Harvest time food
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Since our move here two weeks ago we’ve been enjoying the communal cooking and eating aspect hugely. It was one of the things I was looking forward to but I was also nervous about cooking for so many.
It feels a bit cheeky to have arrived at a time when there is a huge abundance of food waiting to be picked and eaten in the huge vegetable garden and also in the polytunnel but it has meant that for a newbie to self-sufficiency I am enjoying the ease at which menus for dinner present themselves by a brief wander around the plot to see what is in plentiful supply.
There is not yet a whole-community effort in growing the food and the practice of eating what is available before any additional extras are required seems ad-hoc and there isn’t quite enough of a glut of anything to demand a big chutney making session although a lot of fresh vegetables have been chopped and stored in freezers ready for use in the winter instead of having them and their parent plants go to waste (beans mainly). Potatoes have been harvested and sorted for ones that are blemish and blight free and have been dug into a ‘clamp’ (a shallow trough lined with straw), squashes are being harvested and put to dry in a small barn.
There is no work schedule and despite the huge number of vegetables becoming ripe and ready for harvest it is a case of one picking what one can and using as much of it for the evening meal. On Saturday a load of us are planning to harvest and preserve what we can (beans, tomatoes, courgettes, apples, plums) by making pickles and chutneys, freezing and even cooking some ‘ready meals’ and putting in tubs in the freezer. We will be so glad of them in the winter.
I’ve just had to add up the amount I owe the communal kitchen for all the delicious meals my family and our friends have enjoyed since we moved here mid August most of which have involved an enormous range of vegetables from the garden here and some I’ve even cooked or helped to prepare (despite my worries).
There is a simple tariff which ranges from 50p for a small snack or breakfast to £1.50 for a large main meal with an additional 50p for a portion of desert or a second helping of dinner. One writes the appropriate amount on a chart by the back door of the kitchen and settles up at the end of the month. Any food supplies I have bought for the communal kitchen (butter, bread, milk, oil, seasonings etc) are subtracted from the amount owed and receipts provided so an overall amount is due. As all three children and I have had meals in the communal kitchen most evenings since our arrival here we owed £110 but the shopping I had done came to £40 so I wrote a cheque today for £70. This system works well as one member of the community is a diligent administrator and bookkeeper.
Here we are enjoying helping Steve harvest the potatoes he planted outside his log cabin – a big thumbs up from permaculturists as the plot was walked past each day Steve could easily tend to it without having to go out of his way.
Spuds for storing in a clamp.
Posted in Cathie's Blog | Comments (4)
Tags: food
Casey says:
September 4, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I love hearing your news. More please!
One thing: how do you balance out the money for food? What happens if there’s a surplus or deficit at the end of a month?
Also, you hint that you might like to get a work schedule in place. How might that work?
ackers says:
September 4, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Hi Casey. Thanks for the +ve comment. I will try to write little and often but the juciest bits are too politically sensitive to be published.
>One thing: how do you balance out the money for food? What happens if there’s a surplus or deficit at the end of a month?
I’ve got absolutely no idea! I know that the system that has been in place since the farm was bought by the community members two years ago does work but only know the scantest details. Presume one can’t decided to shop for caviar and champers for 20 hungry people and then claim the money back. I’m helping to put together a handbook for the whole place so I’ll need to know more for that.
>Also, you hint that you might like to get a work schedule in place. How might that work?
I’m a keen observer of what is and isn’t in place at the moment and the good people who live here have been trying to work out the best way of running the place since they got here. Systems and ways of doing things are emerging but as yet there isn’t a mutually agreed vision/mission statement for the place so there is a big difference in opinion on what is needed to be done and how urgently things need to be done.
One idea I am involved in is getting the huge vegetable patch (actually 12 largish plots) from being directed by one overstretched person to being farmed/gardened by many indivduals. We’re thinking that a 8-12 year rotaion iwould be adhered to and then someone is either the guardian of a *plot* (so this year I do carrots, next I will have to do onions as that’s what the rotation tells me I need to plant after carrots etc) or because I particularly LOVE growing brassicas I follow the brassicas round whichever plot they may be in…
Casey says:
September 9, 2009 at 11:23 am
Would you mind starting an anonymous blog so we can have the juicy bits please? Or I guess I could ring, but that’s so private.
RachCrad says:
September 12, 2009 at 10:36 am
Just catching up with your blog…it’s great that I can picture you all there now – eating the lovely veggies around that big table. Looking forward to hearing more…and hopefully seeing you guys soon xx