Gardening to Preserve

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T15:54:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to wish all those people who have stuck around for my occasional posts a Merry Christmas! I hope you all had/have a great day with family, good food, and maybe even some presents. I got the new camera I never got around to buying, so now there's no excuses for not taking pictures for the blog. On top of that, Dan bought me cheese making stuff, so there will be lots of experimenting in the kitchen this winter. I'll be sure to snap some pictures and post about this new adventure!

DDC: Roasted Root Vegetables with Bacon, Kale Chips, and Parsnip Fritters

2011-12-19T07:16:00.000-05:00

I was awful busy yesterday cooking up dishes for the Dark Days Challenge. Actually, it was more like "I bought ALL this produce at the farmer's market last weekend, and now it's all going to go bad if I don't do something with it." And what better way to use local produce than for a local food challenge?

First up, some roasted root vegetables with bacon.

I'm disappointed to say that the bacon was not local, I just had it kicking around my freezer. But when I bought the turnips from the farmer's market, there was a little sign by them that said "roast with bacon" and when you're told to use bacon, you use bacon. So I cut up the turnips, dug up the carrots from my garden (before they froze solid), and used some more of those sprouting potatoes. All these went on a sheet pan and was topped with strips of bacon.

I'll say it here, this sounded like a great idea, but it didn't really come to fruition. There really isn't a yummy bacon taste. This may be caused by the not so exciting bacon I was using (should have paid the $9/lb for the local stuff). I would also recommend perhaps cooking the bacon beforehand, then using SOME of the dripping to roast the veggies in. There was just TOO much bacon grease, and I had to drain the vegetables on paper towels to make them not so greasy. But, I discovered that I REALLY like roasted turnips, so that's a plus.

The second recipe, a total winner, is KALE CHIPS:

I've seen these discussed on many a blog, and I even saw a recipe in a Rachel Ray magazine, so I just had to try it. I made them for the first time a month or so ago, and I really should make them every week. They are THAT good. And so easy. Oh, and kale is really good for you, FYI. All you do is lightly coat the kale with olive oil, cut into 2 inch pieces, and cook at 375 degrees for 8 minutes (or until crispy). Simple, although, I find coating curly leaves difficult to do one by one, so I just cut the kale up (remove the tough midrib), and toss it in a bowl with some olive oil. And although I bought organic olive oil (since local is NOT an option here), I had this lovely pan of bacon grease, so I just tossed the kale with that! Again, lack luster bacon didn't add any extra flavor, but I saved my expensive oil. Oh, and it's not local for most people (although, I hear I can get some sea salt from a place in Maine, I better look into that) but sprinkling salt on the kale pieces before putting in the oven is just about a must. Move over potato chips, kale is coming through!

The last recipe before I walked away from the kitchen is a parsnip fritter (recipe adapted from the Oct. 2010 Rachel Ray magazine).

1 lb shredded, peeled parsnip
1 cup thinly sliced leeks
1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 beaten eggs + 2 egg yolks
1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Combine all ingredients. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Form mixture into patties, add to hot pan. Use spatula to press down. Cook about 5 minutes, flipping once.

The original recipe called for scallions, but I had a leek that needed used. It also called for panko breadcrumbs, but I all I had was some I made myself (from bread which I'm sure wasn't made with local ingredients, oh well). The first two eggs I used were small, and the mixture wasn't holding together, so that's why I added the other two yolks (which were kicking around the fridge, another whole egg would have worked too). I'd say add the 2 eggs first, then decide if your mixture looks to dry before adding any more. Better yet, add some breadcrumbs, mix, evaluate, then add more if it looks too wet.

So those are my dishes for this week's Dark Days Challenge. Nothing complicated, but I realized I don't have time for that (or a desire since I'm just cooking for myself). And I need to work a little harder on getting local ingredients so I can actually make a fully SOLE dish.

To see more entries for the Dark Days Challenge, or to see what it's all about, check out Not Dabbling in Normal.

Dark Days Challenge: Sloppy Joe Potatoes

2011-12-07T20:47:00.000-05:00

Week one of the Dark Days Challenge. I really wanted to dive right into this challenge and put my all into it. But the holidays and traveling got in the way, so I had to rush to make something that followed the criteria (SOLE: Sustainable, Organic, Local, Ethical). There was also the added challenge that I hadn't been grocery shopping in NH in a month (but that shouldn't matter for this, right?).

The final product? A sloppy joe potato. The story went like this: I have burger from the deer Dan shot on Thanksgiving, I have an onion I bought from a local farmer at the Syracuse farmer's market, I have garlic from either my garden or Dan's grandfather's garden (I didn't keep track what was who's), there are hot peppers from my NY garden in the freezer. Wonderful. Cook that all up in a pan. Hey look, an open jar of BBQ sauce I made last year using ingredients from my garden (minus the vinegar...and probably the spices. Close enough). Dump that in there. Fabulous take on a sloppy joe.

Now I came to a conundrum. I couldn't just eat this plain, and I didn't have bread that would fit the SOLE criteria. But what to my wonderful eyes should appear in the closet? Sprouting potatoes! These were from Dan's grandfather's garden and obviously need to be used up. So I scrubbed them up and popped them into the microwave for 5 minutes. Cut them open, spoon some sloppy joe on top and dinner is served in no time flat.

I'm going to admit that it wasn't the most spectacular meal in the world. I added some cheese to the top, which made it a little better. If I had gotten a chance to pick up some raw milk, I would have made homemade sour cream to put on this, which would have made it better. I'm just glad I managed to put something together for the challenge, and more importantly, managed to make something for dinner from my meager rations here!

I'm headed to the farmer's market this weekend to get some produce, and to the farm to get that raw milk, then I'll try again with something more elaborate. We'll see how it goes.

If you'd like to know more about the Dark Days Challenge, or read the Sunday recaps from other participants, head over to Not Dabbling in Normal.

Dark Days Challenge

2011-11-09T19:02:00.000-05:00

To help get me back into the blogging routine, I've signed up for Urban Hennery's Dark Days Challenge. This will require me to post AT LEAST once a week. Plus, it really is a great challenge that will force me to eat local (within 150 miles) more often.

Photo Credit: Urban Hennery

I'm really really looking forward to this. The freezers are brimming with fruit, vegetables (and we're working on meat), the pantry is stocked with all kinds of canned goods, and my creation of dairy goods is going to move past yogurt onto bigger projects (like cheese!).

My (probably unique) situation might give me a slight unfair advantage with "local" being in two different locations, 360 miles apart. I debated limiting myself to just being local in NH, but there will be whole weeks I spend in NY (which would mean missing a week of the challenge) and a lot of my stocked goods came from NY, so how do I not use them? Plus, the only reason the items will have traveled so far is because I'm traveling anyway to see my husband, not because they were shipped across the country in some big truck. So instead, I will be using ingredients that have come from within 150 miles of either location. Sustainable, ethical, and organic will still be a must in both locales.

I've also run into another somewhat sticky dilemma when preparing myself for this challenge. All of the red meat that we consume is either beef that Dan's family raises or deer that we shoot (okay, Dan shoots, I'm a bad hunter). COMPLETELY sustainable, ethical, and organic. The only problem is, these primarily come from Dan's grandparent's farm, out in Western NY (200 miles from our house in NY and 540 miles from my NH house). Not very local. But again, they are traveling with Dan and I, who are traveling for more reasons than to transport goods. So these too I'm allowing myself to use in my recipes. Excluding them from this challenge, to me, would totally defeat the purpose of what this challenge is all about.

I'm super excited for this challenge to beginning now! If you'd like to participate as well, head over to Urban Hennery and get yourself signed up. And check back here every week starting November 27th for a (hopefully) tasty recipe!

In Need of a Camera Advice

2011-11-02T19:16:00.000-04:00

What's a blog post without a picture? Blah. But in order to take a picture, you must possess a camera. And you see, Dan and I went on this lovely hiking adventure in the White Mountains...in the rain...with the temperature at 60 degrees...without proper rain gear...and on a wicked trail up a mountain. So, after hiking for 10 miles and being cold and wet, my camera JUMPED out of the car while we were changing clothes on the side of the road (classy, I know). Dan was in charge of the camera, so I still blame him. But either way, I'm without a camera (and a USB drive that happened to be in the case).

What I'm really trying to get at is that I need some camera recommendations. Although I really would love a nice big fancy camera, I just don't have the money. Plus, I use my camera for work a lot, which means taking it into the salt marsh or on the beach or into the woods. And as you can see, I take it hiking up mountains in the rain. Pretty much, a point and shoot is a must for right now. I had a Pentax, which was great because it was waterproof and dust proof (pretty much a must...note above conditions). With all of this in mind, does anyone recommend a certain camera?

And once I get a new camera, I can make some blog posts again (that won't be 'blah').

Just a Few Excuses

2011-10-19T14:22:00.000-04:00

The blog just got left behind this summer, even after I got internet at home. I do have some good reasons for not blogging. I've been busy...

Working:

Canning (this isn't all of it, there's still several dozen full jars in NH):

Driving (There was 5 miles on my car when I bought it in mid-April):

And most of all, planning a wedding:

So now that we're married and I don't have to deal with that anymore, I have more time for my hobbies. Of course, now my garden is just about done and I've run out of jars to fill (thankfully the store still has more!). Over the coming weeks, I'll be overhauling the blog, posting recaps about the garden, and hopefully get some fall recipes up. Oh, and maybe some wedding pictures at some point!

Crockpot Canning

2011-09-07T21:37:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been breaking out my little crockpot to do some serious canning. First there was the apricot peach butter inspired by this recipe over at Food in Jars. Then came the tomato paste, which was just tomato puree cooked way down. Now I'm working on my second batch of Peach Plum Bourbon Butter. I thought my apricot peach butter was to die for, then I made the peach plum one and I might be in heaven. It taste and smells so good I said aloud "I want to dive into it". But instead I made a second batch (the first batch only made 2 half pint jars, not nearly enough).

Making preserves using the crockpot is so simple and saves a lot of time that would need to be spent standing over a hot stove. I won't cook butters any way besides in a crockpot. You just add your fruit purees, some sugar, and whatever spices you want then let it sit for a while until it reduces to a nice thick consistency (be sure to prop the lid open with something, like the wooden spoon I use, so that the moisture can escape). How much you let it reduce is up to you and what you plan to do with it. If you want to spread it on toast, make sure it's nice and thick. If you're just going to mix it into oatmeal or yogurt, you could leave it a runnier.

This might not be the quickest way to get results, but you can be making a butter while you run to the grocery store. Or do laundry. Or chase rowdy children around. Or all of the above. Just be sure you remember it's there, cooking away. Check and stir every so often. I completely forgot about my tomato puree and went to bed. Thankfully I had the crockpot filled right up and it was really watery. When I woke up I have perfect tomato paste, but it was starting to darken around the edges. Just be sure you don't start any fires.

I'll be making more butters in the near future, including the traditional pumpkin and apple butters. I hope you'll consider breaking out that crockpot and trying some as well.

Do you make any fruit butters? Do you use the crockpot for canning?

Harvest Monday

2011-09-05T12:34:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since you've seen a harvest from me, but here we go. The tomatoes are really coming on now. I picked A LOT from the NY garden last weekend when I was there. The cherry tomatoes from the NH garden are ripening like crazy. Today's harvest is just from NH. Besides the tomatoes, I picked some green beans, a cucumber I didn't know was there until I pulled the plant, the rest of the onions, and all the swiss chard. I've determined I don't like swiss chard, so I pulled the plants to let other plants have the space. But, I can't just throw out edible things, so I blanched and froze them to add to soups this winter.

