A Garden Update

We've had some decent rain over the past few weeks and things are taking off like gangbusters!

I'd love to show you a picture of our tomato plants, but they are resembling an amazon at the moment!

But check this out - my Copra onions are BULBING!

I am seriously excited about this!

Here is one side of our Cucumber patch and some of our beans.

The wooden trellis in the background has Black Turtle Beans at the bottom of it.



This is our 'Squash' garden this year.

From left to right, Bush Acorn Squah, a Zucchini and Yellow Squash.

Then, what you can't see to the right are some pepper plants and some broccoli plants - broccoli which will probably get ripped out because 1.) I think it bolted on us and 2.) the hens had a feast on the leaves!

Some Basil in a 'pot' with the herb garden behind it.



And of course, a photo of the apple crop :) They are coming along!

How is your garden growing?

We are about done with our Alaska Shelling Peas. As we pick the last few pods off each section, we rip out the section and throw it to the hens - they LOVE it!!

Harvest Monday, August 15, 2011

I don't know about you, but I am ready to rip everything out and get some Fall crops in!

In this pic below, the 'maters you see are the massive extent of our tomato harvest this season - BOO!

More cucumbers which I chopped up for another expirement in natural fermenting ;)

And more KY Wonder Pole Beans.



And more peppers. I am not even going to attempt to indetify any of these, aside from some Jalepenos that are in there somewhere. Our pepper patch isn't following our layout at all ;)

And, 3 heads of cabbage. Which were promptly cut up for Sauerkraut :)

I am looking for suggestions; Suggestions on what kind of Garlic to plant.

What kind is your favorite or your go-to garlic that you plant every year?

I was considering Music, Spanish Roja or Oregon Blue. Have you tried one of these varieties and if so, what has your experience with them been?

And, check out what other gardener's are harvesting this week over at Daphne's Dandelions!

Harvest Monday, August 8, 2011

This past week we've had a decent harvest. I spent Saturday preserving a lot of it...more on that in a minute.

This pic was from a harvest during the week. Lots of peppers, Jalapeno's & Chipotle's, which by the way, our diagram of what we planted where doesn't seem to match up now?! So I don't know which is which since they look similar anyways! I might cook with what I think is a jalapeno and get a tad more of a kick than I expected! We also harvested two more Hungarian Hot Wax; my new favorite way to eat these is in my marina sauce over stuffed shells!

Ok, moving on...we picked some broccoli (which went into Pasta Primavera) and lots more cuc's. Don't they look so not 'cuc-ish'! Oh well, they till taste good! I have a jar of  'Traditionally Fermented Pickles' going. One week down, one more to go. They smell wonderful but hubby is a little leary since they sit out at room temp, no lid or anything on them!

Friday I harvested our Soy Beans. This was our first year growing them and they were so easy. They had some Asian Bettle damage on the leaves but the fruit was fine and I harvested about 1.5# :) I worked on cleaning, steaming, bagging with a Foodsaver and feezing them yesterday and I probably ate half while doing this ;) Ok, not half, but enough! This was the first time I used the Foodsaver - how many people does it take to figure out a Foodsaver?! And how long? Just all afternoon and a call to their hotline for hubby and I ;)

Saturday I harvested the rest of our Broccoli; a little over 2 pounds.



This was my line up for preserving Saturday; Soy Beans, Cauliflower and the Broccoli.



And I picked some herbs for drying. Sage, Tarragon, Oregano and Rosemary. I dried it on the oven.
I also dried some Peppermint for tea in the winter - a fav of mine!
Do you dry your herbs? If so, which method works best for you?





Check out other gardener's harvests for the week over at Daphne's Dandelions!

Check out what other gardener's are growing at An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party!

Harvest Monday, July 5

I am a little late on my harvest monday post! Almost 1.5 hours away from Tuesday ;) None the less, better late than never....and I hope I am remembering most of the weeks harvest! It was a busy past week over here.

My Cucs are coming along and I picked these beauties clocking in at 2.213 pounds. I made a new fridge pickel recipe with them and they were a hit on 4th of July! Now if only I can remember what all I put in the recipe ;)

Our broccoli has been producing like wildfire and I am just about broccoli'ed out ;) This week we harvested almost one pound, clocking in at .818 of a pound. I think maybe there was a little more picked one day that I forgot to weigh in.

Our carrots are not done yet, but I couldn't help picking some ;) I pick some and hand them over to the horses for a sweet treat from time to time and this past week, I picked these to roast with our broccoli. These beauties weighed in at 2.61 ounces.

And, the Mammoth Snow Peas that I recieved seed from Daphne on are finally coming in! I was worried I planted them too late and wouldn't have a harvest. We have been picking and eating off the vine all week while we were in the yard, but this batch I was able to weigh; they clocked in at 2.50 ounces and they are super delish!

To check out other harvest tallies for the week from all over the place, check out Daphne's Dandelions

Have a great week!

Harvest Monday, June 28

Things are coming along in the garden. We are at the point where it isn't a complete, frenzied onset of produce so if I see something but would rather wait for a few [i.e. Cucs] I can let them hang another few days until one another is ready.

I made some wonderful Basil Pesto with the Basil I have going in the herb garden and I tried a dip with Radishes. You can see those recipes here.

For this weeks totals:

A Head of Cauliflower weighing in at 1.517 pounds!
We like to fry ours up in a pan with butter and garlic.
Some Heirloom Red Onions weighing in at 2.43 oz

And 2 Pickeling Cucs weighing in at .448 Pounds!

I'll do these up in a Fridge Pickel style recipe

And in this pic, with my harvest, are some onion tops I trimmed and used some in a stirfry. I just also realized I completely forgot to record the broccoli we harvested Saturday! But it sure was tasty in the stirfry!

BONUS Harvest! Hubby found a Wild Raspberry bush on our property! How did we not see this before???

Check out what others harvested this week over at Daphne's Dandelions!

Refrigerator Pickels

I bought these cucs at a local farmers market last weekend with the intention of making fridge pickels with them....and I did! I used this recipe and made a few minor adjustments ;)

I used fresh dill because I have it growing out my ears. Dill should be the new Zucchini ;)

And I didn't have any coriander either!

But regardless, they turned out delicious! I am not big on sweet things, and though this calls for minimal sugar, I might even cut it back a tad more for my tastes! And, add about triple the garlic!