I am so glad I was able to plant the radishes and greens yesterday. Today is a day of rain. Lots of rain. We need it – our area is still in a stage 2 drought and some of Massachusetts is still in a stage 3. This storm should take care of a lot of the shortages. I did venture out into the rain to make sure the rain barrels were filling. During the winter, we don’t fill the barrels, so I switched the diverters over to make sure the barrels are full of water. We will need them full  as we plant out our little seedlings over the next few weeks. The rain barrel in the back overflows into a second one and then into the dry river bed when both are full.  On the side of the house, it fills and overflows to the driveway and to the street. Not ideal, but this is what works for now, and it keeps the water out of our neighbors basement and ours. I really like how nice the terra cotta barrels look – but I think we are ready to add something a bit larger so we are able to store much more water. We water everything by hand with rain water and if we have a year like last year, we will definitely need a larger rain catchment system.

When we ordered groceries this week – Rob had a request for me to make Kimchi. He knows I have been researching new recipes to try and this was at the top of the list. Also, it’s one of his favorites =)

I ordered red pepper, napa cabbage, green onions, shredded carrots and radishes. I will be soaking the cabbage in a brine over night and tomorrow I will put the recipe together. It takes 7-14 days to ferment, depending on the flavor you like and this recipe will make a gallon of it. It will stay in the refrigerator for up to 9 months once the fermentation is completed. Although I doubt it would ever last that long! I made some sauerkraut with plain cabbage and salt and it’s good, but I am looking forward to trying something with more flavor. This is the book I am using – it has a ridiculous number of recipes and we will be trying as many as possible this summer – beginning with pickled and/or fermented radishes when they  are ready =)

This afternoon is research on cold frames, planning a spring cleaning schedule (for after we are done using the wood stove) and I’ll be making pizza dough for dinner. A bit of a slower day physically to recover from yesterday’s work, and I’ll be back at it tomorrow when the rain is done.

~Michele