Weekly roundup
Slow Work in Deep Snow
There’s still roughly 18 inches of snow across the woods, which makes tapping slower than it looks from the road. You don’t stride—you trudge. Each tree takes intention.
But the forest right now is something special. The birds are already singing. The sun is finally carrying warmth. Snow clings to the branches overhead, and every now and then a small cascade falls loose in the light breeze. The woods are quiet, bright, and alive at the same time.
We’ve tapped 1,500 trees in the last two days—about a third of the woods finished. The rest will come the same way: one tree at a time, done right.
If you want to understand how we choose and place every tap, I laid it out here:
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Protect the Harvest You Grew
Curing beets is the key to allowing the flesh to store long term
Food security isn’t flashy. It’s knowing how to keep what you’ve grown from spoiling. Beets are built for long storage, but most failures come from small oversights—uncured roots, untrimmed soil, fluctuating humidity, or containers that trap condensation.
Red beets stored in sand in a root cellar
This guide lays out practical, field-tested storage methods for homesteads without ideal infrastructure. I walk through proper curing time, stem trimming, identifying the right basement storage zones, building DIY sand bins, and how to monitor for early signs of rot before it spreads.
If you want beets that taste just as good in January as they did in October, this is the system to follow.
Closing Tip
Rotate tap holes at least 6 inches horizontally and 12 inches vertically from prior years to protect sapwood.
The Grounded Homestead
