Harvest Recipes and updates

The garden is most certainly dying back. The only things left out there to keep harvesting is some Kale and Swiss Chard. For the last week or two here in Michigan the day time temps are hovering in the upper 40's with the lows right around freezing. I pulled a few items that were left out in the garden. As some of you may recall, it appears I had planted my watermelons too late in the season and they are just now starting to ripen up. A few of them probably could have stood to ripen more but the frost and freezing temps weren't going to be lenient with me.

Along with the watermelons, I actually picked some more tomatoes, peppers and a big surprise, a small head of cauliflower. After my spring crop of broccoli and cauliflower failed to produce anything resembling heads, I kind of planted my fall crop with a defeatist attitude. Granted, I didn't pay them much attention due to expectations but lo and behold, I spotted a white head when I was going through and pulling up plants. The family and I ate it with dinner the other night and it had such a sweet end note to it. Not at all like what you experience with most cauliflower from stores. It actually renewed my interest in them and I am considering trying them again next year. The flavor was that good. 

Another thing that I had harvested was the heads from our Mammoth sunflowers. The stalks grew over 12 feet tall and the heads of the flower were bigger than dinner plates. I gave a sunflower head to my neighbor who actually planted the seeds and helped grow them throughout the year and another to our neighbors on the other side who had expressed interest. I still had 3 giant flower heads for myself. 

I'm not even sure if this does them justice or not but they are certainly large. So what to do with all of those seeds? Roast them and eat them, of course! Actually, I did save a few seeds for replanting next year. Although, I have heard that the 2nd generation of the mammoth seeds do not grow as big because they revert back to some of the original genetics (assuming that the mammoth seeds are hybrids). We shall see! Here is a fun site that shows you how to roast the seeds. 3 ways to roast sunflower seeds. There are also fun flavoring suggestions in there. I just did mine as a salt and pepper mix. Here is my finished product. There are a lot of them. 

Tasty!

And with harvest season also comes Halloween which for most households in America includes carving pumpkins. But before you can carve, you have to clean out the pumpkin. I always wait in anticipation after cutting a hole in the tops of the pumpkins because I want to see how seedy the pumpkins are. The seedier the better because I love to roast and eat the pumpkin seeds! And why not? They are a nutritious and quick snack and super easy to make. By taking them out of the pumpkin, you are already doing half the work. This year I made one batch of cinnamon and sugar seeds and one batch of salt and pepper. But there are many different flavor combos and I suggest you experiment to find which ones are your favorite! Easy pumpkin seed roasting instructions found here. 

Unfortunately our pumpkins didn't yield a lot of seeds this year. That is ok, I will enjoy what I can get. And just for fun, here is a picture of the pumpkin I carved! 

I hope I encouraged you to save more of the seeds in your yard and garden for eating and snacking. They are readily available and a good for you snack. Until next time, happy snacking! 

It's been a month. I apologize.

What has happened this past month? No blog posts after doing at least one a week for most of the summer? It can be summed up with two thoughts. My garden has been pretty slow and I've been lazy. That's about it. Oh sure, I've still been picking some green beans, tomatoes and peppers here and there. But outside of that? Not a whole lot happening. Until this weekend that is! 

About a month or two ago I had ordered a bunch of bulbs (flower and garlic) and seeds (flower) for the yard in spring. This past week I received the garlic bulbs (Early Italian) and 3 sets of my flower bulbs. Those included 100 wildflower bulbs, 20 Royal Tulip bulbs and 6 Purple Allium bulbs. This past Saturday was gorgeous with sunny and 75 degree weather so it was a perfect time to get out in the garden and plant some things in prep for the spring. 

The first thing that I did was clear out the old and dead squash plants from the summer. In their place, I dug some trenches to plant out some garlic. 

This is just one trench of 4 filled with garlic. Each trench has 10-12 cloves of garlic which should each turn into their own bulb. In other words, if things go right, I'm going to have a lot of garlic. Yay! 

Now, before I filled those trenches back in and covered the garlic with the dirt, I went over to my leaf pile and compost pile with my big 50 gallon bucket. My leaf pile has sat for a full year. I had a pile that was about 6-7 feet tall and 3-4 feet across last fall. Over the course of a year it has reduced down and formed something called leaf mould. Or this. 

Now that may not look like anything special to you but that black dirt under the layer of leaves is like black gold to a garden. And after a years worth of waiting, I finally get to use some! I filled half of the bucket with the leaf mould and half with my compost that I made over the course of the summer. I have a nice pile of that as well. 

With my bucket full of some of the best stuff you can give your crops, I put a layer on top of each garlic bulb before I filled the dirt back in. I used this same process when I put all of my flower bulbs in the ground. Every thing gets a healthy boost of compost/leaf mould. This should get the plants off to the best start they can have come spring. 

Another thing that was done this weekend was harvesting all of the basil from the garden. And there was a LOT! I didn't get a picture of all of the basil on the stems but I did spend a good hour or so stripping leaves off. But I did take a picture of what I spent all morning making with it. 

First, all of the picked leaves.

Second, a couple POUNDS worth of homemade pesto. 

I would post a recipe for all of you but there really isn't an exact one for me. My recipe consists of: A few handfuls of basil, some olive oil, fresh grated Parmesan and some nuts. Repeat as necessary while blending and everything breaks down to create more room. And freeze. Pretty good stuff right there. 

I'm still eagerly awaiting my other flower bulbs so I can get them put into the ground. I'll try and keep everyone updated a little better! Until then, Happy Gardening!