June 20, 2010: In a Stew

The carrots and potatoes are really putting on some size.


Onions, carrots, potatoes and peas, fresh from the garden. It looks as though there might be a pot of stew in my future.


By golly, there was!


I think I need a drying rack! I'm almost out of hooks for hanging onions, and it's too wet to leave them in the garden to cure.


HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!





15 comments:

  1. That stew looks delicious! My carrots are really far behind this year (along with everything else it seems!) - I have just teeny tiny ones at the moment, nothing that is harvestable. I am going to plant some more of them this weekend though and keep layering on patches over the next few weeks to keep us supplied through the winter. For onion drying, if it is wet out I start them out on the greenhouse floor first and then move them to our covered breezeway/walkway between the garage and house. It provides a dry area that is dark and cool but well ventilated. The onions need that initial dry down though in a warmer location which is why if I cannot use the great out of doors... I use the greenhouse floor.

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  2. I should have allotted more room for carrots and potatoes this year. I have a second sowing in the tomato bed, but that's still not going to be enough. Both of my boys bug me for carrots, and so far I've not given them any! I'm using them myself, as fast as they grow.

    I do have some hanging hooks in the garden shed, and two windows that open for cross ventilation. I'll move the onions out there. That's just a small portion of the onions this year. I can see many, many fried onion rings and hamburger toppers in my future!

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  3. I have exactly one carrot in my old house garden right now. They just didn't germinate this year. Usually I reseed when that happens, but not this year.

    I haven't told my housemates, but our bike shed has such a nice beam for hanging things. I'm thinking the garlic and the onions will be dried there. I used to do it in the garage, but the new house doesn't have one.

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  4. p.s. that stew looks delicious, I think that's the first thing I will make when the potatoes come in!

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  5. I had to laugh at your onions, 'tis the season! It seems most of us have them hanging and invading our spaces, but isn't it wonderful to look at them and pass by them throughout the day? Makes me feel so darn "self-sufficient" LOL!

    Happy Father's Day to Mr. Granny!

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  6. Daphne, I don't think the carrots I sowed can keep up with us. Even Mr. Granny asked if I had some carrots the other night, and I said none from the garden, but I had two 2# bags of them in the fridge. He said never mind, he didn't want the store bought carrots!

    I have a shop light hanging from my "drying hangers" in the shed, but that can be removed for the rest of the season. I had put in 4-5 big hooks for drying shallots, garlic and herbs last year. They'll work fine for onions, too.

    ********
    Mr. Granny says "Thank you, Erin".

    The stew was really good. Those new potatoes hold together so well in a stew, even whenlike yesterday, it's a stove top cooked one, rather than the crockpot I would normally use.

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  7. Great looking stew! I'd have to freeze it for cold weather consumption, though. It's just too hot for it right now.

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  8. Rub it in, EG. Tomorrow is the first day of summer, it's supposed to be around 86 degrees here, and we can barely make it to 70. In fact, the wind is blowing, and I'm wearing a sweater today! Believe me, it's good weather for stew.

    Happy Father's Day, by the way, you old poopy head ;-)

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  9. I can't imagine carrots growing right now! It's so hot. And I love love love stew, but seeing that stew makes me sweat already. That's winter food (mmhmm...I agree with EG)

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  10. I second EG!! I'm starting to think that's another part of the garden gods conspiracy. Potatoes and carrots are just done when the weather gets too hot for stew. It was 86 degrees by 9:30 this morning and we went up ten more degrees. Summer is brutal, but boy are things growing!

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  11. Kate and Ribbit, it's 62 freaking degrees here at 6:30 pm! I'm freezing, I tell you. The wind is blowing, and it's cloudy, and it feels like 50F. I've got a bunch of little green marbles on my tomato plants, but they're not going to turn red if it doesn't warm up soon.

    Heck, it gets up to 110 or so here During July and August, but carrots still grow. My 2008 garden didn't even get planted until mid-July, and I had beautiful beets, carrots, summer squash and green beans. Bugs didn't bother anything that late in the season, either. I'm trying to clear out garden space now, for all of those crops for fall.

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  12. Wow! your carrots, potatoes, and onions look great! Mine are still small. When did you plant them? I had a big planting day today. Melon, squash, cucumber and strawberry transplants. Also planted corn seeds.

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  13. Happyskunk, I planted the Walla Walla onion seedlings and the potatoes on 3/11 and the carrots on 3/30.

    I'm out of planting room! I need to get the rest of the onions pulled, and the peas mature enough to harvest and pull out. We're eating carrots faster than I can grow them, so I'll probably plant them where I pull the peas, and do a fourth planting of bush beans in the onion beds.

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  14. I saw your pea plants loaded with peas. Do you just harvest them once and pull out the plants?

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  15. Cheryl, I pick them every two days for as long as they keep producing. When they get down to a handful or less per picking, I compost the vines. In this cool weather, I suppose I'll be able to pick them for a couple of weeks, but by the end of that time I'm sure our temps will skyrocket and end the pea production.

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