Harvest Time and Fun!

Some of the huckleberries that I picked near the Peterson Prairie Camp area in Washington.

Wow! The past 2 weeks have been very busy around here so I haven't had a chance to get a blog post done! And, it's just going to get busier with Adam starting preschool next week! So, I wanted to make sure and post an overview of what has been going on in our gardens as well as fun, celebrations and recipes to share with you all.

Suburban Garden Report:

Our garden is coming along well this week. My lettuce is starting to bolt. It has been a great season for lettuce and we have enjoyed a lot of salads from it. I will let some of the lettuce go to seed and try to collect the seeds. We still have many green tomatoes but I got our first two small, ripe ones today. Adam ate them both right away! Also, we still have many huckleberries on the bush as well as herbs. I am collecting some lavender to dry and make some shortbread cookies with.

Our apple harvest from our dwarf apple tree in the backyard. Hopefully we'll make apple and blackberry turnovers soon. Adam said he'd like turnovers. Yum!

Adam eating one of the apples off the tree.

Our tomatoes are growing well, but I hope for some red ones soon!


A handful of my own lavender blossoms!


Huckleberries on one of our bushes. They are loaded with berries!


Some huckleberries that Adam helped to gather.

I just love these roses!

This impatien in the front yard is spectacular!

As the gardening season draws to a close and harvest season is here, I still really enjoy my flowers but many of them are waning. I have to pick and choose what I decide to do day by day because I cannot do everything. As a result, there are many weeds to be pulled and things to be done in the garden, but it will have to wait until later in the fall. Right now I am going to concentrate on harvesting everything from the garden and preserving as much as I can of it. At the beginning I was overwhelmed by everything but I decided that if I could do one preserving project a day, that would suffice. I am happy with that and pleased with all I have accomplished. I think it is better to take it one step at a time.

Country Garden Report:

This report is brought to you by my mom Serena. I didn't make it out to the garden last week because we all went camping. Here is what my mom had to say about what is coming along in the garden and orchard this week:

"There are lots of blackberries for Adam to enjoy fresh, besides picking them for other purposes. We also have Gravenstein apples ready for sauce and pie slices.

I have three huge zucchini on the counter right now, and smaller ones in the garden, so you can do anything you want with zucchini. There are some pumpkins and winter squash developing.

The corn has finally begun to tassel, and I see silk on some of the cornstalks.

I have a small batch of sweet cucumber pickles started. The beets are fairly springing out of the ground, so maybe we want to start using them in some way. Uncle Mark won't be making his pickled beets, so we could do some of those besides enjoying them fresh. I haven't looked at other recipes to see possibilities.

The green beans along the fence are in full flower, with some small beans forming. One variety of bush beans has been producing very well, but about 3/4 of the row didn't come up, so we don't have as many as we might. The other type of bush beans has flowered, but none have developed so far.

The tomatoes continue to be green. We have jalapeno peppers forming, and one green bell pepper.

My lettuce has begun to bolt. It has given us many nights of salad and sandwich and burger fixings, so I can't complain. I will probably pull up most of it and let some go to seed to save for next year.

We need to assess the kale and chard. I wonder if it would be a good idea to pick it and freeze some, so the plants will continue to produce. I am going to see what I can find on the subject.

The dill is beginning to flower. Again, I am going to let some go to seed to save it for planting next year, and the rest will be used fresh for pickles or dried for seasoning during the year.

The prune plums and Bartlett pears are close to ready to pick. They are right on schedule. I can always count on them around Labor Day more or less.

There are other apples and pears that will be ready to pick toward the end of September or October.

We can look over the other plantings in the garden and see what else might need to be done, but I think that is the majority of the possibilities. I enjoyed walking down the row, looking and the corn and beans, and saw one winter squash vine climbing up into the corn, about as high as the stalk of corn could take it. There was a lovely big blossom on it, and a bee was happily investigating the interior. It will be interesting to see what we might get from the corn patch besides corn!" Serena Johnston- Tuesday, August 30, 2011.

