Stop by my farmhouse and see what is happening today. Visit my vegetable garden to see what is growing or come into my kitchen and see what I am canning, freezing, or cooking.
Hard to believe when it is still 95 degrees outside that it is time to get a move on the fall garden. I told pawpaw last night that if we don't pick up the speed it will be time to get the plants in the ground and we want have enough to plant. Gotta get those seeds in the starter cups now.
We did plant a few squash, pumpkin, kale, broccoli, and collards last week. Hoping to put the kale, collards, and broccoli in our hydroponic system and see how they grow compared to the ones we start in the soil.
The squash and pumpkins were started in my newspaper pots. I made these according to the directions of a YouTube video. I just googled newspaper pots and came up with several videos then I chose one, followed the direction, and made several pots.
The newspaper pots are great for the squash and pumpkins. Another free seedling starter pot we use is the pods from our keruig machine. PawPaw used the coffee grounds in the compost pile and he also read the grounds are good for his blueberry bushes.
Cucumbers are coming along but the kale and broccoli are slow grow. I think it is too hot for them to sprout.
Here is an update on our hydroponic plants
the eggplant has doubled in size in only two weeks and it is starting to bloom.
Bell peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants are really growing.
One good thing comes from the heat. Pleanty of okra for the freezer and for making pickled okra.
Since I am not spending my free time harvesting, canning, freezing, or dehydrating my vegetables-- I am dreaming of my fall garden and surfing the web for gardening ideas.
When me and Rog return from our trip to Chicago it will be time to start planting. This year we are going to set up a hydroponic garden. We have been ordering our supplies and watching loads of youtube videos. There is a youtube guy --MHPGarderner-- that has over 200 videos which most are about vegetable gardening. MHP is where we are getting most of our information for hydroponics.
I have been growing sweet potato slips for the last month. Three little sweet potatoes have produced enough slips to plant a row in our garden. I place the potatoes in a container with toothpicks holding half of the potato out of the water
After many hours of watching YouTube videos, ordering and shopping for supplies, and getting our seeds started we have started to assemble our dutch bucket growing system. Hydroponics is growing vegetables without soil. The system takes some knowledge to get the equipment setup and a few already rooted vegetables.
As I was searching for gardening techniques on the Internet I found several videos from MHPGarderner. He covers a lot of farming ideas from planting straight into the ground, growing veggies in his greenhouse and the idea that really caught my eye- hydroponics. So we used a lot of his ideas and here is a pic of our new system before the plants have been added.
If you are interested in this system then be sure to check out MHPgardener.
Our soil is so sandy and really does not have the nutrients needed for a great garden. We have had to work with the soil and add compost, muck, and chicken poop to the small garden area we have. We are hoping this will be the answer to expanding our growing possibilities.
Once our buckets are lined with a paint strainer and the perlite is added then we will plant tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in the buckets. A small pump will pump the nutrients into the buckets and excess will drain back into the reservoir (AKA blue container).
The lids need to be added to the buckets. Roger has to drill a 3 inch hole in the center for the plant. The lid helps keep the rain water out (somewhat) and the wind from blowing the perlite out of the buckets.
The only vegetables left in the garden are okra and eggplant. Eggplants are heirloom from seeds purchased from Burpee. Heirloom are not always the best way to go. These eggplants are white with lavender and have no flavor. The package of seed said the eggplants were mild tasting which from now on I will translate as no flavor. Okra is doing okay even though it has rained everyday since the end of June. Some okra is in the freezer and some I have pickled but the majority has been cooked and eaten. We love okra.
The summer harvest nearly kicked by butt this year. Vegetables do not wait until you have the time or energy to do something with them. No they must be attended to immediately or you will loose the harvest. So no matter how tired I am when I come home from work I still have hours of work to do at home. I LOVE IT!!
Once the freezer became full I had to go to other forms of preserving our vegetables. The top photo is my dehydrated vegetables and the bottom is canned vegetables and pickles.
My dehydrated jars consist of zuchninni , yellow squash, onions, kale, celery, strawberries, and a variety of my herbs.
Canning jars are mostly dill pickles and sweet pickles. I also canned yellow squash, tomatoes, and carrots.
First year growing carrots -- well not the first year we planted them but it was the first crop we ever harvested. When planting carrots we found that it is important to water them every morning and every afternoon until they sprout up from the ground and then water as needed - usually everyday in Florida -- until they are well established. Even the frost we had in March did not hurt the carrots.
Corn did not go so well. It would have if the worms had not eaten most of the crop. It was growing pretty big ears.
and when it was shucked the ear was pretty awesome too
We have corn in the freezer but we had to purchase it from another farm.
I have been searching for and trying a lot of zucchini recipes. I am not claiming any of these recipes as my own. All the recipes here are from my search on the internet and some I change to suite my taste. The photos are mine.
Dehydrated Zucchini Chips The kids love these chips and eat them up as soon as they come out of the dehydrator. If by chance I do have a few left I put them in a mason jar and use my seal a meal machine to seal the lid. This makes sure no moisture gets to the chips because this will influence the crispness of the chip. The chips are good as a stand alone snack or use them as a dip chip for salsa. Here is how I make them
1. After washing and trimming off ends I slice very thin on my mandolin slicer
2. In a pot of boiling water I blanch the slices for a couple of minutes
3.Remove from boiling water and put the slices into a cold water bath Remove slices and drain off excess water
4. I use my salad spinner and spin slices as dry as possible
5. Place in single layer in dehydrator, sprinkle with salt and dill and dehydrate at about 135 degrees for about 4 hours just check for crispness after 2 hours and go from there
My Favorite Zucchini Bread I have tried many recipes for zucchini bread but this is the best of all of them.
sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl
Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add dry sifted ingredients into the creamy mixture. Stir in shredded zucchini and mix until combined.
Divide batter equally into the greased and floured pans.
Bake 40 to 60 minutes Checking to if it is done by using a tester inserted in the middle. When the tester comes out clean bread is done. cool for 20 minutes before removing from pan.
Loaves can been wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in freezer for later use. If wrapped and stored properly loaves will be good for 6 to 8 months. I put my loaves in seal a meal bags after they have frozen. This way the bread is not squeezed to much from the machine. This helps keep out any odors that the bread picks ups in the freezer.
6 Cups grated zucchini (squeeze to remove excess water)
4 Cups sugar
1/2 Cup lemon juice
1 large can crushed pineapple (juice and all)
1 (6oz) package Jello, any flavor
Boil zucchini and sugar for 20 minutes. Add lemon juice and crushed pineapple. Boil for 5 minutes. Add gelatin and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat, pour into hot jars and seal. Process in water bath for 5 minutes. Makes 6 jelly jars (half pints?).
The holidays are over and I am so excited to start the new year at my little farmhouse. Well as soon as I get over the sinus problem. Roger spent the day getting the garden ready to plant string beans and garden peas.
I decided to try something different this growing season and I ordered heirloom seeds. The string beans are called Kentucky Wonder and were first introduced in 1864 as Old Homestead. The garden peas are named Wando and are bred to be heat and cold tolerant. Hoping we can plant these early and have fresh peas in about 68 days from planting.
