Archive for the 'Harvest' Category
I just can’t stop eating the scrumptious blackberry and blueberry I made this past weekend. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it tastes this good, I mean these two fruits were obviously meant to go together: they grew only steps from each other.
When went for my annual wild blackberry picking pilgrimage, I stopped off at my favorite organic blueberry farm on the way back. It never crossed my mind until this year that the sweet blueberries and the tart blackberries would be an amazing compliment to each other. So good I have to share:
Black and Blue Berry Jam (long boil a.k.a. no pectin)
- 4 cups blackberries
- 4 cups blueberries
- 5 cups sugar (just a guideline, adjust to your own tastes)
- 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
Add all ingredients to a large, tall pot and set on medium high. Stir constantly until juices release and the mixture is soupy and boiling. Reduce to medium low and keep boiling, stirring occasionally, and using the spoon or a potato masher to squish the berries. Put a few small plates in the freezer. Continue boiling and stirring jam until mixture starts to thicken and foam subsides. Check jam for consistency by putting a spoonful of jam on one of the chilled plates. When the mixture cools, ask yourself: ”Do I like this consistency?” Keep boiling jam and testing until you answer, “Yes!” then ladle into clean, sterilized 250ml (1 cup) jars. Process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes with adjustments for your area. Store for up to a year in a cool, dark place.
September 09 2011 | Harvest and Recipes | 5 Comments »
Since I gave up the community garden plot this year, I actually have a larger harvest than last year at this time. A little care and attention to the home gardens is certainly paying off. I’ve been enjoying the home gardens so much more, they are less neglected and full of beautiful flowers that I enjoy everyday. I have 40 tomato plants growing in every nook and cranny, and that seems to be overkill. It was hard to cull the seedlings, or even choose between the varieties when seeding them, but now that I have mountains of tomatoes ripening every day, I’ll remember this and diversify next year.
This week I cut all the basil to make pesto which I freeze for the winter. With the high price of pine nuts, I’m now using walnuts. I also have just enough beans, blackberries, alpine strawberries, and ground cherries for snacking on and meals. I pick the numbers shown (except the basil) every day right now, so certainly there is no wanting for fresh fruit and veg around my house!
September 06 2011 | Growing Food and Harvest | 2 Comments »
It’s that time of year again that keeps my hands and my senses overloaded. I hoard fresh produce when I see it at a market or farm, or by climbing my neighbour’s trees like a squirrel and collecting way to0 many figs, or by diving deep into the wild blackberry brambles for fresh blackberries. I can’t help it. It’s a compulsion.
Here are a few photos of the harvesting frenzy for the last full week of August. How can you blame me for stocking up?
Figs are abundant again on my neighbours tree although not as much as they were last year. I made balsamic, fig, & rosemary preserves, dried figs in my dehydrator, and plan to make whole figs in a balsamic syrup.
I picked up pickling cukes at a farm this year for the first time and they are pickling away in my dining room.
My secret blackberry picking spot was loaded this year so I made blackberry pie, blackberry jam, blackberry & blueberry jam, and froze some for baking and ice cream.
The tomatoes are staring to come in as well, some of which have seen dehydrated, others made into sauce for the winter.
Any other squirrels out there stocking up for the winter?
August 29 2011 | Canning and Growing Food and Harvest | 6 Comments »
Me: I’m making you lavender sachets for your t-shirt drawer.
Husband: But what will my friends think when I show up somewhere smelling like flowers?
Me: That you’re married.
DIY: Easily make these lavender sachets by filling organza bags from craft or discount stores with dried lavender flowers. In addition to freshening up drawers, you can tuck one in your pillow at night and give it a squeeze to release the relaxing fragrance. Ahhhhhh.
August 16 2011 | Flowers and Harvest and Projects | 5 Comments »
It’s not much of a harvest but with our cold rainy summer at least it’s something: our first bowl of mixed heirloom tomatoes. They are mainly Tumbler, but there are a few Orange Cherry and Golden Rave (a 2-bite yellow Roma). Hoping for more next week!
