August 16, 2012 - Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

Garden dinners were rather sparse this past week. It has been so hot, and we have been so busy, most nights were leftovers or sandwiches or quick meals that aren't worth bragging about.

I did have a lovely boneless pork roast that I cut into three thick chops for one meal.  They were floured, seasoned and pan fried, then served with stuffing.  The rest of the meal came straight from the garden; green beans, butternut squash baked with butter and brown sugar, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers with ranch dressing.

The remaining end of the pork roast was put in the crockpot with barbecue sauce, then served on toasted burger buns.  The sandwiches were served with potato salad (potatoes and onions from the garden), and fresh picked corn and cherry tomatoes.

Food Preserved.............

 Three pints of ketchup

 Five pints of thick tomato sauce

Five pints of diced tomatoes and two pints of odd colored tomato sauce.  The color is odd because I used both red and yellow varieties of cherry tomatoes in it, which gives it an orange hue.

Two gallons of green beans (about 6 pounds) were frozen.

Join in at Robin's to see what others have been cooking and preserving!

August 13, 2012 - Harvest Monday

This past week I harvested the first small butternut squash.  It was the perfect size for two people, and it was delicious!  There is one more small butternut that will probably be picked this week, but all the rest of them are great big ones.  

It was also the first week of fairly good tomato harvests.  Finally some of the larger varieties are ripening, although I'm still getting large amounts of small and cherry tomatoes that are only good for sauces or fresh eating.  The last picture shows most of the tomatoes that were picked during the week.  They are waiting to be turned into sauce, ketchup or salsa.  

My first two Happy Yummy Hot Peppers, seeds from Dave at Our Happy Acres, turned out to be sweet peppers.  None of the others have ripened, so it remains to be seen whether they turn out sweet or hot.  

The last of the storage onions were dry, so they were cleaned up and weighed.

Our temperatures are still in the high 90s, making gardening miserable except for early mornings.  The fall garden seems to be growing well, in spite of the heat.  Except for the newly planted lettuce.  Only one of the varieties I planted has germinated, and wouldn't you know I didn't write down what variety was planted where!   So much for testing old seed, now I'll have to start all over from scratch.  I got a double row of peas planted on Saturday.  This is my first ever attempt at growing fall peas.  I gave up on the cauliflower plants.  They were set out in April, and just last week developed tiny (quarter sized) heads that promptly turned yellow.  I'll never figure out why I can grow great cabbage and broccoli, but cannot grow decent cauliflower for the life of me.  I don't think my Brussels are going to sprout, either.

Harvest for the Week of  8/6-8/12

Beans, bush - 14.5 ounces

Beans, pole - 53.5 ounces (3.34 pounds)

Beets - 10.7 ounces

Broccoli - 13.1 ounces

Carrots - 7.8 ounces

Corn - 21.7 ounces (1.36 pounds)

Cucumbers - 29.3 ounces (1.83 pounds)

Onions - 58 ounces (3.63 pounds)

Peppers, hot (turned out sweet) - 2.4 ounces

Squash, summer - 133.8 ounces (8.36 pounds)

Squash, winter - 22.1 ounces (1.38 pounds)

Strawberries - 6.5 ounces

Tomatoes - 439.3 ounces (27.46 pounds)

Week's Total   50.79 pounds

Year to Date:  462.7 pounds

Daphne's Dandelions is the host for Harvest Monday, where everyone can share links to their harvest for the week. Please visit her blog and leave a link, so we can enjoy your harvest photos!

August 6, 2012 - Harvest Monday

This week's harvest put me over the 400 pound mark for the year, which is quite a bit ahead of any previous year in which records were kept.  In comparison, previous year's harvests at this time of the year were:

2009 - 382 lb.

2010 - 304 lb.

2011 - 251 lb.

2012 - 412 lb.

*2009, 2010 and 2011 data as of 8/9 (four days more of harvests than this year's current total)

*2012 data as of 8/5

 7/31 - Corn, zucchini, cucumber, bush beans and tomatoes.

8/01 - Corn, broccoli side shoots, strawberries, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and three misshapen green bell peppers that had bunched up on one plant.  There is also a bit of snipped chives, but I haven't been weighing the herbs.

8/02 - My youngest son needed onions, so I brought in the first of the "keepers".

8/02 - More tomatoes and broccoli side shoots.

