Summer in Maine was practically perfect. Our hottest days came at the end of the season but with a stiff breeze and a weekly trip to the lake, I barely noticed at all~
With the end of September fast approaching, I’m beyond ready to get into cool weather crafts, cooking, baking and warm sunggles from PotatoChip~
garden plans 🌿
While there’s plans to acquire a tractor for our ever-growing to-do list, I’m planning on another container garden for next year, along with some in-ground plantings. Next year I’d like to get more tomatoes and squash going sooner so they’ll have a chance to thrive in our somewhat short New England summers.
As for in-ground plantings, more trees and bushes will probably be involved as I transplant what pops up naturally around the homestead and bring in new ones to get established.
over winter prep
To get started for next year, I’ll be saving what seeds I can from the tomatoes, squash and peppers that came up this summer. That’ll save me some time picking out new varieties and I’ll be a little more confident in them when it comes to dealing with cooler temps.
After getting seeds saved, it’ll be onto drying what I can. Kale and chard will make great dried soup additions, dried hot peppers to help light up a winter chili and any and all herbs will be added to the spice drawer.
Along with preserving, re-awakening my kombucha and sourdough starters is also on my to-do list. I had some success with both fermentations and I’m looking forward to trying more recipes with them. My sourdough is dormant in the fridge, hopefully not going bad. While my kombucha scoby has been untouched for several weeks, it’s been happy to eat any sugar left in its jar and has been growing into a booger-like culture that will probably outlive us all.
baking & cooking projects🍞
Not even the summer heat stops me from baking bread, the fall and winter is the best time of year for it. Adding in aromatic mix ins like rosemary, garlic or thyme make the house smell wonderful and will help us to ignore the cutting winds outside. I’ll be continuing my yeast experiments and plan on getting better at more delicate designs for my sourdough loaves. I’d also like to branch out into different breads like bagels, english muffins and any other carb-based foods I can make from scratch.
Here’s to the colder months ahead, comforted by crockpots of chili, loaves and loaves of bread and bubbly kombucha~
