June 8 – Canning Beets Is A Priority!
The spring garden is fading fast in this heat, but not to worry, the summer garden is right on it’s heels. Heat is hard on lettuce, spinach and broccoli and soon it bolts to seed or stops producing those tender eats of earlier days. Picked a pan full of snow peas, blanched them and got them to the freezer for Oriental dining next winter. The dill is heading out way too soon. It is hard to time the dill and cucumber pickings at the same time. Dozens of parsley worms were dining on the dill, and soon there will be swallowtail butterflies to bless us. But the parsley worms weren’t alone. Cabbage worms, flea beetles and striped and spotted cucumber beetles are sure to follow soon. I’m not a gardener that panics at the first sign of a bug. Sometimes it is just wise to co-exist. But when push comes to shove, I reach for the insecticides that do the job with the least impact to all the other things growing. Spinosad is a fairly new organic solution that will take care of worms. It is so gentle that it gets the approval of organic gardeners, who can be hard to please.
The beets are ready to be pulled and processed for winter time eating. Beet harvest is usually just one long day in the kitchen and it is over for the year. Not like the strawberry harvest which goes on and on. Beets must be canned in a pressure cooker, no cutting corners here. Preserving foods safely is a science in itself, and following directions and procedures a must. However, done right, it is a satisfying accomplishment to have the cellar shelves lined with the fruits of your summer labors.
Courtesy of All Creatures.org
Scrubbing the red roots, boiling them for fifteen to twenty-five minutes, depending on size and cooling them down to “skin” them is a messy job. Don’t kid yourself! Then cut them into a desired size and pack the pint or quart jars, adding hot fresh water and a teaspoon of salt. Adjust the lids and process in a pressure cooker according to the latest USDA recommendations. Process for thirty minutes at twelve pounds of pressure, taking into consideration the elevation of our area. Pickled beets are also a delicious way to preserve this vegetable. That process uses a liquid of vinegar, sugar and a variety of spices and is completed in a boiling water bath canner.
Subscribe to the comments for this postJune 2 – It’s A Great Strawberry Year!
The asparagus harvest is over for the season, but the strawberries are coming on in great abundance. We can count on a strawberry crop most years, the biggest threat is a hard freeze after the blooms are open. We were spared that this year and the picking is underway.
Two kinds of strawberries are grown here; June bearing and everbearing. However, the most successful choice to put the most berries on your table is the June bearers, a strawberry that just produces one big crop early in the season. Everbearing strawberries continue to produce sporadic small harvests throughout the season, but during the heat of mid-summer, they just don’t set a crop here that they might in the cooler regions of the country. There are several choice varieties but I keep coming back to planting the old tried and true variety, Sure Crop.
Harvest begins the last week of May and continues for a few weeks. The first berries are the largest. Don’t overwater during harvest to keep the berries from rotting. There is a little black beetle called a sap beetle that can be a problem by boring into overripe fruit. While sevin dust or spray will control sap beetles, I’ve never had the nerve to use it. The better solution is to pick often and close so no overripe fruit accumulates to attract the bug in the first place.
I freeze the berries for delicious winter use in one quart zip loc freezer bags. Toss a half a cup of sugar with one quart of sliced berries, labeling and sealing the bags well to prevent leaking. No matter what fruit I am preparing to freeze, whether strawberries, peaches or cherries, I always use one half cup sugar per quart bag. Then later on as I am using them in various recipes or pies, I know that there is already one half cup sugar in the fruit and take that into consideration in the preparation of the specific recipe.
Just enjoyed this delicious recipe Memorial Day at a neighborhood picnic. Michelle Moore brought this special cake and gave me permission to share it with my readers.
Layered Strawberry Shortcake
Bake a white cake mix as directed on the box in a 9 x 13 cake pan. Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, spread wax paper over the top of the cake and weight it down with a heavy book(s). Cool completely. Remove book and wax paper. Now stir together 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened and one 9 oz. tub of Cool Whip and 1 cup of powdered sugar. Carefully spread this mixture over the cake. Stir together one cup boiling water into a 3 oz package of strawberry jello. Stir in a 1 lb. tub of sweetened frozen strawberries that have been thawed and drained. Or you could use one and one half cups of fresh sweetened strawberries from the garden. Carefully pour this strawberry mixture over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set or over night.
May 26 – Plan To Prune Pines Soon
There were no pines growing here in southwest Kansas when the wagon trains rumbled across the prairies. It was a treeless landscape, with the exception of the cottonwoods and elms along the rivers. Today we insist that our landscapes include some pines for beauty and shelter. Entire shelterbelts feature rows of pines, although most homeowners mix the pines with a couple rows of cedars.
