Summer Harvest

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.

Wow do we have a bunch of Zucchini

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. 

 

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

                      

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 1/4 cups white sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups shredded zucchini

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

grease and flour pans  Preheat oven to 375 degrees

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.

Zucchini Marmalade

Zucchini Marmalade from the Newlyweds Blog

• 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?).

 

 

 

 

 

 

A New Year Begins

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. 

November and it Still Looks Like a Summer Garden

November 2012 has been a very strange weather month for central Florida.  Last week we had some temps down to 38 degrees at night and this week the temp is in the 80's in the day.  Looking around my little farm you would think it was still summer.           
                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Yellow Summer Squash
We planted the squash with the hope the weather would remain warm until we harvested the squash.  So far we have been lucky

     Okra Bloom and Pods- most of the okra came up in the garden from the compost and some was planted a few days after labor day. 

Tomatoes -the bush with the largest

 tomatoes came from a volunteer bush and the tomatoes in the pots were started at the beginning of September.

Ginger Plants are still blooming

Pomegranate Bush is putting on fruit. We planted two bushes in the spring and the small fruit fell off. I was surprised to see the bushes putting on fruit in November.  The fruit will take 5 to 6 months to ripen.  Keeping my fingers crossed on having mature fruit.

 

The only sign of fall and winter is the sugar cane turning purple and new shoots appearing

 

Another sign of fall is having lots of shrimp in my freezer.  Shrimping season started late September and ended the middle of October. 

Tommy and Roger picking up the shrimp

 

We are also lucky to have friends that like to hunt.  I trade them shrimp for vension. 

 

 

Chickens are growing but still slow in producing eggs

 

 

Turkeys need to grow a little more

 

Over all I have been pleased with what we have been able to produce and put in our freezer this month.  I know the kids will be eating things that are fresh, organic, and great tasting. 

 

 

 

September Garden

                                                   
                                                                                           
Well here it is September and the peppers are still growing and producing. I will have peppers until the frost kills the bushes or Roger decides to pull them up and plant something else.

Cayenne peppers left on the bushes to dry can later be ground into pepper flakes or a powder. The food processor will work for grinding but I use a coffee grinder for this.  Caution !!! let the powder settle before opening the grinder. Place in a dry mason jar for later use. 
We like pepper sauce to go on our collard greens. Our pepper sauce consist of whole peppers (not dried) placed in a jar of vinger and sealed. The vinegar is infused with the pepper flavor.  The infused vinegar tastes great on cooked greens.

The banana peppers are easy to can.  Slice the peppers on an angle (this makes larger rings) Place them in a non reactive pan (I use a large enamel pan) with one cup vinegar and one cup water ( double or triple this until all the peppers are in the vinegar water solution.  Add salt and then I add turmeric which gives the solution a yellow color and makes the pepper rings more appealing.  Heat to a boil and place in sterilized mason jars and place seal and rings on jars.  I place the jars in a water bath for about 5 minutes.  This insures the jars seal.  Banana peppers can also be frozen.  To freeze the peppers just slice and place in a plastic bag. No other processing is necessary.

Jalapena Peppers  I use these in my homemade salsa and I canned a few jars of rings using just vinegar, water, and salt and processed the same as my banana peppers.  I put some in my dehydrator but I did not like the outcome . I have plans to put some on the grill to smoke.  Other than making poppers with a cheese filling I really do not use these peppers very much.

Why purchase peppers when they are so easy to grow.  Bell Peppers are my favorite pepper.  I use these in many of my recipes. Freezing bell peppers is a very easy job.  After I wash the peppers I cut the peppers, remove the seeds , and cut into strips. I place a single layer of peppers on a sheet tray and place in the freezer. After the peppers have frozen I place them in a plastic bag and keep them in the freezer to use as needed.  Peppers do not need blanching like other vegetables. 

My Harvest during Hurricane Debby

Finally the rain quit for a little while so we decided to go to the garden and see what we could get today.  Not bad for a rainy day.  Check out the tomatoes, squash, dill weed, rosemary, chamomile, and peppers. 

We have four different types of peppers that include cayenne, jalapeno, banana, and bell peppers.  I am drying the cayenne and plan to make dried pepper flakes, the bell peppers I cut up and freeze, and the banana peppers will be cut in rings and canned in vinegar. 

The tomatoes and jalapenos are going to be used to make canned salsa. The onions for the salsa came from my moms garden.

Small red potatoes also came from my moms garden. I am going to cook them in the oven with the dill weed, a little olive oil, and salt. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes. Can't wait for lunch. Yummy!!

Fresh off the vine and free to boot.  Love that!!

Southern Sweet and Crunchy Pickles

The garden produced a large amount of cukes this year. I made plenty of sweet pickles. We use these in salads, on burgers, and straight out of the jar as a snack.

Christine's Southern Sweet Pickles

My mother in law (Teen) would make the most fabulous sweet pickles. Every summer my father in law (Melvin)would plant cucumbers and Teen would make crunchy sweet pickles. She has taught me to make pickles but I still can not make pickles as good as hers but mine are still quite tasty.





Here is the information she has given me on making pickles and this is how I make my crunchy sweet pickles



Choose pickles that are grown for pickling

Pickling cucumbers are not smooth green like salad cukes they have a prickly skin. Last year my husband planted salad cucumbers and pickling cucumbers. I used both in my pickles and the salad cukes did not get as crunchy as the pickling cukes did. This year no salad cukes in my pickles.

Sweet Pickles are best when sliced into rounds and not spears

Do not peel cukes just wash thoroughly and slice by hand about 1/8" thick

Soak cucumbers in a large plastic food grade container or glass container (no metal please) with pickling lime mixture
I use Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime. This is a food grade lime.

mix 1 cup of lime to 2 gallons of cold water in the plastic container and add cucumbers

let cucumbers soak in mixture for 2 hours or overnight

Next remove cucumbers from lime water and discard lime water

Rinse cucumbers in fresh cold water 3 times

Soak cucumbers in fresh ice water for 3 hours

Mix the following items together in a non reactive pan ( I use my enamel canning pot) If you use an aluminum pot the pickles will turn black or a dark color as they age in the jars.

8 cups white vinegar
8 cups sugar
1/2 jar pickling spice (McCormick brand is best)

Bring to a boil and add cucumbers (be sure to drain off all water) to vinegar mixture

Bring back to a boil and turn off heat
Let sit in vinegar mixture for 5 to 6 hours or can be left overnight

Bring pickles back to a boil

Pack pickles in sterilized jars and process in boiling water bath for 10 to 15 minutes

Pickles are ready to eat or can be stored for 2 years or longer. Be sure lids sealed by removing ring and checking each seal -- dry the jar around the seal and replace the ring