This, and much more interesting Monday posts are inspired by Daphne Dandelions.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Harvest Monday
There is much in the garden waiting to be picked these days. I realized this week, that's where it is staying. It's not intentional, though. It is easier to make and eat bread, fatten up on nuts, than to go root out a couple beets. With that now in mind, it was a pleasure to pluck a couple beets, carrots, and leeks from the ground yesterday for dinner. They met up with an apple and found their way into me through the juicer. Breakfast was a scramble of Brussels, leeks, spinach and garlic.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Bright Autumn skies
There are beautiful days about. The rain has held off more so than normal. So has what we call cold. Luke and I took advantage of this and found ourselves a windfall, quite literally I suppose. The sun was warm, the shadows chilly, and the day good.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Garden super stars
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Brussels chatting with broccoli and onion, plotting their escape from the wok. |
Cabbage also made another appearance in the kitchen this week. The first one was picked last week, and another came in with me yesterday. The remaining cabbage variety is savoyed, meaning its leaves are crinkly. Savoyed is an interesting word. It brings to mind dancing, rather than vegetable. I barely looked to see what else the word conveys. Wikipedia doesn't do it justice. I'm not certain where on the scale of slightly-to-heavily savoyity our cabbages are, but they are photogenic. Their leaves are a varied variety of healthy looking green. With the brilliant sun of yesterday on them, it seemed like everything was right in the world.
This post link linked to from Daphne's Dandelion's Harvest Monday post. Head over there to see what others are growing this time of year.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Harvest Monday
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Our sole Danish Ballhead. All of the others are a savoy type that I need to pin back to an actual name. |
Also not pictured are some truly gorgeous Collards that Shari picked yesterday (their leaves are a deep uniform green and look super healthy and tasty after the recent frosts), as well as the smattering of carrots, chard and onions that made it into the week's meals. Not pictured for better reason are the few straggling tomatoes we managed to pull from the greenhouse. Actually they probably should have been posted, just to commemorate their fortitude.
For many well pictured posts, head over to Daphne's Dandelions for many Harvest Monday contributors.
Baking interlude
The hours of light are short. The temperatures have dipped. The sky its dripping. It is time to bake. It has been years since I've made bread on a regular basis. I let my sourdough starter go and turned my attention elsewhere. I have some attention again and have acquired part of a great starter from a friend. It is nice to turn some attention back to bread.
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Multigrain just before baking. |
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A country-white, the essence of bread: flour, water, starter, salt. |
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Multigrain cooling, delicious potential at |
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Bagels with a nice chew. |
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Frosty Morning
There was a pretty thick fog last night that our 26 degree night turned into a blanket of frost. Everything is certainly hunkered down.
Non-Purple broccoli. It is an experiment. I don't know if it will last the winter. |
Up close with a frosty broccoli. |
Purple Broccoli. |
Leeks, beets and chard. There are carrots tucked down beneath the autumn leaves. |
Monday, November 14, 2011
Blustery Harvests
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The first of many leeks to come |
It was also a week to pick the last of the peppers and tear down the couple remaining tomatoes that were still outside the greenhouse. We are down to less than a 5 gallon bucket of green San Marzano. I'm not sure what to do with them, aside from trying to let them ripen. I've read that they are easily canned, but that still doesn't tell me what to do with them. It would be fine to let them go to compost, but I'll look around a bit more before that happens.
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Shades of green -- Tomatillos, the last of the peppers and a handful of San Marzano Romas. |
Monday, November 7, 2011
A squash per week
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As for us, we need to eat at least a squash a week if a have any hope of making it through our stores by the time spring is upon us. It is a good 'problem' to have. Last year we lost several to freezing temperatures. Without a cellar, it is a challenge to find storage. I will try to insulate them better this year.
Pictured is a sunshine kabocha. The meat is dry and sweet. They are supposed to be good keepers. I can tell you, so far, that they are good eaters. A simple steaming was all that was required for this one to be super tasty.
Also pictured is my other sunshine, in front of a mound of chard that is awaiting the wok.
This post was added to Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday entry. Go take a gander and see what's growing around the world.
This post was added to Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday entry. Go take a gander and see what's growing around the world.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Freeze
First real frost of the year (11/5). That's not much of an entry, but I'll surely ask myself next year this very question.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Harvest Halloween Monday
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Sized up for winter. |
The garden remains productive. I noticed that many of the broccoli seems to have another round of side growth of good size. I definitely will be growing more Fiesta next year. The Chard is superb this year. It tastes like Spinach, which I hadn't noticed before. Maybe I just wish I had more Spinach in the ground.
Carrots
The late plantings of carrots seem to have grown out to a good size. I hope that these are good representatives. We have about 15' of carrots. Also in that bed are beets, chard, and leeks. Many of the beets are of picking size also. I'm not expecting a lot more growth of of any of these this year.
