Tomato circle

Tomato circle

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Dried Lemons

I had a bag of lemons that were about to turn so decided to slice them up and put them in the dehydrator.



It took about 14 hours at 165 degrees. They came out lovely! I keep them in a jar and anytime I have a glass of water, I just toss a slice in - they rehydrate and you have lemon water! Love it!


Tomato plants summer 2011

This year has been by far my best tomato crops ever! I would like to give myself credit for finally figuring out its all about the soil but I think the true secret is that I bought my transplants from our local farms. I figure that they truly know which plants produce the most fruit and BOY did they!!

These are my CELEBRITY tomato plants - I got them from Johnson's Backyard Farms for about $2 each. They started out tiny but within 3-4 weeks , every stem was covered in baby tomatoes! These tend to grow to be medium sized.






These are my SUNSHINE YELLOW tomato plants. I got these from the Farmers Market as well - I cant remember their name but they are the second stall on the right - next to the coffee bean vendor.

These blew up so fast! I was pulling 20 off a day! The very best tomato plant Ive ever grown. 
We had some really great harvest days of both types of plants - take a look!






I also had a squirrel problem - the would only eat the bottoms of the ripe tomatoes. I fixed the problem by pulling the tomatoes as soon as they started to turn from green to red. Also I hung up a pie pan on a string and the flashing color and sound drives them away.
 Squirrel problems! 



Can the extras!



Our average daily harvest for a few great weeks! 


**Update - after weeks of all my plants just barley hanging on - all of a sudden - they are full of tomatoes again! I cant wait to take part in the late summer harvests!

Barton Creek Farmers Market





As everyone knows, we are pretty loyal to our Cedar Park Farmers Market - mostly because we love our vendor friends and secondly, its in our backyard. My husband was out of town that weekend so I decided to get up a bit early and drive down Mopac and hit up the Barton Creeks Farmers Market.

Overall, its got a good layout and great mall parking. There are many of the similar vendors which was nice to see. I meant to take a lot more photos but apparently did not.

I was very happy to see Richardson Farms there - they are neighbors with our favorite rancher - 6J - so I was able to get some ground pork and a skirt steak from them. I was also pleased to see our old chip guy - they are no longer allowed to sell at CPFM so it was great to see them - they are applying to come back so hopefully we can support them regularly soon! I got some sourdough bread that I didn't really like once I got home. I got some peaches and zucchini. Also something called a sugar cube melon - basically a super sweet cantaloupe. SO GOOD!

My 2 favorite things I saw at the Barton Creek Market was the teeny tiny petting zoo set up. What a wonderful job. There were tons of bunnies, hedgehogs, Guinna pigs, just tons and tons of fluff! I believe you pay $3 and you can go in and play with the baby animals. Totally worth the price!


Here is the tiny hedgehog!




My second favorite find was a local apple orchard! I got 8 lbs of lovely apples and cooked them with brown sugar and cinnamon - they are waiting in my fridge as a tasty treat. I also used about 8 apples in my crock pot along with our loin of wild boar. It was a great flavor to mix ith the pork!
Easy too!




Overall, had a great trip to the Barton Creek market and it will def be an alternative to mix up what we buy each week!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Blanching Tomatoes for Canning/Freezing

Between my home garden and not being able to resist buying tasty tomatoes at the market, I have had to preserve lots and lots of tomatoes. Thought I would show you a step by step of how I blanch and freeze tomatoes.

You will need boiling water, a bowl of ice water and tomatoes to get started.



Only use good ripe tomatoes - avoid those with dark spots, soft spots and anything that is under-ripe.
 

Drop the tomatoes - whole into the boiling water - let them roll in rolling boil for 3-5 minutes depending on the size of the fruit.



And here is my first video clip I have filmed and uploaded to my blog.
Come watch the hypnotizing tomatoes as the swirl in the warm liquid




After 5 min of boiling - using a slotted spoon - remove each tomato and dunk into ice water. The skin will swell and split and you can just pull the skin off in one pull. If it doesnt split naturally - use a knife and make one solid cut around. Its so easy!


