Cleaned Garlic

When I harvest my garlic I don't do anything other than brush off as much dirt as I can.  You don't want to wash them before they cure or they might get moldy before they finish curing.  When I hang them up to dry out, they often have very dirty outer leaves and clumps of dirt in their roots.  After they have dried for several weeks the outer leaves have formed a protective layer around the cloves inside.  Before I put them away for storage I want to clean the heads and trim them so that they will keep better.  I just trim the leafy end down to within an inch or so of the cloves and trim the roots off completely.  As I trim each head of garlic I also knock off the outer dirtiest layer of skin.  If I want my cured garlic to store for any length of time I want to minimize the amount of dirt on the bulbs.  I also weed out any damaged bulbs as I go.  Very small or partially damaged bulbs go into my use first pile.  These will be eaten as needed over the next few weeks.  The rest of the larger bulbs went into a well ventilated box for storage.  I ended up with a grand total of 13.6 pounds of garlic.

The very largest of the cloves will be planted out in the garden this fall after the first frost.  Many other cloves will be going into flavoring my dill pickles as I start to preserve cucumbers later this season.  I want to make my own garlic powder this year as well and will probably use the smaller cloves for that project.  I still plan of keeping several pounds available for fresh use too, since they will keep for many months if they are properly cured for storage.

This is the forth or fifth year of planting garlic that I have saved from previous years harvests.  I think that the varieties that I have chosen have acclimated well to their growing environment since they seem to be getting noticeably larger every year.  This year's harvest is no exception.  I had at least ten heads that were as large as my palm and only two or three that were tiny. The majority of the heads were nicely shaped heads with large, firm cloves.  A few of the soft neck varieties had small bundles of garlic "seed" bulbils a few inches up their stems.  I could plant those if I wanted to, but they would take a few years to make the good sized heads that I am already producing.  The tiny bulbils will probably get mixed in with the other garlic that will be dehydrated for powder.

Dehydrating Tomatoes

I think I will be getting plenty of tomatoes this year and I want to take steps to ensure that they don't go to waste.  I do plan on making the usual batches of salsa and tomato sauce, but I also wanted a little more variety for my storage options, so I choose to dehydrate some.  These tomatoes were my first good sized harvest and there is no way that I will be able to eat them all fresh before they go bad.

The red ones are an indeterminate variety of paste tomato.  The large pinkish ones are Siberian Pink Honey Tomatoes which are also an indeterminate variety.  Both are heavy on the flesh with out a ton of seeds so they should be good candidates for dehydration.  I washed and cored each tomato and sliced them about 3/8 inch thick.  I couldn't fit all of them on the trays that I had, but I filled three trays completely.

They took about 24 hours to be completely dry.  I allowed them to cool for about an hour before I peeled the slices from the trays.  Those three trays of tomato slices filled a quart jar and were only a few ounces compared to the pounds of fruit that I started with.

The final step will be to process the dried slices in my food processor to make a tomato powder.  This powder can be reconstituted into tomato paste or sauce depending on how much water I add to it.  The powder can also be added to soups, stews, dips and many other dishes for flavor.  Powdering the slices also reduces the volume that they take up making storing and using lots of tomatoes very easy.  I also like the minimal work involved in drying the tomatoes.  Simply wash, slice, dry and powder.  Seems to be much less labor intensive than canning tomato sauce and the clean up is pretty easy too.

Strawberry Jam

I am keeping with the theme of adding variety to my food stores and this weekend's project was strawberry jam.  I had to get my strawberries from the grocery store instead of the farmer's market, but they were looking pretty good in the organic section, so I bought three pounds of them for this project.

To begin I washed and hulled all of the berries and squashed them into my large stainless steel saucepan.  I added sugar to the squished strawberries and them proceeded to cook them down to a jam-like consistency.  This was another pectin free recipe which calls for less sugar.  Once the mix reached the gel stage it was ready to be ladled into jars and put through a hot water bath in my canner.  The tiny spoonfuls I tasted while it was cooking were divine.

My finished product came out to seven half pints of jam.  They are a deep ruby red color with lots of chunks of delicious strawberries suspended in the jam.  I can't wait to taste some on toast or mixed into yogurt.  I may have to make a second batch if this one starts to disappear too fast.

Dried Peaches

I think I may have discovered my new favorite snack.  Peach season has arrived and instead of canning them to save them for later I decided to dehydrate them instead.  The peaches that I bought were not free stone so they would be hard to pit anyway.  Slicing the ripe orange flesh off the pit proved to be quite simple. The peaches were also very ripe and juicy so peeling the skins off was a breeze - no blanching required.  One by one I washed, peeled and sliced the peaches and laid the slices on the dehydrator tray.  I sliced them on the thick side since I knew they would dehydrate down to nothing if I made them too thin.  I did dip the slices in lemon juice to help preserve their bright color and to give the finished product a little zip.

