Freezing Berries

Even though my berry plants are only 2 years old, they have produced very well! We have had several freezes and 2 light dustings of snow, and my raspberries and strawberries are continuing to produce fruit!  They have slowed down considerably, but the fruit still trickles in. My blackberries, blueberries and gooseberries have behaved properly and acknowledged the season.

The problem I have found with my berries is that I either have too little or too much. Not enough to do anything with but use on cereal. Or so much that there is no way we can eat it all before it goes bad. I do use it make jams, but harvests are not predictable, and I can’t always clear my schedule just because the berries are ripe. So whether I have too little and want to save up berries to make muffins or have too much, I freeze berries to keep them from spoiling.

I collect my berries in a colander, then I can bring them in and rinse them immediately and let them air dry:

Once the berries are dry, I lay them out flat on a cookie sheet: I lose some in the process to my little helper!

I place the cookie sheet in the freezer for several hours or until the berries are frozen solid. Then I place the berries in a container with a lid (but a gallon size plastic bag would work too).

Even if you don’t grow your own berries you can use this technique to take advantage of the great berry sales at your grocery store or Farmer’s Market in the spring and fall. I add frozen berries directly to smoothies and muffins. I thaw them before I make jam.

This post is linked to Real Food Deals and Works for Me Wednesday.

Keeping Color in Your Garden

You don’t have to put your whole garden to bed for the winter. There are some plants that will continue to flower late into the fall – some all winter long!

Snapdragons will survive light frosts and even a light snow (as will the mums):

Violas flower all winter long:

Pansies are another flower that will bounce right back after being dug out from under a foot or two of snow:

Vinca minors stay green all winter long. They bloom late in the fall and early in the spring. My frugal tip is to go buy these flowers, as well as spring bulbs, on the day of the first snow when all of the stores and nurseries mark them 75% – 90% off. I store them in the garage until the snow melts. Once the ground warms enough to dig in it, I plant the annuals and bulbs. They have plenty of time to adjust before the next snow and the bulbs will still bloom on time, even if you plant them a couple of weeks late. You can also save the bulbs and force them for Easter and Mother’s Day gifts.

This post is linked to Bloomin’ Tuesday and Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage.

Eggplant Rice Bake

My one Hansel Eggplant bush has been a powerhouse performer this year! It has already provided over 30 fruit and it continues to flower and produce more. Since the temperatures have been dropping below 40 degrees at night, I moved it from the raised bed garden and to my container garden. This allows me to move it, along with the peppers and tomatoes, indoors at night, so the plants will continue to produce fresh vegetables for my family. This is my first time including eggplant in my container garden, so I am looking forward to seeing how it does over the winter. I have been very impressed with this compact little plant and will definitely  include Hansel Eggplant in my garden next year!

One of my favorite ways to use eggplant is in Eggplant Rice Bake. It is a hearty meatless dish and since I use vegetables and herbs from the garden, it is fairly inexpensive to make.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice
1/2 cup squash puree (or cottage cheese)
splash of tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup diced celery
2 tablespoons diced bell pepper
3 cups diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups eggplant, chopped
1 cup yellow squash, chopped
2 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:

Place a splash of olive oil in a large skillet. Add onions, garlic, bell pepper, and celery. Cook over a medium heat until the onions are translucent. Add tomatoes, spices, and sugar. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncover to cook off excess liquid (about 5 minutes). 

Grease an 8 x 8 baking dish and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix rice with vegetables puree and press half of it into the baking dish. Layer with half of the tomato mixture. Add half of the squash and eggplant, then cover with half of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers of the rice, tomato mixture, eggplant and squash, and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and starts to brown.
Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Some more of our favorites recipes using Eggplant:

Eggplant Pizza Bites
Angel Hair Pasta with Garden Vegetables
Spicy Sesame Stir-Fry

To see how other gardeners are using their eggplant, visit Grow.Eat.$ave at $5 Dinners.

It’s Beginning to Look Like Fall

But Just barely!

My little pumpkin was thrilled to finally be able to harvest his “baby plumpkins”. He carried them around all day:

We are acquiring quite a collection of pumpkins on our porch. The porch is shady and protected from the elements, so I use it to store our pumpkins as they are harvested (except for my baking pumpkins which go directly to the kitchen!). The pumpkins add some fall color which we are definitely lacking! We have had a warm, wet autumn. That, combined with lots of evergreens on our property, means we are enjoying a very green fall. Here is the only tree that is acknowledging the season:

Are the colors changing in your gardens yet?

To view more gardens, visit Bloomin’ Tuesday at MsGreen“thumb”Jean and Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage.

The Gladioli are Finally Blooming!

Some of my gladiolus bulbs are finally blooming! We had a long winter and a harsh spring, so I couldn’t put my gladiola bulbs in the ground until June, thus the late appearance.

In areas 6 and below, the gladiolus corms have to be dug up before the first frost and can’t be planted until after the last frost which doesn’t give them very much time to grow. They need at least 90 days to root, grow, bloom and store energy for the next year, so we cut it close each summer!

We have received a lot of rain which is causing the flowers to become heavy and topple over, so I have cut many of the stems and am enjoying them inside. I have not cut the foliage though. The plants need it to store energy for next year and I need it to remember where the corms are planted. :-)

 

The cosmos are enjoying the cool, rainy weather:

We are going to have a plentiful harvest of Heritage Raspberries this year: Every branch looks like that! I can’t wait to get those berries in my kitchen!

The Everbearing Strawberries are living up to their name: I do believe there are more pies and jams in our future. And hopefully there will be more flowers as well!

How are your gardens doing this fall?

To view beautiful gardens from around the world, visit Flaunt Your Flowers Friday at Tootsie Time.

Blessed with Rogue Flowers

We have had the most gorgeous weather! This is the most beautiful fall that I have experienced since moving to Nevada. Warm day, cool nights – but not too cool – and calm breezes. And best of all NO snow! I have checked the forecast and it is supposed to continue this way for the next 10 days. Our lovely weather has yielded a couple of surprises that I discovered when walking along the edges of our property: Wild flowers. Not many, and they might not be that wild, but if not, surely they are a gift of the wild.

This plant looks like it belongs in the salvia family.

A purple daisy?

Every year poppies appear under our apple tree. They are late this year, but everything was late this year, so it seems appropriate!

I also have several wild roses that appeared this year, but they haven’t bloomed yet. I wonder if they will.
Have you been blessed with any rogue flowers in your garden this year?

This post is linked to Flaunt Your Flowers Friday at Tootsie Time.

My Vegetable Garden: A Labor of Love

Yesterday, I shared how being a lazy gardener is both frugal and green. However, there are some things that I find putting a little effort into pays great dividends, namely my vegetable garden.

I finally captured an eggplant flower! Since the eggplant is still flowering and because it does not like cold, I am adding it to my winter container garden.

When you transplant an eggplant, pepper, or tomato plant great care needs to be given to not disturb the roots anymore than is absolutely necessary. Plan to dig a very large root ball and if you are putting it in a container choose an oversized one.

Since I have had problems with squash bugs this summer, I will pull out all of the squash and cucumbers plants as soon as I harvest the last squash.  Then I will burn the plants in an effort to eradicate the bugs. I will use the ashes to amend the soil for next year’s garden.

It won’t be long before I am searching high and low for recipes using acorn squash:

I have at least 12 of these gianormous squash, even though I did not intend to grow acorn squash. Since we had such a long winter, my garden got off to a late start. I started to panic and was afraid that none of my seeds would germinate, so I bought a 4 pack of seedlings labels crookneck squash. My zucchini and straightneck squash seeds germinated and produced fruit before the store bought seedling even produced a single flower. Once they finally started producing fruit, I was confused because they were the weirdest looking crookneck squash I had ever seen! Once they matured a bit more I realized what I had on my hands.  Being lazy didn’t quite work out as planned this time!

Each one of my potato plants is producing 3 –5 pounds of potatoes! I dig up all of the potatoes by hand so that they will not be damages by the tools: So far I have only been digging up what I will use for dinner that night, but I will dig up all of the potatoes before the first hard frost. Potatoes can weather a light frost, but they should never be allowed to freeze. After I dig up the potatoes I cure them by letting them sit for about 2 weeks in a dark, cool, dry location. They will be stored in our garage this winter which remains very cool, but does not freeze.

Since we have such a short growing season, I start my tomatoes inside while there is still snow on the ground. Once it warms up a bit they are moved to a portable greenhouse and sometime in June they are moved to the raised bed garden. Despite this tender care, my tomatoes got off to a rough start this year and I wondered if I would ever have much of a harvest:

My worrying was for not! That is one of four cherry tomato plants. I also have two Romas and two Early Girls that I use in canning, which is another area that I expend quite a bit of energy.

How do you prioritize the work you do in your garden? And, iIf you have any acorn squash recipes, please leave me a link!

To view other vegetable gardens, visit Grow.Eat.$ave at $5 Dinners.

