i make it myself

Pies

It's a miracle - tis the season of pies. The fruit says Now. So we get to be pie gluttons for a couple of days.

The cling peaches that I got from the Boalsburg Farmers Market (Way Fruit Farm) were ready - as in they were no longer clingie... but still tasty. A Peach Glaze pie was in order.

The blueberries that I got from our CSA/Groundworks Farm were also begging not to be forgotten. Having only 1 quart I had thought to make a blueberry pie. It has been eons since I made one, as it seems the cultivated blueberries are no match in taste against the wild mountain berries. But being lazy in old age, I'm not about to go try to find the wild ones, much less pick them. Being in the pie makin' mood, blueberry is the other one for our pie orgy.

Drying Onions

Our new experiment started today. I finely sliced and diced a Mars (right) and a Red Candy Apple (left), laid the pieces on parchment on a sheetpan, and slid it into our dehydrator (the enclosed space on top of our frig and freezer.

Should this prove to be a success, we will be able to make our own onion powder and have our own dried onion flakes. It has worked for garlic, sweet corn and herbs.

June Garden Update

We are now finished with the shell peas and sugar pod peas. Both have been pulled from the garden. There was only three messes of peas, which we ate fresh.

The lettuce is mostly gone. It was a satisfactory amount this year, just wish it woul last longer into the heat of summer. The spinach was zilch. The only spinach we had was two delicious bags from Springbank Farm.

The strawberries are over and the raspberries, both black and red, are beginning. Since it has been dry, the yield will most likely be on the small side. July 1 update: black raspberries have dried up this year. Through June we picked 7 quarts of red raspberries.

We used up our last celeriac from 2009 in black bean soup. The celeriac stored very well this past year. Since my seed did not germinate well, we bought a dozen plants. I planted what puny things that did come and maybe half of them survived. I meant to get another dozen, but never got back to the greenhouse. So we will have a lot less celeriac for our soups this winter.

Something seems to be up in the woods, as the girls pastured above are most watchful at the moment. I have not been able to see what all the excitement is about...a Bear? Turkey or deer would elicit this response

I started harvesting garlic. I dig some and then wonder if they are ready. Have done this two days in a row. We have 75 stiff neck, about 40 softneck and 14 of our own soft neck that are in their third year. They did very well. Nice big bulbs. This is about a 30-50% reduction in the amount we planted.. we still have pounds of garlic left from last year hanging in the basement. So I'm hoping I did not misjudge their readiness, as everything is ahead of schedule this season.....

I suddenly realized it is dry - as in not raining - had not been raining, was not forecast to rain. On top of that it is cool. So I quickly slapped on the remaining paint/stain on the front and side porch, a lick on the wood shed and used the remainder on the chicken coop. Paint gone. Done til next year. Yeah!

Cherry Pie Filling

Ah, Sour cherries. Really, really love cherry pies. Which means if I want more than one or two pies a year, I need to procure and process them for the long winter. I happened to notice about two weeks ago that the wild sour cherries, which the birds were eating like mad, were almost ripe. This made me think I better call the local orchard and check as to when they might be picking. Good thing I did as they said to call back June 22, and then said tomorrow and probably tomorrow only. Wow! Early - by about two weeks. Guess what we did yesterday. : )

We picked 22 pounds in about 50 minutes. Not as plentiful as in years past, but very nice and very ripe. I had wanted 13-14 quarts. Took two bowls that were 6 and 8 quart size. We took 2 quart berry boxes to pick into so as not have an oops and spill the whole enchilada. It appeared that the bowls were not as big as they stated, since they were full at 5 and 7 quarts. We picked til the cherries were rolling off, and then filled the boxes and left. Less $33 ($1.50/pound) but with our treasure of red pie cherries.

After feeding the horses, I started processing. The most time consuming part is the pie filling, so I started (and ended - HA) with that. It also included an interval of ridding the yard of an unwelcome varmit.

