Three summers ago I had never tasted a garlic scape, now it's not the start of summer without them!
What are these pretty little curlicues and what makes them so special?
Garlic scapes are the flower stalk of the hardneck garlic plant before that the plant produces before the garlic starts to bulb. Even if you're not interested in eating them, it's a good idea to cut them off the garlic plant. If the scape isn't cut off, the plant with put energy into making that flower instead of growing big, delicious bulbs of garlic, besides, with their mild, garlic flavor, the scapes are amazing!
It's up to you what you do with your scapes-you can grill them, sauté them, eat them raw, throw them in pasta or eggs, even pickle them. And fine, yes, that is all tasty and great but I think you're missing out if you're not making pesto. Really the best pesto ever! This is unfortunately my last batch of garlic scape pesto for the season.
This year I'm growing two different kinds of garlic: Music and Killarney Red. This is the first time I've grown two different kinds of garlic and the unexpected best part of this is that their scapes were ready to harvest a couple different times.
The first batch is almost gone already and in the second batch I didn't have a huge amount of scapes, so I made arugula/scape pesto. This time I've got loads! It is recommended that you cut off the top flower part of the scape because it adds a more heat to the taste of the pesto. I leave it on. I do that for two reasons: one) I love the flavor and two) I'm super lazy.
I knew I was little behind in harvesting the last of them, then my friend Dionne sent me this recipe this morning and I knew I had to get this done today.
GARLIC SCAPE PESTO
1 cup garlic scapes cut in 1 inch pieces
1 cup grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts, cashews or almonds
Blend garlic scapes, olive oil, lemon juice and cheese in food processor then stir in nuts.
This was the biggest batch of pesto I've made this season....and my poor food processor is dying! I have to hold everything together just right to get it to work. I'm really hoping I get a new one before the height of canning season hits!
The best way for us to store all this is to freeze it! In regular old ice cube trays. Once they're frozen solid, I'll pop them out into freezer bags. To use, I microwave the pesto cubes with a little bit of olive, and that's it! Use on pizzas, in eggs, or quiche, or pasta-the list goes on and on! This will just have to keep us until we have enough basil to make even more pesto, which should only be about a week or two!
Friday, June 27, 2014
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Our new (old) view!
No one could have ever told me I would be so excited about a new fence and gates!
While our old fence might have looked a little like a big version of a white picket fence, it was essentially useless. The vast majority of the posts were completely rotten, making it not at all goat proof. Our gates have never closed all the way, or just blew off their hinges, again, useless! But it looked nice...from a distance. (please notice: the gate is off it's hinges in this pic!)
With the goats working in tandem to knock the fence over and escape forever (or at least to the porch), it was time for the old fence to go. We hired Dave the fence guy and his son Matthew build us a new fence. Two weeks after meeting for the first time, the fence was planned and demolition had started. Not surprising, it didn't take much to clear out the old. The post were so rotten that a lot of them just toppled over when the boards connecting them were removed.
I hadn't thought about the time between fence demo and fence building. I was super nervous, but I just kept Bear's shock collar charged and got a Hyperdog tennis ball slingshot-to take advantage our yard/pasture combo-now I kinda miss all that wide open space!
But we hired the guys to build a fence and that they did! Now we have a 5 foot tall fence that goats will (probably) never be able to escape, and may even be zombie proof! This makes the vast majority of our pasture more useful, since the old fence was only 4 feet high and built only to keep horses in. I love that we can see through it. Instead of looking out a rotten white boards that we always needed to repaint, but were never going to, we get to see the animals!
We changed a thing or too as well! The greenhouse is now part of the yard! Well, it still mostly looks like pasture, but it's wide open to the yard. Now I don't have to drag things through a broken down gate just to get to the front of the greenhouse. I freaking love this!
We also added three pens along the length of the greenhouse space. We'll mostly use these for keeping our gentleman on lock down away from the ladies, but also potentially for keeping pigs or turkey later (soon!).
