This is the point in the growing season that we start anticipating signs of actual produce coming from the garden. We’ve eaten lettuce and radishes, picked lavender and echinacea flowers but we’re ready to peek under the leaves to see what might actually be growing there. Thought I’d share what we found!
Echinacea is just starting but the potential for much more is visible.Lavender flowers are now opening so the bees are very busy.Here’s a view of the whole garden on the hill this 4th of July weekend.Here’s the view of the backyard planters from the hill.
At the close up level, under the leaves, we found what’s coming!
So far, strawberries have blossoms. Down at ground level, not sure if any actual strawberries will survive the wandering chipmunks!Most of the cucumbers are about 1″ long…except this one! There is hope!Delicata squash is finally on its way!Painted Pony beans are starting to be big enough to see.Green beans will be ready in a week or two.Yellow beans will turn yellow when they are ready to pick.Tomatoes are getting bigger!Garbanzo beans are just flowers so far.
So that’s the overview! Sort of in a holding pattern, making sure the rain is timed right and the bugs stay away. It’s called gardening season in Pennsylvania! Enjoy!
My fingers are shriveled and my back is tired…all to preserve the 20 pounds of blueberries I picked up today from the Kiwana’s blueberry sale. Whew! I just finished washing and freezing 22 pints of blueberries. It always feels great to get them all safely tucked into the freezer. I have enough to last a year and I can almost taste the first batch of blueberry muffins I have in mind! (Check out my favorite muffin recipe: https://marykisner.com/the-best-vegan-muffin/).
This year the blueberries came from New Jersey. In the past they’ve been sourced from Maine. They were quite clean already but I still rinse them in cool water and remove any squashed or unripe berries. They can be washed, scooped directly into freezer bags and put in the freezer. When frozen they can easily be measured out like a pile of marbles and baked into goodies, added to fruit cup or eaten on cereal.
Out of these 20 pounds, I think I had to throw away about 1/2 cup of squashed berries and stems…not bad. The bags stack neatly on the freezer shelf and will be a real treat in the middle of winter.
We tried growing our own blueberries a few years ago, but our soil must not be right and we had to fence them completely because the deer, bunnies and birds would help themselves as they wandered by. An ongoing battle in Pennsylvania!
I’m all for letting folks that are good at growing things we can’t, be my source to stock up my freezer. In the dead of winter around here local blueberries are NOT available! Knowing there may be food shortages this winter, I’m always on the lookout for things that I can add to my freezer without having to grow them myself. Check out farmers markets near you to do the same!
Strawberries are in season in Pennsylvania…everywhere, except in my garden! So rather than get upset, I managed to find fresh, yummy strawberries at local farmer’s markets. I thought I’d start with just two quarts, while I worked to remind myself how to do it. The dehydrator sits quietly in my garage most of the year, but from July to September it gets heavy use. Dried fruits make great snacks and toppings for cereal. Dried vegetables make quick additions to vegetable soups. The last few days, I focused on strawberries and as you’ll see…relearning how to use the equipment is always my first step.
I pulled out the book that goes with my dehydrator:
Then I picked up two quarts of strawberries at a local market:
I also had a few apricots sitting on the counter that were ripe and decided to add them to a tray:
I pulled the trays out of the dehydrator and got to work. Washing and slicing very ripe strawberries is work, but delicious…I think every now and then one would jump right into my mouth!
My First Attempt to Dehydrate Strawberries
First, I washed the strawberries:
Just a few minutes in cold water was enough.Washed strawberriesSliced and ready for the dehydrator
Apricots were pretty easy:
Five apricots filled a trayFilled 4 trays (out of 9) so I spaced them out.Temperature set at 135 degrees for 6-8 hours.
Well, let me tell you something I had forgotten:
Soft, juicy fruit needs a sheet of parchment paper under it…otherwise, it will gradually sink into the grid of the tray and practically glue itself to the grid!
After 6-7 hours, they were ready to remove. Yikes! They were stuck fast! I could chip most of them off but it was tedious.
Looked great, but……I just couldn’t chip these off the tray. I had to soak them in a tub outside until I could wash them off.
Actually, the larger pieces of apricot did much better because they weren’t so juicy.
Made pretty yummy snacks!
So, my first attempt made two small bags of dried fruit, but I had to take the trays outside to soak off all the bits of fruit that was glued on the plastic grid!
My Second Attempt
The next day, I ran to the grocery store and picked up more strawberries…not local but less juicy.
This time, I lined the trays with a sheet of parchment paper on top of the plastic grid.
I can buy parchment exactly the right size for the tray…14 inches square.When dry, the strawberries popped right off the paper!
My second attempt made as many dried strawberries with MUCH less hassle! Yea! These will be great on top of granola and oatmeal!
What did I learn?
Always use parchment paper under soft juicy fruit (especially strawberries and bananas). The parchment is essential under fruit roll-ups, like applesauce or mixed blended fruit.
I think I’ll print this statement and tape it to the inside of my manual! Live and learn.
This is about the time the garden gives us hope for a good harvest! If a plant is going to die, right about now is when we know for sure that it’s time to replant something else!
The hopes for abundant strawberries have been dashed, as one by one the plants withered and died. We started with a 5-tier tower, an extra bucket of 4 plants and a separate pot with 3-4 plants.
Strawberry tower in May.Strawberry plants in May.
