Autumn Haze

I love Autumn. The dusty, musty smell of the soil winding down in the garden for the year. The low slung golden light filtering through leafy trees just beginning to give in to the inevitable lack of light that will turn their trusses into a fiery crown. Falling to the ground, their beauty spent, their leaves will nourish the next flush of  green with the warming of days next spring.

The early morning garden had started shrouded in fog. I now look across this little farm where the holly hocks stand guard at the garden gate the setting sun  turning their blossoms into little panes of stained glass more beautiful than any church window. Beneath them between the lavender and the rosemary I can see divots in the soil where the chickens spent the afternoon happily tossing dust a foot or more into the air as they took a languorous dust bath. I make a mental note to repair them. For what purpose I don't know. They will only be at their happy destruction again tomorrow. I don't mind. I love having animals that are so obviously happy and healthy. I call the masses home with a "chook chook chook" and lock them safely into their run. They seem to  visibly relax once tucked inside, searching for bits of food or just resting in a corner, waiting for the sun to tell them it is time to go to bed.

Picking up my basket I head for the garden to see what the days offerings will be. Tomatoes perhaps.  Green tomatoes for sure but I'm not quite ready to give up on the possibility of a late flush of ripe tomatoes and another Caprese Salad (recipe follows) before cold weather takes these little beauties. If there are enough I can dehydrate them for using on pizza in the dead of winter. Yum! Summer in January!

Zucchini would be great too. I discovered that my family will eat all the
zucchini I can grow when I make baked Zucchini Fries. (Recipe to follow) I see spots of orange peeking out from under giant prickly leaves and make another mental note to write in my garden book to plant more pumpkins next year. They are so much fun and a versatile calorie dense vegi that stores amazingly well if not allowed to get too cold.

Green beans dangle from tangled vines and I pick the garden's offering. Pencil thin and straight french fillets and big fat Blue Lake beans. There is also tender wax beans and a collection of long purple beans. They will turn a deep green when steamed but it is always fun to bring a basket of multicolored beans into the kitchen. Boring vegis are not in our repertoire of daily fare at this time of year. The beets I planted in August look gorgeous with their ruby colored stems glowing in the setting sun and the ferny foliage of new carrots as a backdrop. They will be a tasty dish this winter. The beets need thinning in order to have room to become beets so the "culled" leafy greens will  be dinner tomorrow. I leave them until then.

Walking back toward the gate I spot some small pear shaped tomatoes hiding under the skirts of a protective branch. I pick one and pop it into my mouth enjoying the sweet acidic explosion on my tongue. I haven't any lettuce or greens big enough to make a salad but decide a small bowl of plain naked tomatoes would be just the ticket. Better than a candy dish without the guilt.  

Picking up my basket I trudge toward the house with my booty wondering if we will get tired of green beans before they are done for the season and if they will taste nearly as good when I use the frozen beans that I have put by.
In the kitchen I pour the beans into a large bowl to sort into beans for dinner and beans for pickling. Shining jars of peaches have cooled and sealed on the counter and are waiting to be labeled and added to the growing larder in the pantry. Partly ripened tomatoes are covering every available surface including an extra table that I have set up specifically for that purpose. Not trusting the weather I brought in all the tomatoes except the Pear and the Pacino's to ripen in the house. This year I am going to beat the blight to the harvest. I place these tomatoes into a zip bag as they ripen and place them in the freezer to be turned into sauce later. The smell of blackberry jam is still heavy in the air and reminds me of my mothers late summer kitchen. All this is a lot of work now but so easy this winter when I need a jar of something to round out a meal and I don't even have to go to the grocery store. I take the peaches out to the pantry and admire the colored jewels preserved in gleaming jars.

 I'm tired after the days work but it is a happy contented tired. The kind that means you will fall asleep tonight and sleep clear through until morning and wake up ready to do it all over again. Perhaps tomorrow I will try making green tomato relish right after putting out eggs and a few bags of green beans for my customers that make the long trek down our dusty driveway. It's fun to share the harvest and see the appreciation on other peoples faces. My only regret about the waning summer is that I didn't find the time to use the hammock set up in the front yard. So tomorrow morning I will make it a point to enjoy a steaming cup of coffee on the front porch and admire the turning of the season before starting my day.

