peacefrog's lilypad

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Dried: maitake
Froze: arugula pesto, vegetable stock
Canned: applesauce
Fermented: sauerkraut, ginger carrots

As always post-share season, Steve invited us to come and harvest from his fields. Due to scheduling issues (and also being sick), I unfortunately had to miss that, but I did send along some apfelwein with Mark and Jonathan, who did get out there both to help and to pick.

Things they brought back include lots of pumpkins, butternuts, lettuce, spinach, carrots, turnips, beets, leeks, broccoli, chard, and whatever else I'm not thinking of. All together, several metric buttloads worth of food. Yay! It's sad for the season to be over, but I will be working by way through these fall crops for many more weeks, which is a nice bonus. I also still have some things to harvest from the garden, including kale and carrots.

I will try to recap the 2009 farm share season in a separate post at some point and also recap my harvest/preserving season in general. There is still plenty to be done with the latter, though, and more evil plans being formed. I mean good. Very good.

Meanwhile, could anyone out there accompany me to CostCo along with a membership card in the next day or two? I can potentially ply you with various goodies.

I was out on the Cape these past few days (which is why you may (or may not) have noticed my absence locally this weekend) so there's still a ton of food to deal with. But ah, it was lovely there and I wish I could have stayed for another week. Unfortunately, when I got home all I could do was run upstairs, grab my script, and jump on my bike to get to rehearsal, where dinner consisted of potato chips and candy and I probably would have been better off not having any of it but I was so hungry. Even so, it was a tremendously fun session (best one yet) and I'm really looking forward to the big shoe.

( Anyway, onto the veggies of the week: )

Yes We Can (we also dry, ferment, etc):
Canned: tomatillo salsa verde, hot pepper & onion relish
Dried: dill, cilantro, maitake mushrooms, apples
Fermented: sauerkraut, kosher dills spears (having been gifted with some pickling cukes)

I also finally de-crocked the ton of pickles I started fermenting a ways back. Unfortunately, there were a large number of hollows which I should have caught beforehand, and I should have just speared all of them, but timing was bad. In any case, what survived the triage is quite good (and the garlic, omgyum!), but there are a lot of them. I guess I could can some but it seems a shame to wreck 'em that way. Who wants pickles?

• 1 lb red tomatoes
• 2 lbs green tomatoes
• 2 lbs apples
• 1 bunch giant turnips
• 4 green peppers
• 2 bunches radishes
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 bunch mizuna
• 1 bunch arugala
• 1 bag baby lettuce
  --
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 bunch lettuce
• 8 oz mixed baby lettuce
• 2.5 lb red peppers
• 2.5 lb potatoes (I took purple)
• 8 oz carrots
• 1 winter squash (spaghetti)
• 1 bulb garlic
• 2 tomatoes (1 big, 1 small)
  --
• 1/2 peck apples

Week 13

• 1 bunch mustard greens
• 1 bunch arugula
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 3 onions
• 1 bunch carrots
• 6 green peppers
• 1 head broccoli
• 2 lbs tomatoes
• 2 lbs green tomatoes
• 2 lbs apples
• 1 lb peaches
  --
• 1 winter squash (I chose spaghetti)
• 2 eggplant
• 2 hot peppers (poblano)
• 1 lb cukes
• 2 lbs onions
• 1 lb summer squash
• 1 lb yellow wax beans
• 2 lbs sweet peppers
• 1 bunch kale or collards (I took the latter)
• 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
  --
• 3 lbs peaches
• 1 melon (honeydew)

In addition, due to my helping out all afternoon, I ended up with even more extra bonuses, including many peaches, tons of wax beans, more cherry tomatoes, jalapeños, winter squash, melons, and a huge bunch of kale. Whew!

This week, I've dried more tomatoes as well as pear slices and also froze: blackberries, green beans, roasted eggplant, and the best tomato sauce ever. I could have canned the sauce but I didn't want to acidulate and even moreso, didn't want to boil it to hell. I'm grateful for plenty of freezer space which gives me that option. I'll be making more sauce and it's so good that I'm tempted to buy bulk tomatoes to make even more. Will ponder.

I still plan to can, and besides the peaches and pears, I'll also do dilly beans, which is pretty much the easiest, fastest canning recipe ever, so I might as well try it since I've got all those beans. I'm thinking of getting out the juicer and funneling the pear abundance into some pear cider.

And speaking of putting food by, if you're interested in organic bulk ordering, ( read behind this cut )

( Week 11 )

Meanwhile, the garden has been producing tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, assorted herbs, more kale than I can eat right now, and of course, lettuce, which finally bolted. I could also start harvesting onions at will, but they should also keep in the ground. At some point I'll need to dig up a potato and see how those are. I also planted some falls crops including cabbage and purple carrots and will be planting new lettuce soon as well.