I haven't been weighing my harvests this year like I would have liked. Usually vegetables are picked in a rush. Either I need something for dinner or I'm leaving and need to pick all ripe produce. Then they get used or processed in a hurry so I don't take the time to weigh anything. On top of that, Dan's been doing a lot of picking and consuming of produce in the NY garden, so there's no way to record that. (I have the scale in NH, plus, he'd never weigh the stuff even if I asked.) That's okay. It's just a number. Being able to eat out of the garden and not have to go to the store is enough satisfaction for me.

Tally for 9/5:
Swiss chard: 7 1/8 oz
Green beans: 6 1/2 oz
Cherry tomatoes: 13 oz
Other tomatoes: 1 lb, 4 3/4 oz
Cucumber: 5 1/2 oz
Onions: 12 3/4 oz

Head on over to Daphne's Dandelions to see more harvests.

Have Canning Gear, Will Travel

2011-09-04T10:51:00.000-04:00

This has been my motto this summer. And along with a busy work schedule and limited access to the internet, the blog just got left behind. But fear not, yesterday I went on a crazy shopping spree (okay, so I went to the Verizon store and Best Buy). I bought a new laptop and got one of those USB modems. So now I have internet at my house in NH. WOO HOO! It's the simple things in life that matter, right?

What this all means is that I will try to update the blog on a regular basis again. And now I will have the time and opportunity to read blogs again. But right now, I have peaches, nectarines, blackberries, blueberries, elderberries, apples, tomatoes, squash, and jalapenos to do something with. Updates will come, I promise!

Pests

2011-07-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

Pests are always something to expect when gardening. There’s just no way to get around them. I have been lucky that the only major pests I’ve had to battle during my few years gardening in Upstate NY have been slugs and Japanese beetles. Apparently, pests don’t like the cold.

The New Hampshire garden has been a different story. Right from the get go I’ve had problems. There were the flea beetles munching away on the eggplant. Their little holes peppered the plant to the point that I thought I would lose it. Then they moved over to the tomatoes and I realized I needed to act. I mixed up my own insecticidal soap (water with some dish soap), put it in a spray bottle and coated the plants every few days (or whenever I remembered). Miraculously, it seemed to work and the eggplant has been growing new leaves with no damage.

Then there was the caterpillar munching its way through my celery plant. I noticed in the evening while I was watering. It was a cool looking thing. But I saw the destruction it was causing and because I was leaving for the weekend, I needed to act fast. So I killed it, THEN I looked up what it was. Sadly, it was a swallowtail caterpillar. If I had just took the time to look it up first, I would have just moved it to a Queen Anne’s Lace. Note to the public: ID pests FIRST, act SECOND.

After that I had the pest of all pests. The two pepper plants I started in January and have in pots were growing right along, with flower buds showing then suddenly BAM, they aren’t looking good, the buds are dead, and the leaves are deformed. I turned over a leaf and right there was my worst fear. APHIDS. Those obnoxious little green bugs that attack anything and are the bane of every gardener. I turned to my mighty little spray bottle of soapy water and wouldn’t you know, those plants are healthy with buds again. Who needs pricey chemicals (or organic sprays) when you can just make your own.

What pests do you battle in your garden? What’s your solution?

Strawberry-Raspberry Jam

2011-07-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

This is just a friendly service announcement to tell you that if you haven’t made strawberry-raspberry jam, you really need to. Take a trip north to where strawberries are still in season and pick some. Or break out those strawberries your frozen for situations like this. Or go to the store and buy some strawberries (this is slightly crazy, but I’m telling you, you really need to make this).

After you’ve tracked down the strawberries, go raspberry picking. Or pull them out of the freezer (I KNOW you thought ahead of time). Or keep this idea in the back of your head until fall raspberries are ripe.

I wish I had an actual recipe for you, but I made this in the way you’re NOT suppose to make jam. It started with that strawberry jam that I made and it didn’t set up. So back out of the jars that went. I added more strawberries to boost the strawberry flavor, then I added raspberries. Then I added more lemon juice (to be on the safe side). I swear I consulted a recipe and came up with a logic plan as to how this would work and be safe to can.

Enough about me, this is about YOU. YOU need to make strawberry-raspberry jam. The flavor combination is delicious. This is another one for the “must make every year” list.

Sweet Cherry Jam

2011-07-21T07:00:00.001-04:00

Have you ever made cherry jam? How about sweet cherry jam? If you answered no, go find cherries. I know that a lot of people are out of cherry season already, but I’m telling you, it’s wonderful. I made jam out of sour cherries last year and it was tasty. But jam made from sweet cherries is something completely different. It’s more a dessert than a jam.

I used the recipe for Classic Cherry Preserves in Put ‘em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton. Super simple and not a lot of sugar allows the true sweetness of the fruit shine through. You MUST give this a try. I know this is going on my “must make every year” list.

3 pounds sweet cherries, stemmed and pitted (about 8 cups)

1 cup sugar

¼ cup bottled lemon juice

Combine cherries with a splash of water in a medium nonreactive saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring and crushing the fruit to release the juice. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Stir in the lemon juice. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the preserves reach the desired gel, about 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat and let the preserves rest for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to release air bubbles and to prevent fruit float. Skim any foam from the top.
Process using the boiling-water method for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let jars sit in water for 5 minutes before removing. Set aside and don’t touch jars for 24 hours.

Notes:

1. Sour cherries can also be used in this recipe. Or a mix of the two might also be nice.

2. Testing the gel can be done is many ways: place a plate in the freezer while making the jam, when you think the jam looks thickened (or after the 20 minutes this recipe calls for) place a small amount on the plate and stick it back in the freezer, after a few minutes, run your finger into the side of the jam, if it wrinkles, it’s ready, if it doesn’t, cook it a few minutes longer then test again. The easier way is to get a candy thermometer and when it reaches 220 degrees, it’s done.

3. A cherry pitter is a wise investment when dealing with a large quantity of cherries. Plus, it can double as an olive pitter (no uni-taskers in my kitchen!)

New Hampshire Garden in July

2011-07-19T18:02:00.000-04:00

With the warm weather we’ve been having lately the New Hampshire garden has really taken off. The tomatoes in the garden are flowering like crazy now and I just noticed a few little green tomatoes. The peppers in the garden aren’t doing as well as I’d hoped, but those in the pots are getting ready to flower. The beans are flowering and I can see buds on the squash, along with beginnings of fruit on the yellow summer and acorn plants.

And oh boy should you see the cucumbers! The patio plant keeps sending out cucumbers like crazy. Then I noticed that one of the plants in the garden is flowering. I have a half gallon canning jar that I’m going to have to get some pickling liquid in. Then I’ll just keep it in the fridge and throw cucumbers in when they size up. That way I won’t have to worry about keeping up with them!

The climbing spinach plant is really impressing me. I haven’t touched it but it found its way up and around the railing, but as I’d planned. I should probably harvest some of it, but I’m just so mesmerized by its growth habit. When I bought it, there was this picture next to the little plants showing this huge mass of vegetation created by this plant growing up a support. I’m kind of waiting to see if that happens with mine!

So far, so good. Well, except for the big hole in the middle of the garden that I’m sure you noticed. I was a little lax one day when closing up the fence, then I left for the weekend. When I returned I was greeted by the disappearance of all the leaves off my brassica plants. I have a feeling it was the groundhog (woodchuck) that’s been hanging around all summer. He hasn’t shown his face since. Smart critter.

Oh, and I couldn’t seem to prevent my cilantro plant from flowering. Is there something I should have been doing to keep the plant producing nice leafy growth? I would have really like to have some fresh cilantro to put in my salsa, but apparently now I’ll just have coriander.

Pea Varieties

2011-07-15T07:00:00.002-04:00

One day I was at work shelling peas and my coworker gave me a funny look. No, it wasn't because I was shelling peas at work, it was because he was confused as to why I needed to shell peas. He thought I had the sugar snap variety (which some in this picture actually are), but I had the garden variety (or shelling peas). The pods are inedible with these varieties. But his questioning got me thinking, why DO I grow these instead of growing sugar snap?

I settled on the thought that it's what my mom grew when I was young and I have found memories of shelling peas. And snapping beans, but that's a different story. I enjoyed garden tasks, especially harvest related ones, when I was young. These memories have obviously carried over to my adult life and gardening habits. So I still grow peas that require shelling so I can still shell them! Although, I might try both varieties next time. But not growing garden peas just seems silly to me!

Are you growing any plants in your garden just because you grew up with them?

Tough Jam Season

2011-07-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

We are WELL into canning season and I have yet to post anything canning related. Not only is this because I've been MIA from blogging (I might break down and purchase one of those USB modems because not having internet stinks!) but it's also because I've been in such a rush to get jam made that I haven't taken any pictures. Which is fine, because I've had some major failures. You would think that after all the jam I made last year (and the past three years) I would know what I'm doing. But I bought some bulk pectin and I've been trying to mesh recipes together and cut sugar and it just hasn't been working out.

Last night I spent time that I should have using to deal with the strawberries and raspberries that I just picked fixing my fail of a cherry jam. I picked up 8 quarts of sweet cherries from the farmer's market when I was in New York last weekend and decided jam was a must (I see fruit and I think jam, I can't help it). The first batch I made without pectin and just boiled it until it jelled. It came out fabulous, but only yielded three half pints. To get more jam out of the same amount of fruit, I added the low sugar pectin I had.

Total fail. I had lovely cherry syrup, but that's not what I wanted. So I opened all the jars (such a waste of lids) and dumped it back in the pan. I added some more sugar (I didn't add very much the first time) and cooked it down a bit. I'm pretty sure it set-up this time (I haven't checked yet since it hasn't been 24 hours).

But this wasn't the first fail of the season. When Dan visited a few weekends ago, we went strawberry picking then made jam. I was trying to combine recipes and use my low sugar pectin and I was totally screwing up all over the place (fully read recipes THOROUGHLY before starting). I somehow managed to make a delicious jam out of it (actually two. I made plain strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb). But I had accidently made TOO much jam, and so now there weren't very many strawberries. Dan was giving me a hard time because we're suppose to make jam for the wedding favors, not for ourselves.

The next weekend I went out again, with plans to make jam for the wedding. The bulk pectin, a total fail. The jam didn't set up. And when I tried the bit that I had in the fridge, it tasted more like sugar than strawberries. Luckily, I'm pretty sure Dan's aunt has put enough of her strawberries in the freezer for us to make all the wedding jam. I'm going to just go out and buy box pectin and follow the recipe exactly. That's never let me down.

As for the runny-sugary strawberry jam I have, I'm going to dump it out (more wasted lids, and there's 18 little 4oz jars!), add more strawberries to it (luckily, strawberry season is late up here in New Hampshire and I managed to pick more this weekend) and boil it down. It slightly works out, because I wanted to make a strawberry vanilla jam, but because I made too much in the first batch, I figured I'd better not make more. But now I have, so we'll just have a lot of strawberry jam this year. Nothing wrong with that!

I'll let you know how this turns out. From now on, I'm either using box pectin or no pectin at all (or maybe I just need to learn how to properly use the pectin I have!)

