The Modern Victory Garden

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!                               

Root crops that are held in the ground for fresh harvests over the winter  that are left too long in the ground once the days start warming up and the day length starts increasing will generally begin sprouting in an attempt to go into a second year of growth.   For biennials like carrots and parsnips the second year is all about seed production rather than root development.   In fact, the roots of biennial crops will actually become less edible as the second year of growth progresses.   As I mentioned earlier in the week, I am seeing some signs of increasing growth throughout the property and on Sunday I noticed that the last of the parsnips were putting out new top growth too.   This is my cue to harvest the remaining roots as they will only decrease in quality from here on out.    There really was not that many of them left in the bed, but I harvested all that remained.         

Harvest totals for the week of January 23rd through January 29th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Parsnips 0.75 lbs

Total For Week 0.75 lbs

Total Year to Date 3.50 lbs                                                  

Eggs collected this week – 8                                                                 

SEED STARTING

I am officially into my peak seed starting season.   The onions, celery, and celeriac are all emerged and growing.    My ultra-early start tomatoes that I seeded last weekend are starting to emerge.   The plants I started for the Giving Garden have their first true leaves and will soon need regular drinks of very dilute kelp emulsion tea.   All in all, things are progressing right along and as usual, I am constantly juggling to make more room under the lights for the newest items to be seeded.   This weekend, I started cabbages (Famosa, and Parel), kale (Dwarf Siberian Improved and Beira), Tatsoi, pac choi (Ching Chiang - dwarf), and kohlrabi (Koliribi).   I started all of these items in micro soil blocks as they are fast germinators and so keeping them adequately hydrated should be easier than slower starting items.   I used an old cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil and then I marked which group of 20 was what by placing masking tape on the edges of the pan with the crop and variety name indicated.   The micro block maker does 20 small blocks which are sized to plant up later into the medium sized soil blocks.   The blocks are easier to transplant if they are cleanly separated from the other blocks in the group.   I used my dough scraper/cutting tool to help separate the blocks more after they were formed.   It is the perfect tool for the job as it has a thin sharp edge, is not overly long (6 inchs), and has a handle to hold on to at the top.                                                           

These were covered by a plastic humidity dome and placed under the grow lights along with all the other seedlings.                    

GARDEN BED TIDY UP

The weather was windy and overcast all weekend, but for the most part it did not rain and the daytime temps were in the mid 40’s.   I took advantage of the mild conditions on Saturday to do some garden bed tidy up under the long grow tunnel cover.   I removed the items that were played out, eaten too badly by slugs to be useful, or had been freeze damaged by the period of days we had two weeks ago that were in the mid 20’s.   This resulted in several large sections that are now empty under the bed.   I cultivated and weeded the entire bed, and used my sharp hoe to scrape the weeds away adjacent to the edge of the bed.        

As you can probably tell from this picture, the soil was actually pretty dry under the cover so I gave everything a good watering while I was at it.          

The kale and the swiss chard have all been previously harvested pretty hard, such that they currently do not have much usable leaves on them.    However, they are showing signs of good new growth at the central growing point and I expect they will be producing harvests again very soon.                                   

There are two small sections of this bed that have baby radish and swiss chard seedlings growing that were seeded earlier this winter.   The swiss chard starts are very small yet but appear to be holding up despite the slug attacks.   Here's a golden swiss chard plant.                                

Further on down the bed is the last of the late summer planted crop of golden beets (a rogue red beet plant appears to be in among them), and the young pac choi plants I put out several weeks ago.                          

Once the bed was weeded, cultivated, and watered, I let it sit exposed to the ventilating effects of the mild breeze that was blowing Saturday before I recovered it with the tunnel cover.                                                 

There is just over two months left before I will need to plant this bed with the current year’s potato crop – assuming reasonable weather conditions, I should be able to continue getting good harvests from these overwintered crops during that time frame.                                                     

How are things going with your season extending efforts?   Have you begun any seed starting yet?                                

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!                      

