The Gardener of Eden

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........3/01/2012

2012-03-01T06:42:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning and realized it was Thursday and I hadn't done a post for Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard! Boy the week and the month just flew by! I can't believe that is March already. Before we know it the gardening season in this part of the world, will be under way! Then there will be lots goodness going in the cupboard too!

I found a great recipe a couple of months ago for a Stuffed Flank Steak here. It is supposed to be rolled. But, one flank steak makes three meals for "The Italian" and I. 1/3 is used for regular marinated broiled flank steak. 1/3 is used for a stir fry and the remaining 1/3, I have been stuffing. We love this recipe so much that I made a whole one for il secondo at "The Italian's" Birthday dinner this past Sunday. Yes, the Italian has reached "the speed limit age"!

Stuffed Flank Steak
Ingredients:

One Flank Steak
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce (We use the good stuff from the Asian grocery store. It really makes a big difference in the taste. You can actually find labeled non GMO food at these stores!)
1/2 Cup Olive Oil
2 tsp. Steak Seasoning or a combination of seasonings of your choice
Thinly Sliced Provolone Cheese
Sliced Bacon
Fresh Spinach
Mushrooms (one time I used them)
Sliced Bell Pepper

This is just 1/3 of a whole Flank Steak

Directions:

If you are using a whole flank steak, cut through the meat horizontally to within about an inch or so of the opposite side. If you are using a piece, you will have to cut it the opposite way to create a pocket. You can also have your butcher butterfly it for you.
Mix the Soy Sauce, Olive Oil & Seasonings together. Then marinate the steak with this mixture. You are supposed to marinate it for 4 hours or overnight. I have made it after only marinating it for about 30 minutes and it was great!
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
Layer the Provolone Cheese, Bacon, Spinach, Mushrooms & Pepper inside the pocket.
Roll the meat (if you can) and then tie it with kitchen twine about every 2" to keep it together.
Place in a baking dish and pour what ever marinade you have left over the meat and bake..
The directions say to bake for one hour. I have found that with a small piece it only takes about 15-20 minutes. When I made a whole one it baked for about 30-35 minutes. We do not like out meat well done and dried out.
Let the meat rest for about 5-10 minutes, slice and serve

This is the best Stuffed Flank Steak ever!

I served it with Mashed Cauliflower. If you have never had it...you don't know what you are missing! Just cook some nice cauliflower. Place it in your food processor (or you can mash it with a mixer or by hand), add some Butter, Adobe or other seasonings like garlic, Cheese of your choice and a little milk, if needed and mash. I like Mashed Cauliflower much better then Mashed Potatoes. It is also much better for you and a great way to get the little ones to eat more veggies! They will never know it's good for them!

So, What goodies have been going in or out of your Kitchen Cupboard Lately????

What's Growing on at the end of February

2012-02-28T13:53:00.000-05:00

The sun is shining and spring is just around the corner! Well, almost.....we are supposed to get a wintery mix tomorrow.

There are some seedlings growing in the basement.

These are the first soil blocks that I planted.

I am finding that there is a learning curve to growing in the soil blocks. I am sure I will master it sooner or later.

I did a little experiment and sowed the same seeds in these soil blocks as I did in the containers below.

As you can see, the containers are doing much better then the blocks right now.

The carrots that I planted in the big container in the basement.

They are coming along nicely. I had to re-sow some of them because I ripped the seedlings out when I removed the burlap. This time I put little pieces of cardboard over the seed mats instead of the burlap.

This is the Left Cold Frame.

The Kale and Collards are really taking off. There is a celery plant in the back and it made it through the winter. This should give us some early celery.

This is the Right Cold Frame.

The Kale in the back is doing well and the rest of this Tatsoi will be harvested on Friday after the weather calms down. There are also a couple of celery plants in here too. I think that I am going to remove the cold frame tops this Saturday. There are aphids in the left cold frame and I need to get them under control.

The over-wintered spinach is doing well.

I have been harvesting a little here and there. I will probably throw some more seeds in this bed soon. That is the only way I can get spinach to grow. Just throw a bunch of seeds on the ground and forget about them!

The Music garlic is peaking through the straw at the other end of the bed where the spinach is planted. It's not easy to see in this picture though.

The balance of the garlic is Silverskin and is planted in another bed which is heavily protected from the squirrels. This variety is growing much faster.

That's what's growing on around here! What's growing on around your place???

Community Garden Update

2012-02-21T11:24:00.000-05:00

I had not heard from the woman at Farmland Preservation who was in charge of the gardens for some time. I sent her an e-mail and did not hear back, which in itself was strange.

So, I decided to call Dora, who is also on the Garden Move Committee. Dora is a very experienced gardener. She does a lot of work for Penn State and also took care of Mrs. Rodale's gardens until her passing.

For some reason our county has had some budget cutbacks. This in itself is strange to me since our county in very much in the green for several years now. They eliminated the woman's position. But, they hired Dora on a very part time basis to take care of both of the Community Gardens. This is good news since Dora has a great understanding of gardening!

The game plan is that the soil will be disked by the woman who runs our county seed farm within the next two weeks. Then Dora and her crew will mark off all the plots. Our plots are in the first section. So, hopefully I will be over there working on the hardscaping within a few weeks.

My plan is to install the fencing and gate first. This will probably take two days....maybe one, if I'm lucky. Then I will work on each bed and the soil as needed for the crops that need to go in first. I am not planning on being able to plant Spring Broccoli & Cauliflower at this time. But, you never know! I guess that it won't hurt to start some extra plants for over there.

I also changed the garden layout for the plots after talking to Dora. The road is at the end of the one plot and the path at the front. The paths will be tilled soil in the beginning. So, I figured it would be much better to have the gate at the end. This will also make it easier for me to load and unload.

This is the new layout for the plots. The shaded areas along the end are for pole beans and popcorn. I also have detailed layouts for each individual bed and the home gardens. I will try to get them posted soon.

Harvest Monday............02/20/2012

2012-02-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

I had a couple of harvests this week. One tiny one and one big one. Wednesday I harvested a handful of spinach from the spinach bed that I needed for a recipe. On Friday, I finally got around to harvesting a lot of the Tatsoi.

The spinach only weighed about 2 oz. It was just enough for the recipe.

This is one big bunch of Tatsoi! It weighed 3.3 lbs.

Boy, it was a lot! I gave about half of it to a friend of ours since there is still more in the cold frame!

There is also some news on the Community Garden move and some seedlings growing in the basement! I will post about the garden tomorrow.

Now, Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday and see what's going on in gardens around the globe!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........2/16/2012

2012-02-16T07:18:00.000-05:00

I have been a bit absent from the blogging scene the past few weeks. This has been due to my Uncle's serious illness and passing on Valentine's Day. I'm sure I will get back into the swing of things in a week or so.

I will be out of town next week for a few days. So, Jody & Belle at Spring Garden Acre will host Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard next week.

Now on to some good eating from our stored goods! Last week Kristen at Rusty Moon Homestead posted a great recipe for Black Bean Soup. In her post she linked to where she found the recipe, here.

Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

2 Cups Black Beans - I used Cherokee Trail of Tears Beans from the garden
1 Small Onion, Sliced
3 Tbsp. Butter
2 Quarts Cold Water
2 Stalks Celery, Diced
1 1/2 Tbsp. Flour - I didn't need to use any flour
3/4 tsp. Salt - I didn't use any salt
1/8 tsp. Pepper
1/4 tsp. Mustard - I used some homemade mustard and put in about 1/2 tsp.
Dash of Cayenne - I used about a 1/4 tsp.
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice - I didn't use this much
Hard Boiled Eggs or Egg
1 Lemon, thinly sliced - We didn't use any sliced lemon

Directions:

Wash beans and soak overnight.
Saute Onion in 1 1/2 Tbsp. Butter
Drain Beans, add cold water, onion & celery. Simmer until beans are tender, adding water if needed
Then I pureed the soup with an Immersion Blender.
Add remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp of Butter, flour (if needed) and seasonings and bring back to a boil
I let the soup simmer for about another 30-45 minutes
The soup can be served with a garnish of Sliced Hard Boiled Egg and Lemon

It may not be the prettiest soup......But, boy was it good!

What have you been putting in or taking out of your Cupboard lately....anything good????

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........2/09/2012

2012-02-09T06:37:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that has been a whole week since my last post! We've been very busy around here. Hopefully I will get some things posted this week.

This week I decided to make some pumpkin muffins/cupcakes to freeze for snacks for "The Italian".. I found a good recipe and had to make some minor adjustments after the first batch.

Pumpkin Muffins/Cupcakes
Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Salt
4 Tbs. Butter, cut into pieces
1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
1/2 Cup Evaporated Milk
1 Egg
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 Cup Raisins (optional)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin or cupcake pan or use cupcake papers
Sift together Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg & Salt. Cut in butter with pastry cutter or two knives until fully incorporated.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together Pumpkin Puree, Evaporated Milk, Vanilla & Egg.

4. Pour Pumpkin Mixture into the flour mixture, add raisins and fold gently

5. Fill Muffin or Cupcake pan and bake for about 18 minutes.

These are a great snack and can be topped with a nice Cream Cheese Frosting or served plain!

What goodies have you been making with your stored goods...or putting away for another day???

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........2/02/2012

2012-02-02T06:55:00.000-05:00

We had a nice harvest of Baby Choi from the cold frames this past week which I posted here. We haven't used any of it yet, as it will store well in the refrigerator.

This week I did make one of my favorite dishes, Shrimp & Sausage served with Spaghetti Squash. I have to say that this is a great dish! This recipe is enough for "The Italian" and I. You will have to increase the amounts if you have a larger crowd.

Shrimp & Sausage w/Spaghetti Squash
Ingredients:

Olive Oil
2-3 Hot Italian Sausage Links or loose sausage (we make our own sausage)
12 Medium Shrimp, whole or butterflied
1 Pint Tomatoes
1 Medium Onion, Chopped
1 Large Clove of Garlic, minced
Oregano & Basil
Spaghetti Squash
Grated Parmesan or Pecorino Cheese, if desired

Directions:

Remove Sausage from casing
Add a little Olive Oil to a medium or large skillet or deep frying pan on medium-high heat
Saute Onion & Sausage pieces until cooked
Add minced garlic and saute for about 30 seconds
Add Tomatoes, Oregano & Basil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes
While the sauce is cooking prepare Spaghetti Squash or pasta
Add Shrimp and cook just a couple of minutes until shrimp is cooked
Serve over Spaghetti Squash or Pasta with a little grated cheese

Note: This is not a thick type of sauce

This isn't the best picture....but it is a great dish!

What goodies have you been putting away in your cupboard or serving from your stored goods??

Harvest Monday............01/30/2012

2012-01-30T07:04:00.001-05:00

I finally decided to harvest all of the Baby Choi in the cold frame. I think it was just in the nick of time! Some of the outer leaves were turning yellow and they were just about to bolt.

Do you believe that there are still hungry live slugs living in the cold frames?? Occasionally I leave them open for several nights in a row, hoping to kill off some of the bugs. I guess that once the Tatsoi is harvested, I should take the tops off.

It was a decent harvest weighing in at 2.83 lbs.

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens around the globe!!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........1/26/2012

2012-01-26T06:05:00.000-05:00

Since I did an inventory of all of our stored & canned goods and posted it last week, I thought that I better get the freezer inventory done as well. Here's what we have left.

Baby Choi - (2) pkgs.
Blackberries - (1) lg. bag
Celery - (3) full pkgs. (2) partial pkgs.
Chard - (2) pkgs.
Corn - (2) pkgs.
Eggplant - (2) pkgs.
Leeks - (2) pkgs.
Peas, shelled - (5) pkgs.
Peas, purple podded - (4) pkgs.
Peas, snow - (8) pkgs.
Peppers, sweet - (8) pkgs.
Peppers, roasted sweet - (7) pkgs.
Pesto - (4) pkgs.
Strawberries - (2) 1 lb. pkgs.
Zucchini, fried slices - (2) pkgs.
Zucchini, sliced - (2) pkgs.

Scalloped Potatoes - (2) 1 1/2 lb. pkgs.
Zucchini Parm. - (1) 2 lb. pkg.

With what is left in the freezer along with the other stored goods and cold frame crops. I think that we will be good!

Now onto some cooking from the cupboard this week. Sunday, Mark posted a Chicken & Lentil Soup recipe here. Boy, it looked good. So, I decided to make my own version. This is what I came up with.

Chicken & Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
1 Large onion - chopped
2 small cloves of garlic - minced
1 stalk celery - chopped
1 ½ Carrots (the last of the carrots) - chopped
1 Pint Tomatoes
½ Cup White Wine
5 Cups Chicken Stock
½ tsp Paprika
White Pepper
Bay Leaf
Chicken - fresh diced or leftover diced
½ lb. Lentils - I used these little black lentils that we had

Directions:

Chop Celery, Carrots & Onions. Mince garlic
In a large stockpot, saute onions in oil for a few minutes, add chicken & saute until onions are glossy.
Add Celery, Carrots, Garlic & Paprika and saute for about 10 more minutes
Add wine and cook for about 2 minutes
Stir in tomatoes, chicken stock, lentils, pepper & bay leaf
Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 1 hour or until the lentils are tender.
You may add some salt if desired
Serve and Enjoy!

I put a little grated Cheddar Cheese on my soup. You could also use Parmesan Cheese. "The Italian" ate his plain.

What's been going in or out of your Cupboard lately???

Trying to get a Head Start on some Carrots

2012-01-25T09:24:00.000-05:00

Since we are now carrot less in this house. I thought that I would bring one of my big plastic pots that I grow carrots in from outside. I brought it to the basement to thaw out first. Then I added some composted manure, vermiculite, peat and some composted soil that I managed to chip off the top of one of the beds out back. I went outside a couple of times after the sun was shining on the soil for several hours (before the snow) and did manage to get enough for the pot.

After I added everything to the pot, I added more water. It was a bit too much so then I let it dry out for a couple of days. After drying out, the soil temperature was a bit too cold for germination. So I took one of the many rope lights we have and wrapped it around the pot. The next day the soil was warm enough for germination.

Next I put some seed mats that I had made (Granny's famous seed mat tutorial can be found here) on the soil, covered them with some vermiculite and burlap. Now I have to remember to keep them moist in order for them to germinate.

Since the basement is quite cool, I think that I am going to leave the lights on for awhile

Once they start growing, I will move them to the table in the tool area of the basement and lower one of the shop lights to give them light. I'll keep you updated on how this experiment works out.

Are there any other crazy gardeners out there trying something new to get a jump start on the garden this year???

The Garden & Cold Frames January 20, 2012

2012-01-20T15:27:00.001-05:00

I thought that I would take some pictures of the winter garden today. We are supposed to have our first winter snow starting tonight into tomorrow evening. I am really looking forward to a real snow. We haven't had any snow since our crazy Halloween Snow Storm!

This is the Cold Frame on the Left.

