New England August 2014

I use a cucumber in each batch of smoothies I make. Would a squash be unrecognizable in the smoothie? I have to be crafty and hide the vitamins.

Stir fries are great for using the garden veggies.

What I'd *really* like is a good juicer, for kale & all.

NHGardener wrote:I use a cucumber in each batch of smoothies I make. Would a squash be unrecognizable in the smoothie? I have to be crafty and hide the vitamins.

Stir fries are great for using the garden veggies.

What I'd *really* like is a good juicer, for kale & all.

 
NHGardener, do you use kale in your smoothies? I have a Vitamix that I got used from their website - cost half the price of a new one and just as good. I can put anything in it and keep the fiber.

I just heard about kale in smoothies, a smoothie place nearby sells a kale (plus other things) smoothie. But I have a smoothie maker, I don't know how powerful it is, I'd rather have a juicer. Actually I have 2 Jack Lalane power juicers here - one I got at the thrift store, and then a few days later someone had dropped one off at the dump so I grabbed that, thinking between the 2 maybe I'll have enough working parts to make one whole. It's been on my list, have to get to testing those out.

I'm making smoothies almost every night right now. Stoneyfield vanilla yogurt, blueberries from the pick your own place, peaches and nectarines from the nearby place, strawberries from my garden this June, banana, and a cucumber. YUM. I figure pretty soon I won't have anymore wrinkles.

NHGardener wrote: I'm making smoothies almost every night right now.  YUM. I figure pretty soon I won't have anymore wrinkles.

  

NHGardener wrote:I just heard about kale in smoothies, a smoothie place nearby sells a kale (plus other things) smoothie. But I have a smoothie maker, I don't know how powerful it is, I'd rather have a juicer. Actually I have 2 Jack Lalane power juicers here - one I got at the thrift store, and then a few days later someone had dropped one off at the dump so I grabbed that, thinking between the 2 maybe I'll have enough working parts to make one whole. It's been on my list, have to get to testing those out.

I'm making smoothies almost every night right now. Stoneyfield vanilla yogurt, blueberries from the pick your own place, peaches and nectarines from the nearby place, strawberries from my garden this June, banana, and a cucumber. YUM. I figure pretty soon I won't have anymore wrinkles.

That sounds pretty yummy. I love green smoothies - oranges, frozen strawberries and mango or peaches mixed with almond butter and rice dream, some flax meal and lots of spinach. I've used Kale, but spinach has a much milder flavor. I'm definitely going to try a cucumber.

NHGardener wrote:Any hints on what you're going to do with those, CC? I'm running out of ideas.   

Zucchini bread is a very inexpensive treat to make for neighbors.

Tonight, along with baked chicken and rice, I sauteed kale, tomato, zucchini, garlic and basil (all homegrown) in olive oil. I mixed mine in with the rice - yum.

It's gonna be a rough winter without garden veggies every night...

We thought we wanted to buy a juicer too, so our neighbor let us try his. I was surprised at how much pulp waste it made and how little juice for all the veggies we put in it. It was messy and a pain to clean up the machine afterwards. We decided against it and were glad we tried it out before we spent the money. I know some people swear by them, but i think I'll stick to using the blender or just eating my fruits and veggies. 

I've been drying our kale (we have a bumper crop) and I figure I can use it in smoothies, soups and sauces when the fresh runs out. May crush some of it to powder for the smoothies and try that out.

Picked the last few peaches this morning.    So sad, but the raspberries are coming in like gangbusters.  Some of the Grapes are starting to come in too. Time to really start making jam and jelly. Dried a lot of herbs this week and am getting ready to pull out the first planting of bush beans. They finally stopped producing.  Can't believe how many green beans we got this year. Second crop will start coming in soon. Pulled out 3 squares of onions to dry and need to figure out what to put in. Maybe lettuce or maybe more kale? Hmmm. 


Today we are going to the Red Fire Farm Tomato Festival. Never been before but it sounds fun and educational. Tomato tasting, some workshops about gardening, cheese making, cooking, canning, lacto-fermention and a wild edibles walk. They also have live music and arts and crafts vendors. Sounds like a great time to me. Hope the weather cooperates.

lyndeeloo wrote:We thought we wanted to buy a juicer too, so our neighbor let us try his. I was surprised at how much pulp waste it made and how little juice for all the veggies we put in it. It was messy and a pain to clean up the machine afterwards. We decided against it and were glad we tried it out before we spent the money. I know some people swear by them, but i think I'll stick to using the blender or just eating my fruits and veggies. 

I've been drying our kale (we have a bumper crop) and I figure I can use it in smoothies, soups and sauces when the fresh runs out. May crush some of it to powder for the smoothies and try that out.

lyndeeloo, I agree - the mess is a pain, but I love to juice once in a while. The nutrients become immediately available to the body and adding a little wheat grass gives it a jolt. The pulp can be composted, so it's not a total waste. I've never tried to dry kale. How do you process that?

Lyndeeloo, that sounds beautiful. Are you going to can your beans?

