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Within the confines of this blog, you will find bits and pieces of the life and times of myself, my family and friend dear and near., far and wide, few and far between. You will find bits and pieces of my world, tho small to some, but huge to me. You will find everything from 'soup to nuts',; recipes, hobbies,crafts, gardenings,loves of my life, GrandLoves-a-Plenty, and even my pets... Sooo, if you can handle family life, enjoy the tour of my 'Stuffings'.

Monday, October 6, 2014

Harvest's End

Late into Sept. and we were harvesting potatoes on a sunny day.  Bill dug them with his homemade digger that he pulls behind the tractor.  Next ~
 since my bender doesn't bend so well I can still handle the tractor.
I do the driving of Lil Blue while Bill fills the bucket with the spuds.
Back at the house, the potatoes are rinsed the first time while still in the bucket of the tractor. 
 The bucket is tipped slowly, that's my job, then poured carefully on the self-fabricated screen.  After they are sorted and the last of the dirt is sprayed off, ( we both do that ),

they are left to dry in the breeze before ~ we start

 sorting and bagging.  They are left in a dark corner of the garage until we finally move them to the cellar in the basement.  Normally, we store them right away, but this year, our basement is damp from all the fall rain we've been getting.  In the meantime, we have been warming the house on cooler evenings to help the drying process along plus fans.  
 This year's harvest includes German Butterballs, a few Yukon Gems, All Blues and Purple Vikings.
 The onions suffered some of the hail damage on their tops.  They've been sorted, brushed clean  of the garden soil and 
 braided for winter's many meals.  There are 5 braids all total and a small onion sack full of the one's without a stem long enough to braid.  The bruised ones were cleaned and salvaged what I could by chopping and freezing for hot-dishes.

I apologize for the length of this post, but I promise this is the end of our gardening and harvesting.  The apples too, were hail damaged so most of what we picked was sauced and made into pie filling.   

 Who needs an apple picker when you have~
 the real deal !  Bill trusts me to lift him as high as the tractor bucket will go so he can hand pick as many apples as he can reach.
 Sad, but most of these were so badly damaged that they became deer food.  I couldn't even make sauce out of all those bags of apples.  The basket and bucket were the best we could do....such a treat, at that.  
Our harvesting is nearly done.
Today I canned the saurkraut that was fermenting in the garage.  I only have last season's photo  ~ sorry, but we got the same amount.
Oh, and
we were blessed to save a total of a dozen pumpkins...mostly pie pumpkins that I baked off, pureed and stored for later use.
And that's it folks.  My pantry is full, the freezer is stacked to the top and I have no complaints.
We have no control over the weather so we are just very grateful for what we 'were' able to salvage.
Amen to that for God is Good !
Have a grateful week dear friends and family.
\o/
/\

10 comments:

Dicky Bird said...

Wow, that's awesome! You 2 sure are hard workers!

Shug said...

Oh my goodness gurl.....I so admire you and your husband. This is "Living off the land" and it is so healthy!! I enjoy seeing post like this...
Blessings,
shug

Cher' Shots said...

Nice harvest ~ but Bill trusts you to lift him in the bucket - has that man lost his mind?! ;)
'love & hugs from afar'

jack69 said...

Nice of Bro bill to 'ALLOW' his girl to drive 'old Blue', SWEET. What a great piece of equipment (the driver) smile, to have for that many potatoes. They are beautiful, if one can say that about potatoes..
Love the braided onions..
I like the RED apples, I want one.
Enjoyed the post, you guys earn any 'winter rest' you get....

Paula said...

You and Bill certainly do work well together. I love potatoes and onions anyway they are cooked.

Chatty Crone said...

I feel I have kind of gone thru this with you - I didn't help much though - but I knew or could picture everything you did! I love it - there is just something so American or wonderful about what you and hubs too! It is a lot of work - but it is so worth it!

Dee said...

Don't apologize I love seeing how you farm...NOT everyone can do this...I bet your harvest tastes exceptionally good. Especially in the winter. YUM:)

~mel said...

So can I get a bag of taters from you??

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Dar, Mel came to my blog today---and I visited hers. SO--thought I'd stop by and see if you are still 'blowing and going'.... Looks like you are!!!!!

Your harvest looks terrific... So many potatoes for the winter... AND--glad you could salvage some of those apples. Like you said, we have no control over the weather.

Stop by and say HI sometime.
Hugs,
Betsy

Gail said...

There is a double comfort in knowing your pantry is full of the items you grew.