In And Out

I hope that all of you can excuse my absence lately.  I have not been around and will be in and out over the next few weeks.  After many years of substitute teaching on Monday I was hired to teach first grade for this school year.  It is exciting to have my own class but there is a lot of work in preparing my classroom and most of my days right now are spent from morning to night at school.  I will be in and out over the next few weeks as I have time and I look forward to catching up with all of you soon!

Short

Yesterday I said it has not been a bumper year for tomatoes.  Part of the reason why is that I have three very short tomato plants that have stopped growing.

On the left is the husky tomato plant which has stopped growing at two feet tall.  The top broke off and a sucker has not replaced it.  On the right the celebrity plant has stopped growing around a foot tall.  Both have produced tomatoes but I wonder what they could have done had they kept growing.  Both are indeterminate varieties that should be MUCH taller.  I picked them because they are supposed to be prolific and I wanted to can a lot of tomatoes this year.  Obviously they haven't held up to their claims.

This is a Mannitoba which I tried out this year because it was supposed to produce extremely early tomatoes.  The celebrity produced a ripe tomato first and this plant produced tomatoes just a few days earlier than my other varieties.  It is a determinate plant but I thought it would putter out at around four or five feet tall not at about two feet tall.

These tomatoes have been treated the same and the soil was also amended exactly the same as all of my other plants which are at least three times their size.  I'm not quite sure what happened with these three but they are definitely stunted.

Dying

These are the tops of my Amish Paste(left) and Green Zebra(right) tomato plants.  They have turned brown and are not growing anymore.  Both are indeterminate but have puttered out at about 5 feet tall.  When they were showing signs of slowing down I added tomato-tone to the soil at the base of each plant and watered it in and then a few days later watered in fish emulsion but it seems both are going to give out.

I went ahead and did the same for all the other plants that haven't given out but have definitely slowed down.  It has not been a bumper year for tomatoes.

Baby Eggplant!

I finally have a baby eggplant growing!  It has taken my eggplant forever to get going this year.  My first plant never died but it also didn't grow so a month after planting it I had to change it out.  This one has been growing but a bit slower or maybe it just feels that way because it got a late start being planted out a month after the first.  Last year I only had one plant and it went gang busters, we couldn't keep up with it.  This year I am wishing I had planted more plants, but I was afraid I would have too much.  At least they are coming now!

Another one on the way also!

Canned

I spent time over two days working on canning the bulk of our two boxes of peaches.  We ended up with 25 quarts, which is double what I did last year.  All in all I am happy with the results.

 This year I did a little experimenting with the different batches to try to eliminate fruit float.  Last year I canned peaches using the raw pack method with an extra light syrup since we don't want the extra sugar.  But no matter how much fruit I put in the jars they still floated which isn't harmful but doesn't look as pretty.

 

This year I tried the hot pack method and raw pack with heavier syrups.  In all the methods the fruit floated.  I definitely didn't like the hot pack method because the fruit became too soft and in the cans are mushed together.  The pieces in the raw pack cans hold their shape much better.  The hot pack method also had the hassle of the extra step of heating/cooking the peaches first.  All in all since none of the methods reduced fruit float I am sticking with the easier raw pack with extra light syrup in the future.

Harvest

 My entire potato harvest, a total bust.

Slow and steady of a little bit here and there.

Indy

Over the weekend we went to Indy to visit my sister and her husband.  We started off the weekend with a trip to the state fair.

 

On Saturday we made a trip out to Traderspoint Creamery, an organic, sustainable dairy.  We took the "tour" which turned out to be nothing but a walk down a gravel road to a field with a few cows in it.

 

Multiple times we were warned about the electric fences and not upsetting the bulls while out in the fields.  We didn't quite get what the big deal was until we got out there and realized the only fence between us and them was a single electrified wire (which you can sorta see below) and wouldn't stop a charging bull.

 I got a lot of pictures of the animals but none of the humans, whoops.  We spent the rest of the weekend eating some good food and catching some Olympics.  Overall a great weekend with family!

Peaches

Boxes of Pennsylvania peaches are available in our area a few weeks earlier than normal.  We love these peaches over those from the south because they always seem to have better flavor and are significantly juicier.  No matter how you eat them fresh they are always messy because they drip so much juice.

Our favorite place that carried them closed last fall so I asked around and found another orchard that orders them from the exact same place.  I drove an hour each way just to get these beauties.  You would think living in a big city we should be able to find a closer supplier.  But we take our peaches seriously and can't find any peaches that hold a candle to these in the Cincinnati area.

Last year I only got one box and Andy had to ration the canned peaches to make them last.  So this year I went for two boxes and split the second with my Mom.  I have a couple days of canning ahead of me.

Pasta with Tomatoes, Basil and Mozarella

One of my favorite summer dishes to make is a simple pasta dish that uses fresh tomatoes.  I cook any kind of pasta according to package directions.  Then in a separate pan I saute minced garlic in a tablespoon or two of olive oil for one minute then add in multiple chopped tomatoes.  I normally use at least 4 or 5 large tomatoes but it really depends on the size of your tomatoes and how much tomato you really want.  I cook the tomatoes down for a a minute or two then season with salt and pepper.  Toss with the pasta, add some chopped basil and fresh mozarella.  That's it!

Cherry Jam

I was able to get my hands on some tart cherries even though much of the crop was ruined by frost this year.  I love cherry jam made with tart cherries and so used all the cherries to make jam.  Unfortunately I had 3 half pint jars of jam crack and break in the canner during processing.  One broke in the first batch and two in the second.  I am not sure what happened.  I properly inspected, washed and preheated all the jars before processing.  But it made me sick because of how much I love this jam and how sparse cherries are this year to have three jars ruined.

