More home: the essential bits

I couldn’t leave you with an unattractive main photo for this last stop in the tour of Chez Mima and Bean, so here is the view of the property from the drive, with the cabbage tree centre-stage.

On the left, beyond my car, is the garage (first extra). On the right the white cube is the shipping container, aka the cool store (second extra).

Both of these structures are essential.

The garage looks like a garage and even has an up and over door like a garage, but it is too small to fit a conventional car. As a result it serves as a workshop, potting shed, storage area and freezer room all at once. Everything has its place and I am obsessed about putting things back there when I’ve finished using them. I lose stuff otherwise, so it is a habit born of frustration.

In the extra you can see two freezers on the left, behind the chest of drawers. The larger of the two is filled with fruit, soup and masses of ready meals. The smaller one is the meat and dog food freezer, and houses the overflow from the large one in autumn.

Incidentally I never buy meat or fish. It is all bartered. Currently there are bags of venison, hare, chicken, bacon, pork, beef, lamb and blue cod in the freezer. It is more than enough for me for more than a year.

There is another, upright freezer in the pantry where bread, cakes and cordials are stored.

The second extra shows the preserves shelves in the cool store. This shipping container is a former refrigerated container, with insulated walls, so it stays cool in summer and above freezing in winter, making it the perfect store.

I initially bought it with a view to converting it into my bedroom, but as you know from a few days ago I had a cabin custom made for that purpose. Converting the container was going to be much more expensive and I’d have lost the cool store.

It’s not only preserves which are stored there, but also from autumn onwards, onions, garlic, potatoes, squashes and pumpkins, apples and pears.

In the photo, chutneys, relishes, pickles, jams, jellies, bottled fruit, dried fruit, cordials and fruit syrups are all there. And some empty containers ready for dehydrated sliced apples in autumn.

I have friends whose idea of heaven is to kneel in front of the shelves and select a handful of jars to take home. It is wonderful to share the preserves and they are a key part of my bartering arrangements.

I adopt the practice introduced in Carol Deppe’s book “The Resilient Gardener” of having two years’ food available at all times. This gives me the comfort of knowing that if there is a catastrophic year in the garden, or if I’m incapacitated for any length of time, there is enough food to keep me going and allow me to grow new crops before I run out.

Being able to store fresh produce and preserved food is therefore crucial.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour. It’s been lovely to share it with you all. Thank you so much for the stars, hearts and interesting comments.

And of course if there’s anything I’ve missed that you want to know about, do ask :-)