Bringing Our Farm to the Table

Our long weekend was equal parts farm work, research and relaxation.  We are hit with the bulk of our harvest and trying to find innovative ways to preserve it.  The nice thing about canning, is that after the upfront work, the canning process takes anywhere from 40 minutes to 90 or more minutes.  That leaves a little bit of down time to take a breath, read a book, cultivate new ideas and implement wild hairs....like my sudden desire to re-arrange the family room!

We have been fortunate in our tomato harvest this year and so far harvested 80 lbs of tomatoes which have been eaten fresh and put in farm bags, but mostly gone into 17 quarts of roasted tomatoes in our pantry.  I think that we will have one more round of paste tomatoes to can, and then onto making green tomato relish!  This is a favorite of ours and this year we are going to crock ferment it!  Excitingly enough B and I will be speaking about crock fermenting at an event on September 12th, so this crock may just find its way into our demonstration.

We have tried to grow leeks a few times over the years, with varying success.  This year was a bumper year for them.  So in our search for ways to preserve them B pulled out Julia's Vichyssoise recipe and we found it a perfect match for pressure canning.  We pulled a few potatoes out, a very small portion of another crop doing very well, and put up 7 quarts of lovely soup.   In addition to what we canned, we had a large pot left over ready for an alfresco supper last night.

We also got our seventh farm bag of the season out yesterday!  As each year goes by we get a little bit better at planning and implementing our farm bags.  We have averaged five a season up until this year.  We may get one final bag out, but the plants are all slowing down and showing signs of finishing.  This weeks bags included Kale, Potatoes, Garlic, Cherry Tomatoes, Green Beans, a Bell Pepper, Eggplant, and leeks.

Even with warm days still hanging on, we are winding toward fall.  I love this season, it is comprised of lots of enjoying the outside time to its fullest, as well as an inner pulling toward preparing the nest.

Remember when I mentioned that we had a blogger for the Boston Store at our Chili Cook-off?  Well, we are almost famous in this little write up!

An Apple a Day, of Sorts

I have been on a serious apple kick.  This time of year I always can apple sauce, so that is not so off of normal, but the Honey Crisps have been so phenomenal,  I have been searching for ways to extend the season.   Then over the weekend I read Return to Gap Creek, the long awaited sequel to Gap Creek.  It seems that for Sunday suppers or special occasions during the winter they would pull the dried apples off of the shelf to make apple pie.  I started to do a little research, and low and behold, this is not so uncommon a thing.  There were tons of apple recipes that begin with dried apples!

With my little man home sick the last couple of days, I resurrected the dehydrator from the basement and went to work.  I began with about eight apples that I peeled and sliced, then dried for about 10 hours.  They filled three pints perfectly and smell delicious.  Then since I was not as successful making apple chips in the oven a few weeks ago, I sliced two large apples at 1.7 mm on the mandolin, sprinkled them with a little cinnamon sugar, and dehydrated them for about two hours.  Perfection! 

Now I am so excited about drying again I have more batches running right now and I can not wait to work on more things....maybe those tomatoes that are ripening on the sill.  For the time being lets hope a dried apple a day helps to keep the doctor away!