Monday, January 25, 2010

Harvest Monday - 25 January 2010

I haven't been great about eating from my stores this week. It was the last week my son was home before going to collage and he was sick. So I let him pick what he wanted to eat: chicken soup, chicken pot pie, and chicken enchiladas. The only garden food used in these were my frozen carrots and my garlic. I had to buy my onions and potatoes as they are all gone.

I did open up some pickled peas. They are mediocre. I cooked them too long. Occasionally I get really paranoid with canned food and overdo it. If I make them again I'll follow the cooking times exactly. My refrigerator pickled peas that I ate over the summer were prefect, but they never saw heat. I might just stick with them and freeze the rest of the extra peas this year.

Another disappointment is my salsa. It tastes fine, but frozen salsa coagulates a bit. Canned salsa has a better texture. It is great for adding to things. My black bean soup recipe has three ingredients: black beans, salsa, and vegetable broth. It is so easy to throw together and tastes great. Adding salsa to chili works great too. Oh and bean dip (refried beans, salsa and cheese - again really easy). There are lots of ways to use it up, but I'm not putting it on chips anytime soon. Next year I'll can it. Weirdly the tomato sauce that I froze is just fine. As soon as it cooks up again it seems to get smooth. I'm using it up fast though. I'm almost down to my Sungold sauce. The sungolds make a really sweet sauce that isn't good for everything. It works great in chili which can use some sweet to counteract the spice, but it isn't good for pasta.

We are in a really warm spell today. It is going to get into the 50Fs and pour. It ought to free up my kale. I'll see if there is anything edible. I'll let you know on next Harvest Monday.

If you would like to help me believe that harvests still exist, put your name and URL into Mr. Linky below. It doesn't matter how big or small your harvest is. If you have had a harvest this last week, show us and join in! Just a note. Last time quite a few people put links to all sorts of weird posts, but not the harvest post they wrote. Make sure you are putting the correct link into Mr. Linky. I can fix them if necessary, but would rather not.

16 comments:

  1. I hope your son's better now, those chicken meals would certainly help!

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  2. I'm so curios about your pickled peas - did you add them to a cooking liquid on the stovetop, or just pour the hot liquid into the jar full of raw peas? Once I tried to make Spring Pea Vodka to put in some weird martini I dreamt up for a special occasion (totally trying to impress - I can't handle a martini) and it tasted like rubbing alcohol with the liquid from a can of peas. Gross!
    Also, just wanted you to know that I love to read and see everyone's harvest Monday even though I don't blog about it. I would like to join in this Spring in order to keep track of weights and costs, but for now (I am still harvesting some) I can barely blog once a week and still make time to read others!

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  3. I prefer canned salsa to frozen too. We were racing through the jars of salsa but have recently slowed down on it of late. Never had pickled peas before. Got my curiousity up. Peas are such precious commodities though, that I will likely stick to our customary freezing process.

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  4. I don't have any pictures of my sprouts, or the carrots, turnips and potatoes I bought at the recent Winterfare farmer's market. I do still have peaches and blueberries in the freezer, and a few green beans. They won't last much longer.

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  5. I haven't tried canning peas yet as my kids generally eat any that look like they might be 'left over' but I do intend to try it one day. This weather we're having is weird for us. I'm not used to the percipitation coming down as liquid this time of year.

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  6. I've got one unopened jar of refrigerator pickled snap peas left plus a few left in the last jar I opened. They have been very good and hold up quite well in the fridge. I don't do cooked pickled snap peas anymore, they get too soft for my taste. I hope your kale came through ok.

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  7. Most of what I harvest through the season gets stored for winter and spring cooking.
    We don’t eat nearly as much salsa in summer, as in winter... It’s all canned, although I have frozen sliced tomatoes and peppers and they are great that way for cooking.

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  8. My Monday Harvest won't be harvested until later today, but I will be getting some lettuce and onions for tonight's salad. I put up some updated mini-garden photos today.

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  9. Jan, he is much better, thanks.

    JP, I cold pack them in the jars and then pour the hot pickling liquid over them. Then process. The refrigerator pickles never see any heat at all. They are put in cold pickling liquid and kept in the fridge.

    kitsapFG, you ought to try one small jar of pickled peas. Just make some pickling liquid and keep it in the fridge. As you get them throw in the snap peas (cut both ends off so the liquid can get inside). They are quite a tasty treat if you like pickles.

    Commonweeder, oh peaches and blueberries. Yum. I so wish I had blueberries for my cereal in the morning. I miss fruit with my breakfast.

    Ottawa Gardener, well to me this is pretty normal. Last winter we were low on precipitation because it was all snow (though more than usual there). I think of our typical snow storm as 6-8 inches of snow then rain to follow to destroy any chance of skiing. We are just so close to the coast that it warms the weather up just enough.

    Michelle, I wish I had some left. Yum.

    vrtlarica, I eat a lot of fresh salsa in the summer and I make a lot of fresh (no lettuce) salads that are very similar to salsas.

    Annie's Granny, fresh salad. I think I'm going to be dreaming of that tonight. So many pretty lettuce photos today.

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  10. We had lots of chicken the past few days, I am chickened out! To bad about the salsa. I keep hoping this year is a good one for tomatoes, I'd love to put down a bunch of my own sauce.

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  11. It sounds pretty good to me -- I have issues with canned salsa because I like it fresh so much. I haven't yet found the perfect balance of flavors in canned sauce. And I don't need chips any time soon.

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  12. Dan, I don't think I could be chickened out. But two meals like chicken soup and pot pie that are mostly alike I could do without.

    Stefaneener, this year I'll have to find a good recipe for the canned variety. I make the fresh all summer long, but still need a good one for the winter now. Sadly I can't just make the canned version up since it has to be acidic enough.

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  13. It sounds like canning recipes are a lot like baking recipes in that there is not a lot of room for error. Pickled peas??? That's something you don't hear about everyday.

    I don't know about you but we still have a ton of snow on the ground here, even though the weather has been so mild.

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  14. Once again, I'm late. I just posted my harvest from the last two weeks, which included oranges, lemons, my last two limes, 4 lovely bell peppers, chard,the last cauliflower from the fall planting, and some herbs. Glad to hear that your son is feeling better.

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  15. Thomas, if you like pickles, you ought to try them someday. They are really tasty and strangely fit well on a hamburger too. I wasn't sure they would, but they go well. Mostly I eat them as a side dish though. We still have snow too. I kept thinking it would melt out. The woods area has mostly melted out already, but I still have a layer of snow on the garden and open grass.

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