Onion and Potato Storage

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March 1 and there is still way too much white stuff on the ground. My new onions plants will be here in 4 weeks! Come on spring. Eating too much of our good stored food and not getting enough exercise. Oh where are the days when I’m just too exhausted from the garden that I don’t even want to cook? Ha

I decided I had better go through the stored potatoes and onions and see who is turning into soft goo.

I tossed circa 1/2 bushel of potatoes, mostly small ones that I never got around to using because of their size, and some reds that had shriveled and sprouted like crazy. Both these batches of potatoes were in baskets. The one in the storage under the stairs was furthest gone. I think it gets too warm in there when the wood stove is roaring. It’s either find another location – such as the pine chest under the window, or insulate the under-stair closet. Storing the potatoes that will not fit in the frigs in the pine chest may be the way to go – it is the coldest spot in the room, especially when we crack the window.

We have two red onions left. They kept very well this year and I am hoping they do as well this coming year, as we will be growing more reds and less Copra.

In going through the multiple bags and bags of Copra, there was about a peck that had sprouted or were soft. By my calculations there is 1 and 1/2 bushel of Copra left to get us through to onion time – sometime in July when the Red Candy should be ready. There will also be walking onions and bunching onions as well.

Cassoulet

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OK we finally tried a new recipe and a brand new-to-us dish – Cassoulet: a (dry) bean casserole. It was great – I think we ate half of it in one meal. Another way to use wonderful dry beans.

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The recipe we used as our base is from Cook’s Illustrated magazine, November-December 2009 pp. 18-19. We altered it from the get go as we forgot to soak the beans overnight. Plain sausage was substituted for Fresh French garlic sausage, Bacon ends for salt pork, celeriac for celery, Great Northerns for Cannellini. The rest of the non-meat ingredients came direct from our food storage.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound dry Cannellini beans (great northern)
  • 2 medium celery ribs (celeriac)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme (it’s winter here – our own dried thyme)
  • 1.5 pounds Fresh French garlic sausage (we used 4 oz – meat as garnish…)
  • 4 ounces salt pork (4 oz bacon)
  • 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (olive, of course)
  • 1.5 pounds pork shoulder, cut into small chunks (4 oz – meat as garnish…)
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 medium carrots
  • 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1 pint canned tomatoes
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cup bread crumbs
  • 1/2 chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

Soak rinsed beans in 3 quarts water overnight. 6 hours was not long enough, which required baking an extra 20 minutes in the oven.

Place sausage in saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer for 5 minutes. Remove sausage from water and slice into pieces when cool.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in dutch oven over medium high heat until beginning to smoke. Add sausage pieces and brown on all sides. Remove from dutch oven. Do the same for the pork shoulder pieces.

Place onion, carrots and celeriac into dutch oven. Stir constantly until onion is translucent (2 minutes). Add garlic and tomato paste (30 seconds). Return sausage and pork to dutch oven. Add the wine and deglaze. Stir in tomatoes and bacon.

Add broth and drained beans. Add up to one cup water if beans are exposed. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer.

Cover pot and place in oven heated to 300º. Cook until beans are tender – circa 1 1/2 hours.

Skim fat from surface and remove bacon. Meat may be cut up and put back into cassoulet. Season with salt and pepper.

Increase oven to 350º and bake 20 minutes, uncovered.

Take bread crumbs and combine with 2 tablespoons oil. Add parsley, salt and pepper.

Sprinkle 1/2 cup bread crumbs over cassoulet. Bake covered 15 minutes.

Remove lid and bake 15 minutes.

Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup breads crumbs over cassoulet. Bake another 20-30 minutes until topping is golden brown.

Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

New Red Bean Recipe

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We have been looking for new (to us) recipes using dry beans as a side dish. And we found one! It is from Cook Now, Serve Later, the same place as our ‘refried’ bean recipe (although they say it is really a bean “dip”.)

Puree of Red Beans, Bacon and Onions

Ingredients

  • 6 cups water
  • 1 pound dry kidney beans
  • 4 slices bacon
  • 2 medium size onions
  • 1-2 cloves garlic
  • 1 medium sized carrot
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano and thyme, crumbled
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary (or 1 teaspoon fresh)
  • 1 1/2 cup (dry) red wine
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt +/- to taste
  • 1/8 teaspoons black pepper

Instructions

Bring 5 cups water and washed kidney beans to a boil over moderately high heat. Remove from heat and keep covered for one hour.

