Link Love

Now that I've had some time to settle in and get caught up on the latest happenings online, I've found a handful of links for you to peruse this weekend. Enjoy!

• First up: Sweet and Savory Tomato Jam from Food52. I've never had tomato jam, but this one makes me want to try it!
• Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Pardon me, I may just faint. 
• Wait, what? Ricotta Ice Cream!
• I would love to make one of these quilts, with patches from all of the National Parks. 
• We don't have a glut of eggs yet, but we did get 7 from the ladies yesterday. So, this article on preserving eggs just might come in handy soon.  
• Forager|Chef: a new-to-me blog that makes me hungry. Really Hungry. 
• Roasted Figs with Goat Cheese and Honey! Oh hell yes.

Finally- a question for you, dear reader: What do you want to see more of? The gardening season is definitely starting to wind down; preserving will take over for a while, but even that is short-lived. Before we know it, Autumn and Winter will be here and with them comes "inside time". I want to make sure that this place stays relevant for you, so please, take a moment to leave me a comment here or on Facebook- I want to know how you pass the time during the winter! 

Pickle Verdict: WIN!

I'm really impressed with the Bread & Butter pickle recipe that I wrote about last week. Everyone who has tried them raves about how great they taste... and those zucchini pickles? Fabulous! The flavor of the zucchini still comes through, and they're a tiny bit milder since I skipped the onions & garlic. The only criticism I have of the zucchini test batch is that they're really squeaky when chewed! How funny is that? The cukes aren't noisy, so I'm not sure why these turned out that way.

Another thing I really like about this recipe is that my test batches were made as refrigerator pickles and not canned, but both the zucchini and cucumber batches picked up the flavor and were ready to eat in about a week. So, if you're not really into canning a whole batch (the recipe calls for 6 pounds of cucumbers!) it's worth making a little batch of brine and going the fridge route.

The original recipe is from The Big Book of Preserving The Harvest, by Carol Costenbader. The recipe I'm sharing today varies slightly from that, based on adjustments I made after trying the test batch.

6 pounds cucumbers, sliced 1/8th inch thick
1 large white onion, quartered and sliced 1/8th inch thick
4 cloves garlic, also sliced 1/8th inch thick
1/3 cup salt
Ice cubes

In a Very Large bowl (or two Large bowls), combine the sliced cukes, onion, garlic and salt. Mix well, and cover with ice cubes. Let stand for 3 hours. (In case you're wondering why: This step draws out some of the moisture from the cucumbers, as well as reducing any bitterness they may have. It also mellows the bite of the onion and garlic.)

For the brine:

4 cups white vinegar
3 1/3 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 1/2 Tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1 1/2 Tablespoons brown mustard seeds

In an 8 quart saucepan, combine the brine ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. While this mixture is coming up to temperature, drain and rinse the cucumbers, onion and garlic. Let them drip dry for a little bit, to get out any extra water.

Once the brine comes to a boil, add the drained veggies and reduce the heat. Simmer this together for 5 minutes. After the time is up, pack your pickles into sterilized pint jars and top off with brine, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Put on the lids and bands per the manuafacturer's directions. Oh, and the original recipe says it yields 7 pints... I got 7 pints (which I canned) and a quart (fridge). Your mileage may vary...

If you want to can your pints, it's a 10 minute waterbath at sea-level; be sure to adjust for altitude if needed. Otherwise, let them cool on the counter for an hour and then put them in your refrigerator. I let mine rest in the chill box for a week, to let all of the flavors meld. Since this is a new recipe for me, I have no idea how long they will last as refrigerator pickles- but I can tell you we'll eat all of them long before they can spoil. They're *that* good.

For the zucchini- I just subbed that in for the cucumbers, and because I wasn't sure about how the texture was going to turn out, I skipped the onion and garlic. Now that I know they'll hold up, I'll try another batch according to my adjusted recipe.

What's your favorite pickle recipe? Come share it over on Facebook!

Friday Photos

Good morning and Happy Friday! I just found out that there's a news crew coming to film at the farm this morning, so I need to hurry over to get things tidied up before they get there. The fund-raising goal wasn't met, but there's been some extra publicity in the local media lately, so perhaps that will help save the farm. Cross your fingers!

Apples, apples everywhere...

Tiny rabbit in the weeds

Reflections of a car show

First egg from one of the new girls! (The darker of the two)

One of my friends at the farm

Zucchini: Pickles in Progress

What did your week look like?

