Harvest Monday - August 29, 2011

Finally, this week, I picked 8-9 large tomatoes.  First of the season!  It was a happy week. Also, in were the sweet plums.  After a few were pecked by birds, it was time to pick them all.  Since dealing with the pests, eggplants grew large and finally I had several nice sized eggplants to harvest.  First blackberry was ripe(not pictured).  Here goes my harvests for the week....

Zucchini, apples, tomatoes, plum

Plums!!

Tomatoes, chillies

Bush beans

Check out the size!

Tomatoes and plums

Cucumbers, zucchini and chili

Eggplants

Methi(Fenugreek) leaves

Sweet banana peppers and bush beans

For all other harvests, head on over to Daphne's Dandelions - Harvest Mondays!!

Saving the eggplants.....

Last week, I blogged about how something was eating my eggplants, even the newly set fruits were disappearing.  Each day, I saw eggplants eaten down to nothing and it was frustrating.  I would have shared, if it was once in a while, but whatever it was, it didn't feel the need to leave me any!!

I needed to protect them somehow.  I thought of all the ways to cover them, cloth, nylon etc., But they weren't feasible, because, I had atleast 20+ eggplants, and more on the way.  Finally I found the solution!!  Ziploc.  I cut out the two corners for drainage and covered the eggplants and since then haven't had a single eggplant eaten!!  Yay!  See the pics, to believe.......

Covering the eggplants

Filling up the gallon size ziploc!

Check it out!  Blemish free.....

11 inches!! 

I think the ziploc idea worked very well.  Inspite of hot weather and heavy rains, fruits were all nice and smooth.  I could now let them grow to their destined sizes, instead of picking them early to avoid being eaten by pests!!  Score!! 

Check out my Harvest Mondays for all the eggplants that I picked this week!

Harvest Monday - August 22, 2011

Thanks to Daphne for hosting Harvest Mondays.  This week the harvest was good.  It's always nice to walk into the garden and come back with some veggies.  I'm struggling somewhat with something that has been eating eggplants and tomatoes, even to the extent of climbing onto the plants and eating veggies that are atleast a foot off the ground.  I spent time reading online to find some clue and figured out that it must be either mice or field rats, since they have similar diets as humans.  Voles/moles do not eat veggies.  I had wrongly assumed that it was voles/holes eating up my eggplants, but I was so wrong.  I have come up with an idea to outsmart(I hope?) these mice/rat and will post a blog later on in the week.  Here are my harvests for the week.

Yellow Squash and two (bird pecked and why is it rotting?) plums

Green beans and two red chillies

Cucumbers, red bell, zucchini and TWO tomatoes!!

Carrots, 2 radishes, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, green beans, red chillies, 1 tomato

Eggplants, cukes, zucchini, green bell, and lots of green chillies

Red bell, 2 Roma tomatoes(mice/rat eaten), green beans

Sweet banana peppers, red chillies, cucumbers

In other news, Tiny Gardener has a birthday giveaway on her blog, so if you'd like to be entered into a drawing for a year long subscription of Hobby Farm magazine, head on over to her site to check it out.

Harvest Monday - August 15th, 2011

Thanks to our host Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Mondays where everyone showcases their produce for the week. 

Today is India's 64th Independence Day, so Happy Independence Day India!!  This week has mostly been about cukes, beans and eggplants.  Still no sign of ripe tomatoes.... ok, maybe a couple tiny ones.  I guess we will see all of them ripen at about the same time.  In the meantime, we will certainly enjoy our cukes and eggplants(and everything else in between)!

Sweet Banana Peppers and Green beans

Zucchini blossoms, sweet banana peppers, cucumbers and zucchini

Green beans

Cucumbers

Eggplants

Yellow squash

Green chillies, eggplant, cukes, zucchini, tomatoes

Green chillies and Mint

Harvest Monday - Aug 8, 2011

This year has not been great for my vegetable garden.  Bell Peppers and Tomatoes are growing well and putting out green leaves, but the blossoms are not setting fruits.  Same time, last year, my counters were full of big juicy tomatoes, but this year, I picked one tiny tomato for the week!  I was actually able to count upto 6 tiny tomato on one 5' tall tomato plant when it should have been several dozens.  sigh!  It is really sad. 

Eggplants are putting out lots of fruits, but something is eating the fruits.  I found a couple of fairy tales nibbled on and there was one round variety eaten off with just the skin hanging.  The eggplant was about six inches off the ground and is surrounded by wire fencing, so something has to get through it and then be big enough to eat a 3 inch size eggplant.  If anyone has some ideas on this let me know.  I thought of moles/voles, but they couldn't eat such a big eggplant(could they?), the nibbling is done by them.  Raccoon?  I've never seen them around here.  What else could it be?  Bunnies couldn't get in through the fence.

This Harvest Monday belongs to red onions.  I pulled out all of my onions from the ground.  I had several hundred sets and also plants started from seeds.  They weren't as large as I'd hoped.  Most were medium sized.  Altogether, they weighed 23lbs.  The ones from seeds are quite small and was wondering if I could plant them as sets for next year.....