Winter finally arrived this past week.   We had a heavy snow storm on Wednesday followed by more snow mixed with freezing rain on Thursday.   The temperature never got above 25 degrees during these two days of winter storms.   However, by mid-day Friday the temps moderated back to our normal range for this time of year (night time lows of mid to low 30’s and day time highs of low to mid 40’s) and the moisture laden storm systems steadily pumping through our area turned to rain - lots of rain.   As you can imagine, we are a big soggy mess at the moment as the rain and snow melt has nowhere to go since the ground is so saturated already.                                                       

Despite the steady and rather heavy rain, I ventured outside for about an hour on Sunday to watch over my hens while they enjoyed some free range time.   They did not want to stay out in it long as it really was a soaker of a day, but they were happy to get some fresh greens and a few worms and grubs before they declared defeat and retreated to the relative dryness of their covered yard.   While the hens were busy foraging, I made use of the time to harvest the last of the leeks and some kale leaves.                                                

Several days of below freezing temperatures had made the leeks outer leaves a bit slimy, so it was time to just harvest all that remained.   I peeled away the outer leaves, trimmed up the roots and gave them a good rinse – and ended up with some nice leeks for my efforts.   The kale leaves harvested was a mixture of the Siberian Dwarf Improved kale that is growing under the protection of the grow tunnel and tree kale leaves.   I have to tell you that I am more and more impressed with the tree kale plants.   They were looking very stressed during the multiple days of mid 20 temps, but as soon as it warmed up the plants just perked right up and now look like the winter weather never occurred.   Apparently tree kale is just as hardy as regular kale plants.   They produce abundantly too.         

Harvest totals for the week of January 16th through January 22nd (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Kale 0.25 lbs
• Leeks 0.50 lbs

Total For Week 0.75 lbs

Total Year to Date 2.75 lbs                                          

Eggs collected this week – 8                                               

WINTER DOINGS

Saturday morning, I took the time to create my annual Seed Starting Schedule.   I also set up the 2012 Harvest Tally page, although for now it is blank, as I only post the totals on a monthly basis and January is still a work in progress.   As you can see from the schedule, the seed starting process for 2012 is now underway in full force.   There will be a steady stream of seed starting from now until late spring.   Last week, I started the celery and celeriac and the main crop of onions.   Saturday I got the ultra-early start tomatoes seeded.   Unfortunately, I am already struggling for room under the grow lights and things are just getting going!   Part of the issue is that I am also starting seeds for the Giving Garden so I have more than my usual number of flats vying for space under the lights.   I am just going to have to move the more cold hardy items out to the unheated greenhouse a lot faster this year in order to free up space for items yet to be seeded.   First items moved out to the greenhouse were the Ailsa Craig Exhibition onions I started late last year.   Hopefully these plants will continue to grow in the greenhouse with less warmth and light then they had indoors, but it’s a chance I had to take as they needed to be moved to make room for the tray of soil blocks seeded with tomatoes.                

The greenhouse at the moment has several items growing in it.   I have some containers that I seeded with some spinach last week.   It may yet be too cold for them to germinate but if that proves to be the case, I will just reseed them again later.   In the other large containers I have some baby napa cabbages, baby carrots, dwarf pac choi, and some young lettuces.   The lettuces are looking pretty tough after the string of below freezing days last week.   They may (or may not) bounce back from that set back.   The dwarf pac choi plants are looking good though.              

That’s the way it goes with mid-winter growing efforts, some efforts fail and some thrive.   The trick is to keep a steady stream of new items coming online to increase your odds of success.                              

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!                

It was another week of minimal fresh harvesting.   As always though, we use stored, frozen, and canned items a great deal in the preparation of our evening meals, but the fresh harvests are at their annual low point for the time being.   If you are interested in what was cooked and what garden produce was used (whether fresh, preserved, stored, or frozen), you can always find that information on the calendar page.   I always note the harvests, what was cooked for dinner, and what garden produce was used in the preparation of those meals.                                    

