Potatoes and Other Things

This has nothing to do with today's subject but let me introduce you to our newest member of the menagerie, his name is Duke. With Kirk setting traps, our older cat spending long hours hunting, they just could not keep up with the influx of mice so Duke entered the scene. He is already catching mice at his tiny size. One day I watched him kill a mouse in the morning and another in the evening. Don't know how many he scores a day but it is impressive for so small a kitten. My advice would be if you want a cat to cuddle, go to the shelter; if you want a mouser, find a barn cat's kittens. They have the instincts to hunt or their parents would not have survived. Our cats of course have a back up of cat food to keep them healthy but I would not choose a shelter kitten for a barn cat job. They have the wrong resume. Duke is beyond spoiled as the grandkids seldom let his feet touch the ground. Good thing the three oldest are in school most of the day and there is just our three-year-old grand daughter left at home or the kitten would not get any work done.

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Gardens are coming to a close here up north and ours for the most part came to a halt back on August 22 when we had a killing frost. Yes, even a bit early for here. I thought with all that I had learned the past 33 years gardening in our old home, same altitude, same growing zone, that the learning curve would mainly just be the change in soil. Boy was I ever wrong. Things that I could grow before like Brussel Sprouts just don't stand a chance up here. I even tried two different varieties. My first thought was they are a cool weather crop and hence should do pretty well up here? I've tried for two summers and they don't even come close to developing. Corn is another huge struggle and I have not gotten a crop in two years. I've not given up on it. I do love my corn and I have a few ideas to try. What I have learned from observation of the last couple summers is that we have far cooler nights and that halts growing until the temp raises in the morning. That means not only short season but cool season crops, really cool weather crops have to be found.

My sister has a kind of bean I am unfamiliar with that did well for her and she lives at a even higher altitude but I think their nights are warmer. She promised to send me some and said if I like them she will send more for seed. Like the taste I'm thinking is less important than if they will grow in a survival situation.  My dried bean experiments that has been going on for 6 years is taking a very different turn but I'll talk more about that later.

Short season, really cool weather crops will take priority and cold frames, tires, and row covers are going to have to be a big part of our plan. The greenhouse frame will have to go up next summer and since the tomatoes and peppers did well up against the house on the south side, we will work on a frame that can cover that area also. Anything that tempers the cool weather and holds warmth is going to be a biggy.
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Since it is the time many will be digging their potatoes I thought I would update you on my experiments. I would not have my tators so early in September with the unusually warm weather we have had after the killing frost but when I dug up a few hills for eating, I discovered some rotten were rotten. I was shocked! My potatoes don't even rot when I hit them with a shovel while digging. They just scab over and remain firm. I'm blaming the ghostly pale, BIG fat worm lurking amongst my crop. Anyone know who it might be? He looked like a pretty shady character and I didn't like the look of him. The bites out of the potatoes were pretty good sized and I wasn't about to take a chance loosing the whole crop, so I dug.

At the encouragement of my sister, the same one with the beans, I tried Pontiacs since I LOVE red potatoes but they failed. I put Dakota's back in and they gave me a puny crop. They did better last year but not a terribly impressive show. The King George potatoes came through as they have through disease, drought, hail, and every other adversity. They even produced potatoes on plants that did not blossom last year. I never knew that was even possible. I get some pretty big ones too with quite a few per hill. More than anything else I've grown.

                                               Photo is of a King George Potato
I was thinking when I stabbed a few Dakotas, "Now these are going to turn to mush and I will have to put them in the mulch pile. There are too many of them to have for supper." Hmmm......" What shall I do to not waste them?" Here is where the brain fart enters in. "What if I took all the damaged potatoes and made potato flour from them?"  You know this brain never rests.  I hurried, washed them, boil the potato pieces, cut them up into smaller pieces, dried them in the dehydrator, put them through the blender to chop them up even littler, and I will put them through the wheat grinder when I get it out to grind wheat. The guilt of wasting food is gone and I am feeling pretty smart. Something I savor whenever possible. Especially since I have been doing some carpentry work lately and that always leaves me feeling and looking pretty dumb.

