garden notes :: 9.22.15

Oh, the garden, the fall garden!  It's such a mix of abundance and overgrown craziness!  Once school starts each fall, I find myself coming home and thinking "oh, yeah, I have a garden!" It's funny to me how something can consume so much time and energy during the summer months, but then get so easily overlooked when the harvest is still at in it's prime.  Alas, such is life...seasons guide us, and I do prefer to just give in to their rhythms, rather than to try to fight against them.  

A few of the things that are happening in the garden these days are I was finally able to clean up a few things that had finished for the season and get some winter wheat planted.  For those who don't know, winter wheat is a cover crop that grows in the fall and is pretty cold hardy.  As it grows, it puts nutrients back into the soil and in the spring you turn it into the soil and it's referred to as "green manure."  I'm hoping it will help rebuild and nourish the soil in my little plot and make next year's garden that much better.  

I've also started harvesting a few of our carrots! Home grown carrots (especially in root-filled soil) can be such odd shapes, but they do have the best flavor!  I was pretty convinced that it was time to take a break from carrots in next year's garden...but then I tasted these and they may have won me over yet again.  Yum!  So crispy, juicy, and flavorful!

The beans are coming in by the basketful and most are making their way directly into the freezer.  It's a great system, if you ask me!  Save a few for the dinner table, and tuck the others away for a cold winter's eve.  Perfect.  

A couple weeks ago I harvested 2.5 lbs of tomatillos!  My worries about the plant not producing without a mate, were frivolous indeed!  With that harvest I was able to make 2.5 pints of salsa verde and I will probably be able to make another half batch before the end of the season!  I think I will need to try my hand at tomatillos again next year!  Such an easy and fruitful thing to grow!

Well, that's about it in gardening news.  How about you?  Are your gardens winding down for the season or still going strong?  

when life is too busy to pick the beans...

...the beans get really big.

It's been a week of really big beans around here.  With a busy holiday weekend spent with the best of friends and the start of the fall semester, there has hardly been time to sit down, let alone pick the beans!  And because of that, I just washed and froze a quart of rather large beans.  They won't taste the best and the texture may be a bit strange, but they will still nourish our bodies in the middle of winter and that's what's really important.  

So, with the summer behind us and the fall in full swing, I wish you all the best as you find yourself with maybe a little less time than you had a week or two ago.  There is something about fall that brings more regular commitments to the table, which can be lovely and bring such a good rhythm to our lives, but it can also mean that some things, like the beans, get a bit overlooked in the hustle and bustle.  So, as you fill your days with things, I hope you are still able to find ways to nourish your bodies and souls, even if it's with slightly overgrown and less than perfect beans.  

Cheers to fall!  And cheers to you, my dear readers.  

from the garden, from the market, to the shelf

My days over the past few weeks (when not traveling, that is) have been filled with food preservation.  The shelves are slowly, but steadily filling with jars of tomatoes, corn, pickles, and soup.  And the freezer has been filling with green beans and cherry tomatoes.  It feels so great to make so much progress in putting up the food that will nourish us throughout the coming year.  It's so very satisfying.  A lot of what I preserve I buy at the farmer's market.  While our garden produces quite a bit of food for fresh eating, as of now it doesn't produce quite enough for much preserving.  The few things that I do preserve from our own plot of land are tomato sauce from my six sauce tomato plants, cherry tomatoes when we can't keep up eating them (I roast them in the oven with herbs and olive oil for a bit and then freeze them), green beans (which I freeze as they come in to the kitchen), fermented jalapeños, and a couple jars of pickled mixed veggies to be used in Bloody Mary's (yum!).  Everything else is from the farmer's market such as the quartered tomatoes, the dill pickles (both vinegar-based and fermented), the corn, and the tomato soup (recipe to follow soon!).  I am hoping to make carrot tomato soup in the next few weeks with ingredients from my garden, but we'll see if the warm temps hold out long enough to get me a good amount of tomatoes in a relatively short amount of time...we'll see...fall has definitely been in the air off and on over the past couple weeks in these parts.  

With all of the farmer's market buying that I've been doing, I've learned a few tips.  First, get to know the people who run the different stands.  I've found some who will happily throw in extra of this and that if you buy a bunch of something from them, and I've found others who won't.  Second, it's a lot easier to barter if you are buying more than one item, if you are down to your last couple dollars, or if you are buying a large quantity of something.  Don't be afraid to ask!  I'm amazed at how often I can buy something for less just because I ask!  Third, there are certain vegetables that don't have to look perfect for preserving.  For example, cucumbers should all be firm and freshly picked if you are going to pickle them.  However, tomatoes can have many imperfections and still make great soups, sauces, and even diced/quartered tomatoes.  Just cut off the bad parts and keep the good!  