Sunday afternoon I harvested some fresh chard leaves just before the snow began to fall.                                               

This was used to make the Sunday evening meal of stir fried boneless/skinless chicken breast strips in a homemade Thai peanut sauce served on a bed of cooked (stir fried) swiss chard leaves.   Usually I use spinach for this recipe but swiss chard is a great substitute.   Hot cooked rice served as a side dish.   This is one of our favorite meals featuring spinach or swiss chard leaves.   I found this easy peanut sauce recipe on the internet some time ago and have made a few modifications to suit our tastes.                                                

Simple Thai Peanut Sauce

• 1 13.5 ounce can of coconut cream (or coconut milk) 
• 1/4 cup of Thai red curry paste
• 3/4 cup of creamy natural style peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup of water

Mix all the ingredients in a medium sauce pan and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.    Turn the heat down low and simmer the mixture for 3 to 4 minutes.    Be sure to stir frequently so that the sauce does not scorch.     Remove from heat - use immediately as a sauce for stir frys or allow to cool to room temperature if using as a dipping sauce.     This makes a fairly large batch, but the extra sauce keeps nicely in the fridge for several weeks or can even be frozen.

Harvest totals for the week of January 9th through January 15th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Swiss Chard 0.25 lbs

Total For Week 0.25 lbs

Total Year to Date 2.00 lbs                                  

Eggs collected this week – 7                                               

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!       

Not much fresh harvesting occurred this week other than some beets I pulled on Sunday.   We did use stored, frozen, and canned items a great deal, but the fresh harvests are somewhat limited at the moment because the kale and chard have been previously harvested pretty hard and are not bouncing back quickly during these darkest days of winter.   There are some green onions, parsnips and beets available for harvest, and coming along in the green house are some young lettuces, Napa cabbages, and dwarf pac choi that will not be too much longer of a wait before ready.   In the meantime, we are leaning heavily on our stored supplies and are very glad to have previously put by an ample supply from the prior year garden. 

Sunday afternoon I harvested both red and golden beets.   I really did not need them for the Sunday dinner preparation, but thought I would harvest them in the light of day and put them in the fridge to use early next week.                

Harvest totals for the week of January 2nd through January 8th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).                                                  

• Beets 0.75 lbs

Total For Week 0.75 lbs

Total Year to Date 1.75 lbs                                  

Eggs collected this week – 7                                          

SOME WINTER GARDEN PROJECTS

This winter is actually shaping up to be a “normal” winter for us (so far), which is a pleasant change from the past two winters which had significant periods of below normal temperatures.   Two good things come from this.   First, the perennial plantings and the crops being over wintered are faring well, and second, the mild daytime temperatures affords the ability to do some garden projects much earlier than a harsher winter would allow.   So long as the weather continues to hold, I intend to take full advantage of that good fortune.   Sunday was a particularly mild day with a high temperature that reached a balmy 50 degrees so I definitely spent some time in the garden and tended to a few winter projects.       

About a week ago I had given the bed of cranberry plants a good weeding and finished the job on Sunday by following up with a trimming of the longest runners that were trailing over the edge of the bed, which not only keeps the bed tidy but also encourages the plants to put energy into development of uprights (where the fruit is formed).   I sprinkled some garden sulfur around the plants because a quick test with the PH meter indicated the soil could use some acidification.   This was then followed with a sanding which helps the many long runners to root and establish a more solid mat of plants from which more uprights can eventually form.   This bed is in its third year and the plants are finally really developing a decent foundation and have some nice uprights formed, so I have some reason to hope that this may be its first year to produce berries (usually takes 3 to 4 years).                    

Another project tackled on Sunday which is not nearly as much fun as tending to a promising bed of cranberries – was the removal of dead pole bean vines from the support structures.   Is there anything more tedious than unwinding the vines of pole beans from netting?!   It really has to be a fine day and I really have to have nothing better to do to get in the proper mood to tackle that particular winter task.   I had run out of excuses however to ignore it any longer and the weather was indeed fine, so I completed it for yet another year.   The funny thing is that I will happily plant more pole beans just as soon as the soil warms sufficiently and blissfully forget the royal pain in the butt that those longed for vines will give me come next winter.   It’s a good thing our garden memories are shrouded in the springtime by a haze of green shoots and warm sunshine - or pole beans would never get planted and enjoyed for dinner!     

