Wow, how the days of summer have flown by! I really can't believe it will be September tomorrow (I know, this feeling happens every year but still it's incredible).
By now our garden has exploded with life. The eggplants are beautiful and our heirloom tomatoes are producing. We have cucumbers and beans out the ears, and our good ol' chard and kale are going strong. We harvested our broccoli heads a long time ago but their still shooting up florets. And our celery is just about ready to harvest, I've been picking from them a bit already. We have plenty of herbs (although most are buried under our mega cucumber vines). The carrots, radishes, lettuce, spinach, green onions, etc have all been eaten. Our ground cherry plant is doing great, we will definitely plant several next year. Finally, our very fragrant Sweet Annie plants are over 4' tall and ready to dry soon. Now I have to start thinking about what to plant in our cold frame to sustain us into the snow for awhile.
The SEEDS Farm and all of the local farmers have a huge bounty of food right now. It has been an extremely difficult year, one of the hardest in about 20 years I've been told from some seasoned farmers. Still, CSA baskets are overflowing with produce, fruits, and flowers.
I had a wonderful time working at the Farmers Market Booth with some of the lovely SEEDS farmers this past Saturday, Abby, Joey, and Zac. We all convened at the farm at 7 a.m. to finish the harvest and worked the booth from 9-1. We're selling at the Riverwalk Market Fair, this is the fair's second season and I had the privilege to be the Farmers Market Manager last season in it's inaugural year. It was a blast and I absolutely love seeing all of the familiar faces of vendors and customers. This past Saturday was one of those perfect late summer days, the weather was wonderful and everyone was in high spirits. It was also great to see how quickly the market is expanding.
This is also the time of year to start putting up food for the winter. There is so much extra produce it's insane, farmers are practically giving it away! After the market I took home about 50 pounds of cucumbers to make pickles. All Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon me and my friend Kayla canned A LOT of Bread and Butter and Dill Pickles. I will post pictures of the steps very soon! It was a blast, it's so much more fun canning with a friend. Here's some of the pickles we made:
By now our garden has exploded with life. The eggplants are beautiful and our heirloom tomatoes are producing. We have cucumbers and beans out the ears, and our good ol' chard and kale are going strong. We harvested our broccoli heads a long time ago but their still shooting up florets. And our celery is just about ready to harvest, I've been picking from them a bit already. We have plenty of herbs (although most are buried under our mega cucumber vines). The carrots, radishes, lettuce, spinach, green onions, etc have all been eaten. Our ground cherry plant is doing great, we will definitely plant several next year. Finally, our very fragrant Sweet Annie plants are over 4' tall and ready to dry soon. Now I have to start thinking about what to plant in our cold frame to sustain us into the snow for awhile.
The SEEDS Farm and all of the local farmers have a huge bounty of food right now. It has been an extremely difficult year, one of the hardest in about 20 years I've been told from some seasoned farmers. Still, CSA baskets are overflowing with produce, fruits, and flowers.
I had a wonderful time working at the Farmers Market Booth with some of the lovely SEEDS farmers this past Saturday, Abby, Joey, and Zac. We all convened at the farm at 7 a.m. to finish the harvest and worked the booth from 9-1. We're selling at the Riverwalk Market Fair, this is the fair's second season and I had the privilege to be the Farmers Market Manager last season in it's inaugural year. It was a blast and I absolutely love seeing all of the familiar faces of vendors and customers. This past Saturday was one of those perfect late summer days, the weather was wonderful and everyone was in high spirits. It was also great to see how quickly the market is expanding.
This is also the time of year to start putting up food for the winter. There is so much extra produce it's insane, farmers are practically giving it away! After the market I took home about 50 pounds of cucumbers to make pickles. All Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon me and my friend Kayla canned A LOT of Bread and Butter and Dill Pickles. I will post pictures of the steps very soon! It was a blast, it's so much more fun canning with a friend. Here's some of the pickles we made:
Last night I taught a class at the co-op, "Bulk Beginnings: Local Edition". It was soooo much fun, this is my second time teaching this class but it still took a lot of preparation and studying, but I absolutely love love love teaching. Especially when it's about a topic I'm passionate about! For 2 hours we discussed nutrition and cooking of bulk grains, beans, nuts, flours, etc. The class was full at 12 participants and they were awesome, lots of questions were asked. I'm looking forward to developing more classes and making this a regular part of my life.
Ooooo.... here's a beautiful flower bouquet I just had to buy today, it's put together by Toni in town of "Gardens Gone Wild", I'm hoping to have her do my wedding flowers next summer. I purchase a bouquet a week when flowers are in season, from the farmers market they usually range from $4-$6 a bunch, it's an expense I'm definitely willing to pay:)
Ooooo.... here's a beautiful flower bouquet I just had to buy today, it's put together by Toni in town of "Gardens Gone Wild", I'm hoping to have her do my wedding flowers next summer. I purchase a bouquet a week when flowers are in season, from the farmers market they usually range from $4-$6 a bunch, it's an expense I'm definitely willing to pay:)
Okay, onto the topic today! Continuing from last post.... so you've cooked your whole fresh chicken, don't let the bones go to waste! Make delicious full-flavored chicken stock, here's how:
You can use this chicken stock to cook whole grains or for soups. It's sooooo much better than the store bought stuff, it's also great because you know exactly what ingredients are in your stock and can control the amount of salt used. Enjoy!