Pickled Garlic Scapes

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

This is a very easy and basic recipe..

  • 3 cups white vinager
  • 3 cups of water
  • 2 tsp of pickling spice in a tea ball or spice bag
  • 2 tsp of pickling salt

Tip and tail your garlic scapes, wash them well in cool water, then drain and cut them into two to four inch pieces, this really does need to be a big flexable as size and curl effects the cutting.

Prep your jars, lids and your canning pot as per normal, when you remove the hot jar, fill the jar with garlic scapes, fill to half a inch from top, then add the Pickling mix to half a inch from the top, wipe your lip, lid and seal, into the hot water bath for ten min.

Out and onto the towel, allow to sit for a full 24 before moving, you will have a very light pickle within 24 hours perfect for a snack, the depth and flavour will increase with age..

Makes four pints, once opened, keep in fridge.

 

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Oven Roasted Garlic Scapes

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

This is not a recipe as it just so easy but it is good.. I overcooked mine a touch and it just meant that the thinner ones where all crispy and crunchy like wonderful fried onion bits, while the thicker where just perfect.. DSCN7001Take a big handful or two of cleaned tipped and tailed garlic scapes, a drizzle of oil, sea salt or seasoning salt and into a over at 375 for 12 to 15 min. When not overcooked, they are still more green but honestly, I loved my crunchy treats, reminded me of kale chips but garlic scape chips instead.

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You can also take the biggest, do the very same prep process but put them on the grill instead, about two min on each side, you want them charred a bit and heated though till a bit of softening.

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Minted Scapes- Sweet with a bit of heat

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

These are made with a standard Medium Syrup, scapes are a low acid food, they must be preserved with salt, acid (vinager) or sugar, or you could ruin them texture wise with pressure canning 😛 I highly recommend keeping that flavour and texture alive with water bath canning.

5 cups water, 3 and half cups of sugar, four cups worth of apple mint leaves. Collect your leaves, wash, no stems, bruise them a bit to help release the mint flavour, and add them to a pot that has water and sugar on med heat, bring to a gentle simmer, turn down and simmer for five min, lets sit for another five, strain out the mint leaves.. bring back up to a boil for jarring up.

Tip and tail your garlic scapes, wash them well in cool water, then drain and cut them into two to four inch pieces, this really does need to be a big flexable as size and curl effects the cutting.

Prep your jars, lids and your canning pot as per normal, when you remove the hot jar, put your three to five whole black pepper and two cloves per jar, one inch by one inch horse radish, fill the jar with garlic scapes, fill to half a inch from top, then add the mint syrup to half a inch from the top, wipe your lip, lid and seal, into the hot water bath for ten min.

Out and onto the towel, allow to sit for a full 24 before moving, can be used within a week but ideally let it cure for at least a month, these are sweet, with a bit of heat, crunchy and awesome!

Made five pints. We made these last year and loved them, so needed to make more for this coming year..

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Happy Canada Day

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

For all my Canadian Readers, have a wonderful Canada Day! May it be filled with fun, friends and family!

brandy canada day

Posted in Life moves on daily | 5 Comments

30 pounds of garlic scapes

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

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Yup, it seemed like a great idea, last year I processed and used about ten to 12 pounds of these lovelies, so when I got the chance to get 30 pounds at a great price, I jumped at it.. 5 stuffed to the brim grocery bags!

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Topped and tailed, seven pounds to fodder, the pigs are so happy

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The ones frozen are washed, bagged and done

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the ones for pickling, are cut and ready to go and the ones for sauce and pesto are filling my biggest pressure canner waiting for e  to get busy..

What is your favorite way to eat and or preserve Garlic Scapes

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Green Onion and Cheese Pie

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

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One average size pie dough bottom, roll it nice and thin if possible, you can use a sweet dough but a basic one is just fine..

  • 6 large chicken eggs or 4 large duck eggs
  • 2 extra big green onions or six small regular green onions diced
  • One cup of mozza white cheese grated
  • Salt-Pepper to taste

Preheat the oven till 350, beat the eggs, add the diced green onion, the cheese and the salt and pepper, into the pie shell about 20 to 25 min in the oven. Should be golden brown on the top.

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This is delightful as a breakfast with a touch of fruit on the side or it can be a fine supper when served up with a lovely side salad.. so yummy.. Can be reheated with ease, just do not overheat it, as the eggs can get rubbery if you do..

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Canadian Goose Beans

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Well, someone messed up on the package at the local seed event, when it said runners, it should have said bush bean.. but none the less, they are being odd..

All my records show that they should need another two to three weeks from planting time before they should be flowering.. but tell them that..

they are planted in my round bales and I am struggling to keep them watered enough, or maybe feed enough, I am going to move over to feeding them more to see if it helps, I have decent growth but lots of yellow stress leaves as well..

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What is shocking to me is that I also have tons and I do mean tons of blooms and the start of beans already..  I will be picking some for fresh eating as they will be the first ready but most of them are going for dried beans, some for seed saving and the rest for soup beans, of which I understand that this bean is outstanding at..

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I look forward to trying them again in soil to see if they grow at the same rates as they have in the permaculture straw bales.

Normally I get july off mostly in terms of processing, we eat out of the garden but I am not so sure this year, I have a ton coming quite early due to the combo of lots of rain and a good amount of heat

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Strawberry Custard Pie

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

This dessert is as easy or as hard as you want it to be..

Homemade pie dough or a bottom store shell.. baked and cooled

Homemade vanilla custard or vanilla instant pudding, two cups worth. if homemade, make vanilla milk, and then thicken two cups with a tbsp of cornstarch (remember to mix it first with cool, and slowly add and whisk well as it cooks at a slow heat), add to your cooked shell, chill till firm

Slice and sugar your strawberries, then arrange on top, add whip cream if you want to or not and voila!

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Rasberries June 2015

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

Well, lets see, it should be a knock down bumper crop of rasberries this year..

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The crazy, really needs to be pruned and pathed wild rasberries are loaded, they will be small, and they will be dark and tart..

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The canes we planted last year that are the early rasberries are rocking this year, at least 50 to 75 new babies, and 75 second year canes, they were weeded out yesterday and they are loaded with big berries..

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Then there are the 100 canes we put in this spring that are med-season berries, they are in fact struggling a bit, we appear to have lost as many as 20 percent of them, we are still giving them extra water and keeping a eye on them, if that is the case, we will wait for the strong ones to produce babies and will replace the dead ones next spring and fill in the row..

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The healthy ones however are doing very well indeed.. another 100 canes next year of the late bearing and we are set.  Going to have enough for our own needs and most likely some left over for family and friends 🙂

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Tomato Cages..

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Just another day on the farm

We did a major switch in our garden thinking today, while we are still planting seed and will be till first of aug, but today.. o today we did the planting switch to the cleanup an moving forward, we took out wheel barrels full of fodder, aka weeds or wild edibles..

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But more important, we started putting up the tomato cages, we are playing with heights, the smallest is three feet and tallest is sit feet, but the average is 4 or 5 feet in height, but all of them have at least  foot in the ground..

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We will get the rest done this week, while most are around three feet already but some like this big baby is already four feet almost..

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We are leaning towards the 3 post way but it not the only one, there is the odd row of three that we did as a unit.

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I am not sure this on will work as well but I am always game to try it different and see so we also have a more narrow but very tall two stake on done..

I am growing some sauce tomatoes that are to produce some that are a pound each so we might doing overkill or not..

Once these 70 tomato plants are done, just 58 pepper plants to do next 🙂

 

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