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!                                      

My daughter flew back to Pennsylvania late Friday night, which brought to an end our week of celebrating the holidays and enjoying her being home for a visit.   We ate out quite frequently in the past week but did prepare some home cooked meals too.   Most of those home cooked dinners however, used items in storage or frozen rather than fresh harvest items from the garden.   I did harvest some lettuce leaves to top our New Year’s eve blue cheese hamburgers with, and on Friday I harvested some green onions to use in combination with frozen red peppers (diced) and garlic from storage to make spaghetti and meatballs.   The lettuce leaves and green onions were not enough to make my minimum harvest tally weight however, and I never got a picture of them.                                  

Sunday afternoon I dug up some parsnips.   These will be cooked by simply peeling and slicing them and then sautéing them.   If I don’t use them for the Sunday night dinner preparation, I will use them for Monday’s evening meal.                                    

Harvest totals for the week of December 26th through January 1st (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Lettuce & Greens 0.00 lbs (not enough to make harvest tally weight)
• Onions (green) 0.00 lbs (not enough to make harvest tally weight)
• Parsnips 1.00 lbs

Total For Week 1.00 lbs

Total Year to Date 1.00 lbs                                           

Eggs collected this week – 10                                                 

KICKING OFF THE NEW YEAR

I spent the first day of 2012 kicking off the new garden season.   First thing I did was to go through my seed box and discard the used up packets (with just a few seeds remaining) and items that were getting very old and shop worn.   I had donated much of my extra seeds to the Kingston Farm and Garden Co-op Giving Garden throughout 2011, so there was only a small amount of usable items to carry forward into 2012.    I then did an inventory of my other supplies noting what needed to be purchased to restock.   There actually was quite a good supply on hand of most regularly used items so the list was pretty small this year.   Last week, I had prepared my 2012 garden plan/layout so my seed requirements were established.     Armed with all of this information I then placed my annual seed and supply orders.     

On Sunday afternoon I spent an hour or so out in the garden and weeded the bed of cranberry plants and removed spent vegetation from two containers of strawberry plants.   While I was out puttering in the garden, I checked on the lettuce and dwarf pac choi seedlings I transplanted out on Friday afternoon.    These seedlings had spent about a week being hardened off before transplanting by leaving them for longer and longer periods of time in the unheated greenhouse.    All of the lettuces and a few of the dwarf pac choi plants went into the containers in the greenhouse.   The majority of the dwarf pac choi were planted into an open section under the long covered grow tunnel.   I took the precaution of sprinkling some Sluggo around the newly transplanted items because the slugs have been particularly fierce this winter.    The young plants seem to be doing okay despite the colder weather the past few days.   

It’s hard to see in the last picture, but if you look carefully you can see baby carrots which are also growing in several of the containers in the greenhouse.   I just tucked a few of the lettuces and dwarf pac choi in with them where there were some open spots.                                

I also checked on the onion plants I direct seeded late in August that are over wintering in the garden (unprotected).    They are doing remarkably well.   I hope they hang in there through January, which is usually our coldest month of the year.                                                    

The last thing done to wrap up the old year and ring in the new, was to finalize the 2011 harvest tally recap and set up the harvest spreadsheet for not only the new month but for the new year as well.   While a bit of a hassle to keep these kinds of records, I do find it useful to have comparative information to refer back to periodically.     2011 was a particularly low production year for the garden due to the abnormally cool summer we had.   I certainly hope 2012 gets us back to a more typical level of production.                                                               

There will be more onions and some early spring greens to start in the weeks ahead.   Keeping a pipeline of hardy greens going to plant out in the covered grow tunnel and the unheated greenhouse as other items are harvested and removed is important to keep fresh harvests coming as we slowly crawl our way out of the darkest days of winter towards the longer and warmer days of spring.   It should be noted that we put the shortest day of the winter behind us last week, so it is all uphill from here!    

Happy New Year Everyone! Let’s make it a great one.                   

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!                        