I have decided to halt my potato diversity plan for now and move on to my next experiment in the form of figuring out how to work with true potato seeds. Something the plants don't produce every year. Some of you don't even know what that is probably. I sure wondered what the clusters of green balls that produce where the blossoms were? That is them, true potato seeds. Potatoes that I had saved, put in the ground, saved some from that crop, and put in again produced the potato seeds. Not sure if that was what it takes or if the weather was just right but I plan to find out by keeping records. I've been wanting true potato seeds to begin my next experiments because of the  "What ifs?", which send surges of panic through me. "What if we were in a survival situation and my potato cropped failed? What would we put in the ground the next year to get a crop?" It isn't like you can keep tiny potatoes in storage for years. There were thousands who starved to death in Ireland from a potato famine. It could happen again as history repeats itself.

Don't know how long true potato seeds last but surely longer than small potatoes. I can see I have more research to do but now I can begin to learn for I have some seeds to grow into plants and begin the next phase of experimentation.

It is my understanding from research that it is the true potato seeds which harbor the genetic crosses that become new strains of potatoes. I'm not at the moment interested in producing a new kind of potato as I only have one kind that is doing well but I am hoping that the seeds remain viable for a few years giving me a back up safety system. First I have to plant them and see how long it takes to produce plants large enough to put in the garden. Well actually first I had to try to remove the seeds from the green firm balls. I'm hoping unlike peppers and cucumbers that there isn't a specific age development at which you have to do this. I just picked a few off of plants that were dying and a few more off the ground where they had fallen.

I followed directions that recommended you put the balls in the blender with water and chop them up. This left me with a mess, too much pulp per tiny seeds. Wondering how to separate this mess I put them in canning jars and waited to see which seeds floated, they are the bad ones, and which seeds fell to the bottom. The seeds just didn't want to fall because they were held up by all the pulp. I shook the jars now and then and tried skimming off pulp from the top. There were just too many seeds that ended up coming with each scoop and I felt wasteful. There has got to be a better way. If you know of it please share. I dried the seeds and pulp that I wasn't able to separate both ended up on parchment paper together and I figured the pulp will just rot away when I plant the seeds. That is plant them next spring under grow lights. Answers just don't come quickly when it involves gardening. It takes years to sometimes to find the answers and gain the skills needed.  It is one area I would gladly pay to be an apprentice to speed up the process. There are just so few that have the knowledge in my area
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 Have any of you tried working with true potato seeds?

Dried Beans, It Is The Future

First of all, my experience with growing dried beans is about nill. Yes, I often grow Dragon's Tongue but they seem to get eaten fresh and none end up going to the seed stage. In fact, the family asked this year if I had any in the garden. I did not, having decided that I was going to experiment with new varieties of beans big time.

I've found a new favorite for green beans and so with my grandpa's Kinghorn wax bean, I've got two really good ones. The purple early bean that is suppose to do well in cold soil is still a question. I would like three really good green beans. Not that I need that many green beans but my goal is to have three really good varieties in each category, tomatoes, green bean, dried bean etc. I'm thinking of the potato famine and how growing just two varieties ended up with a whole nation starving. Those two were both susceptible to the virus that wiped them out. I want three not just good tasting but three that do well under adverse circumstances. Late spring, early frost, and a virus definitely tested the garden big time. Though the turtle and northern dried bean varieties succumbed and then came out of it, they were then hit by the heavy snow. Our season is just to short to play that game. The Contender green beans were not fazed nor were the Orcas or the Kidney beans by the virus. Of course everything was effected by the snow.

My plan for next year is to use plastic to warm the soil as a large amount of snow fell last year chilling the ground big time. Maybe a large amount of snow is normal for up here. I don't know. I do know that the soil took forever to warm up. Major chilly soil was a new lesson as was the wilt virus.



