Garden Progressions: Onions

Empty bed, freshly planted.

 

The first tips poking up

They grow an inch a day I swear!

 

Glowing with the sunset.

Filling out nicely.

No bulbs yet!

Here they have started to fall over, though most only show the slightest signs of bulbing up.

Within a week or two, the rest have fallen.  I am waiting for a dry spell so I can harvest them.

 

The brief dry spell had arrived so out they came!

 

If you can believe it, I planted the same number of red and yellow onions this spring.  However we had a ton of rain while they were growing and many of the plants had begun to rot in the ground.  The red onions performed very poorly - very few of them made any decent sized bulb and most of them had to be thrown in the compost heap because they turned to mush in my fingers.  The yellows faired better, though I still had to compost a lot of those as well.  After a day of curing in the sun, they came inside to finish drying on my wire shelves.  All in all it wasn't a terrible harvest, though I worry about how well they will keep in this humid climate. 

 

 

Canning Peaches

On Sunday I went to the local farmers market and procured 4 tubs of ripe, juicy peaches fresh from a local farmer.  They were perfectly round and had the deepest red blush and they smelled like a refreshing summer day.  It's nice to be able to get peaches that are picked just as they become ripe because they have so much more flavor than the peaches in the local chain grocery stores that are picked green and ripen in warehouses. 

The next day canning commenced.  We started by filled the canning pot and putting it on to boil.  Next we filled a smaller pot with water to boil for skinning the peaches.  As that reached the boiling point I made up a bowl of ice water and began to wash the peaches.  Since we had a good number of peaches we processed them in batches. 

First they go into the boiling water bath for two minutes.  Next they were transferred to the ice water bath.  After a few seconds in there the skins slipped of easily.  Once they were skinned they were cut into slices which is easier said than done.  Those peaches are slippery little suckers without their skins!  When it was all said and done we had two heaping bowls of peach slices.

 

The next step involved making the syrup for the peaches.  It is really much easier than it sounds.  All I did was mix 2 1/4 cups of sugar with 5 1/2 cups water.  I stirred until all the sugar dissolved and then put it on the stove to boil.

 

Once the canning jars were ready I removed them from the water bath and we filled them with the slippery slices, packing as many as we could into each jar.  Then we topped them off with the boiling syrup, wiped the rims and put the lids on securely.  Next they went back into the boiling water bath where they happily bubbled away for the next 25 minutes. 

 

When time was up I took them out of the canner and let them cool on the counter until their lids popped, letting me know they all sealed well.  All in all we canned ten pints of peaches today....not bad for a few hours work..

 

 

Not only do I love the way these jars of beautiful summer freshness look, but I love knowing exactly what went into making them.  The only ingredients are peaches, sugar and water, and that is all I really want in the something like this.  When I open one of these cans on a cold winter night, I will appreciate the afternoon that I spent making them as well. 

The Begining of the Kitchen Herb Garden

There is a good sized patch of dirt nestled next to the house that is outlined by the porch, a shed and a asphalt pathway.  Early in the spring the snow next to the house is the first to melt and there is where I planted some peas - just after the snow melted back a little.

When they did finally come up there were only a few here and there, so I planted again when it was a little warmer.

When those started coming up I added a row of carrots to the front of them.  I also started planting out the lettuce seedlings as they started to size up enough to withstand transplanting.  They filled the upper right hand corner of the bed.  The rest of the bed was to become a mishmash of various herbs that I hope to have back every year, and some that are annuals.

 

In the mix are: Basil, Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, Sage, Parsley, Chives, Cilantro, Chamomile and Echinacea.  I also managed to squeeze about six celery plants near the lettuce. 

 

I find this little garden patch very convenient since it is just outside the back door to the kitchen.  Even while I am cooking I can simply step outside with a pair of scissors and a bowl and come back in with fresh herbs or veggies for my meal.  Doesn't get any fresher than that!

 

Garden Updates: Warm Weather Plantings

I put the warm weather plants in the ground the weekend of Mother's Day.  That is the generally accepted planting time in this area, and I was happy that the garden was ready by this time, since I had only just turned it over a few weeks before.

The peppers were a touch on the small side when they went into the ground, but they did have a couple sets of true leaves so I wasn't too concerned.  Maybe next year I will start them sooner so they have time to size up before planting.  I started with five each of red, yellow and green pepper plants.

 

The tomatoes were begging to be planted when I got to put them out.  I was afraid that if I had waited any longer, they would become root bound and go into shock when I planted them.  The way it worked out seemed to be perfect timing for them - they never skipped a beat after going into the garden.  I am also happy that I was able to put their cages in at the same time.  Had I waited long, I never would have gotten the cages around them.

 

On the other side of the tomatoes I put up a bean trellis, cucumber cages and a row of squash.  All of these were planted as seeds and seemed to have a hard time getting started this year, probably due to a cold spell that hit the week after I planted everything.  We actually had one last snow flurry near the end of May that didn't damage any of the actual plants, but may have killed off the sprouting seedlings in this bed.  Only four bean plants came up and only one squash.  I had to replant the entire section of the garden with beans, cucumbers and squash....I even had to replant one of the squash hills a third time because I must have used some old seeds.  Needless to say, this end of the garden got off to a late start this year!

 

Garden Updates: Spring planting

These are a handful of pictures that I took after putting the first plantings in the garden.  I believe they were taken in early to mid May.

 This section of the garden was planted in potatoes with eight Purple Majesty, eight Red Norland, and four Yukon Gold.  The seedlings I planted were sprouted potatoes that weren't eaten this winter because they started to grow in the pantry.  They were long and gangly, but that didn't seem to stop them from taking off once they were in the dirt.

 

Next to the potatoes are the onion sets.  I planted three rows of red and three rows of yellow and they all came up nicely.

 

The last thing I planted in that early garden was the brassica bed.  I ended up with five Broccoli, three Brussel Sprouts and one lonely Red Cabbage  - all started from seed in my living room. 

 

The warm loving plants had to wait a few more weeks before they were hardened off enough to plant out.  Winter was taking it's sweet time giving way to spring this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garden Updates: Take One

Seeing as it is now midsummer and I am just now able to catch up of garden updates I thought we could go back in time a bit and see a few garden progressions - you see I was still taking pictures for my own records.

So here goes:

I ended up creating an odd shaped garden this year due to having to leave some decorations in place for the time being.  The main section of the garden is 10x15 feet with a 10x5 extension on the side.  Eventually it will become a 20x15 rectangle or a 20x20 square.

Pulling up the sod was the hardest and longest chore of getting this garden started.

It took me a few weekends and a shovel, but I did it.

 

After the sod was gone I spread a few bags of mushroom compost over the area to give it a little boost.

Finally I turned over the dirt one final time with my trusty shovel.

 

I am trying to make a point of not using any gas powered tools in this garden to see if I notice a difference in the soil quality.  I have read that rototilling is good for the initial turning over, but may create a layer  of hard packed dirt under the soft layer that plant roots have a hard time pushing through. 

 

I think I will be spoiled by this soft, dark Midwestern dirt.  It is definitely a contrast to the hard packed clay I had to deal with in the mountains.

 

 

 

So it's been awhile....

I apologize for the long stretch between posts.  I decided to try a contract free internet service for a few months and I realized that it wasn't what I wanted.  It limited my gigabytes so uploading pictures and blog posts would have become quite expensive very quickly.  I am happy to report that I now have a regular internet service and will continue with more regularly scheduled blog posts once again.  And now back to our regularly scheduled programing......