I have not been blogging or spending much time reading my favorite blogs lately because I have been quite busy preparing for and then enjoying having my daughter home on a visit from Pennsylvania.   She flew in on the 22nd and will be here approximately a week, so my time is understandably devoted to being with her rather than the garden or my blog.    All should return to normal after the first of the year, but for now I am totally enjoying having her home and spending as much time as possible with her.

I did harvest some kale from the tree kale/collard on Friday.                 

I had intended to use it for that evening’s meal preparation but ended up using it for a treat for our hens instead – to calm them down after a harrowing experience.   You see, we had a coyote attack our flock on Friday morning while they were out free ranging.   I happened to be looking outside just when it happened and yelled so loud the coyote actually heard me and dropped the hen he had grabbed.   After chasing the coyote off the premises, we found the hen alive but she had all the feathers tore off of her back and a bad bite wound.   We immediately cleaned the wound, and have since been irrigating it with a 10% Povidine – Iodine solution and giving her Amoxicillin twice daily.   We set up an isolation area in the coop for her, which gives her the company of the other hens while keeping her safe from them as well.   She is eating and drinking well and getting around, but there is a high potential for infection so only time will tell if she makes it through this.                              

On Saturday I harvested a nice variety of greens for a mixed green salad - lettuce, spinach, mache, swiss chard, and some green onions.                  

They were part of our Christmas eve dinner menu which was prime rib, baked potato, fresh baked rolls, and a fresh mixed green salad.           

Harvest totals for the week of December 19th through 25th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Kale 0.50 lbs
• Lettuce & Greens 0.25 lbs
• Onions (green) 0.00 lbs (not enough to make harvest tally weight)

Total For Week 0.75 lbs

Total Year to Date 367.25 lbs                                    

Eggs collected this week – 12                                     

Our Christmas was particularly merry this year because our daughter was able to be home with us.   I hope all of you also enjoyed the pleasure of family and friends and the warmth of the season.                      

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!           

Another rather crazy week for me and as a result I was not in the garden much at all.   I did harvest some green onions and chives during the week, which were used in evening meal preparations but they were never photographed or weighed.   On Sunday I pulled some regular and some golden beets. 

I just trimmed them up and roasted them skin and all with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.   Just before serving, I cut the larger root into quarters.   They were delicious served alongside baked salmon in dill sauce and pasta tossed with freshly grated parmesan cheese and a sauté of garlic (storage), chopped tomato (frozen whole tomatoes), and small dices of a quality hard salami.                                            

Harvest totals for the week of December 12th through 18th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Beets 0.75 lbs
• Onions (green) 0.00 lbs (not enough to make harvest tally weight)

Total For Week 0.75 lbs

Total Year to Date 366.50 lbs                                    

Eggs collected this week – 12                                               

BREAD RECIPE TINKERING

I have long been a fan of no knead bread and make it regularly because I love the consistently beautiful artisan style loaves it produces; crisp crust with a tender crumb inside and all without a whole lot of work or time demands of the baker.                             

There are so many good things about this bread that it is hard to find fault with it, but it does indeed have some limitations, especially for those of us that work out of the home during the week.   The regular sized loaf of bread either gets used up early in the week and I have to then pull a previously baked loaf out of the freezer (which is never as good as a fresh baked loaf) OR the loaf is not used up quickly and the crust gets soft and the bread gets stale tasting.   The long soak period of no knead bread makes it impractical to work into a regular work day, so a mid-week baking has not been an option.   My wish list for the no knead bread was to have more frequent baking (not confined to the weekend) as an option and a smaller loaf so that it would be used fast enough to ensure it was at its peak from start to finish.    

