Backyard Seeding

After lunch I went out and seeded Row 1 of the backyard. I had already transplanted some greens there, leftovers from what I planted at the farm. These transplants went in on 9-20 from seeds started on 8-23. From front to back across the row: Peppermint chard x 9, Continuity Butterhead lettuce x 3, Win Win Choi x 3, then 2 Winter Red Kale and the last lettuce, then the last three Peppermint chard. After those bits, I planted about 4 feet of  Drunken Woman Frizzy Headed lettuce, then 5 feet of Winter Red Kale, and the last five feet, I split in half lengthwise and planted the front half with cabbage and the back (orchard) side with daikon.

I also picked a nice mess of peppers! I got a lot of pasillas this year. The red ones are cayennas, red thai, jalapeno, and a lot of serranos. The serranos produced very well this year also.

Bean Tasting

Sunday evening we did a bean tasting of the five different varieties of beans we grew this year. Lined up from left to right are Jacob's cattle, cannelini, red Mexican, black turtle, and Flambo cranberry beans. Karen and Glen joined us for the tasting, and Rick and Catherine also came, so with me, Rick, and Buddy, we had a full table. I brought cheese, hot sauce, and sour cream to go with the beans. The tasting results were mixed. I hadn't really cooked the beans long enough in some cases. The red Mexicans were nicely done and creamy, while the Jacob's cattle were good although I think the Flambo were the best.

Jacob's cattle were the earliest beans, harvested the last week in July, then came the cannelinis a week later. I didn't note the dates (!) but the red Mexican beans must have come next, with the black turtle beans being the latest. The Flambo were on a different schedule, and I think I harvested them a bit late. Even the latest beans came out in plenty of time to put fall crops behind them. The Flambo were in the backyard, and they had fully twice the space, but they produced mightily! This is my largest bowl, and it's filled to the brim with fat tasty beans.

The ones at the farm were all planted in the same amount of space so I could judge the yield. The red Mexican were the most prolific for the space, coming in at 2.25 jars. Next were the turtle beans at just over 2 jars, followed by Jacob's cattle at 1.25 jars, and the cannelini produced the least, at three-quarters of a jar. But nobody is going hungry this winter! Between the dried beans, the piles of zucchini relish, bag after bag of dried tomatoes, and freezer full of tomato sauce and hot sauce, I think we'll feast all winter. Of course, we'll also be harvesting broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, bok choi, and kale in the winter to go with. Mmmmm... bean and kale soup.

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Weather Note
As noted in my last post, it rained pretty hard on Saturday. It had stopped so we decided to go farming, but halfway there, it started to pour. We can see the raindrops from the back window of the bar.

The garden got a good soaking. It's really overgrown, and I've started pulling up some of the tomatoes. The rain gauge said we got 1.1 inches.

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We also quickly realized that even though I carefully gleaned the bean fields, some are going to escape. We've been picking the bean sprouts and feeding them to the chickens for a high-protein treat. Next year, I'll keep all the "reject" beans to try to sprout as well.

Rain!

We're getting the first rains of fall as I type this. It was wet when we got up this morning, and it has rained off and on throughout the day, sometimes pretty hard. It's definitely fall now. We had noticed other cues: The first ripe broccoli!

Another hint was the Harvest Moon. We're actually out after dark... must be fall! 

Rick and Catherine are back, and they brought some lovely carrots to share. These are so beautiful! I'd like to slice them to make escabeche.

Yesterday dawned sunny and warm, but then the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in. We battened things down at the farm, which also meant shelling out all the beans. 

There were a LOT of beans! These are the Flambeau from the backyard. I can't really compare them to the others because I planted more of these, but the production was good, and they are nice big cranberry beans. 

Fortunately, I'd had time to clean out the first backyard row (that had been those lovely beans) and I got a few things transplanted yesterday, the leftovers from Flat B2 (greens): Peppermint chard, Continuity butterhead lettuce, Win-Win choi, and a couple red Kale. I will direct seed the rest of the row. I need a LOT more kale! The broccoli and cabbage in the next row are doing well. I need to tear out the rest of the tomatoes (waiting on bin space), but the peppers are still ripening up.

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What We're Eating

For Rock Band, Delina brought us a feast: Habanero honey, which she drizzled over Shuberts country vanilla ice cream, then topped with freshly grated ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It was out of this world! Hot, sweet, and spicy! We thought Habanero Honey sounded like it would make a good song title. She also brought chips and salsa made with farm tomatoes. 

I also made some pizza dough now that I don't mind running my oven. So we had that first broccoli on one.

Then I made another with fresh produce from the backyard. The green stuff is green garlic sprouts. 

And for tonight's dinner, I'll make a soup with Rick C.'s last potatoes, and the early cabbage and broccoli. I also tasted the sauerkraut. It's a little young yet, but it's heading in the right direction.

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I didn't end up walking at all last week. I know! Bad me!! But Buddy noticed this rock.

Kraut!

Rick had a long weekend, so we took it easy. It was really really nice to spend a day or two not up to my elbows in food preparation. So what did we do? Drink beer of course! We went to the Handle Bar on Sunday afternoon.

I immediately texted Delina when I saw this. Who would have guessed there was gluten-free beer?

