Please visit our blog, Life at Purgatory Ranch, for updates!

Update

Whoa.

It was never my intention to abandon the blog for seven months, so you have my apologies.

We attended our fourth farmer's market today in Wichita and nearly sold out of everything.  I can't tell you what a glorious feeling it is to know that not only do we grow great food, but we are able to share it with others.  We even sold around 8 bushels of sweet corn (non-GMO, herbicide and pesticide free) that was grown by one of James' students.

Life is busy as we valiantly struggle against weeds and squash bugs in our garden.  The zucchini will be done in the next two weeks, if I'm right, as the squash bugs are multiplying quickly despite squishing and stomping.  Meanwhile, our beautiful lemon squash is apparently abhorrent to squash bugs, as it remains untouched one row over.

I'll write more later!

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.