Archive for the ‘Crops – Vegetables’ Category
January 4, 2012 – January Garden Harvest
OK, the streak continues, now 12 consecutive months with a harvest!
On pizza earlier this week, springtime favorite spinach from the garden made it on the homemade pizza.
November 30, 2011 – December Lettuce!
How’s this for wonderful – we’ll be eating fresh lettuce out of the garden into December!
We’ve picked a bunch for the fridge, to guarantee December lettuce. Any day we could get that first day it’s in the low teens at night and not above freezing during the day to finally kill it off.
November 2, 2011 – The World’s Most Hated Vegetable?
Could this be the world’s most hated vegetable? The lowly brussels sprouts?
Brussels sprouts are a great crop because they aren’t much good until after a hard frost, and are one of the last fresh crops out of the garden. Many people can’t stand them, in part, to the chemical that get released after overcooking in boiling water.
October 17, 2011 – Tomatoes Won’t Stop
OK, this is it. The final tomato harvest of the year – frost is forecast in the next few days.
The plants loved the dry late summer and fall. It was an epic tomato canning year – our final tally ended up to be 97 quarts and 37 pints canned – even for us, a lot! So, we are ready in case there is a crop failure next year – we’re good for a couple of years for chili, minestrone soup, red hot dish and whatever else we can use our summer canned in a jar.
October 12, 2011 – Potato Yield from 50 foot Row
We had one more row of potatoes to dig up in the garden
It was a great row – here’s the yield from one 50 foot row! A rinse, dry and storage in the basement will give us potatoes well into winter.
one year ago…”Francis Thicke for Secretary of Agriculture”
October 10, 2011 – Seeds
One benefit of not getting around to pick beans before the pods get too big is that later in the season, you’ve got some seeds for next year’s gardens. These are Rattlesnake Master pole beans, a non-hybrid, so the seeds grow true.
It’s still amazing all the information stored in each of these – instructions about when to sprout, what to do, what parts to make, how to respond to weather, and how to make more beans!
one year ago…”Lovin the 48 inch Tiller”
October 7, 2011 – Tomatoes for Salsa Project
The Marshalltown School District has a sizable minority population (not to be the minority much later since over half the births in the local hospital are of Hispanic origin.) The school has started a local foods project to make salsa using local ingredients.
These tomatoes are destined to become salsa in the lunch room.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #228″
September 28, 2011 – “Hot”
Here’s Linda chopping up some hot peppers to warm up winter days.
Peppers like this are easy to preserve – they don’t need to be canned or blanched – just cut up.
Ready to spice up winter dishes!
one year ago…”Updates from U of MN”
September 26, 2011 – Fall Garden Goodies
Some of the veggies we planted in the middle of the parched August for a fall garden are now coming to the table.
Nice to have fresh spinach. lettuce, and radishes out the door.
one year ago…”Garden Cleanup Begins”
September 16, 2011 – Light Frost
We were hit with a scattered frost. All the squash and cucumbers and beans are dead, but the basil and tomatoes were just lightly touched, if at all. The peppers were somewhere in between
But all in all, we’re happy the tomatoes were spared, since there are many more still on the vines.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #225″
August 27, 2011 – Putting Tomaotes Up
Today was a long-anticipated day. Last year, we only had enough tomatoes to can seven quarts (it was a good thing we had canned 89 the previous year and had enough left over to get us through). This looks like a great tomato year. It was wet to get them going, hotter than blazes in July, now bone dry in August (avoids bacterial wilt and fungus).
Martin with the first sweep through the garden of the year looking for ‘maters.
A bushel of Romas waiting to be skinned and peeled.
To enable safe boiling water canning of tomatoes, we add 2 tbsp of lemon juice and a tsp of salt for taste.
We throw the tomatoes in boiling water until their skins crack and then put them in cold water to cool.
Then cut out the stem and slip the skins off.
Take about 1/6 of the tomatoes and crush them and bring them to boil, then slowly add the rest (no need to crush). After all the tomatoes are added, bring to a boil and boil for five minutes.
Put in cans and boil for 50 minutes. Today’s haul was 28 quarts of tomatoes. Seems like a lot, but it’s only about two jars a month. These are a staple in our cuisine. Love them as the base of a minestrone soup and an essential part of red hot dish!
one year ago…”Ag Incubator Ribbon Cutting!”
August 15, 2011 – Green Beans
The green beans are a reliable crop, and this year is no exception.
These guys are headed to the freezer.
one year ago…”Fruits of the Season”
August 9, 2011 – Squash Pollinator Study at High Hopes
We’re in the second year hosting a study to investigate squash and cucurbit pollinators by some researchers at Iowa State.
Portions of the garden are staked and outfitted with catch buckets that are painted blue, yellow, and white to catch bugs roaming the area.
A look inside one of the buckets.
one year ago…”Squash Tunnel Grown Over”
July 30 , 2011 – Budato or Potabuddha?
We dug up the first row of potatoes today (and boy it’s nice to boil up the small “new potatoes with a bit of dill).
We kind of thought that this one looked like a Buddha statue!