I feel like I could right a whole separate post as an ode to gates that really close all the way, that won't be blown off their hinges by a strong wind, that are solid, but light, that actually freaking work! Maybe I'm just easily impressed!
This ties our other major home improvement-the patio-in cost. While I can't imagine our house without the new patio, this new fence is kind of a game changer! It feels like we are one step closer to being actual farmers-but we need to make bigger steps, like getting a tractor and haying before we can come close to calling ourselves that, but we're on our way. This is going to lead to keeping all our male animals at our house, which means we will control when we breed our animals, as well as getting (more) different kinds of animals, and using our pasture more efficiently. So, yeah, I'm pretty excited!
While our old fence might have looked a little like a big version of a white picket fence, it was essentially useless. The vast majority of the posts were completely rotten, making it not at all goat proof. Our gates have never closed all the way, or just blew off their hinges, again, useless! But it looked nice...from a distance. (please notice: the gate is off it's hinges in this pic!)
With the goats working in tandem to knock the fence over and escape forever (or at least to the porch), it was time for the old fence to go. We hired Dave the fence guy and his son Matthew build us a new fence. Two weeks after meeting for the first time, the fence was planned and demolition had started. Not surprising, it didn't take much to clear out the old. The post were so rotten that a lot of them just toppled over when the boards connecting them were removed.
I hadn't thought about the time between fence demo and fence building. I was super nervous, but I just kept Bear's shock collar charged and got a Hyperdog tennis ball slingshot-to take advantage our yard/pasture combo-now I kinda miss all that wide open space!
But we hired the guys to build a fence and that they did! Now we have a 5 foot tall fence that goats will (probably) never be able to escape, and may even be zombie proof! This makes the vast majority of our pasture more useful, since the old fence was only 4 feet high and built only to keep horses in. I love that we can see through it. Instead of looking out a rotten white boards that we always needed to repaint, but were never going to, we get to see the animals!
We changed a thing or too as well! The greenhouse is now part of the yard! Well, it still mostly looks like pasture, but it's wide open to the yard. Now I don't have to drag things through a broken down gate just to get to the front of the greenhouse. I freaking love this!
We also added three pens along the length of the greenhouse space. We'll mostly use these for keeping our gentleman on lock down away from the ladies, but also potentially for keeping pigs or turkey later (soon!).
I feel like I could right a whole separate post as an ode to gates that really close all the way, that won't be blown off their hinges by a strong wind, that are solid, but light, that actually freaking work! Maybe I'm just easily impressed!
This ties our other major home improvement-the patio-in cost. While I can't imagine our house without the new patio, this new fence is kind of a game changer! It feels like we are one step closer to being actual farmers-but we need to make bigger steps, like getting a tractor and haying before we can come close to calling ourselves that, but we're on our way. This is going to lead to keeping all our male animals at our house, which means we will control when we breed our animals, as well as getting (more) different kinds of animals, and using our pasture more efficiently. So, yeah, I'm pretty excited!
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Happy day after Memorial Day!
The 'it didn't snow!!' edition.
The first year we lived here it snowed Memorial Day weekend. Last year, we had a terrible hard frost right before Memorial Day, killing almost all of the counties apple and cherry blossoms and most of my tomatoes. This year I am smarter! I planned for this. I have enough tomato plants in my upstairs closet that I could replace all the tomatoes in my greenhouse and still have some left over.
So, of course, this has been the nicest spring since we've moved here. Some friends say it's the mildest spring in the past ten years. So...anyone need any tomato plants?
The greenhouse is full and so far there haven't been any casualties. Keith keeps warning me that I've been planting too early, and in most years he'd be right, and it's still to early to say he isn't, but so far so good!
Hot peppers, sweet peppers, tomatoes, winter squash, tomatillos, eggplants have all survived May in the greenhouse, now hopefully June is successful as well!
Another year gardening, another experiment. Just about everyone who gardens around here swears you can't grow corn around here. And maybe they're right, but hopefully I am.