This is where all the Pak Choi was growing that I harvested a couple of weeks ago. There is some Kale, Collards & a Celery plant in the back. There's also two Tatsoi plants in the middle which will be harvested soon. In the front of the bed are some small lettuces. Later this winter after the Tatsoi is harvested I will put some more Kale, Collards and Arugula in this bed for some early spring harvests.

This is the Cold Frame on the Right.

This side is pretty much packed full right now. There is one row of Kale in the back and also a row of Baby Choi which is really big. The center is packed full of Tatsoi , some lettuce and a few green onions. In the front of the bed there are some Escarole plants and more lettuce. Once this bed is cleaned out with the exception of the Kale, the bed will left empty until I sow carrots in it.

Some Escarole and lettuce tucked in.

Some baby lettuce plants

Some more lettuce and green onions tucked in between the Tatsoi

The spinach bed has spinach of every size in it right now. I hope that this bed will give a great spring spinach harvest!

There are still a couple of green parsley plants in the herb garden.

Is there anything going on in your garden, cold frames or greenhouse mid-winter??

The first Soil Blocks & Blogger Issues Update

2012-01-20T09:21:00.002-05:00

For all of my fellow blogger buddies, I still can't comment on many of your blogs. Things were better for a short period of time yesterday. I was able to post a comment over at Veggie Pack's blog. Then things went bad again. I even tried using one of our newer computers. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved soon.

Update: I just discovered a way around the Blogger comment issue. I logged onto the internet in Google Chrome and everything works fine!

Now let's talk about some gardening! I finally got around to trying the new soil block maker that "The Italian" bought me for my birthday. I ended up purchasing a soil mixture on-line for my initial blocks. There are a few reasons for this decision. One, the garden centers around here are only open on the weekends right now and most likely won't have what I need in stock to make the blocks. Two, I wanted to see what the consistency of the mixture should be. Lastly, the cost of purchasing all of the ingredients would far out weigh the cost of buying a pre-made mixture for the small amount of initial blocks being made. I am however planning to purchase all of the ingredients for the big planting as this will be the most cost effective way to make a lot of blocks.

The blocks were extremely easy to make. I just combined the mixture with some water, let it sit and made the blocks. For any of you who are going to start making soil blocks this year, you can go here or to Johnny's site to read and watch some good videos on making the blocks.

This isn't the best picture...but, I didn't feel like uncovering them and taking more pics.

After I made them, they were covered with plastic and another tray. I will check on them periodicly to see if they need water. Once they germinate, I will remove the tray to allow light in.

I really think that the blocks will save me a lot of time and space. I really hate everything involved in using plastic pots.

I will do updates and things progress. Now, get making those soil blocks!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard...........1/19/2012

2012-01-19T07:41:00.000-05:00

Last season I canned approximately 300 jars of goodness. My "Preserving Page" is not totally accurate since I tend to forget to add some things to it.

Yesterday I did an inventory of the canned goods in the cupboard. We started out with about 220 jars of misc. foods and 81 jars of tomatoes and tomato puree. To date we have 120 jars of misc. food and 38 jars of tomatoes and tomato puree. We gifted a lot of canned goods for Christmas as we always do. However, we did not gift one single jar of tomatoes or tomato puree. In five months we used 53% of our tomatoes and tomato puree. That means that I'm going to have to ration "The Italian's" tomato use in order to make it through. I guess that my 100 jar goal is a must around here.

With regard to other "stored goods", it looks like we are going have "just enough" garlic and onions. I am however increasing the amount of these two items in the garden this year since "just enough" is not enough. We are not going to have potatoes for much longer. I'm sure we will survive since we both need to loose some poundage right now. The potato plantings are also increasing this year. Although our squash storage is adequate, I am changing some of the varieties for this year.

We are definitely good in the herb and spice department. But, very short in the carrot department. We only have two carrots left. My new garden plans include a lot more carrots. There is enough frozen celery left to use for cooking. This year I am going to plant some celery later in the season and try storing it in sand for the winter.

As far as the frozen veggie inventory goes, I have yet to do it. I am positive that we will have plenty to get us through the year though....especially when it comes to peppers!

The cold frames have been doing very well. We did harvest all of the Pak Choi a couple of weeks ago and I am planning to harvest the giant Baby Choi soon.

So, what have we been cooking this past week?? Well, Tuesday I made a great Split Pea Soup! I found the recipe here. Sunday my in-laws gave us a great ham bone with lots of meat on it....and what a great winter dinner it made!

I only made a couple of changes to the recipe. I did not add salt or bullion cubes and used some beef stock and some water instead of all water. I also used ground white pepper instead of peppercorns.

Split Pea & Ham Soup

Ingredients:

8 cups water ( or a combination of water and beef stock)
1 large ham bone
2 cups green dried split peas
2 large carrots diced small
2 medium onions chopped small
2 large celery ribs, include leaves, chop small
1 large bay leaf
2 beef bullion cubes - I did not use any bullion
1 teaspoon salt - I did not use any salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns - I used ground white pepper
1 pinch dried thyme

Directions:

1.   Rinse peas well in cold water and add to a large cooking pot.
2.   Measure 8 cups of water and add to cooking pot.
3.   Bring to boil, remove from heat, cover and let sit for 1 hour.
4.   Return to stove and bring back to boil.
5.   Add ham bone, carrots, onions, celery, bay leaf, beef bouillon, salt, peppercorns and dried thyme.
6.   Reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
7.   Remove ham bone and cut off any remaining ham, cut into bite size pieces and return to soup.
8.   Discard bone & bay leaf
9.   Adjust seasonings to taste.
10. Serve & Enjoy!

As usual I forgot to take a picture before dinner! This is my lunch bowl the next day.

So, what's been going in or out of your Cupboard lately......and how's your inventory???

Garden Planning.......Decisions, Decisions

2012-01-17T15:39:00.000-05:00

I have been diligently working on the garden layouts for the plots. As of today, we have two plots side by side. We may get another plot. But, I am not counting on it.

I've managed to fit most everything in the smaller space. All of the paths aren't as wide as I had before. This little change has given me quite a bit more space then I thought we would have.

As many of you know, I have a lot of different varieties of seeds that I have collected over the years. Some of them I have purchased and others have been free or gifted to me. I don't plant everything that I have every year. But, I do plant a lot of different varieties each year.

I am having a hard time making a decision on the watermelons. I have four varieties and only two locations for them to be planted. I guess that I could plant two varieties in each location. However, I am concerned about cross-pollination??? For this reason I am thinking of planting two varieties.

These are the varieties of watermelon seeds that I have; Sugar Baby, Moon & Stars, Congo & Crimson Sweet. So, have any of you planted any of these varieties.....and how were they???

Here is a link to the Plots Layout. I was planning on posting this as a picture. But, I have been having technical difficulties all day!!! I also have detailed layouts completed for each bed. Once I get my computer issues under control, I will post them.

I have had nothing but problems since this computer updated last week! I can't even comment on some of your blogs!! Sorry Jane!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........1/12/2012

2012-01-12T07:02:00.001-05:00

We had some good meals this week made with stores from our cupboard! We had a great Chili Con Carne made with canned tomatoes, onion, garlic and dried beans....all from the garden! We also used some of the fresh pak choi and frozen veggies in an Asian mung bean dish.

But, here is something else that was made with some stored goodness. Some of you may remember this post on goodies that I made with pears. "The Italian" decided to use the pear syrup and a pear to make a couple of Pear Martinis. Boy, were they good!

Pear Martini

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces of Vodka
1 ounce of Pear Liqeur - he used Poire William
1 ounce of Pear Syrup (this could probably be substitued with pear liquid from canned pears)
1/2 of a canned Pear
Crushed Ice

Directions:

Chill martini glasses with crushed ice and water
Add some crushed ice to your martini shaker then add all ingredients, except the pear
Shake & pour
Serve with half of a pear
Enjoy!

Isn't that lovely??

I'm not a big pear fan.....but I really loved this martini! It was just right and not too sweet!

What's been going in or out of your cupboard lately??

It's Garden Planning Time!!!

2012-01-06T16:33:00.000-05:00

I have been spending a lot of time working on this year's garden planning. So far, I have gone through all of my seeds & updated my list, ordered all of the seeds that I "NEED" with the exception of seed potatoes and onion plants. The varieties and sources for them have been selected. All I have to do now is order them. Do you believe that I have 171 different varieties of seeds??

I have also created a new Excel workbook. This workbook includes a sheet with all of my veggie seed varieties, source of seed, how many days, age of seed, quantity and gardening costs. The second sheet has all of the dates for germinating & planting, how much we need and how many of each veggie will be planted where. The third sheet has all of the herbs & flower information. The fourth sheet is for the weekly harvests. This sheet adds everything up and calculates the value of the harvests. I am in the process of adding additional sheets to this workbook which will include details of each variety which links to the first sheet. I will probably add sheets with the garden layouts to the workbook also. Putting all this together takes a lot of time. But, it's much better then having the information in several different places. It will also make my life much easier when things get going in the garden. It may sound a little nerdy....but, I just love doing it!

I do have preliminary layouts for the plots and home garden done. Right now they are done in pencil on graph paper. You would think that I would have them done on the computer. But, I really like having them on paper. That way, I can change things and also take the paper with me to the plots....just in case I forget what I had planned.

This year I am adjusting the starting dates to many of the veggies for two reasons. One, last year I thought I was going to go crazy with all of the tomato, pepper and eggplant starts. The plants got so big so fast. I grow these for myself and four other people. Two, with the Community Garden moving. I really don't want the plants too big too early. At this point, it's anyone's guess when the ground will be ready over there.

So, what kind of garden planning are you doing???

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard............1/05/2012

2012-01-05T08:05:00.002-05:00

Since we had a nice harvest of pak choi a few carrots and a little broccoli head last week. I made another Stir Fry using those veggies, some onions, peppers, snow peas, celery & chicken. It is such a pleasure to have all these wonderful veggies from our own garden right here in our cupboard! We were out of the "good" soy sauce though. So, I used a brand that can be purchased at any grocery store. Boy, what a difference a good soy sauce makes!

"The Italian" also made a easy pasta dinner called "Pasta Piselli". There are two different ways to make this Italian dish. One is with a red sauce and the other isn't. I think the one that he makes with a red sauce is more common in Sicily. I totally forgot to take a picture of it. Here's this great and easy recipe.

Pasta Piselli

Ingredients:

Canned plain Tomato Puree, Sauce or Tomatoes
Olive Oil
Chopped Onions
Peas
Spaghetti

Directions:

Heat a little olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat and saute the chopped onions for a few minutes
Add puree, sauce or tomatoes. If you are using whole tomatoes, I puree them with an immersion blender before adding them to the onions
Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer until sauce is thick. This should not take more then about 45 minutes, much less if you are using puree or sauce.
Add peas and server over spaghetti
That's it! Enjoy!

Another great dinner we have had recently is Paprika Pork Chops with Pak Choi & Kale

Paprika Pork Chops w/Greens

Ingredients:

Pork Chops
Spices: Paprika, Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil
Wine for deglazing, I used a white wine
Stock, I usually used about 1 1/2 Cups of Beef Stock for 2 Pork Chops
Cornstarch for thickening
Chopped Greens of choice. I used Pak Choi and Kale. I separate the stalks from the leaves of the Pak Choi as the stalks take longer to cook

Directions:

Salt & Pepper Chops and then pat them with a generous amount of Paprika on both sides
Heat a little Olive Oil in a deep frying pan or french skillet over medium high heat. You can also add a little butter for flavor if you wish.
Sear Pork Chops on both sides, then remove to a plate
Deglaze pan with wine
Add stock and some cornstarch for thickening. I used about 1 Tbsp.
Bring back to a boil
Return Pork Chops to pan, add the stalks of the pak choi, lower heat to a simmer
Cover the pan and cook the chops until they are almost done. The time will depend on the thickness of the chops. But shouldn't be more then a few minutes on each side.
Add the leaves of the pak choi and other greens of choice and cook for about 2-3 minutes longer
This dish can be served over rice, by itself or with fried rice

Enjoy!

What's been going in or out of your Cupboard lately?

Harvest Monday.............01/02/2012

2012-01-02T06:03:00.001-05:00

This week's Harvest Monday post includes the last harvest of 2011 and the first little harvest for 2012.

The Pak Choi in the one cold frame was starting to bolt. So, I pulled all of it. It really turned out to be a great year end harvest!

Not bad for the end of December....31.55 ounces!

As you can see, the bugs are still alive and doing a little nibbling on the veggies. I certainly hope that we get some seasonably cold weather this winter. If not, I am going to have a real bug problem come spring!

The last four carrots from the cold frames were pulled.

The big carrot weighed in at 4 ounces!

There was also some spinach to pick in the spinach bed.

It wasn't a lot. Just enough to put in the bottom of the fish casserole I was making with the left overs from our Christmas Eve feast.

Yesterday we stopped by the plots. I wanted to check on things since I haven't been there for a few weeks. While I was there I harvested a little broccoli crown.

Our first harvest of 2012...weighing in at 2 ounces!

Total weighed Harvests: 2011 - 2.64 lbs., 2012 - 2 oz.

2011
Carrots - 8.7 oz.
Pak Choi - 31.55 oz.
Spinach - 2 oz.

2012
Broccoli - 2 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's happening in Veggie Gardens around the globe!!

Happy New Gardening Year!

2012-01-01T09:14:00.000-05:00

Last year was an interesting gardening year for me. I had the excitement and hard work of getting our plots at the Community Garden. Although the extremes in the weather made for some disappointments. Looking back at the pictures, it was an amazing transformation.

February 24, 2011

May 16, 2011

July 14, 2011

August 31, 2011

As many of you know, the Community Garden is moving to a new location this year.....so, I get to do this all over again! I am really going to need a lot of support and please remind me that all the hard work will once again turn into this

and

this....and

this!

All in all I really can't complain about 2011. We got to meet 3 Garden Bloggers: Laura, Marcia and the crew at Spring Garden Acre. Now, what can be better then meeting some great new people?

We also ended the year with a harvest total of 726.25 lbs. Although I really did expect the total to be much higher. Who can complain about........

a couple of full cupboards, a full freezer and lots of other good veggies stored away to fill our bellies with great and nutritious food??

"The Italian" and I wish each and everyone of you a Happy, Healthy & Bountiful New Year!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard........12/29/2011

2011-12-29T06:44:00.000-05:00

Since we have been eating lots of fattening Holiday foods lately, I thought that this week I would post a nice healthy and nutritious meal that we make around here.

This is a basic Stir Fry that we truly enjoy. The recipe can be adjusted to add any wonderful veggies tht you have on hand and meat if you desire.

Stir Fry

Ingredients

3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoon brown sugar or honey
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch or another thickening agent like flour
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Veggies of your choice. I used Onions, Carrots, Pak Choi, Peppers & Mushrooms

Meat of your choice. I used some Flank Steak and left over Chicken.

