Tag Archives: vegetable gardening

From My Head Tomatoes

16 Aug

I saw a shirt on Pinterest that said, “I love Gardening From My Head Tomatoes”. I love clever people!

We’ve had quite a successful garden again this year. It was a rough start, but now we’re rockin and rollin! Here’s how the progress went:

From My Head Tomatoes | The Farm Paparazzi

May 27

From My Head Tomatoes | The Farm Paparazzi

June 25. Watering with water trailer and sprinkler.

From My Head Tomatoes | The Farm Paparazzi

June 30. Irrigating with gated pipe.

Soaking Up the Sun | The Farm Paparazzi

July 2

Soaking Up the Sun | The Farm Paparazzi

July 10

From My Head Tomatoes | The Farm Paparazzi

Sweet corn on May 27

Soaking Up the Sun | The Farm Paparazzi

June 25

Soaking Up the Sun | The Farm Paparazzi

July 13

From My Head Tomatoes | The Farm Paparazzi

Tassel coming out on the sweet corn

Now it’s all about the harvesting. We’ve been blessed by God’s bounty and have been enjoying and sharing snow peas, tomatoes, green beans, cabbage, sweet and hot peppers, green chilies, yellow onions, zucchini, crookneck squash, red beets, pickling cucumbers, slicing cucumbers and sweet corn. The pumpkins are also coming along!

From My Head Tomatoes | The Farm Paparazzi

Our daily harvest started out small.

With all the harvesting comes a lot of preserving. I’ve canned a batch of spicy dill pickles, frozen green beans and other veggies, and have got some relish “stewing” as I type. I’ve got more pickles, sweet corn and peaches from Utah waiting in the wings. Click here for a recipe on “putting up” or freezing sweet corn.

From My Head Tomatoes | The Farm Paparazzi

But, the daily harvest quickly grew and grew!

From My Head Tomatoes | The Farm Paparazzi

From My Head Tomatoes | The Farm Paparazzi

Cutting up a beautiful cabbage for Cabbage Burgers! Get the recipe at https://farmpaparazzi.com/2014/08/09/cabbage-burgers/.

We decided to try selling sweet corn at our little local farmer’s market this year. So we planted that big swath I showed you earlier and have peddled the good stuff the last two weekends. There are great people organizing, vending and attending this community affair! I enjoyed it more than I imagined I would.

From My Head Tomatoes | The Farm Paparazzi

It’s only August 16, so that means I’ve still got lots of harvesting and preserving to attend to. In fact, I better get off my rump and get out to the garden soon. It’s time for another hour or two of picking!

God Bless You & American Agriculture,

Liz

Then the earth will yield its harvests, and God, our God, will richly bless us. – Psalm 67:6

 

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Soaking up the Sun

18 Jul

After the long weeks of rain departed and the sun started shining, our crops and garden took off with a bang!

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

Clay is happy to be soaking up the sun. Our short-haired dog did not approve of the rain and clouds.

The corn is close to head high and some is starting to tassel.

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

Over knee high on June 25

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

Over chest high on July 10

The barley is getting close to harvest. It won’t be too long before you can drink it from a Coors can.

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Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

The beans are really taking off.

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

The garden is growing like crazy. I’m picking zucchini and anxiously awaiting tomatoes and peppers.

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

Garden on July 2…

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

…and then on July 10!

The sweet corn is all tasseled. If all goes well, we’ll sell some at the Platte County Farmer’s Market this year.

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

Sweet corn on June 25

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

Sweet corn on July 13

Even my herb garden is providing abundant offerings.

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

A bouquet from my herb garden: mint, Shasta daises and lavender.

Tyler and our farm employee, Brian, have been chasing water like mad. Irrigation is a huge task in our arid climate.

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

They’ve been preparing pivots and cleaning out plugged nozzles, cleaning irrigation ditches, laying out gated pipe and plastic ditch and ditching rows and diking the ends of the flood fields to control the water and ensure it runs down the rows.

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

And that’s just to prepare for irrigating! Then they actually have to set flood water and manage pivots to irrigate the crops. It seems like this happens all at once. Two guys and 1400 acres makes for a lot of hard work and long days.

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

But Clay doesn’t mind. This is his favorite time of year.

Growing | The Farm Paparazzi

God Bless You & American Agriculture,

Liz

Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living. As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good. 2 Thessalonians 3:11-13 (NLT)

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Freezing Green Beans

18 Aug

Last year, before trying my own hand at gardening, my friend Melinda shared loads of veggies and herbs out of her beautiful garden.

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Freezing Corn IX | The Farm Paparazzi

Freezing Green Beans XIVShe shared lots of delicious, fresh green beans. We ate many of them fresh, but I also froze some of them. This year, my garden is exploding with green beans so I’m freezing some again. It’s an easy process and there’s a great set of instructions here.

Freezing Green Beans | The Farm PaparazziHere’s how I do it…First, start a pot of water to boil on the stove. Put the lid on the pot so it gets hot faster. While the water gets to boiling, sort through the beans and toss any that didn’t look so great.

Freezing Green Beans | The Farm PaparazziThen trim off the ends. You can cut them with a knife or snap them off with your fingers.

Freezing Green Beans | The Farm PaparazziFill a large bowl with ice water.

Freezing Green Beans | The Farm PaparazziLower the beans into the boiling water in batches.

Freezing Green Beans | The Farm Paparazzi

Freezing Green Beans | The Farm PaparazziCook them for a few minutes, until they turn a beautiful bright green. Then throw them into the ice water.

Freezing Green Beans | The Farm PaparazziThis process is called “blanching”. You dunk the beans in hot water for a few minutes to kill any bacteria and soften them slightly, then the ice water is used to “shock” them to stop the cooking process.

After they’ve cooled, fish them out of the ice water and drain them. I also pat them dry with paper towels.

Freezing Green Beans | The Farm PaparazziOnce all your beans are blanched, cooled and drained, it’s time to store them. You can put them in freezer bags, removing as much air as possible, and freeze. I have a food saver, so I use that.

Freezing Green Beans XII

Freezing Green Beans | The Farm Paparazzi

Freezing Green Beans | The Farm PaparazziVoila! Delicious garden green beans. These serve as a reminder during those long, Wyoming, winter months that summer will eventually come around again. Even if it seems so, so far away.

Freezing Green Beans XVGod Bless You & American Agriculture,

Liz

That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.”

But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.”

“But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered.

“Bring them here,” he said. Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children! – Matthew 14:15-21 (NLT)

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