I'm back!

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Not that any one has been looking for me. Loyal blog readers must have long given up, unless they got the memo to click over to the Frog Holler Farm CSA Newsletter. My summer blogging has been dedicated to that weekly endeavor, and you can view lots of photos and vignettes reflecting the season in the garden, if you're so inclined.

Now, as the calendar marches through October, and the temperatures dip, and the leaves start to fall, and the crops start to dwindle, we feel the imminent end to the unlimited fresh produce that we have enjoyed all season. And that's scary!

This week we took action in the kitchen! First we cooked and canned 16 more jars of spaghetti sauce - bringing our total to 50. That might get us through the winter.


We saved some of the tomatoes for our last fresh salsa of the season. No photo -it was gone too fast!

While the sauce was simmering, Kirsten sliced apples for the dehydrator for dried apple snacks throughout the winter (except everyone munched on the first batch so much that she had to make another - and hide it!


apple mandala

Dorothy got busy with making an "apple pie with hazelnuts and dried sour cherries." Luckily she made a few mini pies for early snacking. The aroma coming from the oven and the beauty of the finished product made it almost too good to eat! (But everyone managed just fine when the evening dessert was served.)

portrait of a pie

Practically behind her back, Dorothy added a batch of cookies to the day's kitchen bounty. Bright and zesty nasturtiums topped these sweet treats.

a bouquet of cookies

Angie then employed all kitchen choppers in assembling five gallons of kim chee - a Korean spicy fermented dish full of chinese cabbage, daikon radish, red radishes, carrots, hot peppers, and more! In two weeks, we'll open the crock and start enhancing our winter dishes with this nutritious and flavorful reminder of the season's harvest.

in your face kim chee!


And finally, we borrowed neighbor Sandy's power cuisinart (thanks Sandy!) to blast off several batches of pesto. The basil is always the first garden crop to succumb, so none too soon to preserve some of that potently delicious flavor!

pesto with tortilla chip - a multicultural treat!


At the end of the day we were tired, kind of full, and very satisfied to preserve some of the flavor, nutrition and energy from this year's garden season. The work went smoothly with many chopping hands, lots of stories and laughs, and a big pasta meal with apple pie for dessert to savor the day's work!





Comments

  1. patsyOctober 31, 2010 at 12:17 PM

    Glad your continuing to blog! I still need some ideas for cooking and I like finding out what's going on at the farm.
    Went to AA market yesterday and bought supplies for the week's dinners including some pretty red tomatoes! Edwin said you should be able to keep me supplied with greens through Nov. Hooray!

    I've been hearing about a local member based market called LUNASA http://www.lunasa.us/
    Seems like a convient way to shop local producers and products. I'd like to checkit out sometime.

    Sorry I missed Halloween at the farm. I'm a wimp in the cold.

    ReplyDelete

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