More Canning Baby Steps

With an overabundance of tomatoes in the garden, especially a Roma variety, we decided to try our hand at canning some for a nice sauce. Wow, I had no idea it take so many 'maters to can a decent amount of them! Of course, exactly what constitutes a "decent amount"? Good question.

At any rate, after skinning and cooking the tomatoes down, adding some onions, mild Cubanelle peppers and celery, we only wound up with two and a half quarts. Still, it feels good to have a couple quarts in storage for a cold winter's day. 

Look pretty nice, don't you think?

The Garden is Winding Down

Well, in just a month we'll be at the first day of Autumn, so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that the garden is beginning to slow down. However, in another week or two I plan to get a fall planting in of the more cool-hearty veggies, like lettuce, peas, Swiss chard and a couple others. The snow won't be flying for quite a while, so why not make "hay" while the sun shines?

I apologize for the poor photo quality here (too much green with the wooded area in the background), but I'll follow-up with a few better shots. The tomato and cucumber plants are absolutely huge and both produced very well.

These heirloom cherry tomatoes, you may recall, were
"volunteers" that popped up from seeds in our
compost pile. 

We cannot honestly figure how these Roma
volunteers made their way into the garden. We haven't
grown any Roma tomatoes! 

These Beefsteak beauties were grown from plants this year. They're a
beautiful deep red inside and sweet as can be.

We've enjoyed these mild "Cubanelle" peppers; similar
to banana peppers. They go about 6" long when ripe and
are a tasty addition to a fresh salad.

I plan to dry this basil as soon as it fully matures. 

Our cucumber plants have pretty much stopped production, but we've enjoyed lots of them fresh while looking forward to tasting the dill pickles happily soaking away right now in basement storage. I just checked them and they look great. I made myself put them back on the storage shelving, though, at least for a while longer.

All in all, I've been pleased with our production, considering the crazy hot and dry summer we've experienced this year. As I said, though, the Fall garden is still to come.

What a Pickle!

We canned four quarts of dill pickles last night; my first endeavor of this kind. They didn't come out looking perfect, like a jar of Claussen's, but I think they're going to be pretty tasty. Lots of garlic, dill, pickling spices, vinegar and salt...how could they not be fantastic? At least each jar sealed tight, so we're off to a good start.

We'll give them a minimum of a week, hopefully our curiosity will hold off even longer, then crack a jar open to taste the fruits of our labor. It was fun putting them together; I hope the eating will be even better!

Hot Tamale, er...Tomato Update

Good grief, what a summer so far! As I write this, we're at 103° even and looking to hit 105° for today's high temp. We've had heat indices into the 100s since the last weeks in June and it is beginning to wear everyone down. Not to worry though, it should drop into the mid-eighties next week. Yay!!! Obviously, I've been dutifully pumping the water to the garden almost every morning and it's hanging in there so far. We had our first bites on a salad last night:  a freshly picked, sliced cucumber. Mmm, mmm good!

I'm loving the garden progress, in spite of this weather. Looks good, doesn't it?

That cucumber plant in the foreground is reaching for the sky! About 5 feet tall, with the help of a tomato cage.

I picked this nice cuke right after the photo was taken. That is a 1" wide slat just below it, so it was time. Cool it down, slice, add a little salt and enjoy! His baby brother is coming along nicely right beside him, too.

Wanna buy a tomato? All our plants are coming along just fine, even those volunteers! Can't wait for a jumbo slice on a burger or tossed salad.

Sorry for the lack of focus, but you get the idea.
It's too dang hot to go back out for another shot! 

The Kentucky Wonder (of course) pole beans are really taking off. I'm working to get them to hook onto that trellis in back, then up, up and away!

Finally, this gorgeous sweet pepper is about three inches, top to bottom; it won't be long before we can pick and enjoy.

So, all in all, especially considering the scorching weather of the past two weeks, I'm pretty pleased with our garden progress. We'll have lots of delicious, healthy eating over the weeks to come.

One bonus of all this hot, humid weather:  the local garden center suggests watering the lawn, but say do not mow the grass! Mowing would only add to the stress the lawn is experiencing. Sweet!

2012 Garden Update

Here we are in mid-June and the garden is coming along, slowly, but surely. My experiment with heirloom seeds, purchased two years ago, failed miserably for year three unfortunately. I tried to keep the leftover seeds dry, cool and in darkness, but I experienced very little germination from them this year. The first two years produced well for us, anyway.

We bought new seeds and planted cilantro, green pole beans, marigolds (they're a great deterrent for some insect pests) and some green onions. This was in addition to the peppers—regular green and Cubanelle hot ones—cukes, peas and two varieties of tomatoes in the ground.

Check out that monster raspberry patch beyond the veggie garden.
Someone had better do a much more thorough pruning job on them this Fall.

The good news is that we had fourteen "volunteer" tomato plants appear! Since we save all kitchen veggie scraps to add to our compost pile, obviously some tomato seeds survived from last year's crop. We'll see how well they do, in addition to the 8 plants we purchased, but so far they're doing pretty well, as evidenced by this little guy, below:

If most of the tomato plants survive and produce well, I may have to open
a little produce stand down on the street corner.

