The Modern Victory Garden

Whenever I travel to Spokane to visit my mom and family members there, I like to break up my long drive home by stopping at the fruit barns in Thorp Washington.   They carry fruits and vegetables that are in season from the nearby Yakima and Wenatchee growing areas and I always pick up a box (or several!) of fruit.   There are actually three of them located in the same spot and if I cannot find what I am looking for at one (or for a reasonable price) the others are likely to have it.   I stopped there a week and a half ago on my way back from a visit in Spokane and brought home two boxes of Jonagold apples.                              

I set them in my kitchen and ignored them until this past Monday.   I had the day off from work on Monday and it was a rainy and blustery day – perfect weather to stay indoors and do some canning.   I must confess that while I love the results of canning, I am less than keen on the “doing” part of it.   The prep work is time consuming and very messy, the kitchen is always a disaster no matter how much I work to “mop up’ after myself as I go, and it always takes twice as long for about half of the output that I imagine should be happening!   As a result, I generally do more freezing to preserve things than canning.   However, some things are just better canned – tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, dill pickle relish, dill pickles, jams/jellies, and most fruits.   So far this year I have canned quarts of diced tomatoes, pints of tomato sauce, and pints of dill pickle relish.   In addition, I have some pints of dilly beans, pints of various jams, and pints of seasoned tomato sauce still in the pantry from last year’s canning efforts to be used up.  The jams will last us a long while as we go through them slowly so I did not bother making any blackberry jam even though it really was a good blackberry harvest this year.   I will use the seasoned tomato sauce first before using my current year pints of tomato sauce.   All in all, the pantry of canned goods should be sufficient for the two of us given the large amount of items I have put by in the freezer and the fall/winter crops I have growing in the garden that will provide fresh fare.      

However, unlike vegetables, we are not even close to being self sufficient on fruit and we have to buy fruit to supplement our modest garden production.   In general, we like to eat fresh fruit so I do not try to can or freeze a great deal and just purchase what is in season as we need it.  However, I do like to have some fruit options in the pantry for convenience.    The task on Monday was to convert those two boxes of beautiful apples into some quarts of applesauce to restock the pantry with some convenient winter fruit options.   Applesauce, sliced canned pears, and frozen berries are particularly good to pack as part of my workday lunches.   I still have three full freezer bags of blueberries and raspberries in the freezer to finish using (prior season harvest) and with the quarts of applesauce this fall should really be more than enough for the coming year without having to add canned pears to the mix as well.   I am still trying to adjust the amounts I put by each year to our new smaller family size.   Our daughter moved to Pennsylvania in late July 2010 to attend university there and I have been seriously scaling down the amount of food I preserve as a result.   For the most part I have figured out how much less we need, but occasionally I still way over do it.                      

Monday was a day of washing, quartering, and then cooking apples until softened and then running them through my Roma Strainer to extract beautiful sauce.   The strainer does an excellent job of removing the peels, seeds and stems etc. These waste products went into the worm box. The sauce was then flavored with some sugar and good quality cinnamon and brought to a boiling temperature before filling the quart jars and processing them in the canner.   I ended up with 15 quarts of applesauce for my efforts.            

I think that wraps up the canning efforts for me this year.   I am also done with the other preserving efforts other than curing the pumpkins sufficiently so they store well.   The focus now is on keeping the fall and winter crops growing and producing to supplement and extend the frozen, canned, and stored items.   

I am linking this post in to Robin's Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.  Check it out and join in!

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   This week I am posting my harvest recap early (Saturday) as I am going to be traveling much of this coming week and will be unable to update the blog.   I encourage you to participate in Harvest Monday because it’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.             

Tuesday night I harvested some broccoli and a few tomatoes.          

The cherry tomatoes were just eaten as snacks and the regular tomatoes went on the counter to finish ripening up.   The broccoli was part of that nights dinner – grilled pork chops, homemade macaroni and cheese, and steamed broccoli dressed with a bit of butter and a sprinkle of salt.               

The late blueberries are finally ripening and I picked a small bowl full of them on Thursday night.                            

They were eaten almost immediately after the photo was taken.   That same evening I harvested quite a few cucumbers, a couple of zucchini, a leek, some bush and pole beans, and some more tomatoes.                