Recently, a Mother Earth News article referenced a prior article they had published in December 2008 about “fresh-baked bread in five minutes a day”.   This recipe and approach uses high moisture dough with no kneading involved too, but refrigerates the dough which replaces the majority of the soak period.   You then pull off a chunk of the dough, shape it into a boule, and bake it in a high heat oven (on a baking stone) with a pan of steam water – after first letting the dough warm up and rise for a bit on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel.   This recipe as described works beautifully and produces a smaller loaf of bread and the dough is ready when you are which makes evening baking mid-week practical.   I made several batches of this recipe and baked it as described with consistently good success.   However, I yearned for the simpler baking process of the traditional no knead bread – using a covered Dutch oven to hold in the steam which removes the need to use the pizza peel, baking stone, and pan of hot steam water.   I just find it much simpler to use the covered preheated baking pan.    I decided to hybridize the “fresh-baked bread in five minutes a day” recipe with the baking process of the no knead bread recipe to get gorgeous artisan style bread baked on demand and in smaller loaves.   I have been testing the recipe out for the past several weeks and am happy with the consistent results I am getting.   I like to do the initial mixing and rising on the weekend when I have more time, but I have also done it during an evening during the week day. 

To start out with, I had to find a smaller version of the covered enameled cast iron Dutch oven that I use for the no knead bread as it is just too large.   I was able to find a 2 quart version that is just right for the purpose.   Here it is next to my full size pot that I regularly use for the no knead bread.  

So here is the recipe as modified:                                               

Ingredients (makes 4 one-pound loaves)

• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 1 ½ TBSP granulated yeast (1 ½ packets)
• 1 ½ TBSP course kosher or sea salt
• 6 ½ cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour

Mixing and Storing the Dough

1. Heat the water to just a little warmer than body temperature (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit)

2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl.

3. Mix in the flour by gently scooping it up with the measuring cup and then level it with a knife.   Mix with a spoon or in a food processor or stand mixer with dough hook, until uniformly moist.   If hand mixing gets too difficult, you can wet your hands and press it together.   Don’t knead though!   Should be completed in just a matter of minutes and the dough should be very wet and loose enough to conform to the container.   The wetter dough actually encourages the development of sourdough characteristics while in storage.   By the end of the week, my dough has a very definite sourdough smell and taste to it.

4. Cover the bowl loosely (not air tight) or place in a 6-quart dough tub which is a resealable, lidded container (not airtight – with gasket or with the corner lifted) and allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flatten on top).   This usually takes about 2 hours.   The dough is very forgiving and longer rise times will not hurt it at all.   Once it is raised, you then put it in the fridge where it will stay until you are ready to use it!   In fact, you can use it just three hours later if you would like, but I find it is better to wait at least 12 hours.   The dough improves with age.                                                        

On Baking Day

5. Sprinkle flour in the bottom and sides of a 2 or 3 quart bowl – roughly the same size as the pot you intend to bake the bread in.

6. Sprinkle the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour, then cut off a 1-pound (large grapefruit-sized) piece with a serrated knife or with your hand (messier but easier).   Put the rest of the dough back into the refrigerator.   Using flour on your hands to keep the dough from sticking, gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on four “sides”, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go, until the bottom has a seam of bunched up ends.

7. Place the ball in the previously prepared bowl.   Let it rest (warm up) and rise for 2 hours.   At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees.   Put a 2- to 2 ½ -quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats.   When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven.   Carefully and quickly invert the rising bowl with the dough over the hot pot, turning the dough out - seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.   Cover with lid and bake 20 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 10 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned.   Cool on a rack.   

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.    It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!                                                      

This past week was very busy.   Lots happening at work that kept me hopping and then in the evenings I was working on wrapping up (literally) the holiday gifts and Christmas cards so that I could do mailings on Friday afternoon, and do UPS shipping on Saturday morning.    In addition, I was making an all-out effort to finish the last continuing professional education (CPE) course required to complete my CPE hours for the 3 year reporting period ending 12/31/11 for my CPA license.    The good news is… I indeed got all of this done!    The bad news is… I was taking short cuts on meal prep all week and it was not until this weekend that I did any harvesting or cooking of any real significance.           

On Saturday I pulled some nice green onions but there was not enough of them to make my harvest tally weight minimum and I failed to take any pictures of them.    I used them to make a large potato salad to go with some grilled chicken and Portobello mushroom sausages for Saturday's dinner.   The potato salad used potatoes from storage, the fresh harvest green onions, eggs from our hens, and lots of my home canned dill pickle relish.                                   