Adam turns Three!:

On Sunday, August 21, 2011 we celebrated Adam's birthday with a fun, traditional barbecue. Fun was had by all as the kids enjoyed playing in little pools and a slip n slide outside in the backyard. We also had snow cones, hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages and chicken along with baked beans, potato salad, green salad and chips. It is hard to believe that Adam is already 3! Time sure does fly when you are having fun! We had a wonderful party but we missed most of my side of the family because my Dad got the same illness we battled part of the summer and we were afraid of others at the party getting it. They surely were missed!!

Adam with Mommy and Daddy during his birthday party on August 21, 2011.

The peach cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes I made for Adam's birthday.

Adam working on blowing out his birthday candle on his cupcake.

Adam taking a swing at his kitty pinata. The kids sure had fun with it!

Camping/Staying in a Cabin in Washington:

Last weekend we took a lovely family trip to Trout Lake/Peterson Prairie in Washington state. It was fantastic! Many family members stayed at a big campsite in the Peterson Prairie area while we stayed in a nearby cabin in the little town of Trout Lake. The town was very charming with a general store that had everything! It sure was lucky that the store was well stocked because as soon as we arrived at our cabin Paul and I realized that we had forgotten our suitcase full of clothes. We had all of our supplies and plenty of clothes for Adam but nothing extra for us! So, off to the general store we went where we were able to find sweatpants, yoga pants, t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts. They were all very well made and comfortable! How lucky! What an adventure! We enjoyed sharing some meals with my parents, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Mark, Stuart, Kim, cousins Helen and Rachel at the campsite as well as exploring a bit on our own and enjoying the peaceful cabin.

Adam enjoying a smore around the campfire.

Ladies at the campsite: Kim, Me, Aunt Debbie and Mom.

Paul with Adam along the trail. Adam loved to hike around the camp area.

The cute cabin "Songbird" we stayed in at Serenity's in Trout Lake. We enjoyed evenings out on the porch chatting as Adam slept.

Paul and Adam in a cave that connects up with an ice cave near the camp area.

The berry pickers: Me, cousin Rachel, Aunt Debbie, cousin Helen, Mom and Dad after picking lots of huckleberries.

Dad and Uncle Mark enjoying a beer along the road near the berry picking area.

Paul with Adam at Langfield Falls. Adam wanted to get close to the falls!

We sure had a wonderful trip! It was fun to visit with family, pick berries, enjoy meals and relax on our vacation. We are already ready for next year!

Camp Chili:

On Saturday night we were in charge of dinner so we brought some of our favorite chili and corn chips to share. Here is our recipe:

The corn and beef chili I made for a camp dinner.

This is a James Beard Recipe that I just love!

Chili Con Carne:

6 tablespoons butter
6 medium onions, sliced
2-3 pounds ground beef (I only used 2 pounds of beef)

3 20 oz, cans tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 cup beer or ale
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco
1-2 tablespoons chili powder (or to your taste) ( I only added 1 tablespoon to make it mild)
5-6 ears of fresh corn on the cob, boiled and cut off the cob

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onions and cook until they are tender but not brown.

2. Add the ground beef and cook until lightly browned, breaking it up with a fork.

3. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, beer, salt, Tabasco and chili powder. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

4. Add the corn and simmer 15 minutes longer.

In order to take this to the campsite in a container already cooked, I simmered the chili, added the corn but did not simmer it again the full 15 minutes. I wanted to corn to stay fresh and vibrant.

This chili was a great hit! We served it along with some corn chips and some lovely fruit that my cousin Helen brought to camp.

Making Jam:

This week I have made rhubarb-cinnamon, huckleberry, rhubarb-strawberry and rhubarb-fig jam. Last week I made spiced peach jam from the peaches we picked in the peach orchard. Next week I hope to make some blackberry jam and some applesauce and apple butter with apples and blackberries that we are going to pick at my parent's place this Friday along with other produce from the garden. Delicious! I will post more jam and other canning recipes next week when I get a chance.

