Oranges, Oranges, Oranges!

The oranges are coming in well this year despite the several hard frosts we've had.  The naval oranges came in first and I've been working diligently to preserve them and give them to family and friends.

I've been trying various ways to preserve the massive amounts of oranges we get because orange juice doesn't maintain very well nor freeze very well. Dehydrating worked well but, took too long and when rehydrated they were pretty tasteless.

I attempted a short cut to Orange Marmalade that I found on YouTube...basically cutting up the oranges and putting them through the food processor.  Yuck too much pith...and it took forever to jell. So, I tossed that batch uut I then went the tried and true method of peeling the oranges and juicing them after peeling.

I wanted to try and see if I could use every part of the orange and found a recipe for candied orange peel.  After boiling the peels several times to remove the bitterness, I  cooked them in a simple syrup and tossed with sugar.  I then put them in the food dehydator to dry.  Very good treat.  If you want less sweet, omit the tossing sugar coating . 

6 lbs of oranges made 8 jars of marmalade, 11 jars of jam, and 1 jar of orange simple syrup (I'm thinking for iced or hot tea). Compost bin got the pith.

Next week...Orange Curd and Orange slices in syrup.

Canned Tomatoes

My Super Marzano paste tomatoes came in and ripened so much faster than the other slicer tomatoes.  I purchased a new dehydrator earlier this summer and I am absolutely loving it! It's a Sedona digital 10 tray contraption that is programmable and very quiet.  Anyhow, I began drying the paste tomatoes and decided to can both the tomatoes I froze for sauce last summer and the fresh ones coming in.

Thawed and Peeled Pineapple Tomatoes

I stumbled on a tomato jam recipe and tried my luck. Actually turned out pretty good. I pureed the tomatoes and cooked them down with cinnamon sticks, a bit of lemon zest, sugar and pectin.

Tomato Jam

I also canned chopped tomatoes in tomato juice.  Had I known that canning the tomatoes in tomato juice required a 45 minute boiling water bath I'm pretty sure that I would have opted for plain water and 15 minutes as warm as it was outside.

Of that batch only 5 of the 8 sealed correctly and I ended up having to refrigerate them.  That night I went on Amazon and purchased a Pressure Canner...enough is enough.

I've got a new batch of tomatoes this week, so I will try out my Pressure Canner and see what happens.

Finally!

After a 6 month winter, my growing season is finally here.  This was the weirdest spring we've seen in a long while here in Sacramento.  So much so that I had actually thought about not growing a garden at all this year.  The poor little tomatoes I dropped in the ground in May struggled with the many wet storms and cold weather.  Just when I was ready to give up summer hit us like a brick and in two weeks my garden went from pitiful to plentiful.

I planted corn on a whim this year although I've always believed that it's not worth the garden space that it takes up.  I planted white against the back fence and yellow on the side.  Yes, the two are way too close together, but what the heck let them cross breed (it's not that serious for me especially for something I planted on a whim.

 It seems like I walked outside today and that pitiful garden had blooms all around it.  I swear the tomatoes seemed to have grown 3 feet overnight and there are actually tomatoes and squash out there.

Marzanno Paste Tomato

Collard Greens and Tarragon

I decided to shake things up and interplant my herbs amongst the vegetable to up my anti-bad-bug battle.  I used cedar bark to mulch this year although my other half says I'm going to regret it.  I think it looks good, smells good and I'll worry about it breaking down in December :).

California Bell Pepper

This is the first year the slugs and snails haven't devoured the poor pepper plants before they had time to grow and thrive.  Ha...ok thanks to the generous sprinkle of Corey's ( my only deviation from my organic gardening, cause the green friendly stuff just doesn't do it..the snails laugh at it.. believe me I've seen them:))

Lemon Grass

Remember when I said, I walked outside and everything seemed to bloom overnight.  Well I wasn't kidding, the squash got a little bigger than they were supposed to.

Eightball and Scallop Squash

I'm seeing a bit of powdery mildew on the squash leaves..hmm going to have to watch the overhead watering.

The eggplant still isn't happy.  Hopefully these hot days will help it come around.

I planted horseradish, now I just need to figure out how to harvest it and what to do with it after that.  

We planted these artichokes early last year, but this is the first time we've seen any artichokes on it.  It's partner plant next to it looks like it's on it's last leg.  Survival of the fittest I guess.

Butternut Squash

Trellising the winter squash worked great last year, so I'm sticking to what worked.

Ready to start finding new ways to cook, can, dry, freeze the bounty of our garden...

Gingered Green Tomato Spread

An abundance of green tomatoes, about 15 lbs. forced me to look for green tomato recipes.  On my recent visit to Apple Hill, I picked up a tomato cookbook that had about 10 recipes for green tomatoes. One of those recipes was for Gingered Tomato Preserves.

Ingredients: Green Tomatoes, Red Tomatoes, Fresh Ginger, Sugar, Salt, Ground Cloves, Nutmeg, Sliced Lemons, Fruit Pectin

We haven't tasted this yet as it takes approximately 2 weeks to set.

Putting It Away

The biggest pleasure and sometimes hardest work is putting away the fruits of your garden labor.  I spent the weekend canning all of the green tomatoes that were left over on the plants before the weather change.  In the past I'd bring the tomatoes in and let them ripen in the house.  This year I decided to use the green tomatoes to make a variety of recipes I had heard about.

