Beans, sauerkraut and carrot soup

The Mexican bush beans are starting to dry out and we harvested the early ones last night. Most could still use a few days of drying in the window. It is exciting to collect our own seed each year. The scarlet runner beans are are a ways from harvest but it should be impressive when it happens--the one plant we have has dozens of pods, each nine to twelve inches long!

Joining the beans on the window ledges are many, many paste tomatoes (about half shown below). Most I have hauled in green to keep them from the slugs. The gradual reddening of the window sill bodes well for a canning spree next week. And I'm hopeful to get a second batch of cider started next weekend as well, having racked off the first batch this week.

I'm also trying a second batch of sauerkraut in the cupboard after I was inattentive with the first batch.

I'm continuing to spend a lot of time in the yard getting the beds reorganized and ready for next year. Fortunately Jessica is picking up the slack in the kitchen. Yesterday she made carrot soup exclusively with stuff from the garden (and a small bit of ginger). This weekend I'm thinking another batch of borscht and perhaps drying some beet leaves.

We'll be doing a bit more work this weekend as we slowly lift the potatoes and empty the carrot beds. Jenn blanched and froze a dozen cups last weekend but we're tight on freezer space until I move the cidering apples out next week. 

Salsa, borscht and sauerkraut

After a couple of days of apple sauce and apple butter and apple cider, we decided to do something that had no apples in it! Although, after last nights OFRE pick, the back deck is again awash in apples and there are still small piles of apples on ever surface in the kitchen.

A look in the zucchini patch meant more zucchini salsa, about half of which I pressure canned for later. Jenn also made borscht while I tried my hand at sauerkraut. Assuming I have the gas (...), I will also try some fermented coleslaw this afternoon.

We received a gift of cherry tomatoes so most of these were oven-roasted yesterday while other things were underway on the stove-top.

The pantry (well, the closet in my office) is starting to look like it is in pretty good shape. I have a bunch of tomatoes ripened that we'll can later in the year. Plus potatoes and carrots for the basement cold room.

The next major challenge will be figuring out how to make sugar out of the sugar beets. But that can wait a couple of weeks while I deal with the apples on the deck.

Apple sauce and carrot jam

A friend kindly let us pick her apple tree last night and we ended up with about 20 gallons of golden delicious apples. These are beautiful apples--large and clear fleshed. A bit insipid as eating apples but they make a light and cheery sauce.

I started saucing this morning and we managed 7 litres before I gave up in the heat of the afternoon. We'll be back at this tomorrow though. I don't have a goal perhaps another 18 litres or so--some we'll turn into apple butter.

Jess found a recipe for carrot jam and we gave that a go. It is interesting--more like a marmalade than a jam and likely best on crackers with some cream cheese. Jess ran most of the show herself (which I watched nervously while cutting up more apples for sauce).

We also went for a walk and saw some nice acorns on the boulevard trees they have been planting in recent years.

After we came back, I sorted about five gallons of the smaller apples into a separate bin to turn into cider later on. I'm going to see if I can con Jenn into doing some peeling and cutting this weekend. We also have another pick lined up and I hope to host my first Operation Fruit Rescue Pick.

A new garden bed and zucchini relish

As summer comes towards an end, a young man's thoughts turn toward next year's garden. We have a lovely and sunny west-facing front yard, which is mostly grass and flowerbeds. And bird-seeded sunflowers, this one being more than seven feet tall.

Yet vegetables could be grown here too. And that would eliminate the need to mow the front (a thankless task). Then we could grow giant carrots like these from the back (it is nine inches long and three inches thick at the top!).

So this weekend we decided to turn the sod over rather than mow it.

Two days of work later, it was all turned and the neighbours were starting to talk.

This morning I ordered a bunch of compost and it arrived 90 minutes later! Nine yards of dirt doesn't sound like much on the phone, but it was quite a hill when it got here. Jessica's initial excitement was short-lived.

We spent the rest of the day squiring it around the yard with shovel and rake and wheelbarrow. Much was moved off to the right (another bed which is a later in autumn project). The rest was shaped into a series of rows about two-and-a-half feet wide with walkways in between.

The deep row by the city sidewalk will contain 2-3 feet of irises and then a row of veggies. The irises make a pretty border and give some separation between the city and the vegetables. The rest of the rows are for potatoes and onions next spring. Tomorrow (assuming I can lift my arms) we'll start transplanting irises from the (unpictured) iris bed on the right.

And then I made three litres of sweet zucchini relish. I see I forgot to put vinegar in the pressure canner and have hard water stains on the jars. Oh well, the relish itself is good!

Apple season starts

It is apple season in Edmonton. We nipped across the lane to pick a batch of crab apples from our neighbour's yard. These were lovely red ones. After weeding out some hail damage and some minor prep work, I juiced them last night.

Today I cooked them down into jelly. I'd forgotten how little work this was when compared to cooking down strawberry jam.

The rest was 2.5 litres of jelly from 8 litres of berries. The colour is very dark and looks great in the jars. As Jennifer likes crab apple jelly, we'll likely pick some more over the next week or two.

In the basement, I have my first 5 gallon batch of cider cooking away. I added some sugar to raise the specific gravity and then pitched the yeast. This is just starting to cook and I'll likely leave it alone for 10 days and then rack off for a secondary ferment.

The pre-treatment juice was very interesting--much more complex and tart than store-bought apple juice. It might need to blended with something to make it sweeter in the end. I hope to make a second batch, assuming I can get enough apples to do so.

 I'd also like to sauce some apples. Jessica is keen but would rather read than peel apples.

On the window ledge, the first of the paste tomatoes I rescued from last week's hail are starting to ripen. I'd like to can a bunch of these for the winter.

We're continuing to make progressing in re-aligning the back garden as we dig up potatoes for use. The big task will actually be turning down a large amount of sod in the front yard for garden. Maybe when Jessica goes back to school... .

Onions and Potatoes

We harvested some more vegetables today, including the rest of the onions and about a quarter of the potato crop. It was surprisingly hot out this afternoon!

With the vegetables curing on the deck, I then started more renovations in the back bed, putting dirt in north-south rows for next year. I'd like to have the back yard pretty much finished up by mid-September so I can focus on the major changes out front.

In the basement, my first batch of cider is ready to start tonight. A half day of sweating and swearing in the garage has taught me a lot about what to do (and what not to do) next time. I was too bushed to do any crab apple jellying yesterday but we'll see what kind of energy I have this afternoon.

Jarring salsa

Is there a happier sound than a lid "pop" signifying a good seal? I have been pressure canning with abandon this week and put up seven jars of zucchini salsa tonight. It would have been eight but I needed to leave half a litre out for eating.

I would have made more but the carrot thief has turned his attention to the zucchini (yes, really, someone is filching zucchini). I caught him tonight by chance (well put together older gentleman picking cans... and vegetables) and politely expressed my exasperation (although my shaved head and fu manchu 'stashe may have given a different impression).

We picked a bunch of battleford apples last night and today gave the garburetor apple crusher a go. It worked but the apples need to be softer so I decided to freeze them tonight, thaw them tomorrow and then crush on Wednesday. The extra step is a bit annoying but, based on the few we ran through the crusher today, there won't be any real need to press the apples when we're done (could do that with our hands).

I've had to haul in about half of the tomatoes still green due to the hail and slug onslaught. They make a pretty sight on the window ledge and I'm keen to see them ripen and get canned. I am loving the pressure canner. Tomorrow we'll pick a neighbour's crabs and make jelly.