Thanksgiving: Planning and Memories

Three years ago (and my first year of blogging, so first blog about Thanksgiving:

We celebrated at Derek's house, a few days late because he was flying home from Iraq and his flights were a little questionable.

Two years ago: Larry and I, Tommy, Aaron and his family gathered at our house to enjoy dinner in the log room.

Last year: about 24 people gathered around our table! It was a feast, the best Thanksgiving I can ever remember.

This year: It looks like a smaller crowd will gather in the log room, but the food will be plentiful I know good company and good conversation will flow with the cider (and maybe soemthing a little stronger).
I'm planning the menu now, thinking about what is in the cellar, what is in the freezer and what I might have forgotten. Here's the menu so far. For us, this is a celebration of our year of growing our gardens and turkeys, and storing the harvest:
Roast turkey  (thawing as I write) and gravy
mashed potatoes (in the cellar)
green beans with mushrooms and rosemary (garden and cellar, mushrooms from the store)
cranberry and orange relish (both from the store--wish we could grow them!)
yams, cranberries and apple casserole (from the cellar except for the cranberries)
corn (from the freezer--how to fix? looking for something different)
pickled beets (from the cellar)
pear and raisin compote (pears from the cellar, raisins from the store)
salad? will we need it? or just do a veggie tray for snacking?
pumpkin pie (pumpkin from the cellar, I think, although might have to use store-bought since I'm not sure what I have)
green tomato mincemeat pie, or maybe the little tarts everyone likes best (from the cellar)
corn sticks and cornbread wedges (Jackson's Mill cornmeal--yum!)
apple cider (from the cellar)
wine (from the store)

So, what's on your menu?

Beans, Beans, Beans

Right now we're covered up in beans. Purple beans, flat Roma beans, rattlesnake beans and half runners are all in full swing. Of course this happens during one of the busiest weeks of my summer. This past weekend was a mad whirl of beans and travel, work and beans. I'll write about the other things that happened this weekend in another post; right now here's a look at some of the bean madness.

These are rattlesnake beans. You might be able to see the faint purple mottling on the beans in this photo. The beans are very long, some almost a foot, and have an excellent flavor. They do have strings though, like half-runners. This variety is a southern heirloom that can withstand hig temperatures and will keep producing if it gets enough water. Right now we've got the hig temps for sure, but it hasn't rained for a while so I'm not sure how my beans will manage in these conditions.

The first picking of rattlesnake beans. I canned seven quarts but we had the wrong gasket for the canner and it gae me fits. So I froze the rest of them, an additional 10 quarts. We gave away a couple bags from this basket; it was heaped and overflowing after Larry finished picking. These are a pole bean, first time we've really had any luck with them.

Next up: the purple beans. If I can get the canner gasket I need, then these will go in the canner tomorrow night. If not, they're freezer-bound too. This is about a half-bushel, and more to pick tomorrow, Larry says.

He'll also be picking half runners to sell tomorrow, so he'll be a busy man.

We got our first ripe tomatoes this weekend and had one for breakfast. Ah, the pure pleasure of a tomato from the garden! Pics tomorrow, I hope.

In the Garden

It takes a lot of work to have a good garden, and the work is continuous, from planting to harvest. because I work away from home, most of the planting and cultivating is done by Larry; my main part is the harvest and storage of the food he works so hard to produce.

Larry likes to use the high-wheel cultivator once the plants get to a certain size, because this old-time tool doesn't damage roots and leaves like a tiller (even his little Mantis tiller) can do.
Here are the results of his efforts so far:

The corn, beans and potatoes garden. This was taken over a week ago, so the potatoes are in bloom now and the corn is about 6 inches taller. The half-runner beans are vining now too. In the background are his rattlesnake bean trellises and he's thinking they need to be taller because those beans grow pretty high.

Isn't this a pretty garden? I like the deep green of the potato leaves and the softer green of the beans together. The purple beans are in the middle bean row, with a row of half runners above and another below them.

The early garden close to the house has all the things (except potatoes) that can go in the ground before the last frost date. Again, this was a week ago; the peas were picked this weekend and put in the freezer.

