Hard Freeze Warnings for Tonight and New Babies at the Farm.

I just got back this week from Palm Springs.  Nights have been 39 to 40 degrees, quite a difference from Palm Springs weather.  Starting last night I picked 30 lbs of green tomatoes, cut all my herbs, picked the tomatillos and covered the cabbage, beans and pepper plants.  Hopefully we will have some warmer weather for a while so I can get a good batch of beans before Thanksgiving.  I really only need one more good week.  Plants are full of blossoms. 
We also have 8 new baby ducks at the farm.  Our Mallard female got together with a mallard male and a Peking male, so we have a mixture of black and beige ducks.  One baby seems to be almost all white and the others look like Dalmatians! It will be interesting to see what they look like as full grown.
With the cold weather descending on us, I made a pot of hearty Butternut Squash Soup with coconut milk and ginger with a bit of spice.  Sort of a Thai theme. Recipe below:
1 large roasted butternut squash, peeled and cut into small pieces
4 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp. minced ginger
salt & pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, mashed
1/2 cup of red lentils
1.4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Cook the above ingredients in a crock pot oh high for 4 hours.  Add 1 can of lite coconut milk and stir to combine.  Use an immersion blender to blend until smooth, adjust seasonings to taste. Serve with crusty French bread and Chardonnay! Yummy

Fall is finally here!

It was 98 degrees yesterday with humidity in the 60's and today after thunderstorms all night, fall has finally arrived.  Crisp 70 degrees this morning and all the animals are happy! 
I picked all the apples this morning and will make sauce.  Last year we had more apples and pears than we knew what to do with them and this year I only yielded half of a 5 gallon bucket.  Crazy!

Tomatoes are still doing great since we had Indian summer weather, up until yesterday.
I have to make Salsa Verdi today, I am making a batch of Gazpacho for dinner.  I'll serve it with spicy grilled shrimp, yummy!

Kitchen reno going slowly so I am freezing as much as I can.  Spinach, chard and roma tomatoes are all going in the freezer.

Updates on Reno soon.

Fall planting with 100 degrees? Let's make salsa instead!

Its moving toward mid-September and its been over 90 for the past two weeks.  I have processed at least 40 lbs of tomatoes, and made salsa enough for a year in a Mexican Restaurant.  We will be able to enjoy tomatoes for the entire winter.
But, alas, the heat won't help my cool weather planting.  Its too hot to plant my greens, beans and cauliflower.  I'll just have to wait until the weather breaks.  I am busy running events for my day job anyway, but when I get back next week I'll have to start picking my apples.  I ate one yesterday, right off the tree and they are just about ready.  Another two or 3 weeks will do it.  We could use some rain too.  No new tomatoes are sprouting and all the green ones are ripening at the same time.  Too many at once!!!!  We'll be eating tomatoes 24/7!
Along with the crazy weather, we are renovation our home.  Steve has removed two walls in between the living room, dining room and kitchen.  We now have a true Open-Concept house. He is now busy building custom cabinets, our sink, pot-filler and faucet will be in this week.  Now to pick out the counter top and have them come and make a template. Ouch, its all expensive when you do so much at once.  Thank God we have free labor.
Our mallard duck has begun layer her eggs.  I have moved 4 of them this week, under the road runner nesting chicken.  We'll see in 3 weeks, we may have more babies this fall.
We now have 3 male ducks and 1 female.  Two males are pekins, you know, the Aflac ducks, and one male is a mallard.  One of the white ducks wants the female, so he keeps chasing the male mallard away.  He is being terribly obnoxious and we have to go out there and yell at him to make him stop. Crazy ducks. The other white duck is sedate as he lost his mate to a critter awhile back.  He just follows every other bird we have.

Here is the salsa Recipe I used last weekend:
4 lb. ripe red tomatoes
2 tbsp. lime juice,
2 fresh jalapenos, seeded and diced
2 tbsp. fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin, ground
1 small onion, minced
1 fresh garlic clove, minced.
I threw all ingredients into the food processor and pulsed, adjusted seasonings (like add more jalapenos if needed) then pulse until chunky but blended.  This makes 1 quart.

What a harvest after being away for a week!

After being gone from home a week, I walked through the garden and picked what was ready.  Steve picked at least 20 lbs. of tomatoes which I cleaned and froze the night I got home.  We have at least 40 lbs. frozen so far for winter! Yummy!
So, this is what I picked the next day during my lunch break. three cucumbers, 12 peppers, both sweet green and yellow banana, 1 pie pumpkin, 1 lb. of broccolini (rapa), 1 lb. of spinach (vine type),
a cantaloupe, an eggplant, 12 tomatillos and another 10 or so tomatoes.
The squash bugs have devastated my zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkin and now cucumber plants. Buggers.  There were thousands in the garden about two weeks ago.  I planted mint and sprinkled organic dust, but too late.  We'll have to make it through the winter with the 40 lbs.
 we already harvested.  Ha! Ha!  Who could eat more in one winter?  In the area where all the squash plants were, I will till and plant my fall batch of cauliflower and green beans.