Lazy Gardening: Frugal and Green!

Some of you may not be ready to discuss the impending change of season.  However, it is just around the corner; I already have leaves that are beginning to change color. Autumn is the when, whether you realize it or not, you lay the foundation for next year’s garden. It sounds like a lot of work, but this is a time when being lazy really pays off!

When a fellow gardener visited my home she asked if I mulched my hollyhocks over the winter. I confessed that since they are next to the fence, leaves collect there naturally providing them with all the insulation they need. I am too lazy to remove leaves only to lay down mulch. Plus the leaves are free and when they break down they add nutrients to the soil.

I let leaves collect around the base of all of my plants, including hardy perennials like the Russian Sage, and leave them there until after the last frost:
I collect the leaves that fall on concrete and use them to mulch my berries. I have experimented and found that my berries are happier when mulched with leaves instead of straw.

I don’t rake the leaves that fall on the grass, I mow them, but as when mowing grass, I don’t bag the clippings. Instead, I let the clippings add nutrients to the soil. The clippings also help retain water during drought conditions.

When writing about chrysanthemums, I shared that I do not cut dead branches back until new growth has appeared in the spring. I apply this to most of my other plants as well. Besides if I cut back my hollyhocks after they were done blooming, what would my morning glories climb?

I also leave my Day Lilly Stems intact. I do not remove them until I can do so effortlessly. Then I use the dried stems as stakes when starting climbing plants in the spring.Sometimes we work harder and spend more money than necessary to keep our yards looking nice. Do your yard and your wallet a favor and embrace your inner lazy gardener!  Tomorrow I will share some of the gardening tasks that I do expend energy on.

This post is linked to Flaunt Your Flowers/Fertilizer Friday and Frugal Friday because I am frugally fertilizing my flowers through sheer laziness! :-)

Radish Recipe at $5 Dinners

On the second and fourth Tuesday of each month I will be posting a recipe and/or gardening tip at $5 dinners. Erin shares delicious, healthy dinners for less than $5.00 a meal. She is also a square foot gardener and hosts Grow.Eat.$ave on Saturdays.

Last night, I shared my recipe for Chicken and Radish Salad along with a few quick tips for growing radishes at $5 Dinners. I hope you will visit me there and share your favorite fall recipes or gardening tips!

I didn’t use the Watermelon and Black radish pictured above in my salad. I used the more conventional Easter Egg and Cheriette Radishes instead. And I used the leftover radish tops in Radish Leaf Soup.

How do you use radishes?

The Controversial Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemums can be a lovely and frugal addition to your garden, IF you don’t treat them like fall blooming annuals! Mums are actually pretty hardy perennials. I was chatting with a friend about being saddened to see my neighbors discard their mums after they have stopped blooming for the season. We wondered why people did that. Yesterday, I was thumbing through a gardening book that I picked up at the library sale for a dollar and it recommended buying new mums each year. Seriously? What kind of gardening advice is that? Telling people to go buy new flowers does not teach them anything about growing plants!

Mums are quite inexpensive to buy and I do take advantage of sales on them like the coupon for Buy 2 mums/ Get 1 Free from the Home Depot Gardening Club. But I do not buy mums with the intention of discarding them when they are done blooming. I buy more mums because we have one acre that we are trying to landscape and it takes a lot of plants to fill up an acre!

Mums are actually quite easy to grow. They grow best in sunny spots, with well drained soil. I mix compost into the soil, because that is how I justify keeping horses it does double duty, both nourishing the plant and helping to retain moisture near the roots. Although, Chrysanthemums do not like to sit in water, they do require a deep watering a couple of times a week.

Most of the mums you find in local garden centers have been bred to branch naturally, which makes them low maintenance. More branches = more blooms. so if you have a very leggy mum, you will want to move it to a sunny spot and prune it back to about 12 inches high. If you are going to prune or pinch back your mums, do so before July; you want to give the plant plenty of time to develop healthy buds.

Since mums do not bloom until late August or early September, I use them as a background plant in the spring and summer. I usually have a mix of spring and summer blooming bulbs and annuals in front of the mums. When they foliage of the summer blooming flowers dies back, I remove it and let the mums be the star of my fall garden.

If you want your mums to survive the winter (and if you are still reading, I assume you do) pinch the dead flowers, but do not cut back the branches until spring. I also add a couple of inches of mulch to protect the roots. 

