Penn and Cord's Garden
  • Home
  • Penn's Blog
  • Classes/Consultations
  • Greenhouses
    • Order Greenhouse Plans!
    • Latest Greenhouses
    • Student Greenhouse Projects
    • Colorado College Greenhouse
  • Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds
    • More Wild Mountain Seed
    • Seed Saving
  • Contact Us
    • Newsletter
    • The Cool List >
      • The Book List
      • Penn's Tomato Critique
    • About Us
  • Store
  • Letter of Agreement

"I Made Meat Ma!"

11/27/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture






Beau and Cord provided the beautiful 6X6 bull elk on Beau's back - congratulations men!  Penn was squeakin' and they went creepin' and encountered a beautiful bull - breaking a 3 year elk drought for us!  They worked as a team but it just so happened Beau had the kill-shot - 300 yards - through the heart.  Well done Beau. 

The freezer is happy again - balanced with the remains of last year's 5 deer and a fresh bull.  Life is good.  This was our 12th year and Beau's best to be sure. 


Picture
Coming out of the woods with the horns.
Picture
Loading the meat.
Picture
Our new OUTSTANDING Iron Cloth Panniers.
I had the extreme pleasure of tending horses in a mountain meadow surrounded by aspens while the men butchered the elk.  I've never had it so good.  That's not true - one other time - when Max was 14, I got to tend the horses for an hour or so and then I butchered with them.  I don't mind - it's part of the deal but I felt like a queen with my only job to graze the horses - wahoo!  I dried tack in the sun and rotated horses around the meadow until they were stuffed.  
I had time to take the above picture - which is as zoomed as I could go - to see the bit of orange which is them - up on the sidehill - doin' the hard stuff.
"I made meat Ma" is an old mountain-man term and we say it when we are blessed with clean, excellent food like Colorado-grown elk.
This trip was special - we might rest next year - we completed a dozen years in the high-high and we feel we are due a break from the big trip.  I spend months getting myself and the horses ready for 11,000 ft.  This is a good thing - don't get me wrong - but Cord and I have always dreamed of going up there in the summer - when we are not battling the extremes while carrying extra-heavy gear and guns - what would that be like? In all these years we never made a summer trip.  So there - a new goal - what if I was hunting flowers - seeds, wild food?  It sounds heavenly.  And it is.
Friends, I will write this year's hunting story soon and shall send it around the holidays - until then, keep your feet dry.
Picture
Beau and Cord parting out the bull.
Picture
Gorgeous boy in the wilderness.
Picture
Grazing girls in camp. That mountain is over 11,000 ft.
0 Comments

Attack of the Heirloom Tomatoes!

11/26/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
I am overwhelmed in tomatoes.  Buckets and buckets and bags and bags everywhere.  It's frightening.  It's a huge challenge for me.  The picture to the left is me posing samples of tomatoes - the load I got off each plant is truly amazing.  it makes for a lot of jars - gallons too.  The house smells so bad sometimes it makes me feel woozy.
No one has seen me or heard from me - only tales of tomatoes...

Picture
Good grief it's a lot of seed!  
My family has been amazingly tolerant of this process - and with so many jars at once - it reeks!  I'd recommend a seed room.  That's what I want - a seed room.
After you squeeze the seeds and gel into a jar, give it three days and wait for the white mold to appear.  After that - it is time to add water, mix it all up, let it settle and pour the goo and non-viable seeds off the top - leaving the perfect seeds at the bottom.  Repeat until there is nothing but water and clean seed in the bottom, then dump through a sieve and dry them on paper.
When I am rinsing the seed I collect the waste water in a bucket and dump it on the compost pile.

Picture







Of course not everyone would be doing this on such a large scale unless they were a seed company so a few jars on the counter won't stink you out of your house.  I allowed myself to grow as many varieties of tomatoes as I wanted last season so challenging myself to save seed from every variety seemed the thing to do.  I know for sure I won't make 130 - but I might make 125!  We'll see.

This mold is nature releasing and purifying the seed - it's a beautiful thing.




Tomato Aficionados - prepare yourselves...

Picture
Black From Tula
Picture
Persimmon
Picture
Persimmon
Picture
Black From Tula
Picture
Reisetomate
Picture
Indigo Rose
Picture
White Queen
Picture
Indigo Rose
Picture
Black From Tula
Picture
Bellstar
I shall post more tomato porn so have at it - it's too much sometimes.  I am still squeezing, fermenting and rinsing - but am determined to conquer the challenge.  
The form and beauty of the plants, flowers, fruit and seed are a great joy in my life. 
Photographing them is a bonus - so much fun - they are photogenic to be sure.
I am taking a break from processing to post this - but then it's back in I go.
Enjoy.


Picture
Isis Candy
Picture
Azoychka
Picture
Brandywine
Picture
Crimson Sprinter
Picture
Opalka

DON'T FORGET - SAVE TOMATO SEEDS!!!!!!!  How-To-Instructions

2 Comments

    Author

    Penn Parmenter is a high altitude gardener, seedswoman and student of the earth.  She is married to Cord Parmenter - an awesome gardener, gorgeous man and a master blacksmith. Together they own and run a sustainable greenhouse design company, Smart Greenhouses LLC and Penn grows seed for her seed business, Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds.  She is a mother of three sons and an outdoorswoman.  Penn forages wild food, hunts big game, fishes, preserves, maintains a huge organic forest garden and occasionally makes dinner.  At home you can find her in her greenhouses as well as in the wilderness - nose to the ground, butt in the air, trying to identify Colorado natives.    

    Archives

    November 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    June 2018
    January 2018
    March 2017
    January 2017
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    March 2014
    October 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly