The Non Lazy Days of Summer, August 28th, 2016

We are almost into September and every weekend for the past month has been centered around the garden, hence the tardiness in blog posts.

We tried something new with our kale these past few weeks.  We made kale chips by simply chopping up the kale, mixed it in with oil, add some seasoning and salt, and placed it in the oven. 

Though it looks unappetizing, these kale chips were quite tasty. Though very oily.

We started picking our broccoli at the beginning of August and have had it for meals, and dehydrated some for camping trips. We only got 3 heads of cabbage this year, so we decided to make our pickled cabbage with 2, while the third went to Marianne's Mom for her epic coleslaw . We also recently ate one of our first leeks, had the occasional carrot, potatoes, some sweet corn and onions.
For the first time ever, our tomatoes, which include beefs and romas, do not have late blight.  We are in the midst of canning salsa and tomato sauce as I type this.

Though summer is all about sweet corn, don't overlook this gem! SMUT!  Fried in butter (below image) it tastes like sweet earthy mushroom corn!  YUM!!

Our fruit trees continue to grow, and all our strawberries, brambles, and raspberries are picked, made into jam, and the plants tidied up for the rest of the season by removing old growth off the plants.

A day of canning jam.  From left to right: Bramble, Raspberry, and Strawberry

In the greenhouse side of things the lemon cucumbers we experimented with met our expectations. They taste good, but we will have to plant more next year to get enough for pickling. Our peppers are turning out a lot better being grown in a greenhouse over the garden outside.  We have had a few bell peppers and some of the jalapenos so far have went into our salsa.

Lemon cucumbers.  They are about the size of a tennis ball.

Speaking of canning, we have canned every weekend since our last blog post. Here is a run down:

July 23rd: Jam out of Strawberries (21 pints), Raspberries (21 pints), Brambles (12 pints)
July 24th: Pickled beets (14 quarts) which was half of the crop
July 31st: Jam out of peaches (13 pints) not our peaches, Blueberries (9 pints) not our blueberries
August 6th: Pressured canned the rest of our beets (25 quarts)
August 13th: Pressure canned 16 quarts of yellow and green beans
August 14th: 10 quarts of pickled cabbage
August 18th: 18 pints of pickled green beans
August 27th: 14 quarts of salsa
August 28th: Pressure canned 13 quarts of green beans, canned tomato sauce (15 quarts)

Pickled cabbage mixed in with peppers and onions

In other news our chickens are beginning to lay their first eggs which is perfect timing since we are on our last dozen from last year. 

Unfortunately, our cat Stoner seems to have left us for good.  However, our female named White had 2 kittens.  They are now up on our deck playing and living the good life as kittens only can.

Our new kittens.  Any ideas for names?

We are almost into September, and besides tomatoes, the peppers in the greenhouse, squash, and the continuing kale, we are pretty much at the peak for the garden.