In the Garden ~ Week of May 16

Though our weather is winter coats one day and t-shirts the next, the longer days have made the early garden very happy.  One of the baby hickory trees burst all of its buds on Friday.

We were able to begin transplanting the cooler weather crops from the basement into the garden.  Both Storage and Napa Cabbages, Brussels and Broccoli went in and then were quickly row covered to aid against the dreaded root-maggots that can plague these crops.  We began the early row cover last season and our plants were all beautiful and healthy, so we are hoping for similar success this season.

The peas are all emerging.  B planted them extra thick so that we could have some to add extra sweetness to our spring salads.

The horseradish is peeking through (foreground) and you can glimpse the ever giant mega rhubarb in the background.

B gave the girls expanded access to new pasture on Friday.  They were a bit reluctant to cross the line where the fence was previously, but once they did, they were happy to snack on dandelions and trot around snorting happily.

In the Garden:: Week of May 2

This time of year things change so quickly.  We had rain all weekend, and the long sustained drink coupled with longer days have the flowers blooming and the pollen flying.  More and more we are starting to work on outdoor tasks.  The pool has been opened, chemicals adjusted and now just needs a good cleaning.  Unfortunately some four weeks later we are still waiting to hear back from the contractor who is bidding our deck.  Hopefully this project can still be completed this season.

We had our first asparagus with supper last night and the spinach is robust.  Sidney found a fantastic recipe for a asparagus, spinach and fennel soup that was delicious!  Everyone loved it, except the boy who grumbled at the vegetable based meal (there was sausage on the side for his benefit), but I did notice that despite his grumbles, every drop was eaten.

More and more there is green in the garden, and the flats in our grow room in the basement are just bursting.  We know we must remain patient until closer to the end of the month before much of it can go outdoors, but there is a constant pull, especially after a supper made mostly of our fresh beginnings.

The lilacs have just begun to bloom, which means regardless of temperature my kitchen windows are open wide so that I can enjoy the sweet smells for the oh too short time it lasts.

B was off yesterday, so when I got home form work we had a few errands and then after school he and Sidney went for a ride.  It was late in the day when we got the notification that our bee packages had arrived, and there is a limited window to pick them up.  So off they went while I worked on above referenced soup, to get our bees.  Now all of those flowers will truly be happy.

Peter Piper Picked

We could hardly help but have this phrase reverberating through our heads yesterday as we stripped and removed pepper plants.  We harvested about 30 red peppers from 5 plants, and once removed still have three plants that remain with a few peppers starting that will provide some fresh for us through the fall.  We then picked a full half bushel of jalapeños!  What to do with all of these peppers??

This year we decided to try canning them so we began with charring the red peppers and a portion of the jalapeños on the grill.  Once charred we gently peeled the skins but not too carefully leaving some of the beautiful char flavor for the can.  Then B read that when canning peppers it was best to use their natural juices so we were also careful when we peeled them to keep them over the bowl that we had them in to collect any drippings.  We then dredged them in vinegar and put the portions into jars that we then topped with the natural juices and pressure canned at ten pounds for sixty minutes.  The jalapeños that we roasted were also dredged and went whole into cans to be used later, once the tomatoes finish, in salsa.

Then we took the remaining jalapeños, sliced them jarred them and topped them with boiling pickling liquid.  The proportions for the liquid are consistent measures. 2 1/2 C vinegar, 2 1/2 C water, & 2 1/2 Tbsp. sugar.  Then the quarts were water bath canned for 20 minutes.  As the capsaicin from the peppers getting air born in our kitchen can lead to hours or days of coughing in our household, we decided to do all of the prep work for the jalapeños outside on the porch.  This was a great decision and something that I highly recommend!

This left us with 3 1/2 quarts of roasted red peppers, 7 quarts of pickled jalapeños, and 1 quart of roasted whole jalapeños.  Yesterday Peter Piper Picked & Prepped Peppers three ways!

In The Garden :: September 11, 2015

It never fails that when we return from vacation at the end of August, we begin to focus on getting the kids ready for school and preserving food inside.  As a result, the garden proper is all but forgotten. It is running on auto-pilot and we take that for granted until...well about mid-September.   Once we had eaten, preserved and given away volumes of squash, we just let plants idle instead of pulling them.  When removing the vines today we did find zucchini the size of watermelons!  They will not go to waste as the chickens and pigs will have them as an added treat this weekend.

Don't get me wrong, we are still harvesting regularly, but we are also running out of steam; finding the larder fairly full, and beginning to contemplate taking the whole thing down.  Today, on our first truly fall like day with a gentle wind and crisp temperatures we began to take stock.  We weeded those beds that surround cooler weather crops that we will continue to harvest through the fall.  As a result we can now better see the sheer volume of red peppers and jalapeños that we have ready to harvest.  This weekend will include roasting and packing red peppers in olive oil, and pickling roasted jalapeño slices.

As the tomatoes have been pretty sporadic in ripening,  we have popped many of the tomatoes in the freezer as they ripen.  Once we have the bulk that we want for canning, we will simply defrost, skin and can them.  There are a number of determinate tomatoes on the vine that should be ready for roasting, making into salsa and canning within the next week or so too.

