Good night garden

Today we pretty much put the garden to bed.  We had already laid down tarps to help kill the weeds/grass about a month ago.  Then a few weeks ago Pat tilled up the ground where we had laid the tarps (the tarps didn't really kill the grass, but it kind of knocked it back some.  Would have worked better in the springtime. 

This weekend we spread a mixture of winter and annual rye to act as a cover crop in the tilled area.  We tried to use Earthway seeders, but the seed was just too fine and it created "flour" instead.  So Pat used the broadcast seeder and I lightly raked it in. 

This past summer's garlic--today's seed source

Then we planted garlic.  We set aside part of the tilled earth for the garlic patch.  We had a lot of seed garlic saved from this summer's crop.  We set aside the biggest, best heads to plant for next season.  This was the 2nd year we had set aside seed garlic.  We didn't have quite enough, so we supplemented with store-bought garlic.  Altogether we planted approx. 180 cloves of our saved seed, and 60 of the store bought.  We'll compare them next year to see if there is any difference.  To plant the garlic, Pat turned the soil with a shovel, then we levelled it off and raked it smooth.  Next, Pat made a furrow with a hoe and I sprinkled in some bone meal.   We read that calcium is good for garlic so we added that supplement.  We planted the garlic 8" apart, then covered the furrow up with about 4" of soil.  Finally, we piled straw on top to make a thick mulch.  You almost can't mulch garlic too much. 

We have some seed garlic left over, and a lot in the basement still.  So we're going to try to freeze the cloves and see how it does.  We ended up loosing some of our garlic over the winter to rot, so hopefully that does not happen this year. 

There are still some peppers growing and the tomatoes are dead yet.  We left them for Dad to pick what he wants.  But pretty much that is it...the garden is ready for its long winter nap.

Hot peppers

We have found that peppers are something that we grow really well in our garden.  With the added help of the silver mulch, they did even better this year.  We got loads of green and red bell peppers, and the little sweet orange peppers called "Yummy" (no kidding, that's their name!).  We also got a lot of the hot chili peppers called "Red Rocket."  They're really hot, but they have a good flavor.  Last year we dried them and hung them in the pantry. We used whatever we needed by just pulling them off the strand and either clipping them or grinding them in the mortar and pestle.

This year we had so much, that even with strands hung up over the kitchen window, and the chandelier in the dining room, we still had leftovers.

So Pat decided to try drying them in the oven and then blenderize them with a little salt to help grind them up, to make crushed red pepper.  It worked great!  Now we have two whole containers of crushed red pepper flakes just waiting to be used in chili, soups, and refried beans!  The funniest thing is that a while back, we helped my mom clean out her old spices from her spice cabinet and we kept some of the old containers.  One was a glass crushed red pepper jar from circa 1970!  Too funny!

Eggplant a-go-go

More eggplants leads to more creative eggplant recipes.  Sorry, I don't have pics for these as they went pretty quickly!  These recipes all came out of an old copy of the Victory Garden Cookbook, which I did a quick search for and is available from most every bookselling website out there.  It looks a little out-dated but I am impressed with the recipes.

Eggplant "Grilled Cheese Sandwiches"
Lots of variations on this theme...
  Open faced sandwiches:  thickly slice eggplant (that has been salted and "wept" for 30 min), dredge eggplant slices in egg, then breadcrumbs and fry.  Then top with cheese, tomatoes & cheese, or shrimp & cheese (etc.) and place under broiler until cheese starts to melt.  (we've eaten this a number of times--really good)
  Grilled Cheese Sandwich:  Fry eggplant as above (thinly sliced), place cheese in between two pieces of eggplant.  Cook in butter until cheese melts.
  Broil eggplant instead of frying first (I haven't tried this yet...)

Eggplant-fish stew:
A little wierd, would be better without the fish and just be a jumble of veggies in a tomato-based casserole. 
  Sautee onions, peppers, garlic and herbs, add cubed eggplant (that has wept for 30 min).  Add tomatoes and fish (or sans fish).  Turn into a casserole dish, top with breadcrumbs and bake.  Pretty tasty, even with the fish.

Eggplant roll-ups:
This was kind of a variation on the theme of eggplant parm.
Place some tomato sauce in a baking dish.  Salt thinly-sliced eggplant and let drain for 30 min (larger slices work better).  Fry eggplant (dredged in egg then flour) then drain on tea towel.  Mix veggie crumbles (it calls for sausage & hamburger, but I used veggie alternative), parm, parsley and egg.  Spread the stuffing mix thinly on the fried eggplant.  Roll up, tuck into sauced pan, open side down.  Top with the rest of the sauce and parm & mozz. cheese.  Bake first covered, then uncovered till golden.  This was great!  it was very filling and hearty and good with red wine. 

Basically, I highly recommend this cookbook for those who want to try veggie-based recipes other than the normal tried and true ones.  It has really come in handy.  And thanks to Aunt Genie for sending it to us! :)

Eggplant Parmesan

We have a glut of eggplant, so I fry them up and freeze them.  This year I also made a lot of sauce and froze that too, rather than canning just tomatoes (we have plenty left from last year).

Just washed fresh eggplant from our garden.  I've found the medium-sized ones work best.  Too small and they may have a bitter taste, too big and the seeds will be too developed.

I peel and slice them, then dredge in flour, beaten egg & water, and then breadcrumbs mixed with salt, pepper, fresh parsley and parmesan cheese.  You could also salt the eggplant slices first to draw out water.  I get about four ready to go, so I don't have to stop and slice more while the oil is hot.

Then I fry up the eggplant in hot oil till it is golden brown on both sides.  Drain on a papertowel or tea towel.  Lay eggplant in the pan, overlapping slightly.  Layer parm & mozzerella cheese, tomato sauce, ending with mozzerella on top.

Homemade tomato sauce is best.  This is Fresh Tomato Puree from Julia Child's cookbook.  Basically it is tomatos that have been put through a foodmill, onions, herbs salt and pepper.  Super simple and delicious. 




The finished product:  it went so fast I didn't get to take a picture while it was whole!

Fall!

Oooh, I'm embarrased that I haven't written anything since August!  Yikes!  We have been in a holding pattern of weeding and harvesting tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and squash.  I fry up the eggplants (most of them) and freeze them for eggplant parm during the winter, and I make sauce out of the tomatoes.  So that has been taking most of my time.  I halve the peppers and freeze them too.  The squash should keep as-is throughout the winter.

Some things we can say from this year:  the red plastic mulch seemed to work for the tomatoes, we had a good crop of them this year and they ripened in staggers.  The silver plastic mulch worked for the eggplants and peppers.  We had less of a problem with flea beetles this year.  We didn't care much for the black paper biodegradable mulch.  It breaks down too quickly, and dogs running through it pretty much destroy it!  We will probably go back to using hay to mulch around the plants next year.  It just seems to keep the weeds in check better than we can.  The best tomato sauce recipe we've found is Julia Child's fresh tomato puree recipe.  It is easy and tastes great.  We also found out that if the basil plants get too big and out of control, just hack them back to the 2nd or 3rd bud and they'll come back nicely. 

Last weekend we pulled out the fence and mowed down the back half of the garden.  We put down tarps to use the stale seed bed method to kill weeds.  Then in a couple of weeks, Pat will plow and/or disc the ground and plant some winter ground cover.  Next year we plan on orienting the garden differently.