New Canner

I bought this brand new canning pot with rack just for the rack.

My old rack was rusting and I got tired of scrubbing it before and after each water bath, along with the chunks it left in the water bath.  Not appetizing.

I could not find a rack in any store locally and I was surprised by the prices to buy one online.  It was actually cheaper to buy a new pot and rack set than to order just a canning rack.

Harvest

London Olympics

I don't know what you will be doing tonight but we will be sitting on the couch watching the Olympic opening ceremonies.  We are Today Show and NBC News viewers so we have been watching the trials, commercials and hype that has been building for the last month.  During the games we will be making sure to catch track and field, swimming, gymnastics and doubles beach volleyball.  I'm not ashamed to admit that we are overly excited, like little kids at Christmas!

Refrigerator Pickles

We don't like cucumbers.  It might make you wonder why we grow them.  The reason is because we love pickles, especially refrigerator pickles.  Refrigerator pickles aren't too vinegary, are salty enough, have excellent fresh dill flavor and are wonderfully crisp.  I've tried canning dill pickles and they always seem too vinegary and are mushy.  If you've got a good dill pickle canning recipe send it my way otherwise for now I am sticking with refrigerator pickles.

 

You will need:

-3 cups of water

-3 TBS salt

-6 TBS vinegar

-sliced cucumbers

-a bunch of fresh dill

-a clove of minced garlic

 

Mix the salt, water and vinegar together and stir until the salt is dissolved.  I layer the cucumbers, dill and garlic into any nonreactive container.  I use as many cucumbers as I have on hand or will fit in the container.  Again I use as little or as much dill as I have on hand or based on how dilly I want the pickles to be.  You could also put more garlic in if you like, there is no wrong way.

Then pour the brine solution over them so that everything is submersed.  Put them in the fridge and let them sit for at least 48 hours or until they have soaked up enough brine and enjoy!

Borage

The borage has just started to blossom.  It is much later than last year.  I'm not sure why it is so much later but I'm glad the blossoms have finally arrived because I was beginning to wonder.

Yellowing Leaves

The leaves on my Amish Paste tomato plant are yellowing.  It doesn't look like a typical fungal issue where there are circular spots so I'm not quite sure what the issue is.  I have been cutting off the leaves as they yellow hoping to stop the spread but it just keeps spreading.  The plant has almost no leaves at this point.  Thankfully I have not seen anything similar on any of my other tomato plants.

Harvest

 

 Those are the only carrots I got this year.

 

 The first wave of tomatoes has arrived!

Surprisingly the summer squash despite the SVB damage is putting out a few more squashes.

Shootin'

We spent the weekend up near Bowling Green, Ohio to visit my Dad.  So what do you do when you go to the country for a weekend?  You go shootin' in the field back yonder behind the house :)

 

 

I'd say from looks of this sign the city slickers did alright.

 

Andy even took a try at the crossbow too.

Unique Color

This winter I received a bag of randomly mixed zinnia seed from my Dad's wife.  I mixed the bag up and hoped that when I planted the seed I would get a good mix of colors.  Most of them are pink, yellow, white and colors of zinnias I have seen before.  But this might be the prettiest zinnia color I have ever seen.  It's not pink, it's not red, it's for sure a color of zinnia I have never seen before.  I am definitely letting this one go to seed and saving the seed for future plantings.

Slow Cooker Yogurt

I came across a recipe for slow cooker yogurt well over a year ago but didn't think much of it.  I like having yogurt for breakfast with cereal mixed in, especially in the summer with fresh berries.  But finding a yogurt I can feel good about eating that is affordable is difficult.  So I decided to give making it a try.

Most yogurts out there are made with milk (loaded with hormones), thickeners, artificial flavors and added sugars.  The yogurt I made contained milk (local and sustainably raised) and active live cultures.  You will need a half gallon of milk and half a cup plain yogurt with live active cultures.  I bought a large container because it was the only size organic plain yogurt with live cultures that I could find.  Since I wanted to make pure yogurt I wanted to use a starter without other crap in it.
 

I looked at many recipes and here is a compilation of a few that I think give the best directions.  I have now made it three times successfully this way.  Put the milk in the slow cooker on low and cook for 2.5 hours or until it reaches 180 degrees.  I check on it every now again, mix it and take the temp because you want to make sure it does not boil.  You want to kill off any bacteria so the live cultures can do their thing but if you get it too hot then the live cultures won't be able to thrive.

Then unplug the the crock pot and allow the milk to cool for 2-3 hours.  You want the milk to be between 110-120 degrees but I think between 110-115 is best.  When cool in a seperate bowl whisk 2 cups of the milk with the starter.  Then pour back into the slower cooker and mix.

Put the lid back on and wrap it up with a thick towel or two to incubate.  Leave it for 8 hours.  I normally make it so that the eight hours happens overnight. I have left it for a bit longer when I didn't get up in time and it worked out fine.

When you are done it will look like this with the whey at the top.  You have yogurt!  Mix it together, save a half cup for your next starter and then put it into a different container for storage and into the fridge to cool and eat. 

It will be thinner than a store bought yogurt that contains thickeners.  If you want a thicker yogurt then line a strainer with coffee filters or cheese cloth and leave in the fridge until enough whey has drained off for your desired thickness.

I really enjoy the plain yogurt.  It is actually less tart than the store bought kind and has a great mild taste that doesn't need flavorings.  Although it tastes wonderful with berries or sometimes a dollop of homemade jam mixed in.  The whey, if you strain it out, can be used in place of buttermilk in recipes so don't throw it out.  We used it in pancakes and it tasted the same as if buttermilk was used.