The weather and virus was a good test though bad production was the result. The next test was how big the pods were and how many per plant. Not that I counted but it became clear that the Kidney pods were the longest and the bean the largest which means more food per plant. The plants were loaded with pods, most too green with too small of bean to think of harvesting.Though the bulk of the pods did not reach maturity. there were still far more of kidneys than the other three varieties of dried beans I grew. Two containers versus a partial for Orca and the skimpy one with turtle and northern beans. Note how large the kidney pod is. It held on average six beans per pod. A northern pod is sitting on the counter. Yup, tiny in comparison.

The Orca bean's pod was not as large as the kidney and held four beans. The bean is decent size and round. Not all beans will be the kidney size so I figure good size is good enough. As for the turtle and northern beans, the pods were short with tiny beans inside. Most all the pods were still green. They were hit hardest by the virus and with the small size and short pod, the production was not nearly what the other two beans were. In fact, not worth the effort of growing them in a limited space as far as I'm concerned. I love black beans and northerns but I'll buy for now.  I'm sure that I'm partial to them because I have such a limited experience with dried beans. We have so few varieties available to us here. I'm sure there are ones out there I will love but just haven't tried yet.

I'm definitely growing kidney and orca again next year. I've got two or three more new ones I'm putting in also. Then when I get a nice variety that can handle our soil, weather, and short season I can begin to be picky about taste.

As for harvesting,instead of the traditional pull the plants and put them in storage until the pods dry procedure, I put pulled the pods off the plants and put them on a tarp in the garage. I just don't have space for the plants. And since the weather had turned to snow when I was picking and I could not glean any more from the garden at that time, I sat on the tarp and shelled beans, my curiosity getting the best of me. Many of them were not ready, stilling being a bit green.


This is what happens usually when I've let a few of the greener beans dry on their own. They shrivel up. It isn't that I've never tried growing dried beans before. It is that I've never had decent success. Few reach maturity before the wet cold weather hits and many of those shrivel when dried on their own.

See the shriveled bean that dried on its own? So with lots of the beans not mature could I save them? This would be critical in a survival situation. You would be using everything you could get your hands on. Now being the time to experiment, I tried drying them in the dehydrator at close to its lowest temperature to see if it had a different effect on the immature beans. Low and behold they dried but did not shrivel. Woo hoo!! The final test is to see if the taste is effected by the immaturity. Even if it is by a little, that will be a huge success. The other thing that thrilled me is that though the goats at first stuck their noses up at the bean plants, they later devoured them down to the sticks. Plus, the pods that I shelled were also devoured. Yeah, food for us and food for the goats.

I love it when the Lord nudges you along. I had been prompted to try my hand at growing dried beans. I didn't think much about it. I just did it this year. Inspiration struck while I was shelling beans. It cost me 40 dollars for 24 packages of 12 small mouth canning jar lids at the cheapest price I could find them.  I can go through that many jars lids in a blink. Canning is not going to be my first priority in a survival situation. Yes, I'm going to stock up on lids as I've let myself get low but after one season or two, they will be gone.  Yes, I've started to buy Tattler lids and will continue to stock up after I'm done building up my metal lid supply. They can be reused and reused but they are expensive at first to invest in and just how many jars and lids do I want?

 This year I'm running out of jars. Did I just not can that much in the past or do I just have a lot of old food? Can't tell as I do not have decent shelves in my food storage room and so most things are in boxes. It is one of my goals this year to put in new shelves replacing the pitiful wimpy ones in the storage room and empty all the old food out of jars. With a failed garden last year and no peaches or pears to can, old is about all I have from before. I want a inventory done on just what canning supplies I have when I can get things organized. I know I have a canner that needs parts and has needed parts for several years. I have two canners and have been just using the one. In 2015 the canning supplies will be stocked. I've let preparedness in this area as in many others slip while I moved and dealt with family issues.

I got a bit off tract there. The a....w ha... moment came while I was shelling beans. In a survival situation I'm not going to be putting the huge emphasis on green beans as I do now. Dried beans will be the bulk of what I grow in the bean area. Think about it. You never see a movie with the pioneers or cowboys hauling around cans of green beans or bottles. No, it is dried beans. Dried beans most years preserve themselves on their own. They shrink to about half their original size making storing wonderful.

