The Beauty of Winter Trees

Natural settings can speak to people, make them feel at home.  One of my sisters has  been attracted to oceans, another to the desert.  For me, it is forest settings that have always beckoned.

 Every morning, I feel a sense of peace and gratitude as I look out my window at the mature Boreal Forest in which I live.  I regard the trees as my friends, mentors, caregivers, and benefactors.  Alive, they protect me from sun, wind, and cold; they yield nutrients and medicine, as well as beauty. Dead, they continue their beneficence, transformed into my cabin, decks, docks, furniture and fire wood.   

Trees at noon in December

This time of year, I watch the long blue shadows of birch and spruce trees slither across the snow and I am dazzled by the brightness of hoarfrost that coats every surface of the trees.  An occasional owl hoots or raven caws, but otherwise, our winter woods are silent and magnificent.

Almost every afternoon in February and March, my husband and I drive a snowmachine (snowmobile) and sled into the woods along trails we groomed several days before and left to harden.  Our goal is to cull 11 cords of standing dead spruce trees each year for firewood to heat our home and the outdoor soaking tub.  

Sadly, our part of Alaska was infested by spruce beetles about eight years ago.  These tiny insects killed most of the mature white and black spruce throughout millions of acres.  It was very sad to cut down the three stately 85 foot trees near our cabin, but it is even worse to view the skeletal remains.  Dead trees are hazardous, too, both for fire and falling, so every year since the infestation, we pick an area, first on our property, and subsequently, on the state land that surrounds us, to cull dozens of dead trees.  They are put to good use. 

Hoar frost on the trees

Aside from the practical aspect of gathering firewood, this seasonal project generates joy, as well.  Although the beetles devastated mature trees, they did not kill the saplings.  Trees below about 10 feet tall survived the onslaught.  Every time we fell a thicket of dead ones, we find spindly young conifers below them.  Next summer, they will enjoy more sun and space to grow straight and tall and healthy.  In subsequent years, other plants colonize the clearings, too, predominantly prickly rose, elderberry, and highbush cranberry.  Hares, martens, and weasels burrow under the dead branches that clutter the forest floor.

In March, as the snow begins to soften and rot, springy alders and highbush cranberries pop up from their heavy blanket of snow, waving for a moment before they assume a vertical position for summer.  

When the snow starts to recede in April, brown doughnuts of soaked earth encircle the warming trees.  My husband and I tap several birch trees for ten days before the leaves emerge, drinking the bracingly cold sap straight, as well as using it in any recipe that requires water, such as coffee, rice, and homemade wine and beer.  The clear liquid is a nutritious spring tonic, chock full of vitamin C and minerals, such as iron, zinc, calcium, and potassium.  It tastes slightly sweet and vaguely woody.  Eau de paper bag.    

When the soil dries up, I wander through our property, carrying flagging tape and pruners.  I clip the broken branches of saplings and cut out trunks girdled beneath the snow line by hungry hares and voles.  With delight I flag tiny seedlings so that I will not trample or weed whack them when the fast growing wild grasses obscure them.   In subsequent years I marvel as these tiny growths add branches and height, in many cases growing out of the stumps of dead trees.

My woods are a vibrant community of the elderly and the young, the sick and the healthy.  I wander in wonder and awe.   

My Recent Survivalblog Posts

 Please follow these links for articles recently posted on Survivalblog.com:

 

Homesteading Cautionary Tales – Part 1, by Mrs. Alaska

 

Homesteading Cautionary Tales – Part 2, by Mrs. Alaska

 

Our Practical Uses of Amateur Radio – Part 1, by Mr. & Mrs. Alaska

 

Our Practical Uses of Amateur Radio – Part 2, by Mr. & Mrs. Alaska

 

How to Make Berry Wine (from fresh, frozen, or canned fruit)

For a dozen or so years, I have made palatable wine (usually pinot noir and pinot grigio) from commercial kits that vary in price from $69 - $200 per 6 gallons.  To some, I added fresh berries that we grow at home. 

I have also made 4 batches of mead with the honey that our honeybees produced.  One batch of raspberry mead was glorious, but three others failed to ferment, so I ended up with three gallons of raspberry/honey syrup – more than anyone needs.

Last month, inspired by a friend who makes about 10 types of wine from apricot and wild plum trees, dandelion flowers, and fireweed flowers, among other ingredients, I decided to start with raspberries and red currants that I gathered and canned last summer.  Next up will be high bush cranberry wine.

