Garden Fuss

Edmame Day

Soybeans

Soy Me Edmame

 Dill Pickles, Spicy Dills, Pickled Peppers, Pickled Green Tommy Toes, Pickled Pears, and Pear Preserves were all bubbling in the hot water bath all day. With the help of my lovely assistant and daughter Ebony, I washed, peeled, sliced, spiced, and sweetened jars from 10:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. I have not been this tired since giving birth to one of my children. My feet hurt, my back aches, my arms are on fire..... Sometimes I forget that I have an myopathy and that I can't do everything my feeble mind tells me I can. However, getting off that subject I am so satisfied to have completed this mega batch of cucumbers. Last week I thought you know what didn't' come up in the garden this year? Cucumbers!. I then proceeded to buy as many as my $15 dollars would allow they vendor to give me. It turned out to be a pretty large bag full of "My Choice". Today I'm thinking "What was I thinking?".  I have weeded a mountain of weeds and clipped another small mounta...

The leeks are another vegetable that did extraodinary this year. If this pic does any justice to the soup my photography skills will have improved. After working out in the aquatics dept. Today I am so in need of a rich meal full of mmmmmm.

So, what to do with all the cherry tomatoes ripening in your garden? Tomatoe preserves are what we made today. I was suspect about the recipe at first because I've only had savory dishes with tomatoes. Then I began the process and the flavors seemed to meld and develop into a smooth citrusy *Bam-Pow* flavor vacation. When this gels and cools I can't wait to pop the top and enjoy this treat with a nice hot roll, scone, or biscuit. The other two jars I'll tuck away for those cold cool days of fall and winter that are creeping in closer day by day.

Who's been a busy bee in the kitchen? I have!!!! So the ground cherries have been making like crazy for over a month now and I had yet to decide what to do with them besides hide the best ones for myself and eat them in a dark corner away from the 8 year old. Then I came up with a thought; why not make a jelly out of them or a pie? Well we saved and saved for a week and a half to get 2 cups of cherries. This took a while because between me, the 8 year old, the chipmunks, and the squirrels we just needed time, and a full stomach before the harvesting could commence properly.  That being said, today my cooking partner Ebony and I began concocting a ground cherry plum jam that is so scrumptious I think we will have to beat the other family members off with our wooden spoons. Or we could make more in another week or so, but smacking the hands of those "non" jam makers sounds delightful right now while I'm resting my tootsies and my sore back.  I can't wait to ...

The first fully ripe beefsteak/brandywine has arrived from my planter box. I was so bummed that I only had 7 on the vine, and no new prospects on this plant. The dillema in variety is the fact that this was a volunteer that showed up in our carrot patch. It had to have arrived c/o the compost bin. To our surprise we found this little guy growing amogst our sweet carrots, and we noticed after a while he became stunted. What looked like an indeterminate vine began to stop growing and flowering. Before it did we had seven plump fruits starting their journey to ripeness.  Not too long after my initial sadness over so little fruit I remembered I have a ba'jillion other tomatoes arriving soon of similar variety. A portion of my backyard looks like a tomato jungle. There are black krim climbing into the old german, and old german falling into the other beefsteak plants, and the beef steak is walled in by some volunteer tomatoes from last years compost that can either be chocolate cherry, ...

From almost start to finish this was a delicious dish. I was surprised how sweet the blue potatoes were in the dish, but not like a sweet potato. I made a curry cheese sauce as an experiment and it turned out fabulous. I think this would be great with chicken pieces added to it. Boiled, broiled, grilled, or fried, that would have been a great accompaniment or addition to this dish. Next year I will get an early start on my potato plantings as this year I waited a little too long to decide what variety to go with. I have several sweet potato plants sprawling around now that I'm excited to get a harvest from. I wish I could claim that these blue and gold sweeties were from my garden, but alas they are from the the farmers market. Which reminds me, the Mill City Farmers Market is getting close to their fall harvest party, I need to buy tickets. I hope you enjoy the pictures of this fab dish, and when I get a few moments more I will add the recipe which I will post or email if req...

Next to the supersweet cherry tomatoes, the chocolate cherry tomatoes are beasting it in the garden this year. For what ever reason be it a mild winter (NOT!!!), cooler than normal temperatures in the compost bin, or just a simple act of God; we have had hundreds of viable and healthy tomato plants popping up all over the place. Too many to do anything with ourselves, so we gave away all but a handful of seedlings.  Every time we put compost around our other veggies we have new seedlings popping up. I feel so bad when this happens because there is no way these newcomers will make it to fruting before a frost which will happen sooner than later. Anyhow, I tried to show you the size of these little brown beasts that have ripened with a sweetness unmatched by holding up a quarter. Not only are they larger, more vibrant in color, and more productive this year. They are much sweeter and more greatly prized in this house at least more than last years. Right now I can hear...