I can't seem to stop the zucchini (courgette, to our European friends and family) from growing. A plant will have a two-inch-long fruit on Sunday afternoon, and by Wednesday night it's a five-pound monster! I have zucchini and yellow squash in 5 gallon buckets all over the kitchen. When shredded, each fruit is averaging 18 cups of zucchini or enough to make 18 loaves of zucchini bread.
Fortunately, the rules of homebased processing in Kentucky allow me to produce baked goods that contain home-grown ingredients. I've made three deliveries to the farmers' market this month, and have almost sold out each time. I make large loaves (1.5 pounds), small loaves (1/2 pound) and muffins. I've made plain zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread, and zucchini-banana bread. The top seller is plain, 1.5 pound loaves. Which is actually my most economical item to produce.
I've also been canning - kosher dill pickles (some already scheduled on a flight to Dallas at Christmas), bread 'n' butter pickles, yellow squash sweet relish, and three temperatures of salsa. All of those will go to the farmers' market for sale. Some things I keep at home, though -my favorites: roasted red peppers, pesto and spaghetti sauce.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Work, Work, Work
All of a sudden it's harvest time! My vegetable garden is still not a pretty as I would like it to be - no weeds, tomatoes all staked up, beans and cucumbers growing up trellises, but this year has been the best year yet. When we took over our allotment in England, the weeds were tall, but the soil was rich. Our allotments were started during World War II, and had been continuously occupied. Especially in our first year, we grew far more vegetables than we knew what to do with.
It's all different over here in Kentucky. I've had to learn all over again when to sow seeds, when to plant out and when to harvest. What to plant and what to harvest. Since I am converting grass pasture into a vegetable garden, I'm battling grass, giant annual weeds, clay soil, soil compaction and low fertility. At least I have earthworms, now (I started with none). So there's a few things I'm just going to have to give up on for a couple of years - potatoes (ground's too hard) and sweetcorn (not fertile enough), to start with. Globe artichokes are struggling, and cucumbers (ground's too hard AND not fertile enough).
I have a cunning plan...this fall I will create three mushroom beds at the end of my garden. Once the mushrooms have digested all the straw, cardboard, wood shavings and weeds I can gather, I'll move the mushrooms to another location on the garden. The next spring I'll go where the mushrooms were, and plant a soil building mixture of legumes and long radishes, to fix nutrients in the soil and further break up compaction. I'll be able to plant my pickier crops the third year. I'll keep you posted on how the plan works!
It's all different over here in Kentucky. I've had to learn all over again when to sow seeds, when to plant out and when to harvest. What to plant and what to harvest. Since I am converting grass pasture into a vegetable garden, I'm battling grass, giant annual weeds, clay soil, soil compaction and low fertility. At least I have earthworms, now (I started with none). So there's a few things I'm just going to have to give up on for a couple of years - potatoes (ground's too hard) and sweetcorn (not fertile enough), to start with. Globe artichokes are struggling, and cucumbers (ground's too hard AND not fertile enough).
I have a cunning plan...this fall I will create three mushroom beds at the end of my garden. Once the mushrooms have digested all the straw, cardboard, wood shavings and weeds I can gather, I'll move the mushrooms to another location on the garden. The next spring I'll go where the mushrooms were, and plant a soil building mixture of legumes and long radishes, to fix nutrients in the soil and further break up compaction. I'll be able to plant my pickier crops the third year. I'll keep you posted on how the plan works!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Soap Star
I've always loved science, especially chemistry. Which is one reason why I like making cheese - it's like a science experiment in the kitchen. This summer I have a new outlet for my inner science geek; I'm making old-fashioned goat milk soap. There's a picture of me in my boiler suit, protective glasses and thick rubber gloves. Lye is nothing to mess with.
I've made two batches already. The first is a citrus scrub soap, that incorporates satsuma, grapefruit and lemongrasses essential oils and jojoba beads. It's very invigorating. The second batch was supposed to be chocolate, but will probably be labelled white chocolate because it really smells like sweet vanilla and looks like white chocolate fudge.
Three more batches are on the planning calendar - Amber Romance with calendula petals, cucumber and green tea, and an egg yolk soap scented with Pumpkin Pie and Lavender. I know the pumpkin-lavender combination sounds weird, but an article in Cosmo told me that scientists have discovered that these two scents when used together are a super nostril aphrodisiac (check out http://www.smellandtaste.org/index.cfm?action=research.sexual). I'll have then all ready in time to sell for Christmas, and I can sell goat milk soap in the farmers' market because it's a farm-based product.
I've made two batches already. The first is a citrus scrub soap, that incorporates satsuma, grapefruit and lemongrasses essential oils and jojoba beads. It's very invigorating. The second batch was supposed to be chocolate, but will probably be labelled white chocolate because it really smells like sweet vanilla and looks like white chocolate fudge.
Three more batches are on the planning calendar - Amber Romance with calendula petals, cucumber and green tea, and an egg yolk soap scented with Pumpkin Pie and Lavender. I know the pumpkin-lavender combination sounds weird, but an article in Cosmo told me that scientists have discovered that these two scents when used together are a super nostril aphrodisiac (check out http://www.smellandtaste.org/index.cfm?action=research.sexual). I'll have then all ready in time to sell for Christmas, and I can sell goat milk soap in the farmers' market because it's a farm-based product.
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