Here is the spiced peach jam I made last week:

Delicious spiced peach jam bubbling away!

Spiced Peach Jam:

I really like the flavor of this jam. It is similar to the recipe that my Aunt Norma gave me. Because I could not find her recipe I used this one.

• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 lbs peaches, peeled and chopped (about 6 cups)

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a heavy large pot; stir to combine. Bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary to maintain an even boil.
2. While the mixture boils, mash fruit with a potato masher to desired consistency. Boil an additional 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, or until slightly thickened (you'll see the bottom of the pot when stirring) and set.** (Temperature should be about 221 F.) Remove from heat; remove cinnamon stick. I found that I needed to stir the jam for 30 minutes or more.
   
3. Pour hot jam into 4 sterilized 8-oz. jars. Carefully wipe jar rims; cover. Place jars upside down on a clean towel until sealed.
   

* To test jam, before you begin cooking, place a small plate into the freezer to chill. When jam begins to thicken slightly, place a small amount of jam on chilled plate; return to freezer for 1 to 2 minutes (remove jam from heat during testing time). When set, jam will be slightly set and will not run on plate. If jam is too liquid, cook an addition 1 to 2 minutes before testing again.

Here is a simple recipe for huckleberry jam that I found. It was great because I had exactly the amount of berries it called for:

Huckleberry jam cooking in the pot.

Huckleberry Jam:

4 cups huckleberries
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch

To prepare fruit: Sort, wash and remove any stems from fresh huckleberries.

To make jam: Measure fruit into a kettle, cover, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes — stirring occasionally. Add sugar and cornstarch and stir well. Boil rapidly, stirring constantly, to 9 degrees over the boiling point of water, or until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and skim. Fill and seal containers.

Jam making tips:

-I always have boiling on the stove along-side my jam pot: a pot of boiling water with clean half pint jars in it and a frying pan of boiling/simmering water with lids and rings in it. This way, as soon as the jam is done I can take some tongs and get a sterilized jar out and then seal it. I like to put the lid on, seal it tight with a ring and then turn the jar upside down to let it seal. This is the way that my mom taught me and it works very well.

Enjoy your harvest season!

Garden Updates

We are realizing that when we started this gardening project we had high hopes of large yields of many vegetables and also many fruits from the orchard. Since last year was such a good one in both areas we thought we could plant even more varieties and types of plants and thus get much more to store away for winter. Well, it is not panning out very well because many plants are not producing very much- probably enough to enjoy for a couple of dinners or so, but not enough to can & freeze.


We still hold out hope for our very large tomato patch which is mostly green (as you can see in but the tomatoes are starting to get an orange tinge to them. Normally this time of year we'd be gearing up for canning season and we would be starting to harvest many tomatoes and other crops, but aside from my Mom making a few pickles from our cucumbers we haven't even gotten started because there really isn't much to harvest.


On Wednesday of this week- September1st, 2010 Adam and I headed out to my parent's house to take a look at the garden. We saw our "prized" and only little melon which we will surely enjoy when it is time to pick it!


We also took a look at our squash and although they are small there are quite a few forming on the vines- so we'll enjoy a few of those later on.

Next week we're going to pick more blackberries now that they are really in season and there are many ripe ones to be had. I already have a bag full in the freezer ready for something tasty this fall. So, I'm hoping to harvest a lot to freeze and maybe make some into syrup.


In spite of a very small harvest on most of our crops this year there was a very welcome surprise today! We discovered that there were many hazelnuts on the ground near the hazelnut trees. Since there is finally a pollinator tree nearby we were able to harvest nearly a whole large bucket of nuts! We will dry them out and shell them soon! Very exciting to see!! You can see in the picture above that the nuts still have a husk on them, it is fun to see them in their "raw form."


