Getting in the Squash

Each year near the first frost I get the onions that have been curing on the racks off the racks in time to put the winter squash on the racks to cure.  Ken picked all the squash up, stacked in piles and got into tubs.  He hauled the tubs by the racks for me.  He looked tired!     Then I teased him for a photo and he perked up!           …

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This CSA box has lettuce, mixed mustard, salad turnips, carrots, winter squash, onions or leeks, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs       Field Notes.  The big dig has begun!  Each year we await a light frost and then Ken gets digging and harvesting.  Carrots and winter squash taste sweeter if they have been in the field for colder weather. While Ken is harvesting from the garden, I am cutting tops …

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Root Cellaring

Yes, we can eat local produce year around!  Our grandparents had root cellars.  They stored fruits and roots and jars of preserved food so they could eat what they grew throughout the year in a cold climate.  We have a root cellar.  In addition to things like jars of tomato sauce, applesauce, and pressure canned soup stock, we store vegetables in a barrel in sand.    We have found the vegetables keep better in sand.  …

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Sorting and Cleaning Onions

Each year as Ken harvests onions, we place them on racks to cure.   Here is the rack of curing onions.         Once we need the space for winter squash, I pull dried tops and rob off dirt, and sort onions by size.         The dried tops go to compost or chicken bedding               Empty racks ready for squash           …

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, potatoes, peppers, radicchio,  a mustard green mix, kale or chard,  parsley, and grapes       Field Notes.   As I draft this Monday morning frost is forecast. Frost signals the end of a few crops – basil for example.  This afternoon I will close up the greenhouses and it will be a question of how cold for how long.  Frost also signals …

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Bee Sting

Ken keeps bees.  Yesterday he suited up and was working with bees.  At one point he walked near me, and I heard the sound of an unhappy guard bee.  Bees usually have a sweet humming noise, but guard bees under stress sound insistent and rather like a dentist drill.  The bee stung me just under the eyebrow.  I yelled, and Ken came over and found it and pulled it off my hat and suggested I …

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Recipe Ideas: Radicchio and Salad Turnips

This week we have two less common items available – radicchio and hakurei turnips. We grow a Treviso type of radicchio.  It looks like a white spined red Romaine, but it ISN’T lettuce.  It is an Italian green with a stronger, slightly bitter green flavor.  I tend to roll leaves and cut in thin ribbons to add to salad as an accent.  I saute it with onions.  Some people grill it.  We had some delicious …

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden! This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, potatoes, salad turnips, red radishes, beet thins, carrots, cucumbers and/or zucchini and herbs Field Notes.  No frost yet!  Usually by this time we have had at least a nip of frost.  Soon we will start the “big dig” and getting roots in the root cellar for the winter.  Ken is still picking all those summer crops and clearing space.  Once we have …

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Ken’s Hot Sauce

Ken loves making unusual sauces, fermented vegetables, etc.  This year he had enough peppers for batch of fermented hot pepper sauce.  Here is the ferment part.           And here is the bottled product

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots or beets, and herbs Field Notes Ken cleared up areas of the garden and fields and transplanted several flats of greens since last week.  As the days shorten he fits in all the harvesting – there are still tomatoes, cukes, summer squash, and other crops that require regular and frequent picking.  With the heat he tends to get …

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