The recipe I use is USDA fruit pie filling. For 7 quarts it says to use 6 quarts fruit. Well, that makes a little over five quarts. Used 7 quarts of cherries last year and got 6 quarts. I said, "Ah Ha, must mean pitted fruit and I bet I was measuring whole fruit." This year I measured 7 quarts pitted fruit with and extra pint in just to be sure I had enough. Got almost 7 quarts, but not enought to process Number 7. Soooooo, Next Year, if I go with 8 quarts pitted (it was really close), maybe I will hit my canner load. That 7.5 pitted came from the heaping 8 quart bowl and 1/2 a quart box. So does 8.5 - 9 quarts whole = 7.5 pitted?

By the time I'm finished, take my afternoon sweat bath feeding the horses, decide all we will have for dinner is a quick salad, I'm too whooped to do the jam.

Update: We made 7 jars of jam, two fresh cherry pies, and 2 quarts frozen from the remaining 7.5 quarts. Which seems to say we picked circa 16 quarts.

2010 Garden Harvest

Our garden harvest has begun! We've been having lettuce for 2-3 weeks, but with the heat most of the lettuce left has bolted. Our spinach did not amount to much, it appeared retarded, mainly because I planted in a newly created garden space that turned out to not be fit soil. Oops.

• Sugar peas - we froze 14 pints and ate a couple more pints. The peas did very well this year - none of the plants were diseased and the rainfall was adequate
• Shell peas - on the other hand the shell peas only gave us a couple of dinners. They were good...just not enough of them.
• Strawberries - we actually got enough at one time to make a batch of jam. (8 jars). The rest we ate as pies, or pie filling. The patch produced 10.5 quarts this year as compared to the 2 quarts last year. We actually fended off the deer, rabbits, chipmunks, chickens and humid weather. The plants paid for themselves this year! Maybe we will do another patch as they were quite tasty compared to some that we bought (@$2.50/quart).
• Ah yes, I have been reminded about the Black Yum Raspberries. We picked 1/2 quart and ated them. And that's all she wrote as the dry weather kilt the juiciness in the remainder.
• Cherries - we visited a pick your own orchard (Way Fruit Farm) and came away with 22 pounds (less $33) of very ripe, and very lovely sour cherries. From this we got 7 jars cherry jam, almost 7 quarts pie filling, 2 quarts frozen, and two fresh pies.
• Red Raspberries - picked one quart yesterday and one today. Tasty this year - lots of sunshine and heat. They are just beginning to ripen - still it's early. And there were Japanese beetles about - also early. But amounted to so few as to not be a nuisance.
• Garlic: 70 stiff neck, 40 soft neck, 14 our soft necks
• Onions: Red Candy Apple - circa 80 onions, not large this year
• Onions: Alisa Craig - circa 60 onions, not large this year
• Mustard- still hanging, all plants came up on their own.
• Broccoli 4 pints frozen, several meals
• Masai Green Beans - canned 8 pints July 26
• Onion: Red Torpedo circa 90 onions. New variety to us - very tasty.
• Onions: Mars circa 110 onions. Not super large this year
• Onions: Red Zeppellin circa 50+ so far. They are ready waaay too early. Another 220+ Zeps on July 29. Total circa 270.
• Onion: Copra circa 130-140 July 29

Cinnamon Twist Bread

This is one of my favorite breads when I have milk and eggs on hand. It makes great toast, and a super snack (for the dough girl) when less than a day old.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Milk
• 2-4 Tablespoons Shortening or Olive Oil
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Salt
• 4.5 Teaspoons Instant Yeast
• 1/2 Cup warm water
• 2 Cups Entire Wheat Flour
• 4 Cups Bread FLour
• 2 Eggs, slightly beaten
***
• 1/3 Cup Raw Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Instructions

• Warm/scald milk. Add shortening, sugar and salt. Cool to a good yeast temperature.
• Stir 3 Cups flour, eggs, 1/2 Cup water and yeast into milk mixture. Mix.
• Add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.
• Cover and let rise about 1 1/2 hours
• Punch down, let rise another 1/2 hour.
• Turn onto board, divide in half. Round into balls. Cover and rest 10 minutes.
• Grease two loaf pans.
• Roll each half into 12 x 7 rectangle. Sprinkle with 1/2 sugar/cinnamon mixture. Sprinkle with 1-2 teaspoons water. Roll up starting with narrow end. Place in loaf pans.
• Cover, let rise (in the oven - mid to upper level) until almost doubled: 45-60 minutes.
• Remove cover, heat oven to 375º. Bread should be done in 35 minutes from a cold oven. (And my oven takes a good 15 minutes to reach that temperature.

