UPDATE: Garden 2014

So here is our garden for this year....

It's bigger!

It's badder!!

It's all ours!!!

Above is the plan we created while planting.

We used the "Carrots Love Tomatoes" plan and adjusted it where necessary.

Some plants we already had planted in other areas of the yard, so we

weren't able to adhere to it very strictly.

The above shots are of our red and white potatoes.

The metal bin at the back is actually filled with spare soil.

Potatoes need to be mounded as the get taller...so we save

some dirt for that purpose.

Red and white onions in the above shot.

Many jalapeno plants as some other hot peppers at the front.

Our field of tomatoes!

There are 24 plants in this area, some romas and some hertiage varieties.

While I am loving not hauling water, the tomatoes are not loving all the rain we've been having.

Can you see the leaves that are yellowing at the back?

Heritage white corn...we grew it last year and saved the seeds

for this year!  Looks like it worked!!!

(we found the wood under our pile of logs for the campfire...

nicely repurposed to keep the weeds down)

Directly to the left of the corn are our two sweet potato plants!

We tried growing sweet potatoes once in 2011...

it didn't turn out then...so we thought we'd try again!

The last time the plants spent the whole growing season just trying to grow leaves!

The bunnies thought the leaves were mighty tasty...so the plants never got a chance to grow tubers.

Our yellow zucchinis are starting out great!

The green zucchinis...not so much...

We dismantled a black composter...and filled them with dirt.

The sides have slots...so you don't have to worry about the plants drowning

in rain water!  Score!

Our pumpkins...with one sad trellis...

I have to get me some T bars and do these

trellis thingies right!

The radishes are coming along...

The beets are shy.

We planted dill with them (as per the book)

and the dill likes the bed...

NOW WAKE UP BEETS!!!

Our cucumber machine makes its triumphant return.

We had such a great year with cukes last year.

We're taking a small break and only planted about a dozen of them this year.

Our kale seems to love it here!

The swiss chard on the left hand side of the bed...not so much.

I want to make kale chips so badly...

mainly so I can see what all the hype is all about...

\

Above shows our salad bar!

We have 5 different packs of lettuce and salad greens sprinkled

in this bed.  We forgot almost instantly what kinds we planted...but does it really matter?

SALADS!

Our spinach bed is pretty pathetic right now...

Hopefully it will make a come back...

or a decent fall crop from a second planting...

We have 2 rows of peas this year...cuz why not?

No seriously...we love peas.  

Especially sitting in the garden eating them straight out of the pod.

Each year we plan to store some in the freezer...and sometimes we actually do!

This year I am determined to get a whole large freezer bag full!

We also have to get to work on trellises (or is it trelli!?) for these peas.

Pea plants have a tendency to fall over and grow in the dirt.

We saved beans from last years crop.

We have no idea which beans are which...

but in this bed are green, yellow and purple wax beans.

Finally we have our acorn squash.

Again with the sad trellis...

So I've been pinning a TON of trellis ideas.

I will be posting soon with the results of my adventures into trellising.

(Trellising?  I have no idea...but you'll see some cool stuff for sure!)

I have to admit...last year we didn't plan much.
In fact, I made the mistake of having a few libations while planting seeds.
The result was that I had no idea what I planted and where.
(Laugh all you like)
It was a surprise when everything started growing...which was funny for about a week.
(oh who are we kidding...I'm still getting ribbed for that!!!)


Don't forget to send me your garden love!
I want you to post photos of YOUR gardens on my facebook group and page.
Lets celebrate our accomplishments together!!!

Cornmeal and Jalapeno Bass with French Fries and Beans

I've loved growing things for quite a few years now...but I've discovered that growing a thing is only half of the challenge.  What do you do with that thing after its grown???  Well, you eat it obviously...but its the eating of things that I've always had problems with.  I never liked cooking...I avoided the kitchen like it was a torture chamber.  I suppose that's one of the reasons why I married a chef.  This past summer, I spent a lot of time at home with my 3 yr old son Owen, while my husband desperately worked 3 jobs to keep us paying those bills.  I had plenty of time (and not much money) to consider what was going to be on the table when dinner time came along.

So this is the introduction to the other portion of this blog...what do you do with these things once you've grown them!?!?! 

There will be future posts in which I will discuss my new found obsession with eating locally, the 100 ft challenge and other things of this nature, but mainly we were quite broke and I needed to discover a way to make delicious meals with everything we grew in our garden.  I guess on some level it was a way to become as self-sufficient as possible on the budget we were attempting to live on.

Last night we started the freezer eat-out....well that's what I like to call it....simply put...we freeze most of the things that come out of the garden...and at some point we have to start eating it before it gets freezer burnt!  The garden has been almost completely emptied...so the thought of going to the grocery store now is actually painful for me to think about.  We have subsisted for several months now mainly on garden fair...so I dipped into the freezer for an outstanding meal! 



cornmeal jalapeno bass with french fries and green and yellow beans

Here is the dinner fare for last night...I'll break it down for you:

Cornmeal Jalapeno Bass
Bass caught on Holleford lake (less that 15 min from our house) which equals a very small carbon footprint!
cornmeal bought at the bulk barn
Jalapenos grown in our garden

standard flour/egg wash/cornmeal dip in that order
diced jalapenos (seeds removed because I'm a spicy wussy) added in the cornmeal dish

fried then baked for 10 min each

This is where I get to explain what I started this blog about.  We grow jalapenos every year.  This year we ended up with 15 jalapeno plants that seemed to yield about a basket EACH!  But here comes the problem I face.  No one in our family eats these things...but my husband.  So how do you prepare and serve something that no one eats?  Why do we grow these things?  These are questions I began to ask myself during this past summer's unemployment.  I rose to the challenge of finding something to do with these little fellas.  I scoured cook books and magazines.  I trolled the internet on sites like cook.com and allrecipes.com.  Eventually this fish recipe came from my huband wanting to make cornmeal jalapeno pancakes for the kids and I one weekend.  (i have no idea where he got that recipe...but he's a cook so it could have been from anywhere)

I love the crunch that cornmeal brings to the fish...which we normally fix up with breadcrumbs we make.  Evena  spicy wussy like myself was loving this recipe.  The peppers gave a hint of heat...but not too much.  The flavour of the pepper was able to be tasted without the taste buds getting burnt off.  I will definitely try this recipe again! 

French Fries
We didn't grown potatoes this year, but we do subscribe to a local "good food box" program.  You pay the month earlier and each month you get a blue bin sized box full of fresh, mostly local, often seasonal veggies all for $15.
I hand cut my taters for french fries as I feel like its a more nutritious solution to store bought freezer fries.  Hand cutting fries is a major time consuming endeavour...that's pretty much the only downside...but I'm unemployed with all kinds of time to cut fries...haha...
I toss them in sunflower or canola oil and kosher salt, then bake them at 425 degrees C on a stone.  about 25 min does the trick.

Green and Yellow Beans
We grew three colours of beans this year...green, yellow wax and purple.  We discovered that when you cook the purple beans...they turn green again!  So purple is purely for fresh veggie platters...
When the beans are ready to pick, I usually pick them every few days.  Each day I bring them inside, wash and pat dry.  Then I get a pot of water boiling for the blanching process.  I'm very new to this process...as the first year we froze beans, I didn't bother.  The result was awful tasting...and almost turned my step son off beans altogether (and he'll eat almost anything!)  I now blanche my beans as we pick them...if we aren't goingt to eat them right away.  They freeze wonderfully and I love seeing the bright summer colours on my plate when the weather turns cold.  Like an extra boost of vitamins!  When freezing beans, I fill the large freezer bag about 1/4 full...then press out the air and press the bag flat.  I freeze them flat, then after I have a couple of flat frozen bags, I'll empty them into one bag for storage.  It may seem like a bit of work...but its way easier than using a pick axe to separate the block of beans you'd have if you just filled a bag to the brim with fresh, unfrozen beans.  (we've had to do that too....learning from experience is fun!)

NOT SHOWN:  Home made quick n dirty tartar sauce...
-mayo
-sweet relish
-dill from our garden
-lemon juice
-salt n pepper to taste
-optional:  capers diced

SIDE NOTE:  we served the kids the cornmeal bass...but added the jalapenos for the filets that my husband and I ate.  When my 3 yr old Owen decides he's had enough beans, we always remind him to eat them all up...saying the green ones give him Hulk power and the yellow ones are Wolverine power.  Don't ask me why, but if you give cool names to veggies, your kids will have no problem wolfing them down...