Happy Solstice

Kentucky Cornucopia

Thanks be to Rough Draft Farmstead!!!

www.roughdraftfarmstead.com/

Final green harvest

Fall Harvest

This is half the fall harvest.  David froze the rest before I photographed it. 

Two Pecks of Cabbage

                                             ...and cabbage likes chicken manure.

Six Pecks of Peppers

This is our second picking!

Fall Garden

Turnips, Lettuce and Brocolli

Chinese Cabbage

My favorite lunch

Bok Choi on Udon noodle

Got Peppers

Peppers are in, our best year ever for Pablanos, nice and big.  Still only green tomatoes on the vine, and 2 foot okra plants?  Harvey in Kentucky brought us out of a long drought with 3.5 inches of rain, so maybe the tomatoes and okra can produce in September. 

Harvest Continues

Peppers are starting to arrive, and we have some grapes.  No red tomatoes yet???
Thankful for my CSA, providing me with good organic vegtables for dinner.
Here are my Rough Draft Farm Potatoes with the trivet collection!

Fall seeds are in and I am hopeful for rain (except for next Monday 8/21/17)

Oregano

       Oregano likes the Eden Shale soil!

Cucumber Pickle Relish

Cucumbers failed in the garden, but I got a basket from my CSA Rough Draft.

Peeled and removed seeds from center of cucumbers and chopped, along with onion and green peppers.  I also added jalapenos, for hot reslish.  Veggies were covered in 1 qt of water with 1/4 c salt and allowed to soak overnight. 

  

   Rinsed veggies were added to a hot vinegar mixture heated to boiling and then simmer 10".  Vinegar mixuture is 3c of vinegar, 3/4 c sugar, 2 T pickle spice along with 4T of chopped garlic and I add tumaric and fresh dill seeds to taste.

 

Hopefully you got Dill! 

  My bed continuous to reproduce.  

Pinto Beans

First picking of half our pinto beans, picked and shelled.

Squash

 Squash leaves turned yellow as shown here and then they all died along with the cucumbers.
 

Big Squash Dish

A good recipe for the summer squash that grew to big (or winter squash) is Pumpkin Dahl.  The ingredients list includes:  Squash, lentils, onion, ginger, garlic, tumeric and garam masala spice.

I used garlic scapes in this dish and fresh tumeric.  I buy Garam Masala at the Good Food Coop, which is Frontier Herbs I believe.  But you can mix your own if you want.  Cook the lentils (any color you want really).   Meanwhile, peel and dice your ingredients.

(I diced the onions after my photo.)  Saute vegetables and spice in olive oil till onion is transparent.  Stir in cooked lentils, then add soup stock to cover (I used chicken).  Bring to a boil and then simmer till squash is done.

 Serve over rice for dinner.  Then freeze the rest for those winter nights when you don't feel like cooking.  Just thaw, and heat and serve over rice. 

First Squash Harvest

Easy recipe for the small baby squash is too simply steam them whole.  They are so good and full of flavor.  You can add melted butter if you want, but not needed.  They are hot!  So, slice them and let them cool on plate some before eating.

Garlic, Tomatoes and Peppers

We got the garlic harvested, tomatoes and peppers weeded and tomatoes covered in hay ahead of the rain.  Forecast is for 1-2 inches.

Cock-a-leekie Scottish Stew

First make a chicken stock.  Cook whole chicken with your herbs of choice and a whole onion.  This one was cooked with fennel stalks, salt and pepper.  Remove cooked chicken, cool and pull off meat.  Strain stock for stew.

Make a rue (why not).  Using medium heat, cook equal parts (1/4c) oil and flour until dark brown.  This takes about 30minutes.  I chop vegetables simultaneously, and stir rue as much as possible.

Add chopped leek green stems first and sauté.  They take longer to cook

Add chopped leek white stalks, chopped carrots, garlic and sauté

Add chicken stock, salt pepper thyme and simmer till carrots are done.

Add cooked chicken pieces and simmer till chicken is warm.  Serve over rice

The next night, David added potatoes from Rough Draft CSA and baby squash from our garden.
(Fennel, carrot and leeks are also from Rough Draft)   http://www.roughdraftfarmstead.com/

Chinese Cabbage Recipes

 

Pickled Napa is easy to make.  I received this head of Napa cabbage from my CSA, Rough Draft Farmstead. Cut cabbage into bite size pieces, and put in gallon freezer bag with a teaspoon of salt and thumb size piece of ginger chopped.  Pickle in refrigerator to taste, flipping bag everyday.  When ready, add soy sauce and sesame oil to taste and eat.

 

 Easy Bok Choy can be prepared with garlic.  This is my Bok Choy. It did not do too well this spring.  And, actually grows better in fall with less bugs feeding on it.  To prepare, clean and separate Bok Choy leaves and slice garlic.

 

 Sitr fry in hot oil till wilted.  Then add garlic and fry a minute more.

 

Add a little water and cover to steam till tender to taste.

 

Cook pasta (usually Udon, but egg noodle substituted here instead) al dente.  Drain and place in bowl.  Add soy sauce and sesame oil to taste, mix, and then place bok choy on top.

Chard is what's for Dinner

Chard chopped and sauteed in oil with fish and roasted cauliflower!

More peas

Second Picking

Peas on Buzzard Roost

My favorite time of the year!!!

Greens

Garden greens pretty much failed this year.  I do have a nice row of chard and some blue kale, but most of my chinese cabbage and radish failed.  The peas still look good, and of course I am wishing I had put more in.  I had cut back because they always do so bad, so it just goes to show you, you have to put seeds in because you never know.  I also had lettuce and learned from my Jesse at Rough Draft Farmstead, to pick in early morning to avoid bitter taste, and it works!

Chinese Cabbage coming in!

Bok Choy for lunch

Tomato, Peppers and Basil

Garden 2017

Garden harvest begins with asparagus.  The peas and greens are seeded and growing, tomato and pepper seeds are in the pots.