The odd shaped end slices were pureed and poured on to a sheet to become peach leather (better known as a peach roll up).  These peachy treats are perfect for energizing snacks while I am hiking on the trail.

Oak Creek Hike

I had the luck of getting out of work a couple hours early this week, so I took the opportunity to squeeze in another hike.  I didn't have the energy or the time for a long trek to the top of a mountain and back, but I still was able to find my way to a very nice waterfall hidden deep in a canyon just outside of Ouray.  The trail I took was Oak Creek trail which ultimately takes you to a high viewpoint and then loops around and meets up with several other trails that can take you far into the wilderness should you choose those paths.  I choose to hike up to the waterfall and back which came out to a little over five miles round trip.

The trail climbs through alternating pine and aspen forests.

Every once in a while the trees would open up and reveal a view up the valley to the left of the mountain I was hiking on.  As I hiked I could see smoke making it's way down the valley.  The smoke was likely from the large wildfires burning to the south and west of the valley.  We are all hoping that this area escapes the fires this year, but there is a lot of dead trees and the conditions are very dry, so the threat of fire here is very real.

This is a different side of Mount Abrams than I usually see, but this picturesque mountain is still very imposing from this angle.  To the left of Abrams you can just see the top of Red Mountain in the distance.

After a while the trail begins to veer away from this valley and makes it's way up the north side of the mountain.  Through the dense trees you can make out steep canyon walls on the other side of Oak Creek and then suddenly this imposing peak comes into view above the canyon.

After this view the trail begins to level out for a while and the sound of rushing water becomes louder and louder as I walked farther up the canyon.

Oak creek becomes a series of waterfalls as the sides of the canyon come together and there is a relatively easy crossing here in this dry summer.  In wetter years I bet this can be a bit tricky to get across.

I spent some time here with Oak Creek and dipped my hands into it's icy waters.  The cool water felt very refreshing after a very warm hike up the mountain.

Down stream the creek falls very steeply as the bottom of the canyon drops away.  It is hard to see where the water goes as the canyon is very winding and deep.

Upstream the canyon is not very steep or deep either.  If I had more time I would have explored this area a bit further, but I wanted to get back before daylight started to fade.

As I began to head back down the mountain I came upon some good vantage points to the view across the valley.  The Amphitheater stands out through the haze and fills the view to the west.

 To the left of the Amphitheater is the bright orange-yellow gash that I believe is the blowout that I hiked around a couple weeks ago.  I find it interesting to explore an area this thoroughly because you get to see how the land is laid out from many different points of view.  I love getting that kind of perspective about a place.

 There weren't a ton of wildflowers along this trail, but that doesn't mean that there weren't beautiful things to see along the way.  This little rainbow of a plant stood out to me as I was coming down the trail.  It's these little things that also make a hike more memorable.

This hike wasn't the most exciting or difficult hike I have ever done, but I got a feel for the trail and I will likely hike here again this summer.  There are several different trails that all begin in the same area, so I might take a longer day and check those out too.  Many of them loop around and meet up with this trail, and some even meet up with trails that can take you to Ridgway and beyond.  If I ever get a good block of time off I may try a couple of overnighters on those trails too.

Garlic Harvest

Summer is peaking and the harvest season is starting to bet busier around here.  Some things are still a few weeks away from harvest, but others like my beans and broccoli are starting to ripen quickly in the summer heat.  The garlic has started to show signs that it was ready for harvest too.  Once I cut off all the scapes it wasn't long before I noticed many of the lower leaves starting to turn brown.  I pulled the irrigation off the bed to allow it to dry out for a couple of days and then began the slow dance of loosening the bulbous roots from the soil one by one.

This is the bed before the harvest commenced.  You can see the brown tips on many of the leaves.  My research tells me that I should harvest when about half the leaves on a plant have turned brown.  The green leaves will protect the bulbs as they cure and will help them keep better for storage.

As I harvested I was happy to find that I had many really good sized bulbs.  Some were as big as my fist!  I had a few really small bulbs and a multitude of sizes in between.  I had planted a red hardneck variety and a white softneck variety.  The red hardneck produced the largest heads of garlic and will likely continue to be planted in my garden in the coming years.  They also tend to produce really large cloves which is great because they are generally easier to peel when they are big.

To cure the garlic I am hanging them on an unused loom in my back room.  Here they are protected from the elements and I can keep a fan on them to aid the curing process.  I simply tied them in small bundles and draped them over the loom.  My total count is 120 heads of garlic and I am curious as to how many pounds that will translate to when it is all said and done.  I am hoping to use lots of it up when I am canning pickles and salsa this summer.  The smaller cloves will probably get dehydrated and ground into garlic powder.  The largest will be saved and replanted this fall for next years garden.