Yes, the pioneers strung some green beans on thread and hung them to dry but the greater part of their storage was in dried beans. Today people put the emphasis the other way around and very few grow dried beans at all. Now I know why I felt the prompting to try my hand at dried beans. I love it when the Lord nudges me along teaching a little here and a little there.

This year he has me thinking along the lines of what will store on its own with little effort on my part. Time is critical as since I have moved and have more things to put away for the winter that I am short on energy and time.

This is a call to all you northern growers. What dried beans do you grow? I'd love a heads up on what varieties to try next. The seed catalogue descriptions only say so much. They definitely did not tell be enough about the turtle and northern bean to make a wise decision.  Plus, have any of you cooked the greener looking dried beans. Do they taste any different.

Potatoes

It snowed again the other day. The forecast for 22 F. sent me rushing to get my potatoes in. Some were eying the skies and with their heads poling up I wasn't sure they would survive the cold night. With the potatoes shivering in laundry baskets. Maybe shiver was a bit much but even if they weren't I was. The dried bean shells had ended up proceeding being pulled. I have such ADD at times. I started to dig the potatoes and the effort made me stop and look over at the dried bean rows. I thought they'd make a nice break so I went and started pulling plants while ripping off swelled pods and putting them into buckets. When my back grew tired of beans I started on the potatoes again. Which had me stopping once more to look over at the green bean plants which I had quit picking weeks ago with the fleeting hope that they would have time to form seed.

Maybe just maybe I could get a little of them but by then it had started to rain and I had to rush in the garage the potatoes and dried bean pods. When it started to hail I was done. The howling winds making them seem like the skies were hurtling BB's at me. I huddled in the garage on the tarp, my hood on my sweatshirt pulled up and occasionally glancing out the window at the rain/hail, thinking it would soon stop, I began shucking beans from the shells. Did you know that is addicting. I couldn't stop though the rain/hail turned to snow and I became colder and colder.  I did not stop until all the beans were shucked. Then I started a fire in the stove in the house roasting marshmallows of course. I do love a good golden brown marshmallow all crunchy on the outside and warm gooey on the inside.

 It wasn't until later that I got around to sorting potatoes. Once again I'm thrilled with my King Harry's. The best performing potato I've ever had. I know, I haven't had many but this one has far surpassed anything I've ever grown. In the old garden here. (Hmmm I really do need to name the gardens. Want to help?) I had wilting disease  but the King Harry's still produced medium to small potatoes. Shocker as the plants didn't even blossom. These were the potatoes I grew in the garden at the old house. They out performed that gardens harvest by many times. The soil there was horrible. Having grown them for a while I had forgotten that when you nick a potato it often turns to mush later. These don't.  

Some of the King Harry's were at a whopping 4 1/2 inches. The amount of potatoes each plant produces was once again impressive. These are my main crop potatoes and I just might start calling them Ole, Reliable. The only downer is that to my great disappointment they did not produce seed this year. Hopefully that will happen next year and I can figure out what prompts it. You know the commercial potato growers know the answer.  

My Norland red potatoes succumbed to the wilt disease, are a fussier potato, and I'm going to try something else next year. The new potato, the Norkotahs were a nice surprise. Some were monsters. This one was almost nine inches.

 This is one hill, so not too bad for production. They do turn to mush when you dig them with a shovel and slice one. I think I'll have to get a potato fork as I plan on raising these next year.

What tickled me was that a couple of the Norkotahs had artistic shapes. I remember as a child picking up potatoes and putting them in a gunny sack. This was at our cousins of which there were eight children. That meant an acre of potatoes or was it a half acres. I don't know but a lot. My uncle was a farmer and would dig the potatoes with the plow of the tractor and we kids would sack them. I'd ask him about those potato seeds but alas, he is gone. Oh the fun of working together and the delight of finding these mis-shappened potatoes. Maybe not so fun in the kitchen  as they are a bit difficult to peel but they sent a child's imaginations a racing. 