My friend Dionne and I have decided that these people don't know what they're talking about and we are going to grow corn. Not on the 'knee hight by the fourth of July' plan, but on one that works here. I ordered some Early Sunglow Corn from Nichols Nursery. The description sounded perfect: A superior corn for on the cob freezing because of its very high sugar content and ability to retain the fresh corn flavor. Disease resistant; grows under cold, adverse conditions. Four foot tall plants produce two or more ears of golden yellow kernels that are narrow, sweet and tender. And it's supposed to only take 62 day to mature (although I'll believe it when I see it!).
We planted about a week and half ago and about 2/3rds of the seeds have sprouted. And man, does corn look like grassy weeds when it sprouts!
Hopefully the view will inspire the corn grow it's whole 4 feet!
Meanwhile, in the garden: the rhubarb looks just about big enough to eat someone whole and has it's goofy looking flower popping out of the top. I love this crazy plant that I don't take care of at all and it just bounces back from winter like Godzilla!
The past couple weeks around here have been beautiful! All the trees are flowering and everything is green, it's really been amazing! While I can still feel Old Man Winter's breath on my freshly sunburned shoulders, I am trying to shake him off as best I can and enjoy this spring that feels like summer as much as possible!
The first year we lived here it snowed Memorial Day weekend. Last year, we had a terrible hard frost right before Memorial Day, killing almost all of the counties apple and cherry blossoms and most of my tomatoes. This year I am smarter! I planned for this. I have enough tomato plants in my upstairs closet that I could replace all the tomatoes in my greenhouse and still have some left over.
So, of course, this has been the nicest spring since we've moved here. Some friends say it's the mildest spring in the past ten years. So...anyone need any tomato plants?
The greenhouse is full and so far there haven't been any casualties. Keith keeps warning me that I've been planting too early, and in most years he'd be right, and it's still to early to say he isn't, but so far so good!
Hot peppers, sweet peppers, tomatoes, winter squash, tomatillos, eggplants have all survived May in the greenhouse, now hopefully June is successful as well!
Another year gardening, another experiment. Just about everyone who gardens around here swears you can't grow corn around here. And maybe they're right, but hopefully I am.
My friend Dionne and I have decided that these people don't know what they're talking about and we are going to grow corn. Not on the 'knee hight by the fourth of July' plan, but on one that works here. I ordered some Early Sunglow Corn from Nichols Nursery. The description sounded perfect: A superior corn for on the cob freezing because of its very high sugar content and ability to retain the fresh corn flavor. Disease resistant; grows under cold, adverse conditions. Four foot tall plants produce two or more ears of golden yellow kernels that are narrow, sweet and tender. And it's supposed to only take 62 day to mature (although I'll believe it when I see it!).
We planted about a week and half ago and about 2/3rds of the seeds have sprouted. And man, does corn look like grassy weeds when it sprouts!
Hopefully the view will inspire the corn grow it's whole 4 feet!
Meanwhile, in the garden: the rhubarb looks just about big enough to eat someone whole and has it's goofy looking flower popping out of the top. I love this crazy plant that I don't take care of at all and it just bounces back from winter like Godzilla!
The past couple weeks around here have been beautiful! All the trees are flowering and everything is green, it's really been amazing! While I can still feel Old Man Winter's breath on my freshly sunburned shoulders, I am trying to shake him off as best I can and enjoy this spring that feels like summer as much as possible!
Thursday, May 8, 2014
We be lambing!
When it comes to looking for the signs that a ewe may be lambing soon, one of the main signs (before all the goo) is just that they lay down a lot. Well, that's not really helpful!
Since we got the sheep, poor Chocolate Swirl has been so huge that walking was clearly hard for her, therefore she laid down pretty much all the time. Everyday for the past two and half weeks, I was certain that TODAY had to be the day and obviously most of the days I was wrong, but eventually I had to be right!