The cucumbers went into the growing pile in the fridge that I have been accumulating to get enough to make a batch of dill pickle relish.   The cherry tomatoes were gobbled up as snacks and the regular tomatoes went on the counter to finish ripening.   The zucchini was used a little later in the week (on Saturday) for the evening meal, which featured baked salmon and Italian Vegetable Stir-fry.   The leek and beans were used to make Thursday night’s dinner which was ground beef stroganoff (made using leek rather than onion) served on a baked Yukon Gold potato (from our storage supply) and steamed green beans.                     

Friday I purchased a box of Yakima tomatoes which combined with all the tomatoes I have been ripening over the past many weeks and stuffing whole into the freezer – provided enough to do a canner load of diced tomatoes (quarts) on Friday and a canner load of tomato sauce (pints) on Saturday.   I tackled the diced tomatoes Friday evening and was up pretty late to get that wrapped up.            

On Saturday I harvested a whole bunch of cucumbers, which took me over the top for what I needed to do that batch of dill pickle relish.   I also harvested some more ripe peppers and tomatoes.             

The peppers were chopped up and frozen.   The tomatoes went on the counter to finish ripening.   The cukes were processed into 7 pints of dill pickle relish and I had enough extra to make up a batch of refrigerator dills.     In a large glass jar, I place 3 cups of white vinegar, 6 cups of water, 3 tablespoons of canning salt, and 3 tablespoons of sugar.  This is stirred until thoroughly mixed and then some dill seed and 3 whole medium sized dill seed heads are added along with some sliced up onion (some of my limited storage onions) and a large elephant garlic clove (storage garlic) that was chopped up.   To this mixture I added the rest of the cucumbers not used for the dill pickle relish, sliced up into spears.       This then is placed in the fridge and the pickles are ready for use as needed after 24 hours.           

In addition to the dill pickle relish, I also processed the frozen (after thawing them of course!) and ripe tomatoes on the counter into sauce and processed 6 pints.                              

Harvest totals for the (almost a) week of September 19th through September 24th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Beans 0.25 lbs
• Blueberries 0.00 lbs (not enough to round to ¼ pound)
• Broccoli 1.00 lbs
• Cucumbers 5.25 lbs
• Peppers 1.00 lbs
• Tomatoes 3.00 lbs
• Zucchini 1.50 lbs

Total For Week 12.00 lbs

Total Year To Date 321.50 lbs                           

Eggs collected this week – 23                        

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!          

Wednesday’s harvest included a couple of zucchini, a medium sized leek, and a nice bunch of snap peas.    I had quit picking the snap peas to let them set and mature seed but the plants (Cascadia) kept producing some young crisp pods along with the fattening seed pods so I could not resist doing yet one last harvest from this planting for the year.                  

All of the Wednesday harvest was used to make that evenings meal - spaghetti with a garden vegetable and meat sauce served with steamed snap peas (dressed with butter and a little sprinkle of salt).   

Thursday I harvested some ears of corn.                   

These were eaten for dinner that night.    The menu was baked salmon fillets with dill, oven roasted/crisped potatoes (harvested last week/baked and were in the fridge – I just sliced them up, tossed them with oil and a sprinkle of salt and crisped them in the oven) and of course… corn on the cob with a little butter and salt.  

My intention was to spend Saturday doing quite a bit of harvesting and preserving so that we would have the day free on Sunday for a planned trip to the seashore.   I put in some volunteer hours at the Giving Garden on Saturday morning after which I immediately got out in the garden and harvested a cucumber, a zucchini (yes there is one in the following picture it is just buried!), some tomatoes, and two artichokes.   I also harvested some peppers and a little basil.          

Before I could proceed with the rest of the harvesting to be done, I was interrupted by my husband who it seems had managed to badly cut his hand with the machete - doing some brush cutting at the edge of the garden.   It was a very deep cut and partially cut some tendons.   Needless to say, everything was put on hold and we spent the afternoon and evening in Bremerton at the Emergency Room at Harrison Hospital.   The injury occurred at around 2pm and it was 8 pm by the time he was discharged and we made it back home.   I will spare you the picture of the actual cut (yes, I took one with my cell phone) as it makes the stomach turn to look at it, but here he is on Sunday morning sporting his outrigger splint/cast combo that keeps the hand immobile to protect the damaged tendons.             

We were starving by the time we got home that night and enjoyed the leftover spaghetti from Wednesday for a late evening dinner with the artichokes I had picked earlier in the day – steamed and served with a little Caesar dressing to dip it in.   Yummy!   Nothing else was done with the harvest from Saturday though until Sunday morning when I cut the cucumber and zucchini up into spears and put them in the refrigerator dill brine in the fridge.   The tomatoes were put on the counter to ripen more, however the ripest ones were used to dress our hamburgers we had for dinner Sunday night.   The peppers were chopped and frozen for later use.   The basil had wilted too badly to be usable and was tossed into the compost pile.