 

Though not the crop we had planned, we would have had potatoes coming out our ears, not literally of course but blessings none the less as more potatoes than we have ever had before.  BLESSINGS!!!

What is your favorite kind of potato for the north? I'm trying to find three kinds of most vegetables.

Saving Tomato Seeds From Tomatoes

I'm making salsa. Just a few jars left in the pantry from last year.  Oh how I'm tired of canning and I did not really do all that much this year. It is just that I want to work on organizing our belongings in this new home. I'm frustrated with the contained clutter.You know, things that are collected in an area but not efficiently shelved, hung, or organized so as to quickly be at hand. But for now I will work on having a grateful heart for the food we have been blessed with.

 

Though things haven't gone as planned and my efforts in the garden have been few and far in between. Still we have been given much. One side of the garage is bursting with produce awaiting canning, putting away, dried, or processed. It will be a great aid in the days to come as we tighten our belt and work on our finances.

 

Though I had planned to do so much more with the garden, there are still many things I learned and many successes.The garden soil though not perfect is far better than that which we left behind. I learned that a garden notebook is essential if I am to move forward and accomplish the goals I have set forth of trying to be more self-efficient in the area of food. I'll talk more about that later.  

One of the things I learned was I am definitely going to repeat growing the Alaska tomato. Not sure exactly which plant was what kind as I did not mark them. I will next time. But there were larger tomatoes than I've had before. I'm sure the soil had a huge impact. With a few of those larger tomatoes I've started an experiment, saving seed. I may not know exactly what kind they may be but I've come to the conclusion that in survival it isn't the name that will save us but the best plants of what ever they happened to be. So with seeds from those larger tomatoes I began to learn.

 

I scooped out some seeds from a lovely tomato, place the seeds and the jelly like substance that clung to them into a half pint, glass, canning jar.

 

I can just see my sister saying yuck right now and there is no way I can do this. She is majorly allergic to mold. But mold is a must. In the jelly substance that clings to the seeds is a chemical that prohibits them from sprouting. When this mixture molds, it breaks down the chemical. The jell like substance becomes a liquid, no longer clinging to the seeds. Molding therefore serves a two fold purpose of releasing the seeds from the jell and breaking down the sprouting prohibitor.  

Some people add a little water in with the jell before it molds but I chose to add it after I took a fork and scooped off the mold. Less liquid to stink I figured and I was right. It didn't smell too bad until I added liquid and disturbed the liquid. See the seeds at the bottom? That is a good sign.  The bad seeds are suppose to rise to the top. Shock of shocks, all the seeds sunk. I'd say that is a good tomato. 

I then rinsed the seeds thoroughly in a wire strainer under the kitchen sink to finish removing the jell like substance from them. If any pulp remains remove with your fingers.

I then placed the seeds on a paper plate as instructed. The site cautioned against paper towels as the seeds stick to them. Let seeds dry. Today I will remove the dried seeds, place in a plastic bag, and then put in a glass jar. Remember that plastic is porous and moisture will eventually work its way inside of it and that is why the need for the glass jar.  

Encouraged by the results I now have two more jars on the counter. One has the seeds from three large round tomatoes. The other the seeds of three pear shaped tomatoes. Note the tomato seeds throughout the liquid. That is because the jell is not broken down yet. Part two of the experiment will take place next spring when I plant the seeds and see just how successful I really was with my seed saving project.

Now I wish I'd have let a couple cucumbers get large and saved seeds from them. The method is the same as for tomatoes. Oh well, there is always next year. For now I must start that garden journal.

Not Made For Goats

A.....w!, such sweet innocent creatures, WRONG!! I've discovered I was delusional for thirty-one years. They are not sweet or innocent. Underneath those cute little faces lies conniving demolition experts, astounding contortionists, and shredding machines. How could I have been hornswaggled for so long? All these years I've been day dreaming of goats placidly grazing around me as I worked in the yard. I could clearly see in my mind goats aiding me in keeping the lawn mowed down. What a rude awakening lay in store for me when we moved to this place. Long luxurious blades of green grass stand upright, untouched as the goats head straight for the rose bushes or the pine trees, ri...p, munch, munch, munch. Smooth caressing blades versus downright pricklies. I'll never get it. All I see is OUCH, not yum.