On Sunday I harvested some mache and a few young spinach leaves.    

This was used to make a nice green salad to go with a pot roast and the leftover potato salad (from Saturday) for the Sunday evening meal.        

Harvest totals for the week of December 5th through 11th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Lettuce & Greens 0.25 lbs
• Onions (green) 0.00 lbs (not enough to make harvest tally weight)

Total For Week 0.25 lbs

Total Year to Date 365.75 lbs                                 

Eggs collected this week – 10                                       

WINTER SEEDLINGS

On November 27th, I started some dwarf pac choi, onions, and some lettuces in micro soil blocks.   A week later (December 4th), some of the dwarf pac choi plants were already big enough that they needed to be potted up to the medium sized soil blocks.     About half were ready and the other half were still just emerging and needed to wait another week.    Here’s a picture of the first group of dwarf pac choi a week after being potted up.        They are growing along nicely.                         

This Sunday (two weeks after initial seeding) the remaining dwarf pac choi plants and the lettuces all needed to be potted up too.   The onions are emerging but will stay where they are for a while longer.                    

In addition to planting up the pac choi and lettuces, I also wanted to start some more micro soil blocks in red onions (Cabernet).   I got all the supplies out and ready to go in the kitchen.                                

I made myself a micro soil block grabber out of two large wooden plant markers and a rubber band.                                                

It is not too great to look at but it makes handling the mini blocks much easier.   I then proceeded to make up a tray of medium sized soil blocks in just the amount needed to plant up the waiting micro block plantings.              

I then placed the micro blocks into the waiting preformed medium sized blocks.                                                         

And then I tamped it in to ensure the soil was in contact on the bottom and four sides.                                                         

I got all the plants taken care of and put back under the grow lights.   I also planted up 80 micro blocks of Cabernet red onions as well, which went under the lights and on a heat mat.                       

The onions will eventually be planted out in the regular garden beds in early spring.    The lettuces and the dwarf pac choi are replacement plants that will be transplanted into the large containers in the greenhouse as other items are harvested and come out, or alternatively will be planted under the grow tunnel cover in areas that are opened up.                   

I am still trying to get the knack of making the soil blocks.   This was my third effort at making soil blocks and both the medium and the micro blocks turned out pretty good – definitely better than my first efforts.   I still have room for improvement though.   Hopefully by the end of the big spring seed starting process I will be an old pro at it.                       

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   Robin from The Gardener of Eden is similarly hosting “Thursday’s Kitchen Cupboard” each week to highlight how we use our harvests by either preserving or cooking with them.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check them out and join in too!                                   

Here is a recap of our dinner menus this week and the garden harvests (both fresh and preserved summer bounty) that were worked into them.   If you don’t see a day listed, it means we either ate leftovers that night or ate out.   Produce noted in bold are items that came from our garden.    

Tuesday’s dinner was soft tacos made using mache (harvested fresh the previous Sunday) in place of lettuce and chunky salsa (home canned).  

Wednesday’s dinner menu was pan seared sirloin steaks topped with sautéed red bell pepper chunks (frozen) and a drizzle of a reduction sauce of pan juices and white wine, accompanied by homemade macaroni and cheese, and cooked broccoli (frozen) dressed simply with a little butter and salt.             

Thursday’s dinner menu was ground beef stroganoff with lots of sliced mushrooms and leeks (prior fresh harvest that has been in my crisper), cooked/drained wide egg noodles, and steamed whole green beans (frozen) dressed tossed with a little butter and a sprinkle of salt.      

On Saturday, I noticed there were still some ripe raspberries and blueberries available so I harvested them.   They have been through a freeze so they were not as tasty as earlier harvests but good none-the-less.  Most of the berries were just eaten fresh for snacks, but some of the raspberries were used for Sunday dinner.    I also cut some spinach to use for the meal preparation.  

Saturday’s evening meal was homemade Swedish meatballs served with cooked/drained wide egg noodles, and spinach (fresh harvest) salad topped with raspberries (fresh harvest) and some goat cheese crumbles.         