In urban homesteading news, my tomatoes are still thriving and we ate the first one of the season this weekend! If the Blight hit, it would absolutely break my heart and I really feel for the hundreds of farmers and thousands of home gardeners who have lost all or part of their crop. None of mine are from big box stores, but neither were the acres of fields lost by local farmers, of course, and I have no idea where the neighbors got their plants. The rest of the garden is also doing great.

Late last week, with Mark's invaluable help, I started a half-bushel of cucumbers on their journey toward half-sour dill picklehood. Real, fermented, old-school pickles, which I will soon taste to see how they're doing. And for those who might be wondering, that's about 25 pounds, which is a LOT. I turned the ones that didn't make the cut into Sweet Swedish Refrigerator Pickles.

Finally, I racked the hefeweizen onto blackberries (harvested from the backyard and frozen in earlier years, then thawed and pureed) and it is a lovely shade of purplish-pink. I also received my scores from the Sam Adams Long Shot contest. I submitted my dunkelweizen (Froggy's Slam Dunk) and I think I did pretty well: 34.5, which is on the high end of the "Very Good" category. Given the obvious flaw (I underfilled the bottles and it ended up a bit undercarbonated), I am very happy with that result, and judges' comments were generally quite positive. I've never entered a homebrew contest before so I don't really have anything else to go on. Seems okay to me, anyway. Maybe I'll scan and post the sheets.

• 1 bunch spring onions
• 1/2 bunch beets
• 1 lb new potatoes
• 1 summer squash
• 1/2 bunch arugula
• 1 cucumber
• 1 mini red cabbage
• 1/2 head bibb lettuce
• 1/2 pound cauliflower
• 1/2 bunch basil
  --
• 1/2 bunch scallions
• 1/2 bunch yellow chard
• 3 ears corn
• 1/2 lb carrots
• 1/2 head romaine lettuce
• 1 tomato
• 2 zucchinis
• 1 cucumber
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1/2 head cabbage
  --
• 1/2 pint blueberries
• 1/2 small watermelon

• 1 bunch chard
• 1 bunch carrots
• 1/2 bunch red russian kale
• 1 head red lettuce
• 1/2 lb green beans
• 1 lb fava beans
• 1/2 bunch baby fennel
• 1/2 bunch purple kohlrabi with greens
  --
• 12 oz cucumbers
• 12 oz summer squash
• 1 lb baby potatoes
• 1/2 bunch dill
• 1/2 bunch carrots
• 1/2 head red lettuce
• 1/2 bunch kale
• 1 head new garlic (with stalk)
• small amount (~2 oz) basil
  --
• 1/2 pint blueberries

The kraut contained much of the previous haul: Napa cabbage, bok choy, collard greens, kohlrabi, hakurei turnips, beets, and carrots. I should really take a picture because it's so absurdly colorful. I am totally hooked and have already started a new batch with the Napa I got from C&A and this week's bok choy and mustard greens.

To avoid last week's confusion, I will be dividing the list: Parker, then Red Fire, then the RF fruit share, but be aware this is just *my* take-home, not the total, and of course many of the measurements are very fudge-y. This week, Parker was about twice as big as Red Fire.

• 1 head romaine lettuce
• 1 head red leaf lettuce
• 1 head chicory
• 1 pound sugar snap peas
• 1/2 bunch carrot
• 1/2 bunch hakurei turnips
• 1/2 bunch mustard greens
• 1/2 bunch chard
• 1 head broccoli
• 1 bunch arugula
• 1/2 head bok choi
  --
• 1/2 head green leaf lettuce
• 1 bunch dill
• 6 garlic scapes
• 2 hakurei turnips
• 1 lb summer squash (1 zucchini, 1 yellow)
• 1/2 bunch baby white onions
• 1/2 bunch purple kale
• 1/2 head broccoli
• 1 head cabbage
  --
• 1 pint strawberries

• 1 bunch chicory
  
• 1 head romaine
  
• 1 head red leaf
  
• 1 head bok choy
  
• 1 bunch pea tendrils
  
• 1 bunch spinach
  
• 1 (smaller) head romaine lettuce
  
• 1/2 bunch new beets with greens
  
• 1/2 bunch Hakurei turnips
  
• 2/3 lb spinach
  
• 1/2 bunch kale
  
• 1/2 bunch green garlic
  
• 1 head broccoli
  
• 1/2 pint strawberries