Winter Cleanup

As an aside, it is extremely difficult to snap clear pictures when focusing on a fire (and trying to hold onto a gunny sack, hose, or get out of the way!).

Given our trouble with squash beetles this past summer, we decided burning our main garden plot was an important fall activity.  Enter two men with diametrically opposed work schedules and a windy fall and...  It's December and we still haven't burned.

 So Tuesday evening, later than we ought as I was outside preparing the chicken coops for our imminent nasty weather and wasn't answering the phone, we burned.  Or, rather, James burned and the rest of us spent time making sure  only the garden burned or toting the propane tank for him.

 And burned.  Squash beetles were toast.

 The sun set.  We weren't done.  Onward!

 It's amazing how chilly the atmosphere became as we persisted into the dark.  Long afterwards, my back remained cold from the persistent, chilly breeze.  Unusual for our experiences, we had no excitement.

... Until the frozen pizza inside, that is!

We still need to pull of the tomato fencing (a failed attempt at recycling fence) and till, but the weather is already bad for that, so it will wait.

Bruschetta

Ingredients:

loaf of bread

10-15 small tomatoes or 2-3 large (Roma-type are good as they are less juicy)

1 t. balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

2 cloves garlic

6-10 basil leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Slice up a yummy loaf of french or italian bread.  We used a multigrain French bread straight from Dillons.  (It is TOO hot and TOO humid to be baking bread!)  Cutting it on the diagonal is not necessary, but it is pretty and gives a little larger piece to hold more tomato delight!

Chop some tomatoes.  I chop small, James chops big, so dice according to preference.  We used our grape tomatoes, as we have oodles.  Two cups of tomatoes was plenty for our loaf of bread.  Add salt and pepper to taste,

as well as two cloves of garlic and some torn basil.  A teaspoon of balsamic vinegar is fabulous too.  Stir to incorporate, then set aside.

 Brush the bread with olive oil, add a slice of mozzarella cheese, and toast for five minutes (or more, if you want it crispier).

 Top with the tomato mix and enjoy!

Summer's Bounty

The sweet potatoes are growing by leaps and bounds.

As are the Eden's Gem melons.

Grasshoppers and friends are destroying the pumpkins, so we are harvesting a few, as well as luscious peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes.

Tomatoes!

First harvest-in-bulk

The slicers, sauce, and grape tomatoes are in!  If you don't know what that means, here's a rundown of my use of the terms:

Slicers or beefsteak are excellent for sandwiches or other fresh slices of tomatoes.  They are the traditional round tomato shape and juicier than sauce tomatoes.  Some of ours are heirloom Brandywines, Mortgage Lifter, Rose de Berne (pink), Cherokee Purple (red/purple), and Pruden's Purple (red/purple).

Sauce tomatoes are usually more elongated.  They are more meaty/less juicy than slicers.  Common ones are called Roma or Marzano.  We are growing Amish Paste, Opalka, Grandma Mary's, Orange Banana (orange).

Grape tomatoes are "two-bite" cherry tomatoes... a little too large to eat in one bite, but small enough to snack on.  They are very prolific plants, so we will have buckets available.  This variety is Principe Borghese, and is the traditional variety used for sun-dried tomatoes. We will also have cherry tomatoes.

Not all of these will be available at any one time, but we should have a good daily variety.  If you are interested, please message us through our facebook page!

 And the beautiful beginnings of tomato sauce...

Produce Spotlight: All-Blue Potatoes

 Have you heard about All Blue Potatoes?  Have you wondered what all the hype was about?

These lovely gems are not the most exciting item fresh from the earth.  In fact, they tend to be so dirt colored that we sift through several times to make sure we didn't miss any of their hidden beauty.

Once scrubbed, you might begin to see their attraction.  The beautiful purple color is different from anything I've ever seen in my other potatoes!

After slicing, I'm always fascinated.  Look at the gorgeous marbling!

Some color will be lost after cooking.  Boiling tends to make them white all through, but when we grill them, they tend to retain a portion of their exotic coloring.

