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.   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 evening the harvest included quite a few zucchini, some tomatoes, cucumbers, and several lovely ripe red bell peppers.   These are just one group of many that I have gotten from my Lady Bell pepper plants this year and I must say I am very impressed with this variety.   It grew well and produced abundantly despite a very cool summer in our region.  The peppers are large, sweet, and a gorgeous red when ripe.   I will definitely be growing this one again.                                 

I used the largest of the zucchini from this harvest combined with tomatoes that had ripened on the counter and some previously harvested leeks to make Stuffed Zucchini Boats.   I tweaked the recipe a bit by only using ground beef rather than a beef/pork combo and leeks instead of onions, but this was really delicious and the fresh made tomato sauce was a lovely complement to the dish.   The cucumbers were put in the fridge with the growing pile.   I am trying to accumulate enough to do a batch of dill pickle relish.   Getting close to enough but I am missing a few pounds yet.   Lots on the vine at the moment, so I am hopeful I will have finally have enough this coming week to get that done.   We use dill pickle relish a lot and typically go through 7 pints of it in a year.   The tomatoes went on the counter to finish ripening and the peppers and remaining zucchini went into the crisper in the fridge for later use.        

Wednesday evening’s harvest was a big colander of spinach.          

This was used immediately after harvest to make the evening meal of boneless/skinless chicken breast chunks in a spicy peanut sauce served in a bed of cooked spinach (also known as Swimming Rama) with cooked rice served on the side.   I cheat and use a bottled spicy Thai peanut sauce, which I doctor a bit by adding some additional creamy peanut butter to it.           

Friday night’s harvest was a bit of lettuce, some tomatoes, and one lonely little cucumber to add to the growing pile of cukes.                

The tomatoes went on the counter to finish ripening, and I used some from a previous harvest that already had ripened in combination with the lettuce to make some very yummy Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato (BLT) sandwiches for dinner that evening.                   

It was a busy weekend around here.   On Saturday morning I worked with a group of volunteers to load several truckloads of thoroughly worm composted llama poop.   One large load of it went to the Giving Garden I volunteer at and was unloaded by all of us, another two loads went to some other volunteers for use in their home gardens, and I brought home three very large bins of it for my own garden as well.   The large containers were the only way I could haul mine home in my Honda Fit!   It was actually a lot of compost and ended up generously covering a 4’X24’ section of garden bed.   This stuff is truly gardeners gold as the worms had so thoroughly composted it that it was in fact mostly worm castings.   I was totally worn and rather smelly by the time I finished up by spreading my own compost haul in the garden.   The weather was misting rain and cool all day so I was chilled and a bit wet too.   So, after taking a hot shower I went out to the garden and harvested with a mind towards fixing a hearty dinner.   The Royal Burgundy bush beans are starting to fizzle out but are still producing enough to provide for a meal several times a week.   The pole beans are (finally) producing too.   The two together made a nice amount for a single meal.   I have yet to use them but expect they will be on the menu Monday night along with the broccoli I cut.   I also harvested some leeks, some carrots, and some more tomatoes to go on the counter to finish ripening.                  

The carrots, leeks, several tomatoes previously harvested that were now fully ripe, a large potato from storage, and a super sized elephant garlic clove were used to make a French style beef stew using one of my favorite Julia Child’s recipe that uses white wine, olive oil, beef stock and herbs to marinate the vegetables and beef and then goes on to be the base for the broth.   I changed up the recipe by using cut up chunks of well-marbled rib eye steak rather than stew beef with the additions of bacon for fat and flavor.   I also used leeks rather than sliced onions.   Otherwise, it was the standard recipe cooked low and slow in a dutch oven until the broth is thick and the meat is totally tender.   I cannot describe sufficiently what a totally satisfying meal this is for a cool evening and when you are physically tired out.   

No harvest on Sunday.   After a late start and a large brunch of fresh eggs (courtesy of our hens) served with farm style crisped potato dices (from our storage potatoes), we tackled the annual chore of doing the chimney and stove pipe “sweep” and cleaning on our woodstove.   The weather is turning and the wood for the woodstove has been stacked and covered for a while now – ready to be used whenever the temps start really dropping down.   However, each year before we can use the woodstove for heating, we have to do a chimney and stove pipe sweeping to remove all the ash, soot, and creosote build up from the prior heating season.   This is particularly important with our woodstove because it has two pretty significant "elbow" bends in the main pipe inside the living area of the house, which if not kept properly cleaned could be a source of chimney fires from build up in those spots.    For many years now, we have done this important chore ourselves and this year was no exception.   We own the correct sized stiff wire brush and fiberglass extension handles to reach down and do the "sweep".   We also have a stiff wire hand brush that we use for the handwork portion.   We have to disassemble the inside pipe to clean it, paying particular attention to the bends.   We clean the firebox of the stove too, thoroughly cleaning out the ashes and char that never got cleaned up at the end of the prior heating season.   We use our shop vacuum to clean up all the debris, soot, and fines, from the sweep process.   The last step is to reassemble the pipe (this can be a bit tricky) and then to use special glass cleaner to clean the front glass door.   All set for another season of woodstove heating.               

We got the chimney and stove pipe “sweep” done by early afternoon.   I then tackled two other tasks on my list.   The first was to do a pruning of the raspberry patch to remove the second year canes that had finished producing our summer raspberry crop.   Doing this pruning leaves the current year canes that are now very tall and getting ready to produce the late fall crop of raspberries.   This opens up the patch for next year’s new growth to emerge and allows for better air circulation.   This job took a while as the patch is very dense and care must be taken not to cut and remove the current year canes that are flowering and about to start producing the second crop of the year.   The hens joined me and did some clean up of bugs at the ground level while I worked on the cane removal.       

The final chore of the day was to rake the hen yard and do a thorough cleaning of the chicken coop.   The nights are getting longer and the hens are in the coop for an increasingly long period of time (sun down to sun up) so the litter needs refreshing just a little more often than it does during the height of summer.   All the bedding, manure, and spilled feed is removed and composted and fresh shavings are put down in the coop along with sweet smelling grass hay in the nest boxes.   The feed and water containers are also cleaned at the same time.   It takes me about an hour from start to finish to do this thorough cleaning.   I had one hen that decided about 15 minutes after I got started that she REALLY needed to lay an egg.   The poor dear kept checking on my progress every few minutes and no sooner had I put the fresh hay into the nest boxes and shut the top door… she was in one and setting!   If she could cross her legs she would have been doing that I think.   I hurried up the job recognizing she needed access to a box but still managed to get it thoroughly cleaned.                    

It started to rain when I finished up with the hen house, so I was preparing to call it a day and start fixing the evening meal when I discovered that something was plugging up the dishwasher drain requiring my husband and myself to do some home maintenance duties right away.   About an hour later we had it all working properly again but to be honest I was feeling tired and not terribly interested in harvesting something and cooking a meal.   We opted for leftovers of the stew from Saturday instead and called it a day.      

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

• Beans 0.50 lbs
• Broccoli 0.50 lbs
• Carrots 0.50 lbs
• Cucumbers 1.25 lbs
• Lettuce 0.00 lbs (not enough to round up to ¼ lb)
• Onions/Leeks 0.25 lbs
• Peppers 1.00 lbs
• Spinach 0.25 lbs
• Tomatoes 5.25 lbs
• Zucchini 3.00 lbs

Total For Week 12.50 lbs

Total Year To Date 309.50 lbs                   

Eggs collected this week – 29                         

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener