped in the freezer.

I do sometimes ask myself the question – what did our ancestors do when faced with an excess of crops? And has anyone out there tried drying broad beans, then rehydrating for eating at a later date or do they then get discarded because no-one has the courage to try them? I did try salting runner beans last year – a couple of jars – just to see what they would be like, but they are still sat in the cupboard, looking at me every time I open the door because they don’t look that immensely appetising. I suppose there will come a time, ultimately when people will start to give up their freezers in order to try and save some electricity but what are the options? And what happens when, like my apples this year, crops are ready a month or so in advance of when they should be available. I know that rich people had things like apple stores for their fruit but what did the poorer people do?

So what are the options? Apart from drying, which can be used for quite a few things – herbs, mushrooms, fruits as well as beans, I suppose the main route for preserving would be making jams, pickles and chutneys and in the case of meat, smoking and salting – some of which is obviously used today but more to add flavour rather than the preservation qualities. Can apples and pears be kept in a cool cupboard until needed? That will depend on the variety I suppose. Our ancestors didn’t have the varieties that are available all year round, would they consider us the lucky ones when we can get strawberries in the middle of winter? Or are we just spoilt for choice and then get stroppy when it’s not available? For the full article see the December edition of Smallholder magazine.