Gadzooks

I've kind of been chuckling at all of the photos of zucchini that people are posting on Facebook... it's that time of year when, if you turn your back for a moment, all of a sudden you're knee-deep in summer squash. I think there are worse problems to have, personally, but these plants can easily overwhelm you with food if you don't have a plan.

We eat as much of it as we can as it comes in. I think the easiest way to make them is to just cut them in half, brush them with some olive oil, sprinkle on a little salt and pepper, and then toss them on the grill. Cut side down first, and then flip them over... it takes maybe 5 minutes total to cook them, depending on how big they are. Take them off the grill when they're just tender, grate on a little parmesan (or hard cheese of your choice- I also like romano or asiago) and serve. Tasty!

It just keeps coming!

My go-to for dispatching large piles of zucchini is to break out the mandoline and the dehydrator. Slice the squash about 1/4 of an inch thick, and arrange them on they dehydrator tray so that they're just barely touching each other, but only one layer thick. Let them dry until they start to crisp up; it takes about 12 hours or so, depending on the humidity where you are. I usually dry mine unseasoned for cooking, but my mom likes to eat the chips as a snack, so this year I'm going to try a seasoned batch to see how they turn out. 

Today, I've decided to take a stab at pickling some. Last week, I made a test batch of bread and butter pickles with some cucumbers I'd picked, based on a recipe from The Big Book of Preserving The Harvest, by Carol Costenbader and they turned out to be fantastic. So good, in fact, that now I want to see what happens with zucchini. That's another great thing about summer squash- if you experiment and don't like it, it's no big loss. So, keep an eye out for the post on that, next week. (It'll go in a jar today, and I'll give it three or four days to rest in the fridge before I try it...)

What do you do with all of your incoming zucchini?

Friday Photos

Curious!

The softball-sized wild bunny who is currently terrorizing my garden. 

Rat's Tail Radish flower. At least the rabbit doesn't bother them!

Tiny frog in the rhubarb- barely an inch long, if that. 

Sweet little lamb at the rescue.

This guy was my shadow, on orientation day.

Yellow zucchini- the first one this year!

Mmmm, raspberries!

Golden Laced Wyandotte and Rhode Island Red pullets. They're moving in with the big girls this weekend!

Taking the time to recap the week in photos is an easy way to keep track of how a garden is performing from year to year- it's much less work than keeping a journal! Looking back at my photos from last year, I can see that we're about a month behind where we were at this same point in time. We've had more rabbit damage, cooler temperatures and more rain than last season, but far fewer cabbage moths and a bumper crop of strawberries.

Have a great weekend, everyone, and don't forget to take a few minutes to snap some photos of what you have growing, if you haven't already! While you're at it, share them with me over on Facebook- I'd love to see what you have planted.

Catching Up

It's been pretty busy over here; first we went on vacation- we've been taking a trip out to Glacier National Park in Montana every year, since 2008. I can't get enough of the place... it's like going home every time we go there. We spend almost the entire time hiking; this year we logged just over 60 miles for the week. Whew!

     
When we got back, the garden (as expected) was in full swing. My mom housesits for us when we're away (THANKS MOM!!) and she did her best to keep up with everything. There was, however, a zucchini hiding from her:

                Feed Me, Seymour!

So, as soon as we got back, we had to hit the ground running. I picked, blanched, and froze three pounds of green beans, and have been cycling pounds of zucchini through the dehydrator. I also had to scramble to get the apples that were starting to fall, and canned up some pie filling and applesauce. Blackberries are off the charts as well, so many pints of jam were canned up during the week after work.

Now the pears are here. I picked a bunch the other day and I'm just waiting for them to ripen a little bit more before I can them. I'm thinking I'll put them in a medium syrup with vanilla... mmm.

Plums are also on the way- the tree is loaded and I'll be up to my ears in those in another couple of days. I've scavenged the few early ones and have them soaking in some vodka; I'll give them about a week, and then strain out the spent fruit. A shot of that, plus a little simple syrup in a glass of seltzer makes for a nice treat after all this hard work!

True to form, my tomatoes are just putzing along. I have 3 (would be 4 but I ate the first one) reddish ones on the vine, and oodles of green ones just taking their time. I'll be stopping by the farm stand down the road tomorrow, to see if they have any uglies boxed up and ready for sauce. I nabbed a flat from them last week ($18 for 10 pounds of organic heirloom beauties!) and had a batch of sauce in no time. I like using my crock pot for stuff like this; I can put it on in the morning before work and when I get home it's pretty much ready. Beats standing over the stove all day- it's still too warm here for that!

What's your favorite thing to put up for the winter?