Apples Abound

With apple season starting, Jack and I went to a local pick-your-own farm on Sunday. One of the first apples to pick happened to be my favorite, Honeycrisp. Jack was so excited he could barely contain himself. He needed to sample every piece of fruit he grabbed which left about half the apples we brought home with teethmarks
(which is why applesauce was invented, I suppose). I always assumed that pick-your-own would be cheaper than buying in a store and I guess it is when buying small quantities but excitement overtook us and when Jack and I finished 15 minutes of picking, we filled a bushel. 1 bushel=20lbs x $2.50/lb = $50. In addition to this, we walked over the nectarines and picked 15lbs of some of the largest most delicious nectarines I have ever tasted. All done, we had over 35 lbs of fruit at the low price of $74.

Fearing the apples rotting before we could eat all of them, I decided to make and can apple sauce. Not really knowing what I was doing, I pulled a recipe from my canning book and Charlotte and I started . Next time I think I wont peel and core them as the food mill will take care of removing the skin and pits.

Apple Sauce

Apples - peeled, cored and chopped (about 8-10 lbs)
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp Cinnamon

With a minimal amount of water, we cooked the apples for 20-30 minutes and then ran them through a food mill. Once we had apple sauce, we added 1/4 cup sugar and 4 tsp Cinnamon and brought back to a boil. After canning and processing, we had about 5 pints and 3 half pints of apple sauce.


Determining the ripeness of watermelons is more magic than science as I am finding out. First melon was underripe due to my over zealousness. Now that I am too cautious, two small melons went ripe and rotted on the vine. In checking the pigtails opposite the melons, they were still green and alive so out goes that trick in determining ripeness. In fear of losing the last large melon, I inspected it with a critical eye and noticed pitting on the rind. The pigtail just started to turn brown but was still mostly green. Although I wasn't sure, I picked to to prevent the pitting from getting worse. As a dessert to the lamb dinner, Jen and I cut the melon and it was ripe!!! Although it was not deep red as expected, it was extremely sweet, so much so that I ate 1/4 of the melon. This leaves me 1 more softball size melon on the vine.

As for garden itself as the fall starts, I finally did manage to build the retaining wall for the upper bed. 6 - 8 foot 4x6's and 16-12"galvanized spikes later with two helpers, the wall was in and the walkway was leveled. Jack and Charlotte took turns with my hammer and drove the spikes in. Jack gave me pointers on how to shovel the dirt and Charlotte ate all the ripe tomatoes she could find. Now, with the top bed done, I need 3 more 4x6s to build the edge of the bottom bed which will have to wait until the tomatoes are done. In addition to this, the old fence and gate broke yesterday so I will need to rebuild that as well.

With a few days of very cool nights and wet days, the tomatoes went into ripening overdrive and the cherry tomatoes started splitting. 3 plants have given up all of their fruit and what fruit is left is still small. The only exception is the cherry tomatoes. They seem to still be as loaded with fruit as they were in the spring. Radishes are beng picked almost daily and the beets are growing well. The golden beets however are still strugglingwth maybe 10% germination.

Slow Braised Lamb Shanks

2 lamb shanks - cut to bone at base of shank
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion
4 celery stalks , rough chopped
4 carrots - unpeeled, rough chopped
1 Tbsp tomato paste ( i used one peeled, seeded garden tomato)
3-4 sprigs rosemary
1 head garlic, top cut off
3-4 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup red wine or sweet wine ( I used sherry)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In either a roasting pan or dutch oven, heat oil until hot. Mix flout, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper and dredge shanks to coat well. Braise shanks in pot/pan on all sides for 3-4 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside. Add onions, celery and carrots. Cook for 2-3 minutes stirring to ensure they don't brown or burn. Add back the shanks settling them in one layer ( if possible). Add chicken stock, wine, garlic, rosemary and tomato paste to cover 3/4 of the lamb. Bring to a boil, stir, cover and place in the oven for 4 hours. Every hour, turn the lamb and ensure there is enough liquid, if needed, add more stock.

Once done, remove lamb to plate and cover with foil to keep hot. strain liquid to remove all veggies, and heat liquid thickening to coat spoon for the gravy. Thickening can be done by blending some veggies or using flour whisking briskly as the liquid is returned to a boil.