8/03 - Tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, zucchini, yellow crookneck squash and a good bunch of broccoli side shoots.

8/03 - One broccoli side shoot was nearly as large as some of the main heads I cut this year.

8/04 - A tiny ear of corn, yellow crookneck squash, green sweet pepper, bush and pole beans.

8/05 - The last harvest of the first planting of corn, I ended up with a total of 15-1/2 pounds (shucked weight) from the 7'x8' bed.  Zucchini (one that might be called a baseball bat, will be used for bread), yellow crookneck squash, strawberries, carrots and my largest yet picking of tomatoes, almost 7 pounds.

Harvest for the Week of  7/31-8/5

Beans, bush - 13.1 ounces

Beans, pole - 19 ounces (1.19 pounds)

Broccoli - 15.6 ounces

Carrots - 34.3 ounces (2.14 pounds, weighed without tops)

Corn - 197.9 ounces (12.37 pounds, shucked weight)

Cucumbers - 35.5 ounces (2.22 pounds)

Onions - 30 ounces (1.88 pounds)

Peppers, sweet - 14.3 ounces

Squash, summer - 213.8 ounces (13.36 pounds)

Strawberries - 36.5 (2.28 pounds)

Tomatoes - 278.5 ounces (17.41 pounds)

Week's Total  55.53 pounds

Year to Date: 411.91 pounds

Daphne's Dandelions is the host for Harvest Monday, where everyone can share links to their harvest for the week. Please visit her blog and leave a link, so we can enjoy your harvest photos!

August 9, 2012 - Taking a Few Days Off

Thank you to those who have written me with their concerns today.  I just want you all to know I'll be taking a short break from blogging for a little "me" time, but I'll be back on Harvest Monday....see you then!

August 3, 2012 - Busy, Productive Day

I started off the morning with a big pot of colorful tomatoes, waiting to be turned into spaghetti sauce for the evening meal.  They were simmered until soft, blended smooth with the stick blender, then run through the chinoise to remove the seeds.  I like to make my sauce this way, using the skins, which are completely undetectable when the sauce is finished.  There is very little waste.  I let the sauce cook down a bit, then added some onion and garlic that had been sauteed until soft, dried basil and oregano from last year's garden, salt and pepper.  One taste let me know a teaspoon of sugar was needed, as I like a hint of sweetness in my spaghetti sauce.  I had also decided to add a bit of red wine to the sauce, but.......I don't drink, so I didn't have a corkscrew!  The next best thing?

It worked!  It took me a few minutes, as my muscle man wasn't home.

Some browned lean ground beef was added, seasonings adjusted to taste, and the entire conglomeration was dumped into the crockpot to cook slowly all day.

My neighbor, the ones with the weeds (but also an apricot tree, a peach tree and an apple tree), had brought me a bag of peaches that were too bruised for canning, but perfect for jam.  I made one batch of freezer jam yesterday, and still had some of the nicer ones I had set aside for eating.  I decided to go ahead and make another batch of jam instead.  I could only find one half-pint jar, so I also had to use three pint jars.  Where oh where did I put the half-pints?  I'll probably find them next December.

With the jam finished, I got to thinking how good a loaf of French bread would be with the spaghetti we were going to eat for dinner, so that was the next chore on the agenda.  Done!

I hadn't been out to the garden yet, so that was the next thing that had to be accomplished.  I wasn't expecting a very big harvest, as everything has slowed down with this hot weather.  Well, the harvest was definitely acceptable.

Soooo......that's where I am right now.  The sauce is cooked, the bread is rising, the jam is finished and the garden goodies have been picked.  It looks like we'll be having some sliced cucumbers,  fresh corn and broccoli tonight, and I'm thinking I might have to beg the neighbors to take some yellow summer squash.  And I'm right back where I started with tomatoes.  Too many to eat fresh, not enough (and too small) to can, so tomorrow there will be another pot of sauce.

August 2, 2012 - Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

It's Thursday already?  Time for Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard aka Granny's garden meals.  Robin, from The Gardener of Eden, hosts this special day for showing off what we've used and/or preserved from our gardens.

My week hasn't been terribly productive as far as cooking and preserving.  The refrigerator is full of fresh veggies again, so I'll be taking a lot of them over to my son.  My neighbor brought over a bag of peaches that must be made into jam today.  They had fallen on the ground, so are too bruised for anything else, but the jam will be delicious.