This year I grew Dwarf Gray Sugar peas, a snow pea variety that I like very much. It has been hard to find for some years, but now several places seem to have it in the catalogs. It's not a snap pea--those are a later hybrid. The Dwarf Grays are an heirloom variety, according to several websites, although the variety's exact age seems to be a matter of opinion (from 1892 to the 1700's to "over 200 years old"). I like these peas for three reasons: the flower, pink and purple, is just lovely; the vines only grow 2-3 feet tall, making them easy to stake; and the peas freeze and cook very well. they are not fat and juicy like snap peas, but flat and more like the pea used in oriental cooking.

Isn't it pretty? These peas flower and produce prolifically, and the leaf tips and top of the stems, as well as the flower, are said to be edible--I haven't tried them yet myself, though.

The end result of Larry's labors:

A nice picking of peas, and a few carrots that I thinned from the row. Most of the two pecks of peas we picked (say that five times fast!) are now in the freezer; the rest of the peas and the carrots were cooked for Memorial Day dinner with...

these! The first new potatoes of the season! It's so exciting when the potatoes are ready to eat. Larry planted early this year, on March 10, so we're several weeks ahead of the usual early potatoes. I parboiled the potatoes, then stir-fried them with the peas, carrots, some chives and some garlic. So tender and tasty. We only had to buy one five-pound bag of potatoes between the last of last year's crop and this batch.

Other pickings this weekend: our first cherries from the tree we planted last year, and a cutting of chives which were used in the stir fry and the rest chopped and frozen. The cherries will go into a pie tomorrow night.

Larry planted the last garden yesterday--late corn, Indian corn, sunflowers, pumpkins and butternut squash and some birdhouse gourds. Next we'll be replanting as different vegetables mature--lettuce, onions, cucumbers, etc.

And I still need to get my garlic in the ground!

What's Going on in the Garden

Usually by this time the garden is covered in weeds; we've given up the battle and settle for harvesting what we can for the rest of the summer from the understory of the weedy forest.

But this year Larry has been home, and it's a whole new story.

What's happening now:

Swiss Chard: mammoth plants! Larry harvested it yesterday. We left it too long t00, one of the problems with me being gone so much on weekends. Still, I cleaned it up and we have 2 very big bags of frozen chard in the freezer. And the chickens and turkeys had good eating on the big red stalks of the rhubarb chard.

We ate the last of the corn last night. We started the season with Early Sunglow, moved on to Seneca Chief and finished with Honey and Cream. Of the three, Seneca Chief is a clear favorite--great flavor, full, big ears and so easy to clean. A winner all around. The Early Sunglow was frozen in the husk for grilling. We ate some of it last night along with fresh corn and it was hard to tell the difference. We cut Seneca Chief and some of the Honey and Cream off the cob for freezing that way. And ate a LOT of corn this summer. Bliss.

Carrots: success! Finally, after years of trying, we grew decent carrots. Downside--who knew there was some worm that likes to get into the roots? Still, we have harvested about 10 pounds and that's less than half of the crop. I will slice these up, cutting out the worm damage, for the freezer.

Sweet potatoes: they were doing great but last week the deer got in and ate the tops. These are in the only garden without an electric fence. We'll fix that real soon.

Tomatoes: Sad. Blight has taken over. We're still getting a few, but the big boom is over and I only canned about 20 quarts, and about 25 pints of salsa. Oh well. It's enough. But my tomato sandwiches for lunch may be over. So sad. Deer are getting to the ones that are left since they're in the same garden with the sweet potatoes.

Squash: the first planting is still bearing like crazy and the second planting is full of blooms. We should have squash well in to fall. The butternuts are full of ripening fruit, too, and those will go in the cellar if they don't rot. A lot of rain in the forecast again, so we'll see. They're not ready to harvest yet.

Cucumbers: first planting still doing well and second planting is full of bloom. More dill pickles are in my future, and I am a happy woman.

Lettuce: fifth planting is ready to pick. So far we've had Green Ice, Ruby, Buttercrunch, Romaine, now the Black-seeded Simpson is coming on.