Here she is a day or two before lambing.
Last Wednesday night, Keith and I went to bed a little early thanks to stopping a TG's for dinner and couple pretty strong beers. I was completely sound asleep (at 11:30) when Keith woke me up with news. He heard loud moaning/baaing sounds from outside. It was clear something was happening: either Chocolate Swirl was lambing or Sam the Ram got out and was making his way to the ladies.
Keith went outside to check it out and it was clearly time for lambing! By the time we both got out there with towels and everything, the lamb was already born. Mama was just standing there, like 'what the hell just happened', so Keith and I grabbed the towels and wiped the lamb off a little bit. In about 30 seconds, Mama shook off being stunned and got to work cleaning up the little lamb herself, all while the little, wobbly lamb is trying to hard to find her feet. The whole this was pretty incredible to watch.
One thing that surprised me about this whole experience was how quiet it was. After the initial moaning, both Mama and lamb were quiet, as were the rest of the sheep and goats that were in various places in the barn. Chocolate Swirl and her lamb were in their own stall and all the rest of the sheep were up and attentive, but didn't make a peep (which is really unlike them!)
We cleaned off the lambs umbilical chord and waited. We waited to see if she was going to have another lamb, she was so huge we expected more than one. Then, when it looked like there was only going to be the one, we waited for her to start nursing. This took a while.
The lamb tried to nurse on just about everything including Mama's ears, tail, and the wall of the stall, before she finally found what she was looking for. When she finally did, her tail was going crazy and we knew that our job was pretty much done. We got Mama a bunch of hay and water with a little molasses in it (because that's what the book said to do) and I really have no idea how we eventually got back to sleep that night.
We left Mama and lamb in their own stall for about couple days, where they spent time curled up together, bonding. I only went in to fill food and water. We let them out in the pasture and all weekend they were pretty much velcroed to each other.
Can we talk for a minute about how freaking cute this lamb is! She's looks like a mix between a border collie, a cow, and a Rorschach test, I have named her Bessie. At a week old, she is running around like mad, bouncing off the other lambs, while poor Mama is running after her, with a 'come back here right now, young lady!' attitude! She is also as big as the the triplets that are a little over three weeks old.
In other news, can you tell from the picture that all the sheep are shedding their hairy winter coats?! The one surprise from this is that the one I thought of as White Chocolate (there is also Milk Chocolate and you all know Chocolate Swirl by now), she's actually a ginger underneath that crazy coat! I think it makes me like her just a little bit more.
The goats a doing fine. I'm pretty sure Cupid has been successfully knocked up, but that doesn't stop her from escaping. Snowy just want cuddles, as always, and Franny seems to have joined the sheep herd.
Hopefully we'll be having a kid or two in July. Until then, no new additions are planned, but that doesn't mean they won't happen!
Since we got the sheep, poor Chocolate Swirl has been so huge that walking was clearly hard for her, therefore she laid down pretty much all the time. Everyday for the past two and half weeks, I was certain that TODAY had to be the day and obviously most of the days I was wrong, but eventually I had to be right!
Here she is a day or two before lambing.
Last Wednesday night, Keith and I went to bed a little early thanks to stopping a TG's for dinner and couple pretty strong beers. I was completely sound asleep (at 11:30) when Keith woke me up with news. He heard loud moaning/baaing sounds from outside. It was clear something was happening: either Chocolate Swirl was lambing or Sam the Ram got out and was making his way to the ladies.
Keith went outside to check it out and it was clearly time for lambing! By the time we both got out there with towels and everything, the lamb was already born. Mama was just standing there, like 'what the hell just happened', so Keith and I grabbed the towels and wiped the lamb off a little bit. In about 30 seconds, Mama shook off being stunned and got to work cleaning up the little lamb herself, all while the little, wobbly lamb is trying to hard to find her feet. The whole this was pretty incredible to watch.
