Deep freeze came last night. We’ve been on a work sprint in the garden and I’m still exhausted from it. Now though, it’s time to process all the things that were harvested.
I find this sort of work incredibly boring, which is oddly something I never see anyone talk about, even in the homesteading forums. Sometimes it is satisfying, usually when it’s time to actually eat or drink things. But in the meantime, I’m thankful for podcasts to keep my mind company while doing absolutely mindless labor – labor like removing the husks from these tomatillos. They will be washed and then weighed so I can calculate the other ingredients to add in.
The plan is to use them in salsa verde. Some to be eaten fresh, and the rest will be fermented, which is pretty tasty and a nice treat in winter.
BTW these are probably the #1 easiest thing to grow in a garden. Just let ‘em grow wild everywhere. At this point we just have volunteers that show up and it’s great.
We have finally been getting tiny numerous harvests from our grapes this year. They’ve been through… a lot. Lots of terrible soil and drought and transplanting. We have two types of grapes planted right now… I think… the Seedless Concords and ‘Reliance’. Maybe something from our friend and neighbor, Tony the Tea Guy. Anyway, the Reliance have never really produced or done much of anything, despite their rave reviews. The Seedless Concords remind me more of muscadines than I was expecting, the insides have the texture of eyeballs (not that I’ve ever eaten eyeballs, but lets just say these aren’t like the watery commercial grapes you get in the store). Flavor of the Seedless Concords is excellent though. VERY strong grape, it’s almost like eating sweet candy.
Perspectives on slopes are always weird. V is taller and larger than me, but down slope.
Also, in other exciting news, V mentioned that there was a HELICOPTER hovering very low over our trees the other day when I was at work, he thinks that we amused someone by our crazy technohomestead complex. This new information reallllly makes me want to plant more banana trees to screen the house, and really get it finished painted dark brown, so it more harmoniously fades into the mountainside.
Mushrooms weird me out, and I don’t know much about them, but haven’t seen this one around before. An online mushroom person said it was some sort of Russula. There’s several along the back side of the house, the others were stomped upon during removal of a used billboard. This one just got dirty with some small debris.
While reading about this, it did get pretty interesting, in that I’d totally forgotten that certain mushrooms like to hang around certain types of trees and forests. So this is yet another reason to be able to identify trees, it’ll help one to identify other surrounding life as well.
What I assume to be a praying mantis (??) on one of the mums! This creature was so alien, so interesting, and amazing in any garden.
It doesn’t feel like fall yet. We’re panting from the heat and drowning in our sweat, just like summer. My coworkers are worried that we’re gonna skip fall and will go directly into winter, assuming winter ever comes…
No one on staff, and I mean NO ONE doubts global climate change.
I don’t know what that big white plant is in the picture just above, but the pollinators were going absolutely nuts over it. They absolutely adored this entire garden, which they treated as an extensive snack highway.
Very impressive. And very cheerful!
Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) perhaps? Being its a North American native plant it would not surprise me if it was a pollinator magnet.
July 19 2018 – Garbage Peppers -> Pepper Pickling Experiment
So tired.
First photo, I’m harvesting the pepper fruits from the plants I’ve been tending at work (did I mention I run the veggie section at our retail nursery this year? it’s been great fun). They’d been moved to the dumpster area, b/c they are so terribly root bound and no one ever wanted to give them a home, but mostly b/c my boss said so. I’m realizing now that the vast majority of my coworkers will not harvest food near the dumpsters. Ornamental plants, maybe, gleaning no. And while people are very enthusiastic about the idea of free plants, often times they forget them when their shift is over.
I did see a customer come over to check out the free dumpster pepper plants. They were driving a Lexus. In the end, I’m not sure they took anything. Today it was just the hot peppers – hot banana, serrano, and chinese paper lanterns.
I gathered a ton, and combined with previous gleaning, finally undertook the great Pepper Pickling Experiment. I did not hot water bath / can them, just focused on trying to make something that might be tasty that can be stored in the fridge. I used this as a starting point and then tried a few suggestions, in addition to my own twist. We’ll see in a month if it tastes like anything. Hopefully between the heat, vinegar, and salt, it will be safe to eat.
So far, pickling experiments have gone well, V enjoys the bold flavors. Fingers crossed.
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