As if that isn't enough, when they are chased off from there where do they go next, grazing? NO..., they top off the flowers and investigate the garage tromping up and down the back stairs. Letting them out while I worked only happened three times and I gave up in frustration for I spent my whole time hollering NO>>>>!.

I've learned another thing living here. Make one little mistake like not fastening the cow panels tight in the field and leaving the garden gate open, (okay that was two little mistakes) and its round and round the raspberry bushes you go. Doesn't matter how loud you scream, throw your arms, and if you act stark raving mad, which I was, the goats only run to the end of the patch and duck back up the other side out of reach. While I was chasing one, two  more were purposely standing on the fence and then using their heads to bull doze the damaged wires shouldering their way inside the old garden. What happened when I ran for a cow panel to cover the two offending holes? The goats scurried worked their way down the fence until they found another spot that looked a bit weak and rushed to tear it down before I could get to them.

bad goat fence

Who would of thunk that one little nibble of raspberry leaves would lead to a whole length of fence being demolished? It is painfully clear goats LOVE raspberry leaves. When steam stopped rolling out of my ears and I was smugly standing by the newly installed cow panels and thinking, 'ha..., ha...., ha..., ha.... ha.... ha...., I won this round! My mind went racing down a dangerous dark alley. What about drying some of the leaves for winter feed, after all they will naturally just dry out and drop off on their own without doing anyone any good but do I dare? Will that just increase their determination to destroy fence next year? Hm.... raspberry leaves are really good for the female reproductive system but do I have time for another project when I'm already so far behind? Then wisdom set in, ' Holly, you don't have time nor do you want to try and find out what happens if you just happen to create an insatiable appetite for raspberry leaves dried or fresh'.

What I do know is that this fence is not for goats. It might keep the deer from shredding the tree trunks and taking bites out of the branches but a goat deterrent it is not. Oh sure it worked for a few months but who wants to spend money twice. Luckily it was existing fence, not new fence. So now you know what one of my projects has been, to re-fence places where the goats will be with cow panels, NOT this light wired stuff.

Instead of tearing down the old fence and laying up new, I just overlaid the cow panels and next year I'll tear out the old and redo. That is except the apple trees which needed totally redoing anyway since the fence had to be extended outward.
As for contortionists, I put in some cow panels to keep the big goats out from a little area set aside for Lilly Pad. She wasn't popular when she first arrived. It kind of worked. The big goats didn't go into this area but they didn't exactly stay out of it either. Sorry, I was going to photograph it before I took it down but I forgot. Imagine that with weeks and weeks of company having just left. My brain is all a muddle.

Even though there is no feed in this small area that lay next to the bigger pen in the barn where the goats stayed at night, they still squeeze in flattening their bodies like a mouse to make sure I didn't change my mind and hide grain in the smaller area. Wish I could have. It would have been nice to have a kid area they could slip into and eat some grain like the creep feeders we set up for the lambs. Believe me, goats are not sheep in any way shape or form. Yup, goats just slipped down the list as my favorite animals. I don't care if Megan does grin at me pulling her lips back to expose her teeth. I'm not fool no more.

Why Tomatoes Crack

Canning peaches today. Not enjoying the process as I'd rather sit on the couch and watch a movie, still really tired but doing better. When I stare at the mound of work, I mean wonderful food, I am grateful. Grateful that I have two stoves to can on which speeds up the process greatly and grateful that we have peaches and pears to can this year. Last year the orchard we get them from in Colorado had a killing frost. This is not the first time this has happened and so I've learned to have on hand more than a years supply.