Potatoes: Larry has been digging them and drying them out to store in the cellar. He rinsed the potato bin with bleach water first. No sense encouraging disease and bacteria.

Indian corn: looking good so far. We'll see.

Celery: Big and beautiful. Time to harvest it this weekend.

Leeks: Ditto, although I'll leave them in the ground as long as I can. They are de-li-ci-ous! A milder, sweeter taste than onions, I think. I will try drying some, freezing some and just storing some in the cellar when frost is near.

Herbs: a bust. I've gotten a little bit of stuff dried, but the bulk of them were dug up by the dogs. Grrrr. Good thing I love my dogs. Next, year, new garden and a fence.

Blackberries: I don't really have any in my gardens, but Derek picked four gallons for us at his friend's house, so we have plenty in the freezer for blackberry cobblers like this one I made last night. Yum! You can find my recipe at this blog post from past year.

Grapes: some have black rot despite spraying to control it. Bah. but some have made it through so I should be making jelly pretty soon.

Cabbages and broccoli: mixed results here. We had some early cabbage, and I made 4 pints of sauerkraut and froze a few bags, but the late cabbage? Larry accidentally hoed out the little plants. Broccoli didn't do a thing, and the second planting suffered the same fate as the late cabbage. Just wasn't meant to happen this year, I guess.

Honey: ready to harvest, just need to find some time.

I've probably missed a few things, but that's the gist of it. A very good garden year, and we are grateful. We've learned a few things too, and have more to learn about carrots. But all in all, I am more than happy with this year's produce.

We're putting in cover crops of turnips, kale, spinach and rape now. I will be planting more lettuce and radishes close to the porch where the plants will be protected from harsh weather, hoping to keep fresh salads on the table far into winter. We'll see how that plan goes.

What's going on in your garden?

Haley's Day with the Old Folks

She started the day learning to make fried eggs with her Poppa Larry while I stayed in bed a little longer (hey, I was tired from all that traveling!). They cooked a good country breakfast of homegrown eggs and sausage, toast with elderberry jelly, Earl Grey tea and coffee.

Then Haley and Larry went outside to get in wood while I unpacked, did laundry and cleaned house. They hauled in two loads before stopping for lunch.

Who is that girl in the tree, and how did she get up there?

After lunch we found baskets and buckets and headed for the black walnut trees to gather in some of the bounty these trees have produced this year. Haley wasn't contented with getting the nuts that had already fallen; she had to get up in the tree to shake it. Mind now that it was over 12 feet to the lowest branches! She used her Poppa Larry shoulders as a boost and then shimmied the rest of the way up to the first branch. I don't think I've ever been able to do that in my entire life.

Hickory nuts were next. Haley was fascinated with them; she got two rocks and cracked a few to see how they tasted. I have to say she was no help gathering the nuts--she spent the whole time cracking and eating them!

Haley drives Larry's truck over the wlanuts to de-hull them. What 13-year-old girl would not want to drive this hunk of truck?

When we finished that chore, Larry started making pear-and-apple cider. Haley decided to see what black walnuts tasted like, so using a few of the nuts I gathered last week, a hammer and a pair of pliers, she cracked some. She was amazed at how delicious fresh nuts are. They're not easy to get at, being tough to crack, hulls to deal with, etc, but the flavor is astonishing.

Haley and Larry took turns with the cranks to make cider and ended up with about 4 more gallons. Three will go in the freezer, and one we'll let go "hard." (We experimented with a gallon recently, and I will tell you it is good! A little kick, but not much. We left the lid loose on a gallon jug and left it out at room temperature for 3 days. Then it went into the fridge with the lid still loose for anothr couple weeks. Today it was perfect--fizzy, a bit of a bite, and a bit of a buzz--very like the Hornsby's hard cider you can buy at some stores.)

While they made cider, I made homemade Italian wedding soup and blackberry-peach cobbler for dinner. A loaf of crusty bread, some fresh cider and we had a wonderful supper. Then we lit the fireplace in the log room and for the first time this year, the big Fisher stove in the living room and settled down to read and relax.

I was sorry to see Haley go home, but she and Poppa Larry have plans for a squirrel hunt sometime this week.

Sounds like another good time is ahead.