For weeks, I’d prioritized the garden, ignoring tasks at home until they became urgent. Now, it was time to catch up on, well, everything. It was too wet for most garden work anyway. I used the time inside to bake crackers, infuse a lemon balm syrup, and catch up on the million things I hadn’t done.

After weeks of little rain, the plants in the garden were drinking up the water but it was too wet for most of the outdoor tasks on my list. It was so wet that I let Pepper enjoy our first carrot test pull in the car. I’d pulled a single carrot to see how far along they were. It was apparently passing the taste test.

I still haven’t pulled the carrots, and we have decided to leave most in the soil until we need them.

The to-do list was getting unbearably long, and with the constant rain keeping me out of the garden, I was running out of excuses to get them done. I dedicated a few rainy days to catching up and checking off as many tasks as possible. I was eager to make progress.

But first, I had to deal with a rescue: I’d forgotten a rising bread dough on the counter. To not discard the fermented goodness, I decided to turn the entire bread into discard crackers.

The first sidetrack didn’t take long and set the theme for the day. I opened the fridge and found the lemon balm in a neat towel package. I’d harvested it to make syrup, and it really needed to be processed. Heating sugar water for syrup takes time, so I figured I’d be able to get it done while making the crackers.

I sorted the lemon balm into two bowls, checking for spots that didn’t look good, then made the base of the syrup: sugar water. I’ve shared the recipe in a previous episode but it’s essentially a kilo of sugar or a jar of honey per liter of water.

While that heated, I sorted and weighed the beans I’d shelled the night before. I hadn’t filmed the process, because I’d shelled the beans late into the night in front of the TV.

I finally made the dough for the crackers from the forgotten bread dough. I’ll make sure to share the recipe next time I make these.

All the while, the sugar water needed to be stirred regularly to not stick to the pot. I constantly had to re-read my recipe to not skip ingredients for the crackers. There are plenty of seeds in the crackers. I typically eyeball the ingredients and just as many as look good.

When the sugar water was hot, I poured it over the prepared bowls with the lemon balm. They’d go into the fridge after cooling.

When it was time for lunch, I had gotten a lot done, but the cracker dough was waiting in the fridge–yes, that’s three bowls hanging out in there. I am so glad we decided to go with the tall fridge when we needed to buy one for this apartment. It takes up a lot more room in the tiny kitchen but makes apartment homesteading possible.

For lunch, I’d thrown some canned potatoes into the air fryer earlier, and fried some eggs to go with them. A few minutes later, we were ready to eat, and I took a much-needed break before getting back to things.

It was almost 2:30 PM when I returned to the kitchen to finally finish the crackers. I’d done the first part of the syrup, made lunch, taken care of little things here and there, and attended a therapy session but I still hadn’t done the “first thing” I’d set out to do.

Before I could get sidetracked again, I rolled out the cracker dough. We use a tiny pastry roller instead of a rolling pin, because we rarely have use for it. With an air fryer instead of an oven, all baked things are smaller anyway.

Between reusable baking sheets, the dough rolls out well. It’s a sticky mess but quite doable. If the sheet sticks, a bit of encouragement works just fine. I had some cheese that hadn’t worked well on pasta that would be great for the crackers instead. I used a knife to cut it into tiny pieces, and added it to the dough before rolling it out.

Finally, with most projects checked off, I had room on the counter again. There really isn’t enough counter space in this tiny kitchen. But I make it work–most of the time. The lemon balm syrup was still cooling on the counter, so I gave it a sniff. The smell is intoxicatingly delicious. It immediately put a smile on my face.

With an air fryer, making crackers means more work, as I can only bake a small batch at a time. A lot of what I do on a regular basis would be easier in a larger kitchen. In a tiny space, I’m constantly moving projects back and forth to make room. And all the while, the kitchen is supposed to look ready to film in and be clean enough to cook in.

One day, I’ll have a real kitchen. Though, the small kitchen is probably a blessing. Task and projects tend to fill up whatever space they can. I’m not convinced a large kitchen wouldn’t have me battling to finish projects and preservation just as much. I still dream of counter space.

We’d grown a lot of potatoes this year–without any experience storing them. A very wet year added more issues with some potatoes showing blight spots and pest bites. A lot of our potatoes wouldn’t store well. People don’t tend to agree on the best option, so we’ll do some testing. Buckets with and without sand hold potatoes in the basement. A wooden rack holds some more. One bucket had been forgotten upstairs in the very warm hallway. I found it a while later and the potatoes inside had started to rot. I washed them all, sorted them well, and did what I could for the rest.

They are prettier when prepared fresh. Some purple gets lost in the canning process. But this is about preservation, not prettiness.

In jars, they’d be good for months and months. In fall, the canner was almost always on the floor of the kitchen–many stubbed toes included. For a few weeks, my days followed the sidetracks and detours. I gave up fighting them. I might be a person of routines, but harvests don’t follow my schedule.

One evening, the walnut tree was suddenly empty. I picked up what I could find. The weather this year wasn’t good to the walnut tree. We’ll enjoy only a tiny harvest. But there was a harvest!

With the surprise harvest, it was getting late. But I had things to get done. A friend had sent us some chilies from his garden: fresh ones and smoked ones. His family still harbors our smoker, as we don’t have the right space to use it. There, it gets good use. I diligently saved the seeds from the fresh ones, so we could grow the varieties ourselves.

Canned potatoes, fresh tomatoes, some of the chilies from our friend, a mild cheese, and some cream– dinner was a quick but delicious meal. Perfect after a long day. This winter, I plan to learn how to make this kind of cheese myself. Hopefully, I’ll figure it out.

Dessert was our single Petit Gris de Renne melon. But a single fruit bears plenty of seeds for next year. One cantaloupe, one and a half water melons. We got what we needed to resow. The canned potatoes were drying on the counter. The next project was already waiting on the floor. I’d get around to it all in the end.

I even finished the crackers.

So long, and thanks for being here.