As always, there were a lot of great options. Rick had the Drake's 1500 Pale Ale. Has a fantastic lemony nose, small bubbles so very champagne-like, smooth and crispy, with lemon and mild pine notes in the hops. I had the Knee Deep Midnight Hoppiness, a double black IPA with 9.5 ABV and over 100 IBUs. Good dark malt flavor that's more than balanced by the hops, which were piney and resiny.

For our second beers, Rick had  the Fullers ESB. It tasted pretty sweet to me (compared to the IPAs), but Rick said it was delicately balanced by the hops. It had a rich mahogany appearance, floral nose, and Rick compared the malt taste to butterscotch. ABV 5.9. RB 96. Very drinkable session beer.

I had the Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA, touted (by Esquire mag) as the best IPA in America. I dunno if I'd go that far, but it was an excellent example. Light amber in color, very flowery nose, crisp citrusy hop profile. Overall very floral in character; I said it was like drinking flowers.

Meanwhile... back at the ranch. Rick and Catherine should be winding up their trip soon. Catherine sent us some pix from the road. This pic is actually from her last trip, but it's a great shot of the car tent they are staying in part of the time.

This is the Portland farmer's market they went to.

Of course, we have to have more pics of vegetables! These carrots are lovely

After several days of drinking and lounging about, I was ready to tackle food again, so today I made sauerkraut. I put in two huge cabbages from the farm, plus most of a little one that hadn't headed up well. I also added some onions and hot peppers. I'll add some garlic also, but I haven't shelled it yet. That's my next task after I post this update. So after I cut up all the veg, I mixed in the salt (3 TBS to 5 lbs cabbage) and let it wilt a bit. Then I put a plate on top and weighted it with a ziploc full of salty water (so if it leaks it won't dilute the brine). Note for next time: the only plate that fits is the salad plate from the good china! I tied a towel over the top with a bit of twine, and I'll check it every couple of days.

Oddly Odd Gourds

I picked gourds today! They are such fun. They seemed ripe, and I wanted to get that corner cleared out. I looked up how to dry them, and I need to rinse them in a light bleach solution, then put them on slats (not touching, good air flow) in a warm dark dry location. I'll use Rick's clever milk-crate storage and put them in the old waterheater closet. I'll have lots of fun using these for decorations.

 Meanwhile, I've been keeping myself busy. I made grape jelly from the red grapes. I had a 5 gallon bucket almost full of grapes! Yikes. Anyway, I made a triple recipe and used about half of the juice. I had to stop there because: A. It was my first time and I wasn't sure I'd do it right, and B. You simply can't expand the recipe endlessly. Many recipes warn that if you do, it won't gel. It also won't gel if you don't put in enough sugar, but I still cut the low-sugar recipe amount in half. I froze the rest of the juice and I'm thinking... grape-jalapeno!

I also keep drying tomatoes. 

The oldest broccolis are brocking nicely. 

The whole brassica sector is looking great.

We put the chickens on 4a one last time, and we'll plant that soon. 

The only rows still planted in summer crops in sectors 2 and 3 are 2A and 8B in summer squash. They are still producing but they could come out anytime. 

We found one more big beer hiding in the fridge, so we tasted it. The juniper taste was mild, but noticeable, especially in the nose. Catherine wasn't here to be my beer model, so Barbie had to stand in. 

Thursday I caught up with Jane. She'd just gotten the keys to her new rental. It closed on 9-13 and the addy is 1309. She can really fix it up with some sweat equity. 

Afterward we went to the farm and I sent her home with a bowl of goodies. Doesn't that look lovely and healthful. 

Yesterday, Rick took the day off, and we pretty much just chilled, but in the afternoon, I got to work on pruning the fruit trees. It always looks drastic, but it makes them so much better. 

I was a total slacker and only walked on Wednesday. We saw this cool fungus. 

On the opposite side of the freeway from most of my shots, they were pumping cement up to the roadway.

And Caper Acres has been closed because of falling limbs.

Amberglen Returns to RivenOak

It had been a busy week on the farm. Rick and Catherine are about to go out of town, so Rick brought my his week's worth of tomatoes and peppers, so they wouldn't get wasted. I made tomato sauce with about 100 tomatoes.

Friday night, Delina came over, and ... She put de lime in de coconut!

I harvested the world's biggest cabbage!

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What We're Eating
Cabbage soup of course! I made a broth from the big tough leaves, and cooked the small tender leaves in it with some red lentils, onion, garlic, and lots of curry and turmeric. I gave some to Buddy, Rick, and Catherine, and we ate it with homemade rolls and green garlic butter, with Flipside to drink. Damn that's a good beer.

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Last Saturday was the Baronial Championship tourney for RivenOak. We decided it might be fun, so we dug out some garb and went. You just don't get that many opportunities to wear a crown! (Although technically mine is a coronet.)

We went to court.

Where the Prince and Princess, and the Baron and Baroness were in attendance.

Then everyone suited up. There were three hometown knights: Sir David, Sir Urban Cheeshank, and Sir Thorstagg.

Keith and David clown around while waiting for their fights.

This is a great shot of Thorstagg in battle. And you had to click fast because he one-shotted the first few guys.

It came down to Thorstagg vs. Urban in the final round, with David and the Baron of RivenOak looking on. Thorstagg won the day and is the new Champion of RivenOak.

I didn't make it up to Laura's party, but I sent up a lovely present and some of my precious zucchini relish.