The original plan was to spend the day at the beach on Sunday, but with his injury my husband was really not feeling up for that.   Instead, we just hung out at the homestead and I picked up where I left off on Saturday when the injury interruption occurred.   Sunday’s harvest included an overflowing colander of bush beans, quite a few beets, and a large number of ears of corn.        

The beets were roasted on Sunday and then chilled in the fridge.   They will be used on Monday to make a chilled beet salad by slipping the skins off and then slicing them up and serving them with a drizzle of olive oil and quality balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of sea salt.   The green beans (well purple really!) were blanched and then frozen.   The corn was blanched and then the kernels were removed from the cob.   I got a large bowl of finished kernels from this harvest, which was bagged in 5 smaller sized zip loc freezer bags with about 1 and ¼ cup of corn in each freezer bag.  Just the right amount for us for a meal and for several recipes that have sweet corn as an ingredient.  

I still have quite a few ears of corn left on the plants for fresh eating harvests in the coming week.   My cat Sid enjoyed helping me harvest the corn – soaking up the warm late summer sun.                  

Harvest totals for the week of August 29th through September 4th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).             

• Artichoke 0.25 lbs
• Beans 2.50 lbs
• Beets 3.00 lbs
• Corn 9.00 lbs
• Cucumbers 0.00 lbs (not enough to round up to ¼ lb)
• Herbs (basil) 0.00 lbs (not enough to round up to ¼ lb)
• Onions/Leeks 0.25 lbs
• Peas (snap) 0.75 lbs
• Peppers 1.00 lbs
• Tomatoes 2.25 lbs
• Zucchini 0.75 lbs

Total For Week 19.75 lbs

Total Year To Date 223.50 lbs                              

Eggs collected this week – 21                                  

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!        

Wednesday night was the first opportunity this week for me to get out and do some harvesting.   I picked the large patch of Royal Burgundy bush beans, the raspberry patch, and snagged a few cucumbers, zucchinis, peppers, and tomatoes.        

I held out a few of those green beans but the majority of them were blanched and then frozen.   The raspberries were just eaten fresh as snacks and on my morning bowl of cereal.   The tomatoes were also eaten fresh for snacks and as part of my lunches.   The cucumbers were sliced up into spears and placed in the big jar of refrigerator dills I have going in the fridge.   The green beans I held out were combined with the zucchini and the pepper to make a tasty stir-fry with strips of lean beef and some teriyaki sauce for our Wednesday night dinner.                        

It was another busy workweek so there was no more harvesting done until Saturday.   The haul on Saturday included the first ears of sweet corn for this year plus some celery, some tomatoes, a few carrots (which did not have any carrot fly damage!) and quite a few ripe red bell peppers.   I also picked about a half pound of Royal Burgundy bush beans.             

The tomatoes went on the counter to finish ripening up.   The celery and the pepper were both trimmed and chopped up and put in the freezer for future use.   The carrots were eaten for snacks and did not last very long.   The green beans and the corn were used for our Saturday night dinner.   The menu was slow cooked baby back ribs in a tangy sweet barbecue sauce, corn on the cob, and steamed green beans.   Both the corn and the beans were simply served with just a little butter and salt.                     

Sunday’s harvest included more cucumbers, some raspberries, a handful of Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, some potatoes, more ears of sweet corn, and the first harvest of young spinach from the late summer plantings.          

The cucumbers were cut into spears and added to the jar of refrigerator dills.   The cherry tomatoes were eaten for snacks shortly after they were taken into the house.   The rest of the Sunday harvest was used to make the  evening meal.   The menu was individual spinach salads topped with fresh raspberries and home made candied slivered almonds with blue cheese dressing, grilled rib eye steaks, baked potatoes, and corn on the cob. Yum!     

The freezer is getting quite full now but I have yet to do any canning this season. Hopefully the cucumbers will start setting heavier amounts so I can do a batch of dill pickle relish soon.                