I do so love the task of preserving and all that goes into it.  Even though it makes for very long days in a warm kitchen, I find the gathering of produce and the filling of shelves so very satisfying in the end.  

How about you??  What delicious things from summer have you been tucking away for winter??

basil pesto

Herbs have been making their way into the kitchen in fistfuls and basketfuls over the past several weeks.  My first batch of oregano has been dried, crushed, and stored away for the months ahead.  A small batch of thyme is now ready to crush and put in a jar and a bit of peppermint is now hanging in the kitchen window.  Finally my basil plants were ready this week to cut back for my first batch of pesto.  I love to make pesto a few times during the summer, freeze it in ice cube trays, and then move it into containers in the freezer.  I've found that ice cube-sized pesto is the perfect amount to add to any recipe.  It's just the right amount for my favorite grilled pesto, provolone, and red pepper sandwich and just a few cubes are needed for a batch of pasta or gnocchi for a dinner for two.  

There are so very many pesto recipes out there, and mine is nothing new or revolutionary.  However, I do like to use walnuts instead of pine nuts in my version.  I like the darker nutty flavor that walnuts give the pesto and they are also cheaper, which is a great bonus.  I also usually have walnuts on hand, whereas pine nuts I do not.  So, if you're looking for a new recipe to try...here you go!  Most pesto recipes call for parmesan, but since I freeze mine, I don't add any parmesan to the pesto.  Instead, I usually add parmesan, or another type of cheese, to the dish that I'm adding the pesto to.  I find that this just works better for the way I cook and simplifies what's needed to make the pesto, which I'm all about.  

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Basil Pesto 

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

1 teaspoon lemon juice (fresh or bottled, but fresh is preferred)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Add the walnuts and olive oil to a blender or food processor and blend until mostly smooth.  Add the garlic and blend until smooth.  Add the basil leaves, small amounts may be necessary depending on your blender/food processor.  Add the lemon juice and salt.  Processor until it reaches your preferred consistency.  I tend to leave mine a bit chunky.  Fill an ice cube tray with the pesto.  One batch should fill one ice cube tray (in the picture above I reserved a bit for my dinner that night so it didn't quite fill a tray).  Freeze until solid and then transfer into a freezer container or bag.  Keep in your freezer for up to a year and use as you need it!

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How about you?? Do you have a favorite basil pesto or other herb pestos that you love??  I'd love to hear about them! 

garden notes :: 8.12.15

Wow!  Has it really been a week since I posted last??  Yikes!  The time has flown.  We spent last Thursday-Sunday at a music festival in Appleton, Wisconsin called Mile of Music.  We had a great time and Dan's sets went swimmingly!  I then flew home from Milwaukee on Monday morning and proceeded to rest and recoup for the rest of the day.  Yesterday was then spent catching up on a few things around the house and in the garden.  And speaking of the garden...

It has become quite the jungle out there!  The tomatoes are going wild!  I've picked fruit off of 8 of the 12 plants so far and I think the others will follow soon.  This year I'm striving to take better notes (well, just taking notes in general) on what varieties perform the best and taste the best.  I've already ruled out the Italian Heirloom as one I will probably not grow again next year.  It produces huge bright red tomatoes, but they are rather mealy and not very juicy.  We'll see how it continues on for the rest of the summer.  If it's a a consistent producer, it may be a good one to make soups with, but it's definitely not my favorite for fresh eating.  The Fred Limbaugh, on the other hand, is a fabulous fresh eater!  It has a slightly pinkish color to it and it is juicy and perfect. Yum!  I have a huge African Queen tomato that I've been eagerly waiting to try as well.  The first and only fruit I've picked from it so far is over a pound and has a lovely shape and color.  Yes, the tomato season is going well here!

The tomatillo is also doing very well!  It is full of fruit and continues to produce more and more flowers!  Now...I just have to figure out when to harvest the fruit and what to do with it...any suggestions, my dear readers??

We have little red lunch box peppers!!  Hooray!  They are so yummy for fresh eating!  I was a bit surprised to see the red ones ripen first, but happy to bring them into the kitchen.  We've had a few green peppers as well, but those don't seem to be doing as well this year.

The cucumbers have also started producing!!  I've got a few normal looking ones and a few weird ones, probably due to inconsistent watering.  However, this year's crop is looking better than any others have in the past, so I'll take it! 

The herbs are also doing well.  I made a batch of basil pesto yesterday and brought in some mint to dry.  I do so love using herbs from my garden all winter long! 

I so love this time of year when meal prep is so very easy and so very fresh.  But it also means that these next several weeks in the kitchen will be busy (and hot!) as I begin stockpiling summer's goodness for winter.  

How about you??  What's coming out of your gardens right now?  What things are you tucking away for the colder months ahead?