The dry bean harvest will be moderate, but they appear to be producing well. It is the first time we have tried to grow dry beans and it will be fun to try the many different kinds. The pole snap beans are loaded with blossoms, but because the crows ate so many of the bean seeds last spring, we won't get the huge crops we hoped for. On the other hand, they at least didn't take all of them! Some of the blossoms are now small beans, so we should be able to have some next week. Keep your fingers crossed!


The only beans we have harvested so far are the purple-striped wax beans. I've only been steaming and freezing them, as my purpose in growing them is to use them in three bean salad. As I mentioned, the green snap beans are just about ready, so now we are hoping for the limas, or at least the scarlet runners for our third bean.

As Trista said, I have been making pickles recently. Since the harvests are small, I just adjust the recipe to fit the quantity I have, and keep on going. I like to make 14-day sweet pickles, and I have been making dill pickles from the same recipe for many years now. I have tried other recipes for each, but I keep coming back to my old standbys. The 14-day sweet pickle recipe is from an old Kerr canning jar booklet and is similar to other recipes using a long cure. The dill recipe is one I cut from the Oregonian many years ago,Mrs. Neusihin's. She made and sold pickles in the Portland area for many years. Her establishment was close to my school, and she delighted in handing out pickles to passing students. It was a tiny business, to be sure, but she was famous in the area for her dills. You can easily find similar Kosher Dill recipes in canning books, but I use hers, as it brings back happy memories of the delighted kindness of an old lady to those of us who greeted her and enjoyed her pickles. Below you can see Adam sure enjoys these pickles too....

Here is the recipe for those yummy pickles:

Mrs. Neusihin's Pickles:

Makes: 8 of pickles jars

8 cucumbers, per jar approximately
2 cloves garlic, per jar
1 hot red pepper, per jar
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard, per jar
1/2 teaspoon pickling spice, per jar
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish, per jar
2 teaspoons dill, per jar
1 cup salt, noniodized
24 cups water
8 grape leaves

Fill jars with cucumbers, make sure to prick the blossom end with a toothpick first. Put everything but the salt and water in the jars in quantity shown per jar. Boil the water and salt to make a brine. Make sure the salt is dissolved, then pour boiling hot over cucumbers and spices. Put a grape leaf in each jar and then put on lid, but do not seal tightly for 5 days. During each day, shake jar occasionally. Ready to eat in 4 to 6 weeks.

Enjoy!

Onto other gardening news....

Difficulties arising from the weather continue. Today the temperature is in the high 80s, but earlier in the week it was in the low 60s. I liken the weather ups and downs to an erratic driver on the road, making it difficult for fellow travelers to decide what to do to keep safe. I know the tomatoes and other plants like more warmth, and that cooling down the earth and cutting down the sunshine just aren't compatible with the growing season.


We have decided through this difficult weather that we have to look about us for other possibilities to harvest, and as Trista mentioned, the blackberries are looking good to us. We also made some cider from some tiny Lady Apples, on a tree of our neighbor. The deer got to the tree first, so we shared with them and had just enough to make spiced cider at Christmas. The Lady Apple is sweet, and slightly pink inside, so the cider is a rosy color, and a cinnamon stick or two is probably all that will be needed. I think our appreciation of this treat will be all the sweeter as we look back on our harvest year.

Tiny Suburban Garden Report:

The mystery squash continues to grow quite nicely and is now forming some type of squash and has many blossoms! It is great to see such a great volunteer plant. The few volunteer tomato plants are also doing well and forming little tomatoes! So exciting! We might have a few things here after all. Our four large pumpkins are also doing well on the vines, they'll be ready for Halloween!


Stay tuned for more harvest news...


Just as I was adding the photos to this post my Mom who was visiting us and helping take care of Adam as my Dad finished up our roof project said "Quick, get your camera!" Adam had found a large bunch of huckleberries on the two little bushes we have in our backyard!! What a lovely discovery! I didn't know that there were many berries on them at all! You never know...and they were delicious! Adam had fun picking one and then putting it in his little container, then eating it right away!!