Harvest totals for the week of August 22nd through August 28th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Beans 3.25 lbs
• Berries (raspberries) 0.75 lbs
• Carrots 0.50 lbs
• Celery 2.50 lbs
• Corn 2.50 lbs
• Cucumbers 1.25 lbs
• Peppers 1.00 lbs
• Potatoes 1.00 lbs
• Spinach 0.25 lbs
• Tomatoes 0.75 lbs
• Zucchini 0.50 lbs

Total For Week 14.25 lbs

Total Year To Date 203.75 lbs                         

Eggs collected this week – 28                            

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

The focus of my time lately (outside of my professional life that is) has been on four primary things:

1. Coaxing the summer crops along despite the unusually cool season we are experiencing.
2. Getting items harvested when optimal to do so, trying to ensure nothing goes to waste from inattention.
3. Completing the final planting up of critical garden beds with fall or overwintered crops.
4. Preparing the homestead and garden for the coming fall and winter season.

Summer Crops

The summer crops are doing remarkably well considering how cool our summer season has been this year.   I am being extra vigilant to watch for fungal diseases because the risk is already high for those problems in my naturally cooler and damper region – but even more so with an extra cool year like this.   Fortunately, while cooler, our weather has not been particularly wet this summer, which has helped a lot to keep rots and fungus problems to a minimum.   In fact, I have had to really pay attention to irrigation needs because my garden beds have such good drainage that they have a tendency to dry out quickly during our dry season.   Absent rain events, I rotate through the garden on a weekly basis watering specific zones on different days such that by the end of the week all the areas have been watered at least once.   Doing it this way keeps the work load for this routine maintenance manageable, particularly during the busy work week.  

Another summer crop task I have been doing lately is hand pollination of the pumpkins.   The melons, butternut squash, and pumpkins are the most adversely affected crops by our abnormally cool summer.   The other cucurbit family plants (zucchini and cucumbers) are also negatively impacted but they produce harvestable fruit so quickly (once they get going) that a late start to production is not necessarily a big problem - as it only means I may have a shortened period of harvesting versus no harvest at all.   However, the pumpkins, melons, and winter squash have a limited period of time to develop a very large fruit and bring it to a fully mature state before the plants are knocked down by disease, pests, or the onset of our heavy cold fall rains.   This year the squash-family plants are so late getting started that it is quite probable I will not get any properly matured items at all.   In fact, the melons and butternut squash plants are so immature (not even producing flowers yet) that it is now virtually impossible for them to produce mature fruit prior to the plants demise.   I know this to be the case but just don’t have the heart to pull them out because they are just now getting some nice growth on.   The pumpkins on the other hand are just a little further along and have been producing flowers and immature fruit.   The temperatures dipped back down to rather chilly levels last week and the bees went quiet.   I could not afford to have the flowering pumpkins wait any longer to be pollinated giving their low chances of finishing up with mature fruit as is… so I went to work last week on a daily basis hand pollinating anything that was flowering if I also had an open male flower available to grab pollen from.   If I am lucky, my extra attention may reward me with a few mature pumpkins despite the cold summer.                     

Harvesting

Lots of crops are coming to maturity or heavy production and need to be regularly harvested to ensure the full value of the planting is taken advantage of.   Some crops are only producing enough to provide for our current fresh eating needs – the tomatoes for example, but other crops are producing larger amounts that we process and put by for later use in the coming dark days of winter when fresh harvests are limited to mostly cold hardy greens.   The bush beans, red cabbage, and beets are crops that are currently being harvested for preserving purposes and the corn, cucumbers, zucchini, and a greater volume of tomatoes will shortly be ready.   So far my preserving efforts have all been freezing with no canning done to date.   That will change if the tomatoes ever really get going and when the cucumbers ramp up their production.                             

Fall and Winter Crops

Many of my fall and winter crops have been in the ground for quite some time now.   The parsnips and leeks were both planted in late spring and at this point are both getting quite sizeable but not quite yet to full mature status.   These are both very slow growing crops and literally take the whole summer in order to be ready for fall and winter harvests.   Even in spring, I am planning for the fall and winter garden.   Mid summer plantings of broccoli starts, cabbages, carrots, beets, onions, kale, and spinach are all growing along and on track to be ready for harvesting when the summer crops are all winding down for yet another year.   Here’s a picture of the fall broccoli transplants when I transplanted them out on July 17th.             

And here they are a month later on August 17th.                      

This past weekend, I pushed to get more fall crops in because mid August is generally my last opportunity to plant certain faster growing items and still have sufficient time remaining (as the day length shortens and sun strength diminishes) to reach harvestable size before the plants grind to a very slow growth level by late fall.   Last Sunday, I planted another large bed of spinach, corn salad, lettuces, and transplanted out some more kale, cabbages, pac choi, and swiss chard.   Since we are in a dry period right now, I have to water these newly planted beds more frequently to ensure the young plants or germinating seeds experience a higher survival rate.                        