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, rice wine, brown sugar and cornstarch. Set aside.
Heat oil in a wok or skillet over medium high heat. Stir-fry ginger and garlic for 30 seconds.
Add the Meat and stir-fry for a few minutes.
Remove the meat and add the Veggies and stir-fry for a few more minutes
Add the soy sauce mixture, bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat and simmer until the sauce is thick and smooth and Veggies are about done.
Add meat back in and simmer for a couple of minutes.
Serve over Rice or maybe Spaghetti Squash
Enjoy!!

Look at all those Beautiful Veggies from the garden!

The mushrooms are the only ingredient that we did not grow!

Yum!

What's been going in or out of your Cupboard lately?

Have a Blessed Christmas

2011-12-24T08:44:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!

Thursday's Christmas Kitchen Cupboard.......12/22/2011

2011-12-22T07:26:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I do a lot of baking for the Holidays. This year I did not do a single post on Holiday baking!

So, I decided for Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard. I would post some pictures of what I have been baking, a recipe or two and links to previous posts with some of the other recipes.

A post including two favorites around here, Chinese Christmas Cookies and Pecan Squares can be found here.

Chinese Christmas Cookies

Here we have from top to bottom: Snowballs (recipe below), Pecan Squares (recipe at link above) & Almond Crescents (recipe is also below).

A post with my favorite Holiday treat, Nanaimo Bars can be found here.

Oh boy....these babies are good and just a wee bit fattening!!!

This is a new cookie for me this year. Lynda at Cortina Creek Farms posted this recipe here. When I saw these cookies, I knew that I had to try the recipe with many of our homemade jams and jellies.

Aren't these just Beautiful?? Thanks Lynda!

I also made traditional Chocolate Chip Cookies and a variation using the base to that recipe.

White Chocolate Chip Cookies with Almonds.

I think that I like these better then the traditional Chocolate Chip Cookies made with semi-sweet chocolate & walnuts.

Snowball Christmas Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Softened Butter
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 Tbsp. Water
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/8 tsp. Salt
2 Cups Cake Flour
1 Cup Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Directions:

Cream together first 4 ingredients
Add Flour & Salt and mix well
Stir in Chocolate Morsels
Refrigerate for a couple of hours or days. I make my doughs ahead of time and then bake them all in one day.
Roll into 1" balls and place about 1" apart on lightly greased cookie sheet
Bake for 20-30 minutes at 300 F
Remove from oven and roll in colored sugar or plain sugar when still warm
Cool & enjoy!

Almond Crescents

Ingredients:

1 Cup Softened Butter
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Finely Ground Almonds

Directions:

Cream together first 3 ingredients
Mix in Flour and then Almonds
Refrigerate the same as the snowball recipe above
Roll about a teaspoon of dough into a log form, place on lightly greased cookie sheet in a crescent form and then press the edges down with your fingers. I really should have taken a picture of this...but, I forgot. If you look at the shape of them in the picture above, you will get the idea of the shape.
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the edges start to turn a golden color, at 300 F
Remove from sheet and sprinkle with Powdered Sugar
Cool & Enjoy!

I also made some labels for the Mustards. They are now ready to be given as Christmas Presents!

Here are some of the mustards ready to go.

As you can see I used various different jars that have been saved or given to me. I was so happy that I didn't have to use many small canning jars! There always seems to be a shortage of the small jars around here.

What has been going in or out of your Cupboard lately??

From "The Italian" and I to each and every one of you....Have a Wonderful Holiday and a Bountiful New Year!

Soil Block Mixture

2011-12-16T07:45:00.000-05:00

Recently "The Italian" got me a soil block maker for my Birthday. Since I have never made soil blocks before, I started doing a little research on making a good mixture to make the blocks. Jody over at Spring Garden Acre also has a soil block maker that he has never used.

We would both appreciate a little expert advise on what any of you use or any tips on making the blocks.

Thanks a bunch!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.........12/15/2011

2011-12-15T07:38:00.000-05:00

This past week I finally got around to grinding some of the dried peppers hanging around the kitchen. This task has been on my "to do" list for some time now. When you run out of Paprika in the pantry and Christmas is quickly approaching, you get the motivation to do it.

The Paprika is easy. All you have to do is remove the tops & seeds from the dried peppers

place them in a bowl, break them up into smaller pieces and

grind

And you have some beautiful ground Paprika Powder for cooking!

Making the requested Habanero Powder for my sister in-law is a little harder though. You will need a couple of additional items.

A mask & gloves!

Please don't try to do this without them.

The first thing that I did several months ago was dry them. I did not have success hanging them to dry as I do with the other peppers.

I cut the peppers in half, removed the seeds and tops and placed them on a rack.

Since I don't have a dehydrator, I dried them in the oven using the convection setting and set the temperature as low as I could. Once they were dried, they were cooled and stored in a glass jar until I got around to grinding them.

Here it is, Habanero Powder!

Another tip is to put a dish towel over the grinder when grinding hot peppers. This helps keep the powder out of the air.

What's been going in or out of your Cupboard lately??

Harvest Monday............12/12/2011

2011-12-12T05:58:00.000-05:00

This past week I have been getting some small harvests from the cold frames and a little from the spinach bed too.

A nice bowl of lettuce and finally some spinach!

The fattest carrot I have ever grown! One of four that survived the late planting.

Pak Choi

There are three varieties of Asian Veggies growing in the cold frames. The Tatsoi & Baby Choi are doing well with the exception of some nibbling from bugs. But, the Pak Choi pictured here is bolting. I guess there has been too much fluctuation in temperature with all the unseasonably warm weather and now cold weather.

Total weighed harvest - 1 lb.

Carrot - 4 oz.

Lettuce & Spinach - 4 oz.

Pak Choi - 8 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens around the globe!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........12/08/2011

2011-12-08T06:20:00.000-05:00

This week I finally got around to making the last jam of the year, Dutch Apple Pie Jam. If you like apple pie you will definitely love this jam! I found the recipe for this jam here.

This jam is a favorite among many of our friends and family.

Dutch Apple Pie Jam

Ingredients:

3-1/2 cups prepared fruit (about 1 lb. Granny Smith or other tart green apples)
1-1/2 cups water
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
4-1/2 cups granulated sugar, measured into separate bowl
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. butter or margarine (optional
1 pouch CERTO Fruit Pectin

Directions:

Peel and core apples. Chop finely or grind. Add water and raisins. Measure exactly 3-1/2 cups prepared fruit into 6- or 8-quart saucepot. Stir in lemon juice, cinnamon and allspice.
Stir sugars into prepared fruit in saucepot. Add butter to reduce foaming, if desired. Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly.
Stir in pectin quickly. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.
Ladle into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids.
Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.
ENJOY!

What's been going in or out of your Cupboard lately??

Gifts for the Gardener

2011-12-07T09:26:00.000-05:00

I had another Birthday this week and received some great gardening gifts! "The Italian" surprised me, as always. I had given him a list of a few things that I needed for Christmas and he got them for my BD!

One of Eliot Coleman's books that I did not have. This wasn't even on the list!

My first Soil Block Maker....I can't wait to use this!

I've been wanting to make cheese and heard this book has some good recipes.

I really needed a more precise scale for weighing the harvests and cooking. This is a small lightweight inexpensive scale that had good reviews.

I also found a surprise on the front porch!

This pretty box.....

With the cutest card....from my garden helper Sophia! Sophia has been my buddy since she moved here from Ghana. She has a natural talent for gardening and can tend to the plants growing in the basement and greenhouse better then our house sitter when we go away!

What a thoughtful gift! Now I have something to wash my dirty gardening hands with!

Harvest Monday...........12/05/2011

2011-12-05T07:47:00.000-05:00

This week I finally remembered to take a picture of something that has been harvested from the garden!

The bottoms of these green onions were used to make a wonderful Turkey Noodle Soup. The tops wll be used in another dish this week...probably a Gumbo or Jambalaya.

We have been using fresh herbs from the garden on a regular basis. But, I have not been taking any pictures or weighing them.

Yesterday I stopped by the plots. Our one gardening neighbor Bill was there and he was digging up his parsnips. Look what he gave me.

These two parsnips weigh 3 lbs. 9 oz. before trimming. I think that "The Italian" and I will get a couple of good meals from these babies!

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in gardens around the globe!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.........12/01/2011

2011-12-01T07:35:00.000-05:00

My goodness, I can't believe that it's already the first day of December! I really hope that the long days of winter fly by this fast!

All of the mustards are finished and ready to be put in jars! In addition to the mustards posted here, I made a Horseradish Mustard. This mustard was made on 11/21/11. The mustard had aged to a good flavor yesterday. The only problem is that was it was too thick. So I added more vinegar to it. The recipe below is adjusted accordingly.

Horseradish Mustard

2 oz. Mustard Flour or Dry Mustard (I used Dry Mustard)
3 oz. All-Purpose Flour
3 tsp. Salt
1 oz. White Sugar
3 oz. Fresh Grated Horseradish
1 Cup Cider Vinegar

Sift the flour
Add all of the other ingredients and mix thoroughly for a few minutes
Cover and let it stand for 1/2 hour, mix again
Put in a covered glass container and let it age for one week in a cool dark place.

When it's ready, put in jars and refrigerate

Here are all of the mustards ready to be put in jars.

From left to right: My Coarse Ground Mustard w/Beer (needs a new name), Yellow Mustard (made with ground mustard seeds), Yellow Mustard (made with dry mustard) Horseradish Mustard & Spicy Brown Mustard.

Coarse Ground Mustard w/Beer - This mustard was aged perfectly at two weeks. The flavor was OK...but, I wasn't completely happy. The recipe was adjusted by adding some Dry Mustard, Apple Cider Vinegar & a little Honey. The recipe has been adjusted and you can find it here. I really like this mustard now. We shall see what all the mustard lovers think of it after Christmas.

Yellow Mustard (made w/ ground mustard seeds) - This mustard was aged perfectly after two weeks also. It takes like a basic yellow mustard. The only difference is it is a little coarser due to using ground mustard seeds instead of dry mustard.

Yellow Mustard (made with dry mustard) - This mustard only needs to be aged for one week at the most. This is a perfect basic yellow mustard for those who aren't mustard connosiuers and just like plain old yellow mustard. The recipe can be found here.

Horseradish Mustard - This mustard was great after only one week of aging. I think that it will be a hit! You could even add a bit more horseradish if you love horseradish.

Spicy Brown Mustard - This mustard was perfect after aging for two weeks. It was almost everyone's favorite mustard last year.....it was definitely my favorite! The recipe can be found here.

All of these mustards will be put in various types of jars and many will be given for Christmas gifts.

What's been going in or out of your cupboard lately?

2011 Garden Overview & Totals......Part 2

2011-11-28T10:27:00.000-05:00

Part 1 of the 2011 Garden Overview & Totals can be found here. Part 1 started at Asian Veggies and ended at Garlic.

Greens: There were a few different veggies planted that I put in the Greens category. All were originally planted in the cold frames in early December of 2010. They all did well and we really enjoyed them. This year I planted an additional variety of kale in the cold frames.

    Arugala - 1.3125 lbs.
    Chard - Rainbow - 2.0625 lbs.
    Collards - Vates - 1.375 lbs.
    Kale - Squire - 1 lb.

Kohlrabi: I have always thought that Kohlrabi was a very cool looking plant. I had never tasted it but planted it because I had the room and I thought that it was very cool. The varieties planted were Early Purple Vienna & Early White Vienna. Both did very well at the plots. I am not sure if I will start any this winter for next year since I don't know if the new gardens will be ready in time for planting.

    Early Purple Vienna - 1.9375 lbs.
    Early White Vienna - 1.9375 lbs.

Leeks: It was a very strange year for leeks. I usually don't start harvesting them until fall and leave many in the garden to harvest during the winter. This year many of them had to be harvested early since they were getting slimy. I think it was due to the excessive heat then the excessive rain. The remaining few were harvested a couple of weeks ago for two reasons. One, bad planning on my part at the home garden. Two, I didn't want to leave the remaining 4 at the plots over the winter. Total harvest was 7.125 lbs.

Lettuce: I didn't do a very good job of separating the weights of the different varieties of lettuce. The varieties planted this year were; Romaine, Freckles Romaine, Buttercrunch, Gourmet Mix, Eva's Burgundy, Rocky Top & Quattro Stagioni Sel. Rossina Di Pescia. Total harvested - 12.9 lbs.
I really need to do a better job keeping lettuce growing in the garden. I was so so late starting lettuce for a later crop.

Melons:

Watermelon: There were two varieties of watermelon planted at the plots; Sugar Baby & Moon & Stars. Both varieties had an encounter with the groundhog. The little monster ate the Sugar Baby melons when they were young. So we didn't get any for ourselves. We did manage to harvest a couple small Moon & Stars though. Total harvested - 8 lbs.

Cantaloupe: Two varieties of cantaloupe were planted at the plots; Organic Delicious & French. They did OK and both varieties were good. I was really bad at my record keeping and don't remember the details and which did better. The Total harvest was - 13 lbs.

Misc. Melons: Two other varieties of melons were also planted at the plots, Korean & Tularosa. The Korean melons were from seeds that I had saved from a melon that a dear friend of ours gave us a couple of years ago. This melon did OK and 1 lb. of fruit was havested. I was very excited about the Tularosa melon. The seed was gift from Holly. This melon is supposed to be wonderful! I ended up with only one plant. It was planted at the plots and was doing well. One day it just died. I have no idea why. It was fine one day and wilted the next.

Onions: All of the onions this past year were planted from sets or purchased plants. I had such a bad year when I started them from seed. It was so much work and the results were the worst that I had ever had. Maybe some day I will try my hand at growing them from seed again. All of this years varieties were storage onions. Sown from sets were Red Baron & Stuttergarter. Sown from purchased plants were Red Zepplin & Copra. The onions really liked the soil at the plots and did great! I didn't separate the totals of the two different varieties of red & white. Next year we are planning on sowing some sweet onions in addition to storage onions. I think that we also need more poundage to get us through the year. We shall see how we make out.

    Red Onions: 23.3 lbs
    White Onions: 16.5 lbs.
    Spring Onions: .7 lbs

Peas: There were a lot of different types of peas planted this year. Some were planted at the home garden and some at the plots. The peas did pretty well. I did notice that of the varieties of peas that were planted in both locations, the ones planted in the home garden did better.

Shelling Peas: The only variety of shelling peas that were sown were Little Marvel. Some were sown at the home garden and some at the plots. Most of the first sowing at the plots rotted due to the excessive rains we had. The Total harvest was 4 lbs. Next year I will be adding some new shelling varieties.
Snow Peas: There were three varieties of snow peas planted; Oregon Giant, Mammoth Melting & Carouby de Maussane. The Oregon Giant & Mammoth Melting were sown both in the home garden and the plots. They did pretty well. The early peas of these two varieties were great. As the season moved on the peas got tough and stringy and the plants were pulled. The Carouby de Maussane were only sown at the plots and did not do very well at all. I don't think that I will be planting that variety again. Total harvest was 4.7 lbs.
Snap Vine Peas: We had some great new snap pea varieties this year that we absolutely loved! These were; Spring Blush Snap & Sugar Magnoila Purple Snap. Both varieties are vining and were purchased from Peace Seeds. The Spring Blush peas were sown in the home garden and yielded 1.8 lbs. The Sugar Magnoila peas were sown at the plots and yielded 2.6 lbs. Both of these varieties will definitely be planted next year!

