Cèilidh Nam Freumhan

Tag: homesteading

Bring Back a Shrubbery!

As someone who has become increasingly committed to using what I already have, I’m always looking for creative ways to avoid wasting food.

Which brings us to three persimmons.

Two days ago, I had three persimmons that had become far too squishy for me to willingly allow into my mouth. It’s a texture thing, okay?

After some searching, I found a recipe for something called a shrub—a sweetened vinegar syrup that can be mixed into everything from bourbon cocktails to sparkling water.

Naturally, I had to try it.

The process begins by peeling the persimmons and squishing out the insides.

Shudder.

The resulting pulp goes into a bowl. The basic ratio is about 1:1 fruit to sugar, so I combined 1 cup of persimmon pulp with 1 cup of sugar. I also added roughly a tablespoon of ginger powder because it sounded like a good idea at the time.

I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and left it in the refrigerator overnight.

The next morning—at approximately 6:40 a.m., for reasons I still cannot explain—I strained out the solids and was left with about 2 ounces of syrup.

This will be great in yogurt or something later.

The solids weren’t wasted. I saved them in a separate container with plans to add them to yogurt later.

Next came the vinegar.

I chose apple cider vinegar because I thought it would pair nicely with the sweetness of the persimmons. Most shrub recipes call for a 1:1 ratio of syrup to vinegar, but since this was my first attempt, I approached it cautiously.

After all, you can always add more vinegar.

You cannot un-vinegar something.

I started at about 50% of the recommended amount and gradually worked my way up to around 75%, tasting as I went.

Once I was happy with the balance, I transferred everything to a mason jar and gave it a good shake.

Then I tasted it.

Wow.

This is going to be good.

At least this wasn’t days of work to only get 4 ounces.

At the time of writing, I haven’t actually used it in a drink yet. I want to give the flavors another day or two to mingle before I start experimenting.

Besides, I only ended up with about 4 ounces of shrub.

If it’s as good as I think it’s going to be, I need to exercise at least a little self-control.

June 6, 2026
More Garden Mishaps

I had to leave town for a couple of days, and when I got home, I was greeted by an overgrown nightmare. Okay, maybe “nightmare” is too strong, but the green carpet across the whole area made it incredibly difficult to find the things I actually planted.

Over the past three days, I’ve spent eight or nine hours trying to catch up. I’m finally starting to see a modicum of progress, but overall, it’s been pretty discouraging.

I lost a whole row of herbs because they were planted too close to a quince bush that I cannot get rid of no matter how hard I try. I lost several more herbs for unknown reasons, too. One of them grew perfectly fine last year, but not this year.

I also found an insect that immediately triggered the “OMG what the heck is that???” response.

The bunching onions and chives never sprouted, either.

After about 90 minutes of work, I finally started to feel like I could at least see the garden again.

Two hours later, I was still pulling weeds and trying to identify what was actually growing versus what had invited itself into the beds.

At around the five-hour mark, things finally started looking a little more manageable, and I could focus less on panic-weeding and more on checking on the vegetables that were actually doing well.

Okay, now for the better news: my tomato plants are doing well. I have a lot of carrots, lettuce, arugula, and an absurd amount of dill and cilantro.

After all of that work, I finally harvested my very first thing of the season: one single radish. 😀

I know that in a week or two I’ll probably feel much better about all of this, but right now I mostly feel discouraged and overwhelmed. I guess the “silver lining” is that I also just lost my job, so now I get to spend a lot more time out there…

May 28, 2026
Too Many Interests, Not Enough Lifetimes

This is not an actual photo of me – credit to ChatGPT for the image generation.

I have spent years feeling inadequate because there is so much I want to learn that I eventually become overwhelmed and end up touching none of it.

At the moment, I am studying four languages. I am still in the phase where my brain immediately reverts to French because it was the first language I learned outside of English.

There are currently four commonplace books in my bag. One of them is completely blank, just in case.

I carry a pen case full of stationery tools I “might need,” along with a Kindle Scribe.

I want to write a dissertation on the Scottish Highlands around the time of Culloden. Or perhaps another period of Highland history. I still cannot decide.

I want to learn to knit so I can make beautiful sweaters and shawls.

I am trying to grow my own food and learn how to can it, partially because gardening fascinates me and partially because apparently some part of my brain is preparing for a zombie apocalypse.

I want to make paper and ink.

I am going to spin my own yarn someday and dye it using plants I have grown myself.

I am designing a planner that actually fits the way I think and work instead of settling for something mass-produced.

I am binding notebooks by hand because it turns out I genuinely enjoy it.

For a long time, all of this made me feel like a failure. I constantly felt behind. Surely, if I were more disciplined, more focused, or more organized, I would already be proficient at half these things.

Eventually, though, I realized something important:

You cannot dedicate your entire life to mastering dozens of subjects simultaneously.

Some seasons of life are for language learning. Some are for gardening. Some are for theology, history, sewing, bookbinding, or note-taking systems.

Some days I spend hours studying Torah. Other days I spend six straight hours documenting Norwegian vocabulary and grammar rules in my learning compendium like a Victorian scholar who has just discovered Scandinavia.

And honestly? That is fine.

I have stopped trying to force myself into becoming a hyper-efficient machine optimized for productivity and mastery at all times.

Now I mostly try to ride the wave of whatever is currently lighting up my brain.

The interests eventually circle back around anyway.

You do not have to learn everything at once.

You just have to stay curious enough to keep returning to the things you love.

May 22, 2026
My Garden System is Getting More Sophisticated (What’s Working)
The garden overview photo was taken as I began this three-hour tour.

On the left side is a cover crop of clover that I definitely did not plant. That is supposed to be a row of greens, but unfortunately nothing has grown enough for me to distinguish between actual food and the three-leaf version of a leprechaun’s dream.

Why Everything Is Numbered

I have a tendency not to plan things out, which becomes problematic when trying to grow food and medicinal herbs.

So everything is divided into numbered beds. What you don’t see is why they were placed where they were.

The bottom half is all herbs:
- #1 loves water
- #2 likes a moderate amount
- #3 prefers it drier, grows taller, and would otherwise shade the others
The rest is organized by nutrition, water needs, and companion planting.

My Planting Spreadsheet

This spreadsheet tracks:
- frost dates
- indoor starts
- transfer dates
- direct sow timing
I had to start marking completed tasks with little stars because apparently I cannot be trusted to remember what I already did.

Eventually I’ll rewrite it in fountain pen like the rest of the commonplace book, but growing actual food takes priority.

The Commonplace Book

This idea sprouted (yes, I did that intentionally) from a terrible mistake last year: I didn’t know what any of the herbs looked like beyond the seed packet photos.

So I started drawing the herbs and writing what they’re useful for.

I’m doing something similar with vegetables, but without pictures. If I can’t recognize a tomato by now, I clearly have other issues that need immediate attention.

Also, I’m not sure why I decided to write my capital A’s like that. I appear to be passing notes in 7th grade English.

Starts Actually Worked This Year

Last year my starts failed because I made too many mistakes to recover from and ended up buying starts.

This year they germinated.

I’d like that entered into the record.

Improved Trellises

I still haven’t built proper trellises because I refused to ruin my cozy “don’t leave the house” weekend by going to the home improvement store.

Instead:
- I flipped two tomato cages upside down and secured them to fence posts for cucumbers
- I used another tomato cage for pole beans, buried to the first ring
Elegant? No.

Functional? We’ll find out.

Bonus Content

This photo is similar to the previous one, but I believe everyone deserves to see my good boy.
April 25, 2026