Preparing for Winter

There are some routine things we do during the hot days of late summer to prepare for the coming winter.   Obviously harvesting and preserving food from our summer garden is one of those.   Other tasks we are doing include stacking the winter firewood supply, cleaning the roofs of our buildings of moss and debris and cleaning out the rain gutters.   In addition, as I plant up fall and winter crops I am beginning the process of covering them with hoops and bird netting cover in anticipation that they will need to be kept secure from the flock of hens that we will allow to roam the garden area once again over the winter months to eat weeds and lower the resident insect populations.                  

That about sums up the things that have been occupying my time of late.   I hope you too are enjoying summer’s bounty while also preparing for the coming dark days of winter.                     

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!             

On Tuesday, I harvested a few artichokes, a nice pepper, and some tomatoes.   

The pepper was chopped up and frozen for future use.   The artichokes were steamed and served with some yummy bacon lettuce and tomato sandwiches for our evening meal.   The BLT’s were made with the tomatoes, some onions from storage, and lettuce that was harvested previously on Sunday.    

Wednesday night I pulled up the carrots that had some carrot fly damage.   I was able to salvage a pound and a quarter of the carrots through careful trimming.   The carrots were placed in the fridge and we have been snacking on them.             

On Saturday I harvested some tomatoes, a head of cabbage, a small cucumber, a full colander of bush beans, and some potatoes.                    

The tomatoes went on the counter to finish ripening up a bit.   The cucumber was just eaten for a snack.   The bush beans were blanched and frozen for winter use.   The cabbage was roasted using the following recipe:                

Oven Roasted Braised Red Cabbage

• 1 red cabbage, cut into 8 wedges and then coursely chopped
• 1/2 onion, medium diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons good quality balsamic vinegar
• a sprinkle of salt, pepper
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons of sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 F degrees.                      

Place all the ingredients, except the sugar, in a large edged baking pan and toss/mix to ensure everything is coated with the oil/balsamic vinegar. Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle sugar on the cabbage and mix well and then put it back into the oven and continue to roast for another 20 minutes.   The vegetables carmelize by roasting them this way and it is really delicious.                   

The roasted cabbage was served alongside baked pork chops and mashed potatoes and gravy (made from the fresh harvested potatoes) for dinner on Saturday.   The extra roasted cabbage was put into dinner sized serving containers and frozen for future use.                           

On Sunday I harvested the rest of the Ruby Ball cabbages as they were ready and I wanted to make room for some more fall crops to be transplanted out.     I also did a hard harvest on the swiss chard plants and did a final harvest of the Toscano kale.   The kale was also pulled out after this harvest because I wanted to plant a large bed of spinach and other greens there for fall and early winter use.      

Everything harvested on Sunday was processed for freezing with the exception of the two smallest heads of cabbage, which I held out to keep in the fridge for use in the next several weeks.   The remaining four heads of cabbage were roasted in a large roaster pan using the recipe above multiplied by 4.    Once cooled the roasted cabbage was placed in freezer containers in portions sufficient for a single meal.    This is a great way to use a  bounty of red cabbage because the roasted cabbage recipe reheats beautifully and can be dressed up with additions of diced apple, raisins, and additional spices and sugar as desired at the time it is reheated.    The kale and swiss chard was simply blanched and then frozen.                        

Harvest totals for the week of August 8th through August 14th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Artichokes 0.50 lbs
• Beans 2.25 lbs
• Cabbage 10.75 lbs
• Carrots 1.25 lbs
• Cucumbers 0.00 lbs (not enough to round up to ¼ pound)
• Kale 1.50 lbs
• Peppers 0.25 lbs
• Potatoes 2.25 lbs
• Swiss Chard 1.50 lbs
• Tomatoes 1.75 lbs

Total For Week 22.00 lbs

Total Year To Date 174.75 lbs                               

Eggs collected this week – 30                

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Like so many other things this year, the pea patch has been very slow to reach harvest maturity.   However, the patch was finally ready for picking when I checked on it Friday night.   The annual pea harvest and then processing them for freezing is a rather long process.   It takes just a little over two hours to harvest all of the peas, approximately another two plus hours to shell them (with two people working steadily at it), and a few more minutes to blanche and freeze them.   Essentially, I need about a five-hour block of time and my husband’s help in shelling them to get this yearly harvest completed.                                                          