Harvesting

2011-07-11T07:00:00.001-04:00

This year I had all these high hopes of weighing all my harvests and tracking the totals. But with gardens in two states and Dan doing a lot of the harvesting in New York, I haven't been able to do that. And anything I have harvested in New Hampshire has been greens or herbs that have gone straight into a dish, so I haven't broken out the scale. I'm going to try to keep track of the major things (like tomatoes, peppers, and squash) the best I can.

I have been harvesting though! When I was out in New York for the July 4th weekend I picked all the broccoli before it flowered. It wasn't all that much but it was enough to get some in the freezer. Dan had already picked a few of the main heads. Peas were also picked, but Dan's been keeping up with them so I didn't get too many.

The swiss chard was growing over top of the peppers, so I had to harvest a lot just to let in some light. I'm hoping Dan will keep harvesting it. I'd hate to lose those pepper plants!

Other than that, just a lot of lettuce has been harvested. We're getting close to harvesting some other things. Those Big Mama tomatoes are sizing up, and Dan should have a yellow squash ready sometime this week. Pretty soon he'll have squash coming out his ears! (Or not, I only plant one yellow squash and one zucchini just to keep this from happening!)

New York Garden Run Down

2011-07-10T12:30:00.000-04:00

I was in New York over last weekend and spent lots of time in the garden. Dan's been doing an excellent job, even weeding! (But I can't get him to mop the kitchen floor or scrub a toilet) The only minor causuality has been a few tomato plants that got suffocated by the lettuce. (Note to self, plant individual lettuce seeds next year. Do NOT broadcast plant them!)

But I thought you might like to see how the garden is doing out there. It's really taking off now that the temperatures have finally picked up. I snapped a picture of each bed. Here's the run down.

Tomato bed number one. This has the three Big Mama tomatoes (on the left) that I started in January then planted out early with help from the aqua shields. The tomatoes on the right I planted Memorial Day weekend. They were TINY but are now sizing up nicely. I think some of them might be flowering. There are a few lettuce plants I had transplanted in between the rows of tomatoes. They look nice and I told Dan then might hang on for the summer if they get enough shade.

Those Big Mama plants are producing like CRAZY! Pretty soon, Dan's going to have a whole lot of tomatoes! And this is two of the three plants, and not all of the tomatoes on the plants. This is the first year I'm growing this variety (I tried last year but the plants got hit with a late frost and died). So far, I like the looks of them. Hopefully they taste good.

The next tomato bed is still mainly a lettuce bed. I'm still getting familar with the planting seasons up in New York. Most of my gardening experience has been growing up in New Jersey, where it's a completely different zone. The cool weather crops are done early and most of the summer is spent growing the warm season crops. But in New York it's cooler, so the cool-loving crops hang on longer. That's why we still have lettuce in July! But I did have to pull the butterhead types because they were bolting. And I had to do a lot of harvesting to give my tomato plants room. A bunch of them in this bed are small and spindly, just stretching for some light. Hopefully they will catch up. Dan's been eating lettuce like crazy from this bed. I really need to remember this for next year.

The brassica bed (which I had assumed would be done by now, silly me) is just now winding down. I harvested all the broccoli (Dan had harvested some previously). I knew I planted this bed a little tight, but now I see how tight. The poor cauliflower that was between the broccoli and cabbage didn't do so well. Dan managed to pick a head or two, and there's still two plants going (one he's picking this week). Those cabbage plants don't have any heads though, which seems weird to me. But they are HUGE! And are choking out the black bean plants. Once all these plants die off, I told Dan to plant some green beans in here. You can never have enough beans!

This here is such a mish-mosh of a bed. The peas to the right went gangbusters but Dan said they are now dying. The peppers in the middle are mostly from those started in January and are getting peppers on them now. Most of them are from a packet of mixed hot peppers, so I have no clue what they are going to be. Hopefully there's a cayenne in there. The Swiss Chard is CRAZY! I harvested a bunch of it just so the peppers had light again. I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of it. When it's small and cooked I don't mind the leaves, but I cooked these big leaves and I don't like it at all. Anyone have any good recipes for using swiss chard?

The onions and carrot bed is growing along nicely. I thinned out the carrots and even managed to get some yummy baby carrots. I think we'll get some nice looking carrots out of here. And I'm super happy with the onions and so proud to say I'm growing them from seed. I'm hopeful they are producing some nice bulbs.

The potatoes are all flowered out and Dan says they are starting to die back now. I didn't plant all that many so I didn't dig any up for new potatoes. He never managed to get any compost to fill this bed, so we won't have as many potatoes as I would have hoped, but this is my first try growing potatoes and it seems we've been successful. (We'll find out when we dig them out)

The non-raised bed is growing along nicely. The Brussels sprouts are planted too closely, but they are producing tiny sprouts on them. The winter squash is growing right along, taking up all the open space. There's even a little squash forming on the one plant (I forgot to write down which type is was, so we'll have to wait and see). The cucumbers aren't growing too much, then it dawned on me that they are a compact variety. I might switch to a regular variety next year and train it vertically so I can get lots of cucumbers.

This is my three sisters experiment. I've got corn, pole beans, and sugar pumpkins/butternut sqaush growing. So far it looks like they are growing together nicely. The beans are growing a little quicker than the corn, so they are kind of growing all over the place. I might have to plant them later if I try this again. I'm anxious to see if I get any corn from this little block. I didn't want to plant a whole ton of corn because we buy it from a farmer out by Dan's grandparents for three dollars a dozen, so it seems silly to take up so much garden space for something I can get so cheap. But it's nice to know you grew it yourself.

So that's what's going on in New York. I'll be back in a few weeks and hopefully I'll be able to harvest some of the warm weather crops!

New Hampshire Garden: Containers

2011-06-22T19:33:00.029-04:00

My NH garden can't just end with that little tiny raised beds. That's unacceptable. Most of the rest of the garden involves potted plants, except this little plant. I was at the farmer's market one day and BAM, there was this plant. A malabar spinach plant (also known as climbing spinach). And I promptly paid $5 for it (crazy). It's not a true spinach, but it produces "spinach-like greens" all summer! We have a wheelchair ramp to the front door, which we never use, so I planted this plant in the dirt right next to the ramp and I'm going to let it climb all over the railing!

Further up the ramp, I've got my large pots with peppers and a tomato. Besides the small jalapeno plant in the foreground, the other plants were from the batch started from seed in January. The tomato is flowering (although, I haven't seen any fruit) and the peppers (one sweet banana and one bell) are about to flower. I've added grass clippings to the pots to help keep moisture in.

Up on the railing I've got my collection of herbs. Pictured here are the annual herbs: cilantro, basil, and parsley. Not pictured is the oregano I got from my boss and the chives I bought this weekend (last plant I'm buying!) that still need to be potted up. In that blue pot is the patio cucumber plant that I couldn't resist purchasing from the farmer's market (on that same day I couldn't resist the malabar spinach). It came with cucumbers already on it ready to pick! I'm also trying to train this plant to grow around the railing, but I might attach a piece of wire mesh fencing to make it easier for the cucumber to latch on.

And that's all the New Hampshire garden! I do have a few flowers in pots too. Keep things pretty! So far, the garden has been growing pretty good, but it's been so cool that the peppers and eggplants have hardly grown. Hopefully they will have enough time to produce SOMETHING.

New Hampshire Garden

2011-06-21T19:33:00.000-04:00

I know you've been DYING to hear about my New Hampshire garden. I just have a little 5' by 5' raised bed. And I decided I would use the square foot gardening method. I read the original book, and I'm not all convinced about the technique. In my New York garden, I have plants spaced only as far as their max spacing, which makes sense to me to maximum space while not wasting any. This square foot method I think places plants WAY too close. Nine bush beans in a square foot, really? We'll see how it goes.

I didn't listen to the advice when it came to the brassicas. They are suppose to be one per square. But mine were tiny when I planted them and I figured it would get too hot before they matured. So I planted two per square. And of course, it's been pretty cool and they are now growing like crazy. We'll see how they turn out.

But here's the layout starting from the back left corner working across: Carrots, dill, red onions, red onions, celery. Second row: radishes, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, jalapeno pepper, cucumbers. Third row: dragon's tongue beans, cauliflower, cabbage, banana pepper, tomato. Fourth row: swiss chard, cauliflower, cabbage, bell pepper, tomato. Fifth grade: swiss chard and leaf lettuce, leaf lettuce, broccoli, eggplant, tomato.

Just beyond the back row (you can kind of see it) there's three mounds, one with acorn squash, one with butternut squash, and one with yellow summer squash. Only the acorn squash has germinated.

Outside the fencing (needed because I live on a wildlife refuge, with lots of wildlife that love to eat garden plants) I've planted jack o' lantern pumpkins and mixed gourds. I'm going to let them grow all over the yard (which is nothing but weeds) and they are going to be the decorations for my October wedding!

There's a whole other part to the NH garden, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

Second Update to NY Garden

2011-06-15T19:38:00.001-04:00

To continue where I left off, another one of the raised beds contains onions and carrots. The onions I grew from seed and planted them out. I wasn’t sure they were going to make it, but so far, so good. And the carrots were really starting to sprout when I was out there Memorial Day.

The lettuce I seeded is growing like crazy! Dan’s been eating salads all the time and he said there’s no way he’ll be able to eat it all. I told him he better keep going before it all goes to seed. Luckily for the lettuce, it’s been cool with only a few hot days. But my tiny tomatoes are NOT loving that.

In the non-raised garden I have six cucumber plants that Dan will be training up a trellis. I’m hoping to grow my own pickles this year to cut down on costs. Also out there is one zucchini, one yellow summer squash, an acorn squash, and a spaghetti squash plant. All those were started from seed indoors than transplanted, peat plug and all, into the garden when small.

I’m also trying the three sisters method of planting corn, beans, and squash together. I have a block of sweet corn planted, with pole beans hopefully growing up them and a few sugar pumpkin and butternut squash plants growing underneath. I’ve never tried this method, but I’m hoping it works. With at least some success.

I’m trying something CRAZY. When I was in North Carolina in mid-May for a friend’s wedding, Dan and I were at Walmart killing time and they had sweet potato plants for sale. Now, I know you can’t grow them in Zone 5, but I just couldn’t resist. So I bought some and as of now we have 5 of them growing. I put the aqua shields around three of them hoping it would help create a warmer climate. It’s fine when it’s cool outside, but it’s been over 90 a few times and Dan said it’s probably too warm inside them. So when it warms up again, he’s going to remove them. And maybe if the plants don’t get too big come the fall, we’ll put them back on to extend the growing season and get at least a few sweet potatoes!

Speaking of potatoes, the ones I planted on April 17^th are doing excellent. Dan’s suppose to be filling the raised bed to “hill” them. There’s two pounds of red and two pounds of white potatoes planted. Not a lot, but enough to say I grew potatoes!

The brassicas are moving along a little slowly. I don’t think the broccoli has even began to head, although the cauliflower has. And I don’t know what the status are of the Brussels sprouts and cabbage, but last time I saw, they were moving right along.

What else is there out there? Oh, I planted a few celery plants, but Dan said they aren’t doing well. And the peas are FINALLY flowering. The swiss chard is growing like bonkers. I’ve planted black beans. And I think that’s about it. Poor Dan has to take care of all this, but he also gets to reap the rewards. Like the fact that he’s now picking strawberries off the plants I planted last year.

Next up, the New Hampshire garden! A small raised bed planted in the square-foot method, and lots of container gardening. But I’ll elaborate more tomorrow.