Baked Zucchini Fries

Italian seasoned bread crumbs
Grated Parmesan cheese
Seasoned salt
Zucchini
Olive oil or egg whites (depending on your diet egg whites can be used in place of oil)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil
Combine bread crumbs, cheese, and seasoned salt in a pie plate. 

Cut the zucchini in half length wise and remove seeds. Slice into 1/2 x 1/2 x 4 inch pieces and place in a large bowl. Drizzle oil over the zucchini and quickly toss with your hands. (Zucchini absorbs the oil)

(Or beat egg whites just until frothy and toss with zucchini).

Press zucchini into crumbs gently shaking off excess and place onto the prepared baking sheet.

Bake in preheated oven until the fries are golden and tender about 15 minutes. (I find that a convection oven makes them even crisper.)

Serve with catsup, sweet chili sauce, or just plain.



For those that don't know what a  Caprese Salad is here are some directions. (my youngest calls this leaves and cheese)

Caprese Salad

Fresh garden tomatoes sliced about 1/4 inch
Fresh basil leaves
Fresh Mozzarella cheese slice about 1/8th to 1/4 inch
Your favorite olive oil and vinegar type salad dressing. (ceasar works)

Alternate tomatoes, leaves, and cheese in a circle around the edge of a plate piling left overs in the middle to make an attractive display. Drizzle with dressing. Let marinade for at least 15 minutes before serving. You can also drizzle a thin line of balsamic vinegar along the salad.

After Apple picking days.....

We made apple cider...without a press.
My juicer worked pretty good for this. Now we have
apple juice to make apple butter with. 

Apple washer extraordinaire

and apple peeler extraordinaire. 

Apple butter maker extraordinaire. In addition to
Cinnamon, nutmeg, and Allspice I put a little Cardamom
in for a little taste flair. 

Only one didn't seal. It was yummy on toast this morning.

Also apple dumplin' maker extraordinaire.

Her first attempt at pie crust was a raging success! (with a
little direction from mom). She rolled out four squares
of dough. Small apples are peeled, cored and wrapped
 in pastry after adding sugar and spices and a pat of butter.
Then the four corners are gathered together on top.

These were so surprisingly good that we have been talking
about them all day! Tempted to make them again.  However,
we have something else waiting to be made tomorrow so
we are saving our calories for that. I hope they are as yummy!
OH! What are they? 

Raised Apple cider donuts. Yum!

homesteadrevival preparedness-challenge

A Winter Garden? Everyone Should Have One

Last years Cheddar Cauliflower 

Ok. I know your tired. Fall and winter you are looking forward to a little down time and book time, holidays, etc. But if you happen to think about it you can get a fall garden started. It is just a little bit closer to being more prepared and self sufficient. I have chosen to put in some basics for the winter. Cauliflower, three different varieties of broccoli, beets, carrots, lettuce, and maybe some spinach. Although I think I am a little late for the spinach I will try it in my cold frame.

Here in the Northwest cool weather crops are the only thing that will grow with a little protection. I don't want anyone to think I am some expert because just about everything I do is an experiment but I have had some pretty good results. Last year I grew broccoli, brussel sprouts, and a variety of cauliflower called Cheddar that was to die for. I also grew a variety called snow crown with terrible results. I didn't know you had to "blanch" cauliflower or that there are self blanching varieties. I didn't even know what blanching was but I do know it doesn't mean using hot water.  Apparently when cauliflower gets to be about baseball size you are suppose to wrap the leaves around it and hold it in place with something like string. This protects it from the sun and helps it turn white. Turning white was not a problem for me. Knowing when to harvest was. Harvest when the heads are about 6 inches in diameter otherwise they get a ricey look and are past their prime. Since I lost my cauliflower to hard frost I think perhaps this is a better reason to blanch.

