The Daily Harvest: October 2010

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Planting

We're a bit late planting for fall this year. On a small plot, we did get some beets, onions, arugula, and lettuce started in mid summer and that's going strong. Just now we planted a lot more new stuff: peas, lettuce, , fava beans, and mustard, I still want to do more arugula, swiss chard, broccoli, more beets.... I've got some horse poo from the stables, so I just need to spend some time ripping out old summer plants and prepping the beds. I hope I can make it happen before it is too cold and dark.

Daily Breakfast

Smoked salmon and green onion omelette, with last year's guacamole, plus fruit, fried plantains, and a cozy rainy day.

Daily Harvest

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Daily Harvest and Daily Dinner

This is an unflattering photo of last night's dinner, which was inspired by today's harvest, and was amazing.

Jonathan made meatballs with the last of the bartered venison, which he served over wild rice, and this was all made so that we could better enjoy green tomato chutney. Really I could just eat green tomato chutney straight. And we are still getting cucumbers, although they are definatley winding down. Tahini dressing with preserved lemons.

Here is today's harvest. These are the green tomatoes that inspired Jonathan to make chutney.

We have been letting all of the green beans that aren't Noreasters dry to shelling beans, and yesterday, right before the rain started, Jonathan harvested them all. We have about 4 pounds in the shells.

Growing drying and shelling beans is a lovely activity and it always makes me think about how can it be possible that dry beans are one of the cheapest foods you can buy? How is this done?

Last spring we planted so many Noreasters. I can never normally get enough of them. We staggered out plantings so that we could have them through out the late summer into the fall. I tended them all summer with feelings of anticipation. I imagined canning dilly beans with friends, eating them every night, steamed, sauteed, in eggs in the morning. Then just as they were ripening I got pregnant. The first time Jonathan cooked them I realized something was wrong, but tried to be polite. But the initial distaste turned into full on revulsion. The smell, the taste, and now the sight of them make me so nausous. I waited so long for this season, and now this!

Jonathan has been trying to harvest them and blanche them and freeze them when I'm out of the house. Yesterday he did it while I was gone, poured out the blanching water, washed the pot, opened the windows, turned on the fan and had all of the beans in the freezer by the time I came home. The second thing out of my mouth upon entering that house was "what is that terrible smell?"

Hopefully in a couple of months we can enjoy them out of the freezer and the jars... I'm told this doesn't last forever.