A mere month after starting the fermentation, I was delighted by the early flavor of the currant wine.  In fact, I vastly preferred it to the raspberry wine!  Who would have thought that!  The former already has a vibrant flavor and silky mouth feel.  It tastes so rich that I add a dollop or two to flavor occasional glasses of the commercial pinot grigio or pinot noir that I made at the same time.    

By contrast, the raspberry wine is currently disappointing, but of course I expect wines to take several months to age.  At the moment, it tastes and smells thin, with a watery aftertaste.  I also made a second gallon with the “seconds,” which I found as an extra on one recipe.  This uses the pulpy seeds left over in the cheesecloth bag after the first batch has soaked for a week or ten days.  I think this may be the berry equivalent of grappa.  This batch had a slightly leathery taste, which my mentor thinks is due to the tannins in the seeds.  Since I am not a fan of woody wines, I don’t care for this flavor in the raspberry wine, either, but another palate may like it.  Over the next six months, I will check the wine to ensure that it does not mold or go bad, but otherwise, let it age in a dark spot behind the couch.

I have concluded that my dramatically contrasting reactions to the currant and raspberry wines may result from the fact that I seeded the former in a food mill before canning, but not the latter.  Like the currants, I always seed the cranberries that I juice, so I look forward to making some of that.  In future batches, I will seed raspberries, too, for wine.  

Recipe

You can find many recipes on line for the fruit of your choice.  One of the most famous people in this industry, with dozens of fruit wine recipes, is Jack Keller, who died in 2020.  You can find his recipes on many websites, such as www.homebrewtalk.com and www.winemakermag.com. I would heartily encourage any fruit wine maker to start with his recipes and then adjust for taste after a first or second batch.

  Jack Keller’s raspberry wine recipe:

 

    3 pounds of red raspberries

    1 pound 11 ounces of granulated sugar

    Water to 1 gallon

    4 teaspoons of pectic enzyme⁹0

    1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient

    Half a teaspoon of yeast energizer

    1 gram of Fermaid K  (I did not use this)

    Lalvin’s RC 212, a red wine yeast  (I used Lanvin 47)

Heat one gallon of potable water to temperature that will allow the sugar to dissolve into a thin solution.  Stir.

If you add berry juice, just pour it in.  If you add fruit with seeds or some other chunky fruit, like cherries, put it in a cheesecloth bag first, for easy removal. (You can use fresh, frozen or canned fruit).

Let the pot cool down to about 105 degrees F.   Stir again.  If you plan to let the wine ferment in that same pot (which I do), move it to a place where it can remain undisturbed, preferably in a temperature range of 65 – 75 degrees.  Sprinkle the yeast energizer and nutrient across the top of the liquid, and then the wine yeast.  Do not stir. Loosely lid it, and add an airlock or alternative (see below, under equipment).

If you plan to ferment the liquid in a different pot, crock, or bucket, pour the liquid in, set in in a place where it can remain, undisturbed for several weeks, let the liquid settle, and then sprinkle the yeast energizer and nutrient and wine yeast over the top. If the location’s temperature is below 65, the yeast will take longer to multiply, delaying and sometimes stalling fermentation.  A stalled ferment can be fixed, but if not, you have juice or low alcohol wine. 

On the second and subsequent days, stir it vigorously with a very long spoon for a few minutes, sometimes  twice a day.  Be sure to push the cheesecloth bag down below the surface so the fruit will not mold.  (If you do not contain the fruit in a cheesecloth bag, it will float on top, creating a crust that (a) can mold and (b) segregates the yeast from the air that it needs to survive.)  I find it fascinating to see, when the yeast population grows,  the colony actively swimming in the liquid.  I would use the word, swarming, except for the negative insect imagery.  If the yeast growth has slowed to the point where I see no movement during the first week, I sprinkle a teaspoon of yeast nutrient or yeast energizer on the surface.  This will feed and energize the yeast, so they can consume more of the fruit sugar and turn it into alcohol. 

About Day 7, use your wine thief (a turkey baster) to squeeze enough liquid into the hydrometer for the thermometer to float. Read the measurement.  If it is near 1.03, this means that your juice is partially fermented.  Squeeze as much liquid as you can from your cheesecloth bag into the liquid and then remove it.  About every other day after this, measure again until the hydrometer reads 1.00 or 0.99. Numbers above this mean that much sugar remains unconverted by the yeast into alcohol.  The sweeter the taste at this point, the lower the alcohol.  If you choose not to use a hydrometer, you can simply taste a few spoonfuls of wine every other day after Day 7 until you like flavor.  (You can also use the hydrometer to calculate the percentage of alcohol, too, through a formula that you can find on-line).  My wines (from kits or from my harvested fruit) generally ferment by Day 10 - 12. 