I also pick through the veggies to pull out the carrots to serve as the vegetable. They are "stewed" and full of flavor. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes (garlic reserved from the pot).

Food Harvested:
Wilson's Sweet Watermelon
Radishes (red globe and white icicle)
Tomatoes (all types)

Things Planted:
None

Seeds Saved:
Wilson's Sweet Watermelon

Preserved/Cooked:
Canned Apple Sauce
Braised Lamb Shanks (from local farmers market)

Things to Remember:
1. Build new fence and gate into garden area
2. Ready cucmber area for SSE garlic planting
3. Devise way to walk in upper bed
4. Find organic solution to powdery mildew

Fun Canning

Jen has finally backed down to 20mg of Prednisone but her symptoms are coming back. On top of that, the side effects of the meds are not being too nice. It feels like we are right back to where we were 5 weeks ago.


We ended up back at the Hillview Farms for round three of blueberry picking. With Jen not feeling well and me on a mission to have enough berries to can, we were focused and determined and in the end, successful. It is truly amazing how much blueberries kids can eat!

• Trip #1: 5 lbs
• Trip #2: 7.5lbs
• Trip #3: 6.5lbs

After some time reading and waiting for the mason jars, I finally decided to try making my own blueberry preserves. It took more time than I realized but all said and done, we now have 10 1/2 pints of hopefully tasty preserves. Not having all of the right utensils, I made do with two large soup pots for the water bath. I first started with one but the recipe I used yielded more jars than would fit in one water bath.


Blueberry Preserves
(makes 1-8oz jar for every cup of berries)

• 10 Cups fresh blueberries
• 5 cups Sugar

Mix blueberries and sugar in a large stainless steel pot and let sit for 15-20 minutes. Slowly bring to a rolling boil stirring constantly. After 15 minutes, turn heat off and use a chilled spoon to check gelling. If OK, then can, if not, boil another 5 minutes.



Watermelon plants are starting to take off. It is hard to see if there are any small watermelons yet and I suspect rabbits are ensuring there are none. Zucchinis are still growing too quickly to pick or use. It is amazing to me because there is only 2 plants.

Its Not Really About the Carrots....

I tried carrots and beets for the first time and I did not have great germination. The carrots are heirloom from France and the beets are golden. Reading on a few different news groups I was happy to read that Golden Beets generally germinate poorly....that made me happy....isn't that sad?

As for the carrots, I companion planted with white icicle radishes and I think in my want to have too much, I never thinned any of its resulting in poor carrot germination and too many radishes that had all lead growth and little root development. From what I can understand, overcrowding and not thinning creates competition for light so they put their energy into reaching for the sky and not in their roots.

As a result, I have few carrots and what I do have I needed to thin. So I decided to pull one hoping that would be enough. I know it wont but I can hope for now. To my surprise, I feel like I just birthed a 9 ton rhino....I grew an orange carrot....too small to do anything with but it looks like a carrot!!!

String Bean and Red Onion Salad

• 3 lbs String Beans
• 1 red onion halved, sliced thin
• Olive Oil to coat
• 2 Tbsn Rosemary

Blanch the string beans in salted boiling water for no more than 3 minutes. Drain, add thinly sliced onions, olive oil and rosemary. Toss well to coat. Refrigerate until dinner.

Cuke are still doing well and I finally got a lemon cuke. These are about 2x the size of a golf ball and look like a pale lemon. They are tasty though. Jen and I ate one and there are two more ready to go

After some time, I finally picked up the stuff needed for canning. I am excited and being sort of dorky about it. I bought the Ball Book of Canning and the Joy of Pickling. I am going to try my hand at pickles and blueberry preserves. We did this once before but is was a half cocked try about 7 years ago with raspberries but it didn't turn out too good. Hopefully this go around will be different.

It has been so hot here this week and with Jen still feeling the same, out came as many indoor things to do as we could manage. We have had many babysitters over the last two weeks and anything creative is welcome. Jen finally got her MRI results and they were all clear (thank goodness!!) but there still is no answer to the dizziness. Hopefully as she comes off the Prednisone, it will gradually improve.