Only six dinners were cooked this week, and leftovers were eaten for the seventh meal.  Items from garden or pantry are in (parentheses).

Thursday

*Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon Sweet Bourbon Salmon

Grilled Potaoes in Foil Packet (onion, potatoes)

Green beans (beans)

Carrots (carrots)

Sliced Tomatoes (tomatoes)

Coleslaw (cabbage, onions)

Iced Tea

Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon Sweet Bourbon Salmon

Sweet Bourbon Marinade:

1/4 cup pineapple juice

2 tablespoons soy sauce                                              

2 tablespoons brown sugar                                         

1 teaspoon Kentucky bourbon                                  

1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2- 8 ounce salmon fillets

2 teaspoons snipped fresh chives (optional)

Combine the pineapple juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, bourbon, pepper and garlic powder in a medium bowl.  Stir to disolve the brown sugar.  Add the oil.

Be sure all of the skin is removed from the salmon.  Place the fillets in a shallow dish and pour the bourbon marinade over them, saving a little to brush on the fish as it cooks.  Put a lid over the fish and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  A few hours is best.

Preheat your BBQ or stovetop grill over meduim/high heat.

Cook the fish for 5 to 7 minutes per side, or until each fillet is cooked all the way through.  Regularly brush the fillets with the marinade.

Arrange the fillets on each plate with chives sprinkled over the top.

Friday

Apricot-Glazed Pork Chops (Apricot-Pineapple Jam,)

Rainbow Potato Pancakes (potatoes, zucchini, carrots, bell pepper, onion)

Corn on the Cob (corn)

Sliced Tomatoes (tomatoes)

Iced Tea

Saturday

Chicken and Noodles (onion, carrots, parsley)

Pan Roasted Baby Beets (beets)

Broccoli - Granny (broccoli)

Sliced Tomatoes - Mr. Granny (tomatoes)

Cottage Cheese-Pineapple Salad

Iced Tea

Sunday

Chili Dogs (onions)

Fried Zucchini (zucchini)

Corn on the Cob (corn!)

Iced Tea

Monday

Ground Beef Patties (onions)

Boiled Potatoes (potatoes)

Milk Gravy

Garden Fresh Mixed Vegetables (carrots, green beans, corn, crookneck squash)

Lemonade

Tuesday

leftovers

We were planning on going out to dinner, but I wasn't feeling well  :-(

Wednesday

Pork and Noodles (chives)

Tomatoes (tomatoes)

Water

Preserving the Harvest

7/30

7/31

It was all about the corn.  I also made one batch (3 cups) of tomato sauce, and froze all the strawberries to add to the gallon bag in the freezer.  That bag is now filled and the second one has been started.

Now...get thyself over to Robin's to see what others have been cooking and preserving!

August 1, 2012 - The August Garden (part 2)

Now we'll venture into the jungle.  I had to chop off some squash and melon vines yesterday, just to give myself a path through the North Garden.

In this corner, the latest planting of Fortex pole beans has begun their ascent up the chain link of the Kennel Garden.  In front of them, not visible, are some celery plants that were planted much later than the first ones.  The earlier ones just grew a bit and went to seed, so I'm hoping a later planting might be more successful.  In front of the celery are the cauliflower that never flowered.  I decided to just leave it, and lo and behold, I think I see a small head forming in one of them!  Even if they do nothing, they're pretty.  They can stay.  To the right of the cauliflower is a pot of oregano.  In the center is a triangle of Gourmet Green French bush beans.  I've begun picking them, but they aren't nearly as productive as the ones I planted in late April.  I guess they don't like this hot weather.  A few carrots remain in the raised bed, along with some pretty little Gonzalez cabbages.  Fortex pole beans are also on the cedar fence to the left.

On the other end of the raised bed are my Red Ace beets, under protection from leaf miners.  I pulled a half dozen sweet baby beets last week.  

Looking back toward the Kennel Garden, you can see how the Waltham Butternut squash vines are taking over.  This is where I had to lop off some vines so I could get from one side of the garden to the other.  They've grown through the corn and were heading down through the East Garden, so I had to take the shovel and head them off at the pass!  To the left are my raspberry bed, a row of sweet peppers, a couple of broccoli plants, Honey Bear acorn squash and the strawberry bed (hiding behind Honey Bear and broccoli).  A few carrots remain in the center.  This is where I had the nematode problem with the earlier carrots, but these, a later planting, seem fine....so far!  The first planting of Honey Select corn is just about finished, but the later Silver Queen is just beginning to form ears.

