Garden produce

For weeks we have been jealous of our southern friends and their bountiful harvests, now our turn has come. 

We had a brief period of snow peas, most of which never reached the kitchen but were delicious snacks as we sweated our way through the garden. Cool weather crops such as spinach and radishes have long gone and even the warm weather alternatives of Rat's tail radishes have been and gone with the extreme heat we have been experiencing for weeks. If you like radishes so much that you also find the growing season painfully short, the rat's tail radish sold by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is a wonderful plant to add to your garden. An edible podded radish variety, be careful how many you raise at it produces an abundance of pods delicious in salads and stir fries. The pods can also be pickled but we learned of this too late to take advantage of the recipe this year.

We drooled over photos from the south as we watched our tomato plants grow and begin to blossom. Then we carefully watched that first green tomato ripen on the vine, hoping against hope that the bugs and critters would leave the fruit for us. We mulched and hoped that the drought would not stress the plants too much, destroying our fruits with blossom end rot. Then the moment came when we were able to share the first tomato, still warm from the sun, deliciously sweet and full of flavour. Store bought tomatoes are not even closely related to the delicious varieties available to anyone growing their own. We went from watching, to eating them twice and even three times a day, gorging on our new found wealth. Finally we have reached that next stage in the process of growing, where we fill a large bowl every day and start planning ways to preserve the bounty for the rest of the year. Tomato juice, paste, sauce, salsa and pasta sauce. Sharing recipes and using old time favourites because gardeners are a generous bunch when asked to share their experiences and knowledge.

This has been our best year ever for growing cabbages. We controlled the cabbage loopers using bT and thankfully we had no hail to damage the growing plants. The cabbages were huge coming in at around 6lbs after we cleaned them. Half our crop has been turned into sauerkraut and we plan to try making kimchi with a couple of others. 

We have 21 jars of pickled red beets standing on the kitchen counter, waiting to see that all the lids have sealed before transporting them to the basement. I love pickled beets and over the years have been delighted and disappointed with the recipes I have tasted. This particular recipe is worth sharing and I believe the superior quality can be attributed to using the beet water in the pickling recipe.

Mom's Beet Pickles

1 1/2 cups of beet juice ( from cooking the beets)

1/2 cup of sugar

Bag of mixed pickling spices

1/2 cup vinegar

Boil ingredients together, pour over cooked beets in jars and process.

It doesn't get much simpler!