When the wine reaches a palatable profile for you, siphon the liquid into a glass growler, leaving behind the yeasty gunk that coats the bottom of the prior container.  Install the air lock, so that any remaining CO2 can escape.  You don’t want to cap the wine too soon or residual C02 could cause the growler to explode. If there is a lot of yeast and residue at the bottom of the growler, (a reason to use a glass container), I siphon it again into a clean container.  This results in a clearer wine. 

I don’t bother to bottle and cork the wine.  I simply store it in the growlers and drink it within the year.    

Equipment

To try a few small batches without much financial outlay, you can start with the following equipment.  Note alternatives for a first batch or two to further reduce your initial expenditure.  Like many types of hobby equipment, you can probably find much of this used.

*A cooking pot bigger than one gallon to heat the liquid. 

*The same or a second pot or crock or jug with a lid that fits loosely and preferably has a hole in which to put an air lock.  For one gallon batches, I use a pressure cooker (not a pressure canner) in which I removed the plastic plug, leaving a hole in which I plunge an air lock.

*An air lock or two.  This is a small, inexpensive multi-part plastic gizmo that allows CO2 out but does not let oxygen into the liquid.  A second choice is to lay cheese cloth, a thin T shirt or even a paper napkin over the hole.  This will keep out bugs, ash, and dust, but will let oxygen in, which can influence the taste over time.  But this will work. 

*A rubber stopper or two with a hole in the bottom, that holds the plastic air lock in place.  Buy the size stopper that fits your growler or carboy (a 5-6 gallon heavy glass jug).  The former is smaller than the latter.

*A cheesecloth bag or two (big enough to hold a heavy gallon of sodden berries and juice).  (These inexpensive bags are useful for jams, jellies, cheese, teas, pickling, etc.  Buy a dozen.

*A plastic siphon (to move the wine from its initial fermenting stage container to its second, aging container).  Yes, you can simply pour it, but a siphon enables you to leave behind the yeast in the first container, so that your final product will not taste yeasty.

*A hydrometer (this looks like a 10 inch thermometer that fits in a tall, thin glass or plastic container and measures alcohol level of the liquid you pour into the container).  Alternatively, taste your wine every other day after Day 7 or 10.  A sweet flavor and a higher hydrometer reading means that the fermentation is not finished and therefore, the alcohol level is low.  A reading below 1 (0.99) means that fermentation is complete. (In my experience, unfermented fruit/sugar/water solution starts around 1.08.)

*A wine thief, which is simply a turkey baster to collect wine to squeeze into the hydrometer

*Wine yeast.  The most versatile and reliable that I have used are Lanvin 47 and Lanvin 1118, however, wine connoisseurs suggest particular yeast strains for different fruits and flavor profiles.  You can buy wine yeast on-line or at beer supply stores, along with the optional items below.  One packet is enough for a batch of 1 – 6 gallons of wine.  These will age out at some point depending on storage temperature and humidity, so do not expect to stockpile several years worth. 

Optional but useful purchases:

Yeast nutrient and yeast energizer.  These are powders that gig the yeast to consume the sugars if they have slowed down. Here in our wood heated cabin in Alaska, I need these aids and/or I move the fermenters (the first container to which you have added the yeast) closer to the wood stove.  

Citric Acid:  If your wine is too sweet for your liking, due to the fruit, you can add citric acid to balance the flavor.  If it is overly sweet because the fermentation stalled, that means that the yeast has not consumed the sugar and converted it to alcohol, so the wine will be low alcohol.  The citric acid will balance the flavor but do nothing about the alcohol level. For some wine makers, this could be an intentional choice, such as 4 or 5% alcohol wine.

Pectic enzyme:  Pectic enzyme helps draw out the liquid of fruit, requiring less mashing work from you.  This is not as necessary for juicy fruit like berries, but useful for fruit with more texture, like apricots, cherries, and plums.

Sugar or honey:  If your resulting wine is too dry for your palate, you can “back sweeten” it.  Heat the honey or sugar so that it dissolves.  Pick a test amount of wine, like a quart, and measure how much sweetener you add to your liking.  Then extrapolate to the whole batch.  Obviously if you pour the sweetener in cold, it will just sink to the bottom and you are likely to add too much. 

