Garden Plans

2012 marked our first year growing our own vegetables.  Last year we longed to have a garden, yet our property was still under construction with a big topsoil pile resting where our garden would be.  We had sand for a lawn, hence, no garden.

This year, with grass so green, it called my name at all hours to go spread out the blanket and read a good book.  So we dug in.

We stared with just he Garden Patch.  We managed to squeeze in three types of tomatoes, broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, pickling cuc's and straight eights, radishes, carrots, peppers, green/yellow beans, lettuce and mescalin.  It all looked so organized and put together in June.  Holy jungle right now.  All of the mound plants are creeping on each other, we can barley get to our plants to pick the veggies.

The blueberry bushes and strawberries came the week after the garden went in.  We put the strawberries in old whiskey barrels, which looked cool, but did not function properly for the strawberries growth.  Having my architecture background, i wanted a bush and a plant to follow each other around the garden to look symmetrical.  Fast forward one month later, the robins are enjoying their breakfast on all, yes all, of my blueberry bushes.  Total Fail.

Then two weeks after the garden patch went in, Jason decided that he really wanted corn, so we started that this year as well.  That lead to trips to Agway, and discount pumpkin plants we just couldn't let go to waste, and so we had some pumpkins lining the corn.

Here is what we are thinking for next year.  This plan includes spreading out the garden, to have all of the mound plants separate with ample room to roam and grow.  We already moved all of the strawberry plants out of the barrels and placed them in a nice long row for next season's harvest.  I think our plan below will provide much more room and better production for our gardens. 

Oh how i love to plan and dream.

This Summer's Start

Summer has always been my second favorite season (First being autumn, of course).  Summer holds some of my fondest memories of my childhood.  Summer's filled with trips to the lake, camping, hiking and just simply playing outside all day long.  I now long for a summer off, yet that is not in my horizon at this time.  I do have some things brewing that would make this possible in the future.  But for now, for this time and this summer, i will enjoy it in the mornings, evenings and weekends.

This summer started early in New England.  With temp's reaching 100 degrees last weekend, we took it in.  We took the canoe out on Hermit lake.  We began eating every meal outside.

I make homemade buttermilk biscuits with fresh strawberries and whipped cream for the hub's birthday.

Along with homemade french fries & grilled pineapple with a maple glaze.

We have picked the first of the harvest, radishes.

My herb barrels are growing ~ growing ~ growing.  Basil & Cilantro pictured above.

We spend all waking hours watching and hovering over our garden.  Oh how i love watching our garden grow.  While hubs hopes and tries to will the corn to get "knee high by the forth of July."  As my father says.

We beat the heat on the first 97 degree day with a cold veggie salad with our own radishes and basil included, similar to Soule Mama's.   Annie's mac & cheese and turkey dogs topped off the dinner.

Cold Veggie Summer Salad

Corn, fully cooked

Fresh Basil, cut/shred into small pieces

Cucumber

Tomato

Radish

Olive Oil

red wine vinegar

lemon juice

Cooked Orzo

~Mix all together.  Amounts of each ingredient to taste~

This weekend also included my first visit to Surowiec Farm for the season.  What a totally wonderful feeling. I love shopping at the farm for as much as i can.  This weekend i picked up some sugar snap peas, zucchini and fresh delicious strawberries.

We have sold so much maple syrup this week, that we spent Sunday morning bottling more.  I just Love syrup sales.  It feels that we are really making an honest dollar on what we truly love.  This lead to discussions and dreams of a farm stand for all the veggies from the garden that we won't be able to eat or preserve.  It lead to the hope of the day we can really live completely off our land.  

Dreams are a wonderful thing.  

Especially when you have the same ones as your partner.  It just makes you feel whole and happy.  

It makes me feel that our life is going in the direction we desire.

We puttered around, and it was wonderful.  Nothing on the schedule, just doing what we felt was right.

We had friends over for a Mexican dinner, then went out for ice cream, followed by fireworks in town.  Our first use of our beach blanket of the year, taking in the summer night, full of bright skies.

I have spent evenings on the front porch, on clear, warm nights.  Jason woke me up, just to show me the fireflies across the way.  Wow, they are marvelous and so, so alive.  There are thousands just lighting up my view.

I made fresh blueberry lemonade from Ashley English in my latest edition of Taproot!. (Simply amazing!)  That magazine totally rocks.  Anyone that doesn't have the subscription, is missing out.  I can't wait for the next edition already.

Refreshing 

I spent last Sunday afternoon, with my feet in the brook, reading Animal-Vegetable-Miracle. Then i ventured to the blanket on the lawn that was calling my name.  I napped there with my pup.  A wonderful way to put a close to the weekend.

Hubs helped his grandfather out, mowing the fields.  He didn't mind, he didn't mind one bit.  My man loves tractors.  Especially this Farmall.  This Farmall that is started with a crank in the front.  Its a total classic and so beautiful.

Summer has begun.

And we are taking it all in.

Every morning garden walk and every evening firefly show.

2011 Preserving Review

This post i have been meaning to document for some time now.  2011 marked my first year preserving the harvest for my family.  Oh how i truly enjoyed the hot summer days, canning in my kitchen.  Growing up, helping my mother preserve, i learned at a young age the beauty and craft of canning & preserving.

Disclaimer: The pictures in this post are pre- DSLR camera.  Have i mentioned how much I love my new DSLR Canon?  So anyways, please excuse the poor quality :)

Put up for Winter:

Carrot & Tomato Soup- find the recipe here: Soule Mama
Preserving method: Freeze- 2-cup portions

Fruits-  Our friends we make maple syrup with every spring, also grow and sell blueberries and raspberries.  

Preserving method:  Freeze.  Lay your fresh fruit in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  Pop that in the freezer for about 0.5 an hour.  Remove and put into storage bags (i used zip-lock).  Doing this keeps the berries from sticking together.  Freezing fresh berries from the summer has made some delicious treats this winter; berry crisp, berry cobbler and a nice addition to accompany my morning yogurt.

Strawberry Jam: Although i took no photo's of this, i produced about 15 jam jars.  My first time making jam without my mama by my side.  It actually came out very well!

Preserving method: Hot water bath- canning.

Dilly Beans: A old family recipe from my Nana.

Preserving Method: Canning.  I used pint sized jars in a hot water bath.  This is one of our family favorites! 

Tomato Sauce & Stewed Tomatoes:  I started out using  This recipe, then tweaked it a bit to fit our family.  

Preserving method: Canning.  I started out with one batch (i only had six fresh tomatoes).  It produced 5 pint sized jars.  I was bummed after the 5 hours i put into it.  That wasn't the yield i was expecting, especially at 10:30pm on a work night.  At the end of the season, the farm up the road had 1/2 bushel's of Tomatoes for sale for $10!  Perfect for canning!  I was so excited.  I hopped up there, came home and buried my hands in the sweet red juices for the rest of the day.  That produced twenty pint sized jars!  Yes, that felt much better and certainly filled up our shelves for the winter.  Six of the mentioned twenty jars were stewed tomatoes.  To prepare, simple drop your whole tomatoes in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, until the skins crack.  spoon out, peel off skins, place in pot with garlic and oil.  Simmer for about 40 minutes or until tomatoes fall apart easily. 

Applesauce: Made from my mother's family recipe.

Preserving method: Canning in a Hot water Bath.  One sunny, crisp beautiful fall day, we ventured up to the farm and picked all the Macintosh apples we could muster.  Applesauce is one of the easiest homemade things to made.  Cut up your apples in big chunks, remove the stems (middle section).  Place in pot with desired seasonings.  Bring to a low boil and simmer until apples are tender.  Process through food mill to break up skins.  Process in hot water bath.  

                                                       

Zucchini Relish:  I decided to make this simply out of need.  I had mounds of zucchini, ready to go bad.  I needed to save it, to use it.  I did slice up a few and put them in the freezer for some dinners this winter.  I also shredded a few in my food processor for zucchini bread & "Summer Linguine" from Heidi Swanson's book: Super Natural Every Day (awesome book with a fresh, inspiring recipes!).  But back to the relish.  While visiting my Nana one day, on our way home from the beach, she had me try some zucchini relish she bought at a local farm stand.  It was amazing.  Thank you Nana, once again, for the inspiration!  I found This Recipe on a blog i stumbled upon.  It turned out fantastic.  This zucchini relish was a part of our family & neighbor gift baskets during the holidays.  Everyone loved it.  I can see this becoming a yearly tradition :)

This picture above was before my talented husband built my "preserves" shelves.  Also before the zucchini relish was made and my second attempt of tomatoes sauce.  The mini maple syrups were from our 2011 maple season, left over guest-gifts from our beautiful wedding.  

Other ways we preserved this year: 

• Anything that we made and had way too many leftovers, went into the freezer for quick, healthy meals in the winter.
• In June we began buying all of our beef and pork from a local & natural farm.  I have never tasted such tender beef before in my life.  We have loved supporting our local farms, while also knowing that the meat going into us is pure and without antibiotics or hormones.  In November we purchased a package of different cuts of meat, that we figured would get us through the winter.  So far it has been perfect for the two of us.  Here is the farm we are using:   Miles Smith Farm.

And finally, here are some picutures (with my new camera) of my preserve's shelves! 

I can't tell you enough all the satisfaction that comes from making dinner, using vegetables that were fresh from the garden in August, and knowing all the love and labor that went into preserving them for this cold February night.  Not to mention the savings throughout the winter!