Updating the New York Garden

2011-06-14T19:27:00.000-04:00

I promised I’d be back, and slowly, I’ll get there. I just have to fit it into my busy schedule (and a lack of internet). But I’m hoping to be able to update about my gardens and my preserving endeavors periodically.

Apparently, I didn’t make it clear that I had moved from New York to New Hampshire. I mentioned in this post about how I got the job I wanted at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. I’m out here for the next two years, while Dan stays at our house in New York. Yes it’s tough being apart, but we see each other every other week or so. Most people would think we were crazy for doing this, but I need to go where the work is in my field, and a steady, more than three month job isn’t everywhere.

But enough with that, I know you want an update about the garden. I’ll discuss the New York garden here since that’s the one you’re all familiar with. As of Memorial Day, everything is in the ground for the summer season. There’s 29 tomato plants (crazy, I know. And I feel bad for Dan who’s trying to keep them in check!). There are at least two plants of the following varieties: Big Mama, Polish Linguisa, Poland II, Jersey Giant, Jersey Devil, Rutgers, Heinz, Summer Salsa, Ensalada Hybrid, and Sweet 100. Plus, there’s one Dagma’s Perfection. Except for the Big Mamas, all my seedlings were tiny when I planted them and are still pretty small. My tomato harvest is going to be well within August this year, and hopefully they grow enough to produce this year.

The Big Mama plants (three of them) are the ones I started from seed in January. They were planted on May 5^th and had Aqua Shields placed around them until May 30^th. They are doing excellent! Already flowering and with tomatoes growing on them. So luckily, we’ll get SOME tomatoes from the garden this year. Although, I don’t think I’ll start tomatoes in January again. They just got TOO tall. Peppers, on the other hand, were a good idea. They never got leggy and looked fabulous when I planted them in the garden Memorial Day. Hopefully, it will have given them enough of a head start that I get peppers off of them in the short growing season we have in Upstate NY. I didn’t record how many of each variety I planted, but I’m pretty sure there was a sweet banana pepper and 7 or so hot pepper plants (I used one of those mixed seed packets, so I have no clue what type of pepper they will be). I did plant some bell peppers and perhaps another banana pepper there, but they were started in April and were small like the tomatoes.

I can see this post getting really long, so I’ll finish the update of the NY garden tomorrow. There’s all kinds of goodies growing out there!

Not Dead

2011-05-24T18:27:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone. This is just a quick post to say that no, I'm not dead. And no, I haven't deserted this blog. This last month has been crazy. It involved last of wedding planning in western NY, moving to Mass/NH, heading back to NY to get Dan, then down to North Carolina for my friend's wedding, then back to NY to drop Dan off. Then back to New England. And now this weekend I need to head back home to Dan, then western NY, then Ohio and all the way back to New England. Exhausting, isn't it? PLUS, I've been trying to squeeze in gardening including my main garden in NY and a little garden I'm working on in NH.

Also, my internet access for pleasure is limited to Tuesday evenings and Saturdays mornings. But I'm planning to write up posts beforehand, then post them to post throughout the week. I'll have updates on both gardens (which are in desperate need of some sunshine and warmth).

Plus, I'm sure there will be posts here and there throughout the summer about the work I'm doing on the refuge, or other fun nature related things.

I'm also sad that I haven't been able to keep up with everyone else's blogs. Hopefully as I get a little more settled I will have more time to get back into the blogging world. Just bare with me for another week or so.

How's everyone's gardens doing? Are your plants getting enough sun/warmth to grow?

New Flower Bed

2011-04-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

I went a little crazy Saturday evening. I standing by the garage, looking at the side, thinking about how I would like to put a bed there. Suddenly, a hoe was in my hand and I was hacking at the soil. Dan just shook his head and decided he better real me in before I tore up the whole lawn. I wanted a three foot bed, he wanted a two food bed, we now have a 2 1/2 bed.

Although this is on the west side of the house, by the time the sun makes it around the house, it's blocked by tall trees, so this bed remains shaded a lot of the time. I plan to plant a hydrangea bush or two, along with some ferns, hostas, and woodland flowers.

A month or so ago when I was at Lowe's, I discovered these little packets containing native ferns and woodland flowers (they contain the roots, or crowns...I think). I bought a whole bunch today and will hopefully get them in the ground soon. I want to make my garden as native as possible, and what better way than with these plants in their proper environment. I'm hoping they grow, because this will be a cheaper way to plant than buying already established plants.

There will be more details and photos once we have the bed up and going. Plus, Dan said that if I was going to dig up that part of the yard, I might as well round the corner and go along the back of the garage. Which I would like to turn into my new asparagus bed. But we can see on that one. I only have two more weeks here and it won't stop raining!

Soil Amendments

2011-04-25T07:00:00.001-04:00

I'm attempting to grow all my vegetables organically, so I wanted to make sure what I put into the soil would not only help now, but would also help in the long run. Organic soil might not be the best right at the start, but over time, it can support plant life a whole lot better than chemically drenched soils.

As mentioned early, the raised beds were filled with compost (which I'm not all that thrilled about. There's lots of wood pieces and chunks of clay). On top of that, last weekend I amended the soil in all the beds with both greensand and rock phosphate.

Greensand is a mineral deposit harvested from areas that were once oceans. It's a slow release form of potassium (the third number on most fertilizers: 0-0-0). It's pretty neat stuff, being green and having the texture of sand (go figure!). The two organic gardening books I own both said to apply it at a rate of 10 pounds per 100 square foot, so I did some calculations and roughly applied it in that amount.

Rock phosphate is essentially that: rock that contains high levels of phosphorous (the second number in fertilizers). I again applied this at 10 pounds per 100 square feet. But afterward, I read the bag and it said 5 lbs/100 sq. ft. So...I might have a little too much phosphorous. Luckily, it's slow release so it won't all be available at one time.

The last of the macronutrients (most important nutrients plants need, the 0-0-0 numbers) is nitrogen. I bought dried blood for this applications. But because it's not slow release, and nitrogen is only needed at specific times during a plants growth, I did not add any to the soil. It will be added as needed throughout the season to provide appropriate levels of nitrogen for the plants.

I'd like to look into adding some of the micronutrients (those needed by plants, but in smaller amounts), but I don't want to go TOO overboard (the budget is tight). The lime I added when tilling the garden was high in calcium, so hopefully that will help my blossom-end-rot problem that I had last year.

Both of the books I was consulting (Four-Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman and The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward Smith) mentioned adding the greensand and rock phosphate to the compost bin after the garden was already established, then amending the soil each year with the compost. I did add the rest of each bag to my compost pile, but I'm not sure I'll create enough compost each year to adequately amend every bed, so I feel I will have to add the amendments right to the soil. But we shall see.

Do you amend your soil? What do you use?

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T20:10:00.000-04:00

I hope the Easter bunny visited you and brought you great treats:

And I hope you overcooked and over ate:

And I hope you had/are having a fabulous Easter! We sure did, just Dan and I. But sometimes, that's all we need.

Compost

2011-04-18T07:00:00.001-04:00

Composting is something I've wanted to do for a while. Throwing away scraps that can easily decompose seems silly to me. When we moved into this house last year, I immediately insisted on installing a composting system, and we have. Dan and I built two compost bins, side-by-side, using pallets and we've both been very good at throwing any vegetable scraps into a small bucket that stays on the kitchen counter. The only problem was, although I had read about how to build a proper compost pile, I didn't follow through on the advice. Mainly, the whole "brown layer" thing. And the turning over thing.

Without adding a brown layer (straw/hay, dead plants, cardboard), your compost doesn't have the carbon that's necessary in the break-down process. Also, I've read that by using straw as the brown layer, you create a pile with more air pockets, allowing oxygen to get to the good bacteria (bacteria you DON'T want in a compost pile operate under anaerobic (without oxygen) situations). Turning over (mixing) the pile occasionally also permits area to enter and helps those items on the out skirts reach the steamy center.

So pretty much, I had a pile of stuff SLOWLY decomposing. I knew I needed to turn the pile and add the straw. And I knew I needed to do it ASAP, because the warm weather began decomposing the lovely fish carcasses on the top of the pile. Making my yard smell TERRIBLE. I know some people will tell you not to add fish, but fish emulsion fertilizer is one of the best for your garden, so fish in the compost must make it better. Plus, I think they say not to add it because you'll have critters digging through your pile, making a mess. And it's true. You should have seen the tracks around the pile, and there were some carcasses scattered in a 10 foot area. It didn't bother me though. But the smell, gross.

Finally, today was the day. I had gotten a bale of straw and I went about moving the compost from the one bin to the other, creating probably about an inch layer of rotting stuff, then a layer of straw. Let me tell you, when I busted into the pile, I nearly died right there. The smell was SO bad. Dan had caught a lot of fish this winter, and after filleting them, all the carcasses went right on top of the pile. But this is also why the fish went into the compost pile and not into a homemade fish emulsion. The idea of liquefying fish in a bucket, then having to open the bucket, was more than I could bear. By burying it in the pile, I now have eliminated the smell, and all the good nutrients will eventually make their way into the garden.

So here we have the two bins. My new, proper pile in the left is officially "closed", meaning we will not be adding any new material to it. Periodically throughout the summer, I will force Dan to turn it so that it fully breaks down and we can add it to the garden this fall. On the right is the bin we had been using, and will continue using, beginning a new pile. This time, I'm going to build it properly! Next winter, I will have to make sure I have straw so that I can cover up those stinky carcasses!

Do you compost? How do you build your pile?

Winter Farmer's Market

2011-04-16T17:50:00.000-04:00

My local farmer's market is...HUGE. When I mean huge, I mean...see that picture? There's vendors packed into those four buildings, a double row of vendors on that large piece of blacktop in the middle, and a row of vendors outside alongside the top building. It's PACKED during the height of summer.

You can find ANYTHING there. Produce, meats, eggs, dairy, seafood, baked goods, canned goods, woodwork, plants, all kinds of homemade stuff, spices, and some junk (the top building is pretty much a flea market). It's called the "Central New York Regional Market" so it draws in vendors from a large swatch of "upstate" New York.

The point to this post? Well, you would think that with such a big market with all kinds of vendors, that it would be decently large during the winter. And it is, with the last building having all the produce vendors. But the disappointing thing is that most of the produce this time of year is just stuff that's been shipped in. I hate that. During the summer I pretty much avoid any vendor that has produce that's in nice prepackaged containers or produce that's not local here (bananas are not local to New York!). I'd rather give my money to the farmer who has put effort into growing the crop, harvesting it, then brings it to market. Even if I have to pay more, I'll go to that little guy who might only have a few crops on their table.

I went to the market for the first time since October a few weeks ago because we needed onions and potatoes (we buy them there in bulk, grown locally). Besides the storage crops, you couldn't find anything local. No greens. I thought perhaps it was just too early.

This week, I needed honey and I like to get mine from my favorite orchard, so to the market I went. I thought "someone is GOING to have to have greens now. Someone must be growing them in a greenhouse/row cover." Nope. Nothing. There was lettuce that looked pathetic, so you knew it was shipped in. Couldn't find a leaf of spinach. It's so upsetting. On top of that, my honey source had no honey! I left so distraught. Then went and bought lumber for trellises (more on that when I build them).

How's your local farmer's market this time of year? Can you get local greens yet?

