Party leftovers and all the produce coming in

We had our party and now there is all the leftovers.  Since we had a salad bar, there are lots of chopped up vegetables and fruit. I sent some things home with my sister's who helped clean up and take everything out of cars when we got home, but there still was lots of containers in my frig.  

We ate salads for a couple days until all the lettuce and spinach was eaten up.  We also wound our way through other veggies that were not going to freeze such as cucumbers.  I started with a few trays, some sheets of waxed paper, and the most time sensitive vegetables first.  I was able to freeze lots of cut up produce to use in future cooking.  Here's a list of things that will freeze well after such a party:

• onions
• mushrooms
• black olives
• carrots
• celery
• peppers, all kinds
• meats, in meal size containers
• kohlrabi
• berries
• watermelon

I now have so many options to grab out and add to dishes for a quick meal.  My peach tree that I just planted also came in with fruit this week.  After the first peach fell, I took off the net and picked the rest.  Ripe peaches will go on you quickly.  After just a day or two, many started getting brown spots.  Tonight I peeled, sliced, and froze those for future smoothies.  I only had about 15 peaches, but they are so delicious and sweet.  I look forward to spreading out their flavor just a little longer.  

Tomatoes are coming in so salsa will be on the schedule for canning soon.  It is a big job cutting everything up, but I do love the taste of summer all winter long.  Homemade salsa is so much better.  I read recently that heat releases lycopene in tomatoes.  Canned salsa is actually more healthy than fresh according to the article.  Who am I to argue.

Cut flowers for the bridal shower

I was up bright and early on Sunday morning.  Partly because I usually am and partly because I was thinking about how much time it was going to take for me to finish all I needed to do for my daughter's shower.  The first job on my list was to cut the flowers for the table decorations and subsequent party favors when it was all done.  It was barely light out when I grabbed my cup of coffee, scissors, and buckets of water.  The weather was perfect for cutting flowers.  There was a little dew and it was still cool, 60's, when I started.

I went through each bed cutting the flowers by type.  Zinnias are the lion's share of the beds.  There is plenty other things that were looking so lovely in the early light of day.  The job became a prayer.  I enjoyed shaking out the docile bees that had taken over night shelter in the blossoms rather than flying home the night before.  I was able to carefully select and cut each stem, thinking of the seeds I planted that became these beautiful plants.  I thought about a loving husband that built a brand new bed in the sunny part of the yard for their roots to take hold.  I thanked God for the sunshine and rain that helped them grow.  The balance of cool and warm temperatures that brought them along with minimal insect and disease problems.  I also said a prayer for each person who would be taking them home to enjoy in their own house.  Most of all, I thought of my daughter who has grown into a beautiful woman ready to start her married life to a wonderful guy who will be our first son.  I thank God every day that they found each other.

I would love to show you how lovely 30 different vases and various containers of flowers look together. Sadly, my day became a rush of activity once we reached the party facility and I was happy to get them arranged and on the tables in under 20 minutes.  It was lovely!  I am happy to share what I have to give a small idea of the outcome.

The bride to be on the right with friends

Mom with the maid of honor

Pesto recipe

This is a really good pesto recipe to use some of the bumper crop of basil you have right now.

Pesto

1# spaghetti or linguine (cooked save a few tablespoons of water)

36 basil leaves (min 6 per person)

3 cloves of garlic

5 oz pine nuts (can also use walnuts, almonds, or pistachios)

4 oz (1 ¼ C) fresh grated mixed pecorino romano & parmesan

7 oz good quality olive oil

Salt & pepper to tast

Wash and dry basil leaves. Place in food processor with garlic. Turn on machine and gradually add nuts, cheeses, and oil.  Add salt and pepper.  Do not cook pesto but do add some of the pasta water to thin it out a bit.  Stir into cooked pasta and enjoy.

Edamame is ripe for the picking

I picked my first large batch of soy beans today a.k.a. edamame.  We are having a wedding shower for my daughter and a salad bar is on the menu.  Some of the items will come from the garden, some from Cedar Grove Cheese.  The beef is courtesy of the Black Angus that we bought last fall from a local farmer.  Not enough lettuce in my patch so that had to be bought in mass quantity.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, and kohlrabi all were grown on the soil we live on.  

The soy beans make it to our table much better now that we have reduce the surplus populations of chipmunks.  Two years ago they stripped the plants clean in less than two days.  Last year I left a few beans on the plants to mature and go to seed for this year's crop.  The seeds all germinated very well.  I think I will try to not buy any seed this year and just rely on the homegrown variety. 

Lots more watering without the rain

We finally got some rain yesterday, it came down in buckets so there was a lot of run-off rather than a good soaking.  I will not complain about it, though, as we had gone a long time without any rain.  The rain barrels are filled up again.  I wish I had a larger storage system so I could use even more.  A cistern with a pump would be sweet.