August 15 2011 | Growing Food and Harvest | 3 Comments »
I bought a Kew Red lavender plant at the farmer’s market this past spring at which time I met a Lavender Guru. He told me the secret to beautiful lavender on the West Coast is to harvest the flowers and cut back the shrub by half all before August 15th.
I have eight different lavender plants scattered around the garden, all in bloom now and covered in bees. It’s hard to harvest these gorgeous plants and take the blooms way from the bees, but my plants are leggy, patchy and woody the rest of the year so I’m committed to cutting them back for the greater good.
I started with one plant today, and stumbled upon a problem, what to do with all that lavender? First I will have to dry it, and that leads me to a space issue, which I’m proud to have resolved by decorating the Virginia Creeper that trails along my side fence.
Next up? I’ll harvest the rest and use it to make a dried lavender wreath for the house. Stay tuned for that project.
August 07 2011 | Flowers and Gardening and Growing Food and Harvest and Projects | 6 Comments »
This past week I have been pretty heavy into the holiday parties yet I still made time to harvest my sprouts and make myself a decidedly summery sandwich: avocado, cream cheese and a mixture of lentil, radish, broccoli, red clover, and alfalfa sprouts. This powerhouse of nutrition was just the thing to keep me whooping it up holiday style, and it makes a much healthier hangover meal!
December 12 2010 | Growing Food and Harvest and Recipes | 10 Comments »
This week we thawed out from that crazy November snowfall and I jumped at the window of opportunity to dig up the rest of the root veggies from the community garden plot. It was a very beautiful day at the garden. Even though the plots are a mess I found it quite romantic with the setting sun beaming through the skeletons of our summer gardens and sky-high pampas grass.
It felt great to get out and dig in the soil, and harvesting is always fun. While I was disappointed to only have a few pounds of potatoes, I did get a bunch more Gladiator parsnips and a ton of various beets that I didn’t expect. I roasted up this bunch of roots for a family dinner tonight.
Now that the community plot is officially put to bed for the winter I wonder weather I want to keep up the space again next year. I have enough room to grow a small variety of veggies at home and while I love gardening with the community members, it has lately been feeling more like a chore. Much of the food at the gardens gets stolen, many say because of the part of town we are in (notorious for homelessness and drugs) but sadly, the folks that I’ve seen steal are (gasp) other gardeners or visitors in suits who drive Hondas and show off their knowledge of growing food by cutting off all my garlic scapes or plucking a pumpkin. Mostly the thieves are foodies with a sense of entitlement and little concern for community. So that sucks.
Then there’s the growing conditions. The soil is poor and disease is rampant. Without daily weeding the plots are soon overrun with buttercup, horsetail, bindweed and in some cases the dangerous giant hogweed. This year I just wanted to grow squash. I ended up planting 10 types of squash and got about 12-15 orange spaghetti squash and downy mildrew killed the rest. I did also plant strawberries, potatoes, artichokes, tomatoes, beans, celeriac, beets, parsnips, peas, fennel, carrots, garlic, leeks, and kale, so I strayed from my focus and got a little of everything (except the celeriac which was a big failure). It’s fun to bring home fresh veggies and I haven’t really shopped for any in the grocery for the last 5-6 months. The number and variety of what is left after theft and disease is just a taste. Despite a valiant effort–I added manure to the soil, a bacterial / fungal mix that we bought at the farmers market and compost compost compost–the soil still lacked nutrition. This combined with the fact that disease is so quickly spread in a community garden space that I fought rust, mildew and blight daily. I certainly appreciate the fresh food I brought home, yet this alone is not worth the effort when I can buy the like at the farmers market each week.
Even if I never brought home a veggie I would still be a member because I joined the garden in the first place for the community. I wanted to learn from others, connect and share. In my mind perhaps I had the idea of a communal gardening group of people laughing and sharing huge baskets of fresh produce, while tending their lush green plots and beautifying the neighbourhood. The reality is that you see most of the members only at the monthly work parties. For most of the year I went to the work parties religiously. A few of the other members have the same commitment, a few. It’s great to see some of them, sometimes, but I wouldn’t call it a community. There is rallying around the condom/needle clean up and stopping the crazy dude from pouring rat poison on our plants, but it’s not quite what I had imagined. I’ve made a few friends at the garden though, so that’s something.
