Summer fun while storing food for winter

Just like in Aesop’s fable, we need to work a little like the ants, to store our produce for winter. But it doesn’t need to be all work, we still have time to play like grasshoppers. It’s pretty easy to freeze many vegetables and fruits. If you have access to fresh blueberries, you can put them in the freezer immediately after picking, without prep. I wash them and the container they came in and then place in a plastic grocery bag. You can do the same with strawberries and raspberries.

For celery and rhubarb, just wash, chop, bag them and freeze. For peppers, just cut out the seeds, wash and let dry, then freeze in bags. The quality is reduced for celery, rhubarb and peppers after freezing, but they still have that garden fresh taste when used in cooking. Most other vegetables require blanching. That is not much work either. I am always thankful in the winter to pull green beans, Swiss chard or peas fresh from my garden out of the freezer.

To blanch vegetables, you need a large saucepan or stockpot and lid with boiling water, a large bowl in the sink with ice water and a colander. Bags or plastic containers and a marker.

Wash and trim the veggies. Place in boiling water, close lid and time. Then remove from the pan and drain a bit, then place in ice water for the same amount of time. When the time is up, remove and drain well. After draining in a colander, I place clean towels on the counter and lay the veggies out for a few minutes before bagging in labeled freezer bags and placing in the freezer.

Asparagus 2 to 3 minutes
Broccoli 3 minutes
Cabbage 3 minutes (cut into wedges)
Corn on the cob 6 to 10 minutes
Green beans-3 minutes
Peas 1 to 2 minutes
Swiss chard and other greens 1-1/2 to 2 minutes (avoid matting leaves)



The Ball Blue Book Guide to Home Canning, Freezing & Dehydration is a very good, easy-to-reference guide, and it only costs $5.99.

Reaping the rewards!

This is what makes it worthwhile. Fresh Swiss chard, celery, broccoli, cabbage, peppers, lettuce and peas.

Rhubarb cream cheese pie recipe

Ahh, the rewards of gardening. Swiss chard, snap peas,asparagus, lettuce, rosemary, sage, broccoli, parsley which I shared as tabouleh with coworkers, rhubarb, from which I made a pie. Lemon balm and peppermint, I grow just for the smell of it. Michigan has such a good climate for gardening, it's far better here than other parts of the country.
I think I've shared my Swiss chard recipe before, basically just boil or steam with red or green onions and olive oil or Balsamic vinegar or butter or just water. It is such a delicious, melt in your mouth taste. Of course you can add smoked turkey or bacon to make it a meal. If you don't have Swiss chard, find it. It is so easy to grow, except occasionally the bugs or deer attack it. You can plant it now and have it all summer long. A very good reliable food source. We love Rainbow Swiss chard the best.

Rhubarb cheese pie
¼ cup corn starch
1 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
½ cup water
2-1/2 cups rhubarb, cut in ½ inch pieces
1 unbaked pie crust, regular or graham cracker

Topping
1 package 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar

In a saucepan, combine 1rst 3 ingredients, then the water and rhubarb. Bring to boil, stirring often until mixture thickens. Pour into pie shell and bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Protect edges of crust with aluminum foil. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Turn oven down to 325 degrees.
Meanwhile beat topping ingredients until smooth. Pour on top of pie. Bake for 35 minutes in 325 oven or until set. Chill and garnish with whipped cream, and sliced almonds or strawberries.

Weeding includes thinning

Weeding is zenful, except when the mosquitoes and flies are biting. I weed in the heat of the afternoon when the mosquitoes aren't so active. I would rather sweat than swat. But, there are other solutions. We have a little portable ThermaCell that repells bugs by heating allethrin, synthetic form of natural herbicide found in Chrysanthemum plant. It works if you have it near you. I usually wear a long sleeved shirt and pants, socks and shoes when I'm serious about it. I don't like to spray on bug spray.

When weeding, it's good to use a pronged claw tool or a pitch fork to loosen up the weeds' roots near your plants. Then get down and use a hand trowel if needed. You want to be able to lift out the weed, rather than yank them. Some weeds have roots so deep or so branched out, like grass, that you have to break them. Oh well. The main thing is to allow your good plants the opportunity to get ahead of the weeds.

Thinning is a good idea too if the plants look too crowded. I try to pull every third plant. Be sure and water when you're done. Jody Headlee wrote this article for The Oakland Press, Thinning plants helps make your garden healthy

Its not too late to plant!

Broadcasting seeds is easier and more productive than planting rows for parsley, lettuce and herbs. I like to plant green onion seeds in rows, because they look so much like grass, it's hard to weed unless they're in rows. My coworker, Val the Volunteer has a planter on her porch that she planted basil in. It's close enough to the kitchen that she can dash out to snip off some leaves to use with dinner. I  have done this with lettuce in years past. Cherry tomatoes are nice to have in a planter on your patio too, to add to dinner.
Michiganders can still put plants out and plant seeds for lettuce, Swiss chard and other greens, beans and squash. Summers are long enough for two plantings of beans.

To plant a straight row, use a hoe to slide down the length of desired row or use a long string, tied to 2 sticks placed at each end. Then use that same string for every row,  putting sticks at each end of every row. For planting beans, push each seed down in the ground with a finger, 3 inches apart down the row. Then go back and cover with dirt. Be sure to make a garden map, writing down what you planted in what rows. I know it takes the mystery out of gardening, but its more rewarding that way.

Yesterday's news is today's mulch

I found this website which has an interesting way of starting a garden. Here's the link: Mother Earth News.  This is not the way we've ever done it, but it sounds reasonable and would be a great use for yesterdays' newspapers. It calls for using wet newspapers as mulch, several pages thick.
Other mulch ideas: Our neighbors used seaweed from the lake. We always use grass clippings and leaves. When we're waiting to plant in an area, we put down a couple layers of black plastic, when we're feeling smart.  I think I'll try the newspaper on our waterfall garden project that we put on hold until we can afford to finish.

Pass the peas please

We picked snow peas and had them for dinner tonight, steamed. What a treat. Ken planted them in March and then planted a second batch in April so we'll hopefully have some later. Peas like this cooler weather. It's supposed to stay cool until the weekend and might rain on Wednesday.
We've been picking asparagus for a month. My favorite way to prepare it is to roll spears in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and grill it.
Appetizer
Ham and Swiss, asparagus spirals. Pre-fry spears in olive oil, lay on a slice of ham and cheese, dollop with Dijon mustard and roll up with the asparagus in the middle. Slice into spirals 1-1/2 inches wide. Dip in seasoned bread crumbs, insert toothpick to hold each spiral together, and fry.