Morning workout, digging up potatoes and onions

With the temperatures still in the hundreds and even at 6:00 AM it is 80 degrees, it's the best time to get out early to finish my digging. Purple, red and white potaoes and white, yellow and red onions.
All dug and set out to cure.
They say theres a chance of rain tomorrow.  The tomato plants have stopped growing and are looking pretty crispy, even though I water them everyday.  Melons are still okay for now. 

What amazes me is my oriental long beans are still thriving.  Every morning I go out and there are new 12 inch long beans appearing that were not there the night before.  They seem to grow in 12 hours.  I get about 1 lb a day.  Definitely worth planting twice as many next year.  These thin long green beans are excellent in stir fries.

The Fish are desparate, send rain!

Our pond is down to the last 12 inches or so.  You can see the fish flopping and the ducks have refused to go near them.  We need rain.  Severe drought conditions persist here in Missouri and 26 other states. Over one hundred degrees expected for 10 more days at least.
Veggies are surviuving because I am watering daily.
Cantalopes are ripening but lost most of the watermelon.  They split in the heat, so I had to toss them to the chickens. 
Cucumbers and tomatoes are prolific!
 I made Gaspacho last weekend that was just to die for:
2 cups Veggie juice
4 lbs red tomatoes, diced
1 medium cucumber, diced
3 jalapenos, diced
1 small red onion chopped
1 large clove garlic
2 TBSP lemon juice
1 TBSP Tabasco
1 TBSP fresh basil
1 cup diced yellow or orange tomatoes
1/4 cup diced cucumber
salt and pepper to taste

Place 1 cup veggie juice in blender with the first 5 ingredients.  Blend until pureed.
Pour into a glass bowl.  Place final cup of veggie juice and next 3 ingredients in blender and blend.  .  Pour into bowl with the rest of the pureed ingredients.  Stir to blend, add the diced tomato and cucumber and adjust seasonings.  Chill in fridge for at least an hour.  Soup is even better the next day!

Hot! Hot! Hot!

It's a constant battle to get enough water in the garden these days.  The temps have been over 100 for at least a week and no relief in site for the rest of this coming week.
Steve has already adjusted the fountain in the pond, which is now a 10th of it's original size.  Poor fish, they're jumping around so much they are scaring the ducks.  The ducks have been tramping across the yard in search of a new pond and found the chicken's water trough.  So they took over at the trough and are miggling with the chickens, too thristy to care.  We may have to scoop up all the fish by this weekend.  No rain in the forecast.
Tomatoes are still okay but all the summer fruit and veggy plants have edges of brown.  One day without water will kill them.  Racoons are in the garden, at night,  eating a lot of tomatoes, they are probably thirsty too.
Please send rain!!!!!

Zucchini as big as a bat!

Summer means lots of zucchini.  These are actually some of the smaller ones 3-4lbs but we are also picking some that are huge!  Everyone makes jokes about having too much zucchini, but we love it.  I'll just have to be creative and can a lot for winter. Zucchini pickles? I don't have a recipe but I bet I can find one!
I knew my fellow bloggers would come up with some good recipes:


Cream of summer squash

Green sunburst squash (a basket full)
2 large baking potatoes
2 large yellow onions
4-5 bay leaves
vegetable broth (1 quart or 2-3 tbsp in water)
Water as needed
silken tofu 20 oz - you can also use regular tofu or dairy cream (optional)
Chopped fresh dill
2 tbsp light yellow miso
1 tsp white pepper
olive oil for sautéing
add salt to taste

Coarsely chop onions, potatoes and summer squash, sauté in hot olive oil and add bay leaves – sauté for a few minutes and add broth, water. Cook until all veggies are tender and allow to cool. Add the rest of the ingredients, remove the bay leaves and blend to a smooth thick soup. Add optional tofu or cream. Add more water or veggie broth if it is too thick. Add salt to taste and white pepper.

(if you have an immersion blender, remove the bay leaves and blend warm or hot, careful!)

        

Recipe: Millionaire Relish

MILLIONAIRE RELISH
Makes 24 1/2 pints and can be halved

3 quarts (12-14cups)zucchini
3 large onions
3 red peppers
3 green peppers

Put vegetables through a grinder w/course blade or finely chop after
peeling and seeding. (I left the skin on the zucchini)

Cover with 1 1/2 cups pickling salt and 16 cups cold water.
Let stand overnight or for several hours. Drain and rinse well with
cold water.

Add:
4 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp tumeric
2 Tbsp mustard seed
1 Tbsp celery seed
4 cups vinegar

Mix well and cook for 5 mins. at a bubbling boil.
Mix 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup vinegar and add to mixture to thicken.
Continue to cook another 5 mins.

Pour into sterilized jars and process in hotwater bath for 5 mins. If
you use larger jars, process for 10 mins.

I will be busy over the weekend!

Time to harvest the spinach

Spinach is ready to be picked. The spinach vine and the regular spinach.  I've been picking some regular spinach all along, but now it's ready to be picked, soil ammended and something replanted there.
Swiss Chard is also piling up.  I have to pick that too.
This morning as I was turning on the sprinklers I noticed that the green beans have been ripening.  I picked about 12 beans and this weekend I should start having some daily.
The spring peas are in too.  Snap peas greeted me when I went to the north side of the garden to check out what was happening.   I had to did up some more garlic also. Nice huge garlic clustures.  Should be enough to last me at least a year.
Steve mowed the back pasture on Sunday, and stacked the hay in the stables out back. We have two stables full of hay.  Good thing because I will continue to use it as mulch in the garden and have to clean out the chicken coop once a month now.  It takes plenty of hay to fill the coop since it's 10 feet by 20 feet.  Plenty of space for our 30 hens and Mr. Rooster.
 

We were visited again by the goose family.  Mom, Dad and two babies spent the day at our pond on Sunday. 

Spring Harvest

From the top: Garlic, Asparagus, Strawberries and Radishes being harvested this week. Spinach and swiss chard is not far away.

Hens now 4 months old!

Sometime in July they should start laying.  E-mail me if you want to get on the fresh egg list. Customers taking a dozen on regular intervals get them first!