Scots, Austrian, Pinyon, Ponderosa and White pines have been nurtured in this area for several decades already, long enough to know that there are challenges to growing these beautiful trees. Scots have been nixed from the list because of the pine wilt disease advancing into the region from the east. Austrian pines are threatened because of sphaeropsis tip blight and needle blights. In eastern Kansas, landscapers are no longer advising planting pines at all.
Fifteen years ago we circled the yard with Austrian pines that are now nearly twenty five feet tall and doing a bang up job of calming the winds here at the farm. I love the sound of the wind in the pines, don’t love the job of picking up after them (cones) and the annual pruning job sometimes gets nixed for the year.
Pruning new candles from the pines
In order to retain a path through the pines to the various parts of the yard, it is necessary to prune the new candles severely to keep the area open for walking. Now is the time of year to shape and prune to control height and spread. With a sharp utility scissors, grasp the expanding new candle and cut it back to almost half or even three fourths of the length. But be sure not to cut so far back that you get into last years growth. Pines will usually not form new buds on old growth and cutting back past the new candle could distort the shape and appearance of the tree in the future.
May 24 – Bountiful Broccoli!
There is no good reason to wait until next winter to try a delicious broccoli soup. This is the number one reason I cut and freeze every big and small floret I can coax from my twelve broccoli plants.
Growing broccoli in western Kansas is not impossible but it helps to have Ma Nature on your side. It is a cool weather veggie, growing in the cool of both ends of the growing season. It will tolerate a light freeze down to maybe 26 degrees for short periods, but loves the upper 30’s to the 50’s. Start broccoli plants under the lights or buy healthy plants from your favorite greenhouse. The plants need to be actively growing at all stages, not held in a plastic pack for long periods of time while you try to find a good day to plant. Provide water, frost protection when necessary and regular feedings to keep the plants from “buttoning”, a condition that prevents the head from maturing. If you end up with buttoned plants, pull them up, there is no waiting for better days ahead. Prevent that problem with timely maintenance all during the growing period. Cabbage worms can be a problem, but the new organic solution, spinosad, makes quick work of any bug problems. Cut broccoli heads before any color shows. The flowers should be tight and bright green. Keep cutting to encourage the plants to try again to reproduce.
Broccoli Plant
Cheezy Broccoli Soup
½ cup finely chopped onion
2 cups Velveeta Cheese, cubed
½ cup butter
4 chicken bouillon cubes
½ cup flour 3 cups water
1 tsp. salt
2 pkgs. (10 oz.) frozen broccoli or equal amounts of fresh broccoli
¼ tsp. pepper
4 cups milk
Dissolve bouillon in 3 cups water in large pan and bring to a boil. Add broccoli and cook until tender. Do not drain! Set aside. In second large pan, cook onions in butter until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Add milk all at once. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Add cheese cubes and stir until melted. Add broccoli and liquid to cheese mixture, stir until well blended. Delicious!
May 21 – Celebrate Memorial Day with Peonies!
You can cut peony buds when they are in the soft bud stage, showing plenty of color but just not quite open and full. Firm bud stage also works, but we are past that opportunity for this year. Cut the peony buds with long stems and remove all the foliage. Bundle the flowers together and package the stems in a Ziploc storage bag. Zip the bag shut as far as it will go and then tape around the top to prevent air from drying out the stems. Lay them flat on the refrigerator shelves. They would love to be stored at 32 degrees, but most refrigerators operate at 36-40 degrees. That will work for the week that is left before the Holiday.
Shirley cutting Memorial Day Peonies
Bring the buds out of cold storage a day or two ahead of needing them. They will be wilted and stem ends dry. Re-cut the ends and place in barely warm water in a bucket at room temperature. If you are confused or undecided about soft bud, hard bud or tight bloom, cut them at different stages. Stored dry, I promise you that some will be just right for decorating on this special Holiday. Peonies can also be stored in water in the frig for about a week, although their vase life out at the cemetery may be shortened. Don’t forget to add the iris or alliums, blooming shrubs such as weigela or snowball bushes or even better yet, the landscape roses that are showing off right now.
With Memorial Day weekend just a week away, it is time to plan your cemetery decorations using color straight from your garden. The peonies are in full bloom this year, giving us plenty of choices. Add to that the allium, iris and landscape roses, we can arrange gorgeous decorations without spending a dime.