Here is the really frugal part: Mums are easy to divide! In the spring (after the last frost and after you see new growth) dig up the entire plant. then using a clean knife or spade, cut pieces of new growth from the outer part of the plant making sure that you have roots as well. Plant immediately in a prepared bed. It is not necessary to divide mums each year; I only divide my mums every couple of years.


Do you treat your mums like annuals or do your appreciate them for the perennials that they are?

To view lovely gardens, cultivated by sweet gardeners who will not get up on their soap box about something so controversial as mums visit Bloomin’ Tuesday and  Garden Party Tuesday.

On Friday, the controversial topics will continue as I write about how being a lazy gardener is not only frugal, but better for your plants. :-)

Easy Cucumber Sandwiches

There are many great cucumber sandwich recipes for feeding a crowd. The problem is that since the recipes are intended to make a lot of sandwiches, we tend to only serve them when there is a crowd instead of enjoying them on a daily basis. Below is an easy recipe for one cucumber sandwich. You can easily double or triple it for a small tea party.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons cream of cheese
1 teaspoon creamy Italian dressing
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon minced onion
2 slices of bread
12 thin slices of cucumbers

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix cream cheese, dressing, and onion. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the bread slices:

Place cucumber slices on one slice of bread:

Top with the other slice of bread. Cut into triangles, but DON’T cut off the crusts because that is just a waste of good bread! :D  
And if there happens to be any cream cheese mixture leftover, feel free to scoop it up with some cucumber slices:  
How do you enjoy your cukes?

For more cucumber recipes, visit Grow.Eat.$ave at $5 Dinners.

Late Summer Flowers

I wish that I had massive blooms all summer long, but since I live in the desert I have come to appreciate when something, anything is in bloom! Fortunately there is one time of year where I can sit back and enjoy the beauty! Late summer ( I refuse to call it fall) is when I have best displays of color on my property. Since the weather is more tolerable, I use this time to flaunt my flowers and throw garden parties.

The Butterfly Bushes have filled out:

The Russian Sage is in full splendor:
The Rose of Sharon is blooming:

The mums are beginning to open: Speaking of mums, if you are a member of the Home Depot Gardening Club, you should have received a coupon for Buy 2 mums/ Get One Free. I add several mums to my garden each year because they are such hardy perennials. I plant them towards the back of a flower bed and they create a lovely backdrop through out the spring and summer. In the late summer when I pull out the dying flowers, they get to become the stars!

Now, if only the gladiolas will bloom before the first freeze! Is your garden petering out or finally taking off?

To view gardens from around the world, visit Flaunt Your Flowers Friday at Tootsie Time.

Eating the Rainbow: Vegetable Garden Update

I tell everyone that I plant vegetables in unusual colors for my kids. I say that “kids like eating colorful food. It makes meal times more fun…” But I also tell people that I am reading the Percy Jackson books so I can discuss them with my children. And I tell people that I watch Pixar movies with my kids, because “it is  important to watch movies with your kids rather than use them a video as a babysitter”. Truth be told, I enjoy colorful vegetables, children’s literature and Pixar movies, as much as, if not more than, my children!

My son is proudly holding an Atomic Red, a Lunar White, and a Bambino Carrot. We pulled a few carrots for a salad. I hope the next time we pull one up we get a Cosmic Purple!

We have been enjoying Blue Potatoes, which are blue on the inside too: Although our purple pepper seeds did not germinate, we have still enjoyed green, red, orange, and yellow peppers:

Earlier this week, I shared my recipe for Vegetable Confetti, which calls for colorful peppers, at $5 Dinners.

The first couple straight neck yellow squash on the bush below, were unsurprisingly yellow. The last several squash have been green on the bottom 2 inches of the fruit: They still taste like yellow squash to me.

One of my green bean plants is producing purple green beans:  I don’t know why I have purple green beans. I only know that I did not plant any purple green beans. Of course, I did not plant morning glories in my potato patch, but some were growing in there.

And how about one normally colored vegetable? I have never been so glad to see pumpkins ripen! Last week, I went to 7 different stores trying to find pureed pumpkin and finally settled for pureed sweet potato. In response to last year’s pumpkin shortage, I planted Small Sugar Pumpkins which are great for baking. However, it will be a little while before this one is turned into a pie: Last week I picked up a few ears of Sweet Red Corn at the Farmer’s Market and it was the best corn that I have ever tasted. I definitely want to add some to my garden next year and not just because it is red. Really!

Do you like eating unusually colored vegetables? Or do Blue Potatoes just seem wrong to you?

To view vegetable gardens from all over the country, visit Grow.Eat.$ave at $5 Dinners.