Another busy week of harvesting and preserving in our efforts to bring food security closer to home.
While the kitchen is hub for the harvest happenings and we gals hang out with the likes of Ms Guava and Mr Pepper, outside we shift gears into a fall garden mode.
In the kitchen, since we had an abundance of whooper squash we made a batch of pickled squash. Very tasty! We also grated a froze a bunch to use in winter for cakes, muffins and vegetable patties.
Though, fall has fallen here in So Cal that means tropical fruits like guavas start ripening! So with these tropical delights, we’ll be putting up jars of jam and preserves.
In the garden, trays of seedlings wait in the greenhouse to replace expended summer crops. Our planting efforts turn to cooler weather crops like: broccoli, cabbage, kale, potatoes, peas, beets and more.
We still have harlequin bug issues. Never in our 20 plus years never growing here at the ’stead have we experience such an infestation. One person we asked advise from suggested we vacuum the little buggers. Sounds like a plan.
What are you planting and preserving this time of year. How well did you fair in our Harvest Keeper Challenge?
How are you gearing up for your fall and winter garden?
Another busy day ahead as we stock our pantry full of homegrown.
Roasted peppers
Squash pickles
Pickled banana peppers
Luscious guava jam
My summer garden is gone except for a few pepper plants and about 6 or 7 lingering tomato plants. We mulched up the corn stalks and cobs, spread out the various vines and added some compost to give everything a boost for next year. Hopefully all the dying plants will decompose nicely before we start our spring planting.
Our fall garden consists of broccoli, kale, spinach, shelling peas, carrots, beets and assorted lettuces. Everything is beginning to sprout, so it won’t be too long til another round of freezing and canning. Yum-o!
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Anais,
Do you pressure can your roasted peppers or freeze them? They look yummy!!
Thanks,
luvnschooln
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So far my preservation efforts a doing well. Not as much as I like but since I didn’t do much of anything last year, this year is going much better. I’m planning on doing a bunch more with farmer’s market produce. I also planted a few fall things in the garden (mache, kale, cabbage, spinach, lettuce) and I my tomatoes & eggplants are still producing.
I LOVE guava jelly. Too bad they don’t grow in Ohio, I grew up in Colombia so we had them down there. Good thing my dad still lives there, he brings some jelly home for me when he travels back (that’s sort of local, it just takes up empty space in his suitcase). He also brings back some delicious coffee for me.
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So far I have :
Canned
Strawberry Jam – 7 Jelly Jars
Grape Jelly – 7 Jelly Jars
Orange Juice Jelly – 7 Jelly Jars
Banana Jam – 7 Jelly Jars
Dill Pickles- 8 Quarts
Sauerkraut- 10 Quarts
Steak Sauce- 3 pints
Tomatoes- 5 Quarts Tomato Sauce
4 Quarts Spiced Tomato Sauce
Frozen
Strawberries- 6 Quarts
Blueberries- 2 Pints
Green Beans- 3 pints
Carrots- 7 pints
Dried-
Dried Veggie Seasoning- 1 pint
Beef Jerky- 1 pint
Tomatoes- 5 Jelly Jars
Candy- Loupe – (Dried Candied Cantaloupe)
Green Peppers
Not bad for a first timer!!
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Since my tomatoes are coming in in dribs and drabs, I’ve just been squirreling them away in the freezer (just toss them into a bag). Once I get enough to work with I’ll make some sauce to can.
Some new things I hope to try this season: roasted red pepper sauce, and baba ganoush (roasted egglant dip) to put up in 1/2 pints (pressure canned), and dried nasturtium leaves and flowers. I wish I had a better idea for the tomatillos than salsa verde…I have too much left over from last year!
I’m planting spinach and arugula now, and my kale and chard are doing very well. We are having a beautiful Fall, but the feeling that “winter’s coming” gets stronger all the time.
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Looking at your inspirational photos, I wondered about your freezer. My husband says you must barter for some freezer space with your restaurant clients! I keep dreaming of the cookbook you will write someday that will explain all this.
The other thing I wondered about was how you package your freezer items. How do you package portions of grated zucchini? Do they turn color?
I am getting little kale seedling in new garden space, hoping the “garden god” doesn’t get hungry and gobble them up. They do look good and I wouldn’t blame him. I am patiently waiting for the last 2 tomatoes to ripen so I can clear out the tomato vines for other things. Is everyone else dreaming over their seed catalogs every night?
By the way, how did your new food dryer work out?
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Looking good! I’m still hoping for an “Indian Summer” for all of us, but baring that, here’s hoping all your fruit ripens and your fall crops grow abundantly!
I’m not in the harvest challenge over at Freedomgardens because I’ve got such a small garden am so new to gardening that I don’t think I can commit to anything yet. That said, I have harvested 30+ pounds of plums and 4 quarts of blackberries (enough for 12 pints of jelly)! The plums were broken into jelly, buckle material and frozen plums for smoothies. I’ve got 2 gallons in the freezer in 1 cup packages for our weekend treats.
And tonight I am pickling 20+ pounds of cucumbers that I’ve harvested over the last month, plus canning another 5 pounds that have been marinading for that month. I’m excited since I’ve never canned before without my mother present. hehe It’ll just be my brother and I tonight.
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Mmmmmm! It all looks and sounds so yummy. I haven’t made squash pickles in a few years. I think it will be a year for those.
I haven’t harvested as much as I want but I’ve learned a great deal.
We are about to start enjoying lettuces.
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Hi Anais,
I’ve never preserved food before by any method, but hope to give it a try next year. If you were to put out an instructional DVD of yourself canning, pickling, etc. I would be first in line to buy it.
I’ve got a couple of books on the subject, but I think it would really help me to be able to watch someone do it.
I’d also go for that Dervaes recipe book!
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I have been happily canning away this week: crabapple jelly, apple butter, bread and butter pickles, vanilla pears and bourbon pears. Today’s will be more crabapple jelly (it is SO good – my kids have been taking peanut butter and crabapple jelly sandwiches to school), and maybe some pear butter with the rest of the pears.
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Sinfonian,
How do you keep the cukes for a month before you’re ready to make pickles?
Luvnschooln
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