Late-season harvest

Garden production is winding down. I still have a few tomatoes ripening, and there are still a few greenbeans to be had, but the peppers will soon be finished, and there is less and less to pick each time I go out to gather things.

My sunflowers are just now becoming ready for harvest. I cut two big heads from my far away garden today and brought them home. I grew two varieties, Mongolian Giant, and Titan:

There are still many heads out in the garden. I got the seeds out of these, rinsed them quickly, tossed them with some sea salt, and roasted them.

Here's what else the gardens gave me today. I'm afraid that's the last of the okra. This time of year, the deer will eat it to the ground, even if it wants to keep producing. They really like the okra. And beets. My beets had a hard time this year because of the deer, notice that there aren't any in the pic:

My gardens are never especially heavy producers, but I enjoy the process, and cooking with whatever fresh things they want to give me. During the winter, we'll continue enjoying things that we've either frozen or dried.

And as far as the herb gardens go, I still have a lot of holy basil to gather and dry, elecampane and evening primrose roots to dig, probably some lemon balm, too, and, of course, there's always peppermint. Lost of things on the drying racks are waiting to be put into airtight jars, and I have oils to infuse and tinctures in various stages of processing. So there is still work to be done.

Bison Chili

We've been enjoying Bison chili a lot over the past several weeks. One thing I like to make with the peppers and tomatoes from the garden is chili.

Early on in the season, when I didn't have enough ripe tomatoes of my own, I made a trip to the farmer's market to buy some so that I could make a batch of chili up with some ground beef I had in my freezer. While there, I happened to stroll by a booth where a man was selling locally raised, grass-fed bison meat. I decided to try making the chili with ground bison instead of my ground beef.

My whole family loved it. My son and daughter have said that they think it's the best chili they've ever eaten. So I've been making bison chili now. I use heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and garlic from my garden, and onions and ground bison from the farmer's market. The beans I buy in cans from the grocery store.

It's so fun to walk out to the garden, fill a basket with tomatoes and peppers, and then walk back inside and put it all into a pot along with the cooked ground bison, onion and beans for a flavor-rich dinner.

Yum.

The hanging of lavender begins

My lavender has begun to bloom, which means I am harvesting everyday now as the blossoms become ready. They'll hang upside down in my warm, dark garage until they're dry. I have four different types of lavender and they each bloom at slightly different, yet overlapping, times.

The two that are blooming right now are the Hidcote and my mystery lavender. It's a mystery because it was labeled as Munstead, but when it bloomed it clearly was not. I have no idea what type of lavender it is, but it has a very pretty scent. Each of the different types has a slightly different color and scent. Some are heady and others are more delicate, both in color and in scent.

Here's a closer look at the mystery lavender. It has a small grouping of flowers instead of a longer, wand-like presentation:

The two that are not in bloom yet are the Munstead and the Provence lavenders. The Munstead will be opening any day now, but the Provence will be just a while longer.

I'm hanging my lavender to dry. Later, it will be turned into teas, sprays, sachets, and, possibly, ice cream.

Enjoying the harvest

Such as it is. I mean, my gardens weren't huge successes this year, but even saying that, we've been enjoyng several things from them lately.

We've had roasted beets in salads; spaghetti sauce made with tomatoes, herbs, and garlic from our garden; potatoes mashed, roasted and fried; carrots with roasts, salads, and more; fresh sweet corn cooked and eaten just after picking (yum!); green beans; and okra and lima beans coming in slowly (the first few I've frozen), but they'll begin produce in larger quantities soon.

Any day now we'll have enough poblano peppers to make a meal of chile rellenos.

So even if gardening this year has presented some challenges (flooding, weeds, pests), we've still been able to enjoy the modest fruits of all of that work and worry.

And tucked away in our freezer are things to remind us of summer when the weather begins to chill - hand-picked strawberries frozen fresh, green beans, peppers and chilies, okra, and lima beans.

Been enjoying a bit of garden harvest

Last night I threw some things from the garden together in a pan, cooked them up, added some ground turkey, and we had it for dinner. I don't have any pictures of garden produce because my camera is acting up, but here's a list of what went into dinner:

Not from the garden:
ground turkey
onion
one small can tomato sauce

From the garden:
garlic
tomatoes
potatoes
carrots
three varieties of bush beans

It's a lazy, but yummy, way of enjoying what comes out of the garden.

