Harvest Monday ... and Pickled Beets

I'm joining other bloggers over at Daphne's Dandelions as we share our weekly harvests...it's fun to see what others are harvesting and what they are cooking up with it...check it out!

The garden is producing more than we can eat now so I am busy canning, dehydrating and freezing. Yesterday I pulled some potatoes and carrots to go with our chicken piccata dinner ...

I also pulled a bunch of my chioggia beets ...

and turned them into the prettiest pickled beets I've ever seen :) 

I used the recipe on Cindy's (SB Canning) web site for the beets.  You can find it here.

Enjoy!

A Tuesday Tutorial ... Drip Irrigation

With so much of the country experiencing drought conditions I thought now would be a good time to update my drip irrigation information.  In April of 2011 I posted about the system I set up then.  When we tore everything up last spring I updated the system and added some Dripworks components to the system.

Here is the system that goes to the raised beds coming off of a faucet next to the greenhouse ...

I bought two of these timers, one for the greenhouse and one for the raised beds.  This one works fine for the greenhouse, but I want one that will allow longer and more frequent watering for the beds.  I'm going to order one of these instead (I need another one anyway for the terrace garden on the lake side of the house so this one will still find a home).  After the timer a Y Filter is attached and then a 30 PSI pressure regulator followed by an Easy Loc Fitting (when Dripworks says that these are easier to use than compression fittings they are right!)  Next the fitting is attached to the 1/2" tubing that goes to the beds.  When we rebuilt the garden FitzGyver added water and power lines plus the 1/2" tubing to the beds ...

...  Raindrip compression T fittings (here's a picture ... I bought mine at the local Ace Hardware) take the tubing from the main line to each of the beds where they are closed off and then attached to some 1/4" tubing (again, from Ace Hardware) using a hole punch and a barb connector...

     

... a 1/4" Vari-Flow Valve was then inserted ...

... allowing me to turn off the drip system to any of the beds that are currently not in use.  1/4" Emitter Tubing was then attached (I found some with 6" hole spacing at the McLendon's Ace Hardware in Belfair) and laid out on the surface of the beds.  I'm using loop stakes to hold the tubing in place now instead of eye pins; I found it was easier to take the tubing up and then lay it back down when I amend and replant a bed....

A second barb fitting was used to attach some 1/4" tubing to the 1/2" line in the beds ...

... and then this tubing was run over to the tomato boxes and a 1 GPH Drip Emitter was attached (I will be burying these lines soon to eliminate trip hazards).

That's it for the raised beds ... now for the greenhouse ...

A timer was attached to the faucet and then a Y Filter followed by a 3 Way Hose Splitter. 

 A T fitting was attached to one of the hose outlets and then a pressure regulator and Easy Loc Fitting with 1/2" tubing going to the greenhouse bench. 

 Barb fittings attach the 1/4" tubing and drip emitters that go to the plant trays ...

Another pressure regulator and Easy Loc Fitting attaches a second section of 1/2" tubing ...

... and more 1/4" tubing with drip emitters are connected with barbs for each of the container plantings ...

... including the hanging baskets.

It really didn't take very much time or effort and I like knowing that I can leave for a few days and my garden will be automatically watered using a water saving system :)

Enjoy!

Purple Fingers ...

I haven't been posting much in the past couple of weeks ... sorry about that!  The truth is that the garden is pretty much on autopilot right now and it has gotten warm so we've been grilling out on the deck, both of which leave me with very little garden lore or kitchen adventures to write about. However I do now have some thing new to tell you about ...

I'm going to be teaching some classes in felting later this summer ... the first one will be "Nuno Felted Scarves" which is a technique of felting wool and silk onto fabric (in this case hand dyed silk chiffon scarves).  I've spent the last several days out on the deck with my dye pots and dual canning/dyeing set up getting class supplies ready.  Which is why I have ... purple fingers : )

If you would like to see some examples of my fiber art work, click here for my Flickr Gallery.  The dates of the classes haven't been set yet ... some will be here in my studio and some at Allyn Knit and Spin.  I'll keep you posted with exact dated and times.

Enjoy!

Sauerkraut

I'm joining other bloggers over at Daphne's Dandelions as we share our weekly harvests...it's fun to see what others are harvesting and what they are cooking up with it...check it out!


Peas, cabbage, lettuce and radishes we re all harvested last week.  I am still ridiculously happy about the way my cabbages turned out this year!  One of them took center stage on Saturday as I made my first batch of fermented sauerkraut ...

The Ingredients:

1 head cabbage, shredded

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

3 carrots, peeled and shredded

1 tbsp sea salt

Plus ...

1/2 cup whey drained from a container of organic yogurt


I mixed all of the ingredients together in a big bowl, pounded it with a potato masher for about 10 minutes and then transferred the mixture to a big glass crock.  I put two of the leaves from the cabbage on top of the shredded cabbage mixture and then weighted it all down with a zip lock bag full of water.

I put the jar in one of my pantries (dark and room temperature) After 2 days it is starting to bubble a bit and I can smell that the fermentation process is beginning.  I'll let it sit for another day or two and then transfer the crock to the refrigerator.  I'll keep you posted on how it turns out ...

Enjoy!

07/06/2012 : Update

I let the crock sit out at room temperature for 2 more (a total of 4) days then I transferred to the refrigerator.  It took another week before it got to the degree of "sour" that I liked and has been steadily getting better as it continues to age.  This one is a keeper!

Kraut on a Brot : )