Mrs. Wilsons Kitchen

Please be patient. We are under construction.
In the mean time please enjoy the discussion group.
You may click on the link just above
It’s about good and delicious homemade food, homesteading and self reliant living.

Good Happy Rainy Saturday morning.
Facebook finally fixed our page
Up until today we have been unable to add
New posts.

We’ve been busy lately harvesting wild grapes
The grapes are ripe and ready to pick.
Wild grapes make rich and delicious wine

Wild grape jelly is a big favourite here
Spread on hot cheese biscuits.
Just perfect

One night Last summer part of our woods became the tunnel for a small tornado type uplift swirling wind.

It was dark when the storm hit.
We couldn’t see what was happening but we sure could hear that wind.

We sat inside just listening.
Thud. Then another Thud
Trees falling. The unmistakable Sound of a large tree trunk hitting the ground.

Before it was light the next morning we were outside surveying the property.

Part of our woods was decimated.
A pile of 27 downed trees thrown about like they were match sticks.

As the sun rose a few neighbours arrived to sooth our sadness
“This is a disaster” one friend said.
“Your trees are gone.
Why are you two still smiling?”

Our vegetable gardens are intensively planted so we get the most production possible.
Vegetables we grow are canned and frozen to fill our pantry.
The pantry stores our food and is the life blood of our sustainable food system.
We can rely on our pantry all winter.
Without our homegrown vegetables we would be forced to rely on
grocery stores for our food.

The day before the storm we were talking about creating more garden space.
Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli are very large plants.
They take up so much room in the garden. They also need full sun all summer long to grow maturity.
This meant we could only grow a few cauliflower. Cabbages and brussel sprouts had to be purchased.

Self reliance requires us to look at each area where we rely on a store and try to figure out how to satisfy that need from our property using our own man or women power.

We had walked around the homestead looking for space that would be suitable for growing cauliflower.
But alas too many trees.
To many shady areas.
No areas with enough sun to grow these cabbage family veggies.

So there we were; after the storm.
standing where the woods used to be.
Trees down all around us.

Did Mom Nature over hear our conversation?

I was so excited.
Visions of fresh harvested cauliflower.
Huge brussel sprout plants.
Broccoli, maybe more cabbages.
With all these trees gone this space would be full of sun all day.
Perfect for growing cauliflower.
Maybe I could even grow more squash.

Dave was busy surveying to
figure out how many years of
free fire wood lay at his feet.

So yes it was a disaster from our neighbours point of view.

To us it was long winter evenings.
Cuddling up by the wood stove.
Free fire wood. A warm house and
Lots more delicious home grown
Cauliflower.