I love my herbal tea

I've been feeling a little under the weather, but luckily I have a tea for that. Yesterday I woke up feeling horrible with a cold or something coming on. I made my 'Stave-Off' tea and drank it throughout the day and today I feel much better. Not 100% yet, but gettiing there.

I love making teas with the things that I grow. And this year I'll be able to make my 'Stave-Off' tea completely with things that I've grown. For the past two years I've had to use mail-order elecampane, but this year I'll have some from my own garden, as well as some gathered from the wild.

My Stave-Off tea is made with elecampane root, holy basil leaves and flowers, lemon balm leaves, and calendula petals. I drink it when I feel like I'm coming down with something. It hasn't disappointed me yet. It gets me feeling tip-top within one or two days.

I always feel a little guilty when I hear people complaining about how lousy a cold is making them feel. It's like having a little, magic secret as to how they can feel better. But I don't push my tea on anyone. I mean, how would you react if you said, "Gosh, this cold is whipping my butt," and an acquaintance announced, "Oh! I make an herbal tea that will help you feel better!" Yeah. Right.

I've tried to grow quantities enough to offer perhaps a few of my teas for sale through my Etsy shop come fall. It'll be interesting to see if there will be any takers - people who are looking for that kind of thing.

Fresh garden beans

I picked some of the first beans from the garden today. The purple ones are a variety called Red Swan, and the stripy ones are a variety called Dragon Tongue.

They look very pretty, but when you cook them, at least with water - either steaming or boiling - the color disappears and you have just green beans again. I don't know what happens if you stir-fry them. I'm sure I'll find out soon :-)

But they were very tasty. I made them my favorite way to have green beans: boil them with potatoes and onions, and a little bit of butter, salt, and pepper. Yum! We had them along with a ham steak I bought from the farmers market (local farmer, no nitrates, etc.), and some corn bread.

Using the fruits (and greens, and flowers) of the season

We've been eating a lot of chard lately. We have lots in the garden, along with red lettuce. We put them together in salads and they're very yummy. I just wish my tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers were ready too. By the time they're ready for harvest, though, the greens will be history. Unless I plant more. Which I may.

Another way I've used the chard is on pizza. We had homemade pizza the other night that had chard and spinach from our garden included in the toppings. It was very yummy. I'll be trying some other cooked chard recipes soon, although you really can't beat it taken fresh from the garden and put into a salad.

Another thing I have a lot of right now is lavender. I just finished making a blueberry and lavender gelato with the help of my ice cream maker. It's tucked away in the freezer waiting to be pulled out as a treat after dinner, but you can bet that I already had a taste. Mmm, I can't wait till after dinner so I can have more.

Here's the recipe for my lavender and blueberry gelato. It's extremely easy:

Lavender and Blueberry Gelato

1 pint fresh blueberries
2 Tbsp. fresh lavender blossoms (just the little blossoms pulled off of the flowering heads)
1.5 cups granulated sugar
1Tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1.5 cups cold heavy cream
1.5 cups cold water

Clean and wash the berries. Place blueberries, lavender blossoms, sugar, honey, vanilla, and water in a blender and blend until smooth.

In a bowl, beat the cream until it is only slightly thickened - like the consistency of buttermilk.

Pour the berry mixture into the cream and mix thoroughly.

Now you're ready to freeze the mixture as instructed by your ice cream maker.

That's it! No cooking! I came up with this recipe by modifying this extremely good strawberry gelato recipe.

EDIT and REVIEW of my recipe: My family thinks that the lavender taste is too strong in this gelato. If you decide to make it, I would recommend using less lavender (maybe only 1/2 to one Tbsp. of fresh blossoms). I would also recommend using more blueberries - up to 1 pound of fruit, as is called for in the extremely good strawberry gelato recipe (which I have made with great success using 1 pound of mixed berries: strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries). I only had one pint of blueberries on hand today and thought it would be enough with the lavender. Back to the drawing board with this recipe.

Happy eating!