I have to walk over to our satellite garden at Jim's next door to see what needs to be picked there. I also have to go check the rest of the grapes.
I did check the satellite garden.  The squash still looks good there and I just picked two 2 lb. zucchini.  I also picked another 10 lbs. of tomatoes and 2 large beets.  As I swung on home I passed the grape vines and picked two more pounds of grapes.  This weekend I will make my concord grape jelly, peach jam, from the peaches I picked on our tree and tonight I better make another batch of Tomatillo Salsa Verdi.  Yummy!

Satelite Garden doing just fine

Now that we have two gardens, we have been weeding and mulching much more!  The top photo is our satellite garden just after weeding and mulching with hay.  Two rows of tomatoes, one  row of squash, zucchini and summer, two rows of carrots, one row of beets and one row of winter squash and melons.
This year we tried growing tomatillos for the first time.  How interesting and beautiful they are.  The plants look like tomatoes, many tiny yellow blossoms appear, like dots on fabric.
 Then  Japanese lanterns appear, hovering just below the bright green canopy of leaves.  They grow bigger and more opaque.  The fruit will grow in them.  So cool and pretty!  Like their own protection from pets.
The last photo is of one garlic bulb I dug out to see how big they were.  The two red ions were left over from last years and got lost in the weeds. Little surprises.  The garlic will be ready soon.  Now that we have some sun, the onions are really taking off. 
The last part of the weekend was spent digging out nasty hay in the duck stall and laying new fresh bedding for them.  They are very happy now.  While I was working one of the hens came in to see what I was doing.  She quickly disappeared under the huge pile of fresh hay.  As I scooped up a bunch with my rake, she came with me, got a quick ride,  then hopped and ran off.  She left me a gift though, a bright blue egg!

Next Garden Project - we are building an ARK

Drought last year in Missouri devastated many crops and farmers had a very rough year.  This year we have so much rain, our fields are flooding.  Can we get a bit of a break without extremes please?
This past week we received so much rain, our tomato plants were turning yellow.  This past weekend, we dug up all the tomato plants, engineered bigger and higher raised beds and replanted all the tomato plants.  A lot of work, but we hope to at least get half the yield we hoped for.
The squash and cucumber plants all look really good but if they don't get sun now, the blossoms will whither and drop off.  Two days of sun between rain days would be ideal.  I'll keep praying for that.
At least I have an excuse not to be out there weeding.  Much too muddy, my boots weight 50 lbs after walking 10 feet! Great work out for the legs though.
I have to say the ducks are in heaven.  They don't know where the pond ends and yard begins because its all under water! Ha Ha!

Summer has arrived early

This is my usual morning pick before I go off to work.  With the weather less wet and a lot more warm now, we have 90 degrees in the afternoons, my strawberries are ripening as fast as we can eat them. I have never had strawberry shortcake 3 times in one week before. I am NOT complaining.  Now I will save the rest for Jam!
Asparagus is coming in nicely, although it was slowed down with the drought last year.  Its like we are back to picking for the first year instead of the second full spring of picking. I will freeze a bit too, to have for the winter.  Especially since I have found a fantastic and delicious way to make Quiche that has been one of my favorites this spring.  It would be great in winter too.

French Herb Cheese & Asparagus Quiche:
1 pastry crust, cooked in a 9 inch pie pan
1/2 cup French Herb cheese (see recipe below)
1/2 pound of asparagus, cut in 2" pieces and blanched until soft  .
6 eggs
1 cup cream
salt & pepper to taste
Place cooked asparagus pieces in bottom of crust.
Combine eggs in a bowl and whip by hand while counting to 80. Add salt & pepper to taste.  Pour eggs into pan, over asparagus.  Drop small dollops of French herb cheese (about 1 tbsp. in size) in  egg mixture until distributed evenly.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Check that crust does not get too brown, cover with foil if needed.
The French herb cheese gets bubbly and delicious.  I serve this with a mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette.  Outstanding but light. Oh and a glass of chardonnay too, of course.

French Herb Cheese (borrowed from one of my favorite cookbooks) Beyond Parsley by KC Junior League. Fabulous book.  If you ever see a copy, pick it up. Timeless and classy recipes.
1 8oz. pkg cream cheese
6 tbsp. softened butter
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1 dash of Tabasco or other hot sauce.
(I add 1 tbsp. minced fresh chives as well)
Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.  Chill remaining cheese for another time.