Clarifiers and stabilizers:  The commercial kits come with packets that clarify and stabilize the wine.  I have not used any in my initial batches of dark berry wine, but would do so if I made a light colored wine, from grapes, pineapple, or apricots, and if I intended to store the wine for longer than I currently anticipate. 

Conclusion:  There are many advantages to this hobby.  

1)  Whether you choose to make wine from a commercial kit or from store bought fruit, the cost per bottle of wine will be MUCH lower than purchasing wine.  Basically, 5 bottles = 1 gallon.  A commercial kit of concentrated wine grape juice usually makes 6 gallons = 30 bottles.  The price for kits range from $65 to $200 depending on the provenance of the grapes.  If you pay $10 - 30/bottle, that = $300 - $900 for the same volume of wine. If you grow or forage the fruit, the cost for making the wine is simply the one time purchase of equipment, ongoing yeast packets and some optional items, like yeast energizer.  If you wish to make wine from store bought fruit or juice concentrate in the freezer section, you can price that out.   

2) The expense for equipment is for hardy elements that can be used over and over for many years.  We have had to replace plastic and delicate pieces occasionally, like a broken hydrometer, but otherwise, the purchases are “one and done”… for many years.   

3) Much of the equipment, like containers, cheese cloth, and airlocks, and the baster (evocatively called a wine thief) are multi-functional for other kitchen processes. 

4) For the gardener or forager, it is a  joy to harvest fresh fruit and turn it into something delectable.  I routinely harvest 6 gallons each of raspberries, currants, and cranberries per year for a variety of gustatory pleasures.  For wine, next year, I will harvest even more. 

5) The preparatory time commitment is low.  

The negatives:

1) You need to have space to store the equipment and the aging wine.  My son did so in a dormitory closet. 

2) While store bought wine is consistent in quality along a particular brand, your fruit wine quality may vary, depending on the quality of the fruit and your temperatures, just like any other agricultural product you grow at home. 

I recommend this endeavor for anyone who wants to save money and make use of fruit that you can buy, grow, or forage.

Ways to Save Eggs for Months

Egg laying is partially predicated on the season.  Our hens, of various breeds, are always most prolific layers in the summer months.  In the autumn, when they molt (shed their feathers and grow new ones) they do not lay at all for 6 to 8 weeks.  During the cold winter months in Alaska, they shiver in the chilly coop, laying maybe half as often as in the summer.  It is only in March, when we have 12 hours of daylight, that they venture out into the snow and start to lay regularly again.

Therefore, I learned various ways to save eggs to eat during the molt and all winter.

Note:  In the USA, people who buy eggs at a supermarket are purchasing eggs that are washed, which removes the bloom, which is a clear thin coating that the hen naturally produces as she lays to protect the egg from bacteria and dirt.  This is why, in this country, eggs are stored in the refrigerator.  

 In the many other countries that do not wash the shells first, shopkeepers store eggs on room temperature shelves, and millions of shoppers store them at home this way, too, up to about 21 days, depending on ambient temperature.   

Since we do not wash our hens’ eggs either, I store them in a large metal bowl on a kitchen counter for up to three weeks.  If I am surfeited with eggs, I store them long term in the various ways listed below.

The following are my experiences and opinions.  Someone else's could be different.  

HOW TO TEST EGGS FOR FRESHNESS

Put any questionable eggs in a deep, flat bottomed pot and cover them with water.  If any float, air has gotten inside the shell and you do not want to eat them.  If they rise slightly off the bottom and turn sideways, I cook them sooner than the eggs that do not rise or tip at all.

LONG TERM EGG STORAGE

GLASSING

I do not know why the term, “glassing” is used for this technique, which involves submerging raw eggs (in their shells) in a lime solution and setting the crock or food grade bucket somewhere, undisturbed, at room temperature.  I have successfully cooked with eggs that I glassed and stored at room temperature for nine months. I have read in Mother Earth News, that people have stored them for two years.  The most I have stored for 9 months is 125, in two food grade 5 gallon buckets with lids. 

To make the solution, I measured out a proportion of 8:1  water to pickling lime, and then heated the water enough that the lime dissolves, stirring thoroughly.  After it cools to room temperature, I pour it into a food grade bucket and gently place unwashed, fresh eggs into the water, making sure that no egg shells rise above the solution.  Over time, the solution will sink to the bottom, so it is important to gently stir up that bottom layer, to recoat the shells.  I do this once a month.   