I can see that the pak choy that I planted just days ago has already germinated.  We had some heat this past week with more on the way next week.  We have a nice cool weekend with mild temperatures in store.  

I am hoping to have enough tomatoes to start canning over the long Labor Day weekend coming up.  I think I am going to have to stick with sauces and salsa as I still have tomatoes from last year in jars.  It was so nice to be able to grab a jar of spaghetti sauce already made for a quick meal.  Homemade is always better.  I ran across a recipe from my grandmother's files for homemade chili sauce.  I also have a ketchup recipe shared by one of my cousins.  So many ways to use tomatoes.

We are celebrating the upcoming wedding with a shower for my daughter this weekend.  I am going to use whatever blooms are ready in the garden to decorate the tables and to share afterwards.  Flowers that are given away are the prettiest in the garden.  I will have to take pictures and share later.

Beans have been rather slow this year.  I think the cooler temps overall have really affected their output.  I hope this run helps put some more on the plants.

I need a computer in my garden for my random thoughts

While I am out working in my garden, there are so many things I want to jot down.  What is growing well, what is not.  I see plants I need to move and wish I had my plant inventories right there so I knew what Hosta variety I am looking at right now (tags don't always make it through the winter).

I have been doing a lot of poking around in the yard.  I set up a hose to water and then start weeding in the area I just finished watering.  Yeah, I get wet, but the weeds pull out really nice.  This is a good time of year to find the seedlings that have sprouted from the past year's fruits and seeds.  Get them while they are small or your work just gets harder.  A black walnut buried next to the house under the ferns required a shovel to extract the root from the ground and it was only a foot tall.

It is dry out there again.  I put in the final seed bed for 2013 last week so now I have to keep it moist while the seedlings germinate.  I learned something interesting about lawn establishment in regards to germination at my last seminar.  Rye grass in the blends comes up in a week so within two weeks most people throttle back on watering new grass.  Kentucky blue (the one you really want for your lawn) takes at least 21 days to germinate.  If you do not keep your area watered consistently for at least a month, you can count on losing the Kentucky bluegrass in your new lawn seed mix. If it's not an inch of rain, it's not watered.

I am enjoying the varieties of zinnias I put in this year.  One variety I will not repeat is Cut and Come Again.  The flowers are less than stunning.  I do love the Benary's Giant which puts out spectacular blooms.  The Cactus Flowered mix that came free is also a stunner.  Aster's are starting to bloom now.  I like them all.  The Sea star mix is quite lovely with the multiple petals (doubles).  One plant which hasn't been much to look at is the Cerinthe.   It was easy to grow with a cold start direct sown into flats outdoors.  The thing that is fun about it is that the bumble bees love it.  The tube-shaped flowers pull them and and the noise that comes from them buzzing their way in is fun to listen to.  I would have never thought of listening to flowers.  It also looks like it will provide plenty of seed to start next year.  It droops so it work well at the edge of the planter.  With this week's anticipated heat, I look forward to a good bloom this week.

I think it is time to move the sprinkler.  So much for today's random thoughts.

Restoring the Sauerkraut Cutter

Growing up in our family meant that in fall we would participate in making sauerkraut.  Dad would get the cutter cleaned and sharpened after having spent a long year in our very dank and dusty basement.  The cutter has not been in that basement for over 20 years, but it was in storage with one of my sisters.  It hadn't been used for longer than that.

It has been my good fortune that the cutter was taken out of storage and given to me along with the very valuable stomper.  I brought it home and hosed it off.  Then I took it apart and cleaned all the pieces, there was even some antique shreds of cabbage in the crevices.  I really scrubbed it down.  Naval jelly had to be used on the metal to take off the rust.  I was able to go to my Ace Hardware and find the right guy to sell me the right products for the wood and metal restoration.  I love Elliott's Ace.  

The wood looks beautiful with it's new finish of mineral oil and carnuba wax.  The metal is steel gray again.  I am going to rub it all down before putting it all back together.  I think my days of hand cutting my cabbage are over.

Harvested the onions

I pulled the onions out of the ground tonight after work.  The tops were dried off so the time was ripe.  I grew the red marble 'Cipolinni' onions and 'Copra' yellow sweet onions. Both are listed as good keepers.  Had I harvested the 30 pounds that I did last year, keeping would be a plus.  I think I have about 3-5 pounds of each.  My week of camping during a 90+ heat wave and the less than careful watering of an 18 year old daughter caused a quick departure from the growing phase of my onions to the curing phase.  

I nipped the bent, dried tops off and a bit of the roots.  They are laid in a single layer in garden trays and in the garage for the night.  Each dry, and hopefully sunny, day this week.  I will put the onions out to cure.  I like to do this for a minimum of three days before they go into cool, dark storage.