Early Harvests

In the last couple of weeks we have started to harvest a few things in the garden and around it. Last Monday, August 16th Adam and I came out for the day to pick blackberries at my parent's place. Adam had fun with his own bucket full of berries- mostly supplied by me and Grandma!


We found a large grove of blackberries and my Dad mowed around the area and cut back a lot of them so that they were easy to get at. We managed to get a large bucketful. There will be many more ripe ones in the days to come! Below is a picture of our first berry harvest.


I took home this large bucket of berries and saved some for eating and then froze them on a tray to save for winter. I hope to get out to do more picking later on and freeze some more. We also are thinking about making some blackberry syrup and other things with the berries.

Other Garden Harvests:

My mom has been harvesting a few of the wax beans and freezing them so that later she can make a canned three bean salad with a couple of the other beans we planted. Also, she has been harvesting a few cucumbers and making small batches of pickles out of them.


The lettuces are looking lovely in spite of the heat. We are keeping them well watered and using t hem quickly. They have not started to bolt yet! In order to keep the lettuce very fresh we pull it up roots and all and chill it in the fridge until it is ready to eat. It seems to be fresher that way.The deer tongue lettuce and speckled romaine are very tasty and seem to be especially nice. They are part of a mix that we bought from Seed Savers Exchange. They are two that we'd like to grow again.

We have finished up making applesauce from the remaining Transparent apples. My mom made 22 quarts of applesauce the other day! There are other apples that are ready later on that we'll use for making more cider. She decided to can the applesauce outside using the campstoves just as we had done for the apple cider. It makes less of a mess (no sticky counters or floors!) and tends to be cooler than in the kitchen. She even brought her mixer outside to do the pureeing of the sauce.

We'll be back with more gardening news soon!

Berry Best Birthday Pie!

This Saturday, August 14, 2010 we celebrated my Dad's birthday here at our house with a barbecue and some lovely summer berry pie! I asked my Dad what kind of fruit dessert he wanted and he told me that he wanted a berry pie. When I went to the farmer's market this Saturday there were so many delicious berries I couldn't choose- so I chose to make berry pie that included strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries! It is such a treat this time of year to be able to enjoy all of these! Below is a picture of my Dad with my son Adam and his birthday pie!


Again, I made my all butter pie crust and some different heart cut outs for this pie. I decided to combine a couple of thickening techniques for the filling of the pie and I was very pleased with the result. I began to think of the rhubarb custard pie which has 2 eggs and just a bit of flour to thicken the filling, so I wanted to try something similar for this pie. I decided to use tapioca flour since it is so smooth and not lumpy as well as some eggs in the filling.

This pie set up really well, and it was delicious! It let the true berry flavor come through without too much sugar!

Here is the recipe and my notes:

Quadruple Berry Pie:

-all butter crust + cut outs for a 9 inch pie shell

1 cup blueberries
1 cup strawberries- cut up into pieces
1 1/2 cups raspberries
1 1/2 cups blackberries
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

All Butter Pie Crust:

Pie Crust: Makes 2 large (10 inch) or 3 small (8 inch) single crust pies. ( I prefer my crust to be fairly thick and have a lot of room for crimping around the edge.)

5 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 pound- 4 sticks cold butter cut into small pieces
1 cup ice water

Mix dry ingredients together in a food processor. Cut in butter until coarse crumbs appear. Pour in ice water slowly until combined. Make 2 large disks out of the dough & wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. After 1 hour let dough set on counter for about 15 to 20 minutes until pliable.

May be frozen as dough or made into pie crusts & frozen.

