New produce and preserving the garden's abundance...

We spent about 7 hours at the farm yesterday and the garden is really in full swing now.  I am always surprised at how fast our cuc's and squash grow, but this year has been crazy so far!  I actually bought
some yucky old cuc's at the store because I wasn't expecting to have any until next week.  We are trying a new variety this year called Poona Keera.  It is an Indian heirloom and is really fantastic.  Not only is it early, but supposedly it never gets bitter.  It has a firm and tasty flavor.  The only bad thing would be the skins get a little tough as they get older so they are best picked when white or yellow.  Here is a pic of them...

We are pretty well prepared for the "Why are you bringing bad cucumbers to market" comments (I would have been among those people 4 or 5 years ago!).  Thankfully our regular customers are some pretty cool cats who are OK with trying some unusual stuff.  I think they look cool as heck!  The whiter one has a less tough skin.  You can see a little brown on the ends, but it is still tender.  The ones in back taste great as well, the skin just needs peeled.  Supposedly if you let them go they will turn all brown and look like a potato.  The texture is really firm, almost like a zucchini that tastes like a cucumber so we think they will make great pickles. 

We also harvested a bushel of chard for market this Saturday.  That is the most we have harvested so far, and we sold a lot of it but had some left over.  I really didn't want to waste it so John made some quick refrigerator pickles from them.  He didn't season them at all, as I do not like pickled beets seasoned, just vinegar and a very tiny amount of sugar.

I can't wait to eat these on salads and sandwiches!  We forgot (again) to take pics of the garden while we were up there but we are going up again this week so I will do my best to remember.  The difference between the garden now and a month ago is incredible!  I will leave you with a pic of our garlic harvest this year.  Some of them are cut off, but most of them are in the pic (please ignore the messy yard and un-weeded yard! Lol!)

Garlic Scape Jelly

Soo I wanted to post about this earlier...you know like when garlic scapes were still in season ;)  But you can easily make this with regular garlic which is now coming into season.  I just used the recipe in the Ball canning book but did not roast the scapes and added a tbsp. of fresh chopped rosemary.  It is really yummy and the rosemary really adds that extra special yum quality!  Pour the jelly over some cream cheese and serve with crackers.  Delish!!  This makes a great last minute gift or hostess gift as well :)

Canning in early spring...

Is your supplv of of home canned goods getting low?  Or are you antsy to get canning again?  Well I have a secret for you!  Your local orchard may have cold storage for their apples.  We are lucky and have a year round farmers market about an hour away.  They sell apples all year long there so I picked up some cheap b-grade apples to make some apple sauce with.  Now I am sure you can guess these apples are not really the best...I mean not the best as in not as good as they are right off the tree in August...but they are more then good for canning.  I also paid next to nothing for them!  Are you unsure of where to look for these?  Just call up your local orchard.  Pickyourown has a great list of pick your own farms in your area...you can start there or just google it!  There is also an apple sauce recipe here on the same page.  If you have never checked this site out I highly reccomend looking around.  Lots of canning recipes and info as well as the info on pyo farms!

A thing or two about canning....

So this may not be the most enticing picture to convince people to can their own stock for soup but believe me it is worth it!  We used to just make stock and freeze it or use it right away but that took up too much of our freezer space.  We finally purchased a pressure canner at the beginning of this year and this is one of the few things we have canned with it. 

This is a really convenient thing to have in the winter when you want to make some quick soup. 

What a great guy!  He does all of the pressure canning...I am still afraid it is going to blow up in my face!

Have your kitchen clean and everything you need at hand...

Better than money in the bank (well almost)!

If you are interested in canning buy the Ball Blue Book on canning and preserving.  I made the mistake of trying to get all my info off the internet but people leave too much out!  I bought this book at Menards for $7.00.  Well worth it!  The best online resource is http://www.pickyourown.org/ although you still should have the book handy too.