I just pulled up the last of the mammoth snow pea vines today. I should have done it weeks ago, but amazingly, some of them were still bearing until just recently. Even today, a couple of the vines were still green, and I pulled some fresh pods off them. Not very many, but still...snow peas in late September. I also harvested a bunch of lemon cucumbers and a few of the green spacemasters, which I'll pickle tomorrow.
I picked up most of the fallen yellow delicious apples from around the tree, most of which were still green and had codling moth damage. Then I washed them off and cut them apart, separating the good parts from the bad. At first, I thought it might be a case of diminishing returns, but as the good apple parts began to pile up in the pan, I realized that that wasn't the case. The good pieces/parts filled the large pan I had, and after I'd boiled them a while and put them through the Squeezo to remove the skins and turn them into sauce, I ended up with a quart and a half of applesauce. Not only that, but this applesauce tasted so good on its own that I added absolutely nothing to it. No sugar, no cinnamon--nothing but apples, cooked and strained, then cooked just a touch more. I didn't can it, but it'll keep just fine in the fridge and be eaten up soon enough; the kids have been asking for applesauce, and now they have some. I'm just glad that not all of the apples from our tree will have gone to waste after raising a new generation of codling moths.
I also brought in a decent-sized bowl of green beans, and there should be enough to can maybe a couple more quarts. We didn't get as many as I'd have liked, but on the other hand, we did eat a lot more fresh this year than we have in the past, and we still have plenty of canned quarts left over from last year's canning.
Tomorrow I need to hit the bigger part of the garden and get all the tomatoes that are ready--maybe enough to can a quart or two of sauce, or so I'm hoping. The aphids have decimated most of the volunteer kale, but I think there's one plant still in decent shape, and there's self-seeded baby spinach starting to grow in the spinach bed. I brought in a few more of our white carrots, and then had to cut the largest of the new Rosa Bianca eggplants, as it had grown so large and heavy that it pulled the plant over onto its side. I think it'll straighten up gradually, as there are two smaller eggplants forming over on the opposite side. This latest eggplant is even larger than the last one. I'd thought Rosa Biancas would be small to medium in size and more pink and white, but these are nearly as big as the standard large purple eggplants, and they're actually purple and white in color. I'm impressed at what we've gotten from just the three plants--well, technically just the one plant so far, but the other two are forming fruits as well. All told, I'm delighted and amazed by how much harvest we've gotten from our small garden, and how much I've actually been able to put away for winter. We'll still have to buy some things to put away and some to suppliment us this winter, but we've made a huge step in the right direction this year. I ended up harvesting, processing and cooking all evening, but given that it's the Autumnal Equinox and a harvest festival, it seems fitting.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Changing a Carbon Footprint
For several years, my family and I have been setting out items at curbside for recycling. When we moved to our newer house, I asked the recycling service to give me an extra recycle bin for when our to-be-recycled items exceed the capacity of the first bin. We've actually used the second bin quite a bit, especially when plastic and cardboard packaging materials start to pile up.
The last time we set out our garbage can, I looked inside to see just how much garbage we were actually contributing to the landfill. There at the bottom of the large bin I saw two kitchen-sized garbage bags and one smaller bag. That's it--for a family of four, for one week. I'm pretty proud of us. We also set out two recycle bins filled to bursting with used cardboard, paper, plastic, and steel cans. Every so often, we drop off items such as glass at the recycling center, since the curbside service won't pick up glass. We donate miscellaneous used items to a local thrift store, and we have two Earth Machine compost bins in the backyard, tucked away near the back fence between the garden and the roses, which not only help mitigate any odor (which is actually very little, if you have a good composter) but also screen the black plastic from view. I've mentioned before that these composters look like big Darth Vader helmets, but they get the job done. We dump veggie or grain-based kitchen waste into one while the other cooks away on an earlier batch of compost. When that one finishes, we'll switch. It's perfect for a family of four, and for a good three years or so, we haven't had to throw out any kitchen waste into the garbage unless it's meat-based. All the veggie peelings, fruit, grain and the like go into the composter--not to mention any of the lawn clippings that we don't need to lay on the pathways in the garden to help keep the non-edible weeds at bay. With the composters, we've been able to reduce our garbage down to a surprisingly small amount, when even in families of only two people, we've observed huge loads of garbage being thrown out. My daughters and I speculated recently about what the garbage men must think when they come to our house. Maybe they heave a sigh of relief and say, "Oh, good! There's the house where the garbage can is never heavy and never hurts my back." You're very welcome, Sanitation Engineers!
