WEEK #32 & #33: Blight & Butterflies, Salsa and Sauerkraut, Removing and Rototilling

It's been a busy couple of weeks with harvest in full swing, however as we approach the middle of August, many of our crops in the past week have been completely removed, and the plots turned over with compost. Here's a few tidbits of what has been going on crop by crop:

Zucchini: After making four loafs of bread, chopping it up for the freezer, making a dozen jars of relish, having the occasional zucchini with our meals, and even giving it away, we finally ripped up the crop as we were done with it before it was done with us.  HOORAY!

Acorn Squash: So far we have had two sliced in half with butter and brown sugar fresh out of the oven. YUMMY!  The rest continue to ripen in the field.

A couple of acorn squash ready to be picked in the weeks ahead

Butternut Squash: Continues to grow. Another bumper crop this year for sure.

Green & Yellow Beans: The crop is now ripped up and in the composter after getting one last big pick.  There is enough beans canned to last us a year in the basement. Not sure if we need to plant so many next year as we had way more than enough.

Cabbage: The last of the cabbage is now picked.  Aaron made a sauerkraut which has been lacto fermenting for the past two weeks.  The cabbage shared the same field as the beans, which is now rototilled with spent mushroom substrate, from the local mushroom farm.  Phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium and calcium are also in the manure which will add to the soil for the squash that will be planted in that plot next year after we plant a cover crop.

Sauerkraut lacto-fermenting in one of Marianne's Grandmothers sauerkraut crock.

 

 Aaron skimming off the floaties at the top of the water in the sauerkraut mix



Tomatoes: With a soaking summer, followed by a dry spell, our tomatoes ended up getting blight. Fearful that we might loose the whole crop we decided to pick some of the green tomatoes, some of our hot Hungarian wax peppers, some of our onions, add some lemon juice, salt, pepper and basil, and made 16 jars of salsa verde.  In the end, we actually didn't loose the whole crop and with the romas and beef tomatoes that are now red, plus some of our peppers and onions, we made 18 jars of a more traditional salsa.  The last little round of rain we had made our cherry tomatoes split, so we just go out occasionally and pick them to eat off the vine. They are also a favourite treat of our chickens :D

 Blight in our tomatoes

Peppers: We used our bell peppers for ingredients in salsa, and salad. The Hungarian wax peppers which are ridiculously stupid hot to eat, are also a great addition to salsa. The habaneros, which are even more nuclear, will probably be used for ingredients or dried.

 Hungarian yellow hot wax peppers.  They are not hot they are painful!!!!

Sweet Corn: Continues to grow.  Definitely behind the local harvest this year.  Hopefully they will be ready in a few weeks, as we haven't even had the pleasure of the local stuff yet!

Sweet Corn

Potatoes: The small ones are all canned and the rest are sitting in the basement.  The section of the garden they were in is now rototilled with spent mushroom substrate.

Potatoes are no more

Lettuce, and Radish Mix: The last of the radishes have been picked and are now added to the occasional meal.  This section of the garden has since been rototilled with poultry manure as well.

Rutabagas: They are at the right size now to be harvested, however it is recommended that you leave them until after the first couple of frosts so that the sugars from the leaves gets forced into the root we eat to give it some sweetness.  We are now wondering if we planted them too early.

Don't let this photo fool you, this rutabaga is almost the size of a volleyball!

Carrots: We planted two rounds of carrots this year.  The first round has been picked and is being eaten occasionally while the second round will probably be ready in a few weeks.

Onions: All the onions have now been picked, and will be added to salsa, while the rest will be hung in the garage for future recipes.

Our onions, along with the last of this year's cabbage

Besides the garden, our chickens continue to explore the yard and all it's treasures of bugs and grasses.  The rooster has been crowing for the last couple of weeks and is now courting the hens.  None of the hens have laid any eggs yet. Hopefully in the next few weeks.

Our handsome cock



"What's supposed to come out of my bum?"

 



We left the milkweed in the back field for the monarch butterflies this year as we have a bumper crop of milkweed, and being classified as a noxious weed, there are not many milkweeds to begin with around the area.  This is the only food source of the Monarch Butterfly.  Unfortunately, there is not a good population of Monarchs this year.  It has been speculated that a late winter in the southern states put a huge dent in their population as they make their way north from Mexico, across the states and into Ontario.  We have only had a handful of Monarchs in our yard this year. 

A worn female Monarch Butterfly.  We saw her a few days after this photo was taken mating with a male.  Hopefully another generation of Monarchs will be added to this year's very low population.

With all the goldenrod in the backfield as well, we decided to mow it all down in hopes that only the grass will return.  Perhaps having less weeds will deter the ever present Japanese Beetles from having such a massive population in our yard.  We placed out three traps, and they have been really efficient at capturing these invasive insects.  For the most part, they have left our crops alone this year which is a relief.

Japanese Beetle Trap at the edge of the field.  The trap is basically a bag which you can open from the bottom to empty the beetles.  On the top of the bag is a pheromone lure to attract them.

Close up of a Japanese Beetle on the side of the trap.

WEEK #30 & #31: Pressure Canning

We tried our new pressure canner in the last couple of weeks.  We canned quite a few of our green and yellow beans, and most of our smaller potatoes from the huge harvest the other week.

With the zucchini taking over our lives, zucchini has been on the menu all week, zucchini lasagna was the best, we also made some zucchini relish.  Here is the recipe that Aaron used:

1. Place 12 cups of shredded zucchini and 4 cups of onion in a large bowl, and sprinkle 5 tablespoons of pickling salt. Use your hands to evenly mix the salt throughout the zucchini. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
2. The following day, drain the zucchini in a colander, and rinse well with cool water. Squeeze out excess water and set aside. Chop two red bell pepper, add 5 cups sugar, 3 cups vinegar, and 1 tablespoon cornstarch into a large pot. Add 2 teaspoons celery seed and 1 teaspoon ground black pepper. Stir to combine, then add the drained zucchini. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer 30 minutes.
3. Fill 8 x 500ml jars and can/process in a standard water bath for 30 minutes. 

From left to right: Pickled Beans, Zucchini Relish, and Canned Green and Yellow Beans

Canning potatoes was not fun.  Looking online Aaron found two sites that said you should can potatoes with the skins off, so we spent several hours trying to peel potatoes that were supposed to just 'slip off' after a good boiling.......they did not.....After several more hours of skinning potatoes, Aaron decided to look for a second opinion on the whole "skins on vs. skins off" debate.  Apparently, you don't necessarily have to remove the skins it just for aesthetic reasons......ughhhh.

Twenty six 1 litre jars of potatoes.  This is maybe 1/5th of the potatoes........