Peppers: It was definitely the year of the pepper for us! They just would stop producing!!

Hot Peppers:

Habanero - This one plant, seed from Mimi, produced the biggest Habanero peppers that I have ever seen. This baby just kept going and going!! I have a lot of them dried that need to be ground for Habanero Powder....which was requested by my Sister In-law.
Jalapeno - These seemed to produce at their normal rate and we had plenty pickled for use over the winter. The Jalapeno peppers were extremely hot this year.....right from the start.
Pepperoncini - These seeds were from Thomas. This pepper has got to be one of the most prolific varieties! It was amazing how many I got from just 3 plants! I have to say that I am disappointed in the flavor though. They were very bitter with an odd flavor. I love pickled pepperoncinis on just about everything. I am going to have to look for a different variety though.

Spice Peppers:

Cayenne - The Cayenne peppers seemed to produce at their normal rate. There are plenty dried that need to be ground for cayenne pepper.
Paprika Hungarian - The Paprika peppers did very well this year. They were much larger then usual. There are also plenty of these dried waiting to be ground in to powder for cooking.
Pimento - The pimentos started out great....until the groundhog decided that he was going to eat each and every one of them. I only managed to harvest two before he had his feast! We were really looking forward to canning these.

Total Hot & Spice Pepper Harvest - 25.7 lbs

Sweet Peppers:

Orange Bell - These were very prolific this year. I just wish that they would turn color quicker. I may need to look for a variety that gets a little bigger and turns color quicker. I'm open for any suggestions.
Corona - Yellow Bell - This variety produced well also. It does have a few problems though. The color is the same as the orange bell, it doesn't turn color quick enough and they aren't all that big. I am open for suggestions on a yellow bell as well.
Red - Corno Di Toro -Italian Heirloom frying - This also did very well since it was the year of the pepper.
Red - Marconi - Italian Heirloom frying - This pepper did great and is bigger then the Corno Di Toro.
Red Bell - Quadrato Rosso D'Asti - Granny gave me this seed. I have to say that this pepper is wonderful! They are big bells that turn an absolutely perfect lipstick red! Now, if I can only find an orange & yellow bell that are this good!

Total Sweet Pepper harvest - 51.2 lbs.

Potatoes: I planted three varieties of potatoes this year; Yukon Gold, Sagre Red & Kennebec. I choose these varieties because they were early or mid-season potatoes and are supposed to be good for storage. Even though we did have some problems with the potatoes this year, they did pretty well. The Yukon Golds were planted in a bed next door at the rental house that I use to own. They started to look like they had a disease. So, I pulled them early. I also planted half of the Sagre Reds there and half at the plots. All of the Kennebecs were planted at the plots. While digging around for some potatoes at the plots, I noticed that something had been nibbling at them. So, all of those potatoes were pulled early too. The Yukon Gold is our favorite potato. The Sagre Red were OK, but I have had better red potatoes before. The Kennebecs were definitely the best performers. I think that I am going to look for a different variety of red potatoes to plant next year. I planted 2 1/2 lbs of each variety and the harvests were as follows.

Yukon Gold - 7.5 lbs.
Sagre Red - 9.5 lbs.
Kennebec - 23.1 lbs.

Raspberries & Blackberries - All of the raspberries were Heritage. Some were new canes that I planted and some were already at the plots. They didn't do all that well. There was an early modest harvest and no fall harvest due to the hurricane. The total harvest was 3.7 lbs. The blackberries that were at the plots when we got them are a variety called Hull. I have to say that we really really loved those blackberries. They made the best jam ever! The total blackberry harvest was 11.5 lbs. I am planning on moving some of them to the new Community Garden location early next spring.

Spinach- I have to admit that spinach has got to be the most difficult crop for me to grow. I have tried everything. The best crop that I had was last year when I got so disgusted that I just ignored it and we went on vacation. When we came home we had tons of spinach. Maybe it needs the passive gardening approach. This year I got absolutely nothing from the spring crop. So in disgust, I threw a ton of seeds at the one end of the one bed at the home garden for a fall crop. I think that I planted a couple of varieties of Bloomsdale and maybe some Matador. They are growing! So, we may have some fall spinach after all. If not, we will definitely have some in the spring!

Strawberries - I planted a new strawberry bed at the plots this year. There were three varieties planted; Jewel & Annapolis (June bearing) and Ozark Beauty (everbearing). They did not do very well. They all took off early in the season.Then they had a hard time with the many heat waves that we had and a long hot drought period and then tons of rain. I think that I have lost many of the plants. It looks like I may have to buy some more next year. The total harvest was 4.2 lbs.

Squash:

Summer: The only variety of summer squash that was planted was Cocozelle Italian Zucchini. We really like this variety and it did well this year. No SVB's! Total harvest was 17.7 lbs.

Winter:

Spaghetti Squash - The spaghetti squash were planted at the home garden along the fence at the end of the herb garden. We won the SVB war with these too! Total harvest 23 lbs.
Sweet Dumpling - These were planted at the plots in the one Three Sister's planting. The squash bugs tried their best to get to them. But we ended up with a decent harvest of 8.8 lbs.
Field Pumpkin - The SVB's got to the pumpkin vines and we only ended up with one orange pumpkin that weighed 6 lbs.
Long Island Cheese Squash - The seeds for this squash were from Mimi. They were quite small but did well. This is the squash that I used to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. Total harvest 6 lbs.
Greek Winter Squash - Jane in Maui gave me these seeds and I was very excited about this squash. The vine grew like crazy but it failed to produce one single female flower.
Fortna White Pumpkin - I planted this pumpkin because I thought that white pumpkins were pretty cool. They are on the small side. But, they did well. Total harvest 16.2 lbs. We haven't eaten any of them yet. So, I can't give an opinion on their taste.

Tomatoes - It definitely was not the year of the tomato here in eastern PA! The total tomato harvest was 316.8 lbs. I did a tomato review that you can read here.

That's about it for the 2011 Garden Overview & Totals. I will do a short post on the herbs this year....even though I failed to weigh any of them!

Here's to a great gardening year for all in 2012!!!

2011 Garden Overview & Totals ...... Part 1

2011-11-27T07:53:00.000-05:00

This was not the best gardening year for any of us...but, I'm not going to complain too much! This year there was a lot of work getting the plots going. It looks like next year is going to be a lot of work too since the Community Garden is moving.

The total weighed harvest from the gardens to date is a little over 720 lbs. Considering the fact that last year I harvested more then 400 lbs. from 230 square feet of actual garden space and this year I harvested 720 lbs. from about 1000 square feet. It was not the best year. OK, that's the end of my complaining!

I will do this post the same as I did it last year, in alphabetical order. This may be a bit lenghty and boring. But, is part of my garden record keeping.

Asian Veggies: I planted three varieties of Asian veggies this year; Pak Choi, Baby Choi & Chinese Tatsoi. The Baby Choi and Tatsoi did better then the Pak Choi. Due to a fluctuation in temperature, the Pak Choi bolted very early. I was extremely pleased with the Baby Choi's production. I presently have all three of these varieties growing in the cold frames and it looks like we will harvesting some soon.

    Pak Choi - 1 lb
    Baby Choi - 7.625 lbs.
    Tatsoi - 1.0625 lbs.
    Total - 9.6875 lbs

Asparagus: Two new asparagus beds were planted at the plots. One bed was planted with Jersey Supreme Hybrid and the other bed with Purple Passion. Both beds did well and are prepped for the winter. Hopefully the moving of these beds will be a success come next year.

Beans:

Pole Beans: I planted two varieties of purple pole beans; Dean's Purple Snap & Blue Coco Snap. These were planted late at the end of June due to the fact that I didn't get a place ready for them at the plots. Then we had the hurricane, which blew the tee-pee down. We did manage to get 3.375 lbs. from them but not enough to freeze any. Next year I am planning to sow them on time and also add two additional varieties, Chinese Red Noodle and Red-Seeded Asparagus. It's going to be a beanless winter :(

Fava Beans: This was the first time that I planted Fava Beans. The variety was Precoce A Grano Violetta. Unfortunately ants got into the plants and we were only able to taste a few. They were absolutley wonderful! I am looking forward to planting some Fava Beans next year.

Lima Beans: The limas were also planted way too late. The variety sown was King of the Garden Pole.
Due to the very late planting and all of the rain at the end of the season. None were harvested.

Dry Beans: The dry beans were planted as a second crop and in empty spaces I had both at the plots and the home garden. Due to the excessive rain late in the season, I feel the harvest was about 50% less then it should have been. We did loose one variety entirely. But, we do have enough stored for some home made baked beans and some soup & chili.

    Great Northern Bush- 3 lbs.
    Jacob's Cattle Bush - 13 oz.
    Coco-Rubico Bush - 6 oz.
    Kidney Bush - 1.5 lbs.
    Trail of Tears Pole - 10 oz.
    Sadie's Horse Runner - None

Broccoli: This was the worst year I have ever had for broccoli. I would say it was a total failure. The spring broccoli bolted due the heat and the fall broccoli has been basically destroyed by the ground hog at the plots. Two varieties were planted; Walthan 29 & Calabrese. I have added some new varieties to the list for next year and also some Broccoli Raab. A few will be planted at the home garden in the spring next year since I'm not sure if the plots will be ready. It was disappointing...but, I have never really had a problem in the past. A total of 1.1875 lbs is all that has been harvested so far this year.

Brussels Sprouts: This is my second attempt at growing brussels sprouts and quite frankly my last for a couple of years. I only harvested a handful last year. This year I thought that I would not have any to harvest. After a recent visit to the plots, it looks like there may be some after all. I planted Long Island & Falstaff. These plants are heavy feeders & take up a lot of room. I am planning to try them again once the soil is established at the plots.

Cabbage: The cabbage did OK this year. Three varieties were planted; Chiefton Savoy, Red Acre & Tet Noire. I only planted 3 of each since I wasn't planning to make sauerkraut this year. They all produced small heads and it was enough for the two of us. I even managed to freeze 3 nice portions of Braised Red Cabbage for use over the winter.

    Chiefton Savoy - 3.75 lbs.
    Red Acre - 4.875 lbs
    Tet Noire - 4.25 lbs.

Carrots: The early planting of carrots did well. I planted Chantenay Royal, Parisienne, Danver's Half Long & Scarlet Nantes in the spring with a total harvest of 5.875 lbs. The later sowings did not do well. The seedlings kept dying from the heat. We only have 4 carrots growing right now! Hopefully I will be able to produce more carrots next year since they are a definitel staple for cooking.

Cauliflower: This was another crop that had a difficult time this year. I planted three varieties; Early Snowball, Silver Cup & Igloo. They also had a difficult time with the extreme early heat and the fall crop...well, the ground hog. The total harvest was 2.21875 lbs. Not nearly enough for us. I have always had success with this crop in the past. I will also plant a few in the home garden next spring and may look into some different varieties.

Celery: I always plant Golden Self Blanching Celery. The celery did very well this year. I planted some in the home garden and some at the plots. The home garden celery was harvested first and was absolutely beautiful! I thought that the celery at the plots was going to be a failure and procrastinated in pulling it. I am very happy that I did. It turned around and gave us a nice harvest. I also managed to get 3 small shoots from these plants that are now growing in the cold frames. I also noticed a couple of days ago that there is some celery growing out of the bottom of one of the compost bins! Another note, the celery this year was not nearly as strong as celery I have grown in the past. Total harvest 10.4375 lbs.

Ground Cherries: I recieved some Aunt Mollie's seeds as a free gift from one of the seed companies last year. I planted two in pots on the deck at home. They didn't really seem to ripen as they should. The dang squirrels definitely enjoyed them! I'm not sure if I will try them again next year.

Corn: I planted some Japanese Hulless Popcorn for the first time at the plots in two Three Sisters Plantings. They were planted a bit late and the very small harvest has yet to be tested. I'm planning on planting the popcorn again next year in the same fashion and am adding a variety called Strawberry. I so enjoyed the popcorn that my mother planted and I'm not giving up!

Cucumbers: What a time I had with the cucumbers this year! I usually have way too many and end up pulling most of the vines when the pickles are made. The plan was to sow Japanese Climbing & a Slicing variety in the home garden. The Little Tykes & Gherkins were to be sown at the plots for pickle making. Well the first planting at the plots failed and all I had left was more Gherkin seeds, which turned out to be an actual spiky Gherkin variety. That was not the description of the seeds. At home, I usually plant the cucumbers where some of the early peas were planted. It usually works well as I won't have to make pickles at the same time the tomato glut comes in. The cucumbers at home didn't do well and died early. This happened to a lot of people in our area. It must have been the weather. We did harvest enough for some pickle making. Later I found some from a local farmer and we are good in the pickle department. Next year I am going to plan a little differently for the cucumbers. There have also been some new varieties added to the list.

    Japanese & Slicing - 7.34375
    Gherkin - 1.47 lbs.

Eggplant: There were four varieties of eggplants planted; Black Beauty, Early Black Egg, Rosa Bianca & Lunga Violetta Di Firenze. Only the Rosa Bianca eggplants were the normal size. The other three varieties were less then half the size they normally are. The harvest was enough to make eggplant caponata and were we also able to freeze some. The total harvest was 17.344 lbs.

Garlic: I don't know what I was thinking when I planted the garlic. I only planted 55 cloves. That's hardly enough for "The Italian". The varieties were Siberian & some Misc. varieties that got mixed up over the years The heads were smaller then normal. Hopefully we will have enough to get through the year since we were still using the stored garlic from the previous year long after this years was harvested. This fall I purchased new garlic for planting and should definitely have enough for use and planting next year.

    Garlic Scapes - 10 oz.
    Garlic Heads - 5.125 lbs.

That's it for Part 1. Part 2 to follow and it will begin at Greens.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.....Thanksgving Edition.....11/24/2011

2011-11-24T05:57:00.000-05:00

In all my blondness, last Thursday I didn't realize that this Thursday was Thanksgiving. If so, I would have mentioned that I would do a Thanksgiving Edition of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard. In this post I am posting what has been made or served for our Thanksgiving feast from our stored goods.

Appetizers:
Eggplant Caponata - canned - served with homemade toasted French bread
Cheddar Cookies - served with various homemade jellies & jams
Tapanata - served with homemade toasted French bread

A couple of months ago I found this great recipe for Cheddar and Pepper Jelly Cookies here. We decided that these cookies would be great served with various jams & jellies as an appetizer for Thanksgiving.

