Vacation

Since we're headed on vacation this next week, I thought it was time to go through the photos we took on our getaway weekend at the beginning of the month on the northern part of Lake Champlain. Here are a few of the best.
My first experience of these frogs was a sudden movement through tall grass as I walked. I jumped. All I could see was the grass moving quickly and I had no idea what it was. As we walked farther we caught glimpses of the many frogs. Later in the day we got a really nice photo of one posing on a tree trunk.
We also caught a beautiful sunset from the Burlington Harbor.
I love the way you can see the light waning in this one. It's hard to see at this size but there is a small sailboat still out on the water.

Last week I was worried that our garden might suffer without us around for a week, but my fears have been allayed by the more than 3 inches of rain this week with more in the forecast this weekend. Nevertheless, I may try out the watering spikes I bought which attach to soda bottles. There will be no news from the garden next week. Instead I have a few updates on knitting projects set to post.

Buttercup Squash

Here's a timeline of the quick growth of my first buttercup squash on the plant.

A day or so after it bloomed
Three days later
A week later

Unfortunately the two other female blossoms that have bloomed since aren't progressing as fast. I was sure they were fertilized, yet they are just about the same size as when they bloomed 3 or 4 days ago. I'm afraid they may have a yellowish tint which may mean they will be dropping off soon.

Onions

This morning I spent some time preparing for my fall garden by transplanting my last three Brussels Sprout plants and direct seeding kale and spinach. I also pulled some mesculn which was past it's prime and re-seeded more.

I considered pulling onions, but considering how wet it's been it wasn't the best time. However later this afternoon I decided I needed onions for dinner and we were all out. I went back out and pulled those onions which were smallest and had the most browned leaves. They ended up being almost all smaller than an apricot. I'm not expecting much from my other onions, I got them in the ground a little late, and half of them were in the shade of my mystery plant for much of the season. No matter what their size, I'll get my return on the $2 I spent on the sets.
Since they were so small I halved them and roasted them in the oven at 375 along with halved canned tomatoes (no fresh ones yet) and a sliced eggplant from the farmers market. Everything got a liberal dose of olive oil and some salt. Meanwhile, I simmered down the liquid from the canned tomatoes adding oregano and basil and a teaspoon of sugar. When the vegetables where done roasting after about 30 minutes, I roughly chopped them and added them to the pot. Now we're just waiting for the pasta water to boil.

Blueberries

I took advantage of the break in the rain today to pick blueberries this afternoon. At first it was my intention to just pick for us to eat and make a cobbler, but I just kept on picking and decided that I'll go ahead and can my blueberries for Christmas gifts. I make them blueberries in their own syrup. Basically you add 1/2 cup sugar for every quart of berries and cook them over high heat until they glisten. Place in 1/2 pint jars with any liquid they make and top with hot water if needed. Leave 1/2" head space. Process in the canner for 15 minutes. The berries tend to float on top after processing. I just make sure to give the jar a good shake before opening, and once they are stirred in, and the seal is broken they mix in the syrup again. They're great on pancakes or waffles or with vanilla ice cream.
Growing up, Blueberry Cobbler was the quintessential summertime dessert. We'd go pick some blueberries from the bushes in the back yard and this would be for dessert. The recipe's easy and is from an old Southern Living anthology. Here's the cobbler after we served ourselves some.

Blueberry Cobbler

Ingredients:
3 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 stick butter, melted
cinnamon and nutmeg

Pour the blueberries into a 10" x 6" baking pan. Sprinkle the lemon juice on top.
In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and egg until it resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle on top of the berries and drizzle the butter on top. Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on top.

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.

More Garlic

Today as I pulled the dead vines of the mystery plant of the tepee, I decided to go ahead and pull the rest of my garlic. We have gotten a lot of rain in the past few days and and showers are predicted for the rest of the week. I was afraid that the ripe garlic might begin to rot in the ground. I harvested 6 heads of the large variety and 5 heads of my medium variety. You can see the big difference in size. The larger variety could have probably stayed in the ground a little longer, but the medium variety had soft necks and layers of skin brush away with the dirt.

I found some notes from when I planted the garlic last year and found that the variety I harvested last week was purple skinned. The head of it I have hanging in the kitchen is turning purple as it dries. The rest in the barn doesn't appear to have that color yet.

Here are all three varieties hanging in the barn. The one in the middle is the purple skinned that I harvested last week.

More Pickles

After Friday's successful batch of Bread and Butter Pickles I decided that I should make more. I bought 6 more pounds of pickling cucumbers and made 8 jars with them today. Last week as I was planning my fall garden I discovered that cucumbers grow quickly and so I looked at area stores for pickling cucumber seeds. I only found slicing cucumbers, but I did buy those and plant them where the mystery squash was. They've already sprouted. Next year I need to plant my own pickling cucumbers.

Also today, I harvested my first batch of the Romano Bush Beans. They are a flat bean, with bulges. I picked about one and half pounds of them. I had thought I might be able to can a jar of dilly beans as I did the pickles, but there were more beans on the bushes than I thought and so I was able to can three jars of dilly beans. The dill came from my garden also.











I first tried dilly beans last Fall and loved them so much that I made a batch over February vacation with store-bought green beans. I also made a version of them with my class this Spring as we studied life on the home front of World War II. The students loved them and they were easy to make with the group.

The beans tend to float after the canning process and they need to cure for a few weeks and absorb the brine. I find that they seem to float less when the jar is upside down. I'm hoping to put up more jars of dilly beans in the coming month because I know that three jars is not enough to keep me satisfied all winter.