On Sunday, I pulled a few parsnips.                                      

These were used as part of the Sunday night dinner – baked chicken breasts in a honey/Dijon mustard sauce, baked potatoes (storage), and parsnip (fresh harvest) dices cooked with peas (frozen) tossed with butter and a sprinkle of salt.                                              

Harvest totals for the week of November 27th through December 4th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Berries 0.25 lbs
• Parsnips 0.50 lbs
• Spinach 0.25 lbs

Total For Week 1.00 lbs

Total Year to Date 365.50 lbs                                   

Eggs collected this week – 13                                                  

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.    Robin from The Gardener of Eden is similarly hosting “Thursday’s Kitchen Cupboard” each week to highlight how we use our harvests by either preserving or cooking with them.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check them out and join in too!                                       

Here is a recap of our dinner menus this week and the garden harvests (both fresh and preserved summer bounty) that were worked into them.   If you don’t see a day listed, it means we either ate leftovers that night or ate out.   Produce noted in bold are items that came from our garden.         

Wednesday’s dinner menu:   Tossed some boneless / skinless chicken breast pieces and broccoli (frozen) together in a stir fry using a simple soy sauce based stir-fry sauce, made some fried rice with peas (frozen) to go with it.   A hen egg was used to make the fried rice.   On Wednesday night I also made the pumpkin pie for the next day's feast by roasting one of the pumpkins (storage) in the morning before going to work and then letting it chill in the fridge while I was away.   In the evening after work, I then pureed it and made my favorite pie recipe.   I used several eggs from the hens in the pumpkin custard for the pie. 

On Thursday morning I harvested a small amount of tender young stalks of celery that have been growing from the root crown of a previously harvested bunch of celery.   I needed it for the Waldorf salad I was making for our Thanksgiving Dinner.   It was not enough to make harvest tally weight and I did not get a picture of it.

Thursday’s traditional Thanksgiving holiday meal was made with lots of items from our garden.   The menu: roast turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes (storage), sage stuffing (onions from storage and frozen celery), fresh cranberry sauce, steamed buttered peas (frozen), homemade rolls, Waldorf salad (fresh celery), deviled eggs (from the hens), and pumpkin pie (storage) for dessert.    Absolutely delicious and a lovely day was spent with family enjoying the feast.  

Saturday’s dinner menu was “Something Not Turkey" - Mexican skillet casserole made with diced onion (storage) sautéed and then cooked with ground beef until both are thoroughly cooked.   A 2 cup package of sweet corn kernels (frozen – thawed before using) was then added and also stirred and cooked until they had a nice roasted flavor.   To this, a pint jar of tomato sauce was added along with some dried cumin powder, a little dried cilantro, some chili powder, and a bit of sugar (takes the acid edge off of the tomato sauce), 2 cups of cooked and drained small red beans, and 1 cup of cooked white rice.   Both the rice and the beans were cooked earlier in the afternoon so they were ready for the evening meal prep.   This was all stirred and continued to be cooked until mixed and heated through.   Salt was added to taste and then the casserole was served straight from the skillet with grated sharp cheddar cheese on the side to use as a topping.                                                        

Sunday I harvested some beautiful fresh mache (corn salad) and declared all the remaining pumpkins that have been ripening off the vine in the warmth of our house as “done” and ready for cool storage.                  

Sunday’s dinner menu: Cod fillets that were previously marinated in lime juice and then pan poached with chunky salsa (home canned last year), roasted chunks of pumpkin (storage) with garlic (storage) and thyme, garden peas (leftovers from Turkey Day) and a fresh salad of mache (fresh harvest) topped with goat cheese and toasted sunflower seed kernels with ranch dressing on the side.                                     

Harvest totals for the week of November 21st through November 27th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Celery 0.00 lbs (not enough to round to ¼ pound)
• Mache (corn salad) 0.25 lbs
• Pumpkin 11.25 lbs

Total For Week 11.50 lbs

Total YearTo Date 364.50 lbs                                              

Eggs collected this week – 16                                   

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener