Harvest Time

Tags

canning, chickens, country life, Dog, farm life, gardening, harvest, homesteading, pastured pork, pigs, preserving

The best/busiest time of the year.  I am in awe of the farmers around us who work around the clock when it’s time to harvest.  You’ll often see them combining well past dark, headlights shining, trying to get the crop off before bad weather hits.  Thank you, farmers.  Growing up in the city, I never learned to truly appreciate the work they do to feed us.  I’m only one generation removed from the farm, and yet, I really had no idea what harvest entailed.

So watching the combines and swathers at work day and night has really put my small harvest in perspective; however, I feel no less busy.  Often I’m working well past dark to put aside the fruits of our labours, which will feed us during the winter.  Indulge me a crazy moment here, but I feel in my bones that it’s going to be a bad winter.  It’s going to be cold and snowy, so I’m in full on winter prep mode.  I have no reason to back up this feeling, but what’s the worst that can happen?  If it’s an awful winter, then we’re prepared; if it’s a mild winter, then we’re over prepared – win-win situation.

First up, potatoes.

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We have so many potatoes.  We’ve only harvested half the potatoes we planted so far – the fingerlings and the Yukon Gold.  I still have Blue Russian and our own Hilliard Steet seed potatoes (we’ve saved the seed for about three years, and I no longer remember what type of potato they are!)  I thought we’d have at least a bushel of potatoes (which I think is 50 pounds) but now I’m thinking we’ll have more like three or four bushels of potatoes.  The fingerlings alone were 50 pounds, and we have to eat those right away because they don’t store very well.  Potatoes with every meal this winter – breakfast, lunch and supper.

 

Onions

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This is the BEST onion harvest we’ve ever had.  We’re so pleased with our onions!  To finally have a garden that doesn’t have onion maggots is simply wonderful.  Next year, plant fewer potatoes and more onions.

 

Tomatoes

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I pulled all the tomatoes quite early because we had a couple nights of hard frost at the beginning of the month.  The tomatoes didn’t fair so well anyway – a lot of them had damage on them from something (?), and they are now molding as they ripen.  Next year, the tomatoes have to be planted in a more sheltered spot.  They’re a bit too sensitive for a country garden.

 

Fruit

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I’ve put up peaches, pears, cherries, apples, sour cherries, and grapes – the last two in the form of juice.  The larder is coming along very nicely.

 

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Squash

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The star of the garden this year (besides the multitudinous potatoes) was definitely the pumpkins.  Over thirty pumpkins!  The most I’ve ever grown was ten, so I don’t really know what I’m going to do with thirty pumpkins this winter.  We also had a couple of spaghetti squash and butternut squash, but they didn’t do as well as the pumpkins.  Any pumpkin recipe is welcome.

 

Chickens

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We finished butchering the last nine meat chickens.  The first six took us four hours to butcher, start to finish.  The last nine took an hour and a half, start to finish.  Yay for experience and learning!

My little laying chickens are growing bigger every day.  Just last night, I confirmed that out of five chicks, three of them are roosters.  Sigh.  That leaves me with only four hens going into winter, one of whom no longer lays.  And now I have to find homes for two roosters.  They’re already starting to crow and charge each other.  Perhaps someone would like to trade a roo for a laying hen?  I can assure you they are very good looking roosters!

 

Pigs

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All I can say is – not so little and cute anymore.  The biggest one has quite the attitude.  It will still be very difficult for me when it comes time to butcher, but they’re getting more aggressive by the day.  Still pretty awesome creatures, though.  I like them a lot more than I thought I would.  Since we butchered the meat chickens, we’ve basically only had the pigs for daily chores (the laying hens have a very large feeder and waterer).  I’m going to miss having the daily feeding chores.  Plus, I love having a slop pail to put all our food scraps in.  Nothing goes to waste.

 

In other news, we got ourselves a farm dog.  Her name is Jenna, and she’s a beauty.  Sleeps all day; barks all night.  Loves to wander far and wide.  Really loves to wander – she’s run away twice in the past month.  But we got her back – eventually.

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Looking forward to things slowing down a bit now, once the harvest is all in and tucked away for the winter.  This weekend I’m going to pull the rest of the potatoes, and harvest the beets and carrots.  Next up will be hunting (moose and deer) and then the pigs.  Our larder shall be full indeed, and my heart full of gratitude for all the nourishing food.

Summer is Over

Tags

canning, dogs, gardening, harvest

It’s official.  I made pesto last night; therefore, summer is over.

The last of the zucchini has been harvested and the plants pulled out.

Crooked neck squash, tomatoes, basil, and grapes came in two days ago.

Freestone peaches arrived at the Farmers’ Market.  I canned ten pounds.  

Some friends of mine gave me a large bag of pears from the tree in their yard.  It made a beautiful pear sauce.  I canned five pints.

All the squash, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants went into one big batch of spaghetti sauce that simmered all afternoon in the crockpot.

I attempted to make a batch of fermented kosher dills after receiving a large bag of pickling cucumbers from another friend of ours, but alas, my fermentation skills suck, and there is mold growing on top of the brine.  Still not sure what I did wrong – I’m new to fermentation.  (I’ll spare you the disgusting “after” picture, and just share the pretty “before” picture of the pickles)

These lazy, slacking freeloaders are still not laying any eggs.  Total duds.  Although, I may be judging them too harshly.  One night, a couple of weeks ago, I thought I *maybe* saw a rat near the coop.  I’ve actually never seen a rat so I’m not sure what I saw.  Whatever it was had a skinny tail, and was eating a dead mouse out of a trap.  Pretty sure it was a rat.  If so, that might explain why the girls aren’t laying.  If there’s a predator in the area, they’ll stop laying eggs.  How the hell do I solve that problem?And on a sad note, once the pumpkins and squash are harvested from the garden, I will spread my faithful companion’s ashes in the garden.  We said goodbye to Kingsley this summer, and my heart is still full of grief.  I hope he’s chasing mice and gophers in doggy heaven and having a great time.  He deserves it.

To end on a less sentimental note, Ziggy is thoroughly enjoying being the only dog in the house and doesn’t miss Kingsley one bit.  He’s happier and friendlier than he’s every been.  He really is a little jerk.  Oh Zig.  (And yes, he’s napping among the clean cloth diapers.  They’re soft and cosy!)

It Just Keeps Coming

Tags

cucumbers, gardening, harvest, preserving food, tomatoes, Zucchini

Picked more tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini today. We’re having an unusually warm August, and everything just keeps growing in the garden. I’m not complaining but it’s hard to keep up with it!
Unfortunately, the majority of the dill in the garden was attacked by aphids. I managed to find one tiny plant that was still healthy, so I made a big batch of refrigerator pickles to use up the cucumbers. I think I’ll use the zucchini for supper tomorrow, and the cherry tomatoes I’ll save for another batch of spaghetti sauce. I even have one pumpkin and one spaghetti squash that are already ripe. I’m loving this late summer heat. Bring it on!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Apple Time Already

Tags

Apple, Apple butter, Apple sauce, Apples, canning, cider, harvest, Immersion blender, preserving, Slow cooker

The apples seem to be dropping a bit early this year. Last night, we harvested a bunch from my friend Jen’s tree. Most backyards here have a crabapple tree, but Jen’s are real apples – Battleford apples. Will steams them up and collects the juice to make cider, which leaves me with the mushy apples.

Melanie and I put on some beautiful aprons and pretended to be 1950s housewives as we mushed the apples through my awesome food mill (thank you Mom and Baba!). Then we put the purée in the slow cooker to make apple butter. I love apple butter. I ate jars and jars of this stuff last winter.

Apple Butter
10 cups of apple purée
1 tablespoon of sugar per cup of apple purée
1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon
Half a teaspoon of all spice
Half a teaspoon of cloves

Mix it all together in the slow cooker using an immersion blender. Slow cook on low for 10 to 12 hours with the lid cracked open until the puree is dark and thick. Blend again with the immersion blender until it’s buttery smooth. Ladle into pint jars and process in a water bath for ten minutes. Once the jars are sealed, they can be stored on the shelf. Refrigerate after opening. Enjoy.

Related articles

• Recipe: Slow Cooker Apple Butter (mmurphy65.wordpress.com)
• Apple preserves (spivatestsite.wordpress.com)
• Broccoli and Snow Pea Salad with Apple Butter Dressing (dizzybusyandhungry.com)

 

The Final Harvest

Tags

butternut squash, carrots, freak vegetables, gardening, harvest, Home and Garden, parsnips

It is done.  The garden is empty.  This week, I brought in the last of the squash, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes.

Here’s one of the many reasons I love gardening:  the freaky vegetables you never see in grocery stores – the ugly tomatoes, the twisted carrots, the stumpy potatoes, the massive squash.  I think we actually do ourselves a disservice by culling the freaky fruits and veggies.  I love finding these little freaks of nature – it reminds me that nothing, absolutely NOTHING on this green earth is perfect.  Everything has its own little flaw.  Everything is a beautiful mess.

Super freaks! Super freaks! They’re super freaky.

One of these things is not like the other; one of these things just doesn’t belong . . .

This squash is nearly ten pounds, and will comfortably feed a family of five.

Just When You Thought it Was Safe to go Back Into the Kitchen

Tags

canning, crushed tomatoes, gardening, harvest, preserving, tomatoes

Yup, I was canning again last night.  And here I thought I was done with canning for the season.  I forgot about the ten pounds of green tomatoes that we pulled off two weeks ago and stuck in a paper bag that have now reached perfect ripeness.  Out comes the water bath.

We made a couple batches of awesome spaghetti sauce, but I really wanted to try canning tomatoes this year.  I used nine pounds of tomatoes, left one pound to eat fresh for the next week, and ended up with four pints of canned crushed tomatoes and an indeterminate amount of tomato juice.  (Indeterminate because I have processed it yet – that’ll be tonight’s late-night project.)

I will be a very happy girl if I can open a can of crushed tomatoes in the middle of a nasty, cold prairie winter and enjoy the taste of summer-fresh tomatoes.

Dilly Beans!

Tags

canning, dilly beans, garden, green beans, harvest, pickling, preserving

Apparently, you can’t make Dilly Beans! without the exclamation mark.  Which is okay with me – I love the exclamation mark.  However, there is no need to get carried away with it.  One exclamation mark is fine; ten is excessive.  But I digress.

Dilly Beans! are delicious and a great way to preserve green beans without the threat of botulism or the arduous task of blanching and freezing (so much steam, so many ice cubes, argh).

The biggest lesson I learned from making Dilly Beans! this summer is to use the freshest, yummiest beans.  You cannot use old, tough beans- they simply won’t taste good.  Give the old beans to the chickens instead, but don’t pickle them.  Pickling will not improve the taste; it’ll only accentuate their already deteriorated state.  I think this lesson applies to all canning, actually.  Only use ripe, fresh veggies and fruits.  Canning will preserve the flavour, but do nothing to improve it.

Google “Dilly Beans!” to find a recipe; there are hundreds of them out there.  I, of course, used the one out of my canning bible, Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry.