NwMtGardener
Garden Addicted
OK! Thistle's post about the crickets reminded me of all the pictures I took a while back and meant to post on TEG, but never got around to! I've also been meaning to write up a post about my garden harvest this year, and some of the new things I"ve learned! Pictures first
An overall look at my garden Sept. 25:
A few containers: acorn squash, lettuce in the wheelbarrow, hot peppers & basil in the small pots:
One day's worth of green beans and a few potato plants dug:
A different day's worth of green beans, muncher cucumbers and a few tomatoes (Big boys that aren't very big, and the tiny one is Campari)
My mother in law's tongue plant bloomed this fall!
Finally, the puppies. Lucy doing yoga, and Charlie snoozing away!
Some estimates of what I harvested from my garden this year:
Several gallons of green beans - still have 1.5 gal. in the freezer for winter
Lots of lettuce, mostly Waldman's green
Herbs: cilantro & coriander, basil, chives, mint, oregano, lavender, thyme
Peppers: about 8 good sized Peguis from 1 plant, 1st time for me growing this one - moderately hot when starting to turn red, good production. A few thai hot peppers, my plants were started too late this year
Tomatoes: maybe 20 big boy, small amounts sweet 100 (?) cherry and Campari. I ended up buying a bushel of romas for my tomato sauce and salsa. Oh, and I bought Costco cherry tomatoes and made sundried tomatoes in my car on a few hot days, they turned out great!
30 or so muncher cucumbers
A dozen or so zucchini
2 acorn squash, 3 delicatas (we ate one and it wasn't very good flavor, hope the others are better), 3 spaghetti squash
Several small heads purple cabbage
30 or so potatoes, all different sizes - all the plants I dug were Yukon gold, but I swear I planted some purple ones...hrmmm!
A few things I've learned this year as far as food preserving:
I bought a box of peaches - 1st time for me canning straight up fruit. When it calls for liquid, ADD LOTS OF LIQUID! I ended up opening all my canned jars of peaches cause the peaches got shoved up into the necks of the cans, and bubbled out a lot of liquid after I took them out of the water bath, and I COULD NOT get the peaches shaken up, back down to the bottom of the jar! I wasn't sure they were sealed well, so I opened them, made it into peach pie filling, and froze it in saran wrap inside pie pans. Then I took the frozen pies out of the pans and put them in freezer ziplocs. The idea is you can put the pie shaped filling right into a pie crust and cook frozen! I'm planning on trying it tonight
I'm making sauerkraut for the first time on my own. My family used to make it but I haven't tried it in many years. I just made a small amount in a crock on my counter. Since my husband doesn't like it very much I didn't want to make some huge batch.
I made lavender concentrate for the first time! I did it like I've read about others on here making homemade vanilla - with cheap vodka. I steeped the lavender in the vodka for a week or so, then strained it out. I left a coffee filter on top of the jar, for the alcohol to slowly evaporate. It's been several months and I just poured the tiny amount that was left out into an old vanilla jar I had - smells delicious, and I put some in the applesauce I'm making today.
I'm making my own apple cider vinegar! Just started this project today, so we'll see how it turns out. I bought a bushel of Fuji apples, and have turned a bunch of them into dried apples in the oven, and applesauce. Now I'm using the cores and peels to make ACV. The summary of directions from the internet: let them turn brown in the air, then put in a container and fill with water until covered. Place a weight on apple pieces to keep them covered with liquid. Stir every day for a week, and keep container open to the air. Then strain, and leave liquid in a container with a cheesecloth or fabric lid, so it can breath, for 5 or 6 weeks. Keep between 60 - 80 degrees. I've also read you can speed things up by buying organic ACV with the mother (like Bragg's) and putting some of the mother into your homemade batch of apple peels. I didn't feel like going to the store today so I'll try it without for this batch.
Overall I feel pretty good about my garden production! It probably doesn't sound like much to some of you, but mostly all of this came from a 12'x24' area! I still don't feel like I've made a dent in our grocery bills yet though...will hopefully save a little over the winter with what I've canned and frozen, and try again next year!!
An overall look at my garden Sept. 25:
A few containers: acorn squash, lettuce in the wheelbarrow, hot peppers & basil in the small pots:
One day's worth of green beans and a few potato plants dug:
A different day's worth of green beans, muncher cucumbers and a few tomatoes (Big boys that aren't very big, and the tiny one is Campari)
My mother in law's tongue plant bloomed this fall!
Finally, the puppies. Lucy doing yoga, and Charlie snoozing away!
Some estimates of what I harvested from my garden this year:
Several gallons of green beans - still have 1.5 gal. in the freezer for winter
Lots of lettuce, mostly Waldman's green
Herbs: cilantro & coriander, basil, chives, mint, oregano, lavender, thyme
Peppers: about 8 good sized Peguis from 1 plant, 1st time for me growing this one - moderately hot when starting to turn red, good production. A few thai hot peppers, my plants were started too late this year
Tomatoes: maybe 20 big boy, small amounts sweet 100 (?) cherry and Campari. I ended up buying a bushel of romas for my tomato sauce and salsa. Oh, and I bought Costco cherry tomatoes and made sundried tomatoes in my car on a few hot days, they turned out great!
30 or so muncher cucumbers
A dozen or so zucchini
2 acorn squash, 3 delicatas (we ate one and it wasn't very good flavor, hope the others are better), 3 spaghetti squash
Several small heads purple cabbage
30 or so potatoes, all different sizes - all the plants I dug were Yukon gold, but I swear I planted some purple ones...hrmmm!
A few things I've learned this year as far as food preserving:
I bought a box of peaches - 1st time for me canning straight up fruit. When it calls for liquid, ADD LOTS OF LIQUID! I ended up opening all my canned jars of peaches cause the peaches got shoved up into the necks of the cans, and bubbled out a lot of liquid after I took them out of the water bath, and I COULD NOT get the peaches shaken up, back down to the bottom of the jar! I wasn't sure they were sealed well, so I opened them, made it into peach pie filling, and froze it in saran wrap inside pie pans. Then I took the frozen pies out of the pans and put them in freezer ziplocs. The idea is you can put the pie shaped filling right into a pie crust and cook frozen! I'm planning on trying it tonight
I'm making sauerkraut for the first time on my own. My family used to make it but I haven't tried it in many years. I just made a small amount in a crock on my counter. Since my husband doesn't like it very much I didn't want to make some huge batch.
I made lavender concentrate for the first time! I did it like I've read about others on here making homemade vanilla - with cheap vodka. I steeped the lavender in the vodka for a week or so, then strained it out. I left a coffee filter on top of the jar, for the alcohol to slowly evaporate. It's been several months and I just poured the tiny amount that was left out into an old vanilla jar I had - smells delicious, and I put some in the applesauce I'm making today.
I'm making my own apple cider vinegar! Just started this project today, so we'll see how it turns out. I bought a bushel of Fuji apples, and have turned a bunch of them into dried apples in the oven, and applesauce. Now I'm using the cores and peels to make ACV. The summary of directions from the internet: let them turn brown in the air, then put in a container and fill with water until covered. Place a weight on apple pieces to keep them covered with liquid. Stir every day for a week, and keep container open to the air. Then strain, and leave liquid in a container with a cheesecloth or fabric lid, so it can breath, for 5 or 6 weeks. Keep between 60 - 80 degrees. I've also read you can speed things up by buying organic ACV with the mother (like Bragg's) and putting some of the mother into your homemade batch of apple peels. I didn't feel like going to the store today so I'll try it without for this batch.
Overall I feel pretty good about my garden production! It probably doesn't sound like much to some of you, but mostly all of this came from a 12'x24' area! I still don't feel like I've made a dent in our grocery bills yet though...will hopefully save a little over the winter with what I've canned and frozen, and try again next year!!