I had a morning commitment to keep on Saturday so my first inclination was to put this job off until Sunday.   However, when I woke up very early on Saturday morning and could not go back to sleep, I decided to just make use of that time and tackle the harvest a day earlier than my original plan.   So at 5:30 am, I headed out to the patch and got the harvest underway.   I grow a pea variety (Dakota) that matures the peas at relatively the same time so that it is convenient for freezing.   I harvest the peas by just removing the pea vines from the bed and stripping the pods off as I go along.   The pea vine is added to the compost pile, and after I am all done the bed is ready for a succession crop to be planted for fall/winter harvesting.   The first of the next photos is quite dark as a result of the very early hour.      

The pea patch before I began the harvest.    Now your see it…..               

…. and 2 hours and 15 minutes later - now you don’t!                            

I will be removing the horizontal trellis wire mesh and putting it in the shop for storage until next spring, but I am planning to leave the frame structure in place.   The next thing to be planted in this bed will be some direct seeded onions for over wintering.   I am hoping to get the bed cultivated and planted up on Sunday.             

This is my third year of using my horizontal trellis system and the first year of the second-generation of this horizontal pea trellis.   Every year I have used the same amount of growing area (4-foot by 12-foot) and my results have always been excellent with this approach, but this year was my best to date.   I ended up with over 18 pounds of peas from this harvest!                  

Once I was done harvesting, I put the bucket of peas in the kitchen; hurriedly got cleaned up; and then headed off to the Kingston Giving Garden to put in my usual hours of volunteer work.   When I arrived back home later that afternoon, my husband and I split the peas between us and worked on shelling them as we watched a movie together (Spirit of St. Louis).   We ended up with just over 7 lbs of finished (shelled) peas from the 18 pound bucket of peas I harvested.   The last step in the annual process was for me to blanche the peas in boiling water for 90 seconds and then immerse them in an icewater bath to stop the cooking process.   Once drained thoroughly, the peas were then placed in gallon Ziploc freezer bags and put in the freezer.      

Another successful pea harvest concluded and the winter supply of peas is well stocked.                         

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!          

The harvest total broke over 100 pounds this week and the harvest amounts should continue to accelerate through the coming weeks and months as the high season of the summer garden gets underway.   I thought I would be picking the big shelling pea patch this weekend, but I need to hold off a few more days (at a minimum) because they are not quite ready yet.   However, I did harvest all of the elephant garlic and the onions that were growing next to the garlic.                             

These are not included in this week’s harvest tally as they need to dry down first and have the tops removed before I weigh them.   The bed these were in was cultivated and prepped and then planted up with 41 broccoli starts and 3 cabbages.   The only remaining item in this bed from earlier plantings is the patch of leeks (lower right hand corner).                    

I was going to transplant these broccoli plants into the bed where the pea patch is located (once the peas were harvested).   However, the pea patch is taking longer than normal to fully mature and the broccoli could not wait any longer to go into the ground.                 

Last week I harvested the hard neck garlic but did not include it in the harvest tally as it needed to dry down.   This week they are in the tally because they had dried sufficiently to remove the tops and be weighed.   These were placed in my ceramic garlic storage jar (has ventilation holes) to be used in the months to come.   

We also have been getting dribs and drabs of raspberries and strawberries throughout the week, but we have been eating them as fast as they ripen and have not been getting any pictures or weighing them.   The exception is that on Sunday morning I picked a larger amount for our Sunday brunch, which was at least photo worthy even if the weight of them fell below my required ¼ pound for inclusion in the harvest tally.                    

On Tuesday I harvested some broccoli side shoots, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, and an onion.   Both the carrots and the onions did not make weight and are therefore not included in the weekly harvest tally.   I really like “this and that” harvests as they make a great foundation for a good stir fry dinner, which is exactly what I did with the Tuesday night harvest.         

Turnips were the harvest item for Thursday.                         

They were peeled and diced and combined with an equal amount of peeled, cored, and diced apples.   They were then tossed with my favorite sweet slaw dressing (3/4 cup of mayo, 1/8 cup of maple syrup, 1/8 cup of lemon juice, dash of ground nutmeg – whisked together).   This was served with breaded and seasoned pork chops that were baked until just done and still juicy.      

I harvested some sugar snap peas on Friday.   I am so glad they are back on the menu again.   I really have missed them!              