 Once the skins are off, cut in half and put into jar. I then freeze the jars. Once your ready to make some spaghetti sauce, just set the jars on your counter and defrost. They will be as good as fresh!


 

ENJOY!!!

Rainbow Chard Sriracha Pickles

Rainbow Chard is undoubtedly one of the most colorful veggies at the farmers market. If your anything like me - you have no idea what to do with them. Luckily, my old pal Aaron Crim sent me a link from Bon Appetite for a really awesome and spicy looking recipe for rainbow chard stems.

First clean and cut up you chard - stack in jars like carrot sticks.


Ingredients

  • Swiss chard stems, chopped
  • 1 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
  • 3 tablespoons Sriracha
  • 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

Preparation

  • Make a mixture of vinegar and sugar, then stir in onions, Sriracha, and celery seeds. Pour it all over the chopped stems, using 3 cups liquid for every 1 1/2 cups chopped stems. Throw it in the refrigerator for a few days, and you've got the ultimate refrigerator pickles.

Read More http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/06/sriracha-fridge-pickles#ixzz1UUG9NpQh




After 2 weeks, we tried our batch. It has lots of flavor - lots of spice. I would say it had a "beet" taste to it. If you like that earthy kind of taste - you gotta try this.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Cucumber plants and crops summer 2011

This is my first try at growing cucumbers and its been great! Totally a fun veggie to grow because its fruits hide behind large leaves and then all of a sudden, you find a huge cucumber. How fun is that?

I have 6 plants - all transplants from Natural Gardener in Oak Hill. I planted them on the farthest side of the garden because I knew that they would need a net to grow up and be supported by. I made the grow net from two wood planks from Home Depot and a white nylon net from Callahans.

 Over all, I had really good success - In total - I probably got 10-13 large cucumbers so far this season. Its so hot right now that no fruit is producing but I may get a few at the end of the summer.

Please enjoy the many photos of my first harvest of my cucumber plants!


They were so cute when they first starting coming in. Baby Cucumbers with Pretty Yellow Flowers!




Soon the vine kept growing and growing  - so beautiful with its natural swirls.



They grew into nice sized cucumber pretty quick. I tried to be consistent on watering - apparently if you dont, the can come out very oddly shaped. 





This one was called FATTY.

  One of the first harvests - kinda odd shaped but made beautiful pickles!!


You can count 4 big ones in this photo - the weather was still in mid 90's. Once it hit the 100's - it was very hard for the plants to produce flowers or fruit.



The last larger sized harvest. I only got 2 more after these cucs.


Im curious if you tried to grow cucs this year and how it went. Cant wait till Sept to see if they start up again - In the mean time, Im trying to keep them alive! Thanks for looking!

How to build a garden

There is no doubt a million ways to build a raised garden bed . I have opted for the no tools & no nails way.
I use cinder blocks! Not only is it easy to install, its also easy to adjust and you can expand or contract the size with ease every season. You can also connect all the smaller gardens together with time - this is my grand plan.

My main garden is about 5 blocks deep and  4 wide. I wanted to make a smaller garden for herbs and maybe some kale. Since Im a photojournalist @ heart - I thought I would do a step by step photo plan.


Step 1:
Assemble what you need in a nice sunny spot. You will need - cinder blocks, 2 bags of soil, 1 bag of compost, 1 bag of mulch and two helper dogs.


Step 2:
Arrange your bricks in an even manner - This square is 3 blocks by 2 blocks. Have helper dogs survey your work and make sure there are no large cracks between blocks.


Step 3:
Get your shovel and turn over all the ground dirt inside the garden square. Try to go about 4- 5 inches deep. Then use a tiller to break up all the dirt and level it out. 



Step 4:

Fill in with a mix of garden soil, compost and mulch. I usually mix each wheel barrow and then fill in the dirt from there. The mulch helps the drainage and makes it so the soil doest get all compacted.



Step 5:

Put your transplants in. In this photo the top left are sage and pineapple sage, top right is cilantro, and on the bottom is rosemary.




Hope you enjoy! Its an easy way to get your garden started!