Ways to be self sufficient, Autumn

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Autumn is a busy time of the year planning and preparing for winter.

Making sure I have homegrown and wild food stored away and frozen to enjoy in winter are essential steps to self sufficient living.

Make the most of your homegrown vegetables and find the best methods to store and preserve them for winter. Freeze, pickling, store and make preserves are my main ways to be self sufficient with homegrown vegetables all year around.

Vegetable garden

In autumn when my summer vegetable plants have stopped producing and died off, I pull them out and keep any seeds for replanting next season.

I planted more hearty greens in late summer which are producing in late-autumn and even in winter.

It's great to have fresh greens again this late in the season.

I planted fast growing, hearty greens so they would be ready before it gets too cold. I cover the plants with a frost cloth to keep the warmth in and the frost out. It works really well and provides a self sustaining garden that produces fresh green vegetables all year around.

Fresh vegetables still growing in my garden in autumn are: lettuce, coriander, bok choi, wombok cabbage, kale, spinach, pumpkin and broccoli side shooter.

Autumn vegetable garden. A black dog in the right hand top corner of the garden bed.

Freshly harvested autumn vegetables on a white kitchen bench

Storing and preserving

Preserving as much as you can in autumn and put your root vegetables in storage for winter is important for self-sufficient living.

It's best to dig the root vegetables up before the ground gets too wet as they don’t store well and might get moldy if the soil is wet.

Place your root vegetables in crates with newspaper on top and bottom. Don’t wash them or remove the dirt. Keep them in a dark cool place with good air circulation. They keep pretty well (a couple of months) especially the potatoes.

If you notice that they start to go soft and won't keep well for much longer then you can make batches of soup with them and freeze it.

Carrots can be blanched and frozen or made into hummus and chutney. Beetroot can be pickled. I try not to let anything go to waste. It’s a pretty busy time of the year.

Apples

I pick fruits like apples and pears and preserve them. Either freeze them or make sauce and chutneys out of them.

I don’t have any fruit trees myself but there is a lot of wild apple trees around where I live. I can just stop on the side of the road and pick from them.

Apples and pears can be frozen very easily and then used in baking for the rest of the year.

They can be peeled and cut then frozen raw in freezer bags or made in to apple sauce then frozen.

The apple sauce is a great accompaniment for roast pork and great in baking too.

An apple slicer cored and cut an apple into 8 slices

Apple slices in a large square sauce pan ready to cook for apple sauce compote — Apple slices ready to cook for apple sauce

Applesauce compote cooking in a large square sauce pan. A wooden spoon stirring the sauce — Applesauce cooking

Tomatoes

When the tomatoes has stopped ripening, I pick all the green tomatoes and make jam and chutney.

Making an easy tomato chutney is a great way to use up your green tomatoes and make them last all year long.

When storing it in sterilized jars they last for a long time. At least one year until it´s time to do a new batch.

I leave the jars in an outside cupboard where it’s dark and cool. I only store them in the fridge once they are opened.

A tomato plant with green cherry tomatoes outside — Green cherry tomatoes

2 jars of homemade green tomato chutney — Two jars of green tomato and chilli chutney

Foraging

Autumn is the time of the year for wild mushrooms in the paddocks, garden and parks.

Field mushrooms mainly grow in the paddocks. They are best picked and cooked fresh.

freshly picked porcini mushrooms on a white kitchen bench

Birch bolete mushrooms mainly grow in the garden and parks, I prefer to slice them thin, dry and store them in zip lock bags in the cupboard.

They store really well for at least one year if I dry them properly. Once dried they are easily added to soups, stews and sauces. I prefer the flavor and texture when dried first. The flavor tends to intensify and the texture is firmer.

dried, sliced porcini mushrooms in a zip lock bag

That’s the only two wild mushrooms I pick in New Zealand. There are a few more edible varieties but it’s the only two types that I feel confident to identify, and they are delicious to eat.