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Hi, All...well you are probably sick of my painting, but the other half of my life is gardening. Honestly, we have had a ton of rain here, so you have to run out and do something whenever it is not pouring.
But, HOT...our humidity actually has been in the 90%, the bugs love it, I don't.
We've had two meals of Beans, the Broccoli is starting- 4 nice heads this week. The first heads are always the best
Yellow summer squash are starting. Lots of blossoms, but with the rain the blossoms have limped up and fallen off before polination. I have flowers here and there to encourage flowering, and the sunflowers are everywhere.
We've had one small Zucchini, and a small Cucumber is waiting for salad tonight.
The Snow Peas are done, I'm leaving them to dry for seed. And, I will replant in August. We can always pop them in the greenhouse if it ever turns COLD.
Meanwhile we have had multiple meals, and now a bag that needs to be frozen.
Monday is clean the fridge day...hubby and I both shop when we are out and we both bought a bag of those small peppers that keep so well and are sweet and tasty. So, long as I'm going to clean the fridge, I decided to blanch and freeze all our miscellaneous produce and some of the fresh from the garden.
A simple HOW TO:
BLANCHING AND FREEZING VEGETABLES
Equipment:
Knives, cutting board, compost container, large covered pot, Sieves or colander, medium metal bowl for icing, drainboard, pot holders, draining or straining spoon, timer, freezer bags, hot pad holders.
Today I'm using my 1968 REVERE WARE WORKHORSE Dutch Oven.
Specs online say this is 6 quarts, which is perfect for small batches of veggie blanching. This is the last of my Revere ware pots and pans from our wedding to survive all these years, it's from when they were still well made. I like using it because the lid rattles when it comes to a boil.
The first veggie I did, was cleaned and de-stringed Snow Peapods. This was the last picking and there are a few mature peas in here, but they are still so tender.
I blanched them in boiling water for maybe 2 minutes, and then tossed into ice water until chilled. Scoop them onto the drain board and on to the next Veggies.
I did roughly three cups of beans....very young and tender, these were blanched in the same kettle of water for 3 minutes and then sieve drained and tossed into fresh cold water and ice...completely chill and drain.
The time in-between was just enough to prep the next veggie and let the water recover to boiling. I use a metal bowl because of the ability to chill fast and is also heat tolerant.
My last batch for this kettle of water were three medium (@ 4-5") heads of fresh Broccoli, loosely chopped.
All were blanched for maybe 4-5 minutes.
(or until the boil returned) and then chilled in ice water and put on the drainboard. Here, I dumped them in the hot water.
After blanching and in the ice water, the Broccoli is still crunchy, but remember you are going to cook it one more time, so less time is better. Broccoli will break down if you pre-cook for too long, so I just cook it until it starts to boil.
Well about the rest, I was going to do the Summer Squash, too, but we will have that tonight for our Carb with Turkey burgers and Asparagus (purchased).
So that leaves the 1/2 bag of peppers, a purchased Yellow Pepper and
these homegrown garden onions. I have had lots of onions through the Spring and early summer. and the ones in the raised planters should be ready next week. Then I will plant some more for Fall.
So chop, chop, chop...loosely and these I did a bit large, and the onions and other pepper a bit smaller.
These were tossed into boiling water and less than 2 minutes then into the a fresh ice bath.
Perfect assortment for any cooked dish. Now into the freezer bags.
The Pepper mix is still draining..but, these I just label the date..you can see what everything is.
I use GOOD quality freezer bags. I Reuse them by washing the bags out and drying them and then using for leftovers.
The fresh on sale Asparagus...pre-cooked in the microwave for 5 minutes so it can keep a day or two more. We will still have fresh for our omelets in the morning besides. Again, hubby bought extra because of the sale.
Cleaning up is always the REDO or REUSE by Composting. We add some paper products, paper towels and coffee filters. Everything else is vegetable waste or green, egg shells, from the kitchen except for any meat or dairy products, NO Banana peels, and we are trying to eliminate seeds goes into the compost. (Bread products are toasted and fed to the birds)
All this gets layered with grass cuttings, bush clippings and any non-weed greenery we have from the yard. Hubby layers in Peat Moss and this year, Vermiculite to loosen our clay laden soil. We have been amending the soil here since the early 80's and well, it's still clay...blacker clay, but clay, lol.
While cleaning the kitchen the full bowl of compost went out, and I started a new bowl. Mornings coffee grounds and an egg shell.
I was careful not to throw any pepper seeds into here,
Honestly we have more plants growing in our compost pile then the garden.
I wonder what all those Squash/Pumpkin looking plants are??
Tomatoes, peppers, maybe Watermelon? We had Watermelon on Memorial Day...LOL.
All those in the back I think are Tomato plants?
How are your
Garden Veggies Doing?
Thanks always for visiting,
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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.
Thank you for your cooperation,
Sandi
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