Once again we did not get any sweet corn this year. The corn stocks were the tallest we've ever had but the ears had just started to form when the17 inches of snow hit. The corn is now flattened. Oh well, our daughter felt impressed to bring home a large amount of corn last year from Colorado when our garden was hailed out. We froze and froze and froze corn until I began to wonder why oh why we were doing so much of it? I've found out that those little quiet impressions whispered to us are for a reason. A reason that we don't always know until later, sometimes never unless we don't listen and head the warning.

With self-sufficiency on the mind I'm wondering just how many years of food you should have on hand since weather is so uncertain these days like 17 inches of snow in the summer. I'm just glad survival isn't up to me entirely since I'm presently not up to the task.

As for potatoes and carrots, I'm not digging yet until I get the mounds of food in the garage under control. Even though things didn't quite go my way this summer with little time to spend in the garden, weather problems, and poor soil in the old garden, we still will have much to put away for winter.  I've pushed most of my goals to next year, planning this winter to better prepare a course of action.

One disappoint was that the potatoes did not produce any seeds, bummer. That leaves me questioning why not? Why do potato plants sometimes produce seed and not other times? Can't find the answer on the internet so far. The commercial potato farmers have to know. I need to find out.

But for now the order of the day is to deal with what is at hand. This has been a extremely difficult year. We have some dear friends with us right now. They are here to hunt Pronghorn antelope with our son. The plan was for them to stay with our son but his remodeling job had progress much slower than he thought it would. Consequently the house has no working bathroom or shower. It has been a revolving door of company most of the summer and definitely the past few weeks. I'm praying life will calm down and allow us to catch up a bit, if not disasters await us. Our poor goat kids are not weaned yet because we have not had time to build a shed and separate enclosure. We have hay to haul and wood which are essential for winter. The house is not painted and I've 200 bags to get sewn before November. Glug! what a list awaits our attention but I keep reminding myself that the Lord is in charge and so he will make all things imperative possible.

Meanwhile, we are learning and relearning some lessons. Due to the constant travel to the other home and to tend to Kirk's father, our poor garden has been neglected. Our tomatoes cracked or rather part of our tomatoes cracked. Yes, I knew why once upon a time but the files in my memory get lost from time to time. I found this handy site http://www.tomatodirt.com/tomato-cracks.htmlwhen I went looking once more for the cause. Not that I could do anything about it. I've given you a photo of the worst one. Also we have learned that up here near the mountain it is very important to trim back the tomato plants of excess leaves and small tomatoes in August so the plant can put its energies into the larger tomatoes. I had only two done of the twenty plants.

I do have some new projects started too like vinegar. I'll show you next time what is in the works.

Powdered Dried Vegetables

Run out of people to give your zucchini to? Don't forget to freeze some and dry some. I tried putting some zucchini in the blender and then drying it - don't do it. It didn't work so well as it was hard to get off the plastic sheets on the dehydrator trays.

 

 It did powder up finer than the sliced zucchini but not worth the waste.

 

Slice instead and then put it through the blender to chop it up. I stored my zucchini last year sliced in ziplock bags but this time I'm powdering it and putting it in canning jars. It takes up less space that way. 

If you have a mandolin, the job is super quick. I love mine and use it almost every day during this time of year.

 

 

Some of you will recall that I like to dry vegetables, turn them to powder, and then add them to noodles, breads, and taco shells to boost the flavor and increase the nutrition level. I've done sweet potatoes, pumpkin, beets, spinach, and zucchini. I have LOVED my powdered hot pepper mix also that I don't use in noodles or taco shell but I love it in chili and Mexican dishes. No, dried hot peppers aren't in my noodles. I have yet to try them in taco shells but I should. It should be replaced this year but I've not hot peppers to do it with so I guess it will hopefully be next year. 

 

This year I'm doing some bell peppers dried. Just ones that I had in my bountiful basket but weren't getting used fresh. We have been on the road wa....y too much but hopefully that will come to an end soon. That has meant I don't get cooking done like I'd like and more food goes to waste, something that really bugs me. Sti...ll I'm doing my best and one can't do more than that. I'm to the point where I've thrown out most of my goals and started over. Not that the goals aren't still there, they just got shoved into next year. That includes doing a great deal of canning and freezing.  