One year, I neither heated the water nor stirred once a month.  Big mistake!  The eggs on the bottom layer were practically cemented to each other in the lime, but the eggs above the bottom layer rotted.  What a noxious job it was to pull those out and toss away 60 eggs!  Plus, I hate wasting food.

When cooking with the eggs that have been glassed for several months, I rinse them first, and then crack them into a transitional bowl to check.  I find that both the yolks and whites are runnier than fresh eggs, so they are better suited to scrambling, custards, or baking than for fried eggs.

IMPORTANT:  This treatment works only for farm fresh, unwashed eggs that still have the protective “bloom” on the shell.

FREEZING

1)      FAVORED:  Raw beaten eggs can be poured into muffin tins or ice cube trays, frozen, and then popped out to be stored in plastic bags or other containers.  It is helpful to measure the amount of one eggy ice cube for future recipes.  I found that a muffin tin holds about an egg and a half, and my ice cube trays held less than one egg.  These individual units thaw quickly.  When scrambled, the texture of these frozen, raw eggs is the same as unfrozen, raw eggs.  I rarely separate eggs and yolks for recipes, but you can do so and freeze the beaten raw yolks separately from the raw whites.  Either way, freezing raw eggs in measured portions is a very convenient and reliable method.

2)      NOT FAVORED:  Hard boiled eggs can be frozen in or out of the shell.  Shelled eggs will crack when the interior expands in the cold.  Either way, the texture of the white will be rubbery but the yolk will feel normal..  I freeze whole eggs as a winter treat for my dog or hens, but I would not serve them to people.   

3)      VARIABLE RESULTS:  Raw, eggy recipes, like quiche, pancake batter, etc. can be made in advance, packaged well, and frozen, to be thawed overnight for cooking the next morning. I have done so short term with a number of brunch dishes for large gatherings.  NOTES:  a) Like anything in a freezer, if it is not wrapped well and if it is frozen long term, it will develop ice crystals, making the recipe more watery. (b) Many raw vegetables do not freeze well, but cooked vegetables do.

   

PICKLING

My husband and I are not fans of pickled eggs, but many people like them.  To me the texture is rubbery and the vinegar/egg combo is unappealing.  However, my father-in-law told me that “back in the day” pickled eggs were a staple snack food, often free, on the bar at pubs.

 

SAVING EGG SHELLS

 I utilize all the egg shells, too.

1)      If you want to reduce the bitterness of a batch of coffee, drop a half egg shell in your percolator or coffee maker.

2)      To give my dog extra calcium, I grind up dried egg shells and sprinkle it on his food.

3)      I crush hundreds of egg shells each year and distribute the material in my gardens.  The shells have several benefits:  calcium, of course, and the texture lightens heavy soil, and the sharp edges are supposed to deter slugs and other soft bodied pests, although the amount of egg shells in my gardens has never deterred slugs in rainy summers.

In conclusion, we love raising hens for fresh eggs and all the other benefits that hens bring to our homestead.  As with any summer bounty, like zucchini, it is useful to figure out how to save eggs for later in the year and how to utilize the shells. Waste not, want not! Don’t take July’s production for granted.  Planning ahead for low productivity later in the year will be well rewarded.

Winter Preps to Raise Food in Alaska + Recipe - Bubbles and Squeak

(My book, Log Cabin Reflections, is available on Amazon.  Each chapter includes pictures of our off-grid, off-road life in remote Alaska.)

Buddy preparing to haul

We live in USDA Zone 3b, which means that not only is our growing season short, but also winter temperatures can plummet to -35 F.  Still, we do have a number of hardy perennials plants (like berries, rhubarb, and horseradish) but obviously fewer perennials than warmer climates enjoy.

To maximize food growth in summer, I start almost all annual (and desired perennial) plants in the winter, some outside, and some in.

Winter sowing:  This practice is so easy and low maintenance that it almost does not sound feasible, but it does indeed results in healthy plants.  It works best for seeds that need cold stratification (a period of several cold weeks before warming up) and for those that like to sprout in cool spring weather.  To winter sow, I save plastic vinegar and distilled water jugs, slice them around the middle except for a hinge near the handle, fill with about 4 inches of soil, water it with a soil nutrient/root stimulater, sow the seeds and then leave the jugs outside, tied to a banister post so they will not blow away in a heavy wind.  In the spring, when the air warms up, I water the soil lightly and the seeds sprout!  

