It's Been Awhile...

I can honestly say that it has been quite a while since I have really wanted to even think about digging around outside, but today has been absolutely gorgeous here and I started clearing things out. It's been a cold, snowy, icy winter here in Alabama, and I can honestly say that I'm pretty sick of it. We are supposed to have at least a week of temperatures in the 60s, so I'm going to go ahead and start working a little bit, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself since we will definitely have a hard freeze or two before spring.

First, I would love to tell you a little bit about how last year's garden finished up. I continued to get okra, bell peppers, habeneros, jalepenos, and poblanos well into fall, and closed the big guy up for the year in early November. I was incredibly tempted to go ahead and plant some winter crops like spinach, carrots, rutabegas, and turnips but I had to make the smart choice and take a break. I was pretty exhausted from the previous six months, and needed a little bit of a break.

I am very happy to say that the amount of food that I was able to set aside has been just about right. I ran out of salsa and frozen squash pretty early, but everything else has held out quite well. I still have pickles, relish, and lots of stuff in the freezer, including peppers, okra, tomato sauce, green beans. Did I mention okra? I have so much frozen okra that I don't think I'll ever be able to eat it all. I probably still have ten one gallon freezer bags of it, and I've had all that I can handle.

I am going to try to be a little bit better about updating over the next few months, so please check back soon!

What I've Been Listening To:

The Black Keys-Brothers
Iron & Wine-Kiss Each Other Clean
The Tallest Man On Earth-King of Spain
Eric Clapton-461 Ocean Boulevard

What I've Been Reading:

Great Dream of Heaven-Sam Shepard
Mystery of Grace-Charles deLint
Christine Falls-Benjamin Black
Baudolino-Umberto Eco

Man, what a summer.

This really has been an absolutely incredible year for my garden. I have spent almost all of my free time either in it, around it, working with things from it, or laying in bed thinking about it. I would say that I've spent at least twenty hours a week for the past five months doing one or all of the above. I would love to say that it's all been great, but it definitely hasn't.

As of right now, I have more grass in my garden than I do in my front yard. Green beans were a huge disaster, for a reason I have yet to identify. I didn't get nearly as many cucumbers as I would have liked. My tomatoes, which came on strong, have just sat there for the past two weeks with little green ones on them and no development. I thought that I had planted too many squash plants, but the fruit has begun to rot on the vine instead of growing to a decent harvesting size. Did I mention there is grass everywhere? Well, that's because I got really tired of going out there and working my way through the garden with the tiller once a week. So I took a week off. So the needy whore made me pay for it. I actually had to use the mower out there this week. That was pretty embarrassing. Lots of things never came up, or if they did, I got nothing of consequence out of it. Beets, corn, basil, rosemary, chard, and more than I can even remember I planted were a huge waste of my time. But......I'm definitely going to try all of them, except the corn, in a massive fall planting. We'll see if I can fall on my face again.

There definitely have been some incredible positives, though. I have more salsa than I will probably be able to eat over the next nine months, twelve jars of pickles, three jars of relish, and one huge jar of pickles jalapenos. I have four gallon freezer bags of yellow squash, four of okra, one of green beans, one of roasted tomato and jalapeno salsa, and one of roasted tomatoes and onions. I still have lots of things producing, as well. If any of those tomatoes ripen, I'll be able to freeze some more of them, as well as possibly make some more salsa. Just today I got fifteen jalapenos, five bell peppers, twenty okra, and two yellow squash. The okra plants have continued to flourish, so I will definitely be able to put some more of those up, and I have high hopes of some sweet jalapeno jelly. Definitely keeping my fingers crossed. I have four cabbages that I have to decide what to do with soon, and all the figs I could ever hope to eat.

I have big plans for the fall, but all that grass is definitely going to sit between myself and progress. I really should just rent a big tiller again, but I really don't want to have to figure out a way to get it here. Decisions, decisions. I'll be sure to share some plans for the fall and winter soon, so come back and check if you happen to be in the neighborhood. Oh, and as always, free veggies to anyone that wants to come and pull weeks. You're more than welcome!

Headphones On:
Maps & Atlases-Perch Patchwork
Tom Petty-Mojo
Yeasayer-Odd Blood
Grateful Dead-American Beauty

They're Everywhere, They're Everywhere!

It's been a good month my quarter acre. I have all the okra, squash, green peppers, tomatoes, green beans, and jalapenos I can eat. I have gotten so much squash, peppers, okra and tomatoes that I've been able to save a ton of it by freezing and canning. If this can keep up for a few more weeks, I'll be able to make it through winter without having to buy much, if any, summer vegetables out of season.

So far, I've put up six jars of pickles, one gallon of salsa, one gallon of squash, one gallon of green peppers, one gallon of okra, and I'm working on tomatoes today. I'm roasting about ten pounds of tomatoes in the oven with vidalia onions, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I'm going to peel the tomatoes when they cool, and then toss them whole, along with the onions, into freezer bags. I've found a ton of recipes that work off of this simple, easy method of preservation. I can make lots of stews, soups, sauces, and pretty much anything else you can think of with this base. I'm hoping to continue getting as many tomatoes from the garden as I can, because I think that this will be a time saver for me.

