Food Storage Friday Report
To be honest it was a slow week, and a bit of a whiny friday to boot.. the weather has hit a unnatural high, typically we are 2 or 3 above and we are well over 20, on sunday we hit plus 26c, and my farm and my head is all in spring.. hubby was working without a shirt, while we are still tromping though snow.. very odd indeed.
All my fruit tree’s made it though the winter, and are all budding out, this is a great danger to my coming food storage and to the possable cost of fruit this year, it is only mid march and if they are budding now, they will most likely bloom early as well, which means all I need is one good spring snow storm or even a hard frost, and my whole hard fruit crops will be done for the year. This happened to us and most everyone in the area two springs around on our grape vines, it really effected the price, those few that had fruit where able to charge up to 5x the norm and if you wanted it, you paid it.
As I said to Dh, its a good thing that the strawberries, rhubarb, rasberries and currents are such faithful producers, we started some of the spring work in the ever growing strawberry patch, looks like I should have about 150 or so plants to move over into the new rows, which in total should give me somewhere between 300 to 350 plants producing this year.
The pantry is holding up very well, while the jars are getting empty, and I would worry that many of the regular items would not (without very careful planning) make it though two garden season’s at this point, I can see that we will have no issue at all it holding us very well until the garden is producing well.
I am however having a issue with my stored flour and as much as I hate the idea of it, I think I am going to need to mix it with water and bake it into bricks and feed it to the chickens, it has gone off, despite being held in the freezers, and I am starting to think that my body is reacting to it, of course my cast iron tummy of a hubby is fine but I am really starting to wonder, I think I am going to go to grinding my own only for what I am using and or just having to cut out all baking/bread that I would need to use it in and see if it makes a difference.
If this is the case, what a waste!
Thank goodness for the amount of whole grains in my storage that are holding up just fine..
I took one of my big blue plastic waterbarrels (safe for food rated) and I placed it on top of a area of good stinging nettle patch and I am pleased to say that its doing it job well, and I have a nettle already a few inches tall, which will be soon finding its way into my fry pan, the daylilies are also starting to come up and I think a good stir-fry with some of their roots sounds lovely..
Just another Day on the Farm 
Hi FarmGal, I’ve gotta say, this weather has me very uneasy… Now (after the winter that never really got past December) Colt’s Foot and Hyacinth are already up 3″ in the shady north side garden, Forsythia’s been showing yellow for days, Lilac buds are a swollen, brilliant green and last night I could hear the Spring Peepers down at the pond. Like you, all I can think of is “what if?”. What are the odds of this bizarre air shift from the US suddenly reverting and the catastrophic results for those who’ve been yanked out of dormancy and pitched headlong into mid April? And, with it being so abnormally hot now, what’s going to happen to the balance of the year?
The one “good” thing about this? Even those who’ve most vehemently denied the possibility of Climate Change can hardly ignore what’s happening.
Hi Deb
I hear you about the uneasy when it comes to everything acting like its spring, and while I would love to blissfully have my head in the sand and thinkg, all will be good, spring as arrived, I think it much more likely that old man winter or jack frost will be visiting us at least a time or two again..
Hi again, The other day I read that the cooler and slower the rising process, the better gluten strands are broken down by yeast and then become easier for us to digest. You’ve a very scientific approach to things – maybe something to check out?
Liking your idea of fresh grinding only as needed. I know that flax seed will keep for ages intact, but becomes VERY fragile once it’s ground… Guessing that wheat might be similar?
It just seems that so many people are suddenly reacting to gluten who never had any trouble before… Kind of makes me wonder about the genetic tinkering that’s been going on. Why so many sensitivities, all of a sudden?
Hi Deb
Now that is a interesting statement and one that I will indeed look into, normally I make bread one of two ways, I either do a 12 to 24 to 36 hour sour dough natural slow rise or I do a more active yeast but still slow typically six to eight hours but lately, I have been doing mostly no knead cast iron bread making, which has about a 40 min rest before being baked..
I will need to a little tracking but perhaps my typcial very slow or slow risings have made a difference and having moved over to a rest more then rise and then baking has made a difference.. the other thing that I thought about, I changed yeast brands right around the time I have been starting to have issues.. I have my regular yeast in the pantry, but I wanted to use up a “mistake” one that had been gotten.. certainly something to consider..
Inviting you the Carnival of Home Preserving on my blog every Friday. Hope to see you there. Laura Williams’ Musings
The most recent edition – http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2012/06/carnival-of-home-preserving-13-come.html – open until Thursday 6/7.