Yay – Blueberries
I love blueberries, love, love, love them! We always had blueberry bushes growing up and always picked buckets and buckets of them to freeze and enjoy all winter long. Back in Ohio, blueberry bushes were some of the first things we planted in our garden. Luckily, we have a couple blueberry bushes here, only one produces fruit. They all need moved to a better spot, hopefully that will happen this fall.
When it comes to blueberries, I prefer the high bush over the low bush. I like the sourness that they have, they seem more well-rounded in flavor than the low bush, which just seem sweet to me. The low bush are great for baking though, their small size makes the perfect for pancakes, scones, and muffins. We have a big patch of wild low bush berries as well, I just need to get a rake to harvest them.
Do you like blueberries? Do you grow them in your garden? Do you have a preference between high bush or low bush?
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Bringing in the Sheaves (or braids)
Yesterday I started bringing in the onion crop. They have been drying in the top of the garage for a month or so. This year they were harvested a bit later than last, they didn’t get blown over like they did last year. The results were much larger onions, which I’m pretty happy about.
I only braid the smaller onions, the big ones are put into wooden boxes in a single layer and stowed away in the basement where it’s nice and cool. Usually they last through early June of the following year, just in time for spring onions and small fresh onions. This is my best onion harvest so far, I’m guessing I harvested around a hundred and fifty pounds of onions.
Onions are one of my favorite crops to grow, I love nurturing them from tiny seeds. Perhaps I love growing them so much because I really love eating them. Pretty much every meal around here begins with the chopping of an onion!
What’s your favorite crop to grow?
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Picking Pecks of Peppers
This year I had a bumper pepper harvest. I could have left them on the plants longer, but I wanted to clear out that spot in the garden to move the strawberries. Thus I ended up picking mountains of peppers. Most of them will be roasted over a fire and canned, some will be stuffed and frozen (here’s my recipe if you’re interested).
Some of them were given to neighbors, others have already been used for delicious meals. There are still a good many to process, looks like I’ll be busy tonight!
The small peppers are the Mini Bells I talked about last week, I’m thinking I’ll make mass quantities of bite sized peppers stuffed with sausage, onions, garlic, herbs and cheese. I made a batch of ricotta earlier this week just for them. I think popping a few of these beauties out of the freezer for a quick breakfast or dinner will be so convenient.
Do you like green peppers? What’s your favorite way to enjoy them?
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Let the Harvest Begin
I’ve been harvesting a few small cherry tomatoes here and there, but have been waiting for my main crop of canning tomatoes to ripen. That happened this week. Since I’ve been feeling under the weather, I let them sit on the vine. Thankfully, they kept very well, but were in need of harvesting. Along with the tomatoes I picked basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, and parsley for my batches of passata. My harvest ended up being about twenty pounds yesterday, that should make four batches of passata.
I’ll also add onions and garlic to the mix along with salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. Everything will be slow roasted in a low oven until the tomato sugar slightly caramelized and everything gets jammy. Then I’ll put it through the food mill and can it in pints. This type of sauce works for everything from pizza sauce to a savory tomato soup. If I have time I’ll write up the recipe next week, it’s definitely one of the few I make now.
What are you preserving from your garden this weekend?
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Hello Poppy
Yesterday I harvested seeds from my breadseed poppies. There weren’t tons, but enough for a recipe or two.
If you’d like to read a little more about growing your own poppy seeds, check out this article on the MOFGA website. I don’t usually bake with poppy seeds so I don’t know exactly what I will make.
What’s your favorite recipe for poppy seeds?
