Well, it’s been a cool, wet summer which is great for some things and not-so-great for others. We’re up to about 35 quarts of canned maters which is behind where we were last year but the cool weather has really slowed the ripening process (maters like HOT weather, for sure.)
However, peppers (hot and sweet varieties) seem to be doing a-okay and our onions were knock-outs this year. We harvested them about a month ago and let them “cure” in a hammock in the garage lined with a fine netting to let air circulate through them. This curing process helps them keep later in our fridge.
Overall we ended up with about a bushel and yesterday we cut the tops off and brought them inside. Look at these beauties, as photographed by my wife (more of her terrific photos HERE.)
Yesterday, I also collected corriander seeds for next year’s cilantro plantings. We also picked a couple dozen poblano chili peppers and today we’ll stuff them with an amazing concoction we came up with last year before roasting them.
But there’s more! Yesterday, Mrs. E. bought a couple dozen ears of fresh Michigan sweet corn which she then roasted on the Weber grill over lump charcoal and, along with another dozen we’ll do today, will give us nine 3-cup bags of roasted corn in the freezer for corn chowder, salsa and many other nommy meals throughout the year. It’s the easiest thing in the world to do and is so much better than the frozen corn you buy in the store as to be laughable. Green Giant eatchyer heart out!
Today I’m making the filling for vegetarian pot pies (garden carrots, garden kohlrabi, fresh Swiss Chard, early Michigan taters [not ours this time] and frozen peas from our spring crop in a delicious veggie gravy.) We’ll freeze these so we can whip up a quick veggie pot pie with little effort throughout the year.
Our jalapenos are looking mighty fine and the intensive composting we did in the spring has resulted in plants that have HUGE peppers, up to 20 per plants. They’ll be converted into our famous stuffed jalapeno poppers, also destined for the freezer.
What else? Oh, yeah, Mrs. E also roasted about eight striped eggplants which will be made into an Indian dish called Baingan Bartha over the coming year. Today I’ll turn more of the eggplants into breaded disks which we’ll freeze for making eggplant parmesan using our homemade pasta sauce made from our garden tomatoes (of course.)
Me likey harvest weekends…
I’m just sayin’…
