2nd week of August 2008
This week I have done some experimentation with the dehydrator. Since no extra heat is needed indoors right now, I have it setting on the picnic table on our porch. My overflow of sweet onions were sliced thin and dehydrated till crisp and actually taste like onion rings. Also going into the dehydrator were some frenched green beans which came out looking like tiny strings and several herbs for tea. Some of the "ugly" but still very usable garlic heads were cut into slices and dried also. I'm hoping to grind up the garlic chips for garlic powder. The rest of the garlic crop is finally hung up to continue curing in the shed with the largest heads saved for seed this fall. Music is still our favorite, Georgian Fire is definitely the hottest (confirmed by a friend of ours who added a whole head to his fresh carrot juice!), Vermir is very shapely with a nice purple hue, and the new soft necks were fun to braid. Now I need to do a bit of research to decide what new varieties to add to the mix next year.
Another area I hope to do some experimenting with is cooking up some new recipes. Ratatouille is in the plans for this week to make good use of the abundant tomatoes, peppers, onions and a few eggplants. Spending so much time outdoors usually means that meals are quick stir-fries or crock pot meats with most veggies served raw. Hopefully taking time to try some new recipes will give me more ideas to pass on to my veggie customers and others about how to use the veggies coming out of my garden. Also coming in abundance right now are blackberries along the woods lane, elderberries and the start of pears and peaches. These fruits are excellent combined in crisps or cobblers and even make it into our yogurt popsicles. Another plant still being closely watched is our 3 year old's watermelon. I'm beckoned to "Come look" at least once a day at the progress which is amazingly rapid for his Ali Baba watermelon. Our mouths are watering! Some of the watermelon will also go into the dehydrator to make very sweet melon chips which are almost like a fruit leather.
Flowers have been a hot commodity from the garden lately. In addition to providing flowers for a wedding this past weekend I had inquiries about helping supplement two other weddings the same weekend (one bride was enough for me to take care of), requests for two large sunflower bouquets and an order for flowers for a reception next weekend. The wedding involved gathering flowers to fill close to 100 jars so I was thankful for the help from some flower growing friends and also excited about meeting a new flower friend. An Amish lady I met just a few weeks ago at a farmers' market grows cut flowers for a wholesaler and I was able to go visit her flower "truck patch" and pick several buckets full of her extras to supplement my wedding supply. The many bucketfuls of flowers along with edible flowers for the cake were delivered to the bride's home and her aunts and friends did the arranging for the outdoor ceremony and reception.
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