Freezing the Harvest

     I am exhausted. Maine is finally winding down from the heat wave that had our thermometers reading 101 degrees Fahrenheit, and I'm winding down from a very busy weekend. I started the weekend off with a second job (part-time), swimming at my mom's house, and then going to the drive-in to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, and Horrible Bosses. We finally got home around 1:30am Sunday morning.
     Today was busy with the usual Sunday things: dog walking, chicken coop cleaning, house cleaning, laundry, etc. I also had to shred and freeze a bunch of zucchini from the garden. I shredded about seven small to medium zucchinis, which filled a quart freezer bag. It'll be good to have for making zucchini bread later. I had three zukes left, so I used two to make zucchini fries and have one left over. The zucchini fries were tasty and I would recommend the recipe from food.com. That being said, I think I beat the egg whites too much so the breading clumped on the zukes instead of coating. They're good but won't be winning any food presentation awards.

Shredded Zucchini

     I also had a bunch of green beans ready to pick from the garden. Already eating the zucchini, I blanched the green beans and froze a quart. Blanching is easy, but involves quite a few bowls, a stock pot, and a colander so get ready to do some dishes. You can find blanching directions here.
   

Zucchini Fries with some un-breaded zucchini.

Blueberry Oatmeal Bars and the Garden

     My mom and I picked a nice hot day to hike a mountain and pick blueberries. It sounds like a terrible idea, but it actually wasn't bad since there was a nice breeze up there. I always forget how long it takes to pick blueberries, particularly the small wild ones. I like to pick them clean (making sure there are no stems or leaves attached) before I put them in my container, which makes the cleaning process faster at home; just rinsing and a quick look over. These berries have so much more flavor than berries from the store and they're free, so the effort is worth it. I cleaned them as soon as I got home and then made blueberry oatmeal bars. I got the recipe from The Fat Free Vegan Kitchen blog. There are a ton of good recipes on this site for using up veggies. After the blueberry oat bars were done and the rinsed berries had dried a bit, I froze the rest of the berries whole, leaving a couple handfuls in the fridge for snacking. In the end, I froze one and a half quarts of whole berries to use later.

Blueberry Oatmeal Bars fresh out of the oven.

     Meanwhile, the garden is coming along nicely. I've picked a ton of peas (well, maybe not really a ton, but a lot). I have four pumpkins growing, as well as tiny green beans and Vermont cranberry beans. The cucumber plants are growing nicely, as are the tomato plants. The potted Roma tomato plants both have tomatoes already growing on them. The first site of small green tomatoes forming is so exciting. Finally, the herb pot is out of control. The basil is starting to flower even though I keep pinching off the tops, so tomorrow I'm going to try making pesto and freezing it in ice cube trays.

     The chickens are growing fast and I'm pretty sure I heard the maybe-rooster trying to crow yesterday. It was a pretty pathetic sound and he was doing it while hiding in a bush while the hens gathered around outside the bush looking in curiously. Apparently, he wants to practice unseen until he gets a good crow going. I can't wait till the hens start laying, but I still have to figure out what to do with this rooster.

This black chicken insists on sitting on the wheelbarrow when ever I bring it out.

Chickens found a shady spot on a sunny day.

   

Strawberries, Peas, and Chickens- Oh My!

     After about three years of missed PYO strawberries, I finally made it! I went to a local orchard with my mom and picked a flat of strawberries. She made jam because she's a lot braver than I am. I went the easy, and yet still delicious route, and mashed the berries with sugar to freeze in bags. I ended up with three and a half quarts frozen with enough left over for one bowl of berries to munch on in the fridge. I find mashing to be one of the easiest ways to preserve strawberries. I removed the stems and leaves, rinsed, cut the tops off, sliced in half, and then mashed the strawberries in a big pot (you could use a big bowl since no heat is needed). I mashed in batches until all berries were done, and then I added about 2 cups of sugar. I like them sweet but you can add as much sugar as fits your taste. After they were all mashed, I used a measuring cup to fill three and a half quart bags. I left about half an inch of head space for expansion and popped them into the fridge. Voila! Done. Today, I ate some of them poured over granola and it was delicious.

     I also enjoyed some fresh peas from my garden today. If you've never had fresh peas, you're really missing out. They are juicy and sweet, and they're really more like candy than a vegetable. It's a satisfying feeling to pop one in between your teeth and have that sweet juice squirt out. They're like healthy Gushers Fruit Snacks. The Mischievous One enjoyed a few empty pods. The Snuggler prefers strawberries.

     The chickens are doing well, although I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with the suspected rooster. Here are some updated pics.

Vegetable Garden Updates

     The vegetable garden is growing along despite the raining and chilly weather we've been having. I also lost two  tomato seedlings to hook worm, which was very disappointing. I replaced them with two tomatillo plants that my mom bought, so hopefully those are spared. The peas actually have pods on them and will be ready any day now.

The herbs are filling out nicely. I've already picked some to cook with.

Roma Tomato

Zinnias

Vermont Cranberry Beans

Onions

Carrots

New England Pie Pumpkins

Waltham Butternut Squash

Peas

Peas

Lettuce

Zucchini

Green Beans

Moskvich Tomato

Red Pear Cherry Tomato

Tomatillo

Cucumber

A New Napping Spot for the Chickens

    Although they don't want to let me get a good picture of it, the chickens have decided that in the flower garden, under the hosta is a great napping spot. They're so cute all snuggled up together. They're about nine weeks old, and I'm still thinking one might be a rooster (it's the only one with a big comb and some green tail feathers). I've switched them to organic grower feed, which they are supplementing with bugs and the wild strawberries that grow all over the lawn.

And Then There Were Five. . .

     I'm sad to say we've lost a chicken. I'm assuming it was some sort of predator (maybe a fox?), but I didn't actually see it happen. I was in our garage and heard some serious squawking coming from the outside, so I went out and saw the girls running across the yard a toward the road. My first priority was to get them away from the road. When that was done I did a count and there were only five. I assumed the sixth one had just toddled off into the woods, so I went to look for her. After a while of looking, she was still no where to be found. So now we're down to five. My husband weed whacked some of the bushes bordering the yard to give predators less space to hide near the coop, but there's really only so much we can do. Hopefully, this was a one time thing.

    Speaking of chicken, I made a yummy chicken in the crock pot this Sunday. It's was 4.5lb chicken with about 1/2cup of chopped onion in the cavity. Then I rubbed a tablespoon of butter on the outside of the bird and sprinkled paprika and some chopped parsley from the garden on top, along with the juice of one lemon. I cooked it in the crock pot for 4-5hrs. It was delicious, but as is always the case with chicken in the crock pot (at least in my experience), the chicken totally falls apart when you try to take it out of the crock. This worked out the next day though, when I used the left over shredded chicken to make pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches.

My Own Meyer Lemons!

I can't wait to harvest these lemons!