Gardengroupie drying the kale was really easy. I picked it early in the morning and washed it well. Ripped it into salad sized pieces without the thick stems, patted it dry and put it on cookie sheets. I set the oven on the lowest temp. Mine is 170° but lower is ok. Heated up the oven and Put the kale in for half an hour and checked it a few times. Took it out and what ever was dry and crispy I took out. I heated up the oven again and shut it off and put the rest back in until it dried. Let everything cool and put it in ziplock bags for storage. Just make sure it is really dry before you store it to avoid mold. 1 damp piece can ruin the whole bag. You can do the same thing by drying them outside in the hot sun, but I wanted to do it quickly. I found several websites that gave instructions for it if you'd like more details. I was pleased with the result and surprised at how quick and easy it was. I plan on drying more and crushing it to powder and vacuum sealing it in a canning jar for winter.

NHGardener wrote:Lyndeeloo, that sounds beautiful. Are you going to can your beans?

Hi NHG!  Well we ate most of them. We like them enough to eat every day. Plus the dogs love them too. I did french cut some of the bigger ones and freeze them and I did let some get really big and dried those for next years seeds. The second crop is all french filet green beans which don't seem to produce as heavily but boy are they delicious. I wish I had planted a larger second crop so I could put up more for winter. I have to remember that for next year.  On another note, the black beans we planted have really gone crazy! I'm eager to see how that harvest turns out. Some of the pods are turning purple so they will be drying out soon. Those will all get dried and stored in jars for later.

Dehyrdrating in the oven is a good idea, lyndeeloo. I also just saw this for blanching and storing in ice cube trays:
http://wholegreenlove.com/2013/08/16/how-to-harvest-preserve-freeze-kale-perfect-for-use-in-smoothies/

I'm finding I'm out of freezer space, and thinking about getting a small freezer. But where to put it. I wonder if I can build a case for it and set it out on the deck. It shouldn't take much electricity to keep it frozen in winter, and wouldn't need it so much in summer anyway, not until August produce comes in.

Never seems to be enough freezer space does there! I've seen people with freezers in their garage or on their porch. I image if it was under cover and protected it would be OK. Just have to keep the mice away from the power cord.

I love the idea of a Vitamix for half price. I'll have to look into that. For now I'm using a Nutribullet that I picked up a couple weeks ago, and I love it. No more chewy smoothies.

NHG, squashes are bland enough to use in place of cucumbers in the smoothies without any noticeable flavor difference. You could start with a small amount and work your way up.

I also love the idea of a freezer out on the deck. But it would go through a lot of power in a normaly hot August and September, wouldn't it?

Just came back from "borrowing" some seeds at our local library and planted these:

Sure doesn't feel like bush bean planting time out there though. So cold & windy here!

What are you all planting?
CC

I just can't get used to the idea of planting in such shorter daylight and cooler spells... But I was surprised to see squash bugs on my leaves! And eggs! So the impending change of seasons doesn't seem to be bothering them.

Spaghetti sauce tonight with a shredded squash, tomatoes, kale leaves, garlic, and basil. It was really good. (Had meatballs in it too, and I made a loaf of french bread in the breadmaker.)

The kids stopped drinking the smoothies! They are skinny minnies and picky eaters (19 y.o. and 14 y.o.). Now I'll have to find something else to hide the cucumbers in... LOL. One trick is to slice a plate of them and casually slide them onto the desk next to the computer they're on... sometimes that works.

It's probably time to start digging potatoes... anyone doing that yet?

NHGardener wrote:

It's probably time to start digging potatoes... anyone doing that yet?

Dug em & ate em already. They were delicious!

No svb here that I know of.  But that dang white cabbage butterfly is relentless!  Will she ever go away, or do they just keep cycling thru until frost??? The tulle is in shreds from that hail & such and I keep finding worms on the covered veggies.

PM has hit.  I sprayed with milk today but I'm afraid it's too little too late.  None on my PM resistant cukes tho.

CC - Were the tops of your potato plants dead? Or did you pick "new" potatoes?

Some sites say to leave them until the first frost. My potato plants are in various stages of yellowing and falling over. I'm a little afraid of picking them too soon. I'm not sure what to expect tho because they seemed to get sick and die quite a while back - I'm suspecting voles but I'm not sure what I'll find, who knows, they may have gotten blight.

lyndeeloo wrote:Never seems to be enough freezer space does there! I've seen people with freezers in their garage or on their porch. I image if it was under cover and protected it would be OK. Just have to keep the mice away from the power cord.

They're great in the garage in winter, since the cooler garage makes it a lot cheaper to run them.

NHGardener wrote:CC - Were the tops of your potato plants dead? Or did you pick "new" potatoes?

mine were so dead I thought I hadn't watered them enough and really didn't expect to find anything. Color me surprised when I dug down and there were some spuds. But could they have been the ones I originally planted? How do I know since I planted whole ones and I dug up singles, not bunches? They sure were the best potatoes I ever ate though!

I have some others that were flowering recently but I think they're on the way out now. I'll wait till they have completely died back before I dig for them.

CC

LOLOL! Digging up the potatoes you so nicely put into the ground for storage a few months back! Who knew seed potatoes tasted so good?

You're right - how would we know? Here we think our seed potatoes grow such fine replacements, they're probably the same potato.

If you grew plants you grew new potatoes.

camprn wrote:If you grew plants you grew new potatoes.

*whew*
  

LOL - Yup, that's a relief. At least I got ONE potato out of that one!