Cheddar Cookies

8 oz (2 cups) Sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
6 TBL (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup flour

Directions:

Place cheese and butter in a food processor (could be creamed by hand or mixer); add flour and process until the mixture forms a soft dough. Gather up the dough and divide into two flat disks. Wrap in wax paper and freeze until chilled, about 45 minutes. (I made my dough ahead of time and put it in the frig.)
Position two racks in the center and top third of the oven and preheat to 400°. Line two baking sheets with parchment or use nonstick sheets.
Using 1 teaspoon dough for each, roll the dough into small balls and place 1 inch apart on the sheets. Bake 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and make an indentation in each cookie for the jelly.
At this point the original recipe states to put a dollop of jelly on each cookie and return to the oven. Since we are serving these with various jellies and jams, I just returned them to the oven and baked until done about 5-8 minutes for my oven.
Transfer to racks and cool completely. Recipe makes about 20 cookies. I made a double batch and made them a bit smaller.

The Feast:
Stuffing made with homemade bread & Herbs, Celery & Onions from the garden.
Mashed Potatoes - from the garden
Applesauce - canned

Desserts:
Pumpkin Pie - made with fresh cooked Long Island Cheese Squash from the garden
Cherry Pie - made with frozen local sour cherries

I think that this is going to be the best tasting pumkin pie that I have ever made. The squash batter tasted just wonderful before I cooked it!

Yum, yum.....Cherry Pie...my favorite!!

The rest of the feast was made with locally grown produce. I also made the Brown Bag Apple Pie.....yum! The locally grown Granny Smith Apples were the biggest, yugliest and best apples that I have ever had! I only used 5 apples for one big pie!

Isn't that just wonderful???

From our hearts to you.....Wishing each and every one of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Next Thursday I will do an update on the mustards and post the Horseradish Mustard recipe.

I may not have the time today to respond to all your comments or visit your blogs...since we still need to make the Living Room the Dining Room and the Dining Room the Living Room like we did last year.

Cold Frame Maintenance & Changes

2011-11-20T07:48:00.000-05:00

I've been doing a little maintenance on the cold frames. Before we went on vacation I did a little work on the tops. First I put some sturdier braces on the corners. Some of the original ones were not real sturdy and the tops started to twist a bit. Then I put new plastic on the tops. The plastic that we had originally used was some that we had around. It was not the proper plastic to use for the tops.....but, it was free. This year we decided to buy the proper type of plastic for the tops. I did some searching and found greenhouse plastic that is supposed to last for 4 years. I purchased enough to re-cover them twice. It was about the same price with shipping as buying a roll of plastic at a Big Box Store. I can either use it to cover them again or to make a protective covering if needed in the garden.

I was not happy with the original supports to hold the tops open. They were short and could not hold the tops open very wide...so I made some new ones. I just took some stakes that I had around and drilled holes in them. They seem to be working well. We shall see how I feel during the cold winter days.

I also put concrete blocks in the front to put the bottom of the stakes in. I think this will work much better and I will now be able to adjust the height of the opening to as small or as large as needed.

The rope lights that were in the cold frames last year were also re-installed. I wasn't going to put them in. However, they seemed to work well last year. So, I decided to put them back. One of you bloggers out there (I don't remember who) did a post with a link to an article about winter greenhouse growing. The article said that if you have 1-2 hours of additional light during the night, it will stimulate growth during the winter. After reading the article I decided to add one light per cold frame. They are connected to a timer and come on for 2 hours in the middle of the night.

I found everything that I needed to make the lights in the basement.

The only problem that I am having besides the hungry bugs is this.

The timer would not fit under the flap to the exterior water proof outlet cover. I removed it and replaced it with an indoor one. Now I have to find a cover that will protect the outlet and the timer from the rain. I'm sure I will think of something. If not "The Italian" always seems to come up with innovative ideas!

Community Garden Move Update

2011-11-18T09:53:00.000-05:00

Many of you are probably wondering what is going on with the garden move......Well, not much! In case you didn't know I was picked as one of the 4 gardeners on the Garden Commitee. We have had two meetings so far. I missed the first one since we were on vacation at the time. The second meeting went well with the limited information that has been given to Farmland Preservation so far.

The new site was changed to a different location. The new new location is behind the county garage not far from the current site.

The good thing about this site is that it can't be sold. There are a couple of not so good things though. The plots are 10' smaller then the old plots. So I will loose 400 square feet of space. My neighbor (since you are only allowed one per address) is on the waiting list for a plot. I have made three different garden layouts so far. Plan One, if we only get two plots together. Plan Two, if we get all three together and Plan Three , if we get two together and one separate.

The other not so good thing is that the land will not be prepared until late winter or early spring, depending on the weather. The original plan was to have it done this fall. I guess that there are reasons, unknown to the Garden Committee as to why this is not being done. You must remember that this is government at work. The land will be prepped using a tractor and spader. This method is much better then conventional tilling.

I also received a copy of the soil test for the new site.

It really would have been very beneficial if the soil could have been prepped this fall. Oh well, it's a good thing that my favorite garden center is having a big sale! All bagged humus, dehydrated manure and leaf compost is 75% off! So far I have purchased (30) 40lb. bags of humus for .80 a bag and (30) 40 lb. bags of dehydrated manure for 1.29 a bag. I think that I will be there tomorrow buying some more!

I'm also in the process of contacting local schools to find volunteers to help with the move. Farmland Preservation has been told by "The Powers that Be", that there will be no help available to the gardeners from the county workers for the move.

That's about it for now. I will post additional information as it becomes available.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..........11/17/2011

2011-11-17T06:39:00.001-05:00

For those of you who have been stopping by this blog for awhile. You may remember my first attempt at making mustards last year. You can read Part 1 here, Update 1 here and Update 2 here.

Last year I made four varieties of mustard; Spicy Brown, Bavarian Whole Seed, Coarse Ground Yellow & Coarse Ground w/Red Wine.

The Spicy Brown Mustard was perfect and everyones favorite with the exception of my one best friend, who is a mustard freak like me. Her favorite was the Bavarian Whole Seed Mustard.

This year I decided to make two double batches of the Spicy Brown Mustard, two versions of American Yellow Mustard, Horseradish Mustard & my own recipe, which is Coarse Ground Mustard w/beer.

All of the mustards are made and then placed in a cool dark place to age. The mustards are extremely strong when first made. The aging will mellow the flavor. Once the flavor is to your liking, place it in the refrigerator to keep the flavor to the desired pungency level.

The recipe for the Spicy Brown Mustard can be found here. The only adjustment that I made was to use half the salt.

The original American Yellow Mustard can be found here. I also cut the salt in half.

The second version the American Yellow Mustard was made very similar to the first. The only change that I have made so far is I took yellow mustard seeds and ground them a bit to use instead of store bought ground mustard or mustard flour. This will make for a some what coarse mustard. I may have to add a bit of the store bought ground mustard as it may be a bit too thin. We shall see how it is after aging for a week in the basement.

This is a double batch of each of the following ready to be aged: American Yellow w/ground seeds, American Yellow & Spicy Brown.

My goal is to make a similar, but better mustard then the Bavarian Whole Seed Mustard that I made last year. I felt that it was too thick and too coarse. I did a little research and found another mustard recipe that was a whole seed mustard and also used beer. This is what I came up with.

Coarse Ground Mustard w/Beer - Notes in red are adjustments to the recipe

1/2 Cup Brown Mustard Seeds
1/2 Cup Yellow Mustard Seeds
1 1/2 Cups Beer
1/2 Cup Malt Vinegar
1/2 Cup lightly packed Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Dry Mustard + 2 Tbsp.
1 Tbsp. Onion Powder
2 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbsp. Honey

Instructions:

Partially grind mustard seeds in spice or coffee grinder. I suppose you could grind them by hand with a mortar and pestle.
Soak the mustard seeds in beer overnight. The beer will foam up when you add the seeds. So make sure you have a big enough bowl.
Place soaked seeds and remaining ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until evenly mixed.
Put mixture in glass container, cover and age in a cool dark place until desired flavor is reached.

This is the coarse ground mustard seeds after soaking in beer overnight. The remaining ingredients will be added and it will be put in storage to age.

The Horseradish Mustard will be started this afternoon since I wanted to get the horseradish from the Farmer's Market.

I will do an update on the mustards next week and also post the recipe for the Horseradish Mustard and let you know if I have made any adjustments to the recipes.

What's been going in or out of your cupboard lately??

Harvest Monday...................11/14/2011

2011-11-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

This past week I harvested the remaining leeks from both gardens. There were two leeks left in one of the beds at home and four leeks left at the plots. They aren't all that big....but, they will make a nice soup!

Normally a lot of the leeks are left in the garden to harvest over the winter. This year due to bad planning on my part at the home garden and the weather....all of them are now out of the ground.

Note: We are going away for most of the day. So, I may not get to respond to your comment or visit your blog until tomorrow.

Total weighed Harvest: 1.25 lbs of Leeks

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens around the Globe!!

2011 Tomato Overview

2011-11-12T10:38:00.001-05:00

2011 was not the year of the tomato here in Eastern Pennsylvania. I'm not going to complain too much since we did manage to get enough tomato products put up for the year. With the exception of tomato catsup, none was made.

The total weighed tomato harvest was 316.8 lbs from 42 plants. This is considerably less then I expected since we harvested 221.2 lbs from 19 plants in 2010 and only 16 were really productive (due to a very late planting of 3 of the plants).

The first ripe tomatoes were the Matt's Wild Cherry. 2 little cuties were harvested on June 16th. The first big tomato was a Cherokee Purple, seed from Daphne, weighing 4 oz. on July 1st.

The largest tomato this year was a Pineapple, seed from Diana, weighing in at 2 lbs. 9.5 oz. It was the largest tomato I have ever grown....and tasty too!

I also did a Cherokee Purple experiment with 4 plants from 4 different seed sources. Due to the weather conditions this year, I am going to do the experiment again next year. I will post the results from this year in a separate post.

Red Varieties:

Amish Paste - Indeterminate - Seed from Thomas - This was the first year that I planted this variety. It is a nice meaty and somewhat oval shaped tomato. The fruits weigh about 5-9 ounces. It is a great tomato for cooking, canning & slicing. This variety did fairly well with the horrible weather conditions this year. It's a definite for next year.

Belgian Beauty - Indeterminate - Seed from Landis Valley - This was the first year that I planted this variety. The fruits are round, meaty and low acid. The first few were a good size around 1 lb. This plant did not do the best this year due to the weather conditions. I am going to plant it again next year.

Matt's Wild Cherry - Indeterminate - Original seed from Amishland Seeds - As always, this variety did great. It's a non-stop producing plant that fares well in any conditions.

Howard's German Red - Indeterminate - Original seed from Amishland Seeds - This is one of our favorite overall tomatoes. It normally has large long pointed very meaty fruit. Although you would think that this is a tomato for cooking and canning, it is a wonderful tasting tomato for slicing. This variety did not do well with the weather this year. I will be planting it again since it is a great tomato and has always done well in the past.

Paulina - Indeterminate - This tomato is from seed that I saved a couple of years ago. The original tomato was purchased from an Organic Amish Heirloom Tomato Farm nearby. This variety is very similar to the Amish Paste tomato and the results were about the same. This tomato will be planted again next year.

San Marzano - Semi-determinant - Seed from In-laws trips to Italy - My in-laws have brought me this variety of seed on two separate trips to Italy. I have to say that I have not be happy with the results. Every year, I say that I will give it one more try. The fruits are very small, take forever to ripen, production is low and is always the first to disease. I don't think I will be planting this one again. I am going to try another source for this tomato next year though.

Reigart Plum - Indeterminate - Seed from Landis Valley - This was my first year planting this variety. It is a small oval tomato that is a about twice the size of a grape tomato. Although it is not that big, I really liked this tomato. It did very well this year in spite of the horrible conditions. It is a meaty tomato and is great for cooking, canning and salads. It's on the list for next year.

Pink/Purple Varieties:

Glick's Brandywine - Indeterminate - Original seed from Amishland Seeds - This is a great tasting slicing tomato. Last year this variety produced the largest fruit. Things were a bit different this year due to the weather. It had the same problem that I had with many of the other varieties. It was unusually deformed, had a lot cracking and a hard time ripening. Seed Origin; The history is that the seed came via Glen Brendle, whose family obtained it from Isaac N. Glick, an early seedsman from Lancaster, PA, who distributed seed for Johnson and Stokes Seeds of Philadelphia. Brandywine Tomato was first introduced by them in 1889. This is supposed to be the most original of the many Brandywine strains. It is on the list for next year.

Tiffens Mennonite - Indeterminate - Original seed from Amishland Seeds - This is a Mennonite Heirloom potato leaf variety very similar to a Brandywine. The fruits have a wonderful flavor and are great for slicing. This variety is usually a good producer with large fruits. Due to the weather, I had the same problem with this variety this year that I had with many of the other varieties. It was unusually deformed, had a lot cracking and a hard time ripening. It is on the list for next year.

Purple Varieties:

Cherokee Purple - Indeterminate - Seeds from Daphne, Diana, EG & Thomas - What can I say...it's a CP! We just love this tomato and we were very pleased with all 4 seed sources! This variety did have a difficult time with our horrible weather conditions though. It was unusually deformed, had a lot cracking and a hard time ripening. Of course all four are on the list for next year!

Eva's Purple Ball - Indeterminate - Original seed from Amishland Seeds - It's a smaller very round fruit ranging on the average 5-8 oz. each, just the right size for lunch. This is a wonderful tasting tomato, extremely prolific, disease tolerant and also good for cooking and canning. This has got to be the most dependable variety that I have ever planted! No matter what the conditions, the fruits are the same size and the plant keeps producing. Seed origin; This is a late 1800's heirloom tomato from The Black Forest Region in Germany via Joe Bratka's grandfather who kept this wonderful heirloom tomato from dying out. Joe donated seed to a seed saving organization in 1992. We are planting a lot of this variety next year!

Purple Calabash - Indeterminate - Seed from Emily - This is a beautiful purple tomato with a lot of ridges and a wonderful flavor! The fruits are of a a medium size. It was very prolific and did fairly well with the weather conditions. This variety will also be planted next year.

Other Colors:

Pineapple - Indeterminate - Seed from Diana - This is a great tasting and absolutely beautiful tomato! The fruits are yellow and red and extremely large. This plant produced the largest tomato this year. There wasn't a fruit that was under 1 1/2 lbs! The fruit does ripen a bit later then most tomatoes...but, it is a must for anyone who loves tomatoes. The plant got very large and did better then most in spite of our weather this year. Of course we are planting this one next year.

White Tomesol - Indeterminate - Original seed from Amishland Seeds - We really like this tomato. It's a very pretty white variety that has a very nice flavor. The taste is light, not acidy at all, not too sweet or rich, just light. It is normally a pretty good producer with medium to large fruits. This year the fruits were much smaller then in the past. The plant did OK with the weather conditions. It's on the list for next year.

Black Cherry - Indeterminate - Seed from EG - This is a great tasting tomato! The fruits are usually about 1 oz each....very big for a cherry variety. The plant was very large, produced a tremendous amount of fruit, disease resistant and did exceptionally well with the weather conditions. It's a go for next year!

