This And That

in the middle of summer.

The garden is growing leaps and bounds.  Tomatoes are setting fruit .. and huge heads of broccoli have been picked, blanched ... and frozen for winter.  Raspberries are ripening .. and being picked .. though not many are surviving the walk to the kitchen ;)  It's been cool enough for the lettuce to still be producing ... which means LOTS OF SALADS!  I'm noticing the northeast corners of the double stacked raised beds grow lush .. while the southwest ends seem stunted.  Will have to adjust my planting next year to take this into consideration.

We just got back from a mini trip up to Glacier National Park ... arriving only days after the Going To The Sun road opened for the season.  This drive passes across the Continental Divide and opened rather late this year.  (I think the latest ever.) 

It seems the weather tables have turned and the inland northwest has THE best weather across the United States this summer.  Of course, we'll get our payback come winter.  The air conditioner has only been turned on once this summer ... and that was due to humidity .. not excess heat.

I've been enjoying and really using our flour mill of late.  It's become a habit now to grind enough wheat for a day or two.

I also dragged out my pasta roller/cutter after watching an Italian cooking show that featured a recipe with dough made so quickly in the food processor .. then rolled and cut quickly.  For this I am using some of my home ground flour and semolina flour ... a good mix.

The herb garden has been harvested once already with bundles of greens hanging in the garden shed to dry.  My favorite dried herb is thyme.  There should be enough time for another growth spurt and harvest.  Nothing beats fresh herbs in the summer right out the kitchen door.

Now that our daughter, Ann, moved out in May ... we are seeing a savings in electricity and food.  Coffee beans last much longer :)  Speaking of coffee ..we're now roasting beans in a hot air popcorn popper!  It works much better than smoking up the kitchen using a skillet ... and can be done outside.

Glacier National Park

What's growing in your garden ... and happening in your neck of the woods?

Out And About .. the garden

Backyard compost bin .. November, 2010

Today I needed to empty the overflowing kitchen compost container .. in our garden bin.  I was able to uncover my snow/ice flattened covered tunnel of Swiss chard .. even with the weight pressing down on the plants left to over winter, there are new leaves ready to grow.  It's about the only green thing in the backyard (other than the pines).  I'm hoping in a few weeks to harvest a little for fresh greens.

Chard pic taken prior to snow ... November, 2010

salad/sandwich sprouts are easy to make each week.

This winter I've not purchased but two heads of lettuce from the market.  Instead I'm buying organic green and red cabbage .. it has a much longer storage life .. mine sits covered in a plastic bag and terrycloth towel on top of the freezer in our cold garage .. along with cauliflower, rutabagas and 25 pounds of carrots.  The garage is the perfect cold storage area for winter hearty veggies.  We eat a lot of tangy coleslaw during the cold months.  It's more filling .. and the cabbage doesn't mold or wilt like lettuce; none of it goes to waste. It's our green of choice chopped finely on tacos year round.  For sandwiches we're enjoying the salad sprouts grown on the kitchen counter.

While winter foods are hearty and filling just thinking about our summer garden is making my mouth water!  Eating foods in season .. sure gives a person cravings .. and an appreciation for change.  Do you eat seasonally .. or do you purchase out of season produce?  It's been ages since we had a good fresh tomato .. but I will longingly wait and savor summer's goodness all the more when  the time arrives.

Home Preserving Tomatoes

This week and last have been spent busily in the kitchen canning various tomato recipes.  While I love to have tomatoes canned and on the shelf, it's nice to have some in the freezer too.  The recipe below is one that was handed down to me by a neighbor.  It had been given to her .. and I'm not sure of the origins.  I made it last year .. and was very happy with how easy it is to make ... it's slow cooking as I type.

Crock Pot Tomato Sauce:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups onions, chopped
1-1/2 cups carrots, chopped
1 cup green pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 cups tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 - six ounce can tomato paste
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons oregano leaves
2 teaspoons basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon brown sugar

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Cook the onions, carrots, peppers and garlic until tender.  Place vegetable mixture and remaining ingredients in a 5 quart crock pot.  Cook on high for 8 hours.  When done, cool then divide into 2 cup portions and freeze.  Yields 11 cups.

You can puree it a bit if desired in a food processor after it's cooked and cooled.

Canning The Night Away

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes.  I wish I could say they were grown in my backyard .. but these came from central Washington state .. not that far away.  Our tomatoes are sparse, green and may still be that color when picked.  Make note to self:  In a bounty year can, can, can those tomatoes to last through a less than perfect growing season .. even if you're sick of canning!  I made spicy, zesty, and fiesta salsas; the first two are medium and hot .. and the fiesta is similar to Ro-tel brand which is super spicy/hot/crunchy/delicious as an ingredient in Tex-Mex recipes ... and a batch of quartered tomatoes packed in their own juice.  All the recipes are found in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. 

Our neighborhood moose, old Black-Jack, stomped through my yard this morning waking me from my Saturday morning slumber.  Mr. Mac had just come home from working the night shift ... and let our dawg out for a potty run ... and run she did .. straight away to bark and pester old Black-Jack ... getting charged and tromped on a bit.  I suppose the dawg will one day win a Darwin Award .. but she did keep him from tramping through the gardens.  Perhaps a soft pillow and a few dog biscuits are in order today, eh?

Rain at last

It's been really dry here in the Southeast this spring and summer. We've had just enough intermittent thunderstorms to keep things from being totally crispy. Native wildflowers and shrubs are still doing fine, except for the ones that live naturally in damp places (Joe-Pye Weed, for example).

My vegetable garden, filled with domesticated plants from all sorts of places, isn't so conservative. The deep-rooted tomatoes and tough-leaved kales have been troopers; in fact this looks like it will be a great tomato year. The peppers, however, are just sulking in the hot dry weather and the last of the early summer lettuce is wilting, then bolting.

I've just amended (with compost) and sown seeds of chard, beets, and more lettuce in a couple of areas. We enjoyed the harvest of yellow fingerling potatoes this weekend -- absolutely delicious. They were grown in the "Satellite" garden (under the powerline and behind the winter honeysuckle).