4th week of July 2009

Yellow and Blue Veggies The abundance of harvest is upon us. So many veggies are coming from the garden it's hard to get everything eaten. Today our daughter brought in the first Persimmon slicing tomato from her garden so I gathered some other beautiful yellow and purple produce for a picture. In the basket with the Persimmon are yellow Swiss chard, yellow pear and Sungold tomatoes, purple cabbage, rainbow carrots, golden beets, patty pan squash, a lemon cucumber, a black cherry tomato, blue potato and an Italian tropea lunga onion. Another yellow veggie that I don't grow is sweet corn but thanks to some Amish neighbors, we had our first meal of fresh corn on my birthday. This is the time of year when it is easy to "eat the rainbow." For my weekly demos at Lehmans store I take a basket of garden produce and have fun amazing folks with some of the unusual varieties. Many people think at first glance that my display veggies are "fake" but I am quick to assure them that we don't eat plastic at our table!

Lacto Fermented Beans Some of the abundance that isn't consummed at our table is being put away for the winter. Thanks to the kitchen help of my mother, we are freezing piles of beans. We also want to try canning some dilly beans. Pictured are a few lacto-fermented projects I started. Sour cucumbers are one of our family favorites and the green beans are an experiment. To lacto-ferment vegetables we pour a mixture of salt, water and whey (a source of lacto-bacillus) over the veggies and then cover it and let them set at room temperature for 2-3 days. When it is done bubbling we move it to the refrigerator or a cool basement. The process keeps the veggies raw with vitamins intact for winter eating. We'll also do several gallons of sauerkraut this way in the fall and as I was looking through the Wild Fermentation book I would like to try garlic, sour beets and others.

This is a week full of harvesting - we have 120 pastured chickens ready to butcher, piles of flowers to pick for two weekend weddings, plus the regular veggie baskets to make. In the midst of the harvesting, I also am trying to put in fall plantings of beets, carrots, peas, salad greens, Chinese cabbage, bok choy and more. I'm thankful for the times we can rest and play among the bustle. We enjoyed having family come to the farm for the weekend, evenings around the campfire and warm afternoons we can sit in front of the fan.

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