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The Final Turnip Harvest

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It is actually kind of ridiculous how many times I’ve sat down to write here this week. I began working on another piece on Five Years a Homesteader but sometimes I don’t trust myself to publish even when the words flow. Thankfully, Stewart is Editor-in-Chief here, reading and giving honest feedback on everything I publish… or decide not to.

Filters are good.

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So I’ll just share with you something I’ve been up to all week and haven’t hardly made a dent in. We were expecting a pretty good freeze for a few days last weekend so Friday we decided to harvest the entirety of the turnip patch.

I went out there with the girls after we hung laundry and pulled maybe a couple dozen before Stewart and Abram came out to finish the job so I could get inside and finish lunch.

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Some of the greens went over the fence for chickens and goats, while others were thrown back to the bed to decompose with the straw and manure we’ll be adding. Annie “watched” Joshie but mostly he just hung out with the chickens.

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On the way back in, they stopped at Abram’s garden and harvested his turnip patch as well. What they brought in was one of those big storage totes full of turnips for us to preserve. Early this week we made a couple of gallons of kimchi. One day we chopped and canned a bunch. Today I’m slicing a bunch for Sauerruben.

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This is what we have left – almost the entire haul still. So today and next week I’ll be filling more jars. Can I tell you guys something; just one more reason I love fermenting vegetables? The fermented turnips we’ve been eating off of from the last turnip harvest are absolutely delicious. It doesn’t even taste of turnips after a month-long fermentation when the lactic acid is just right and the garlic and peppers kick it up.

So these jars that are stinking up my counter tops are filled with probiotics and enzymes, will keep most likely until it gets hot around June, and add delicious flavor to every meal of the day. No refrigeration, no canning, no problem.

I think I better get back to filling jars.

Thanks be to God for his provision in the harvest and in all things.

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3 Comments

  1. My grandmother always said that you need a frost of the greens before you harvest and cook them because they are sweeter. Thus we only bought fresh turnip greens from the grocery store after a frost… though who knows where the grocery store green come from these days. Now, I would buy from the farmers market, after the first frost. Do you find this to be true?

    1. I know its definitely true in my experience. We love to just slice up our turnips and eat them raw like carrot sticks. We don’t harvest them all at once, but go out and pull one whenever we have the hankering, and the later in the winter it gets, the sweeter the turnips are. Mmmm…delicious!

  2. Hi Shannon,
    I am so enjoying you sharing your life with us through your blog. Even though I have gardened and canned and living the homestead life for years, I still learn something new from you. How interesting that turnips don’t even taste like turnips after a month of fermenting. I will be growing more turnips next summer just to try this out. I do have a question about bone broth. I am always making either goat, chicken, or beef and I like to freeze some. I am running out of freezer space and I was wondering if you knew if the nutritional value is killed off by the canning of it. I have read that heat doesn’t harm minerals. Do you know if that applies to bone broth minerals too? I will definitely be purchasing your new book, it sounds wonderful. I love fermenting and want more ideas and recipes. I also am so interested in your rye book, it is on my wish list on Amazon, but I am gluten free and I’m not sure if I can eat rye. God bless you and your sweet family. I so admire how you all are living your lives according to God’s will. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, you are a blessing to many.

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