Home Archive by category "Produce" (Page 6)

Category: Produce

Harvest Newsletter

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Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, kohlrabi, onions, garlic, peppers, sweet corn, parsley, and basil. Field Notes.  The tsunami of tomatoes has crested; early varieties are about done.  Later varieties are still going strong.  It has been an interesting season – cooler nights meant later hot weather crops and heavy dew meant more work to prevent molds, fungus and blights.  Ken has moved up those seedlings pictured last …

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By Labor Day Pigs Become Hogs

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The decades old expression here is, “By Labor Day the pigs become hogs.”  We have raised feeder pigs for decades.  They are a great help on a small farm.  Each year Ken has a tilling project so he grazes them sequentially.  On any given year they might expand a garden space, dig out the quack grass outside the garden, or clear a fence line.     They eat garden culls and many things people won’t …

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Harvest Newsletter

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Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, cucumber, zucchini, kohlrabi, lettuce, basil and parsley.   Field Notes.  People often wonder what I mean when I say nearly every week that planting continues.  Well this week I have a photo of several of the fall greens.  Ken finds that in August it is often easier to start greens indoors where he can regulate temperature and moisture.  Another advantage of transplanting …

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Steam Juicing Culled Apples

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When growing food, one always has some less than perfect fruit or vegetables.  With apples some drop, some have flaws, some have insect damage or bruised portions.  Once an apple has hit the ground, I steam juice it.  Cooking apples in a steam juicer will pasteurize them.  Of course we also make fresh apple juice from other culled apples.   Processing apples in the steam juicer takes one and a half hours of cooking time.  …

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Harvest Newsletter

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Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, celery, lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, onions. garlic. kale, corn, basil, and apples       Field Notes.  Ken is getting the short season fall crops in now.  The long season fall crops are doing well.  He got the year’s compost mixed for next season.  And in his spare time it’s mowing, weeding, and harvesting.  Weeds that aren’t mowed will drop seeds for a new crop …

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Canning Peaches

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Ken loves stone fruit like cherries and peaches.  They top the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list of food with high pesticide residues, so I only buy organic.  Last year a friend got a couple boxes she had ordered; there was extra so I got some.  This year I begged her to order some for me.   Ken loves canned peaches, and people often ask how do I can peaches.  First make a syrup.  This …

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Preserving Peaches Many Different Ways

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Ken loves peaches so this year we ordered boxes of organic peaches to enjoy all year.         First a few were ripe so I made jam.  The large jars are apple juice from the steam juicer       Then I froze some         And today I canned one large batch and then a smaller batch to use up the syrup I had.       Then I tried …

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Making Compost

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Each season Ken makes compost. Each year he combines the winter chicken bedding with hay and straw and leaves and other organic matter that varies from year to year.  In the past he shoveled chicken bedding and shook out all the baled hay.  A few years back he purchased a manure spreader.  The manure spreader breaks clods, shakes out hay and mixes the components beautifully.   He loads the spreader, cuts the baling twine, and …

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Harvest Newsletter

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Greetings from the Garden!  This week’s CSA box has tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, basil, beans, carrots, and parsley     Field Notes.  Planting, mulching, and harvesting continue.  As the days shorten this becomes more of a juggling act!  Ken picks several crops like tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, etc several times a week; that takes a chunk of time.  He spent part of Sunday making next year’s compost.   In the midst of all this I …

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Summer Recipe Ideas: Cucumber Salad and Cole Slaw

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Most years we have a lettuce gap during the heat of the summer.  During this brief time I focus on the many other salad options. For a cucumber salad we have found that a combination using small seeded cucumbers, breaking the skin and salting results in “burpless” digestible side dish.  Asians often salt sliced vegetables to alter the green flavor of chlorophyll and enhance the vegetables’ sweetness. First I take rinsed cucumbers and run a …

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