These were just simply steamed until tender and then served with a little butter and sprinkle of salt as an accompaniment to spaghetti with meat sauce (made with some of our home canned diced tomatoes and tomato sauce, some green onions, and green garlic).                        

On Sunday I harvested two good sized heads of savoy cabbages, some more broccoli side shoot florets, and I did a exploratory check of the potatoes and pulled out a couple of decent sized ones which together weighed a half pound.   The broccoli and potatoes were destined for the Sunday evening menu – Grilled steaks, baked potatoes, and steamed broccoli (served simply with just a little butter and a sprinkle of salt).   The cabbages were used to start a small batch of sauerkraut.      

The cabbage was trimmed, washed thoroughly, and cored.   A few of the best large green outer leaves were set aside and the rest of the cabbage was processed with a fine chiffonade cut.                         

The leaves were layered into the fermentation crock and sprinkled with pickling salt on each layer (1 TBS for 3 to 4 lbs of cabbage) and some caraway seeds (1 tsp for 3 to 4 lbs of cabbage).   A final toss/mix to ensure the salt was well distributed and then the two large leaves held in reserve were laid on top of the mixture.   I have a Harsch fermentation crock, which comes with split weight stones. However, you can also use a scrubbed heavy rock to do the same job of keeping the cabbage submerged below the liquid and generate pressure, which is necessary for proper fermentation.   I placed the stones on top of the large leaves and then applied pressure until the combination of pressure and salt yielded the liquid from the cabbage.   I added some previously boiled and then cooled salted water to the cabbage liquid in an amount sufficient to ensure the stones were completely covered by liquid.                    

This particular style of fermentation crock also has a gutter for water around the top, which makes the crock airtight when the lid is set in place. I filled the groove with water and set the lid in place.                

This will now be left alone and allowed to ferment.   Since I used a summer savoy cabbage for this batch, it should be ready in just a little over two weeks time and can then be refrigerated for many weeks while we use it up.        

Harvest totals for the week of July 11th through July 17th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Broccoli 0.75 lbs
• Cabbage 3.50 lbs
• Carrots 0.00 lbs (not enough to round up to ¼ pound)
• Garlic 1.50 lbs
• Peas (sugar snap) 0.25 lbs
• Potatoes 0.50 lbs
• Raspberries 0.00 lbs (not enough to round up to ¼ pound)
• Turnips 3.00 lbs

Total For Week 9.50 lbs

Total Year To Date 104.00 lbs                   

Eggs collected this week – 32                   

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 in so many different regions.   Check it out and join in!                        

On Tuesday, I cut four medium/small-sized heads of savoy cabbages and pulled some green onions.   These were used to make a savoy cabbage salad, which accompanied some leftover spinach salad (in last week's harvest totals), baked beans, and roasted chicken thighs for our dinner that night.    The cabbages were photographed but the onions were a follow up harvest (realized I need them for the recipe!) and I was too busy cooking at that point to stop and take a picture of them.                        

On Wednesday, I harvested quite a few celery plants and a colander full of broccoli.    All of this harvest was prepped and frozen for later use.                

On Thursday, I harvested some more broccoli and some green onions.    These were used to make a broccoli and beef stir fry (served with cooked white rice) for that night’s dinner.                            

On Saturday, I harvested more than a pound of lettuce, which was cleaned; torn into chunks; spun dried; and then made into a large salad.   I also harvested some garlic scapes, green onions, basil (not pictured), a few stalks of celery, and a few stalks and leaves of swiss chard.   These latter items were used to make a garden style spaghetti with meat sauce that used all these ingredients in the sauce (along with a jar of last year’s home canned diced tomatoes and home canned tomato sauce).   Some of the green salad was served with the spaghetti for dinner on Saturday night and the rest went in the fridge to be used for lunches and dinners in the next few days.          

Sunday was a big harvest day.   It was another cool and overcast day and there was lots of items in the garden that needed to be picked and processed for freezing (which is a good thing to do on a gloomy and chilly day).   I harvested two kinds of kale – Toscano and Dwarf Improved Siberian, a lot of swiss chard, several stalks of rhubarb, and some more broccoli.                 

The broccoli was used for Sunday nights dinner.  The menu was sliced up chunks of kielbasa laid on top of baked beans (baked in a dutch oven) and served with steamed broccoli topped with a little butter and a sprinkle of salt. 

