Snow Day

Though I'm no longer teaching, I still get a thrill from a snow day. This morning I watched the birds fight at the feeder for the prime spots. The evening grosbeaks were there first.
But later, a large hairy woodpecker came and kept others at bay with its long beak. I watched the snow drift build up at the back door. Here it is around 11 am. And later in the afternoon. The layers are so even and interesting.
It's hard to know how much snow we got. I measured a range of 12 to 18" depending on the spot. The wind was moving so much of it around. It shaped the snow on my car to make it look like a Prius.

I did snow day things like bake pumpkin bread, and I finished my Christmas tree skirt. It was done except the binding before Christmas and since we've returned I've been working on the binding so I can put it away finished for next year. And of course I shoveled snow. I need to make sure there was a parking space for Matt when he came home. I left the snow drift at the back door for him to shovel, so photos of the garden in its deep blanket of snow will have to wait until tomorrow.

Jarrahdale Pumpkin

This is one of my Jarrahdale pumpkins that has been in a cool upstairs room since I harvested it last fall. The photo above is what it looked like when we harvested it. We enjoyed one of these large pumpkins then, but two other went into this cool room. A third smaller one sat on our coffee table as decoration until December. The two that were in the cool room have begun to turn peach in color, while the one that was downstairs in warmer temperatures is still green. Here is the peach color that two of them have turned now.
This week I cut into one of the peach colored Jarrahdales. Inside the flesh was the same beautiful orange with the small cavity and large seeds. I roasted half of it face down and made puree. The puree became pumpkin gnocchi. I'll also use some to make pumpkin bread or muffins. The other half, I cubed and roasted and froze for using later in soups or risottos.
The Jarradale does provide a lot of pumpkin at once. It is a good substitute for butternut squash, some even say it is a winter squash. It will be a few months before we cut into another. I've read they can be a long keeper and I wonder how long they will last. We'll be growing these again next year.

Harvest Monday 1/10/11

For the first harvest in the New Year there is some good, and not so good. At first glance, these two pound of brussels sprouts looked great.
However, when I went to cut them for cooking, many had spoiled inside from the cold.
So we only ended up with 9 oz to go in the oven.
I debated picking more of brussels sprouts last month, but I left some in the garden to see how long they would last. I guess I got my answer. Next year we'll pick them before the snow and extreme cold set in.

I picked 6 oz of kale yesterday. Some of it was a little damaged by the cold too, but it went fine into soup.

And for fresh tasting greens, I enjoyed these sprouts on my tacos. They were very good.
As far as using up the preserved harvest, we used frozen swiss chard, potatoes from the celler, and leeks I pulled last month in a pureed soup. I cooked some of my dried beans to make bean tacos and the also went into next soup. We also made a tortilla soup with tomato sauce base, our own onions, our dried beans, the kale above, frozen oven dried tomatoes, and corn I froze from down the road. We need to get to work on all the frozen fruit. I think some desserts are in order.

Total week: ~1 pound
Total this year: ~ 1 pound
You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.

2011 Seed Order

I placed my seed order before Christmas with our local Coop. They do a bulk order to Fedco and get free shipping and 20% discount. They send me a post card with the order is in and I pick it up at the store. It's a nice advantage, and they are based in Maine so the varieties they recommend are adaptable to my cooler climate. Here's what I ordered for this year's garden to add to the seeds from previous years.

Beans & Peas
Fortex Pole Beans
Roma II Romano type Beans
Cannellini Dried Beans
Windsor Fava Beans
Mammouth Melting Sugar Peas

Corn
Dakota Blue Popcorn (I hope it will be a good experiment)

Squash
Coastata Romanesca Zucchini
Benning's Green Tint Patty Pan Squash
Marina di Chioggia Winter Squash

Root Vegetables
Over the Rainbow Carrot Mix
Touchstone Gold Beet
Red Marble Onion Seed
Varsity Yellow Onion Seed

Greens
Giant Winter Spinach
Winter Lettuce Mix
Red Tinged Winter Lettuce
Minutina
Pink Lettucy Mustard Gene Pool

