Preserving Peaches

We just got back from a family reunion in the Outer Banks (just a week ahead of Hurricane Irene, thank God). On the way back we stopped at a farm stand in South Carolina to buy ourselves two bushels of peaches. We have been eating peaches since we arrived home with the two bushels, but it was time to start preserving them before they start to over ripen or go bad. So two nights ago, Julia started processing them, and canned some lovely jars of peach preserves, and also canned some sliced peaches. The remainder we peeled and prepped for ready made cobbler filling, and dried in our new (thanks to freecycle) dehydrator, and as an extra bonus, Julia made into a carrot peach bread.

I was excited to try out the dehydrator, as this was our first time using it. I had been dreaming of dehydrating food probably since I was in high school. I know, that is probably weird, but I love dehydrated food, and always thought it would be so cool if I could make it myself. I used to read all the backpacking magazines and see all the recipes always called for food that you dehydrate, and would be sad that I would have to scratch the recipe, due to a lack of a good way to dry the food. The kids were very interested, in the process, watching the peaches slowly shrink as they dried into our "fruit snacks." Last night, they looked pretty much ready, so I turned off the dehydrator, and we all tried some dried peaches. They were a huge hit, even Julia, who doesn't normally like dried fruit, loved them, and was finally more keen on the idea of our dehydrator taking up some counter space while it's in use (she's the master chef, so the kitchen is truly her domain, which I can't complain, with all the wonderful things she makes us!)

So now, with Julia and the kids' approval, the world of dehydrating has opened up for us. So now we'll be adding third way of preserving to our repertoire: canning, freezing, and dehydrating!

Brewing my First Batch of Beer in the New House

Today we spent the day getting almost everything that was left of our things from our townhouse and cleaning up a bit over there. I moved the majority of my garden that I had in pots over to our "new" homestead. Although we are still living in canyons of boxes, I am currently brewing my first batch of beer in our new house. This time I am brewing a Honey Brown Ale, using wildflower honey. Hopefully it turns out as well as our other batches have.

Garden Harvest upon Return

We just got back from driving out to Colorado for a family reunion. We had a great time, got to see family, and even was able to go see the edible gardens at the Denver Botanical Garden.

Upon arriving back home this weekend, we saw that there were vegetables waiting for us, as well as a ton more blueberries. Julia was able to make a quick Cucumber Tomato salad with apple cider vinegar and a little bit of salt. It came out delicious.

We did have a causality, well, actually about 600 to 700 causalities I am sad to say. Our worm bin became too wet while we were gone, and there were no worms left when I looked through it last night. Not sure if it was getting some rain coming in through the sides if it was windy, or if it was a factor of the food that was in the bin. I am going to have to see what I am going to do with composting with worms in the future.

First Tomatoes of the Season

Today we harvested a few more blueberries, so now we are at about 1 3/4 pounds from our two blueberry bushes for the season so far. I was excited to harvest our first tomatoes of the season! They came from my Gartenperle tomato plant that I have in a hanging basket on the back patio. So far I have 5 gorgeous looking red ~1" diameter tomatoes.

Frenching Green Beans

This year for Julia's birthday, one of the things the kids and I got her was a bean frencher. This past weekend we were able to try it out on some homegrown and local farmer's market green beans. The kids were very happy to help out, and Julia was amazed at how easy it was. It is a simple mechanism that slices up the green beans as you put them in from the top and turn the crank, very much like the old school pencil sharpeners that used to be on walls of classrooms.

It was a huge hit! The kids love eating french cut beans, and quickly ate every one we put on their plates. Now Julia is itching to get a pressure canner, so we can start canning our own french cut green beans, now that we'll also have more space to grow a larger quantity of green beans.

Blueberry Season is Here!

Today we harvested our first blueberries from our two blueberry bushes we have in the yard! The kids were very excited, they had been following the progress of the berries all spring, seeing how they were little green balls, then slowly darkening as they grew. So this morning we (the kids, while I telecommuted from our yard that is) picked 3.64 oz of blueberries. I am thinking that we may expand and get maybe two more bushes next spring, as we will finally have more space. We harvested just over 2 pounds last year from these bushes, and so hopefully we will harvest a bit more now that they are three year old plants this year, but with an additional two, we may be able to grow all the blueberries we eat for the year. We are finally going to move into a house that has a yard, I'll tell you more about that later, but what that means is that I am going to get to restart my garden, but also expand it.

New Raised Beds

Here are pictures of the "Homestead".

Green Beans on the Berm

May 11th

The Klein Box

 I was given the gift of a raised bed from a friend who had extra wood, and so I decided to go ahead and make myself another one I had been playing with adding as well.  So now I have space that I didn’t originally think I would have back when I was starting seeds, there are plants I want to grow now (and have seeds for), but was afraid that it was too late, but with talking with Julia and seeing a post from Chiot's Run has encouraged me to go ahead and try. And it may work out for the best as are going tob be busy during high harvest time, so this may delay the harvest just perfectly (hadn’t thought about that aspect).