Going to Parker River NWR

2011-04-13T20:56:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to tell you....I GOT THE JOB AT PARKER RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE! When I got that phone call, it was such a weight off my shoulders. Now there's just a wedding to worry about...and the garden. Even though I won't be in NY all summer, my garden still will be. So that means I'll have to leave Dan in charge (poor plants). I will be investing in drip hoses and a timer for the faucet. And although there won't be regular updates from my main garden, I plan to do a lot of container gardening while out there. (I'd put in a real garden but the soil is pretty much sand...and there's a ton of deer!)

So if you're wondering where I am this summer, you can find me out in the salt marsh:

There will be lots of early mornings:

And several late evenings:

But it's real tough work, I'm telling you:

Garden Tuesday - Almost There

2011-04-12T08:23:00.000-04:00

I disappeared for a week for good reason, I promise. You see, the weather suddenly turned. It warmed enough that I didn't feel the need to bundle up like that kid from A Christmas Story and the rain stopped coming down long enough to get outside. So I did! Dan and I have been frantically trying to get our garden ready for the season, since I would like to get the cold crops in NOW. Add on top of that the frantic pace at work to get the store ready for the spring season and a sudden trip to NJ for a new car (more on that at a later date), I've had no time for blogging!

So, the garden. You see, I kept telling Dan I needed to get it turned over. I said I'll do it by hand, he insisted we needed to use the rototiller. I told him that the rototiller actually wasn't good for the garden; he scoffed and told me it was most necessary. I relented and let the man go. He spent WEEKS working on the thing. It's hard to tell from here, but the thing was ANCIENT. Okay, not THAT old, but at least 1960's, and sat in a barn, unused for years. Needless to say, it was a miracle that it ran. But Dan wanted it BETTER. So he took it ALL apart, painted it, put it back together, rebuilt the carburetor, fixed a gas leak, and got it running again.

It made it a whole 5 feet in the garden, then guess what? Yea, that's right, we did it BY HAND! Stupid thing died. Dan finally gave up on it and grabbed a hoe. After breaking up the soil with the hoe, we went back through with a pitchfork and loosen the soil more. I read that you shouldn't turn the garden over deep, except when starting a new garden. I felt that our garden was new enough (especially the new bed) that it was okay to do such a radical mixing of the soil. Plus, we had to get the rocks out! We must have removed at least seven 5 gallon buckets of rocks from the two beds.

After day one, it was looking pretty good. The new bed wasn't turned over yet (the white area to the left. We added lime to both beds), but the big bed was done! I began working on the second last week, and Dan finished it up yesterday morning. It's hard work that hoeing!

Raised bed construction was next on the list. I wanted a bunch of small beds. Dan insisted on just making two large beds. I said that was going to work because you're not suppose to step into your raised beds, he insisted he didn't care. We needed more wood, so while out at his grandparents' house, we got more (his grandpa does a lot of wood work and has lots of boards). But because we took my blazer, he had to cut the boards small enough to fit in there. So I got small beds. I win!

Next step, COMPOST. Dan and I took off work yesterday morning to get some. He found that the landfill had compost for free. We drove a half hour over there to find out it wasn't ready. There was no back up plan. So home we went to look up a back up (this is what happens when you leave men in charge, no back-up plan!). I found a place by my work that did bulk compost. Twenty-seven dollars a yard, but I was willing to pay. I needed some beds filled! I had to shovel it all in myself, but I managed to get two and half beds full. It's hard to see in this picture, but at the far end of the old bed there's another bed the size of those in the foreground along with one a little smaller. The new bed has a long, narrow raised bed that I'm going to plant potatoes in. Then will go in the ground, then as they grow, I'll add compost to the bed to "hill" them. We ran out of lumber, so the rest of that bed will remain un-raised, but I'll mix in some compost. These will be where I plant the corn and squash this year, then come fall, I'll making several raised beds in there.

All in all, the garden's coming along. Friday I'll get another yard of compost to finish off the raised beds (except the potato bed). Hopefully this week I'll get the peas and onions in.

How's your garden going? Did you take advantage of the warm weather to get some work done?

This is part of Garden Tuesday. Head on over to Sidewalk Shoes to see what's going on in other people's gardens.

Citrus Curds

2011-04-01T12:28:00.000-04:00

All has not been quiet on the canning front. A few weekends ago, Marisa at Food in Jars put out a reminder to make citrus curd while citrus was still cheap. This reminded me that I wanted to make some, so I went a little overboard and bought a TAD too much citrus. We came home, attempted to find room for it all, and I had plans to work on other things before tackling curd. But then I yanked open the fridge and all plans changed.

I was left with this sight. It was traumatic. I sprawled across the kitchen floor, proceeded to yell at Dan for stacking the eggs on top of the other eggs on the door, he yelled at me for opening the fridge door too fast, then he left. And I realized I looked quite silly laying on the kitchen floor next to broken eggs. So I got up, dusted myself off, and set to making curds. Using eggs off the kitchen floor. (I washed it that morning!)

In my haste I didn't consult multiple recipes. I used the recipe from Put 'em Up. I found it odd that it used whole eggs; I always thought curds were made with egg yolks. But who was I to judge. I'd never made curds. And there were eggs on the floor!

The lemon curd...OMG. I'm not sure how it made it into jars. I probably could have stood there and ate the whole thing out of the bowl. But Dan pointed out: it's eggs, sugar, and butter. Not the most healthy thing in the world. But there's fresh citrus in there, that must count for something, right?

The lime came out good as well. The grapefruit on the other hand, slightly bitter. And kind of grainy. But it's still tasty mixed in my yogurt.

But if you want to make curd, head on over to Food in Jar's for Marisa's tutorial or over to Local Kitchen for Kaela's take on Grapefruit curd (as well as other curds).

Garden Tuesday - Spring Growth

2011-03-29T19:22:00.000-04:00

Although it may not feel like it out there, it IS spring. And although part of my garden is STILL under snow (with more forecasted in the coming days), the plants don't listen. They go by sunlight. Or something...

Either way, there is some growth in the garden. It raises my spirits, even if it's too cold to be out there to truly enjoy it.


Crocuses are blooming.

The buds on the blueberry bushes are swelling.

Daffodils (?) are sprouting.

This is part of Garden Tuesday, hosted by the fabulous Pam at Sidewalk Shoes. Head over there to see what's going on in other people's gardens.

Do you have spring bulbs? Any flowers yet?

2011 Seed List

2011-03-28T19:13:00.000-04:00

All the seeds are in (well, just about all) and I promised I'd write a post about all that I plan to plant this year, so here we go (some of these might not make it into the garden, but this is what I have). I was proud of myself that I didn't spend all that much money on seeds this year. Last year I bought a lot, most of which I didn't end up using, so they will be put to use this year. What I did buy were either vegetables I didn't buy last year (onions), or heirloom tomato varieties (because I'm now addicted). Below are the varieties I plan to plant and who I got them from.

Brassicas
Earliana: Cabbage, Burpee.
Early Jersey Wakefield: Cabbage, Comstock, Ferre and Co.
Long Island: Brussels Sprouts, Burpee.
Green Goliath: Broccoli, Burpee.
Butter Cream Hybrid: Cauliflower, Burpee.

Carrots
Short n' Sweet: Burpee.
Little Finger: Livingston Seed Co.
Danvers Half Long: Burpee.

Corn
Early & Often Hybrid: Sweet corn, Burpee.

Curcubits
Picklebush: Cucumber, Burpee.
Gold Rush Hybrid: Summer squash, Burpee.
Burpee's Fordhook Zucchini: Summer squash, Burpee.
Burpee's Butterbush: Winter squash, Burpee.
Vegetable Spaghetti: Winter squash, Burpee.
Table Queen (Acorn): Winter squash, Ferry-Morse.
Early Sweet Sugar Pie: Sugar pumpkin, Burpee.

Eggplant
Burpee's Garden Blend: Burpee.

Greens
Sunsation: Romaine lettuce, Burpee.
Salad Fresh Hyrbid: Spinach, The Cook's Garden.
Teton Hybrid: Spinach, The Cook's Garden.
Prizeleaf: Leaf lettuce, The Cook's Garden.
Looseleaf Blend: Leaf lettuce, Burpee.
Burpee Bibb: Butterhead lettuce, Burpee.
Cook's Mild Mix: Mesclun, The Cook's Garden.
Bright Lights: Swiss Chard, Livingston Seed Co.

Herbs
Bouquet: Dill, The Cook's Garden.
Tetra: Dill, Burpee.
Cilantro: Burpee.

Legumes
Burpeeana Early: Shelling pea, Burpee.
Kentucky Wonder: Pole snap bean, Burpee.

Onions
Tokyo Long Bunching: Scallions, Burpee.
Red Burgundy: Bulb, Ferry-Morse.
Yellow Dutch: Bulb, Comstock, Ferre and Co.

Radishes
Cherry Belle: Burpee
Cook's Custom Mix: The Cook's Garden.

Peppers
Jalapeno: Livingston Seed Co.
Kaleidoscope Mix: Sweet Bell, Burpee.
Sweet Banana: Ferry-Morse.
All Alarm Hot Mix: Hot peppers, Burpee.

Tomatoes
Super Sweet 100: Cherry, Burpee.
Big Mama: Paste, Burpee.
Summer Salsa: Saladette, Burpee.
Jersey Giant: Paste, Comstock, Ferre and Co.
Rutgers (heirloom variety): Canning, Comstock, Ferre and Co.
Ensalada Hybrid: Saladette, The Cook's Garden.
San Marzano: Paste, The Cook's Garden.
Jersey Devil: Paste, TomatoFest.
Heinz Tomato: Paste, TomatoFest.
New Yorker: Beefsteak, TomatoFest.
Poland II: Paste, TomatoFest.
Polish Linguisa: Paste, TomatoFest.
Dagma's Perfection: TomatoFest.

Yes, the tomato list is a little extreme. I probably won't plant them all, and I'll only plant one or two plant of those that do get planted. There's just too many choices when it comes to tomatoes!

How many varieties of tomatoes do you plant? Have any comments about any of the varieties I'm planting?

Hanging Baskets

2011-03-24T20:04:00.000-04:00

I was going to write a post about some canning I've been doing. But it seemed to involved. Instead, I'll go back to the plants (this is also because I'm in the spring fever/plant kind of mood!). Although we had another inch of snow yesterday, I'm thinking spring. The only good thing this snow is doing is making me feel better about the fact that I just started my onion seeds YESTERDAY. I should have done that weeks ago! Oh well. I'll have onions...eventually.

But besides the veggies, I've also been doing some flower planting. As I've said before, our main business at the greenhouse is selling plugs (they are peat plugs, like you would start your seeds in). At the end of our season for them, whatever hasn't gotten sold gets thrown away. Before they go, the staff get free dibs. Last year I snagged some fuchsia and some torenia. Each was planted into some coconut-lined hanging baskets I had. They were GORGEOUS last summer. The only problem, because I didn't plant them until late in April, they didn't fill out until WELL into summer. So this year my boss let me take some plugs early. I dark Fuchsia 'Dark Eyes' in the one basket and Torenia 'Summer Wave Large Blue' in the other. The torenia I REALLY wanted is called 'Bouquet Gold', but it's a mounding variety that wouldn't look good in a basket. But I was DETERMINED to have some, so I bought a terracotta pot and plants some in there along with some 'Bouquet Blue'. I absolutely love torenia!

I'm hoping this year these baskets (and pot) will fill out by the time they will go outside in May.

Do you plant up your own hanging baskets? What are your favorite flowers for baskets?