One thing that surprised me about this whole experience was how quiet it was. After the initial moaning, both Mama and lamb were quiet, as were the rest of the sheep and goats that were in various places in the barn. Chocolate Swirl and her lamb were in their own stall and all the rest of the sheep were up and attentive, but didn't make a peep (which is really unlike them!)
We cleaned off the lambs umbilical chord and waited. We waited to see if she was going to have another lamb, she was so huge we expected more than one. Then, when it looked like there was only going to be the one, we waited for her to start nursing. This took a while.
The lamb tried to nurse on just about everything including Mama's ears, tail, and the wall of the stall, before she finally found what she was looking for. When she finally did, her tail was going crazy and we knew that our job was pretty much done. We got Mama a bunch of hay and water with a little molasses in it (because that's what the book said to do) and I really have no idea how we eventually got back to sleep that night.
We left Mama and lamb in their own stall for about couple days, where they spent time curled up together, bonding. I only went in to fill food and water. We let them out in the pasture and all weekend they were pretty much velcroed to each other.
Can we talk for a minute about how freaking cute this lamb is! She's looks like a mix between a border collie, a cow, and a Rorschach test, I have named her Bessie. At a week old, she is running around like mad, bouncing off the other lambs, while poor Mama is running after her, with a 'come back here right now, young lady!' attitude! She is also as big as the the triplets that are a little over three weeks old.
In other news, can you tell from the picture that all the sheep are shedding their hairy winter coats?! The one surprise from this is that the one I thought of as White Chocolate (there is also Milk Chocolate and you all know Chocolate Swirl by now), she's actually a ginger underneath that crazy coat! I think it makes me like her just a little bit more.
The goats a doing fine. I'm pretty sure Cupid has been successfully knocked up, but that doesn't stop her from escaping. Snowy just want cuddles, as always, and Franny seems to have joined the sheep herd.
Hopefully we'll be having a kid or two in July. Until then, no new additions are planned, but that doesn't mean they won't happen!
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Ducklings first day in the pond
This group of ducks is so much more cautious than our last group. Granted none of them got pneumonia this year, so they were probably handled a little less. I'd rather a bunch of scaredy ducks than a bunch of sick ones! Still, they are crazy adorable!
The ducklings seem so much bigger once they get out in the big world! Our other 4 ducks have been going crazy trying to figure out who these new creatures are. They haven't really decided how to approach this situation, so they just hide out in the chicken coop. I'm sure they'll relax soon!
It'll be nice to see a little more color in our little flock of ducks. Instead of 3 Welsh Harlequins and one Blue Swedish ladies, there will be a couple of Rouen's, an Runner, a couple more Blue Swedish (maybe one is male??) and maybe 2 more Welsh Harlequins (not really sure!)
While we don't have any new lambs yet, I'm pretty much constantly out in the pasture. When we first got the sheep, they were reasonably cautious and would move away from us any time we would be out and about. Now, my presence is positively snooze worthy. Just fine with me, I can get closer to take more pictures!
Wow, the videos uploaded from YouTube look kind of terrible! I'll work on that and hopefully they'll be better by the time we actually have new lambs. Gotta get back outside!
The ducklings seem so much bigger once they get out in the big world! Our other 4 ducks have been going crazy trying to figure out who these new creatures are. They haven't really decided how to approach this situation, so they just hide out in the chicken coop. I'm sure they'll relax soon!
It'll be nice to see a little more color in our little flock of ducks. Instead of 3 Welsh Harlequins and one Blue Swedish ladies, there will be a couple of Rouen's, an Runner, a couple more Blue Swedish (maybe one is male??) and maybe 2 more Welsh Harlequins (not really sure!)
While we don't have any new lambs yet, I'm pretty much constantly out in the pasture. When we first got the sheep, they were reasonably cautious and would move away from us any time we would be out and about. Now, my presence is positively snooze worthy. Just fine with me, I can get closer to take more pictures!
Wow, the videos uploaded from YouTube look kind of terrible! I'll work on that and hopefully they'll be better by the time we actually have new lambs. Gotta get back outside!