Paul Robeson - Indeterminate - Seed from EG - This is a large black tomato. Although CP's have always been our favorite eating tomato, I think that I can say this variety is as good! The first few fruits were very large and absolutely wonderful! As the weather deteriorated, I had the same problem with this one as I had with the CP's, Brandywine and many other varieties. It became unusually deformed, had a lot cracking and a hard time ripening. It's on the list for next year.

Kellogg's Breakfast - Indeterminate - Seed from EG - This is a wonderful orange colored tomato with very large fruit! They are very meaty and about the same size as the Pineapple tomatoes. Most of the fruits were at least 1 1/2 lbs. It is a low acid fruit and was also the favorite eating tomato of many who tasted it about here. It ripened a little later then many of the other varieties. It did fairly well with the weather this year. It is also a go for next year.

Due to the weather, this was a very difficult year to get a good review of the tomatoes. I hope that you all enjoyed the review and don't hesitate to ask a question. Hopefully next year, I will be a bit more organized and take pictures of each and every variety to add to my review.

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard..............11/10/2011

2011-11-10T07:33:00.000-05:00

So far this year I have canned almost 300 jars of food. Most of our canned goods are stored in the basement. I have this great old cupboard that I keep a lot of the jars in.

I do try to keep everything organized in order to find something without moving too much. I try to keep canned goods from the previous year on the top shelf. As you can see it's pretty much full.

So......

I have some tomatoes here.....and

some tomato puree on another shelf....I really think that I need to re-organize the basement shelves. It's a hot mess down there! I think that The Italian Santa is getting me a pressure canner for Christmas...so, I'm sure I will need a lot more space!

I did not do any canning or preserving this week. So, I thought that I would share a recipe. This is a great red sauce with sausage, wine & vinegar that we really enjoy. I'm not sure what region it is from in Italy. I think that "The Italian" was watching Lydia one day and she made something similar.

Red Sauce w/Sausage

Ingredients:

Sausage removed from casing. You can use sweet or hot. This time I used two links of each of our homemade sausage.
Red Wine (preferably free from your wine collecting neighbor)
Olive Oil
Tomato Puree or whole canned tomatoes pureed
Vinegar
Onion (optional)
Pickled Hot Peppers
Pasta of choice

Directions:

Remove sausage from casing, put in a bowl, mush with fork and cover with red wine. Use plenty of wine.
Let the sausage sit and absorb the wine for about 30 minutes. You may need to add a bit more wine if the sausage absorbs it quickly.
Chop onions, if desried. I used about 1/4 of a medium onion in the sauce this time.

This is what the sausage looks like when you pour the wine over it. It will absorb the wine.

4. Put a a medium size saucepan on med/high heat, add about 1 tbsp. of olive oil, add sausage and wine mixture and saute meat until cooked.

5. Add Tomato Puree (I used 1 1/2 pints), onion if desired and about 1/4 Cup of vinegar to mixture and cook until thick. You may want to add a little more vinegar while cooking, depending upon the flavor. The vinegar and wine really make this sauce.

6. Cook pasta and serve topped with hot peppers.

The quantities I used made 2-3 servings, adjust quantities to accommodate portions required.

What's been going in or out of your cupboard lately?

Harvest Monday...................11/07/2011

2011-11-07T07:55:00.000-05:00

All of the dry beans have been shelled & weighed. I just love dried beans! Many of them are so pretty!

Dry beans are usually one of the easiest crops that I grow. You just put the seed in the ground, let them grow, dry out and pull the plants when you get around to it. Not this year! With all of the rain we had late in the season many of the beans were rotting, molding and sprouting. So, I had to pull the plants, bring them home and hang them to dry.

I planted 6 varieties of dry beans: Great Northen, Red Kidney, Jacob's Cattle, Trail of Tears, Coco Rubico & Sadie's Horse Beans. The two varieties that I was the most excited about were the Trail of Tears (seed from Daphne) and Sadie's Horse Beans (seed from Diana). I didn't plant many of the Trail of Tears and the yield was good considering the weather. Unfortunately the Sadie's Horse Bean crop was lost entirely due to the wet weather. The yield on the remaining 5 varieties was about half of what they should have been.

Aren't they just Beautiful??

Varieties from left to right: Coco Rubico, Trail of Tears, Jacob's Cattle, Red Kidney and Great Northern white bean in the back.

Total weighed Harvest: 6.1875 lbs

Great Northern - 3 lbs (7 Cups)

Red Kidney - 1.5 lbs (4 Cups)

Jacob's Cattle - 13 oz (2 Cups)

Trail of Tears - 8 oz (1 Cup)

Coco Rubico - 6 oz (1 Cup)

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in gardens around the globe!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard............11/03/2011

2011-11-03T07:20:00.000-04:00

After returning from our vacation and catching up after the storm. I finally got to the orchard and purchased some apples to make some applesauce. I only purchased about 12 lbs. I used most of them for making some applesauce and left a few for eating.

I made my applesauce according to the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. I just cut, cored, peeled, chopped and cooked the apples in a large pot with a little water. Instead of putting the cooked apples in the blender or mashing by hand, I used my immersion blender. It came out a little thinner then normal. I think that next time I will mash it by hand.

I made 7 pints of applesauce. We really don't eat a lot of it...so, it should be enough for the two of us.

Tuesday evening I made one of our favorite soups, Winter Tarragon Tomato Soup. It's a great and easy recipe! I have posted this recipe before...but, here it is again.

Winter Tarragon Tomato Soup

1 1/2 Cups Chopped Onion
1/2 Cup Butter
Quart Canned Tomatoes
1/2 Cup Dry White Wine or Vermouth
1 Tbsp Sugar (I use less)
1 tsp. Dried Tarragon
Salt if desired
Sour Cream to top

Directions:

In large saucepan melt butter and saute onions for about 15 minutes

2. Add Tomatoes juice and all, then mash with potato masher

3. Add Wine, Sugar and Tarragon, turn heat down and simmer for 45 minutes

4. Puree with immersion blender and add salt if desired

Serve with a little sour cream and.....

Some Fresh Baked Bread!!

So, what's been going in or out of your cupboard lately??

The Powerless People

2011-11-02T10:36:00.000-04:00

I was going to do a New Orleans post today. However, after reading some articles in local papers regarding the power situation in our area, I decided to write about the Powerless People.

As you know, "The Italian" and I live in a city and we recently had a very early snow storm which caused about 350,000 people in our area to loose power. Many will be without power until this weekend.

One article in particular caught my attention. It is in a local on-line community newspaper. The title "What's Your "War Story" Now That the Storm is Over?". You can read it here. I was absolutely amazed about what the author has learned from this experience and the comments. You have got to be kidding me! You rushed around looking for an open gas station and something for the kids to eat??? McDonalds??

We have learned a lot from this storm!

We are not nearly as prepared as we need to be
We are much more prepared then most
We are sitting down this weekend and making a checklist of some very important items that we need
We are also going to discuss and re-think a few "things" around here
We were very lucky that were many open gas stations, restaurants and stores
We were very lucky that it wasn't really cold out and it wasn't windy

If we ever have a "real disaster", I don't think many people could survive very long............what a shame to be a "Powerless Person"!

Our Welcome Home from Mother Nature

2011-10-31T05:11:00.000-04:00

Mother Nature gave us one unwelcoming welcome home. We had at least 8" of heavy wet snow starting on Saturday and lost electric for about 27 hours. I have to say that I don't ever remember loosing electric for this long, even on the farm. We were very lucky, many will be without power for several days. Boy, we are definitely looking into solar panels, sooner rather then later. We really don't like being dependent on a utility company like this. Jane, I was thinking about you!

Saturday afternoon everything started looking like this. The electric went out early.....so, we headed to "The Italian's" parents. His cousin was up from North Carolina for a visit.

We had a wonderful lantern lit dinner of pasta, chicken, mashed potatoes and beans cooked on the gas stove top.

Sunday morning I got out the camp stove, made coffee and tea and then headed out for a walk around the block. I can't wait to get our much needed new stove. It's going to be dual fuel.

All of the following pictures are from a walk around one block. The damage is just amazing. Almost every home had major damage to trees.

As you can see from the pictures, the leaves are still on the trees and most haven't even started to change color. When I got home, we had a nice camping breakfast of eggs and toast.

It was quite warm and the snow was quickly melting. I attached the cold frame tops, cleared off the melting snow and opened them up.

You can see from this picture, just how heavy the snow was. The weight pulled the sides in on the squirrel barricaded garlic bed.

It looks like the weather is going to return to normal for this time of the year.....hopefully, it will stay that way for awhile and I can get some gardening done!

I hope that the rest of you that were hit by this early storm are safe and sound!

We made it home just in time for.............

2011-10-29T11:16:00.000-04:00

SNOW!!!! Yes, it is snowing here in eastern Pennsylvania in October! I really can't remember the last time that we had snow in October. We haven't even had a frost yet.......but, that will change tonight. It looks like we will get about 6" of snow.....just crazy!

As you can see, I haven't put the patio furniture away and the annual flowers are still alive.

I did manage to put the cold frame tops on early this morning before the snow started. I am so happy that I re-covered the tops before we left. I will attach them permanently when the weather calms down....but, the bricks will have to do for now.

The veggies growing in the basement are looking good and will have to wait a bit to get hardened off and planted in the cold frames.

As usual, we had a great time in New Orleans. I did read all of the Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard posts both weeks and some other posts as well. For some reason though, our travel computer would not let me comment on most blogs.

I will do a post or two about some of what we did while we were away. For now, the kit-cats and the washing machine really need my attention!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard........10/20/2011

2011-10-20T03:43:00.000-04:00

This post went up early since we are on an airplane headed for New Orleans! I will check in and respond later today after we are settled in. Due to our vacation, next Thursday Jody at Spring Garden Acre will be hosting Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.

I will try to post a couple of times this week with some happenings and great food from New Orleans!

This past week I confiscated some nice green tomatoes from next door. I used those tomatoes along with some green tomatoes that I had to make this Green Tomato Salsa. Diana at Voice in the Garden, gave me this recipe. Thanks's Diana!! I only made about a 1/4 recipe since I didn't have enough green tomatoes for a whole batch. We were also out of fresh cilantro. So we will just add some when we open a jar.

This Salsa is very good and a nice change from the traditional salsa that I make!

Green Tomato Salsa to Can from Diana's kitchen

3 TB Extra Virgin olive oil
11 lbs green tomatoes, chopped
3 extra large sweet onions, chopped
3 sweet red peppers, chopped
3 sweet green peppers, chopped
4 jalapeño peppers, seeds removed, finely chopped (+/- according to personal taste)
8 large garlic cloves, minced
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 TB sea salt
1/2 TB black pepper
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1 tsp Cumin
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 TB raw honey

Add olive oil to an extra large kettle and heat on medium.
Add tomatoes, onions, peppers and stir.
Add and combine the remainder of the ingredients. Mix well, heat slowly to simmer, and cook uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until it reaches the consistency you prefer. Stir frequently and be careful of the temperature so as not to burn the mixture.
Ladle the hot simmering salsa into hot sterilized pint jars (or quarts), and fill to within 1/2 inch from top.
Wipe jar rims with a clean cloth.
Place sterilized flat lid on the jar and adjust the ring.
Place in a boiling water bath; water should cover the lids by about an inch. Bring the water back to boiling and process for 15-20 minutes.

I hope that I get to see a lot of goodies posted later today!

Harvest Monday...............10/17/2011

2011-10-17T06:21:00.000-04:00

It's another week of the same harvest.....peppers, peppers and more peppers!

The entire harvest for this past week was picked yesterday at the plots. Although most of the harvest was peppers, I did harvest a few small eggplants, a little bit of broccoli and another small white pumpkin.

We are going on vacation later this week and it looks like we may get our first frost while we are away. I don't think the house/garden/pet sitter will want to truck over to the plots to pick the last of the peppers. So, I harvested everything that was a decent size.

A little broccoli, a few small eggplant and some hot & spice peppers.

Probably the last of the sweet peppers from the plots.

These were given to my in-laws and sister in-law. I still have two pepper plants at the house which will be pulled before we leave.I thought that there were about four large peppers on those two plants. After taking a closer look, I think that there are about a dozen.

I just totaled my pepper harvests to date for this year. Sweet Peppers - 47.75 lbs Hot & Spice Peppers 27.3 lbs. It's definitely been the year of the Pepper!

Total weighed harvest for the week: 10.375 lbs

Broccoli - 2 oz.
Eggplant - 16 oz.
Peppers:
Hot & Spice - 18 oz.
Bell - 98 oz. (6.125 lbs)
White Fortna Pumpkin - 32 oz. (2 lbs)

Stop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in veggie gardens around the globe!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

2011-10-13T05:25:00.000-04:00

Wilderness over at Growing and Cooking made a great suggestion to start a weekly preserving post similar to, but different then Harvest Monday, for bloggers to share what they have been putting away and recipes. I thought this was a great idea! With her permission I am starting "Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard". This will be a day to share what you have been canning, drying.....or to share a recipe, a picture, a tip.....or how you have used some of your preserved goods.

So come on and join the first

"Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard"!!

A couple of weeks ago I purchased some pears from a local grower. I got some Bartlett, some French sounding variety that I can't remember the name of and a bag of seconds.

I canned 4 pints of Bartletts since they were the first to ripen. I like to can mine in part juice and part extra-light syrup. I use some of the seconds to make the juice and add it to the syrup.

Then I made some Pear Vanilla Nutmeg Jam with a mix of pears that were ready. Boy, this stuff is good!

Last year I had found a recipe for Pear Vanilla Jam. Then this year I was doing a little research and found a recipe that had a little nutmeg in it. I had also purchased some Real Fruit Pectin made by Ball. The recipe on the flap allows you to adjust for the amount of fruit you have. So, I chopped up what fruit was ready and came up with this.

I don't remember exactly how much fruit I had. I have adjusted this recipe to make a batch with one box of powdered pectin.

Pear Vanilla Nutmeg Jam

5 1/3 Cups Finely Chopped Pears
1 Pkg. Powdered Pectin or 6 Tbsp. Ball Real Fruit Pectin
Grated Nutmeg
Lemon Juice
5 Cups of Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla

Directions:

Peel, core and finely chop pears. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice. I put them in a bowl as I was peeling and chopping and stirred them to keep them from getting brown.
Put prepared fruit in large pot
Grind a little nutmeg onto the fruit
Gradually stir in powdered pectin and bring to a full boil
Add sugar, bring back to a boil that won't stir down. Boil for 1 min.
Remove from heat and stir in Vanilla
Ladle into sterlized jars, cap and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes

Since I had several cups of pear juice and extra-light syrup mixture left over, I decided to try to make some Pear Syrup. After rummaging through the booze, I found some Pear Liquer that "The Italian" must have had in his dowry. I added 2 oz. of the liquor to the liquid and boiled away.

The mixture was boiled down to less then half, which took about 1 1/2 hours. This syrup will be great for dessert toppings or to add to an adult beverage! Maybe there is a pear martini in our future! "The Italian" will have fun with this! The syrup was not canned and is being stored in the refrigerator.