I am very happy with this year's garlic harvest.  Now I have an endless supply of garlic to use until next year when the cycle begins again.

First Pullet Egg

My young pullets are about 20 weeks old this week and they have looked like full grown chickens for quite some time now.  The only thing they weren't doing yet was laying eggs.  This week that changed.  When I went to collect eggs after work one night I came across an itty bitty egg in the nest boxes.  I had forgotten how small their first eggs can be when they start to lay.  This one was half the size of a regular egg.  I thought it was adorable!

I expect to see a few more of these in the coming days as the other two hens begin to lay eggs too.  Gradually the eggs will get larger as the hens get older and I won't be able to tell the difference in a couple months.  Even though I have had chickens for years, I still find it exciting when one of my baby chicks lays their first egg.

Going to Seed

Now that summer is hitting it's stride I am keeping a close eye on what is happening in the garden.  The lettuce has long since bolted since temperatures have been in the 90s.  I will let them reseed themselves again since it worked out so well for me this year.  I was eating fresh salad daily for months before they were done.

The volunteer radishes have passed their prime and are going to seed too.  They make beautiful little pink flowers and the seed pods are tasty when they are still green.  I will let the radish reseed itself throughout my garden because they don't take up much space and they grow really fast - faster than I can eat them.

The peas had been putting out a decent amount of pods for the past couple of weeks, but now they are struggling with the high temps too.  I am allowing what is left on the vines to mature and dry out so I have some peas to plant next year.  I haven't saved many varieties of seeds, but peas are easy enough and I like the short, fast growing variety that I have.  I think plants adapt to their environment over time, so by saving seed grown in my garden I hope to have more vigorous varieties as the years go by.

I have dill and cilantro in abundance in my garden beds so I have decided that I would give some away to co workers so that it wouldn't go to waste.  I could literally cut bags and bags of the stuff and never be able to use it all.  I am just happy that there are more people that want what I can grow so it has somewhere to go if I can't use all of it.  One of the onion beds has been taken over by dill that is flowering like there is no tomorrow.  I think next year I will do a better job thinning the dill volunteers as these may have gotten a little out of hand.

Backyard Breakfast

The garden has been looking delicious lately.  The beds are filling in and everything looks fairly happy despite the hot dry weather we have been having lately.  This is the beginning of the season that I can eat really fresh from the garden every day.  I have started stealing potatoes from the volunteers and some of my onions have been sending up flower stalks, so I have been pulling those as I need them.  The garlic scapes have been a regular addition to my meals lately as well.

These lovely veggies became breakfast in short order along with a couple of fresh eggs from my little flock.  I love the variety of colors that I can eat when I grow my own vegetables.  The dark purple potatoes contrast nicely with the bright green garlic scapes.  I also love the taste of fresh picked veggies, I have never eaten anything from the store that even comes close to the flavor of what I cooked up today.

Dehydrating Garlic Scapes

The garlic is nearing the time when it is ready to harvest.  I had been trying to eat scapes fresh from the garden, but I couldn't eat enough to keep up with their growth.  I needed to remove the scapes so that the plants would put their energy into bulb growth and not flower growth.  It didn't take long to collect what was left of the garlic scapes and when I was done I had a beautiful bouquet.

These wouldn't keep fresh for too long so I decided to preserve them in my dehydrator so they wouldn't go to waste.  I chopped the tender stems and immature flower buds into small pieces and spread them out on a tray.  They only took a few hours to dry at 115 degrees.

The beautiful bouquet was reduced to less than a half pint jar of dried garlic scape bits.  These will be added to dry soup mixes, or back packing meals for some extra flavor and color.  I can also grind them down to a powder and use that as part of a seasoning mix to flavor all kinds of dishes.

Next on the agenda will be harvesting the garlic bulbs.  I can't wait to see what treasures are hiding under the straw in my garlic bed!

Good Mama Hen

It has been a couple of weeks since the latest round of chicks hatched and I am happy to report that the mama hen has happily adopted the chicks and is dutifully protecting them and showing them the ways of the world.  They will all get to stay in my broody pen together for several more weeks while the chicks grow.  It has been nice to let her do the work of keeping them warm and out of trouble, but I do miss the peeping from the back room where I usually raise the babies.  At least I can get my fill of baby chicken antics whenever I step outside.