Monday, April 21, 2014
Easter Lambs!
I can't believe how long it's been since I posted last! Being out of town last week made me realize that it's spring everywhere else and while there is a chance of snow this week, I'm embracing springtime!
A funny thing happened at TG's a couple weeks ago. Keith and I were approached by a friend to get a flock of sheep together. And not just any sheep, the exact kind of sheep I've been wanting! They are Dorper/Katahdin hair sheep. What is a hair sheep and why would I want them? Because they have hair, not wool which mean you (ME!) never has to shear them. I'll learn to do a lot of things-sheep shearing is not on the list! They are also pretty hardy, more resistant to internal parasites and since they don't produce wool, they do not produce lanolin. Lanolin is associated with the smelly or strong flavor some people don't like in lamb, and these folks don't produce it.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and yesterday we got our flock of sheep! We have 7 ewes (one still pregnant), 7 lambs, and one ram (Sam the Ram). Sam is kept apart from the ladies until breeding time. As you can see, he's a fine looking ram! Oh, and that's his winer coat he's sheading-pretty cool!
And the lambs, good lord they are adorable! Frolicking around the pasture, chasing each other. Then curling up together, sleeping in the sunshine. I mean really, do they get any cuter! Both the ewes and the lambs are pretty calm and don't seem to mind me hanging around in the pasture.
But, of course, these are not the only new animals we have. We picked up a few more duckings a few weeks ago. At 3 1/2 weeks old, these ducklings are huge and will hopefully be ready to live outside, full time in a couple of weeks. I just moved them out to the greenhouse to help me with a little weeding (they've been great at it!) and because their space in the garage smells so eye wateringly bad, that I just couldn't stand it anymore! Here they are posed for a family photo.
With one of the ewes still preggers, look forward to pics, and hopefully video, of even more adorable lambs. We have not experienced an animal birth yet, but we have our labor and delivery suite all ready to go-hopefully. I have no idea when this will happen, could be tonight, tomorrow, or a week from now, so I'm on high alert until the final lambs are born. And the only way to learn is to just do it!
Never a dull moment!
A funny thing happened at TG's a couple weeks ago. Keith and I were approached by a friend to get a flock of sheep together. And not just any sheep, the exact kind of sheep I've been wanting! They are Dorper/Katahdin hair sheep. What is a hair sheep and why would I want them? Because they have hair, not wool which mean you (ME!) never has to shear them. I'll learn to do a lot of things-sheep shearing is not on the list! They are also pretty hardy, more resistant to internal parasites and since they don't produce wool, they do not produce lanolin. Lanolin is associated with the smelly or strong flavor some people don't like in lamb, and these folks don't produce it.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and yesterday we got our flock of sheep! We have 7 ewes (one still pregnant), 7 lambs, and one ram (Sam the Ram). Sam is kept apart from the ladies until breeding time. As you can see, he's a fine looking ram! Oh, and that's his winer coat he's sheading-pretty cool!
And the lambs, good lord they are adorable! Frolicking around the pasture, chasing each other. Then curling up together, sleeping in the sunshine. I mean really, do they get any cuter! Both the ewes and the lambs are pretty calm and don't seem to mind me hanging around in the pasture.
But, of course, these are not the only new animals we have. We picked up a few more duckings a few weeks ago. At 3 1/2 weeks old, these ducklings are huge and will hopefully be ready to live outside, full time in a couple of weeks. I just moved them out to the greenhouse to help me with a little weeding (they've been great at it!) and because their space in the garage smells so eye wateringly bad, that I just couldn't stand it anymore! Here they are posed for a family photo.
With one of the ewes still preggers, look forward to pics, and hopefully video, of even more adorable lambs. We have not experienced an animal birth yet, but we have our labor and delivery suite all ready to go-hopefully. I have no idea when this will happen, could be tonight, tomorrow, or a week from now, so I'm on high alert until the final lambs are born. And the only way to learn is to just do it!