I still have over a dozen okra plants that seem to be just getting warmed up, so I know that I will have all the frozen okra I can handle. We had some pretty big rainstorms here over the past couple of days, so the bermuda grass, clover, and other weeds have really gone crazy lately. I will have to spend about a day with the tiller, and then a couple more days cleaning, clearing and plucking. Sunburn, here I come again!

I have been listening to the new Maps & Atlases album for the past couple of days. It's called Perch Patchwork and definitely gets my seal of approval. They sound a little like Mumford and Sons, so if you're a fan, you should check em out. Happy week!

That, sour disgusting smell of vinegar.

I had an absolute blast today! I channeled my inner old person and canned me some pickles! I turned twenty cucumbers into six pint jars of Ross's Dickles! I've got friends to thank for that one.

Yeah, that's a lot of slicing alright. A couple of months ago, I was really considering picking up a mandolin, but, figured that I wouldn't need it. WRONG! After this much slicing, my hands hurt in weird places. I sliced 'em up, tossed them in some brine to get them pre-soaked, and then started packing clean, hot jars. I made my canning liquid in a tea kettle with apple cider vinegar, peppercorns, a little salt, and a few cups of sugar. After heating it, I poured the mixture into the jars, stuck a plastic spatula in each one to get the air bubbles out, and then dropped them in my canning pot. It's a big mutha, and was able to hold all six jars at once. I boiled them for an hour or so, pulled them out, and listened for the snap that says, "Yo. I've got a good seal over here." All six jars are resting on wire cookie racks right now while I wait for them to cool off. The whole process took a couple hours, which is much quicker than I thought it would.

After getting these processed so quickly, and, to all appearances, so well, I am feeling pretty confident about getting even more things from the garden canned. I've got a ton of okra coming up, but I've never been a big fan of pickled okra, so I'll have to figure something out. I also have a ton of tomatoes still coming, so I'm definitely looking forward to pasta sauce, and maybe even some tomato soup. I found a pretty good website that has a lot of really good canning recipes. If you're interested, check out canning-recipes.com It's got a lot of really basic stuff on there, including a recipe for catsup that I'm more than a little pumped about trying to figure out.

I listened to the new Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album while I was working today. It's called Mojo and it definitely has my seal of approval.

Canning Like a Grandma!

I think that I had more fun yesterday than I have in a long, long time. Before I went to work last night, I spent several hours heating my kitchen to about 85 degrees and "putting up" veggies for the long, harsh winters that we get here. Ok, so that was a little extreme, but I really did get to do some preserving, which was incredibly fulfilling.

Squash I chopped about fifteen squash into half-moon shapes and froze them in a one gallon freezer bag. I'll be able to thaw them out, and use them in soups, stews, casseroles, or anything else I can think of. I've frozen squash before and discovered that they really aren't of a consistency to eat by themselves. They get a little slimy. Gross, I know, but they cook up just fine if they're in something else. I've got a couple really great crockpot and stew ideas, so I'm not worried about it at all. I'm getting several squash each day, so I have no doubt that I'll be doing this some more. I also have plans to make a squash relish that I found a canning recipe for, so I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Green Bell Peppers I cored, sliced and blanched about ten peppers and filled a one gallon freezer bag with these guys. I have absolutely no idea how they'll taste, but I'm pretty confident I'll be able to figure something out. Worse case scenario, I can cook them in some stir fry, beef stew, anything. I've got at least another fifty little peppers coming up on my plants, so I have a pretty good feeling I'll be getting even more.

Tomatoes Salsa, baby, salsa! I found a great Rick Bayless (my hero, in case you didn't know) recipe for Roasted Tomato and Jalapeno Salsa that can be made in huge batches. I didn't have a whole lot of confidence going it, but man it turned out great. I mean, incredible. It took about three or four pounds of tomatoes, five jalapenos (also from the garden), one onion, some garlic, salt, vinegar, and cilantro. Roasted them all in the oven, blended together in stages, mixed in a huge metal bowl, and voila! Magnificent! It made over a gallon! Rick recommended freezing it over canning because of the low amount of vinegar in the recipe, so I froze a one gallon bag of it. Since I still had more left over, I filled one pint jar and took the rest to a vegetarian friend at work. This was pretty time consuming, but man it was worth it. It tastes amazing, and I can't wait to bust it out in the middle of winter and relive the awesomeness. Yes, that's a word.

I plan on beginning the great pickle canning fest in the next couple days, so I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. I've got about twenty cukes ready to go, a new canning pot that holds eight jars at a time, and twelve jars to fill. I may work on it tomorrow, we'll just have to see.