It's not that hard to change a carbon footprint. Recycling and composting can take care of most of the waste from even a large household, and it's so easy that after just a short time of doing it, it soon becomes an old, familiar habit. I really think that if we all just pitched in, cleaned up our acts and houses and recycled most of our waste, collectively we'd make a huge difference for our planet. I hope that soon more people will come to realize just how vitally important this is.
The last time we set out our garbage can, I looked inside to see just how much garbage we were actually contributing to the landfill. There at the bottom of the large bin I saw two kitchen-sized garbage bags and one smaller bag. That's it--for a family of four, for one week. I'm pretty proud of us. We also set out two recycle bins filled to bursting with used cardboard, paper, plastic, and steel cans. Every so often, we drop off items such as glass at the recycling center, since the curbside service won't pick up glass. We donate miscellaneous used items to a local thrift store, and we have two Earth Machine compost bins in the backyard, tucked away near the back fence between the garden and the roses, which not only help mitigate any odor (which is actually very little, if you have a good composter) but also screen the black plastic from view. I've mentioned before that these composters look like big Darth Vader helmets, but they get the job done. We dump veggie or grain-based kitchen waste into one while the other cooks away on an earlier batch of compost. When that one finishes, we'll switch. It's perfect for a family of four, and for a good three years or so, we haven't had to throw out any kitchen waste into the garbage unless it's meat-based. All the veggie peelings, fruit, grain and the like go into the composter--not to mention any of the lawn clippings that we don't need to lay on the pathways in the garden to help keep the non-edible weeds at bay. With the composters, we've been able to reduce our garbage down to a surprisingly small amount, when even in families of only two people, we've observed huge loads of garbage being thrown out. My daughters and I speculated recently about what the garbage men must think when they come to our house. Maybe they heave a sigh of relief and say, "Oh, good! There's the house where the garbage can is never heavy and never hurts my back." You're very welcome, Sanitation Engineers!
It's not that hard to change a carbon footprint. Recycling and composting can take care of most of the waste from even a large household, and it's so easy that after just a short time of doing it, it soon becomes an old, familiar habit. I really think that if we all just pitched in, cleaned up our acts and houses and recycled most of our waste, collectively we'd make a huge difference for our planet. I hope that soon more people will come to realize just how vitally important this is.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Pickles
Finally there were enough cucumbers the right size at the same time to make pickles. I did them tonight; I got a pint of green cucumbers, a quart of green cucumbers, and a quart of lemon cucumbers. They all sealed--yay! I'm still hoping for a few more this month; there are still plenty of flowers on the plants. One of the lemon cucumber plants is even trying to climb right up the side of the apple tree. It's strange to look into the apple tree and see cucumbers hanging there.
I haven't decided yet whether to buy some pickling cukes from one of the farmers at the market. I'd much rather have home-pickled organic cucumbers than the ones from the big-box stores, but the pickling does take a lot of work and a lot of time, and I still have most of the asparagus pickles I made earlier this spring. I have to think about it and decide while I can still get cukes at the market. Hmm.
I haven't decided yet whether to buy some pickling cukes from one of the farmers at the market. I'd much rather have home-pickled organic cucumbers than the ones from the big-box stores, but the pickling does take a lot of work and a lot of time, and I still have most of the asparagus pickles I made earlier this spring. I have to think about it and decide while I can still get cukes at the market. Hmm.
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