The Old Farmer's Almanac covered the origin of all blue potatoes in this interesting blog post.

Grilled Veggies

Grilling zucchini is probably our favorite way to consume this prolific vegetable.  If you've never grilled veggies before, it's easy to prepare and can be placed on the grill with your meat.

Start by washing your veggies.  Slice off the ends and any bad spots.  Peel and remove the seeds if desired.

Slice into 1/4"-1/2" slices for softer vegetables (summer squash, for example).  

Lay out a sheet of foil.  Coat the foil with oil (I use olive oil and a brush; you can also use cooking spray).  Place the zucchini in a single layer half the size of the foil and leave room around the edges to fold them up at the end.  Add salt and pepper or your favorite herbs and spices.  Add a second layer if desired.  I usually stop at two layers so the center is done when the edges are.  Coat with olive oil again.

Fold up the center edges twice, then fold both ends twice.  Folding twice helps keep in the oil and juices.  If you're worried about over-packing the packet, wrap in another sheet of foil.  Leaking oil can cause unexpected flare-ups on the grill!

Harder vegetables, such as potatoes, should be sliced more thinly to allow them to cook in the same amount of time.  I use a mandolin or a sharp knife.  Some people mix veggies in their packets, but I tend to find the zucchini limp and the potatoes raw, so I keep each one to its own foil packet.

Grill for 7 minutes on either side over direct heat.  Be careful when opening the foil packets: there will be steam and hot juices.

Enjoy!

Egyptian Tree Onions

Remember the wild abandon of these plants?

Welcome to the plant known as Egyptian tree onion, walking onion, and tree onion, as well as other names.

We planted ours several years ago, and, for the most part, have alternately weeded and ignored them.  Finally, this year, as we make plans to clean up the original potato bed, we needed to harvest the entire crop.  The entire area will be thoroughly tilled and hopefully compost added before next year's planting.

First, the lovely bulbils...

Then the onions themselves, which remind me more of shallots in size and their property of dividing every year.

Either part can be eaten.  They are a bit spicier than a regular onion.

To read more about the tree onion, check out this link.  If you are interested in purchasing some (either for eating as a spicy onion or to plant your own perennial onion crop), please leave a comment or email us!

Latest Harvest

All-Blue potatoes

Candy onions

Kennebec

Tree onion bulbils

First Harvests

There are many onions still to harvest...

...but we are making headway on the potatoes.  While I know others keep their potatoes in the ground until they are ready to consume them (or at least until fall), we discovered last year that, once the grasshoppers devour the leaves, the stems quickly rot and disappear, and soon after follow our buried potatoes.  A portion of our crop had already rotted after only an extra two weeks in the ground, so once the stem is bare, we harvest!

First, we harvested Red Norland potatoes.  Several days later, we followed with our Yukon Gold harvest.  With 165+ pounds harvested and an entire bed to go,  it's anyone's guess as to how much is left.  There will be several varieties, red and white skinned, waiting like buried treasure.

 97 pounds of onions have been pulled.  Some could have waited, but when our time is needed on so many different fronts, it is not practical to pick and choose out of a row.  Once most of the row is laying down, we harvest.  I'd refer to wait until the leaves brown, but it is not possible for us to check every day, as no one lives on Purgatory Ranch just yet.

Of the onions, we have pulled all the Red Candy, Red Burgundy, and Sweet Granex.  All that remains is the Candy.  There are PLENTY of those, and still growing!

If interested in purchasing our produce, please message us through our facebook page or contact information under our profiles!

Squash Bug Battle

Sunday, Myle discovered our vine crops had been invaded by squash bugs.  These prolific insects can destroy a plant in less than 24 hours, and an entire crop in days.

The race is on to pick more eggs than hatch to save our zucchini, yellow squash, and pumpkins.  We've already dusted with diatomaceous earth and picked eggs three times.  So far, no plant has been destroyed, although two are near misses.  Here's hoping we caught the squash bugs in time!