After what seemed like forever, the French Pears that "The Italian" says are Anjou Pears, finally ripened enough to make a small batch of plain old Pear Jam.

I made this jam according to the instructions on the Ball Real Fruit powdered pectin.

So, join in and share a recipe or a good tip on preserving the harvest!

Harvest Monday.................10/10/2011

2011-10-10T06:20:00.000-04:00

This past week, I removed the rest of the tomato plants here at the home garden. I did end up with some nice green tomatoes for salsa and some red tomatoes. But, I didn't take any pictures or weigh them.

Sunday I made my weekly visit to the plots. I worked on some clean up and harvested......more peppers! I also harvested a small zucchini and some very small eggplants.

This week's harvests took me over 700 lbs.! I really thought that I would easily get over 1000 lbs. this year with the plots since last year I hit 410 lbs with my very small home garden. I am not complaining though....the weather this year was just horrible!

This is what I brought home.

I also gave a whole bag of green peppers to a local woman who walks her dogs at the Community Garden.

Total weighed harvest for the week: 5.1875 lbs.

Eggplant -15 oz.

Peppers :

Bell - 43 oz.

Hot & Spice - 12 oz.

Zucchini - 13 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's happening in gardens around the globe!

Fall Garlic Planting

2011-10-07T10:35:00.000-04:00

Since the sun has been shining the past couple of days, I have been getting a lot of chores done outside! The remaining tomato plants at the home garden have been pulled and the supports and wiring were taken down.

I was planning on planting the garlic at the plots this fall. But, since the Community Garden is moving (more on that later, I am on the garden moving committee), it is being planted at the home garden. I usually plant some of my own garlic. However, since I really don't think that we have quite enough for the year and the bulbs were smaller then usual, I ordered some new seed garlic. Since I decided upon this a bit late and we didn't go to the Garlic Festival this year, it was a little difficult to find some organic seed garlic. I finally found a grower in Oregon, Whistling Duck Farm, that had two good storage varieties available. I purchased 8 oz each of Silverskin (softneck) and Music (hardneck). Both are supposed to be really good keepers. I have to say that I forgot how much seed garlic cost.

When I was finished dismantling the tomato supports, the mail had arrived and my garlic was here. Boy, what nice heads of garlic! I think this is the nicest seed garlic that I have ever purchased! After separating the heads, I ended up with 81 really nice cloves.

I totally forgot to take pics of the heads of garlic before I started planting. These are a couple of cloves of the Music variety which have yet to be planted.

Here is my Garlic Fortress.

I planted the Silverskin and a few of the Music is this small bed. Since the squirrels are totally out of control right now, I covered the top with some plastic fencing that was at the plots when we got them. I usually have tomatoes in this bed. Next year I will only have 4 tomato plants at the home garden, so I decided to put some of the garlic in one of the smaller beds.

The plastic squirrel protectant is held on by these little plastic clips I had. This will make it easy to remove when I cover the garlic with straw for the winter.

The balance of the garlic will be planted at the one end of the former Garlic Bed. I still have to add compost to this bed before I plant the rest of the garlic.

So, what Fall gardening have you been up to??

What's else is Canning..............Mint Jelly!

2011-10-05T12:07:00.001-04:00

This is just a warning that I am in full "fun canning" mode! Not the staples kind of canning like tomatoes and sauce. So there may be a lot of canning posts coming up!

Since I had about 3 1/2 Cups of Mint Infused Water left from the Mojito Jelly, I thought I would make some plain old Mint Jelly.

After a little research, I came up with this.

Mint Jelly

3 Cups of Mint Infused Water
2 oz. Creme de Menthe Liquer
1/2 tsp. Lemon Juice
1 Pkg. powdered pectin or 6 Tbsp. Ball Real Fruit Pectin
4 Cups Sugar

Directions:

Combine Mint Infused Water, Creme de Menthe Liquer and lemon juice in large pot.
Gradually stir in pectin and bring to a full boil
Add Sugar, bring to a full boil and boil for 1 minute

Ladle into sterilized jars, cap and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes

This jelly came out a pretty shade of green from the Creme de Menthe Liquer!

As you can see, the sun is finally shining....so, I better get out there and get some gardening done!

What's Canning.............Mojito Jelly!!

2011-10-04T09:07:00.000-04:00

I found this recipe last year but didn't make it. All of the potted mint is starting to go. So I decided to make it yesterday. If you like Mojitos, you are going to love this jelly!

Isn't it Pretty??

This recipe took some time to make and used a lot of mint leaves. I didn't have enough fresh limes for the amount of juice required, so I had to add some bottled lime juice. The recipe says to boil the infused mint water to 3 cups. I only managed to boil it down to 6 cups. I also added one drop of green food coloring.

Here is the link to the recipe that I made yesterday. Guess what...she came up with a new version here! Boy, the new version sounds good too! I think that I have enough infused mint water left to make this one too.

Harvest Monday...................10/03/2011

2011-10-03T05:27:00.000-04:00

It's definitely been the year of the pepper! Tuesday, when I cleaned out the cold frame beds, I had to harvest a few peppers. There were two broken branches on one plant and one plant that needed to be removed.

4.7 lbs. of peppers from that one picking!

My wine collecting neighbor took only two since they were going to the shore. Two peppers = 1 bottle of French wine! Not Bad! His wife said that peppers are going for $5.99 a pound! That's $28. worth of peppers in that colander!

I also picked these 5 beautiful Eva's Purple Ball tomatoes from the home garden on Tuesday. I thought that these would most likely be the last good tomatoes harvested this season.....But on Sunday I picked two more! We are very pleased with this variety. They are very prolific, have a wonderful flavor for slicing, are good for canning and sauces and don't seem to disease or crack no matter what the weather. Next year we will be planting a lot of this variety.

The Matt's Wild Cherry plant had to be pulled from the one cold frame bed on Tuesday. I have been really bad about not picking the cherry tomatoes this year. My "Little Garden Helper" always ate most of them. But, he has been in Florida all summer with his other grandparents and his mother.

Sunday I made my weekly visit to the plots in between the rain. The fall raspberries were really destroyed from the hurricane. I always eat the few ripe raspberries that weren't blown away while I'm there harvesting. Of course there were lots of peppers to harvest!

These peppers and....

these were harvested and taken directly to my in-laws. There were 6 lbs. 9 oz. of sweet peppers. I was so happy to leave them with my in-laws! How many peppers can two people eat in a year??

And of course there were more hot and spice peppers to pick at the plots also.

I harvested some more dry beans and a little squash on Sunday. I think the squash was a small Long Island Cheese Squash. I will weigh it when I'm sure it is viable. All of the dry beans will be weighed at one time when they are all shelled.

Total weighed harvest this week: 15.8125 lbs

Peppers:

Bell - 11.25 lbs (180 oz)

Hot & Spice - 28 oz.

Tomatoes:

Eva's Purple Ball - 2 lbs.

Matt's Wild Cherry - 13 oz

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday, to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens around the globe!

Rain, Rain Go Away!!!

2011-09-29T17:49:00.000-04:00

The rain has just been relentless! Yesterday we had more then 3"!!! Most of that was from one horrible storm! We probably got another inch of rain today!

Tuesday, I finally cleaned out most of the summer veggies in the cold frame beds and sowed some seeds.

This is the Left Cold Frame Bed

If you look closely, you can see what the rain did to the soil. I will most likely have to re-sow the seeds. There are a couple of carrots that managed to survive the horrible heat, some leeks in the back, a huge pepper plant that I couldn't bear to pull out and one of the celery transplants from the plots in the right back corner.

This is the Right Cold Frame Bed

The soil in this bed is a mess from the rain too. There are two little celery transplants (they are doing well!) in the left back corner a couple of carrots, a basil plant and one lone onion. It's a good thing that I am behind in my fall planting...or everything would have been ruined! I put netting over the beds in order to keep the Darn Squirrels out! They have been horrible the past couple of weeks, digging in everything!!

Look at my Sage Bush!!

The Thyme is not doing so well either!

These brown sticks used to be Rosemary :(

Boy, we certainly have had the most horrible weather this year!

What's Canning..............Pickles, Pickles, Pickles

2011-09-28T09:30:00.000-04:00

Due to my cucumber shortage this year, I didn't think that I would get to make all the pickles that I had planned to. I managed to make two batches of Cucumber Relish (2 different recipes) and 1/2 of a batch of Bread & Butter Pickles from our garden cucumbers.

This past Saturday, I went to the farmer's market to get some meat from our favorite butchers. Low & behold, when I walked in the door a local farmer had pickling cucumbers! I bought all that he had, 10 lbs! Yippee....boy "The Italian" was going to be happy! Ever since our visit with Jody, Belle & the boys at Spring Garden Acre, he has been hooked on those wonderful Cold Packed Dills that Belle made and so graciously gifted us with.

The first pickles that I made on Saturday were Bread & Butter Pickles, recipe from Ball Blue Book of Preserving.

Aren't they pretty??

Then I started another batch of Italian Farmhouse Pickled Green Tomatoes.

These were finished on Sunday, since they need to sit overnight.

I also started a quarter batch of Sweet Gherkin Pickles. These babies take several days to make. As always, they shrivled up...so, I didn't take a picture of them. They look horrible. This always seems to happen...but, they do improve after they are in storage for awhile and taste wonderful! If any of you really experienced canners have a secret as to why they do this or a good recipe.....Please do share!!

Monday, I made the much desired Cold Packed Dills for "The Italian". Here's a link to Belle's recipe.

Yep, the big One Gallon jar is "The Italian's"!!

So, that's what's been canning around here! What are you putting up??

Help Save Landreth Seed Company

2011-09-27T07:42:00.000-04:00

Many of you may be aware of what is going on with the Landreth Seed Company. I had no idea until I read this post by Todd at Big Blog of Gardening on Sunday.

America's oldest seedhouse, Landreth is being threatened with shutdown by their creditors. Buy a 2012 seed catalog to help.

Landreth Seed Company is America’s oldest seed house. It has been around since 1784 and is the most historically important small business that is still operating! It is the only American company, still operating daily, that existed when this country became a nation.

Its founders were honorable men who helped establish and guide the agricultural and horticultural industries of this country in the 1700s, the 1800s and the 1900s. Landreth exemplifies American business and the ethics and integrity that built this nation

On Wednesday, August 31, 2011, the Company’s accounts were frozen by a garnishment order initiated by a Baltimore law firm. If this garnishment order is not satisfied within the next 30 days, Landreth will cease to exist and a part of America’s history will be lost forever. I need to sell 1 million 2012 catalogs to satisfy this garnishment and the cascade of other indebtedness which this order has now initiated.

If you want to help save this piece of America, if you love gardening and heirloom seeds, if you care about righting the injustices of a legal system badly in need of repair, then please help Landreth. Please purchase a Landreth catalog, and if you can afford it, purchase several for your friends. Please send this link to everyone you know, www.landrethseeds.com. One million catalogs is a big number, but with the internet it is achievable.

Please help us to save Landreth.

Reprinted from the Landreth Seed Company website

I know that times are tough. But, there are several ways you can help save this historical company. You can go to their website and purchase a catalog, place an order or click on the widget below and make a donation. "The Italian" and I made a small donation and ordered a catalog and some seeds.

You can also visit their Facebook page to get updates on what is going on.

Harvest Monday..........09/26/2011

2011-09-26T07:33:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that this is the first fall Harvest Monday and the last one of September! As of yesterday morning, I thought that my harvests for the week would consist only of the last Spaghetti Squash and 5 tomatoes. Well, I was wrong! I went to the plots late in the morning on Sunday and once again came home with a great harvest!

Look at this container of sunshine!

There are still tons of peppers at the plots. I'm letting them ripen and will not pick any green ones until we have a threat of frost. The Rosa Bianca eggplant are still doing great and the other three varieties are still small. I even found a ripe Kellogg's Breakfast tomato on a dead vine! Jose, a great gardener at the plots, gave me some Yard Long Beans which are pictured here. We had them for dinner last night and I think that I may just plant a few next year.

I picked this big zucchini at the plots on Sunday. To my surprise, there are two small fruits on the plant that should be ready by the end of this week. The Spaghetti Squash is the last one of the season. We now have 8 nice squash to store for use over the winter!

To my disappointment, most of the Leeks had to be pulled. The outer layer was getting soft from all of the rain. I will slice and freeze them for use over the winter. It really doesn't look like we will have any left in the ground for over-wintering.

I also pulled the remaining bush dry beans at the plots on Sunday. There are still some dry pole beans over there that are not ready to be picked. I couldn't leave the bush beans in the ground any longer or they would just mold and rot from all this rain. I have a lot of the dry beans hanging on the back porch to finish drying. Due to all of the rain and humidity, they are not drying very well. I think that I will move them to the attic later today.

That's about it in the harvest department, with the exception of herbs. For some reason, I haven't weighed a single herb this year. There's been a lot of other things going on that I will post on during the week.

Total weighed harvests for the week - 15.625 lbs.

Beans, Purple Pole - 6 oz

Celery - 3 oz.

Eggplant - 2.75 lbs (44 oz)

Leeks - 35 oz

Peppers:

Bell - 33 oz

Hot & Spice - 39 oz

Spaghetti Squash - 2 lbs 7 oz. (39 oz)

Tomatoes - 20 oz

Zucchini - 31 oz

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens and Kitchens around the globe!

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

2011-09-24T11:55:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday when I was at the plots "Whitie" a fellow gardener gave me 6.2 lbs of fresh dug sweet potatoes! He is also the great guy who gave us several dozen of his delicious sweet corn on a couple of occasions this year! Thanks Whitie, for your wonderful veggies!

Look at these lovely sweet spuds!!

I decided to make some sweet potato fries. After looking for a good recipe, I came up with this. The seasonings that I have listed is what I used. Be creative and use what you think would taste good. I think that the Paprika & Cumin are a must though.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

About 2 lbs. of Sweet Potato wedges
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
Cayenne Pepper (use just a dash if you don't like it hot)
1/2 tsp. Cumin
1/4 tsp. Paprika
Garlic Powder
Onion Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Place potato wedges in a large zip-lock bag or a container with a lid
Mix Olive Oil and choice of Seasonings in a small bowl
Pour Oil & Seasoning Mix over potato wedges and shake to cover them
Place seasoned potato wedges on a baking sheet or in a baking dish
Bake for about 30 minutes or until done

This is what they looked like before baking. I totally forgot to take a picture of them after baking!

I hope that you enjoy these nutritious and low-fat baked sweet potato fries!

Liebster Blog Award

2011-09-24T08:20:00.000-04:00

The Apple Pie Girl and Jody at Spring Garden Acre have been so kind to award me the "Liebster" Blog Award! APG is a fine gal who also has some nice boots! Jody, his wife Belle and the little guys, who we recently visited, have a great garden and some chickens too! Stop by their blogs and see what they have been up to!

"Liebster" is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

The Liebster is awarded to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers.

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

5. And most of all - have fun!

I had a really hard time picking just 5 blogs to list...so, here are just a few of some great blogs that I really enjoy reading. They are listed in alphabetical order.