Source: Homemade Bread by the Food Editors of Farm Journal, © 1969. Page 18. Recipe slightly modified.

Seed Starting 2010

Off to a bit of a late start this year, with a seemingly early (maybe by three weeks?) spring, on getting seeds started both indoors and out.

Coldframe Three types of cabbage (Early Surprize, Krautman and Wakeman) and broccoli (Windsor and Umpqua)

Rambo's Garden One bed has sugar peas. Another has Spinach, lettuce, and carrots. We installed a (hopefully) chicken-keeper-outer fence around Rambo's garden...so far, so good. But the rabbits have already made inroads.

Indoors:4 dozen tomato: Big Beefstake and Syrian. A few Dusky eggplant, but will probably end up buying some eggplant plants. Three dozen celeriac, half dozen Tango celery. Parlsey and thyme for herbs. Sniff, I'm Out of Oregano seed, but we do have several plants (which, BTW, were Not enough for us last year!) growing outside.

The Garden Season Has Begun

March 26 the Wando (and free 'experimental') peas were planted.

The onion beds are ready for the onions, which arrived today, March 31 via 'brown'. Thank you Dixondale Farms!

Most of the other beds are more or less ready. Surprisingly the chickens have not made a total mess of them - yet.

The main garden needs a quick run through with the wheel cultivator, so as to keep ahead of the weeds. Five days of sun forecast, so may be able to do this in a day or 2.

2010 Garden Order(s)

Onions, from Dixondale Farms Total $41.50

• Red Candy Apple 1
• Alisa Craig 1
• Mars 2
• Red Zeppilin 3
• Copra 2
• Leeks 1/2 bundle

Soil from Park Seed Total $44.68

• Seed starting soil 6 bags for $23.82
• Potting Soil 3 bags for $14.91

Seeds from Pinetree Total $18.95

• Masai Green Beans $1.85
• Honey Select Sweet Corn 4 for $7.80
• Homemade Pickles cucs $1.15
• Buttercrunch lettuce .95
• Waltham Butternut squash .95
• Cool Breeze cuc $1.35
• Evergreen Bunching Heshiko onion $1.15

Total to date: $105.13 ... and we have lots of leftover seed to use this year. There may be some soil leftover for next year... maybe. If my seed starting doesn't go better this year, then I won't bother to invest in more expensive "soil".

We will be purchasing our pepper plants and eggplants locally.

Onion and Potato Storage

March 1 and there is still way too much white stuff on the ground. My new onions plants will be here in 4 weeks! Come on spring. Eating too much of our good stored food and not getting enough exercise. Oh where are the days when I'm just too exhausted from the garden that I don't even want to cook? Ha

I decided I had better go through the stored potatoes and onions and see who is turning into soft goo.

I tossed circa 1/2 bushel of potatoes, mostly small ones that I never got around to using because of their size, and some reds that had shriveled and sprouted like crazy. Both these batches of potatoes were in baskets. The one in the storage under the stairs was furthest gone. I think it gets too warm in there when the wood stove is roaring. It's either find another location - such as the pine chest under the window, or insulate the under-stair closet. Storing the potatoes that will not fit in the frigs in the pine chest may be the way to go - it is the coldest spot in the room, especially when we crack the window.

We have two red onions left. They kept very well this year and I am hoping they do as well this coming year, as we will be growing more reds and less Copra.

In going through the multiple bags and bags of Copra, there was about a peck that had sprouted or were soft. By my calculations there is 1 and 1/2 bushel of Copra left to get us through to onion time - sometime in July when the Red Candy should be ready. There will also be walking onions and bunching onions as well.