I made Piccadilli, which is a pickled tomato concoction used as a southern food condiment and dill green tomato pickles.

Ingredients:  Shredded cabbage, chopped green tomatoes, green and red bell peppers and onions.

Veggies brined overnight

Rinsed after brining

Pickled with Vinegar, Salt, Brown Sugar Mustard Seed .  Dill Green Tomato Pickles

The Rain Is Finally Here

The fall rain has finally come and just in time to save me from my damaged drip system.  While happily preparing my beds for my winter garden that wasn't supposed to happen, I accidentally damaged a couple of the lines and have been too lazy to fix them.  So, I've resorted to the dreaded hand watering with the hose.

Broccoli and Russian Kale

My fall plants have been attacked by what I believe could be considered to be the non-biblical equivalent to locust.  Green caterpillar like worms have devoured everything.  They are a smaller version on the horn worm with the same destructive nature. CABBAGE WORMS.

Red Pak Choi - Before

Red Pak Choi - After

Cabbage Worms dumped in soapy water

Ok, I've tried hand picking them off every day, but geez I'm pulling 10-15 off a day.  So, I think I might need to take drastic measures and find a chemical agent.  Yes, I know I  was staying organic and chemical free, but what good is organic or chemical free if there are no plants left?

The lovely (not) creatures come from those pretty white butterflies you see flitting around your garden.  They lay their eggs on your plants and then those plant eating worms devour your garden.  Bacillus thurigienis (Bt) powder or spray supposedly kills these buggers in their caterpillar stage.

Cauliflower -Before

Cauliflower - After

ose pretty white butterflies

Fall Planting - Created 9/13/10 Late Post

I think it's safe to say that Fall is here in Sacatomatoes.  We've had mild days in the mid 80's and I think the triple digits are done for the year.  A couple of weeks ago I did a mass clean-up of the garden and removed most of the green beans and squash.  I double dug the raised beds they were occupying and added a mixture of chicken and cow manure, compost, blood and bone meal.  Of course after that I had to keep the scavenging dogs out of the garden. I swear it's guaranteed if it smells (stinky) they want to eat it.  Earlier this week I had forgotten about the dogs appetite for blood meal and planted one of the Collard Trees outside the garden in what I thought was a perfect spot with the usual side dressing of blood meal.  I came home that evening and my husband had mowed the the lawn (which was great).  He commented on my usual lack of pulling weeds and then asked why I was digging holes in the yard instead of pulling weeds.  "What hole?"!!!!.  There where my precious Collard Tree (the one I had waited 4 weeks to be delivered from Bountiful Gardens) was a huge hole.  Not a small hole, but a hole about the depth and diameter to plant a 5 gallon bush in.  The Collard Tree cutting was only about the size of a pencil.  I must admit, I did briefly consider dogslaughter and various types of torture techniques.  Amongst the pile of dirt I found my poor little cutting actually unharmed (unlike those two heathen dogs when I got my hands on them).  Moral of the story...don't forget about your garden predators even in the "off" planting season.

So, back to the Collard Trees.  I had been hearing about these trees from my family for the last year and thought I'd try them out when I received a notice from one of my nurseries that they had them in.  I received 3 cuttings in the mail wrapped in damp newspaper.  Very unimpressive to say the least.  I wasn't quite sure where I was going to plant these so I put them in water in a window.  After a few days they began to sprout leaves and I realized I'd need to move pretty quickly to find a home for these.  My sister asked that I give one to her, so I placed this one in a small pot.  The others, I planted on eastern side of the house in a pretty shaded area.  It is my understanding that these guys are not overly fond on scorching sun.  I also staked them for added security.  So we'll see how they come along.

The last time I posted, I was going back and forth on whether or not I'd have a fall/winter garden.  I've got a lot of things going on right now and the last thing I needed to do was add something else to my plate.  So, of course I started a new garden, lol.  Ok, what had happened was...

I was driving along Sunrise Blvd. minding my own business, when I came across a Capitol Nursery.  We had one near our old house in Elk Grove, but I didn't realize there was one close to us here in Orangevale.  I decided to look in and have a looksy, just a peek.  I didn't even grab a basket.  I needed some fertilizer for the plum tree anyway.  I slowly strolled along the rows of flowering shrubs, bushes and trees (you know everything that's usually in a nursery) and way in the back I found the veggie and herb section, which I expected to be pretty bare.  But no, they've got rows of lettuces, greens, artichokes, cauliflower, broccoli and much much and they were all so happy and healthy looking.  As I perused this bounty, a winter garden began to seem appealing again, so...

Ha, you thought I went crazy and bought up the place didn't you?  Well I didn't.  I had all of these seeds at home and would plant them instead of purchasing the plants.  Amazingly enough I walked out with only my fertilizer.  Proud of myself in fact.

Ok, so I did go and buy the plants.  Yeah  yeah I know, don't judge me.  Anyyyyyway...So, yes I planted a fall garden and yes I did buy the plants instead of starting them from seed. So sue me.  I justify both by saying I am making sure my family has healthy food while saving myself time by buying the plants.

The fall garden line up:

Pac Choi

Curly Kale

Red Pak Choi

Russian Kale

Oregon Sugar Snap Peas

Broccoli Raab

Red and Green Chard

Green Comet Broccoli