At Home on Paradise Cove - Deb is a great Lady. She is relatively new to gardening and loves to experiment with her garden. Her and her husband Fitzgiver live on a small lake in Western Washington. She is also a wonderful artist!

GrafixMuse - Rachel is a Graphic Designer who lives on a few acres in Maine with K. She has an amazing garden and does a lot of preserving.

Greens and Jeans - Emily has a great garden in New Hampshire. I met her mother Marcia, who stopped by recently to see the plots. Emily also has some new chickens and makes some really beautiful quilts.

Life as I Live It - Patricia is a wonderful lady with many stories to tell. I have to say that "The Italian" and I always enjoy reading her blog.

Mrs. Pickles Garden - Mrs. P lives in Saskatchewan, zone 2a. She does an impressive job of growing veggies living in a zone with a very short growing season. She also makes a lot of pickles!

I hope that you give these great blogs a visit and enjoy them as much as we do!

Harvest Monday .................9/19/2011

2011-09-19T08:07:00.000-04:00

The gardens have really slowed down. I only harvested a few tomatoes, a few nice bell peppers and some herbs at the home garden this week.

Yesterday, I went to the plots to pull the tomato plants, do some general clean up and pick some peppers. To my surprise, I found some viable tomatoes there. I also found that the groundhog had dug a new tunnel in to our plots! He has been eating the Brussels Sprouts, which is no loss to me since they were destroyed by bugs anyway. I was going to pull them, but decided to leave them as a trap crop for the groundhog. Do you think that will work? I'm going to go over there today and fix the area where he tunneled in and go over to my neighbor's plot and fill in the hole on her side. I had mentioned it to her weeks ago...but, nothing has been done.

All of the popcorn has been harvested and the dry beans are starting to come in. I will wait until I am done shelling those and post them at a later date.

Some beautiful Bells, Rosa Bianca Eggplant and Red Pepperoncini Peppers

Green Tomatoes for some more Italian Farmhouse Pickled Green Tomatoes!

Some of the ripe tomatoes harvested this week.

Total weighed harvest for the week: 10.375 lbs.

Eggplant, Rosa Bianca - 11 oz.
Peppers:
   Bell - 54 oz.
   Pepperoncini - 6 oz.
Tomatoes:
   Green - 48 oz.
   Red - 47 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens and Kitchens around the Globe!

Visiting with a fellow Garden Blogger

2011-09-17T20:52:00.000-04:00

"The Italian" and I spent the day with Jody, Belle & the two little guys at Spring Garden Acre.

We had a great time!

You can see their main garden, the chicken coop in the middle back, meat chickens to the left and the empty hill in the front is where the wonderful tasting watermelons and cantaloupe where planted.

Here are some of their fall crops in the side garden.

Look at these beautiful broccoli starts that were germinated inside and ready to be planted!

There was a lot going on!!

There were chickens.....and

a cat.....and

some great entertainment!!! and...

lots of great food! Belle made a wonderful salad of fresh lettuce and tomatoes from the garden. We also had some home grown Bar-BQ Chicken and I brought some home made baked beans. Everything was so good that I was too worried about eating it and didn't take any pictures...except for the best watermelon we have had all summer...fresh from their garden! We ended the meal with home baked shortbread, cookies and coffee!

We came home with these wonderful gifts! Two bottles of wine that they made. One bottle is Peach Wine and the other bottle is Apple Wine. We were also blessed with a jar of Belle's Cold Packed Dill Pickles and 5 hand knitted dish clothes! I don't know how she knew that I was in desperate need of dish clothes!

Thanks Jody, Belle and the boys for a Wonderful Day!

What's Canning.......Italian Farmhouse Pickled Green Tomatoes

2011-09-14T07:03:00.000-04:00

I made these pickled green tomatoes for the first time last year.....and boy they are good!

First, find yourself about 4 lbs of green tomatoes. Wash them and then chop into about 1" cubes.

Place in non-reactive bowl, sprinkle with 2 Tbsp salt, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.

The next day, gather some fresh basil, mint, garlic, a hot pepper or two (if desired) and some sun dried tomatoes. Re-hydrate tomatoes in warm water. Do NOT use tomatoes packed in oil.

Rinse salted tomatoes with cold water and drain.

Chop, garlic, mint, basil and peppers. Toss the drained tomatoes with these ingredients.

Pack hot jars with seasoned tomato mix layering in the sun dried tomatoes. Cover tomatoes with White Wine Vinegar, top off with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, seal and refrigerate.

The tomatoes need to age awhile before using. "The Italian" didn't discover them for a few months in the frig. But, I think a week may be OK. You may be able to process them in a pressure canner. I'm not sure though.

ENJOY!

Harvest Monday..............09/12/2011

2011-09-12T02:10:00.000-04:00

This past week was not a nice week weather wise, here in our parts. It rained all week. The days are getting shorter, we don't have any more news on the garden move.....so, I have not been a happy camper and have not felt like blogging one bit. I have been getting some canning done which will make for some good posts at a later date.

The only harvest from the home garden that I weighed and took a picture of are two more Spaghetti Squash.

These fine babies were harvested on Tuesday or Wednesday. The green striped one was on the same vine as a few of the others I have harvested. It is now changing to a nice golden color.

The Moon & Stars watermelon from last weeks harvest was ripe...but, could have been left on the vine a bit longer. It was OK and I'm sure that it would have been sweeter if I had left it on the vine.

Sunday, I finally made it to the plots and harvested the last Moon & Stars Watermelon, a White Fortna Pumpkin, 4 Leeks and some small ears of Popcorn. The popcorn will be dried and weighed at a later date. I don't know what is with my leeks this year. They are so early and the outer layer of these four were starting to get mushy so I had to pull them. I really like to leave them in the garden and harvest them during the cold days of fall and winter.

I also harvested three Eggplant a hand full of Purple Pole beans and lots of peppers at the plots. The bean tepee fell down again from all the rain and wind this week. Unfortunately they are done for the year. I think that I will get some more eggplant and definitely a lot more peppers from the plants at the plots.

These beautiful Habanero peppers some Serrano peppers and Pepperoncinis were also harvested from the plots yesterday. I'm working on making different types of hot sauce.....so, we will see how they turn out.

Here they are....the last salvagable tomatoes from the plots. The green tomatoes will be made into something that will be canned and posted about at a later date. The red tomatoes will be made in to some more tomato puree. There are also a couple of Trail of Tears dry beans in between the tomatoes. They are just starting to get ready. I think it will be a couple of weeks before most of them are ready though.

Total weighed harvests this week - 26.5 lbs.

Eggplant - 24 oz.
Leeks - 18 oz.
Peppers:
   Bell - 22 oz.
   Hot & Spice - 33 oz.
Pumpkin White Fortna - 34 oz.
Spaghetti Squash - 92 oz.
Tomatoes:
   Green - 67 oz.
   Red - 86 oz.
Watermelon - 48 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's happening in Veggie Gardens and Kitchens around the globe!!

Happy Harvest Labor Day.........09/05/2011

2011-09-05T08:11:00.000-04:00

The summer is definitely coming to an end. The nights are cooler, days shorter and the harvests are dwindling.

Here are a few pictures of some of what was harvested from the gardens this week.

The first harvest from the plots after the hurricane.

I was going to pull the celery at the plots awhile back and then decided not to. I'm happy that I didn't. These plants turned around and gave us a decent harvest. They aren't nearly as nice as the celery from the home garden....but, I am happy with them. I also separated three small plants from these bunches and planted them at the home garden. We shall see if they take root and grow.

One of the two remaining Moon & Stars watermelons from the plots. As you can see, there is a little nibble mark from a few weeks ago when the groundhog was using the gardens as a buffet. It's just a surface mark and did not hurt the melon. We haven't sliced it open yet. We will do that later today. If it isn't edible, I will remove the weight from my totals.

Part of the harvest from the plots yesterday. I thought that I would be pulling the tomato plants. But, they are still managing to produce some ripe tomatoes. I did harvest some green tomatoes this week which have been used in hot sauce and pickled green tomatoes.

Also harvested this past week but not photographed were two more leeks from the home garden. With the four that have been harvested so far this season, I made a wonderful Leek & Potato soup! There was another nice Spaghetti Squash harvested and a couple more on the vine. I have started to shell some of the dry beans and will weigh and take pictures of them at a later date.

Total harvest for the week: 41.1875 lbs

Beans - Purple Pole - 16 oz.

Slicing - 11 oz.

Burr - 6 oz.

Celery - 4 lbs.

Eggplant - 13 oz.

Leeks - 6 oz.

Peppers:

Bell - 60 oz.

Hot & Spice - 75 oz.

Tomatoes:

Green - 47 oz.

Red - 190 oz. (11.875 lbs)

Spaghetti Squash - 60 oz. (3 lbs. 12 oz.)

Sweet Dumpling Squash - 12 oz.

Watermelon - 5 lbs.

Zucchini - 19 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's happening in gardens and garden kitchens around the globe!

Community Gardens move Update....Pictures Added

2011-09-02T11:58:00.001-04:00

I received the following e-mail from the garden program administrator this morning:

Hi Robin,

This is what I know as of now. More details will follow.
·         You will be able to finish out the season at the current location. Plots at the new site will be available early next spring.
·         The quality of this soil is excellent and should be great for growing vegetables. Jeff and I were at the new site earlier this week to check the soil again. Bob turned over a small patch of grass so we could see the soil. It really is the best soil you could get. He left this small patch of soil exposed so if you want to see it for yourself, it’s in the section that is closest to the road and across from Cedarview Apartments.
·         Glenn Solt, Director of General Services has said: the plans have been under way for a new building that will house the Cetronia Ambulance Corps, the Lehigh County coroner and county emergency services. Glenn also said the county hopes to erect the new building next year. The Cetronia Ambulance Corps has sought some state funding to augment its own fundraising efforts for the new building. The new structure would help the ambulance corps bring its services under one roof.
·         The strip of trees/bushes down the middle of the site will be removed (this will become a road) and also some tall trees at the far end will be removed. I hope this helps!

Regards, Kathy

There was an article this morning in the local on-line paper. Which you can view here.

I am planning to go to the new site later today and hopefully take some pictures and check out the soil.

There will also be a meeting with the gardeners once the county has given Farmland Preservation more details on the move.

I went down to the new site this evening and took some pictures. I was told that the county will start working on the site this month.

This is the front of the site. The trees will be removed.

These trees are in the center and will be removed for a road.

This is an area behind the trees. As you can see if you enlarge the picture....the bunnies are there and waiting!

Pending change & Plots clean-up

2011-09-01T10:06:00.000-04:00

I have been in a blue funk since receiving the mail on Monday. I received a letter from Farmland Preservation, the county department in charge of the Community Gardens. Subject: "THE CEDARBROOK GARDEN PLOTS - MOVING TO A NEW LOCATION!". What????

It seems that someone in the county has made a decision to move the gardens. For what reason?? They are not sure. But, it seems that the county wants to use that land for something else. The gardens have been there for quite some time (20 years + or -). They used to be in another location until the county sold that land Dorney Park.

Needless to say, I was very upset. I sent an e-mail to the woman who is responsible for the gardens on Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning I received a response and talked to her on the phone. Her department had no idea that the county had planned to move the gardens and at that point had no details on the dates. Typical goverment!!

Yesterday, I finally went over there to get things cleaned up from Irene. While I was there I talked to some gardeners who have been there since the beginning and went through the last move. Rumor has it, that it will be some time until the gardens are moved.....maybe as late as fall of 2012 or spring of 2013. Who knows at this point!!!

That being said....here's what the plots look like after several hours of tidying up and weed wacking.

The bean tepee is standing once again. I put it upright, added some supports and tied it to the fence. None of the plants were uprooted.

I put a metal stake in the ground and tied the corn and beans to it in the "Three Sisters" planting in Bed #2. The leaning posts and trellis for the Sweet Dumpling squash was removed and so were the plants. I did find one more squash.

I left the leaning tomato plants alone in Tomato Alley. The plants are almost dead and why bother to try to make them upright at this point. I harvested some ripe tomatoes and a handful of green ones that were on the ground. The plants will most likely be removed, if I have the time over the long holiday weekend.

Asparagus beds look great!

The corn & beans in other "Three Sisters" planting were staked and tied up too. There are a few small white pumpkins on the vines in this bed. We shall see how big they get before the vines die off. As you can see, powdery mildew is setting in

The hot & spice peppers and celery in this bed are thriving. The eggplants are doing OK too!

Burr Gherkin cucumbers still growing like crazy!

The bell peppers did really well. I only found two broken branches and only had to harvest two green peppers. The one plant is nearly 4' high at this point! Hopefully we will have enough warmer weather to allow the peppers to turn in color.

That's about it for now. I will post any news about the pending garden move as soon as I receive it.

Harvest Monday.............8/29/2011

2011-08-29T09:01:00.000-04:00

Due to me not being very organized last week and the storm preparations, I didn't take many pictures of the harvests, here are a few.

I picked a lot of MWC tomatoes on Saturday before the storm. They will be dried for use over the winter.

A basket of goodies harvested from the plots before the storm.

My backyard harvest on Saturday

This is the kitchen island this morning.

Harvest total for the week: 42 lbs.

Beans, Purple Pole - 24 oz.

Cabbage, Red - 24 oz.

Cantaloupe - 73.5 oz.

Cucumbers:

Slicing - 23 oz.

Burr - 5 oz.

Eggplant - 20 oz.

Peppers:

Bell - 31 oz.

Hot & Spice - 42 oz.

Pumpkin, Fortna White - 152 oz.

Spaghetti Squash - 48 oz.

Sweet Dumpling Squash - 62.5 oz.

Tomatoes:

Green - 42 oz.

Red - 125 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday, to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens around the globe!

The Gardens after Irene

2011-08-28T21:55:00.000-04:00

After our walk this morning and a nice big Sunday breakfast and electricity. The electric went off for about 8 hours. We are very lucky that we only got about 6" of rain (last estimate I checked) and the winds were not all that bad. The wind did blow pretty good until about 6 PM this evening.

The home garden looks really good!

Around 4:30 PM I was bored and decided to go to the plots.

The one Three Sisters planting. The corn & beans knocked over and the Sweet Dumpling support as well. I picked all the Sweet Dumplings before the storm.

Tomato Alley....not looking all that bad, just leaning a little. The plants are still alive!

The Purple Pole Bean Tepee, laying down on the job. I don't think the plants were up-rooted. So I will see what I can do with it tomorrow.

The other Three Sisters planting. The corn and beans were blown over also.

A couple of the Bell Pepper plants were blown over. But I don't think that they are broken.

The hot & spice peppers looked fine. The leeks were leaning a bit.

Newly planted broccoli & cauliflower look fine.

The Brussels Sprouts leaning a bit too.

One of the gardeners there fence blew down

The port o potty also blew over

Some corn blowing in the wind

I thought this picture really captured the weather as I was leaving.

All in all....not that bad. Tomorrow afternoon I will get over there and start cleaning up!