Garden Tuesday - There's Still a Garden Out There

2011-03-22T20:25:00.000-04:00

March 13, 2011

March 20, 2011

March 13, 2011

March 20, 2011

It's amazing what a week can do, isn't it? You can now see most of the garden, and oh boy, does it need some TLC. The old bed (used last year) had grass clippings used as mulch during the growing season, which are now matted down and look ugly. The "fall" garden was left to die, so limp lettuce leaves are plastered to the ground with small radishes laying about.

And FINALLY I found the strawberry/herb/garlic bed. I raked all the leaves out (and the rest of the snow) so that the garlic could grow unimpeded. The chives are sprouting as well!

The most surprising thing under all the snow? The carrots I planted sometime last summer. They did NOTHING all summer. Sprouted and hardly grew. So I just left them there for the winter. I put some leaves over them and said "good luck". And LOOK! They are still alive. And not only that, but look to the bottom and you'll see new growth. That's something, isn't it? I doubt it will amount to much, especially because it will end up getting tilled under when we redo the beds. But it's nice to see and I can say that I have something growing in the garden right now!

Now, we just need to stop getting snow (we're getting off lucky tomorrow, only a few inches coming this way) and we need it to warm up. Then we can get out there and start gardening. Wait until you see what Dan's been working on. Oh boy, he's ready to go!

*Note: This is going to (hopefully) be a weekly event where I post about the garden on Tuesdays, started and hosted by the lovely Pam over at Sidewalk Shoes. You should head over there and see how other bloggers' gardens are doing. And maybe you should join in as well!

Seed Starting

2011-03-15T20:00:00.000-04:00

You people have been making me nervous with all your seed starting and lush looking plants. And I didn't even have the time to THINK about starting seeds. Then I told myself "Kaytee, you can't even see your garden yet, you have lots of time." This is so true. Although last year I had peas in the ground in March, that doesn't look like it's going to happen this year. But now that I have some free time, I have been focusing my attention toward starting seeds.

Last year was my first year attempting to start seeds indoors. I started WAY too early, and planted them outside too early, and lost most everything except a few pepper plants. I ended up buying most of the plants for my garden. This year will be different. I'm going to attempt to grow everything from seed, either by starting indoors or by direct seeding into the garden.

Things are beginning to get rolling seed wise here. Those tomatoes and peppers I started for the hell of it in January? They are doing just lovely. Up until today, they were hanging out in those little peat pellets in front of our sliding glass door (which conveniently faces south). I knew they need more room, and proper lighting, so today they were re-potted and moved to me new seed starting area in the basement. I knew I needed to get a light to do this seed thing properly, but I wasn't sure about spending the money. Then one day while Dan was working on my truck in the garage, there I noticed two fluorescent lights. (Which have been there all along, I'm very observant sometimes.) He agreed to take one down and rig it up in the basement over top of this table (he screwed metal hooks into the floor beams then attached rope to the chains to get the light down close to the plants). I bought light bulbs at Lowe's that said they were good for growing plants. I know I should have done some research into which lights are best, but remember, I don't have that much time (or energy!). And there you have it, a genuine seed growing set-up! I wanted to get heat mats, but I can't find anyone that sells them (except my work, but the price is so jacked up, it's not worth it). That's next year's purchase. For now, I'm using a regular use-it-for-sore-body-parts heat pad to get seeds to germinate. I just hope the basement isn't too cold for these little guys.

What's it the dishes, you ask? Well, that's this past week's project! The one on the left has a mesculn mix in one half and a leaf lettuce in the other. The dish on the right has a butterhead lettuce in half and spinach in the other. I used the heat pad occasionally this week to get them to germinate and it worked for the lettuce. The spinach on the other hand... I'm hoping the cooler temperature in the basement will help those germinate.

These are my homemade seedling supports. Last year when I was growing seedlings, the tomatoes were growing all over the place (could be the fact that I didn't have a good constant light overhead). My brother suggested using bamboo skewers to support them, and then using twist ties to loosely hold the plants to the skewers. Works like a charm, so I've done the same thing this year. When I transplanted the tomatoes, I buried the stems deep. They will grow roots off the buried stem, and hopefully this will allow the plant to grow a little stronger.

In other seed news, today I've started just about the rest of my cool season crops. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts were all started. The onion seeds should be showing up sometime this week, so I'll get them started as well. I'm going to wait until the first week of April to start any of the warm season crops (which includes A LOT of tomatoes).

I'll give a full report on what I'm growing later this week once I have all seeds in hand.

Do you start your plants from seeds? Do you have any started now? How's it going so far?

Sounds of Spring

2011-03-14T19:56:00.000-04:00

Working in a greenhouse makes one more aware of spring's arrival with more than blooming flowers. With walls and ceilings of nothing but glass or plastic, the outside world is closer to those inside than it is for those working in an office building. Sun easily streams in and is essentially our only light all day, making it easier to realize that the days have indeed increased in length. But lately, more than just lengthening days have made me realize that spring is just around the corner.

Several weeks ago, I began to hear the trumpeting of geese as they make their way north. It's funny that geese are so common, but until you hear their honks after an absents, you never realized they were gone from the skies.

Two weeks ago, the morning call of the male cardinal welcomed me to work. All winter he only lets out a sharp "tik" call, keeping in touch with his female. Now he's changed his tune. The "woit woit woit chew chew chew chew chew" lets all who hears him know that the time for nesting is near.

Then the beginning of last week, I stepped out of work in the evening to hear a red-winged blackbird in the marsh. They males have returned from their warm wintering grounds to lay their claim to a patch of cattails. The females might be weeks away, and a snow storm may still roll through, but there they will stay, perched on a reed singing "kon-ka-ree".

Later that same week, exhausted from the heat and work, my spirit was lifted by a familiar "kill-deer" sailing in through the thin walls. The killdeer are back! They too have returned to stake out their patch of gravel where they will lay their camouflaged eggs and dance their broken wing display to anyone who dare get too close.

Today the calls continued. All winter long, the chickadee is a common sight to anyone who lives up north. Their "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" calls are familiar to many and can brighten any winter day. And although that call might be their namesake, they switch records come spring. This morning I heard one proclaim "cheese-bur-ger". Apparently, female chickadees are attracted to a man who can provide a tasty meal!

So even though there's still snow on the ground up here, and the temperatures are still mighty chilly, the sounds that surround me each day let me know that spring isn't far off now.

Garden Plans

2011-03-13T17:57:00.000-04:00

While I see a lot of people are out there prepping their gardens for planting, or already planting (!), we are not here. This is what the garden looks like right now. There's at least 6 inches of snow covering it. Although, this is an improvement, because on Monday there was almost 2 feet of snow. This week we're suppose to have highs around 50 for just about all of the week, so hopefully we'll be playing in the mud next weekend!

Dan and I are both ready for the snow to be gone and gardening to begin. I'm sick of it and want to plant things! He, on the other hand, LOVES snow, but we're now at that time of year where it's melting so he can no longer go snowmobiling or ice fishing. So prepping the garden will keep him busy until he can go regular fishing and ride his motorcycle.

We have BIG plans for the garden this year. If you remember back to here we (Dan) tilled a second bed in the fall. Nothing was planted in it (expect two blueberry bushes at the far end). Hopefully by next weekend, we'll be working on making both beds into raised beds. I'd like to fill both of them with compost so I know they will start off good, but we also have to be sure we don't break the bank. We might just do a mix of topsoil and compost to start, then amend the soil as we go along. Dan's been on the hunt for bulk compost, and also seeing if we can get some free horse manure to mix in as well.

Once the beds are in place and filled, I plan on getting some black plastic to warm up the soil before doing any planting. They are calling for a cool, wet spring here (which is looking pretty accurate so far) so I want to try to speed up the soil warming process. I also plan to use my little hoop row cover for some of the early plantings (seen here).

The major money project for the garden is actually going to be the watering system. I'm still hoping to be working in MA for the summer, which makes it quite tough to water daily! Dan usually spends his summer weeks on the road, so with no one here to water, I have plans to purchase drip hoses and a timer for the faucet. Now it looks as though Dan might be staying close to home this summer, but he can't always be trusted to water, and water properly. So I still plan to buy the hoses and timer. The key is going to be finding the right system, and not spending too much. Any suggested are welcome.

There's the plans for garden. Hopefully we manage to get it done and not spend too much! Later this week, I'll discuss what I plan to plant (although, I STILL haven't drawn up a layout yet. I'll get there. Eventually.).

Oh, we're not done with snow yet. This is my poor herb and strawberry garden. There's still almost 2 feet on top of it. It's right along the deck, so lots of snow was shoveled right to there (including all that new stuff in the foreground). This will be the last to melt. The bummer thing is, this is where I planted my garlic, which I'd love to see sprouting about now!

Do you have any big garden plans this year? Have you been out there tackling them already?

Still Alive and More Greenhouse Pictures

2011-03-10T19:30:00.000-05:00

I hit 100 posts then disappear. Last week was our busiest week of the season. Hard to believe when we're still buried under snow, but such is the wholesale greenhouse business when your main product is basket/combo pot plants. There has been lots of working in the past three weeks (and only 1 day off), so that's why I've been MIA from here. I'm getting back to working normal hours, and this weekend will be my first full weekend off since sometime in January, so I'll be back here more often. And I will be back on your blogs more often (I've been so exhausted that I haven't even had the energy to read posts!).

All my seeds have been ordered. Some more started, and some light bulbs have been purchased. But I will have more on these exciting topics this weekend. In the meantime, I'll leave you with some more pictures from the greenhouse. Think spring!


Hot Blue Lobelia


Ivy Geranium. Perhaps Soft Pink.

Gulliver Blue Sensation and Dark Pink Bacopa.


Silver Falls Dichondra. One of the few things we grow from seed.


One of our tuberous begonias. Not sure on the color. One of the Nonstop series. Aren't they gorgeous?


Elegance Bravo Regal Geranium (also known as Martha Washington Geranium). I'm more fond of some of the other colors, especially the burgundy, but this was the only one flowering.


Papillion Pink Gaura in one of our combination pots.


My favorite geranium. It's called Candy Fantasy Kiss.

Another combination pot. The white flower is Euphorbia Silver Fog and the coleus is Witch Doctor.


Calibrachoa (million bells). Not sure the color. There's so many different pink ones.

More bacopa. I just love these little flowers and the plants have such a great, unique smell to them. These varieties are Gulliver Blue Sensation and Gulliver White.

Cranberry Liqueur and Vanilla Extract

2011-02-17T20:19:00.000-05:00

This may seem like just another post from me (on a Thursday night, no less), but this post is different. It's post number 100! Pretty cool. I just want to say thank you to those of you who have been reading, either for the past several months or just recently. And although my posts are few and far between, I hope you'll stick around. Once the spring thaw comes (and it's trying!) there will be much more action to report on. For now, not much. And I don't want to waste everyone's time with nonsense, so that's one of the main reasons for this slow down.

Although this is special post 100, I don't have anything fabulous. No amazing information to unveil. No giveaway. Really, there's not much. Except for a few small projects that I've been working on (or, have been working on themselves). The first gives a shout-out to Pam at Sidewalk Shoes for such inspiration (and reminding). Back in November she posted the recipe for Cranberry Liqueur. I thought to myself "I love soaking fruit in alcohol, I better try this". I promptly forgot. Then in December she posted the recipe for Boozy Cranberry Muffins to use the soaked cranberries. I thought to myself "I love cranberry muffins, and what could be better than cranberries soaked in alcohol IN the muffin. I have to make these!" I promptly forgot. Then last month she posted the recipe for The Best Cosmopolitan. I thought to myself "ENOUGH! I'm going to make that damn liqueur right now!"