We will also be digging potato and pulling leeks for another round of vichyssoise.  Those cans were the biggest surprise last season, as they were the perfect base for many different soups and stews.  As the plants die back we can begin to really appreciate the volume of butternut squash that is appearing this season.  Since they are now hardening off, they are not a priority for picking but we will get them inside in the next few weeks.  How is your garden progressing?  Are you enjoying those final lingering harvests before putting it to bed too?

In The Garden :: August 31, 2015

We have reached the end of official kid related summer, yet our garden's summer still has a few final weeks.  This time of year the garden really takes care of itself, our tasks are focused indoors where all of the bounty must be processed and preserved for the longer colder months ahead.

Though the garden still runs about two weeks behind, we are way ahead of our processing compared to last season.  Our pickling, freezing and canning is going great.  Really just eating all we can and waiting on the final reward, tomatoes ripening for sauce and salsa.

It is also the time of year when we focus on our to do list.  The litany of things that must be completed before winter.  As we finish final harvests over the next few weeks the garden must be put to bed.  Each row will need to be topped with a generous helping of compost, and covered.  The best way to do this will be to take it a bed at a time as we finish harvests as not to get too overwhelmed doing the whole thing at once.

We need to take advantage of the temperate days to get outdoor work done.  At the top of the list is preparing the granary to become our farrowing space for Mabel and Penelope.  The girls will be farrowing this winter, so we really need to get everything done when we are not also battling the cold.  As important as what is happening in the garden this time of year is how we balance enjoying the season, while accomplishing everything necessary to make our lives easier this winter as we button up the homestead.

In The Garden :: August 23

Leaving on vacation for nine days in the heart of the season always leaves us with a bit of anxiety.  I was thankful that we got so much preservation done before we left, because I do not feel so much panic in seeing the current surplus'.

This is one thing that we will not preserve, these little cucumbers are perfect just to pop whole into the Greek salads that may just be dominating our diets for the next couple of weeks.

I think if anything defines the state of the garden as we return from vacation, it is blush.  As we continue to preserve the summer squash and green beans, the next phase is blushing nicely.  Hints of canned tomatoes, sauces and salsas come...and oh the masses of butternut!  For a season that started so slowly, some things are well ahead of last year.  We were keeping our fingers crossed for ripening on winter squash up until we harvested them in late October last year.  This year?  Well, they are well on their way!

Along with the garden bounty, the late summer blooms are dotting the landscape in all of their glory.  The first goldenrod is just beginning to put on its show.  The garden tends to do what it wants this time of year and really you just must wait for it to provide and then eat and process.  The animals, on the other hand, gave Ellen quite a run for her money while we were gone, but that is a story for another post :)

In the Garden :: August 9

In the last week the garden has definitely hit its stride.  The extended cool to the beginning of the season has us running a little behind last year's harvest. Most notably, several of the plants themselves are much smaller.  Though our harvest dates have started a bit later the yields all seem to be great, even from the smaller plants.

We harvested the garlic, which in and of itself ended up being quite an adventure.  B ended up putting on his bee suit to harvest the last few rows as we had discovered a group of ground wasps had decided to take up residence in that bed.  We yielded 168 heads this year!

We enjoyed the first of our yard long beans.  They have been fun to watch grow, and have a special sweetness to them that gives them an asparagus like quality.  I think these will become a quick favorite, and be something that we grow again.

Both summer and winter squash are making impressive showings.  It is not unusual for summer squash to be abundant, I am sure you've heard of national sneak zucchini on your neighbors porch day (which happened to be yesterday)!  What is most exciting is the sheer volume of butternut squash that is well on it's way to maturity.

The late summer wildflowers are abundant and peppering my kitchen with their display.  There is just something about fresh cut flowers!

As I mentioned earlier, this is the crunch time for food preservation.  So far we are keeping up, but are really trying to get ahead.  As you can see the tomatoes are beginning to blush so along with what I hope is a big tomato season and the backlog of everything else, I know we will come back to quite an onslaught after we return from vacation.

In The Garden :: July 31

It is hard to believe that August is almost here!  We have had a sustained heat for the last couple of weeks, and I am not complaining.  Finally, Summer.  Everything is growing beautifully and my hopes for the warm weather crops that become winter staples in my pantry have been renewed.

We had our first small handful of green beans, they were delicious, and picking that first handful means that we will have buckets of them within days.  This year for the first time we are also growing yard-long green beans.  Look at these babies!  The flowers are large like broad bean flowers, and the baby green beans look like little snakes.  I can not wait to see how these turn out, and more importantly how they taste!

Many seasons the winter squash does not begin to set fruit until September.  This year with everything else a good two weeks behind, the butternut plants are full!  This will be a great bumper crop this year.  I think that I will look at canning some roasted butternut puree, that would be such a convenience on busy fall evenings that I do not want to spend the time dicing and roasting raw squash.  

We have two varieties of Kohlrabi growing.  They are a favorite of ours, and perfect for farm bags.

Speaking of farm bags, our fourth one of the season went out this week.  This week we were harvesting winter green lettuce, kale, kohlrabi, squash, eggplant and jalapeño peppers.

Finally,  as I mentioned in last weeks update, I was hopeful that the cucumbers and dill would be maturing at the same time.  Yesterday B began our first crock of pickles fermenting.  With the way the cucumbers are coming on, I suspect within the next week we will have a few crocks going!  What's growing in your garden this week?