Looks like the farm market will be getting my business for salsa making this year.

Tomatoes and other crops

I was so pleasantly surprised to go out to pick a couple tomatoes for supper and came back in with an armload from the 4th of July tomato.  These are cluster type tomatoes, so when I poked into the plant I found two fully ripe clusters of tomatoes.  The rest of my plants are still all green so this was a terrific find.  I had enough to share with co-workers so we could all enjoy the first tomatoes of the year.  The Sungold cherry tomatoes are also putting out a few fruits.

I ran across some soluable 15-30-15 fertilizer which I mixed in my 50 gallon water barrel.  I hand watered all the flower and vegetable gardens with sprinkling cans to spread the fertilizer out.  I am not a very disciplined fertilizer user, so this was one more time fertilizing than I normally do.  I tend to use granular fertilizer if I do anything beyond compost application before planting.

Zucchini are coming in now.  I have the 8 ball variety and missed picking a couple so they were more the size of melons when I got to them.  Still nothing growing on the real melon plant.  Not even a blossom.  Fertilizer was put on this as well. 

I only have one type of cucumbers left.  My lower garden which has not been good for cucumbers is still not good for cucumbers.  The window box also petered out.  My vines that I trellis against the wall behind my tomato plants are still the best crop I have ever produced in my yard.  

Time to start pulling out and drying my onions.  The tops are all over and drying out.  I prefer to sun cure the bulbs during the day and put them in at night to keep them from getting dew on them.  They really store best if you cure them right.

I pulled my garlic out and have that hanging to dry.  The bulbs look nice and full.  I was afraid they weren't going to be very good when the tops were looking a little weak, but they pulled through well.  They will probably be good for planting a couple bulbs in fall.

Flower gardens are on the rise

Picture 1

The flower gardens are really coming into their glory right now.  I have LOTS of zinnias in several varieties and colors this year.  It is so much fun to see all the things that started as seed in my basement become leggy beauties in the flower beds.

The goal of the flowers was to have some additions to the wedding flowers to give it the personal touch.  Some of them will find their way into vases to celebrate the shower that is being given by her sister.  I have also enjoyed some fresh bouquets in the kitchen.  Zinnias have some real staying power in the fresh cut flower arena.

The cactus flowered zinnias are interesting in that they have a much more pointed petal as you can see with the bright pink flower in the lower right corner of this picture.

I have also been pleased to see the mono-colored Polar Bear and Green Envy are quite nice.  You almost can't see the green zinnia in the flower bed but there it is in center frame of the second picture.  I think they will show up more in a bouquet.

Anise hyssop

One of my pleasant surprises was some of the new herbs I added to the garden this year.  The anise hyssop has been blooming for weeks and still looks as beautiful as it did when it first opened.  The bees love it and so do I.  I love to run my hand over the flowers as I pass by (it is right next to my stairs) and enjoy the scent that comes back to me.  I have to do a little more research on this one to see how I will be able to capture that as a dried herb or seed later on.  I also have two of my stand-by plants.  Pineapple sage and lemon verbena are a must if only to crush the leaves and breathe deeply.  I also keep around several citronella scented geraniums for their scent as well as their ability to detract mosquitoes in the yard.  (Yes, they really work especially if you cut up a few leaves and let them lay in the grass around your chair.)   There are also all the regulars which are just as pleasant to touch and smell as all the others.

Now this is a plant most people stop to look at.  I bought a four pack of all eight varieties that Milegar's carried this year.  The smaller one got lost in the pot but the rest are blooming beautifully.  They open with spiraling petals and some are even double.  This is the lisanthus I consider a must buy in the spring.  It is not for the home gardener to start from seed unless you can keep them warm and free of fungus gnats.  The seeds are very small and the plants stay in an almost microscopic state for so long (which is why fungus gnats can take them out so easily).  Purchased as plants in May are a much easier option for me.  I also get a nice variety to try out.

The cosmos are just starting to bloom, so they are pretty green yet.  I also have no Mexican sunflowers (tithonia) yet and the Prairie sun coneflowers are struggling against the slugs.  Lots of rain has kept up the numbers on those.  The cerinthe has grown well and the foliage is beautiful,  The small tube like flowers are not easily seen with their turned down heads.  I am hoping that they make a good bouquet filler.

The dried flowers are doing well.  I have Celosia cristata, statice, and hare's tail grass.  The grass is blooming in the sunny spots and doing well but without flowers where the shading is heavier.  I may have to start cutting and hanging some of the full blooms to dry to keep the plants blooming through fall.  The coral gardens variety is very bright for the Celosia.  The statice is more of a pastel shades.  

I will have to fertilize the beds soon to keep the blooms going as long as possible.  If I want to have flowers in October, I will have to give them everything I can.