This method works beautifully for cabbage, onions, garlic, and spinach.  For flowers, it has worked well for valerian, delphinium, lupines.  For some reason, I did not have success with poppies or yarrow.

An alternative that can be done in warm weather, is to store damp seeds in a baggy in the refrigerator for several weeks.  I have done this, too, but the sprouts were so delicate that they did not transplant well for me. 

 

Testing germination:  Seeds age out.  If stored in a cool, dry, dark location, most can be expected to last for 3 years, but beyond that is a gift not to be presumed.  People living in humid and hot environments may find that their seeds age out faster than mine.

Cabin on a sunny winter morning

Last winter, I was determined to get rid of dead seeds, so as not expect that a packet was viable.  I separated and test germinated the oldest packages (2016 - 2019).  To do so, I dampened a paper napkin cut in half, rolled ten seeds into it and inserted this bolus shaped napkin in a small baggy which I labelled with seed name and the average range of germination timing.  Ten seeds makes it easy to extrapolate to the percentage of viable seeds in the packet.  All six varieties of peppers were dead as were the cucumbers and onions.  Beans rotted in the damp.  Some of the seeds of two varieties of rhubarb germinated, as did corn, beets, radishes, one of the tomato packages and one of the tomatillo packages, and to my surprise, watermelon.  I gave all the dead seeds to the chickens as a winter snack. 

From now on, I will do this every winter, to ensure that I have seeds on hand that will produce a good crop.  Those that are dead I can reorder in time for a snowmachine delivery for March-April starts indoors.    

Germinating in a cold oven: I set almost all of my little seed pots in a cold gas oven.  The pilot light keeps the interior a more consistent, toasty temperature than my wood heated home offers, in the mid '70s, which is a germination temperature enjoyed by most seeds.  In side by side comparisons, the seeds that start in the oven sprout several days ahead of their comrades outside the oven. This location is also good for seeds that require darkness to sprout, like cilantro.

Mini-greenhouse:  In a corner of my cabin, I have a 4 shelf mini-greenhouse (6ft h x 3ft w x 2ft d) covered with a plastic sheath with two zippers on the front.  Each shelf has two grow lights.  This environment stays warmer and more humid than the southern windows, where I used to start seeds.  I always sow slow germinating plants, like oregano, in February, as well as fast growing greens that we can enjoy as small, fresh salads or sandwich toppings by early March.  As with the winter sowing, I always add a root stimulator to the soil or water.  One caution is that the plastic can make the environment humid enough to encourage the growth of gray, fluffy mold on the surface of the soil.  To mitigate that, I roll the plastic front “door” up over the top of the structure during daylight hours and close it up at night. 

Challenges:

1.    This year, I dug up the annual herbs before the gardens froze and brought them inside, hoping that they would overwinter in the mini-greenhouse.  However, I found that even with the grow lights on for about 8 hours they did not thrive.  They prefer 12+ hours of light.  The result was not worth the effort, so I dried the remaining leaves, put the pots outside and will seed them again in February.

2.  A mistake that I often make is to start plants too early because I am so eager.  This results in leggy plants that are weak when transplanted outside.  One year, my potato plants lay sideways on the ground!

     Every gardener has his or her hacks and a history of hits and misses.  These are a few that work for me so that I can utilize the cold and lazy months of winter to get a head start on a fast and furious summer of food production.

 RRECIPE:  Bubbles and Squeak

Bubbles and Squeak – what an evocative name for left overs!  This side dish or entrée is mentioned in British texts as far back as the 1700s.  It is a tasty way to use up a combination of leftover mashed potatoes, vegetables, and bits of meat. (Note:  if you like this recipe, check out Irish Colcannon, which is similar, but adds milk.)          

Melt 6 oz butter in a large, flat pan.

Sautee ½ cup chopped or diced onion and garlic to taste, about 3 minutes.

Add 2 cups of mashed potatoes.  Thoroughly saturate with the melted butter.

Add 1 cup chopped, raw, green vegetables and mix in well with the potato.  Cabbage is traditional, but any leafy green or diced broccoli will work nicely.  Mix in any cooked, chopped meat, if desired, like ham or sausage.

At this point, decide whether you want the final product to be loose or individual patties.

If the former, warm through and serve, as a hash.

If the latter, shape the food into patties and chill for an hour or more, then fry in additional oil, pressing down on the patties to crisp up the cooking surface, and then flip, press, cook, and then serve. 

Bubbles and Squeak is tasty either way.  The only difference is texture and presentation.