 

 I am going to do quite a bit of drying of food. It is much quicker than canning. Beets are going today into the dehydrator. What a sorry crop I've had but it is okay, I've still some canned so I'll make it another year with cutting back on how much we eat of them.

 If I've learned one thing it is you should can for more than a year's use. Last year we had hail that wiped out the garden. That meant we ate the left overs jars from the year before. This year the old garden has such a bad PH problem that I planted peas three times and each time they died. That is the garden with the beets. I can see it will take a few years to get things set up like I'd like.   

 

This year my food storage will be pulled down to the bare bones as I use up what I have and give the old canned food to the chickens. I have a ton of green beans in bottles with a bountiful crop coming on this year. Chickens will love me this winter and in a way I will be eating those green beans through the eggs.  

When the beets are finished drying I will do scallions from the garden. Oh how I love onions dried. I've learned that despite having fresh onions in a dish, a dash of dried onion also adds a nice punch of flavor. In chicken noodle soup it is a must for a full rich broth.  I've dried a little spinach this year and I emphasize little since it was in the old garden. I'll just have to dry lots of zucchini to make up for the lack of spinach. Hoping next year will be better. I had planned on saving seed but have given up on the idea. Things aren't going smoothly in our lives and that is one of the goals that got thrown out the window for this year.

 

I do hope I get a decent crop of carrots. I put them in really late and it is already getting cool. We've had sixties and low 40's at night this last week. A cool September is in the forecast and I don't doubt it will be as it has already snowed in the mountains. This photo is from before it snowed. The snow has never left the high elevations. I'm guessing if I went where the snow capped peaks are I'd see the snow is pink or green - not white. Have you ever seen pink or green snow? I have a few times in the Beartooth Mountains. It is a growth of some kind that creeps across it. You find it in snow banks where the snow has set for a long time and the temperatures are high but not so high it all melts like now when it is the end of summer but snow is still on the tallest peaks of the mountains.

 

I've been telling the rain clouds that rain is welcome but do not turn to snow. Our acreage was covered in a thick layer of snow all winter and the soil stayed cold even after the temperatures finally started to rise. It was a very late spring. That meant my garden is really slow. The corn wasn't put in the ground until the third week in June. Usually I get beans the end of July but this year it was the middle of August. My corn is the prettiest thing, tall and lushly thick. BUT it just started to tassel and grow cobs. I'm thinking I may have to try another kind of seed. I've been traveling a great deal lately and every garden I peer at through the window has tasseled corn. The corn is skinny, rather bare with very few leaves, but it is tasseled with ears. Will mine make it before the snow flies? I'm strongly questioning it. It is beautiful but 'pretty is and pretty does'. This might end up being goat feed.

 

 People ask if I planted early corn? I did. The earliest I could find and it was meant for Alaska. I fertilized it twice but not more than twice, so why so... tall? The neighbors tell me I have the longest growing time up here on the hill of the whole valley but how much longer is the question? I can breathe a little easier since we have lots of frozen corn our daughter brought us from Colorado last year.

 

My do I keep getting off topic. As for dried vegetables, I want to use some dried bell pepper along with dried onions in tomato sauce dishes and soups. Think what it would do to chili, YUM! Yes, some fresh as well would go in but adding dried would enrich the flavor. Dried vegetables take up so little room and since my storage room is in bad need of a overhaul in the way of building cupboards, food storage needing less space is quite appealing right now.

 

Now that we are back on the subject, don't forget to dry as well as freeze and can. It is a great way to use those not so perfect crops. I know I'm going to be doing more potatoes that way this fall. Remember I have quite a few potatoes in the old garden that haven't faired so well. I'm thinking potato flour big time. I emphasize thinking as I really don't know what is below those shrimpy plants. I'm hoping to explore potato flour in noodles and not just bread.   Well it is nighty night and a muscle relaxer for me. I've been in bed most of the day with spasms. Life just stays wa...y to exciting for me.