Canning!

So I have been spending my spare time picking and cleaning and canning.  Today I went to Samascott Orchards with my friend Anna.  This was our second adventure there; this time for blueberries, cucumbers and green beans.  We struck out on the green beans, but picked beautiful, delicious blueberries by the basket load and ended up with about 20 lbs too many cucumbers. 

When the rains came in, we ventured over to Love Apple Farm in Ghent, NY to have lunch.  They also have a pick your own operation (we previously visited for cherries), but we were there for their amazing little Mexican kitchen that serves some equally amazing tamales.  While we were there I picked up a couple of half pecks of apricots and plums - because I just can't seem to get enough. 

My intention was do a bit of picking today and have a pickle night with Anna this week.  When I woke up from my afternoon nap, I was full of ideas - pickle relish, plum jam and apricot preserves.  I will rest during the winter months, with all my beautifully preserved jams and pickles!

*On a side note - I have no idea what the difference is between jam and preserves.

Luckily, I found the cord for my camera - so enjoy the views....

plum jam, bread and butter pickles, and hot/sweet pickle relish

Apricot Preserves in the making!

Purple Peppers!

I started this blog as a way for me to keep record and memory of my first full season as a community garden member.  I have never been one to journal much and having the opportunity to have other people read about my experience has helped me to keep up the momentum and write.  Although, I think the real appeal is pictures!  Unfortunately - I still can not find the cord that connects my camera to my laptop, so no pictures to post this go around.  

It is officially mid July and hot here in the Berkshires - and my arugula crop is really feeling the heat.  To date, I have not really had to do much watering, but now I find myself watering the greens in rescue mode every evening after work.  The good news is that the watering pays off and each morning I am able to walk out my back door and harvest a bowl full of greens for that days lunch.  My lunch time salads are a real treat - arugula with chopped carrots, onions, purple peppers, beets, zucchini, and cucumber.  Of course I add a bit of goat or blue cheese to help tie all the flavors together. 

I pulled the pea trellis up across the street and have planted egg plant, tomatoes, and winter squash in it's place.  I have to admit the plot looks a bit bare now, but the seedlings will grow (as will the weeds) and I am hoping to have some adult looking plants shortly.  This week I will pull up the green bean bushes in the plot at the house and make room for fall beets.

I have harvested my first round of potatoes from the food bank plot and I have to say - they were mighty tasty!  Of course I snuck a couple into my dinner!

On the canning and preserving front - I made my first batch of bread and butter pickles!  And I have to say - they are amazing!   Other than that, I think I am jammed out.  I have made red currant, black raspberry and blue berry jam, so everyone knows what they are getting for Christmas, right???

Oh yes - purple peppers - I traded plants for some vegetable starts at the beginning of the season with my old farm manager and ended up with a mixed six pack of sweet peppers - one of which was a purple pepper.  Word on the street is that these purple beauties pack an antioxidant punch, however, they are kind of tasteless.  Pretty, but tasteless.  Since I can not share a picture, here is a link to more (and a photo of) about the purple pepper.

Update - July 6th

Blogs with pictures are so much cooler than random writings.  Unfortunately - it's late and I can not find the cord that connects my camera to my computer, so we'll just have to do without tonight. 

It's been a busy couple of weeks!  The garden has done a ton of growing, there's been some recent visits to some pick your own berry/cherry farms, some veggie deliveries from my sweetie that needed eating and preserving, weeding, and jam making!  All very exciting, time consuming, amazing things. 

I am now harvesting peas from the garden across the street - oh and carrots and zucchini as well!  I feel like my personal plot there is in full production mode.  I can head over nearly any evening of the week and pick at least a couple of things to have for dinner - kale, collards, lettuce, onions, herbs......

and basically the same here at the house - tat soi, arugula, scallions, basil, cilantro, beets, radish and SNAP BEANS!!!

Tonight I spent an hour or so mowing the community garden in preparation for the tent raising tomorrow - I am totally stoked to get that done, as it will provide some nice shade for picnic Sunday's or just taking a small break during hot summer days at work.  I also mulched the food bank plot with bark mulch that the community garden purchased for all the plots.  It looks great and I am hoping it helps to maintain the edges and keep the grass from taking it over. 

Other than that - there is not much to report...

wish I had my pictures! 

Special Delivery Day - Take One

Tonight's Dinner

Today was my first food bank delivery.  Earlier in the season, I was asked if I would like to manage the plot at the community garden that was for the use of the Monterey kindergarten and the local food bank.  I jumped at the chance, as I have always wanted to incorporate issues of food access into my farming/gardening work/education.

As soon as I was able to "break ground" at the (extra) plot, I snagged some potato seeds, lettuce and beet starts from my lovely farmer sweetie and had a planting day with the kids and staff of the kindergarten.  I have since planted scallions, zucchini, basil, yellow squash, carrots, collards and mustard greens.  The lettuce is the first to be ready for harvest and I wanted to clear those heads out to make way for winter squash, tomatoes, and a second round of additional herbs and lettuce.

I got up a bit earlier this morning, harvested around 30 heads of lettuce, washed and packed them away in plastic bags and after coffee and breakfast, headed to Great Barrington to drop the goods.  My plan was to leave the lettuce on the door step, as I had to be at work at the exact same time the food bank opened.  Thankfully, Dorothy and the other volunteers had shown up early and I was able to meet the people that will be distributing the food to throughout the rest of the season.  They were so grateful and it really helped me to feel like this tiny plot and a bit of work was going to help some families have access to fresh produce.

Next week I will be taking them yet more lettuce, perhaps some scallions, definitely some parsley and beets and maybe even some swiss chard!  The plot is flourishing; potato flowers have bloomed (there will be tons of potatoes!) and the carrots seem to be growing daily.

Potato Flowers!

Here's what's happening in my plot at the house;

Looks like a bean to me!

The Big Picture

Holy Food Making, Storing, Eating......

Gardening is amazing and so is eating your own food.  The taste is just so extreme - tonight I snapped a couple of ready peas off the vine and pulled a carrot up out of the ground for an after work snack as I walked home and watered the potted plants that are waiting to be planted for the Food Bank.

I didn't spend a ton of time in the garden this weekend, as I was busy in the kitchen cooking and storing up goodies brought to me by my sweetie, straight from the fields of her beautiful farm in Dover, MA.  A bin full of garlic scapes, lettuce, bok choi, spring turnips and onions, beets, and the largest, most beautiful head of cauliflower I have ever seen (eaten).

We chopped and froze many bags of garlic scapes to saute up when the winter's share of garlic has been eaten.  We made garlic scape, walnut and asiago pesto that we froze in an ice tray and later popped out to store in freezer bags.  These will be great to pull out and add to hot pasta or into a soup.  We also made quick pickled kohlrabi and tonight I did the same with the spring turnips.  

For dinner we shared roasted beets and smashed, roasted cauliflower.

So much, I am probably forgetting at least half of the highlights.  I am so fortunate to share this season with such an amazing, dedicated farmer.  I learn so much from her and I am really enjoying navigating the ways and importance of growing and eating your own food.

Oh maybe a picture....

Beets!

Trellising and More

Today was a busy day, both in the garden and out in the real world - harvesting, storing, trellising in my own garden and a little landscaping work for a new friend.  Around noon, I came home to trellis the sun gold cherry tomato plants in the yard here at the house

Then I harvested the remaining over grown arugula from the community garden plot, washed it and blended it with garlic scapes , olive oil, walnuts and grated Parmesan cheese to make a pesto.  I had it over pasta tonight for a quick dinner and it was amazing!

There was also some basil pesto making and freezing and oh yeah......blueberry freezer jam.  I am a bit worried about the jam.  I used frozen berries from last year and the recipe called for nearly an entire bag of sugar for 12 - 8 ounce jars.  Hell a lot of sugar!  So we will see.  

Tomorrow - seeding some herbs for the greenhouse!

Berry Bonanza!!!

I swear we hand picked them all today!  Just didn't think to break out the camera until all the hard labor was completed.

My friend Anna and I made the trek west and down the Taconic Parkway to Chatham, NY to visit Berry Farm - a very cool organic and basically solar powered year round farm to pick strawberries!  Turns out their strawberry operation is only a small fraction of their business.  One of the store keepers gave us a brief tour of their greenhouses, one of which is geothermal.  Beautiful, small farm with amazing staff and insane strawberries.  Although the store keeper had some doubt about our harvesting stamina - Anna and I picked about 17 quarts or something like 23 lbs. of strawberries.  I tend to get a little carried away when I know something is soon going to become unavailable - I think they call it hoarding.

We picked, we shopped a little, getting some extras from their farm stand like garlic scapes and a tub of ice cream to split on the drive back.  Then we headed back to the great state of Massachusetts to prepare a meal for friends.  Anna pan fried some fish in coconut oil and garnished them with lightly sauteed garlic scapes and scallions, while I made some pasta with kale from the garden and Hannah made a salad of lettuce and arugula (also from the garden).

Beautiful night to have a meal outdoors

I snuck away to get my camera!

Jack hearts Kale!

After dins, we started on the berries and there was a lot of snickering around the topic of sucking the air out of the freezer....mostly around who sucked the most.

And the winner is.....

All in all, it was quite a busy day.  Lettuce harvesting, pea re-trellising, planting the food bank plot (again), some experimental cucumber trellising and tons of hand weeding and hoeing.  After being away for a few days and feeling a bit off kilter, spending the majority of my day working in the garden proved to be quite therapeutic and a bit tiring!