So C-C-Cold-d-d-d!

It is easy to blog when you are blogging all the time, but I fell out of the habit and no longer feel like a blogger.

So much food has grown and it was even warm before, but now it is so cold. It is the end of July and as I write it is evening and 54 degrees. It got into the mid-70s today. I have tomatoes trying to get ripe and okra and melons trying to grow. I heard we are on target to have the warmest July on record and people are roasting all over but it is so chilly here.

Anyhow, to recap the past while, I had some volunteer squash come up very early. It looks like spaghetti squash but it tastes much sweeter. That's right, I already have winter squash. I have a bunch of strange squashes that must have come out of the compost. I took some pictures, but can't find them, but that is ok, because we also had:
potatoes and beets and carrots and onions and garlic and basil and greens and stuff, some of which can be seen here.

And then after that we had basil and made pesto. Some pesto went on pasta salad and some went in the freezer for later.

and so on.

Kimchi

After many misfires over the years, we finally got a good solid crop of daikon.

So I looked online for daikon kimchi recipes and cobbled together what I thought was the best of them. I didn't write it down, so this is from memory.  First, I peeled and cut the daikon into chunks and soaked them in a quart of water that had two tablespoons of salt dissolved in it. While they were soaking, I put about 10- 15 cloves of garlic, a thumb sized or bigger piece of ginger, some fish sauce, two tablespoons of salt, two tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 cup of chili powder into a food processor and made a paste. After the daikon had soaked for a couple of hours, I drained it and mixed it with this paste. Then I placed it in a large jar, alternately adding layers of mustard greens and green onions (also from the garden). I covered this loosely (so it wouldn't explode) and let it sit at room temperature for a few days before putting it in the fridge.

This kimchi is not very spicy for some reason. I think the daikon we planted was relatively mild and the chili powder must have been also. Still, it is a delicious companion to rice and other food. We have some more daikon in the ground, so I am looking forward to making another batch.

Rocktober

Goodbye summer crops.  Tomatoes are still hanging on, but the weather just changed and the days are short. The chickens go to bed at 6:40 pm. Most of the winter squash is done (would have had more if the chickens hadn't gotten out so many times). I pulled out some zucchini and all of the melons.

The corn is over and I have been pulling out the stalks.  Not as much corn per plant as I had hoped for, but maybe better luck next time. Some of the fall winter things I planted are almost ready like fennel, beets and potatoes.  I have been replacing summer crops with broccoli, romanesco broccoli, brussels sprouts, green onions, lettuce, chard, kale.  I need to clear some more space for the starts I already have and for the peas, carrots, spinach and fava beans I intend to plant.

I am going to harvest the remaining peppers and tomatillos this week.  The lady at the seed store told me that tomatillos freeze well.  I hope so.  I dried a bunch of tomatoes in an electric food dehydrator and now we have three big jars full.  I keep meaning to build a solar chimney dehydrator or something like that but I keep having other things to do like painting the outside of the house (which also kept me from updating this blog).