After your pie shell and cut outs are made (I made little heart cut outs but you may use any shape you like) proceed with the pie filling:

Pie Filling:

1. Put all of the berries into a large colander and rinse clean. Make sure to drain all of the water out.

2. Then, pour them into a bowl and mix with tapioca flour and sugar. Let them sit for about 5 minutes.

3. Drain off 1/2 cup or more of extra juice after this process. Then add eggs and mix.

4. Pour this mixture into the pie shell, top with pie dough cutouts. Top the cutouts with sugar.

5. Bake the pie at 375F in a regular oven for 25 minutes or in a convection oven at 350F for 30-40 minutes. Make sure that the crust browns evenly but does not get over-browned.

When I made this pie I drained off extra liquid after I mixed in the eggs, but I think it would be better if done beforehand. I was pleased that the pie did not leak over the sides too much because I drained some extra liquid off.


Enjoy your pie!

The Apple of My Eye

It has been a while since we have written about our garden because we have taken small vacations to the forest and the coast. However, we are back now to tell you all about our early harvests, preserving ventures and how are garden is growing.


Last Friday morning- August 6, 2010 I brought Adam out to visit the garden and orchard here at my parent's place and we decided to pick apples so that we would be able to make applesauce. The orchard did not do well this year due to our very wet and cold spring and early summer. The only tree that really produced anything was the Transparent Apple tree. Wanting to make the most of what we had, my Dad cut two large branches out of the top of the tree for us to harvest apples off of them and also to prune the tree and let more light in. Adam loved learning how to "polish" and apple on his shirt to clean it before he ate it and also had fun eating a small apple while we picked ours. We ended up picking three large buckets of apples off of one branch! One of the buckets of apples is pictured above. I took those apples home and so far out of one bucket I have made 5 quarts and 2 pints of applesauce! I plan on making more applesauce and some spiced apple butter this week with the rest.


This Tuesday, August 10th, 2010- my Dad Dale's birthday- I came out again to visit, take my parents out to lunch and work in the garden. In the morning we took a tour of the garden to see what progress had been made. It has been fairly cold these past few days- very unusual for August. It has been in the 60's in the mornings which is difficult for our garden plants- especially for the tomatoes and peppers. But, as you can see above, many tomatoes are forming on the vines.


Despite the cooler weather many plants are doing quite well and continue to grow. Our cabbages are starting to form in the centers. They look so pretty with their deep purple color.

Also, many tomatoes are starting to form and most of our tomato plants are very large. There are two or three varieties with tomatoes on them already- a good sign!


Our basil (pictured above) is smelling so good and is growing quite nicely in big bunches. Our lettuce, beets, carrots and kale are also coming along. Everything is a bit smaller than it would be had we been able to plant it earlier in the season and had we had a warmer spring and summer- but all in all things are doing well. Our beans are also flowering- many with pretty purple and red flowers!

The squash are really starting to bloom and look very healthy- so we have high hopes of harvesting many of them in the fall.


Also, our grapes are really starting to get bigger and hopefully later on we'll be able to make some delicious grape juice!


Luckily, even though our orchard only produced one kind of apple this year and no pears, plums or cherries- we will have plenty of wild blackberries. Adam sure had fun picking his own with Grandma's help as you can see in the picture below!


We are so thankful that we'll have plenty of berries to freeze and also we plan on making some juice and syrup from them. We will harvest as many as we can!


Suburban Garden Report:

My little suburban garden is doing quite well! The rhubarb continues to grow very well- I need to harvest some soon to freeze and perhaps make some preserves out of. Also, we are getting a few strawberries to eat almost daily- which is delicious and fun!


Our pumpkins are doing great! There are four large pumpkins on the vines and they are starting to turn yellow/orange! They are so pretty and keep getting bigger. My sweet potato plants in the same raised bed planter have grown a bit but probably don't like the cooler weather we've been having!


In another raised bed where I have some very young blueberry bushes all of the sudden a mystery melon or squash plant came up! It looks very healthy and has been growing a lot. It'll be interesting to see what becomes of it! I'm guessing it grew out of something in some of the compost that we put in that planter. Amazing!

Happy Gardening...a post about baking/food will be coming later on!