The Modern Victory Garden

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