Garlic Scapes

The garlic planted last fall is looking great!  The Inchelium Red has begun to turn and they have been blown over for the most part due to strong winds out of the north.  We have had a few good thunderstorms lately.  I am going to assume that the Inchelium Red are a softneck variety that can be braided, but don't quote me on that!  The other variety that I planted are Samarkand and these are without a doubt hardneck garlic!  They are still standing and there is no way I could imagine anyone braiding them.  These developed scapes and the Inchelium Red did not.  I broke off the scapes today and thought I might try using them in stir fry.  I don't have enough to try pickling them, but maybe next year.

Strawberries and Tennis

My version of 'Bread and Circuses'... Hey, if our government can keep the common people in 'strawberries and tennis' then everyone's happy, right?  Uh,...right? 

'Wait!  These are my strawberries! What do you mean, 'redistribution of strawberries?  I paid for these when they were just little bare root starts.  I worked the soil and planted them, fertilized, then watered and weeded them regularly, covered them with straw over the winter, and then earlier this spring I rolled out the floating row cover when frost threatened, I patiently waited for an entire year, and then carefully picked each one when it was at exactly the right point of flavorful ripeness!  Wait!, STOP!   I should be able to eat all that I want and to share them with my friends and family!  What do you mean, you are going to take half of my strawberries and give them to the grasshoppers?'

First Strawberries

Today we harvested and enjoyed our first strawberries!  These are the so-called 'Strawberries as big as peaches' from Gurney's.   Actually today's berries were fairly large...about the size of a golf ball, give or take.  There are some larger-- but still green.  Flavor was decent, but not the outrageously yummy and explosive strawberry flavor that I was dreaming of!  I think that in addition to the cultivar grown, the soil that it is grown in and the weather conditions may have alot to do with the nuances of flavor.   One other fact to make note of is the narrow window of time between slightly underripe one day and slightly overripe another.  I will have to remember to check the berries every day from now on.  The big thing we love is strawberry freezer jam, so as soon as we have begun to eat our fill of fresh berries, then I can start to save them up in the freezer until I have enough for batches of jam. 

This coming Sunday:  waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream!

Tomatoes and Peppers sowed today

I have a dream to one day be a very good vegetable gardener (Smile).  I am learning something every year, I suppose.  Doing better about keeping some notes.  I'm slowly getting some permanent beds established.  One day I will have enough permanent garden space to have room for everything I want to grow and also to be able to rotate the crops properly.

The big step this year was finally getting that hoophouse covered.  I wish I had had it done last fall, so that I could have overwintered some things, but better late than never!  We have it in now, and have even managed to start some things early to be transplanted later.

I don't pretend to have it all figured out, but this is what I managed to get seeded so far:  Back on April 21st, I seeded some Okra, six different kinds of melon, five different cucumbers, and some old sage seeds.

Today, two and half weeks later, I have finally seeded about thirteen or fourteen different kinds of tomatoes.  Mostly heirloom, but a few hybrids.  Ten different varieties of peppers; some hot and some sweet...again mostly heirloom, a couple of hybrid varieties.

I have saved these all in an Excel file.  (Trying to do better with keeping notes)! 

Garlic Planted Today

A couple of weeks ago I ordered two kinds of garlic from Seed Savers Exchange. As I was planning on using the sweet potato bed for the garlic, I have been waiting to get those harvested...and those have been waiting on parts for my pressure canner--which are still not here. I do not have the means to cure the sweet potatoes to keep them over as fresh root crops.

Since we are expecting five days of rain starting this afternoon, I had to hurry up and get the garlic in. If I did not get it done today, chances are it would not be done at all. We have been fortunate to have such lovely weather this late into the fall.

Time to 'Do' Geese

We still have not finished off most of the geese. We still have twelve, maybe thirteen to do. Last month DH butchered three and since we don't really eat organ meat, we skinned the birds and saved the filleted breast meat and the entire legs with the bone in. The organ meat went to waste. Did not feel too good about that. We have asked several people that we know if they were interested, but with no takers. I had a few more people I'd thought to ask--one a caterer and the other a restauranteer... but now I am thinking that since I have decided to try my hand at making goose stock with the carcasses, then surely I can come up with something for the organ meat. Here are some recipes that sound like they have potential... and more recipes--this time using goose fat.

And a recipe for goose stock that is the base for a Borscht.

Eggs, Eggs and more Eggs

I spent all day today cooking with eggs. The girls are doing very well---producing an abundance of eggs, eggs, eggs! I am sure that we had at least 11 or 12 dozen eggs in the fridge, as I have not been working too very hard at keeping up with them. I have already made mucho noodles. We have eggs for breakfast, use them in baking, feed them to the cats (raw or scrambled)... if I drop one while collecting them, the hens automatically get those.

While perusing my cookbooks this morning, looking for recipes, I decided to make Rosy Pickled Eggs, Golden Chiffon Cake and Deviled Eggs. I have made and enjoyed the Rosy Pickled Eggs before-- they are pickled in a solution that includes beet juice and are quite pretty to look at when finished...tasty, too! These will sit in the fridge for a few days before they are ready to eat.

I boiled over three dozen eggs for the Deviled Eggs, which I will take to Mom and Dad's tomorrow. That left me extra to make egg salad for lunch.

Amazingly, I was not hungry for dinner! DH had the pork chops all to himself and then we had the Golden Chiffon Cake for dessert with homemade raspberry preserves warmed and drizzled on top.

As the day is winding down, and I am cleaning up after dessert, I open the fridge and see nothing but Eggs, Eggs, and more EGGS!