Never a dull moment!
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Ugh, Winter
I've been trying to think of a different title for this post, but just can't! Looking at the almost empty, frozen garden and greenhouse, it's hard not to feel a little sad. The growing season flew by and it looks like all the hard work has just disappeared. It doesn't help that I was out of town for the little bit of Fall we did have, as it seems winter has nestled in to stay and it's not even Thanksgiving! Ugh, Winter!
Just a few months ago, I could barely shimmy through the greenhouse, now I could almost do cartwheels!
And the garden was producing so much I could hardly keep up with it. Now Bear can barely find anything to dig up and eat anymore! (can you find Bear in this picture??)
OK, I'll stop lamenting what we don't have and focus on what we do have-let's stay in the garden.
We still have a load of broccoli, just like we did last year, it seems magical to me! This year we also still have beets, turnips, parsnips, leeks, salad and cooking greens. Since almost every night it is getting down in the 20s and for the number of days that haven't made it out of the 30s, I'm pretty happy with that!
The greenhouse looks really empty, but there is promise of a winter garden just getting started out there! Winter greens and salad greens have already been seeds and are sprouting. I also transplanted a bunch of salad greens into a hanging planter, so hopefully we'll be having big salads sooner rather than later! Hopefully when Keith gets home this afternoon, we'll be moving the cold frames into the greenhouse, speeding up the growth of the little sprouts!
And what did we do with everything that the garden produced? It's been canned, or frozen, or is in cold storage. The pantry overflowing with both sweet and savory choices like plum butter, red wine pickled beets, roasted garlic pizza sauce, and huckleberry jam. Not too shabby! And the freezer is full of blanched veggie mixes ready to be popped in soups or stir-fried.
Cold storage is a new experiment and with everything that we had a the end of the season, I had to try it! So, with buckets loaded with root veggies and damp sand living in the shop in the garage, we're going to see how long we get keep all this preserved!
Alright, so we have a lot and still a lot more to do to get everything ready to make it through winter. Today is a beautiful day and it's time to get to work. So I guess I'll stop writing this and go haul a bunch of goat poo to the compost piles! Glamourous, I know!
Just a few months ago, I could barely shimmy through the greenhouse, now I could almost do cartwheels!
And the garden was producing so much I could hardly keep up with it. Now Bear can barely find anything to dig up and eat anymore! (can you find Bear in this picture??)
OK, I'll stop lamenting what we don't have and focus on what we do have-let's stay in the garden.
We still have a load of broccoli, just like we did last year, it seems magical to me! This year we also still have beets, turnips, parsnips, leeks, salad and cooking greens. Since almost every night it is getting down in the 20s and for the number of days that haven't made it out of the 30s, I'm pretty happy with that!
The greenhouse looks really empty, but there is promise of a winter garden just getting started out there! Winter greens and salad greens have already been seeds and are sprouting. I also transplanted a bunch of salad greens into a hanging planter, so hopefully we'll be having big salads sooner rather than later! Hopefully when Keith gets home this afternoon, we'll be moving the cold frames into the greenhouse, speeding up the growth of the little sprouts!
And what did we do with everything that the garden produced? It's been canned, or frozen, or is in cold storage. The pantry overflowing with both sweet and savory choices like plum butter, red wine pickled beets, roasted garlic pizza sauce, and huckleberry jam. Not too shabby! And the freezer is full of blanched veggie mixes ready to be popped in soups or stir-fried.
Cold storage is a new experiment and with everything that we had a the end of the season, I had to try it! So, with buckets loaded with root veggies and damp sand living in the shop in the garage, we're going to see how long we get keep all this preserved!
Alright, so we have a lot and still a lot more to do to get everything ready to make it through winter. Today is a beautiful day and it's time to get to work. So I guess I'll stop writing this and go haul a bunch of goat poo to the compost piles! Glamourous, I know!
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