From this angle you can see the raised bed of raspberries, and the other raised bed of strawberries. More Fortex pole beans grow up the cedar fence.  Cantaloupe vines are everywhere, so between the melon vines, the squash and the flowers, it's real difficult reaching the third raised bed, filled with carrots, that's right in the center of the picture.  Yes, I know you can't see it.  I told you I had a jungle out there!  

Cantaloupe vines cover the ladder and sprawl all over the ground below.  Morning glories grow on the fence and zucchini and yellow squash fill the entire area behind the shed.

Standing back by the raspberries and looking west.

A pot of cilantro is flowering for the bees, and a pot of zinnias adds a bit of color to this end of the garden.  A couple of Happy Yummy Sweet peppers are in the center.

The tomatoes have just gone wild here.  I have them caged, staked, zip tied and roped, and I still have to go out with the shears every once in a while, just to keep a path open for picking.  I don't know where that one is heading up under the eaves.  I'll probably have to get out a ladder and lop it off.

I planted my grow pot with bush cucumbers.  Of course they all sprouted, so now I'll have to bite the bullet and pull out two or three seedlings.

I pulled the storage onions last week, and have them drying on the patio.  It's certainly not the big harvest I got from the Walla Walla Sweets, but better than I thought I'd get.

They sized up better than I expected.

Just look at those broccoli side shoots!  This plant and one other are covered with them.  Wouldn't you know they are from a packet of mixed seed, so I have no idea what variety they are.  I sure would like to know, so I could plant them exclusively in the future!

 These babies are huge.  Some of the largest butternuts I've grown, and the squash patch is absolutely filled with them.  I'd guess at least thirty, maybe more.

Don't forget to look at the fall garden in The August Garden (part 1)!

August 1, 2012 - The August Garden (part 1)

It's hard to believe I'm planting my fall garden, with temperatures like this.

But I am!  All of the potatoes and onions have been harvested from the East garden, giving me room to plant some fall veggies.  

 At the entrance to the East Garden, the sweet potatoes seem happy in their barrel.  I hope they weren't planted too late to give me at least a small crop.  The lavender alyssum has nearly covered the chive border, making it a bit difficult to snip chives when I need them.  I'll have to be diligent about pulling volunteers next spring, giving the chives room to grow and spread.

Here is the newly cleared and recently planted fall garden.  It's hard to believe this was a tangled mess of potatoes and onions just a short time ago.

 The first bed is filled with Imperator carrots.  Germination was a bit spotty, but not bad considering they sprouted in 90-100 degree weather.

The second bed has a double row of bush beans, I think I planted Contender, but I've forgotten....they might be Topcrop.

Gonzalez mini-cabbages grow on both sides of a row of carrots.  The larger ones were thinnings from an earlier planting in the North Garden, the small ones on the right were recently seeded and waiting to grow a bit before being thinned.  I'll find a place to plant those thinnings, too.

I planted a single row of Ed's Velour bush beans, now I think I'm wasting too much space.  I'll probably plant two more rows right away, one on each side of the presently growing ones.

In the foreground is a newly planted bed of Burpee's A#1 Hybrid carrots.  Behind that is the newly prepared bed and a trellis for Green Arrow peas to be planted in two weeks.  I have a 98-cent packet of the seeds for my first experiment with fall peas, and I'm saving the "good ones" for spring.  The small square in the upper right was planted with three varieties of lettuce, Buttercrunch, Summercrisp and Little Gem.  I'm trying to use up some old seeds, so I might have to replant if germination is poor.

 The Kennel garden has become a favorite place to sit and look at the garden.  It's so cool and shady and serene.  The morning glories are so pretty in the morning.  Unfortunately I took this photo after dinner.  Look how huge the Brussels sprouts are!  I wonder if they will ever get any sprouts.  They have tiny nubbins that never get any larger.  Another bed of newly planted mixed lettuces is hidden behind the sprouts.

Fresh veggies and berries, hanging out in the shade.

Continued....see August 1, 2012 - The August Garden (part 2)