And I did. So easy. Sugar, water, cranberries, vodka. Done. In the cupboard for three weeks. Or whenever I remember it's there. And have time to deal with it further. So maybe it was in there a month...or more. Either way. I finally strained it out last weekend. Then made those muffins. And oh dear Lord, I've never seen a muffin look that good! It was crunchy on the outside, and soft on the inside. It looked so gorgeous that I took a picture...but it came out bad. And the muffins were eaten before I could get another. Go to Pam's blog to see a picture if you need one.

But the real question, taste? LOVE the liqueur. Very yummy. Haven't used it to make that cosmopolitan yet, but I will very soon. As for the muffins, well, I think my cranberries had soaked too long. There wasn't really any cranberry flavor left in there. They ended up being mushy little pockets of vodka. Not horrible, but not what I was hoping for. But the general muffin recipe, so yum. I think I'll use it with unsoaked cranberries to make my next batch of muffins.

The other little project that's been working alongside the liqueur has been some vanilla extract. I never thought you could make it at home until I saw a post over at Joy the Baker. So simple. Three split open vanilla beans added to 1 cup of at least 80 proof alcohol and let sit for two months. I used 1/2 cup vodka and 1/2 rum. I gave my mom a jar full for Christmas. Her's should be ready by now so I'll have to try it when I go home this weekend.

Although I don't have all the time in the world, I still manage to get some small projects done. Go out there and accomplish some this weekend!

Any small projects going on around your house?

*Note: I don't have an alcohol problem. It just so happened the two projects I wanted to do involved alcohol. Total coincidence.

A Walk Through the Greenhouse

2011-02-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned several times about how I was going to post some pictures from work. Well finally, I remembered to take my camera with me. For those of you who don't know, I work at a greenhouse. Their main business is growing annuals from cuttings which are sold wholesale to other greenhouses, which then plant them in hanging baskets, combination planters, and other pots. They also wholesale already planted baskets and pots of various sizes, as well as mums. Retail, they grow your usual six-packs, along with selling the baskets and pots we plant. It's real neat to see where those plants you buy started and how they get to you. The operation I work for is large compared to the one-greenhouse, person doing it on the side business. But there are places out there with MILES of greenhouses. We have four large greenhouses, one small one attached to the store with house plants, and 7 hoop houses (5 of which are attached to greenhouses and are heated. 2 are free standing with no heaters). Now on to what's going on in those greenhouses.

This is the main growing house. Once the cuttings are stuck into the soil, they go right in here. This place is impressive. All the heat is floor heating (water coils embedded in the concrete), except for the sun on a sunny day! At the far end, you can see the water booms. They are programmed to mist the plants every so often, depending on the plants needs (the owner groups plants by water and growing needs). This house is where you want to be when it's 10 degrees outside. It's always warm in there. Although, if it's a sunny day, it can feel like Florida in August. Hot and muggy to the point you can hardly breathe. After several weeks of being in here, the plants are transported into a second greenhouse of this size that's separated by a 30 foot wide "work room" (where we do all the planting). The second greenhouse is heated my large hanging heaters and is kept cooler (the plants are established at this point and don't need as much care).

Geraniums are one of our biggest sellers. This past week, it took seven of us five hours to stick all the plants. All this entails is taking the cutting (what you see there) and stick it into the soil in those plugs. Once a tray is done, we stick those specially made tags in the tray and put it on a conveyor belt. Simple, but when there's 15000 geraniums, it takes forever! This plant is Patriot Bright Red, THE quintessential red geranium that EVERYBODY wants. Greenhouses will take hundreds of them in an order (sometimes thousands).

Bacopa is one of my favorite flowers. They aren't real showy, but their flowers are so cute. And they are excellent growers.

The double impatiens are getting ready to open. I believe this one is "hot pink".

We grow a lot of calibrachoa (more commonly known as million bells) in all kinds of colors. They look great at first, but as the summer goes on, they get so leggy, and half the leaves die and they just get out of control. But you can't deny that their colors are stunning.

A field of coleus! We don't grow a whole lot of them, but we do grow at least 15 different varieties. They are just so interesting with their multi-colored leaves. Then tend to be the bright spot in the greenhouses when everything else is just green.

Gazania's have such showy flowers, and although we only grow three varieties, they are quite nice to look at. We lost half a crop of these guys due to some poor planning (I knew it wasn't going to work, but who am I to know how to run this operation). So I spent over an hour trying to clean them up and salvage what I could. Luckily, this first batch made it healthy and are sending up flowers.

That's all for now. Maybe in a few weeks some more flowers will be blooming and I'll snap some more pictures.

Getting anxious for spring? Can't wait to see flowers in your own garden?

Canning Jar Update

2011-02-08T21:11:00.001-05:00

I went over a week without a post! Work is at official mayhem level. Bear with me during this time.

Nothing much has been going on over here. I'm still waiting for a few seed catalogs. And I'll probably wait for my tax refund check to purchase any seeds. I haven't started any more seeds besides those tomatoes and peppers started a few weeks ago and they haven't grown too much. In summary (I've always hated that phrase), there's nothing to report on the gardening front.

No recipes to report either. Again, no time to cook. Dan cooks dinner most every night since I don't get home until 6:30. And we're trying to go back to eating healthy, so no baking going on (plus, we're still eating Christmas cookies out of the freezer!).

The canning front, well, nothing there either. Lack of produce, money, and time leads to just eating what we have. But I thought I'd do an update on how the stores are coming along. We've been going through quite a bit! I'll compare how much was made and what's left. (You can go here to see my original round-up of the canning season)

     Made Is Left
Jams/Chutneys:
Apricot-Black Raspberry:        2 3/4 pints                            2 pints
Blueberry-Peach:                     2 pints                                     0
Sour Cherry:                            2 pints                                  2 pints
Strawberry:                        4 1/2 pints                            1/2 pint
Apricot:                                    3 1/2 pints                             2 pints
Plum:                                        4 pints                                   3 pints
Black Raspberry:                      2 pints                                       0
Peach:                                      2 1/4 pints                             2 pints
Blueberry:                                 3 pints                                   1/2 pint
Spiced Blueberry:                     3 1/2 pints                             1 1/2 pints (gave away 1 1/2 pints)
Grape:                                      5 1/2 pints                             4 1/2 pints
Cranberry Chutney:                   5 pints                                   3 1/2 pints

Pickled Items:
Dill Pickles:                               13 quarts, 4 pints                   10 quarts
Dilly Beans:                               9 pints                                    9 pints
Bread and Butter Pickles:    4 quarts, 7 pints                      4 quarts, 6 pints
Yellow Squash Pickles:             7 pints                                     4 pints
Dilled Cherry Tomatoes:           7 pints                                     7 pints
Watermelon Rind Pickles:         4 pints                                     2 pints
Hamburger Chips:                     8 pints                                     5 pints
Green Tomato Pickles:              2 pints                                     2 pints
Pickled Jalapenos:                     2 pints                                     2 pints
Pickled Hot Banana Peppers:    4 pints                                     4 pints
Pickled Cauliflower:                  17 quarts                                 12 quarts
Sweet Pickle Relish:                  3 1/2 pints                               2 1/2 pints

Tomato Products:
Tomato Sauce:                          8 quarts, 1 pint                         2 quarts
BBQ Sauce:                             4 pints                                       4 pints
Crushed Tomatoes:                  2 quarts, 7 pints                         6 pints
Tomato Soup:                          6 pints                                       4 pints
Stewed Tomatoes:                   8 pints                                       7 pints
Whole Tomatoes:                     4 quarts, 1 pint                        2 quarts, 1 pint
Salsa:                                       2 quarts, 14 pints                    2 quarts, 8 pints
Tomato Jam:                            2 1/2 pints                                 2 pints
Roasted Cherry Tomatoes:       2 1/2 pints                                     0
Tomato Juice:                           2 pints                                      1 pint

Sweet Treats:
Peach Chocolate Dessert Sauce: 2 1/4 pints                              1 1/2 pints
Peaches in Light Syrup:             27 quarts                                  8 quarts
Applesauce:                              25 quarts                                  19 quarts
Pear Sauce:                              3 quarts, 1 pint                          3 quarts, 1 pint
Pears in Very Light Syrup:        12 quarts                                   11 quarts
Pear Syrup:                              1 1/2 pints                                       0

Others:
Potatoes:                                  15 quarts, 5 pints       12 quarts, 5 pints
Sauerkraut:                               2 quarts                                     2 quarts

2011 Canning
Sauerkraut:                                4 pints                                       4 pints
Orange Marmalade:                   2 3/4 pints                                 2 pints

*Note: 1/2 pint of both peach chocolate dessert sauce and orange marmalade lost to the disaster.

Want to know what's currently hiding out in my fridge? Sure you do! There's so many jars in there it's crazy. Those plastic storage lids are precious commodities around here now.

Half pint of STRAWBERRY JAM
Pint of SALSA
Pint of HAMBURGER CHIPS
Pint of YELLOW SQUASH PICKLES
Half pint of SWEET PICKLE RELISH
Half pint of TOMATO JAM
Pint of WATERMELON RIND PICKLES
Pint of MIXED PICKLED PEPPERS (never canned)
Quart of PEACHES
Quart of PEARS
Quart of APPLESAUCE

But wait, there's more! I use mason jars to store all kinds of things in the fridge, including:
Chipotles in adobo sauce
Chicken broth
Raspberry vinaigrette (made with raspberry vinegar that I made this summer)
Homemade yogurt

What about the freezer? There's jars there too! Holding:
Turkey stock
Chicken stock

The cupboards? Of course!
Cranberry Liqueur
Raspberries in Rum (I think. I should have wrote that down.)
Vanilla Extract

We get a lot of use from our (my) mason jars around here. And besides having them lining shelves in the basement, crowding the fridge, chilling in the freezer, or hidden in the cupboard, they also fill the dishwasher every week and reside in the corner of our (sparingly used) dining room. I have the cardboard boxes the jars come (one for each size) in one corner, and every time a jar is cleaned, it goes right into the box. When a box is full, it's taken to the basement and an empty box is brought up. WAY easier than having to carry all the clean jars downstairs every time. And keeping them in the cardboard makes storage and transport totally easier.

How's your canning stores looking? A little depleted, or still going strong?

Please excuse the not straight columns above. It's past my bedtime and I'm too tired to fix them!

Doing Some Reading

2011-01-29T14:47:00.000-05:00

There looks to be good news on the job front. I don't want to jinx myself or get too excited. But I'm hoping to work in Ohio for a few months then Mass. for most of the summer and fall. I'll just keep my fingers crossed that it all works out.

But besides applying for jobs, I've been doing some garden reading. My brother got me a Barnes and Noble gift card for Christmas, so I used it to buy a few books I wanted. The gift card combined with a sale and free shipping meant I only had to pay $7 for two books. Good deal! So far I'm really enjoying Eliot Coleman's Four-Season Harvest. It'll be great to learn some things about keeping fresh food on the table during the cold months (which is most of the year up here).

I also bought The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard. I saw some great reviews of this book last summer and have been itching to get it. I haven't looked through it yet, but I can't wait. A lot of times I don't end up with huge amounts of produce to preserve, so it'll be nice to see what recipes they have.