Brassica Family
Piracicaba Broccoli (had to try this after seeing it in so many harvest photos last year)
Gustus Brussels Sprouts
Rainbow Lacinato Kale

Peppers
Boldo Hungarian Spice Paprika
Jimmy Nardello's Pepper
Carmen Sweet Peppers (on Henbogle's recommendation)

Tomatoes
Cosmonaut Volkov Tomato
Black Prince Tomato
Sun Gold Cherry Tomato

Herbs
Genovese Basil
Lime Basil
Bodegold Chamomile
Ziar breadseed poppy

My potato order had to be sent separately as the coop doesn't do a bulk order for those. I ordered 1# of Rose Finn Apple Fingerlings, 2.5 # each of Irish Cobbler and Adirondack Blue, and 5# of Romanze, a red-skinned storage potato.

The rest of the seed catalogs were waiting for me when I returned home from Christmas travels. However, as I paged through, there wasn't much that I was interested in. Fedco's catalog is so extensive that others feel brief and lacking in variety. Two things did catch my eye and that was artichokes and edamame. Thomas had such beautiful artichokes last year. The artichokes caught my eye in another catalog but when I compared prices, Fedco was still the best. So I'll put in a one line order for artichokes. Edamame will wait for another year.

This list is not the entirety of what I'll plant next year, nor is it all my new seeds. I picked up some seed packets on sale at the end of the season last year. They included American Flag Leeks, Gardener's Delight Cherry Tomatoes, Asparagus Yard Long Beans, Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas, Laxton's Progress # Shelling Pea & Moon & Stars Watermelon. With the seeds left from last year, there is plenty of variety.

In less than a month it will be time to start some hardy seeds for the cold frame!

Knitting & Quilting Round Up 2010

Here's one more collage, this time of craft projects from 2010. Comparing this one to last year's collage, I noticed that I'm doing more sewing and not as much knitting. I also have not done as well with photographing projects once they are finished. I had to pull a few sweaters out of the trunk to photograph for this collage. I miss the wide white windowsills of our old house which had great natural light for photographing. However, my new craft room set up has allowed more larger projects to be completed.

In 2011 I hope to finish the tree skirt for the Christmas tree, make one quilt for our bedroom, and my husband continues to remind me that I need to finish the curtains for the living room.

2010 Canning Summary

Looking back, I neglecting posting about my canning in 2010. In fact, I hardly photographed it. Here's a list of this year's canning exploits. Much of this was given as gifts during our Christmas travels.


Strawberry Rhubarb Compote 5 (1/2 pints)
Strawberry Preserves (4) 1/2 pints
Strawberry Lavender Jam (2) 1/2 pints - More of this next year
Strawberry Juice (3) pints
Cherry Marmalade (8) 1/2 pints
Cherries in Syrup (2.75) qts,
Asian Pickles (4) pints (These were an experiment and I over-cooked them. Mushy pickles are not so good)
Bread & Butter Zucchini (2) pints
Crock Cured Dill Pickles (3 quarts) This was an interesting experience. I canned half of them and put half in the fridge. My mom says they are too salty so I didn't give any away. I also haven't opened the ones canned to compare the texture. My husband doesn't eat pickles so these are going very slowly.
Bread & Butter Pickles (9) pints
Blueberry Lime Jam (11) 1/2 pints
Lime Juice 1 (1/2) pint
White Grape Juice (4) pints
Dilly Beans (7) pints
Annie's Salsa (22) pints - I was very happy with this recipe. I used only the added tomato paste, not tomato sauce. We made it spicy and with the acid used 1/2 c. cider vinegar 1/4 c.lime juice, 1/4 c. lemon juice for a balanced flavor.
Tomato Sauce (3) quarts
Tomato Juice (2) quarts
Cider Jelly (15) 1/2 pints (pictured above)
Apple Sauce (7) pints

This comes to a total of (49) 1/2 pints, 62 pints, and 8.75 quarts, for a grand total of 51.25 quarts, or 12.8 gallons. Now to work on enjoying what we haven't given away, as well as to eat up the fruit and tomatoes we have stored in our freezer.