Add remaining cup of water to beans and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered until beans are tender. (one to one and a half hours)

Meanwhile in a skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Transfer to a towel.

Reserve one tablespoon fat (+/-), add carrot and onions. Saute until golden, add garlic near end. Add spices, wine and bay leaf. Simmer for 30-45 minutes until only a thin layer of liquid remains [more liquid would be ok]. Discard bay leaf.

Drain liquid from cooked beans, reserving 1/2 cup. Add onions to beans and mash with potato masher. The end result should have the consistency of whipped potatoes. [This does not mean all beans must disappear - depends what you like for consistency]. Add reserved bean liquid if needed – hence it is ok to have the onions with more liquid.

Yum!

Dent Corn Harvest 2009

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Before I forget, like I did last year, to make a notation of our field/dent corn crop-here is our 2009 harvest.


A few of the jars of dent corn…

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  • Red (Bloody Butcher) – from saved seed – 1/2 gallon
  • Blue (Blue Hopi) – from saved and Fedco seed – 1 gallon
  • Yellow (Reid?) – from saved and Shumway seed – 3 1/2 gallons

I ‘think’ (that miserable lack of decent record keeping skill), that we had circa 1 and a half bushel of ear corn. If so that was more than last year. It does seem that we have more corn this year…which is good as I had used the last corn up about 6 weeks ago.

Dry Bean Harvest 2009

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As of mid-October, the dry bean harvest is complete except for cycling a few jars through the freezer in the hopes of killing off any jarred vermin. This years yield – influenced by plenty of water, but lacking a little on warmth, and then having way too much wet and humidity near drying time – gave us an adequate amount of beans (since I planted so d– many), but could have been a vastly superior yield if not for the conditions mentioned above. Bottom line, we have enough beans…

The Yield

  • Kidney 13 pounds
  • Brown 12 pounds
  • Black 8 pounds (they suffered the most from the wet conditions
  • Pinto 4 pounds(not as many planted and the deer ate them)
  • Spotted 1 pound + (our seed that crossed)

Of course I did not write down (anywhere that I can locate) the total amount from last year. But looking at the Harvest photos from last year I can see that we had 8 more pounds red beans, 4 pounds more brown, 8 pounds more black, 4 pounds more pinto and four pounds more white. There seems to have been a 76 pound bean harvest in 2008. We seem to have used about 28 pounds of beans last year. This is what is left from last years bean crop:

  • Kidney 4 pounds
  • Brown 12 pounds
  • Black 8 pounds
  • Pinto 12 pounds
  • Great Northern 8 pounds
  • Soldier 6 pounds

We now have somewhere between 80 and 90 pounds of dry beans. Guess we need to eat more beans – less meat. Helps the planet, you know….

Garlic

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The garlic has been harvested and hung. 102 stiffneck, 58 softneck bulbs and a couple dozen of our own (stiff?) garlics.

It was different this year – the softneck leaves all seemed to go brown at the same time, and after hanging them today I think we may have been a little late on the harvest. The stiff neck seems to be more normal. Overall the bulbs don’t look as big this year as last. The ground seemed rather hard. We had a lot of rain until the last three weeks. The real test will be to see how well they keep. We used all our stiff neck from last year, and have quite a bit of soft neck left over. We did reduce our softneck planting last fall by 40 cloves! So maybe this quantity will be more in line with our needs.

Shortcuts for Gardening

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Anymore, easier IS better. When good ideas come along, when they are too many to remember, I must write them down. These tips come from Sharon Lovejoy’s Trowel and Error, published in 2003. This is a delightful book filled with tips.