I also got my first two seed catalogs in! I've flipped through them both, and although I'm pretty set on seeds, when you get to looking you end up wanting all kinds of things! I'm trying to stick to my plan of only buying essentials, but it's tough. Johnny's has cranberry plants! I'd KILL for some of them, but at $20 a piece, I'm not sure it's a smart move for this year. Plus, if I go work in Mass., I can get free, wild cranberries. I would also like to reserve some budget for potatoes this year, and they can be a bit pricey (compared to a pack of seeds).

On the seed front, I'm looking to get some onions (maybe red and yellow) and some drying beans. If you have any suggestions on varieties, please let me know. I want to get some more greens, but I have a bunch for the spring, so I think I'll wait until the summer, when I have more money, to order for the fall. I think I'm going to try to Asian greens this fall instead of just lettuce and spinach.

When it comes to tomatoes, I'm in love. I currently have somewhere around 8 varieties, but I want more (or different ones)! Last year I told myself I wasn't growing heirlooms anymore because they grow all over the place and don't produce as much as some determinate hybrids. But there's so many great heirloom varieties, and they do taste better. So on my search for ones I know I want to grow (Polish Lingusia, because I loved them last year and forgot to save seed), I found some others I'll probably end up buying. I'm going to grow Rutgers again. I liked them last year and I'm a Jersey girl who just MUST have THE Jersey tomato in my garden. The only question is, to grow the traditional indeterminate variety or go with the determinate strain. Anyone have an opinion on this?

Also on my searches, I stumbled upon the Jersey Devil and the Jersey Giant tomatoes. Both are pretty rare heirlooms, but seem to be great paste tomatoes (my main focus when growing tomatoes). I think I might get a pack of each and try them out. And I'll feel good knowing I'm keeping two heirloom varieties going (especially if I remember to save seed!). Only problem is, now I forget where I found each of them. Back to searching I go!

Are you growing any vegetables this year that you're just SUPER excited about?

Tip on Storing Preserves

2011-01-27T18:06:00.000-05:00

I made homemade macaroni and cheese today for the first time. It was good. I added ground venison and homemade salsa and called it dinner.

But that's not why you're here. You want to hear the wisdom I'm about to share about storing those tasty preserves you made. I know it seems odd to be sharing this now when you made them months ago, but trust me, it's important.

I have a disturbing photo to share. Brace yourselves. It's a shocker.

I know. So traumatic, isn't it? I was minding my own business on Sunday. Trying to watch some football. When all of a sudden....CRASH! Actually, it didn't sound like breaking glass. It was just a loud sound. I thought it was odd, but didn't get off the couch. When I went to check the laundry, this lay right in my path. What you can't see in this picture is that there's a second jar further back. Good thing I didn't really like this orange marmalade. And I probably shouldn't have been eating the chocolate peach dessert sauce that fell either.

The point here? You need to be aware of where you store your preserves and how they are situated. This is very important to keep track of now that we're using them, so jars are being shuffled around to get to other ones.

I'm not exactly sure HOW these jars fell, but I did put the three jars of sauerkraut I just canned on the shelf, and kind of crammed them in, moving jars in the process. I didn't bother to make sure that the jars on the edge of the shelf were still securely in place. They must have gotten pushed too close to the edge, then perhaps the vibrations from the washer or dry was enough to send the bottom one over, taking the top jar with it.

Make sure you are constantly checking the jars on the edges of shelves. Or you too will be out 2 jars. And a rubber seal from my new Tattler reusable canning lids. (Which I won from Simple Bites. Great site, go check it out!)

Has this unfortunate event happened to anyone else?

Buried In Snow

2011-01-24T20:31:00.000-05:00

We have just been having one crazy winter up here in Upstate NY. Moving up here (up here being maybe 20 miles from where we were, down there), we were aware that we were moving more into Lake Effect Snow Land. But this winter has been epic. We haven't had any major snowfall events since December (when it snowed for like 5 days straight), but it has been 4 inches there, 8 inches there, 6 inches there. When this happens every other day, it adds up. Thursday night through Friday night we got a decent amount (1 foot in total probably). Dan grabbed my camera when I was out snowblowing, so I figured I'd share them with you.


Dan had to get up on the roof and shovel it off. (Please ignore the nasty green on the house. We didn't find time to pressure wash it last year. That's the first project for the spring.)


Someone has to do all the work around here. I seem to be doing this A LOT lately.


Our light has a top hat!


Down the road. That's about as clear as the roads get up here unless there's a thaw.

It's been a tad chilly here too. Dan took this picture of our indoor/outdoor thermometer when he got up this morning at 5:30 (ignore the time on the clock, it's wrong). Negative 16, brr! When I rolled out of bed at 8:00, it had warmed to -14!

How's your winter going? Cold? Snowy? Or are you out there sitting pretty, not lifting a single finger toward a snow shovel?

Sauerkraut and Blog Update

2011-01-23T14:50:00.000-05:00

I went a whole week without posting? That's terrible! But sadly, this might continue for the next few months. We're getting busy at work, so I'm about to start working full weeks. This involves leaving the house at 5:40am to go to the gym, then be at work at 8am, work until 6pm (give or take 15 minutes or so), drive a half hour home (on a clear day, longer when it's snowing. Which seems to be all the time!). Get home, hope Dan has dinner cooked, change into my PJs, eat dinner. Fall over dead. Bed is usually 8:30 or 9:00. It's rare I turn the computer on. See where I'm coming from? But I'm going to try typing some posts on the weekend that I can quickly publish during the week. I want to write another post on the garden, Erin over at Garden Now - Think Later! has challenged bloggers to show off their seed organizers (I want to work on mine first, so I have something to share besides a plastic grocery bag full of seeds!), plus I have some more canning thoughts to share. I just need more time! (And less now. Snowblowing the driveway every other day takes up a lot of time!)

But for this post, along with filling you in on where I've been and where I'll be, I wanted to make an update about that sauerkraut I made like 2 weeks ago. Let me just say, I slightly forgot about it. I stuck it on the top of the fridge and wrapped it in an old towel, hoping it would be warmer up there, helping the fermenting process. I had checked it twice, when I dawned on me what was up there. Then Friday I realized it had been up there a while and was probably ready to can. I took them down (the color had changed from green to the yellow sauerkraut color) and opened them up.

What I found dismayed me. MOLD! Never before had I had mold growing on the top of my sauerkraut. I wasn't TOO worried though, since I've read many places about mold forming on the top of fermenting things. I did change my method of finishing the sauerkraut process. In my previous post, I mention how I usually just clean up the lids/rims, prep them for canning, then place them on and process away. This time, I wanted to make sure I wasn't canning anything dangerous. I removed the mold and a 1/2" or so of the sauerkraut beneath it. The mold came off as one piece, so I felt good about it just being on the top. I got new, clean jars and sterilized them. The mold-free sauerkraut was emptied into a pot and heated thoroughly (hoping to kill any nastys still lurking). Hot sauerkraut went into hot jars, on went hot lids, and into the water bath for 10 minutes.

I feel confident that this sauerkraut is safe. I smelled it coming out of the jars (after removing the mold) and it smelled fine. I AM going to keep a close eye on those jars and inspect them closely when I go to use them. If anything seems odd to me (color, smell), I will be pitching the contents. Better safe than sorry.

Has mold occurred on anyone else's fermenting veggies? Was my process safe or should I have thrown the sauerkraut all out?

A Little Green Admist the White

2011-01-16T14:55:00.000-05:00

We're again getting lots of snow, thanks to a storm system that moved through yesterday and the lake effect that kicked up overnight. But I'm thinking spring. (And have probably gone a tad crazy.) Last weekend (I think) I planted some seeds. Most of them are peppers (a hot pepper mix, some sweet banana peppers, and maybe some bell peppers? I probably should have written this down). I've never had luck with peppers in the garden, I think because our summers are so short and cool. So I thought I'd try to get them a head start and see if I could get some plants big by the time I can plant them outdoors. They will probably get too leggy, but oh well.

I also planted some Burpee 'Big Mama' tomatoes. These are the tomatoes I was SO excited for last year. The plants I started from seed got planted in Dan's grandfather's garden, then were killed by a last frost. So I wasn't able to grow any last year. I'll try again this year. Whether or not these will be the plants that successfully make it to the garden, I don't know.

The tomatoes all sprouted within a few days, no problem. The peppers, not so much. Peppers need a really warm temperature to germinate (around 80 degrees F, I've read), and because we keep our house around 65, I wasn't sure I could get them to germinate. To help them along, I enlisted the help of my trusty heat pad. Not only do I use it to make yogurt but now I'm using it to germinate plants! Since it turns off after 60 minutes, the heat pad gets turned on whenever I'm home and remember to hit the switch. But after several days of doing that, I have peppers (4 out of 18). Hopefully more will germinate this week.

It's beginning to look a lot like spring. At least on the inside of the house.

Garden Planning

2011-01-14T12:35:00.000-05:00

All you people are freaking me out. Everyone's so prepared. Seeds are ordered. Garden layouts being done. People are talking about planting in a few weeks. CRAZY! Me, I've hardly thought about the garden. I don't have any seed catalogs (I requested some last week, still wanting on them). Although, I am pretty set on seeds since I bought a WHOLE lot last year, then ended up buying plants from a nursery to put in the garden. There is another problem with my garden planting. This:

Garden, where did you go!? Now, I know a lot of us are in this same situation. But I'm sure most of you were prepared and did a simple task before the snow started flying. You measured the size of your garden. Me? No way. Didn't even think about it. Duh. Makes planning vegetable spacings quite difficult. So I attempted to get a measurement.

I dug a foot down and found the corner of the one bed. Except, I'm not sure it is the corner. So I stood there and stared at the hole for a few minutes. Looked over the snow covered garden. Then turned around and walked back into the house. This might be a lost cause. Or a project that Dan can help me with.

Inside the house, I decided I could at least go through my seeds and figure out what I wanted to plant, and when.

I was ready to go. I was going to do a rough sketch of what I thought the size of the garden was and try to plan. Then I was stuck on: when do I plant the spring crops, how long will they be in the ground, aren't they still going to be growing when I want to get the summer crops in, how to I negotiate the space, how much of each crop should I grow. And so, I gave up and I'm now writing this post.

Planning my parents' garden always seemed so easy. Maybe because we actually knew how big it was. Or maybe because we didn't try to cram 587485435 varieties into a space that obviously won't fit them.

I might just wing the garden again this year. Or at least wait until snow melt when I can actually see the garden and can visualize it better. For now though, I think I give up.

New Recipe Gadget

2011-01-13T11:12:00.000-05:00

These days there's all sorts of new technology recipe gadgets out there. Apps on cellphones and Ipads and all those other things. I don't have any of them (I know, 24 and not technology savvy? I'm poor). Instead, I invested $4 towards an old school gadget to get recipes from computer to kitchen. A dry erase board!

Usually, I'll find a recipe online (computer is upstairs) so to get it to the kitchen (downstairs) I usually quickly copy down the basics on a post-it note. Which usually just gets thrown away. I found this to be such a waste that I started thinking of new ways to go about that.

Enter the dry erase board. I can quickly copy the recipe down (and there's more space on the board than a post-it note, so I can copy more of it down in bigger font), take it with me, and when I'm done with it, I just erase it and write another one on there. I'm planning to get some magnets for the back of it so I can stick it on the fridge so it's out of the way and I can reference it easily. So simple I'm not sure why I didn't think of it sooner!