Sweet Potatoes
We also dug the sweet potatoes. The yield was underwhelming to be generous. Many of the tubers did not fill out. They were the right length, but remained thin. Shari peeled, steamed and froze what we got. Next year I'll put them under plastic for the entire season. The undersized tubers may have a use. I am going to try to ave and sprout them in the spring.
Happy Halloween
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Harvesting purple broccoli seed
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We love our Purple Sprouting Broccoli. It is easy to grow, early to produce and tasty to graze on. It is a great bridge vegetable, delivering a fresh vegetable when most others are just going into the ground. I also love the plant. It is super stout, going into the ground near the end of the summer and then shouldering whatever winter throws at it. Around here (Tacoma WA) winter doesn't throw much at us. The Territorial catalog tells you that purple broccoli is hardy below 10°F. We are unfortunate if we get below 20°F, a far cry from the sub-zero temperatures I imagine elsewhere. The broccoli plant itself is pretty amazing in how it copes with freezing temperatures. As the temperatures get closer to freezing, the plant introduces more sugar into its system. This lowers the fluids freezing point, natural anti-freeze. The plant also draw moisture away from its leaves, so expansion during a freeze isn't as likely to burst its cells. This behavior isn't unique to the purple broccoli plant, of course, but it is the one that we plant, watch slump against the ground during a freeze and bounce back when the temperatures rise again, pretty amazing.
Seed Harvesting
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If you want to try some of this seed yourself, let me know. I have enough to grow what we need for ten years in these couple ounces. I'd be happy to send you some.
Resources - more information on seed saving via seedsave.org
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The final product, 2oz of seed, |
Friday, October 28, 2011
Jalapeno remains
Remains of the jalapenos, the parts that were not canned. After taking this, it occurred to me that this would make a great brine for pickles.
The other parts, the solids, were extracted with the food mill and canned as puree.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Harvest monday, night
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The last eggplant, super tasty. |
Monday, October 17, 2011
The season of broccoli
We continue to go to our backyard store prior to dinner these days. There are green onions to pull; broccoli, chard and cauliflower to cut; and what can only be called gobs of tomatoes to graze on. Some things have been picked clean. I cooked up the last of the green beans tonight, finished picking over the front bed of canning tomatoes this week, harvested the jalapenos and the last couple eggplant. On the maintenance front, we had a nice weekend. I was able to take advantage of it, cleaning and prepping beds for garlic and winter.
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It's a long way up, but he'll make it. |
It is a nice time of year. The garden is more relaxed, less demanding this time of year. It is still growing, be is slowly, but still providing plentifully.
Our broccoli has is the clear over-achiever these days. Our dozen plants have been producing consistently for a few weeks now. The second variety, Fiesta, has put out huge heads. The one here is 4lbs. I don't think we'll get much more out of these, but the other variety, Packman, are still full of side shoots. We should get another couple weeks of of those. Many have started to go to seed, but that hasn't deterred me. I can say that broccoli flowers are just as tasty as their non-flowering siblings. Eaten raw or in stir-fry, they are just as good. Don't let a little flower deter you.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Harvest Monday
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Each of these beets was a pound. I was afraid that the may have turned tough, but was happily disappointed. They were excellent. |
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The last of the beans were tasty, along with mounds of broccoli, chard, and tomatoes and jalapenos in last night's stir fry for today's lunch. |
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The chard is plentiful and sweet all the way to the end of the stalk. |
Sunday, October 9, 2011
A walk around the beds today
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We have 3 San Marzano. They are loaded, but always late. |
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A handful of beans is all that remains from our plants. The plants have been mostly relocated to the compost pile. |
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Behind the beans are a few tomatillo plants. We'll get a few from these. Tomatillos grow great around here, producing nicely until is freezes. |
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The broccoli continues is proliferation. This is a central head from a Thompson. We have a few of these and many Packman. The Packman continue to produce load of side shoots. |
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The Brussels Sprouts are beginning to form. Will they make sprouts by the time winter really sets in? |
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An outstanding head of cauliflower. |
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..and one that has started to bolt. I'll steam it up just to make sure it is bitter and horrible. |
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The cabbage, Danish Ballhead, are really starting to form heads. |
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This little Sunshine Kabocha is just a little too late. It is cute, but won't amount to much. |
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That little Sunshine, above, came from this bed. It was home to squash, lettuce, and potatoes this year. |
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After taking out the squash, I added fertilizer and put some Broccoli in. I'm curious to see if anything comes o something planted out this late. I have another ten plants or so. |
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
"Sun" dried tomatoes
These tomatoes are sun dried, in as much as the sun is the source of all life in our solar system. With respect to our local frame of reference, we continue to use our oven's drying mode effectively. It takes about eight hours at 145 to turn these Amish Salad tomatoes from their plump selves into their shriveled counterparts. The results are good. I really like the texture and sweetness of a dried tomato. We use them on pizza, in tacos, and really anywhere we'd ut a tomato.
If you have the means to dry, it is a great way of preserving and saving space.
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