Harvest Monday - July 30, 2012

Kiwi is sneaking a a Victory Freezer pea just seconds after I dumped them on the table. 

I gave him this one and then I put him in the living room on the window sill to snack on it.

I had several little helpers.  My son and Kiwi both thought that they needed to shell peas.  My son was a great big help.  Kiwi was not although he was very cute to watch.

My daughter was all excited about the new oven mitts I made.  I should not go into the Bernina shop in the old Main Street area.  It's a fun little quilt shop, I think it's called Stylish Fabrics or something like that.  I purchased the patterns, two fat quarters, the rick rack, hobbs 80/20 batting, and the insul-batting. Now I'll be making some more for Christmas gifts ...

My son said it looked like an angel.

Just having fun with the 50 mm lens.

Here they are all spread out on the silpat in the cookie sheet.  This way they freeze individually.  I don't blanch them before.  I learned this from Stoney Acres. They are so tasty this way.  If I get a craving for something sweet, I can just grab a handful of frozen peas.

 I like to cover them up before I pop them into the freezer just incase someone tries to dump them on accident.

I also picked 12.5 lbs of green beans.  Thankfully my husband helped me snap the ends off.  I'll be canning those this afternoon. I grew one 15 foot row of wax beans and 90 feet of Jade Bush green beans. They are my favorite green bean after trying several different types.  I will get two more pickings off the plants before the grasshoppers mow them to the ground.

 Where has this summer gone?  At least we have plenty of fun memories.

BHG Photo Contest

I've entered this photo of my garden in the BHG Garden Photo Contest.  

(BHG as in Better Homes and Gardens magazine)

Will you VOTE for my photo please?

Go HERE

You can vote once a day from July 9th-July 20th

You can help even more by sharing the link on your facebook page or Twitter.

I'd definitely put the $2000 in prizes to work but I can't do it without your help.

Thanks so much! 

Today's harvest

It's been so hot that I just didn't want to risk this cabbage bolting so I harvested it today.  It's supposed to be 97 degrees.  

And this romaine lettuce was just about a day away from inedible.

I grabbed some Little Finger carrots while I had the floating row cover open.

I love the texture of the carrot leaves.  

I cut the leaves off the carrots and put them in this bag and in the fridge to chill so that I can use them in stir fry tonight.

The cabbage weighed 1000 grams or 2.2 lbs

My garden this week

The asiatic lilies that I purchased on clearance last year have bloomed and they are gorgeous.  I just wish that they lasted longer. The nice thing is that each year there will be more and more.

The ground cover is looking beautiful. 

The lettuce did really well.  The carrots are so yummy.  And this year is the first time I have harvested garlic scapes.

I added them to my roasted potatoes and it was a perfect addition.

They are delicious and by harvesting them from the garlic plants the garlic are supposed to get bigger. 

Putting the romaine lettuce under the floating row cover made for more tender and bug free lettuce. 

The snow peas were so sweet.

The Summertime lettuce is small but very tasty.

And Kiwi is enjoying the snow peas and making the biggest mess of my windows. I clean them every couple of days.

Quite the hike

We hiked 3.9 miles in and 3.9 miles out.  It was beautiful.

  

 And luckily on the way out we found a little bit of snow.  It worked great to cool our heads off and keep up going.  My children did really well and my littlest never asked to be carried which made it so much more fun!