The swiss chard stalks were removed from the leaves and sliced up.   The stalk pieces were blanched and then frozen on a cookie sheet to be put in a freezer Ziploc bag once they are frozen solid.   The leaves were chopped into large pieces and then blanched and frozen in the same manner I do spinach and kale in 1 lb packages.            

I processed the kale by stripping the leaves from the large stems (stems are diced up and fed to the hens) and then chopping the leaves into large pieces which were then blanched and frozen in 1 lb packages.                     

The rhubarb is just sliced and then frozen on a cookie sheet until solid - at which time it is then placed in a Ziploc freezer bag.                  

Harvest totals for the week of June 13th through June 19th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Basil 0.00 lbs (did not round up to 1/4 pound)
• Broccoli 3.50 lbs
• Cabbage 1.75 lbs
• Celery 4.50 lbs
• Garlic Scapes 0.00 lbs (did not round up to 1/4 pound)
• Kale 5.75 lbs
• Lettuce 1.00 lbs
• Onions 0.25 lbs
• Rhubarb 1.25 lbs
• Swiss Chard 4.50 lbs

Total For Week 22.50 lbs

Total Year To Date 68.25 lbs                            

Eggs collected this week – 34                                 

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Tonight after work I harvested some broccoli and celery.   The celery was harvested by removing every other plant in an alternating pattern by row, which resulted in a sizeable harvest but also left the remaining plants in the bed with more room to continue growing.   The celery harvest tonight is all going into the freezer for future use, but a large portion of the remaining plants will be used for fresh harvests as needed throughout the summer.   

I gave the remaining celery plants a deep drink of water as the soil was starting to dry out and that is absolutely the last thing you want to have happen with celery.   This is a plant that likes its feet in wet humousy soil.      

None of the items harvested tonight was needed for meal preparation, so it was all destined to go into the freezer for future use.           

I first processed the broccoli.   Here is how I like to do this.   Step one is to rinse the produce thoroughly in preparation for blanching and freezing.    Broccoli is then cut into florets and pieces and placed in a metal mesh colander (or other metal strainer) that can be immersed in boiling water.   

Once the broccoli has been prepped, a large pot of water needs to be set to boil.    In addition, an ice water bath needs to be prepared.   Put a stopper in the sink drain and then fill with ice and water.               

Next I place the metal mesh colander filled with broccoli into the pot of boiling water - immersing it.   I use a large spoon to push the produce down into the boiling water.   This is brought back to a boil and then boiled for approximately 2 minutes until the produce is a bright color.   The idea is not to cook it thoroughly - but just to start the cooking and kill the enzymes that will cause it not to keep well in the freezer.                    

I remove the colander from the boiling water and then immediately immerse it into the waiting ice water bath.   The colander is swished around in the ice water to ensure the middle portion is cooled down.   The important thing is to immediately stop the cooking process.                   

Once cooled, the colander is removed from the ice water and allowed to drain in the sink.   I like to place the broccoli in a flat container and freeze over night until frozen solid.   Once it is frozen, I make sure the pieces are separated and then place them into a gallon zip lock freezer bag before placing it back into the freezer.   By keeping the individual pieces separated, it makes it easy to scoop out what I need for a meal and then reseal the bag up for future use.                            

The celery was easier to freeze because it does not require any blanching.    Onions and peppers similarly do not need to be blanched before they are frozen.    All three of these items (celery, onion, and peppers) make up the Holy Trinity of cooking - used in combination regularly as the foundation of so many recipes.   Having large bags of diced onions, diced peppers, and sliced celery in the freezer is very convenient-  because you can scoop out what you need from each and then reseal the bag.   The frozen items do not require any cutting or prep work, as they are ready to be used immediately.   

The celery was washed, trimmed, and then cut into slices.                  

I like to wash the celery in a sink of water and use the other sink to place the trimmings into.                                

The celery trimmings went into the kitchen compost bucket and was taken out and added to the compost pile once I was done and cleaned up the kitchen.    The broccoli trimmings were given to the chickens as they love broccoli (not so keen on celery though!).       

The slices of celery are then placed into a pan.                      

This pan of celery slices was then placed into the freezer overnight.   Later, the frozen celery slices will be removed, separated, and put into a gallon zip lock freezer bag before being returned to the freezer.   This harvest of celery gives me a good winter supply of frozen sliced celery for cooking.   I still have many celery plants in the garden that I will continue to use for fresh eating in the months to come.                           

Have you started to do any preserving yet from your 2011 garden?           

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener