Winter Gardening

I spent this weekend working in the basement again.  I did some cleaning but most of the weekend I spent putting together a new plant stand.  I brought the stand in December when Jung had their Dollars Days.  I waited until the basement floor was done to assemble it and it was fairly easy to put together.  The wooden plant stand in the second bedroom just could not hold all the plants I start from seeds. 

Sunday, I planted two flats of petunias and put them on the heat mat.  I found time to start my 2013 Seed database.  This allowed me to determine which seeds I still need to order.  I will be ordering German Pink Tomatoes, Black Krim Tomatoes, Chocolate Beauty Pepper, Forkhood Acorn Squash, Table Queen Acorn Squash, Cheddar Cauliflower and Graffiti Cauliflower.  I will be trying these new varieties Black Plum Tomato and Lemon Mint Herb this year.

2nd Weekend in March: Mother’s Day was only 9 weeks away.

Mother’s Day is my starting date for planting the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant outdoors.  So I pulled out my seed tray starter kit and started planting them.  I have 6 trays sitting on my heating mat set for 75^oF.  I hope to see tomato seedling in the next 7 to 14 days.  The eggplant and pepper will sprout a little latter.

Here is my initial seed starter list for 2012.

Tomatoes
Brandywine: These heirloom pink tomatoes are large and taste great.
Black Krim: It is a little hard to tell when they are ripe.  The area around the stem may still be green and the lower section is a dark red (almost black).  This is my favorite for a bacon and lettuce sandwich.
Pink German: Pink Germans can weight up to 1 pound.  It does not take many of them to fill a quart canning jar.
Celebrity: A large perfect round red tomato.  This tomato is not an heirloom but it does produce well but not as flavor full as the three above. This tomato has been bred with resistance to many of the viruses that attack tomatoes.
Delicious: Another hybrid tomato which is a medium round size and colored red.
Green Zebra: When this tomato is ripe, its skin is yellow and green striped with green pulp inside.  I heard some say it taste like an apple but I do not think so.  To me still has the tomato taste but less acidic and not as rich as a red tomato.  It is nice to have different colored tomatoes to add visual appeal to a cold salad dish.
Gold Metal: A large yellow tomato with red streak in the pulp.  It is less acidic than the red and has good flavor.

Paste Tomatoes
Amish: After I told the guys at work that I started my tomatoes seed, one of them requested that I saved some Amish Paste for him.  He commented that they make a nice smooth thick tomato sauce.  All my paste tomatoes do not look like anything you can buy in the store.  Amish paste get about 4 inches long and about 2 inches wide.
Opalka: This is a new type for me and the description state 4-6 inch long with few seeds.
Federle: Another nice paste tomato about 4-6 inches long and 1-1½ inches wide

Cherry Tomatoes
Chocolate Cherry: This cherry tomato is large about ½ to ¾ in diameter.  The color when ripe is a dark reddish brown and has a nice mix of acidic and sweet flavoring.
Sungold: Pop this golden cherry tomato in your mouth and you will get a wonderful sweet rich flavor.  It is the taste of summer.

Tomatillo
Green Husk: Last year this plant grew to 7 feet high and it had the biggest tomatillo I ever seen.  The biggest were at least 2 inch across and produced tons of fruit.
Dr. Wyche's Yellow: When this tomatillo is ripe it is a little yellow color and tastes very sweet.  It only grows to about 5 feet in height.
Purple: Another 7 feet tall plant, the fruit has some purple coloring on the skin.  It grows to about an inch in size.

Sweet Bell Peppers: Orange Bell, Chocolate Bell, Purple Beauty, Early Sunsation Hybrid (Yellow), King Arthur (Fat’n Sassy, Red), King of the North (red).  All the peppers except Purple Beauty and Early Sunsation are green until they ripen into their color.  They can be eaten green or wait until they turn color.  The peppers are sweeter when fully mature.  The red is the sweetest with chocolate next.

Hot Peppers: Early Jalapeno and Ancho Girantea both are great.  I add roasted Ancho to green salsa made with tomatillo from my garden, and boy that was good!

Eggplants
Udumalapet: This egg shape fruit is a bright yellow and purple striped when ready for picking.  The fruit ranges from 2 to 4 inches in length.
Rosa Bianca: A nice round fruit and I picked it as big as 8 inches.  The prefer size for grilling is 4 inches.  I cut it into slices and brush on a little olive oil with some salt and pepper.  Melted provolone cheese on it and add fresh tomato, lettuce, onions and some vinaigrette on it and serve it on a toasted bun.  Mmm!


This coming weekend I will be sowing my cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli.

Eggplant Sausage Casserole

 Eggplant Sausage Casserole

Ingredients:
1 lb medium tube pasta
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cube
2 lbs turkey Italian Sausage without casing.
1 large onion chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup fresh basil, minced or 1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon paprika
1 15-oz carton ricotta cheese
4 cups (16-oz) shredded mozzarella, divided in half


Directions: Cook pasta according to directions and set aside.


In a large skillet cook Italian sausage over medium heat until no longer pink, drain off fat and set aside. In same skillet add olive oil and sauté eggplant, onion and garlic until soft. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, basil and paprika. Bring to a simmer, cover the pan and simmer for another 15-20 minutes. Now stir drained pasta to skillet and then mix in the cooked sausage.


Oil a 13”x9”x2” baking dish and spread half the sausage mixture into the pan. Spread half the ricotta cheese over the mixture then sprinkle 2 cups of the shredded mozzarella cheese over it. Repeat the layers a second time ending with the mozzarella on top


Bake casserole at 350F for 40 minutes. Let the baked casserole stand at room temperature at least 10 minutes before serving it.


Makes 12 servings.


Here another recipe my Mom gave me.  It is an easy way to use eggplant in a meal.  I reduce the fat in the recipe by using non-fat ricotta cheese and low-fat mozzarella.  This is a simple easy casserole to prepare and tastes great! 

Labor Day Weekend

Over Labor Day Weekend, I was planning on spending just Friday canning tomatoes but things changed and I spend the entire weekend preserving food. I started by collecting the last of my 2009 whole canned tomatoes and reprocessing them into 6 quarts of tomato juice. Then I took 10 quarts from the 2010 whole canned tomatoes, made vegetable juice from them for a total of 8 quarts. On Saturday at the Dodgeville Farmer’s Market I brought large chili pepper for a Canned Tomato Salsa recipe I found on Simply Recipes web site. The recipe says it makes about 5 pints but I got 13 ½-pint jars of canned salsa. The previous weekend I tried Simply Recipes Tomatillo Salsa Verde and it was great. I used my new pressure cooker to can this salsa.

Once I finished with the juice and salsa, I started roasting tomatoes in the broiler, removing the skins and placing them in quarts jars to can. I roasted both paste and regular tomatoes and ended up with 7 quarts of each type. I still had some tomatoes left some I roasted them up and made “Hot and Spicy Chili Sauce” to use on hamburgers and sausages. This gave me 15 ½-pint of chili for my pantry. Then I pulled the last of the 2009 strawberry and rhubarb from my freezer and made jam for a total 3 pints of strawberry and 12 pints of strawberry rhubarb jam.

In between all the canning I did find sometime on Labor Day to wash the basement floor and apply hydraulic cement on possible leaks in the floor. Next Monday I can start painting that section of the floor.

I still want to roast another 5 quarts each of the paste and regular tomatoes before I call it an end to the canning season.  I am still picking bean, broccoli, zucchini, eggplant, and peppers and freezing them.  My winter squashes are dying off and soon will be ready storage in my basement pantry.  The gardening season may last until the end of the month if I am lucky and the weather remains mild.

The House Projects

This weekend I spend most of my time putting up vegetables from the garden. I cut the two “Cheddar” cauliflower heads and filled two Ziploc gallon bags for blanching. I spent Saturday morning freezing the beans, cauliflower and broccoli. I also prepared beet greens for freezing and cooked the beets. I save some beets for eating this week but the rest of the beets were pickled and canned for a total of 7 half-pint jars. Sunday morning I made 7 pints of canned dill pickles.

After getting that job done I found time to put the first coat of paint on the northeast corner of the basement. Putting the first coat on the wall takes the longest since I needed to painting over all the spray-foam and foam-board insulation between the cement wall and first floor. The next three coats should be a lot easier since I one coat usually covers the foam.

The rest of the Sunday I spent sowing “Detroit Red” &“Detroit Golden” beets and “Chantenay” & “Baby Nantes” carrot. I used boiling hot water from the food processing to kill weeds in the stone paths. I used some of leftover flowers from Farmer’s Market to fill in holes in the garden and composted the rest.

I also had the back deck on my “TO DO” list. I have a small area on the left stair riser left to sand. One week ago the heat wave broke and I spent that Monday home working on the deck. My upholstery teacher lent me her Black and Decker Mouse sander. The sander has attachments which allow you reach in the tight areas. I got all the deck done in 8 hours last Monday with only small area left to hand sand. The weather is going do cool down after Tuesday so I might take more time off to finish it.

Area that needs to be hand sanded.

Harvesting the Garden

This last weekend none of the house projects were worked on, I spent all the weekend picking blanching, freezing or baking.  I pulled up the pea vines and froze my last 2 quart for the season.  I was picking beans all week and froze approximately 6 quarts of whole beans.  Cucumber started producing this last week, so I made my first sour cream and dill cucumber salad.  I been trying to find a dill pickle crock pot recipe yet if you would be willing be share one, please do.  The summer squash is going crazy and my refrigerator is loaded with them. 

I had one zucchini get too large so I shredded it up and had enough to make 4 zucchini breads.  I prefer to pick zucchini between 6 to 8 inches long with a diameter of 1 to 1½ inches.  I made my favorite zucchini dish which is a zucchini quiche. 

You can use a frozen 9-inch pie dough but I prefer to recipe from 1,000 Lowfat Recipes which I referred to in the “Caramel Apple Pie” blog.  The original recipe suggested that cheddar cheese or Swiss cheese but I prefer using a Reduced Fat Baby Swiss Cheese made by Country Connection.  It is made in Wisconsin’s driftless area.  It is the only reduced Baby Swiss Cheese I found in a block.  I do not like pre-shredded low fat cheese in the grocery stores.  It tastes terrible so I always looking out for low fat cheese in block form.

Many zucchini quiches recipes puree the zucchini but I like them thinly sliced and then sauté.  It gives the quiche body (adds more fiber to the dish).  Here my version of the dish.

Zucchini Quiche

9 inches unbaked Pie shell

8 slices bacon

3 cups unpeeled thinly sliced Zucchini (pick 6 inches with diameter about 1 inch)

1 medium thinly sliced onion

4 eggs

½ cup evaporated non-fat milk

2 tablespoons fresh marjoram, chopped

¼ cup fresh basil, chopped

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups reduced fat Baby Swiss Cheese (I like Country Connection brand, it is the only reduced Swiss cheese I can find in a block)

Cook bacon until crisp, cool on paper towel and crumb it.  Using the bacon dripping sauté onions until soft then add zucchini and cook until soft.  Set aside onion and zucchini mixture.

Preheat oven to 425F.  In a large mixing bowl break open the eggs and beat until smooth.  Add evaporated milk, white pepper, salt, basil and marjoram.  Beat until mixed.  Add onion and zucchini to egg mixture and fold it in.  Fold in Baby Swiss Cheese and bacon to mixture.  Pour it into the pie shell.

Bake at 425F for 10 minutes, then turn down the oven to 300F and bake for 50 – 60 minutes or until center set (knife or toothpick come out clean).  Let quiche sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 serving.

Adaptive from the The Zucchini Cookbook by Paula Simmons

My Vegetable Plants must be on Steroids



View from Driveway

My vegetables are just huge this year.  My tomatillos are 7 feet tall this year.  I never have seen them this tall.  

Paste tomatoes are tied to the bamboo on the right
and the tomatillos are to the left.

The winter squash is moving into the garden path.  I have no idea why the plants are so much bigger this year.  All I used in my garden is compost and 10-10-10 fertilizer. 


View from the shed and you can see the squash moving into the path.

The previous two week we were in a drought along with the heat wave and I starting to wonder if I get any winter squashes since the fruit was falling off vines.  We finally got rain last weekend and the fruit is now setting.

Juvenile Butternut

Juvenile Pumpkin

The weather was cooler this spring which really helped the pea and Brassica.  Last year was the first year I tried to grow cauliflower and only ended up two very small heads between 3 to 4 inches.  I decided to try one more time and I am glad it did.  Friday I will be harvesting two cauliflowers heads that are about 12 inches across.  They not the normal white colored heads these are called a Cheddar Hybrid and they are the color of Cheddar cheese.


Cheddar Hybrid Cauliflower

 The cooler weather may have kept the pest bug in control allowing the plant get establish.  Whatever the reason I am graceful for the good fortune.