Now, as another year comes to a close I’ll reflect on whether or not it’s worth the effort or if perhaps there is another group or space that would be a better fit for me. For all the reasons above I almost gave up my membership last year, but something kept me there. The promise of something new, perhaps. Maybe this year some new people with join and keep me company at the work parties. Or perhaps I’ll get to run a seed starting project with the new greenhouse or learn something new. Who knows? But if I’ve learned just one thing about being a member of a community garden, it’s that it is about a whole lot more than just growing food.
December 06 2010 | Gardening and Growing Food and Harvest and Vancouver | 13 Comments »
I was just not prepared for snow. Not in my garden, wardrobe, or attitude. It’s not typical to get snow in Vancouver, particularly in November, so it’s reasonable to be unprepared. The beet greens, parsnip tops, chard, kale, lettuce and all my winter vegetables got smooshed and frozen for a week. And the trees weren’t prepared. Leaves hadn’t fallen yet so the sticky white stuff brought down my 50-year old lilac and crushed a few other hardy growers. One day it’s fall, then next, winter. That’s just the way it is.
I got out a few days before the dump and covered my rosemary, sage and gai lan with greenhouse umbrellas which may help a bit. As you can see by the photos, it’s a bit like trying to drink a swimming pool.
My weekly home-grown vegetable adventures weren’t a total bust though. Just before the dump, I managed to get a few parsnips from the ground and make a lovely parsnip and white bean soup with crispy parsnips. It was delish.
Now that the ground has thawed a bit I’ll try to dig up the potatoes I left at the community plot (whoops) and I pulled some beets. Greens are wilty but the roots are plump and sweet. I hope to continue pulling the roots for as long as I can, but I think that the winter vegetable starts are a write off for the year so I’ve set up the automatic sprouter indoors and I’ll grow my greens there for now.
It’s been an interesting week or two we have been having here, so it’s great to have a look over at Daphne’s Dandelions to see what others are harvesting elsewhere.
November 29 2010 | Growing Food and Harvest and Photography and Vancouver | 13 Comments »
Tis the season for micro greens and sprouts. The weather outside is frightful freakin’ cold – the coldest on record in 25 years. Too cold to sprout seeds outdoors, even under cover, so I’ve brought the operation indoors.
A few years ago I gleefully ripped open my festively-wrapped automatic sprouter and started the winter tradition of growing fresh greens on my kitchen table in the less pleasant months. There are many seeds that benefit from spouting in this manner (hydroponically) like radish, alfalfa, lentil, clover, and many more. Sunflowers however, do much better when grown as micro-greens: seeds that are sprouted in soil and harvested as seedlings.
Indoor Gardening Project: Sunflower Micro Greens
Equipment:
- makeshift mini greenhouse
- organic black oil sunflower seeds
- clean potting soil
Directions:
No fancy equipment need for this high-brow salad trimming. I used a biodegradable plastic dome (make sure it’s food safe) from a pre-cooked organic chicken: a prefect soil tray and greenhouse. You could also use a milk jug cut in half, a cake tray, or whatever you can imagine that would create a mini greenhouse.
Add about an inch of clean, rich soil to the bottom tray, and spread sunflower seeds over the top. I generously cover the soil with seeds not letting any of them overlap. Cover those seeds with just enough soil to hold moisture on them and put in a warm place out of direct sunlight. The top of the fridge is a great place to sprout them. In 1-4 days when the seeds have sprouted, remove the dome and get them to a bright windowsill. Don’t bother using a grow light or worrying if the sun isn’t shining every day. Who cares if they are leggy?! You just get more yummy sprout to eat.
The micro greens are ready to harvest when the mighty seedlings push up the soil (which helps to knock off the black husks) and grow two fat seed leaves. Snip the seedlings at the base and wash in a salad spinner. The nutty flavour is a fresh treat in the colder months and it only takes about 7 days from seed to table.
A great winter project for those days when you want to eat a salad and imagine yourself in Hawaii.
November 22 2010 | Growing Food and Harvest and Projects | 20 Comments »
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