The broody pen is right next to the chicken yard that houses the rest of the adult chickens, so they are getting used to each other from a safe distance.  Once the hen stops mothering them, she will go back in with the adult flock.  The babies will stay in the broody pen until they are about 16 weeks old.  At that point they will be close enough to laying eggs that they can be integrated into the adult flock and start eating adult food which contains extra calcium for the laying hens.  In the meantime I will enjoy watching their feathers change as they grow into awkward adolescents and then into fluffy adults.  It amazes me how fast they grow up every time I get new babies.  They certainly don't stay little balls of fluff for very long.

July Corn: Tall Enough to Look You in the Eye

The old saying about corn is "knee high by the Fourth of July".  I have always taken this to be a general measurement of corn growth that tells you if you are going to get a good crop by the end of the season.  I have also generally had my corn higher than my knee by this time in the season.  This year is no exception.  The day after the Fourth I had some plants that could literally look me in the eye they were so tall.

There are only a few that boast this height, but the others aren't far behind.  As long as the wind doesn't flatten my corn before it produces ears I should get a decent harvest from these beds.  I am excited to see what color kernels I produce from this variety called Glass Gem. 

Rainier Cherry Wine

I love all kinds of cherries and Rainiers are no exception.  When I started that batch of cherry wine last week I used all Bing cherries which are dark red and will make a dark red wine.  Last year's batch almost looked black because it was so dark.  I wanted to see what color my wine would be if I used nothing but Rainier cherries so I started another small batch of wine with those this week.  I am only aiming to make one gallon of this variety, so I only needed to get about eight pounds of cherries this time.  I still got them for a great price from the local organic orchard that I buy them from.  Maybe if this batch turns out well I will share a bottle with the farmers that grew the cherries in a few months when it is ready.

I started by washing all the cherries and removing the stems and any blemishes.  The cleaned cherries went into my fermenting bucket and I squished them by hand before I added sugar to the mix.  On top of that I added boiling water.  Once everything cooled down I added the special ingredients like pectic enzymes and tannin to help break the fruit down further.  Tomorrow morning I will be adding the yeast to begin the actual fermentation process.

In five days the fermented mixture will be strained out of the primary fermentor and the liquid will go into a glass carboy with an airlock where fermentation will continue until the yeast run out of sugar to convert into alcohol.  During this time I will rack the wine once or twice until it clears.  Once it clears it will wait a few weeks longer before it finally gets sealed into bottles.  I am hoping that the yellow cherries will make a nice light colored wine with a sweet cherry flavor that my friends and I can enjoy on a chilly winter's evening.

With this batch of wine I will have all of my available airlocks in use so I am hoping that some of my wines will finish by the time plum season comes around.  If not I may invest in a couple more airlocks and gallon jugs so I can make more small batches throughout the summer with different fruits.  I am enjoying experimenting with different varieties of fruit wine this year and I think small batches are the way to go with those.  If they turn out poorly I won't have wasted too much effort or money making only one gallon at a time.  I will still make a couple of large batches (five to six gallons) of my tried and true recipes, but I think I will enjoy having a variety of flavors of wine to choose from throughout the rest of the year.  At the moment, my selection will include strawberry-dandelion wine, bing cherry wine, rainier cherry wine, and my semi-sweet plum wine from last fall.  This year I also hope to make a large batch of regular plum wine, and possibly a second batch using golden plums if I can find any.

Preserving a Box of Apricots

I am so happy that summer fruits are here.  I love to eat as much as I can fresh, but when I buy fruit by the box I usually plan on a day of kitchen labor to preserve as much as I can.  Apricots aren't around for a very long time so I will make as many things as I can while they are in season.  Nothing beats the taste of fresh summer fruit, even after it's been canned.

I started with a round of apricot jam.  I make an old fashioned version that doesn't use pectin to thicken the end product and also requires less sugar than regular jam.  The only difference is that it takes a little longer to cook down to the right consistency for canning.

The end product is a rich orange colored sweet jam that will be delicious in many sandwiches or as a glaze for baked chicken or pork.  These jars of jam are just the beginning of my canned food stores for the year.

For my second round of processing I decided to make simple apricot halves in light syrup.  These sweet treats will round out any lunch or make a great after dinner dessert any time of the year.

It took ten pounds of apricots to make sixteen pints of canned apricot halves.  I made sure to use the ripest tastiest fruits for this part of my canning endeavors because that pretty much guarantees a delicious end product.  When it was all said and done I was left with about three pounds of slightly under ripe apricots in the box.  I will give those ones a couple more days to ripen and then I will likely be dehydrating those so I can add them to my morning oatmeal in the winter time.

The total cost for these tasty preserves was a mere $45 dollars for the box of apricots.  My reward is eight half pints of jam, sixteen pints of canned halves, and a couple of quarts of dried apricots.  Not bad for a days work!