This little volunteer didn't like the way I dug it up and transplanted it to an open area in the garden. Oh well, you can't win them all. 

We have nice blossoms on our two green pepper plants.

I know my little sister in southern Texas is chuckling at these immature plantings. She's already harvested and canned green beans this year! What a difference 1,200 or so miles can make in one's growing season.

Better Late Than Never?

When it comes to gardening, definitely YES! Well, within reason anyway.

So now I'm semi-retired. I have more free time than ever before, or so it should be. But even now, six months after leaving full-time employment, I'm still getting my act together it seems. The garden shows it, too.

Just today, May 15th, the seeds went into the ground. 21 different items or varieties are now in the soil to begin their work on producing delicious additions to our table. No indoor-grown plants at all this year; shame on me. I'll be picking up some 'maters' and pepper plants and get those in there soon. Then, a small fence will be added to keep the cottontails out.

At least the raspberries are thriving in the background!

Today's work should produce...

Item	Variety
Basil	Lemon
Beans, Bush	Roma II Bush
Beans, Bush	Golden Wax
Beans, Green Pole	Kentucky Wonder
Carrots	Little Finger
Carrots	Cosmic Purple
Cilantro	(regular)
Cucumbers	Delikatesse
Cucumbers	Early Russian
Dahlia	Unwin's Mix
Dill	Bouquet
Lettuce	Oak Leaf
Lettuce	Lollo Rosa
Lettuce	Rocky Top Mix
Marigolds, dwarf	Brocade Mix
Peas	Oregon Sugar Pod Snow
Peppers,  Sweet	Golden Marconi
Peppers, Hot	Santa Fe Grande
Peppers, Red Sweet	Quadrato D'asti Rosso
Spinach	Bloomsdale Long Standing
Swiss Chard	Five-Color Silverbeet

The peppers and basil should have been started indoors. I'm experimenting to see if we can get anything by sowing them directly to the soil here in mid-May. We'll see. Just to be sure of a supply, I'll pick up a few plants to add to the mix.

Kinda makes for mouth-watering anticipation, doesn't it?

Garden Update

Now that our colder/wetter than normal Spring is behind us, the garden is finally beginning to show signs of good growth. Last night, we had our first salad of Lollo Roso and Rocky Top lettuces along with a bit of green onion, all fresh from the garden—very good, especially when topped with croutons, Gorgonzola cheese and a few Craisins (dried cranberries), all smothered in Ranch dressing!

(I had some imported German sprouts, but decided not to use those)

This is the second year of planting only heirloom/non-GMO (genetically modified organism) varieties of veggies and something interesting has happened. I also began putting together our own compost last year, using vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds and even a bit of paper here and there. Well, a couple weeks ago I noticed small cucumber plants breaking through the compost-enriched soil, followed by a few tomato plants...none of which was planted by yours truly!

It seems some of the cuke and 'mater seeds lived through the composting process to sprout another day! How cool is that?!!? I can't wait to see if they will be productive; no reason they shouldn't be.

C'mon tomatoes, get with the program! 

There's a BLT sandwich in my future and it can't arrive soon enough!

4 tomato plants, green onions, 3 sweet peppers, Rocky Top lettuce, sorrel,
carrots, claytonia and parslane coming right along.
Yes, we really enjoy fresh salads!

Those "volunteer" cukes are going to town, greenery-wise! More lettuce,
carrots, cilantro, tomatoes, sweet peppers and red onions, too.

This Lollo Roso lettuce adds terrific color to a fresh salad. 

Siwwy Wabbit!

So I got home last night and decided the garden could use some weeding. I changed clothes and walked out to find---much to my dismay---some rascal had been in there having lunch while I was at work!!! Where's the twelve-gauge? Hasenpfeffer anyone?

I can't swear it was a rabbit, there were no obvious breaches in the fence, no burrows that indicated some mole or other critter had popped in, but SOMETHING had been there helping themselves to peas, broccoli, Swiss chard and a bit of lettuce.Too bad I hadn't left croutons, bleu cheese and some Ranch dressing for the thief!

THE VARMINT!!!

Fortunately, the tomato plants, the pepper plants, onions (green and red), and other things were intact and growing nicely, so I suppose I should count my lucky stars. It's all part of the risks and perils of back yard gardening.

Still, sorry you siwwy wabbit...I don't care to share! Go eat a dandelion or something, eh?

Finally Getting the Garden Going

This Spring has not been very warm or cooperative at all, gardening-wise. Heck, we had 3 inches of snowfall less than two weeks ago! But today, I finally decided it was time to get cool weather crops in the ground. First though, I had to prepare the "soil" and fill the two new raised beds in the garden.

I follow the recommendation of Mel Bartholomew in his Square Foot Gardening book. One part composted manure, one part vermiculite and one part peat moss. It makes a rich, moisture-holding, wonderful fluffy blend that plants sure seem to love. After adding the mixture to the new beds, all four planting beds were ready to accept seeds and plants.