Zucchini(one plant is always growing yellow zucchini!  Is that weird?), cucumbers, 1 tomato, 1 beans and 2 sweet banana peppers.

Green beans, 2 red cayenne peppers, zucchini, 2 eggplants, cucumbers

Red onions

More red onions cleaned

Yellow zucchini, green zucchini, first red bell, one plum(fell off the tree)

Please check out Daphne's Dandelions for more harvests of the week!

Harvest Monday - August 1, 2011

This week, to my utter disbelief, we were invaded by Japanese beetle.  Plum tree was just a outline of leaves and clusters of beetles all over! yuck! yuck! 

Japanese beetle and skeleton leaves!!

Fortunately I had just read Amy's blog on the beetles and was ready with a bucket of soap water and my oldest son(I couldn't get myself to touch those beetles).  He picked dozens (wearing gloves) and the next day my dear husband did the rounds and picked off more and now the situation is under control(touch wood!).  We are still picking 10-12 everyday and will continue to monitor and watch the leaves and plants more carefully.

This Harvest week belongs to Eggplants and Yellow Squash!!  I was pleasantly surprised to find about 8-9 yellow squash all about the same size on a single plant.  Not that we eat a lot of them, but any large harvest that I pick from the garden, makes me feel on top of the world :)  Then came a harvest of eggplants and another bigger one!  I've never picked more than 1 at a time and not more than a few in the entire season!  Ofcourse, it helped that this year, I tried mixed varieties of eggplants and over a dozen plants :) 

Yellow Squash and zucchini

1 tomato and few beans

Fairy Tale Eggplants and zucchini

Yellow Squash and Orange beets with greens

Orange beets cleaned and trimmed

Green beans

Mint

First cucumbers, zucchini and Fenugreek leaves

Fairy tale, long purple and apple green Eggplants

Zestar! apple (dropped while picking beetles)

Garlic chives scapes

For other harvests, please visit Daphne's Harvest Monday.

Harvesting Cherries and making a Pie!

I have a sour cherry tree which is about 8 years old.  This is the first time, that we've had a lot of cherries and that we've actually harvested them.  Usually the birds get them.  The tree is very easy to care for.  We never spray them.  The downside to this is, the cherries do have worms (:  During the pitting process, we simply discard the wormy cherries.  Also, the cherries have a very short shelf life, so quick processing is essential.

Lots of cherries!

Time consuming process to pick this pile !

I decided to try my hand at making a cherry pie along with "from the scratch" crust.  I found one on AllRecipes.com and modified it to suit my needs.

Sour Cherry Pie

Yields 1 - double crusted 9 inch pie

Ingredients

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie [see recipe below]
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 cups fresh pitted sour cherries
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter(forgot to use)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
2. In a large mixing bowl combine corn starch, salt, sugar, cherries and extracts. Let stand 15 minutes. Turn out into bottom crust [and dot with butter - forgot to add]. Cover with top crust, flute edges and cut vents in top. Place pie on a foil lined cookie sheet --- in case of drips!
3. This is how I baked it,
4. Bake for 400F - for 10 min,
   Lower to 350F - bake for 34 min,
   Increase to 375F - bake for 20 min until golden brown.

Tips: 
1. Use whole pitted cherries, rather than cut into halves while pitting. 
2. The easiest way to remove pits without making too much mess is to use a fast food restaurant straw and gently pushing through the top, until the seed pops out.

Pie Crust

 

Reference - http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_pie_crust/

 

Ingredients

 

2.5 cups flour
1 cup(2 sticks of salted butter) cut in half inch cubes kept in freezer for an hour before using.
1 tsp sugar
6 -8 Tbsp ice water(keep the water in freezer for a little while until chilled)

 

Method:1. Combine flour, salt, sugar in a food processor; pulse to mix.
2. Add butter and pulse until mixture is coarse meal with pea size pieces of butter.
3. Then add ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, pulsing until mixture begins to clump together.  If you pinch some of the dough and it holds together, it is ready. 
4. Shape this into 2 discs.  Knead dough just enough to shape, do not over-knead.  You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap(large enough to use it to roll on) and refrigerate at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.
5. Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes in order to soften just enough to make rolling out a bit easier. Roll out on the plastic and cover with another plastic to avoid sticking to the pin.  [Optionally - Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12-inch circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick. As you roll out the dough, check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. If necessary, add a few sprinkles of flour under the dough to keep the dough from sticking.] Carefully place onto a 9-inch pie plate. Gently press the pie dough down so that it lines the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edge of the pie dish.
6. Refrigerate for an hour atleast.  Keep the entire pie dish covered with plastic.  This refrigerating the crust helps avoid sogginess on the bottom crust.

7. Brush some egg white(lightly beaten) on the bottom and top crust.  [Optional - I've read that this helps avoid sogginess on the bottom crust as well]

 

Pictorial:

 

 

Mix all the ingredients - Pitted cherries, corn starch, salt, sugar, extracts

Add ingredients to the bottom crust

The top crust

Brushing with egg white

Finished Pie, ready to be baked....

Cherry Pie!!!!

Yumm!  It was absolutely delicious.