Cabbage buns how to.......

                     

The last of the "Cinderella Pumpkin" and "Late Dutch Cabbage" from the root cellar. The cabbage has been in storage for 6 months and when in storage for this long, the color tends to fade from the leaves, although it keeps the same crisp texture and flavor, after.................

You peel away the dehydrate and thin leaves, so as time progresses, the original head will be smaller, after you peel away the outer dried and thinned leaves

The head with all dried and thinned leaves peel away, it still weighs 8-10lbs. The leaves taken off will be fed to the chickens, they love them!

All chopped and ready to be added to the browned burger. The burger is browned with onions, lots of minced garlic( we love it!), sea salt and pepper. Then the cabbage is added with about 1/3 c of water to steam over low heat.  While this is steaming, we move onto making our whole wheat bread dough.

The recipe for this bread dough is found here. 

                                   This is our first double yolk egg of 2011 :o)

                          Yeast added

      Mixing and adding alittle flour as needed. You don't want to add to much flour, as your bread will be dry and crumbly.

    It's okay if your dough is sticky. You'll want to lightly flour the work surface and commence kneading. I ALWAYS knead for a minimum of 8 minutes, sometimes 10 minutes, if needed for proper elasticity

                           Lightly flour your hand and knead with the palms of your hands.

     When 8 minutes of kneading is finished push your knuckles into the dough, it should spring back to shape if it has proper elasticity, if not, knead alittle longer and check again.

 Place in a well greased bowl in an area, warm and free of drafts, cover with a tea towel and let rise until double it's original size.

                         Covered and on the table next to the wood stove, let the rising commence!

   Since the Dutch cabbage was so pale, I added 1/4 head of red cabbage we also have stored in the root cellar.  Okay, that's alittle more interesting, but.... how about some

                   Carrots, another root crop from the cellar, as was the onion and garlic that were used 

 The first rise is complete and now............................

                       PUNCH it down, I love this part :o)   I always work the dough back into a well rounded ball and cover rise a second time.  When second rise is complete( about 15 to 20 minutes), punch down again and work into a nice shaped ball.   Pinch off the size, a little smaller than a baseball( see below)

 Pat it out flat, until approx. 1/4" thick and add 1/3c.( approx.) of the cabbage/ meat filling.

 Fold over and pinch down the edges, if some liquid is leaking, you can roll and pinch the edges for a better seal.

Here is the first pan, Ummmmm, Ummmm, sure wish you could smell them.  The bread recipe will make 12 cabbage buns. I doubled it so we'd have some for the freezer( quick spring or summer meals*wink*)

Now give it a try, you won't be disappointed :o)   Be creative you can also substitute a loose sausage, maybe spicy *wink*   Sometimes if I have cooked brown rice on hand I'll add 1 cup or so of that too. :o)
Just makes them more hearty and filling.   Enjoy!

Root cellars, how we built ours.

We had a small root cellar 5ftx8ft, when we bought this place. We used it but

I always worried about the safety of it. When my parents build their home here, it was in the way of the contractors and we opted to collapse it, fill it in and build a new larger cellar in a different location. My parents agreed to help rebuild a new cellar and they paid for the materials. It was decided that 12x12x7ft was a good size. Mike bartered with a man to dig the hole 5-6 ft deep with a backhoe. We couldn't go any deeper because of our high water table( water is at 8 ft.)

Mike and my Dad planned out how to build it and the best ways to preserve the wood. It has a vapor barrier and then is wrapped in tar paper, with rolled roofing on the roof( you can see that in the photo) It is vented at ground level and at the roof level as well( you'll see the vents a few photos below)

It was filled in entirely by hand. 

My Dad who did the majority of filling in and packing the dirt.

All filled in around the back, sides and some on the roof, but needed to build the outside entrance and steps

Here it is before being completely covered by dirt

This is what it looks like in the summer months, now that it is completely covered with dirt. It hold at a fairly regular temp. from 42-44F in winter( when sub zero outside, we block the vents) and 44-48F in summer. We did have to add a vapor barrier to the floor due to excess humidity. The humidity is just about right for root crops, and cabbage.  The squash and pumpkins will store, after being hardened off and coated with a thin coat of olive oil or lard, for 3-4 month before mold spots begin to show up. We did however have to add some additional support beams along the center support and added some additional 2x4's in the walls for added strength. It's amazing how much dirt weighs, especially when wet!

Here are the shelves and bins we use to store our potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, squash, turnips, etc...

The potatoes on the shelves were dug when it was wet( 3 summers ago), so we let them dry and cure for several weeks before adding to the potato bin

Our carrots are stored in dirt( our soil is sandy), laying them flat, not touching one another and covering with soil, then layer again, repeating until the bin is full. We also use a plastic tote for this as well. Our carrots typically keep from one garden season to another, after approx 11 months in storage, they begin to get hairy with roots and dehydrate down some.

We couldn't live without a cellar now.