We’re continuingto get ready for the Brickworks Picnic next weekend. A huge pile of the work is done though there will be some early mornings to fill the dehydrator for the day ahead – and of course there is the matter of this Friday night when 4 of us take on 1,600 crackers but we’ll worry about that later.
It’s just before midnight. The low hum of the dehydrator is the only sign of work being done after a 16+ hour day of preserving.
The weekend produced 20 more jars of sauce, 1,000 more tomato slices, 6 liters of diced carrots (waiting for the dehydrator in the morning) and some smoked/roaster peppers which will join the orange dudes.
Dana (and friend Peter) helped with the sauce today – so much fun to be able to ssit with those you love and working your way through baskets of tomatoes. Dana’s also been busy with all sorts of WellPreserved Design stuff – we’re really using this event as a kick starter to take the site to another level. It’s been super fun.
The next step is an early rise of 5:00AM. I’ve sliced carrots with a mandolin and have 6 liters of carrot slices keeping them fresh until they can jumpinto the heat. We’ll pull those out tommorow night and see how we’re coming along. I’ll likely add somemore dehydrating after our CSA (Communite Shared Agriculture) so we can crank the flavour into our crackers Friday. Saturday should be fairly restful before the controlled chaos of Sunday.
I have to admit that this has been both fun and odd. I generally stay motivated through the work by remding myself that what I’m creating will feed many through an entire winter. To think that all of this is meant for 3-4 hours is a very bizzare feeling. The challenge has been a lot of fun and it’s really great to get to push ourselves this hard and see what will happen.
After 2 days of sprinting, we’re that much closer to being ready.
We’ll return to our Preserving Autumn series in short order – time to get some needed rest.
You GO Guys! I’m enjoying watching your race to the finish and wincing, angsting, and cheering along with you! You will do it and it will be good!
I’m also interested in hearing how your dehydrator holds up after the huge demand you’ve put on it. I have the same model as yours but have never put it through the test yours is going through now.
I’m so impressed with your level of commitment to this project! Not to mention yor energy level. For the past couple of years, I’ve volunteered to do food for about 100 volunteers over a three-day weekend, and every year I swear I’m never doing it again. It’s insane! But this is on a much larger scale. I can’t even imagine what you guys must feel like by now. Total admiration for your menu plan, preserving ideas and massive amount of work.