I'm The New Subsititute Lunch Lady!!!

I thought I'd better explain my last post.  I'm not teaching (that's what my sister does)...I'll be the on-call subsititute assistant cook for the School District.  I'm pretty stoked. The USDA is revamping their Food Service guidelines again and is really pushing locally sourced foods and less pre-packaged meals...right up my alley.  I'm going to enjoy being back in a commercial kitchen.  Hope the county and state have the money to pay me...momma wants to put solar on the farm! 

My New Gig!

I was recently contacted by the School District and aked if I would like to be the new SUBSTITUTE:

I said YES!  Should prove interesting!

Harvest Monday

All of my harvests look the same these days!  Lots of cucumbers, peppers, basil, sage and tomatoes.  The hens are laying daily and friends are bringing me peaches by the bucket. The weather has been very pleasant.  Life is good. 

Bell Pepper, Lemon Cucumber, Pickling Cukes

Tomatoes...and Water Spots!

White Peaches

Peaches From My Insurance Agent/Pig Seller/Friend...Best Peaches in the State!

Morning Eggs: Gifts From The Girls'

Please join me and other happy harvesters over at Daphne's Dandelions.

Surprise Food!

I decided to not use garden space this year to plant melons, winter squash, summer squash, cucumbers or water melon (the family grows them commercially)...I did break down and plant zucchini and crooknecks in the holes of some cinder blocks and I did let anything that volunteered to go ahead and grow if they weren't interfering...so, this is what I got:

I Don't Think We'll Get to Eat This One!



 

Volunteer Cukes in the Compost I Used To Fill The Tomato Buckets...Lots Of Cukes!



I Think This Is A Pumpkin...But I have Never Grown Pumpkins...My Son Grows Them A Mile Or Two From Me!

The First Zuke

Canning Potatoes

I harvested one of the 1/2 barrels of potatoes and decided to can about 5 pounds of them.  Last year I canned potatoes in quart jars and that was just too much for Bill and I.  This year I'll have more pints and just a few quarts.  I left the peels on, cut in half length wise, steamed for about 5 minutes, stuck in pint jars with a bit of salt, added boiling water, wiped jar rims, placed lids, put in the pressure canner, vented 10 minutes, put on weight, brought pressure up to 10 pounds and processed for 35 minutes.

Gett'n Ready to Get Out of Dodge!

I'm planning on spending the next three weekends up at the cabin.  I have to do lots of work down here to do lots of work up there!  Sometimes my life only makes sense to me!  So yesterday I watered the beejeezus out of the berries and today I'm *flooding* the raised beds and the new fruit orchard.  I'll do a light (soaker hose) watering on Thursday then head up the hill on Friday a.m. and back home Monday after the Farmers Market (then repeat for the next 3 weeks).  Tomorrow I spend the day hooking up an automatic watering system for the chickens.  I can feed them 50 pounds of feed at a time...but I have to fill their three 5 gallon waterers every day.  So, the plan will be to bring the hose over from the pump house to a float system waterer...gosh I hope it works...the girls have a huge yard to run/scratch/hide in but I worry about the heat and them not having enough cool clean water.

Worm Casting Compost Tea!!!

The garden took a tiny break and just now is producing a bit again.  Cucumbers (volunteers..I don't plant cukes, I have no idea where these came from), chard, rhubarb, tomatoes, onion, lots of herbs: oregano, basil, sage, thyme, chives, rosemary, lavender, borage.  The volunteer squash had dozens of male flowers...no females...I almost pulled it out: but today when I was watering I found 3 tiny little squashes (Australian Butter).  The volunteer melon has a dozen little melons...I'm going thin them when I get back next week.  I thinned peaches and crab apples last Sunday...that's a first for me, but I'm hoping to get some nice big peaches and some good looking crab apples.  My Granny Smith needs thinned, too...in fact it should have been sprayed...but I don't do that and now every apple in this 30 year old tree has a worm.  I'm use them for apple cider this year...I'll cut the worms out and crush with my daughter-in-law's crusher and then press them with her press...can't wait.



Love the Laundry!

I made reference in my last post to the French Laundry Mushroom Stock.  I am a HUGE fan of  The French Laundry.  I love the look of the restaurant and the philosophy...I love the garden across the road that the chef uses in the meals...I love the wooden clothespins that hold the napkins...I love the cookbook and I love the YouTube videos...I don't love the prices: $270: prix fixes...yeah you read that right: $270 for a single sitting.  The French Laundry is in the Wine Country...my favorite Sunday drive...we drive by...I wave wistfully as we go somewhere else to eat.  I'm ok with it...I have the cookbook and the garden...and every once in awhile I use wooden clothes pins for napkin *rings*. 

Did I mention they don't actually serve meals...they call them tastings...bitty plate after plate of delicious tiny bites of food.  I prefer to cook my own...not as bites, but big honken' meals!  But you have to admit: sure is purdey!

I'm also posting the YouTube video of the French Laundry Mushroom Stock (he used the button mushrooms, I used the cremini).

S'rooms

Last year the Farmers Market took the holidays off...and we got complaints...this year we were open on the Fourth of July and had less than 25 customers: go figure....we won't do that again...we're closed on National holidays.  So, because we didn't have the customers guess who ends up with a couple cases of mushrooms?  After watering the garden the first half of my Saturday, the second half was used canning and drying mushrooms.  I had a case of criminis and a case of huge portabellas.  The criminis were sliced up and canned, the portabellas were sliced and dried. I made mushroom stock with the stems and trimmings (I used The French Laundry recipe) and will can that later today.  I think I have enough mushrooms for the coming year!

Harvest Happy 4th of July Monday

Join the gang at Daphne's Dandelions for another special Harvest Monday.  Here's some of my weekly harvest:


Russet Burbank Potato: July 1

Four Cabbage: July 3

In The Garden: July 4

Harvest: July 4

Anchos

Bells

Big Jim's

Not So Big...Big Momma

Matt's Wild Cherry

Broccoli Shoots From The Very Last of the Season Broccoli

Red, White and Blue Potatoes! July 4th

Two Different Reds

French Fingerling: The Rat

Blue Potatoes

Bit of Basil for All of Those Tomatoes

Plums and Nectarines From The Fruit Cocktail Tree: July 1

Black Krim Tomato...The First Non-Cherry Tomato: July 1