There's a ton of really fresh, local produce at farmer's markets around the country right now, so go and get some! It's cheap, and if I save it, anyone can.

I've been listening to the new Jack Johnson album and an older Ugly Casanova album. Really good standing up and sweating music. Enjoy your weekend and go outside!

So, I've got these pretty pictures.....

This is a picture from back in early may. As you can see, the cucumbers are just starting to come up, the sugar snap peas are still going strong, and in the far left hand corner I still have some lettuce, bok choi and cabbage. Those three burned up one we started hitting ninety degrees with regularity.

These were from one of the first days that I got a ton on one day. Probably June 20th or so. I'm now getting about two times this much a day-except for the green beans. They're kinda crapping out on me.

Yup, the small stuff is mine and the big stuff on the other side of the fence is my 80 year old neighbor's. Man, that guy's annoying.

Seen me lately?

Hola, and long time no see! I would apologize for not updating this big guy more, but once you add a forty hour a week job to twenty hours a week in the garden, you get zip. I'll try and give quick little update today, with some pictures over the next few weeks.

Tomatoes They're doing pretty well overall. I'm averaging about 8 romas a day and five or six large tomatoes a day. The only plant that really hasn't been producing is the German Queen heirloom tomatoes. By the time they're ripe enough to pick, birds have usually picked them apart trying to get at the bugs that are on the plant. We've had so much heat and so little rain lately that they've really begun to wilt if I don't water them thoroughly every day or two. I have a pretty good size bucket filled right now and I'm deciding if I'm going to can salsa or pasta sauce first. Decisions, decisions.

Cucumbers I have three full size plants with multiple vines and one that is growing. I planted six more plants today, hoping that they'll begin to produce fruit in time for me to get some pickles made before the weather turns too cold. They should take two months or so, which is why I'm pretty hopeful. I get an average of three to six cukes a day, which is great for lunches and some refrigerator pickles, but not enough to get my goal of twenty jars of pickles to help me make it through the winter.

Green Beans I have a forty foot trellis that I planted green beans on, but only the far end has really produced any beans to speak of. I tore out the twenty feet closest to the house and replanted today. They also have a germination period of a couple months, so I'm hopeful to get some out these in time also. I've been getting twenty five or so every couple days. This is pretty good for eating now, but not nearly enough to be able to freeze. I have a huge deep freezer that is just begging for some one gallon zip lock bags of crispy green beans.

Squash Great Guggamuggah! I get several squash a day, which is several squash a day more than I can handle! I've taken squash to friends' houses, dropped some off at work, and eaten enough to have jaundiced my skin a little! Frozen squash is pretty slimy, so unless you're making soup or something, it's a little too gross to eat. Those plants keep growing, too. Good Lord.

Okra Going pretty well! I've got a one quart tupperware container filled with sliced okra that is ready to either preserve or cook, and I expect to have thirty or forty more of these. Eleven plants have survived and thrived, so I'm really looking forward to freezing most of these guys to have all winter long. Sweet!

Sugar Snap Peas They've burned up because of the heat, and I really didn't get many before they did. I definitely started these too late, and I really didn't ever get a decent support system up for them. I think that I'll either build a lattice type fence that I can put up and take down depending on the season, or just grow them along a chain link fence that runs across the back of my yard. I can grow some more in the fall once the heat ends, but I'm not sure if I want to mess with it this year.

Yellow Bush Beans These guys were overrun by weeds and grass earlier in the summer, so I had to replant them in a different place. They've really grown a lot in the past two weeks and I'm looking forward to having these guys in a month or so.

Cabbage Blah. Too hot. I read that I can actually grow these all winter long unless we have prolonged hard freezes like this past year, so I may try again in a few months.

Bok Choi Sweet, sweet awesomeness. I grew these completely on a whim because the seed packet was fancy looking. I know, I know, but they turned out amazing. I got way more than I could ever eat, so I pulled up the bolted plants and have replanted four seeds every two weeks for the past two months. They're coming up in stages, which is great. Grilled, stir-fried, used as wraps, anything. I highly recommend tossing a couple of these seeds in the ground and then tossing the plant's leaves on the grill right before you pull the burgers or steaks off. Incredible.

Corn Well, um, yeah, not so much. I planted them in partial shade. I thought it was full sun. I'm an idiot. I have about ten plants left, but only a couple even have corn growing on them. I may get ten ears. My Methusalah of a neighbor has about fifty plants and they're all about eight feet tall. He's a gardening god.

I guess that's about it for now. I plan on putting some more cooler weather plants in around the middle of August, so I've been trying to clear some of the used land for then. I'll buy five or six forty pound bags of manure (peat moss, for ya'll city folk) and work it into the ground between now and then to ensure that I've got enough nitrogen and other nutrients to make it through the winter.

Junk I've been listening to:

The Avett Brothers
Broken Bells
Ugly Casanova
Jack Johnson
The Gaslight Anthem
Sleigh Bells
Passion Pit
She & Him