Ready to get started!

The seeds that went into the soil today are...

• Lettuce, 3 types: Oak Leaf, Lollo Rosa, and Rocky Top
• Spinach
• Sugar Peas
• Cilantro
• Onions, Red (from sets)
• Onions, Green (from sets)
• Marigolds

Tomorrow, I'll transplant these that should be ready for the outdoors...

• Onion, Bunching
• Sorrell
• Claytonia
• Onion, Italian Flat
• Purslane

If you're familiar with some of these "different" items, you'll know we really enjoy our fresh salads. If all goes well, we should have LOTS of variety and super delicious greens. 

Now...are they ready yet??? Can't wait. 

Seedlings for the Garden

I'm expanding our little garden this year, doubling the size actually, so I've started some seedlings in the hope warmer spring weather will visit us soon. We've passed by the vernal equinox, just a week ago, so the days are getting longer and I'm sure it will begin warming soon.

My "Grow Station" in the basement consists of an old wire display rack, with a suspended fluorescent light fixture containing two GroLight bulbs to offer the little buggers the widest spectrum of light available on an artificial basis. With that, I'm using a heating pad, set on the middle setting, to warm the potting soil and seeds just a bit.

Our basement growing station containing four tomato varieties,
three peppers and collard greens.

I added a sheet of aluminum foil to each side of the planter, trying to direct as much light as possible to the little seedlings. With heat, good soil, moisture and adequate lighting the miracle of life continues.

It's time to take the scissors to these starts, thinning them
down to just one or two of the healthiest plants.

The planter shown below was started on March 6th, so these seedlings are just three weeks old. This planter contains broccoli, claytonia, two varieties of onions, three types of sweet bell peppers, purslane, chives and sorrel.

I need to thin a bit more, as you can see. I've done that once already, but I've found it's hard to cut out what seems to be a perfectly healthy little plant. Without doing that, though, the roots just wouldn't have room to spread and grow well.

This planter is now sitting in an east-facing window,
trying to catch as much of the spring sunshine as possible. 

The lack of real sunshine has a few of these plants pretty spindly; I hope our warmer weather and some actual sunlight will remedy that problem.

Not all seeds will be started indoors. In just a couple weeks, some cool-weather crops will be sown directly into the garden soil outdoors. Lettuce varieties—we love fresh salad greens—spinach and sugar peas will be planted as soon as the soil warms up in early to mid April.

It is exciting to see these plants come to life with the hope and promise of delicious, healthy harvests to come.

Michigan Winters

To me, a winter in Michigan is a time of recharging one's batteries. The grass doesn't need its weekly attention, the garden is asleep waiting for the next spring, and the lake cottage is buttoned up until warmer weather arrives, giving me time to spend reflecting and planning for the year ahead.

Winter weather in Michigan can be mild and laid-back, or when all things meteorological come together just so, all hell can break loose. My most memorable and life-threatening winter is 1978, when Michigan was hit with what is now known as The Great Blizzard. In January of that year we lived on our little 40-acre farm in rural Allegan county. Our home was situated on a private dirt road, about 300 yards off the paved county road. From January 25-27 we received well over 20 inches of snow, accompanied by gale-force winds. That combination closed roads, airports and even caused the University of Michigan to cancel classes for the first time in its 140-year history. The way the wind piled up the snow was both beautiful and scary.

I remember we almost lost Glenn on the day that storm began. He was walking home alone from a neighbor's house after being dropped off the school bus. His route was a shortcut through an open hayfield, as usual. He had walked back to our place that very way dozens of times, but with the snow and wind that day he became disoriented and we had to go out and find him to bring him home; dangerous stuff to be sure.

Thank goodness blizzards are a rare occurrence here. Still, with the average season snowfall of 75 inches or so, winter in west Michigan is a great time to just hunker down, start a fire in the fireplace, get out a good book and chill.

Garden seed catalogs have begun arriving lately, a surefire sign that Spring can't be too far away. I love to plan our little garden, using leftover heirloom seeds not planted last year, or the seeds saved from a few of last year's best-producing crops, and then ordering a few more for our next gardening season.

Our little "square foot" garden in 2010. 

I know, we won't feed the world with that little garden, but it augments our own needs quite well. For 2011, I'm adding two more 4'x4' raised beds. After this photo was taken, we added six raspberry bushes, hoping for a small harvest this year. Looking at photos like this make it easier to accept and survive another winter, knowing a new and warmer season is on the way.

For the past 10 years or so, I've enjoyed spending a week in (hopefully) sunny Florida during the month of March. The bulk of winter weather is over in Michigan and a few days of warmth and sunshine are a welcome change. For many years, those escapes were to Englewood Florida, where my Dad spent many winter months after his retirement. The past few years, after Dad's passing, Orlando has been my destination, using one of the timeshare weeks from the RCI account I received from Dad.

Sunshine, bright blue skies and palm trees do wonders
for a person after months of cold Michigan weather. 

For now though, with views like this on our back deck at the moment and weather forecasts expecting highs in the teens this week, that good book and cup of hot coffee seem like the best idea for the time being.