  • To clean plant pots and trays: mix 1/3 cup white vinegar, 1/3 cup rubbing alcohol and 1/3 cup water. Scrub.
  • Cut old wood venetian blinds into short lengths for plant labels.
  • Enclose young apples in small brown paper bags for bug protection. Slit bottom of bag, staple top closed. Remove a ew days before harvest so apple will color.
  • Poke small holes in a gallon milk jig and bury it, with neck exposed. It will water plants that need extra mositure (celery).
  • Epsom salts provide a quick shot of magnesium and sulfur. Aspirin fights mildew, black spot (2 tablets in 1 qt water). Wood ash contains calcium, phosphorous and potassium.
  • Booster for tomato, eggplant and peppers as they begin to bloom: 2 T Epsom salts with one gallon water. Pour into soil around plants.
  • Comfrey tea, rich in potassium and nitrogen. A few handfuls in large can of water. Add blackstrap molasses (pound) and brew for 10 days. Water plants.
  • Basil Tea, fights bugs (aphids, cabbage loopers, cuc beetles). Handful of leaves to 1/ 2 gallon water. Brew in sun a few days. Strain, add liquid soap (1/8 t) in spray bottle.
  • Molasses bath – 12.5 oz molasses to gallon of water. steep a week or so. Pour into soil around plants or use as spray.
  • Pepper spray for bugs: 1/2 cup apple vinegar, 1 t tobasco, 1/8 t soap. Shake and apply. OR: 2 T red pepper, 6 drops soap, 1 gallon water. Sit overnight. Spray plants weekly for brassicas!
  • For asparagus: Early! 5 oz sugar, 1 T yeast, 1 qr water to feed soil and attract beneficial insects to attack asparagus beetle.
  • Damping off disease: 16 Chamomile tea bags or 2 C dried flowers with 2 qt water. Simmer 20 minutes, then brew several hours. Spray foliage daily with tea until outdoors.
  • Potato blight: 1 T mineral oil, 1 t baking soda, 1 gallon water. Shake and spray
  • Aphids: shallow Yellow pan with soapy water
  • Moles are insectivores
  • Wormy corn: after silk turns brown, apply 20 drops mineral oil to tips of ear
  • Wood ash in soil before plant carrots
  • Carpenter ants: use diatomaceous earth or silica aerogels. Spray into hard to reach areas with squeeze bottle. Repowder after rain. ear eye and nose protection.
  • Deer: Mylar. Chicken wire undulating on ground. Fishong line at 2 and 4 feet – or web pattern. Smelly soap hanging from bushes
  • Colorado potato beetle: onion and garlic around potato.
  • Foil on soil around tomato, peppers, basil, squash. Prevent viruses and flourish. Wrap tomato stems in foil to stop blight. On squash and cucs to stop borer.
  • For bites and stings, use slice of garlic on onion on bite for 20 minutes.
  • Interplant borage among vegetables to eliminate pests.
  • Seed Saving:Clean jars, 2 T powdered milk wrapped in tissues, seeds in paper packet. Replace powdered milk every 6 months. Store in frig or cool dry place.

Dent Corn

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The red and blue dent corn found the ground yesterday. We have two groups of blue corn: one from our saved seed from last year and some Blue Hopi Flour Corn from Fedco. There is also a block of Bloody Butcher corn (it is so pretty) from saved seed. It will be interesting to see if it crossed with other corns. Our seed is planted where the pinto beans were last year. The soil is much better than last year, and with the beans before them, maybe our colored corn will do better this year. They are also in a bit sunnier location.

Potatoes were hoed for the first time and all have emerged.

Cabbage

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Using our experimental method of mulch first, insert plant second, I transplanted our cabbage plants from their original home in the cold frame to their lifetime home in a row next to the tomatoes. Lay mulch, stretch line, lay tape for spacing, burrow through mulch, dig hole, go dig up plant, water hole, insert plant and Voila, done. That part worked. I have no containers left to put over the plants so am hoping the mulch will give them a disguise… although as I was planting a cabbage miller fluttered by.

I had planted 9 Early Suprise and I transplanted nine. They are on the east end of the row. The Wakamine Cabbage is next – only 9 of 12 plants made it. Krautman managed 11 plants out of 12. All of which nearly filled my cabbage/pepper row meaning I need to find some space for peppers elsewhere!

This morning, the day after planting, we are getting a good shower.

Broccoli and Wheat

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Our broccoli seedlings that were started in the cold frame were transplanted today. Something had been eating them in the cold frame, even with treatments of rotenone, which only seemed to kill earthworms… There are more or less 27 plants at time of transplanting. These are two new varieties: Windsor and Umpqua (OP). Our broccoli heads of the past have been small to puny, so I’m hoping these will be more productive.

I also put in our 20 grams of Mesa Desert Spring Wheat. Instructions said to plant 1-2 inches apart, so I ended up making rows like a wheat farmer would. I originally planned on broadcasting the seed, like I had done with the Soft Winter Wheat we planted last fall. However, where the deer ate it, and along the edge, it is rather weedy (and so may end up as chicken feed). This made me reconsider my broadcast idea – maybe I can keep rows weeded – maybe. It is supposed to head in August, on three foot stalks.