This year I put in some simple raised beds to make the job a little easier and to battle the constant crappy soil. I bought three pieces of 2 x8 x8 foot Douglas fir and cut one in half for the ends so the bed would be 4 ft. by 8ft. I didn't want to use treated lumber and cedar was just too darned expensive. So following the lead of my friend Cindy, I applied boiled Linseed oil to all surfaces and let it dry then had the man screw it

Beets in the foreground carrots in the back

together for me with 2x2's in the corners. I filled, fertilized, and planted beets and carrots in it and did it in August. A little late for beets so I chose a fast maturing variety called Merlin (55 days) and another that I had in my seed file called Chioggia (65 days). Beets and carrots were direct sown into the first raised bed about mid August. Although I had doubts about the beets due to the late planting they are doing great. I planted thick enough that we have had two meals of beet greens. Not bad for a four foot square planting. During August in spite of my attention to watering, my beets would wilt slightly during mid day. Too much sun. So I placed a piece of 4 x 8 lattice on the west side of the raised bed held in place with three metal fence posts and plastic ties to hold the lattice to the post. Worked perfectly. No more wilting. My carrots need thinning but look great. The beets have formed little one inch beets already. The only thing I would do differently is not use so much compost. I can see the beet roots are going to be somewhat hairy.

 Around here you need to plant your fall and winter gardens in late July and August to allow for adequate growth prior to the onset of fall. The difficulty comes with the fact that you are planting cool weather crops and it is still hot at that time of year. So it is very important to water, water, water. If you let broccoli and cauliflower dry out even once it will bolt instead of growing. Because I was building the rest of the raised beds at the time I needed to be planting them I opted to start the Cole plants in pots on my patio. My patio gets morning sun until about 1pm then it is in shade the rest of the day. A perfect place to start cooler weather plants. I also put the pots in flat pans so that the pots could sit in a 1/2 inch of water lessening the possibility of drying out when I forgot to water. When transplanting be very careful to not disturb the roots as this will cause a set back in growth.

I went ahead and put in two more raised beds that were 4x12. These I am using for the Cole crop and because I grew the plants in pots I had a ready made garden as soon as I was able to fill the bed with soil. This time I used a three way mix from the local soil company.

One of the things I don't like about Cole crops is the green caterpillars and aphids. The caterpillars are the larvae of the white cabbage moth or butterfly.

You will see them flitting around your garden looking for a spot to lay their eggs on your lovely broccoli. Brussel sprouts seem plagued with a grey aphid. Both are a real pain. The caterpillars can be controlled with a couple doses of BT but not only do I not relish the thought of eating that stuff no matter how harmless I also don't like paying for it. So I came up with this idea. As soon as I plant the broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts I cover them with nylon netting that I purchased at the fabric store last year. Not to be confused with tulle. It's cheaper than row covers or tulle and does the job. (Tulle also blocks more light than the nylon netting.)  Not one greenie meanie. Last year when it got cold enough that the butterflies where no more I took the cover off. Unfortunately the grey aphid attacked the brussel sprouts when I did so this year I am leaving the cover on all winter. According to my companion planting book Cole crops do well with onions so I planted some bunching onion from seed between the broccoli and cauliflower in the hopes of getting green scallions for the winter.  They are just starting to come up and are about 1-2 inches tall. Nice thing about planting in the fall is everything seems to germinate faster and better. The bad thing about my set up is the onions skinny little spikes want to grow up through the netting because it is just gently laying on top of the Cole crop. So I placed some hoops to hold the netting up off the soil. I sure don't want those onions to grow through that and have to either cut them out or rip them off. In general I am pretty happy with the job I have done so far. I will plant the cold frame with lettuce and spinach and then relax a little and just do some clean up and weeding and putting the rest of the garden to bed for the winter. The chickens and ducks will be invited in to the garden to clean out any lingering pests. Then I can get started cleaning and winterizing the coop. Guess I wont be relaxing after all. Hmmmmm.

Sunday the oldest came home with her boyfriend to partake in a small family tradition. We celebrate the first day of fall with a family dinner. We had a pork roast on the rotisserie and a Caprese salad, acorn squash baked with butter, brown sugar and a slice of bacon, Zucchini and potato fries then topped it all off with home made pumpkin pie. We even had a little goat milk ice cream. All out of our garden and home made. (The goat milk was from a local farmer) Of course I forgot to take a picture so here is a picture of the table instead. Both of our girls start school the next day. First day at junior college for the youngest and first day as a junior at the University for the oldest. There are many things to celebrate.

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