Our Last Harvest of the Year

The last pile of peppers that came out of our garden. They survived a frost or two, and then we finally got around to picking them. They are in the freezer now, as I did not have time to put them up properly before we headed to Texas for a couple of weeks!

Waste Less- Part 2

Mint Syrup--Makes a very refreshing glass of tea!

• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped fresh mint
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water

• Tie mint in a cheesecloth bag, and place in a saucepan. Add sugar and 2 cups water; bring mixture to a boil. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves.
• Remove from heat; cover and let cool. Remove and discard cheesecloth bag.

Note: I did not have cheesecloth, so I steeped the mint in the sugar water and strained it after it was cool. Also, I used less than 1 bunch of mint.

Wasting Less--Post 1

image courtesy of Google images

I have been trying to waste less, which is hard for me with two little girls and the abundance of produce we have had. Our garden is almost done for this season, though, and we are going to cancel our CSA box for now. We are going to start shopping the farmer's market instead, and come home with only what we can eat!

The Frugal Girl does a really great job of not wasting food, and I would love to waste as little as she does!

This post came just in time, because I had 4 cups of milk in the refrigerator that was just kinda...yugghh. Not quite sour and curdled, but not quite drinkable either.

So I made a double recipe of The Frugal Girl's chocolate pudding, and YUM! We all agreed that this would be made again, sour milk or not!

Homemade Chocolate Pudding

2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
pinch salt
2 cups milk, divided
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Measure cocoa powder into a saucepan. Whisk in enough water to make a smooth paste. Stir in sugar and salt. Add 1 1/2 cups milk, reserving 1/2 cup.

Heat cocoa/milk mixture over medium heat, stirring regularly, to boiling. Meanwhile, mix cornstarch and milk together.

When cocoa/milk mixture reaches a boil, whisk in cornstarch mixture, stirring constantly. Bring back to a boil and cook and stir for 1 minute.

Remove pudding from heat; stir in vanilla. Pour pudding into individual dishes or a large bowl. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Makes 2 cups.

I don't really have a title....

We were gone to Newfoundland for a couple of weeks, and a few days after we got back, the hurricane hit. It didn't do much damage, just bent some plants over. After the storm was over, we pulled out the tomato plants and staked up the brussel sprouts, peppers and stevia that were falling over.

Some of our produce: purple carrots and a red bell pepper.

The Tomatoes Keep Coming!

While I was taking these, I felt a "slap-slap" on my legs, looked down, and Cora was cheesing for the camera!

We are picking every other day now, sometimes every day. We've had several thunderstorms lately, which is helping and hurting. We've had a lot of split cherry tomatoes from all the rain, which seems like a lot of waste, but I guess you can't really get around it.

I thought today I would update you on our amount of produce brought in, and give you a few recipes I've made lately using the produce from our garden, and my mom's garden.

Our total thus far: 24 lbs. and 4 oz.! I can't believe it's so much! 

Here's what we've been eating:

Yogurt or cottage cheese with fresh berries (from our CSA box and my parent's garden)

lots of vegetables for dinner, usually sauteed

Dilly Beans

Salsa (Weldon threw this together, so I don't have a recipe. He canned 3 1/2 quarts!)

Sausage and Cherry Tomato Bake

Pork Tacos with Radish-Avocado Salsa

Recipe for Dilly Beans

Ingredients

• 2 pounds fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 8 sprigs fresh dill weed
• 4 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 cups white vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups water

Directions

1. Cut green beans to fit inside pint canning jars.
2. Place green beans in a steamer over 1 inch of boiling water, and cover. Cook until tender but still firm, for 3 minutes. Plunge beans into ice water. Drain well.
3. Pack the beans into four hot, sterilized pint jars. Place 1 clove garlic and 2 sprigs dill weed in each jar, against the glass. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to each jar.
4. In a large saucepan over high heat, bring vinegar and water to a boil. Pour over beans.
5. Fit the jars with lids and rings and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Sausage and Cherry Tomato Bake

• 2 pkg. of ripe cherry tomatoes - mixed colours if you can find them
• 2 sprigs each of fresh or dried thyme, rosemary and bay
• 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• 12 good-quality coarse Italian pork sausages
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Get yourself an appropriately sized roasting tray, large enough to take the tomatoes in one snug-fitting layer. Put in all your tomatoes, the herb sprigs, oregano, garlic and sausages. Drizzle well with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Toss together, then make sure the sausages are on top and pop the tray into the oven for half an hour. After this time, give it a shake and turn the sausages over. Put back into the oven for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how golden and sticky you like your sausages.

Pork Tacos with Avocado-Radish Salsa

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Yield: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

• SALSA
• 1 (6-oz.) package radishes
• 1/2 small red onion, diced
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• TACOS
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 pound pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 8 (6-inch) fajita-size corn or flour tortillas, warmed

Preparation

1. Prepare Salsa: Process radishes in a food processor until finely chopped. Stir together radishes, onion, and next 5 ingredients; cover and chill salsa until ready to serve.

2. Prepare Tacos: Stir together brown sugar and next 4 ingredients. Toss pork with brown sugar mixture. Heat grill pan over medium-high heat; cook pork, in 2 batches, 2 1/2 minutes on each side or until done. Serve pork in warm tortillas with salsa.

Keep On Growing!

Here are the latest pictures of our garden, taken last week. Everything is growing very well, and we're starting to pick lots of cherry tomatoes, radishes, peppers, and we're even getting a second round of strawberries!

Our total yield of produce is : 2 lbs., 12 oz.

This first picture was taken May 24, 2011. In the far left bed, next to the deck, we have several varieties of tomatoes, and also strawberries. The middle bed has different types of peppers, all hot! The bed on the right has brussels sprouts, nasturtiums, radishes, beets and purple carrots. The bed in the front has zucchini and yellow squash, peppers, stevia, and savory. We also have a couple blueberry bushes and two kiwi plants.

These pictures were taken on June 9, 2011. We've now mulched the beds with newspaper and pine straw, so some of the smaller plants are barely peeking up. Everything is growing well. The lumber stacked on the side is for an arbor for our kiwi plants. They are fast outgrowing the small trellis we have them on!

The yield thus far: 2 radishes, and 4 cherry tomatoes. Weldon also picked a cowhorn pepper (a type of cayenne) for lunch today, but I didn't get a picture. 

Lilies from the back yard.

Total pounds of produce so far:  2 1/2 oz.

Not much, but I'm going to keep track all summer, if possible, and see how much we get!