We took apart the tower, thinking they weren’t getting enough sun, or water, or something. This is what we have left:
The one in the middle actually had a strawberry…and a roving chipmunk took a bite out of it!Moving on…the cherry tomato plant is doing well.I just discovered the first tomatoes tucked in the middle.The lettuce and radishes at least are doing well. We’ve been eating the lettuce, one bunch at a time and that is the second planting of radishes.This planter has the 4 kinds of shell beans. Luckily, I stuck my labels in the ground when I planted the seeds because they all look alike right now.Cucumbers are going strong.Delicata squash is determined to be bigger than the cucumbers!Up in the big garden, some of the lavender came back fine. A few plants are still thinking about it! The carrots next to the lavender did nothing. We had to replant.I have started to collect the stems. By the end of the summer I should have enough buds to make my lavender-infused oil.The row of carrots (and weeds) on the right are actually growing. Tomorrow, I’ll plant more green beans in the empty row on the left. They’ll be ready in late August.Green beans on the left; yellow beans on the right. Starting to make blossoms.Super Sauce tomatoes doing well.Most plants had at least one tomato and some had more. They all look like yummy pizza sauce in the future!And my crazy garbanzo beans (chick peas). They just make me smile!The echinacea looks impressive. All different stages after wintering over. We’ll just leave them alone and enjoy them.
We have had so much rain we haven’t had to water much. But, who knows, at any time the rain could stop and move us into a dry spell. We’re ready! Enjoy!
Did you know garbanzo bean plants look nothing like standard bean plants? What a surprise! We are growing seven different kinds of beans this year…two standard snap beans we will pick at their peak of freshness; plus five shell beans we will let mature and dry on the plants right in the garden until fall. Today I just want to share how all the beans are doing.
All the bean plants are now about 8″ tall and look really healthy, but I’ve been noticing how different the garbanzo bean plants look. Check it out:
Green beansYellow beansPainted Pony beansCalypso beansCranberry beansBert Deanne’s Baking BeansGarbanzo beans. Check out those leaves!
So, I tried to do a little research about garbanzo beans but could not find anything that explained why the leaves were so different. And then I found a picture of what the garbanzo bean pods will look like. I was so glad to have a heads up on what to expect!
The rest of the garden is coming along fine…more about other parts of the garden soon.
Please comment or email me directly if you know more about why the garbanzo bean plants look so different at marykisner@comcast.net.
Our weather has flipped from very hot to quite cool, dry to pouring rain for days. By today, I wasn’t sure what I would find as I finally wandered outside. Bert has already pumped the water twice from the rain barrels by the shop up to the larger one by the garden so we’re ready to water as needed.
Because of all the crazy weather, we found the strawberries were not doing well in the tower, so we had to take it apart to give the plants more light. A few plants didn’t make it, but others have already sent out runners, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Here is what they looked like two weeks ago:
Strawberries…two weeks ago!
By this week they had changed. The two pots on the left looked great!
I couldn’t get the other big pot photo to download here…it was just better than 2 weeks ago.
But the tower had to be taken apart:
All five layers looked like this one!
Continuing to the rest of the patio plants:
Spinach has popped!Lettuce and radishes look promising!I just couldn’t resist trying a few!Yummy!Painted Pony beans.
All the other beans look about the same as above…I can’t get the pictures to download! Grrr! Very frustrating!
Super Sauce tomatoes!Echinacea.
So much for trying to show you everything! These are the only pictures that will download today! Luckily, all the other sections have pretty small plants, so hopefully by the time there’s something to see, the pictures will download! Check back in a week or two!
Baking bread has always been my favorite activity when I want to do something that reminds me of my mother. I learned the “feel” of a well-kneaded loaf of bread when I was young and carried that skill over to my family when I became a mother. When sticky buns made an appearance in my mother’s kitchen, I was always glad I had hung around and could try the first batch.
Fifty years ago, we had few choices at the grocery store…white bread was everywhere. There was much in the news about how white flour had lost much of its nutrition by sifting out the wheat germ and bleaching it with chemicals. Of course, then we used wheat germ in cookies and added the bran back to our diets with bran cereal! When I cruise the bread aisle today, I’m always struck with how many choices I have of whole wheat and multi-grain artisan bread and buns. However, I still enjoy the process of making my own bread.
I’ve already shared my Oatmeal Bread recipe (https://marykisner.com/marys-oatmeal-bread/) but I’m still struggling to find a good whole wheat recipe that tastes good and isn’t as heavy as a brick. Last week, I did an internet search with “the best whole wheat bread recipe” to see what came up. Lo and behold, a recipe called, “The Very Best Whole Wheat Bread Recipe” was at the top of the list! The recipe was from https://www.fivehearthome.com/. It looked pretty simple so I thought I’d give it a try.
The day before I was going to bake, I went to the health food store and picked up about 10 lbs. of white whole wheat berries and a small bag of Vital Wheat Gluten. This powder will add more wheat gluten so the loaf sticks together better.
White whole wheat berries.
I set up my wheat grinder and got it running. Within an hour or so I had about 10 lbs. of beautiful flour ready to go.
I’ve had a grinder from this company since the early 1970’s. This is their new version and will even grind quinoa into flour! www.organicsbylee.comNow I’m ready to bake! I did notice the grocery store carries King Arthur brand of “White Whole Wheat flour” now, so I shouldn’t have to grind my own if I don’t want to.
Here is the recipe:
Here are the rest of the ingredients:
Directions:
Step 1: Measure out the flour, vital wheat gluten and yeast into the mixer bowl.
Steps 2-3: Add 2 1/2 cups of very warm water. Mix up for 1 minute (I did this by hand) and let rest for 10 minutes.
In 10 minutes, the yeast is going to town.
Step 4: Add salt, oil, vinegar and honey. Mix for 1 minute.
Step 5: Add and mix in 2 1/2 to 4 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time.
Step 6: Knead in the mixer until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and feels smooth rather than sticky (5-15 minutes). Turn the dough out on to a floured surface. Form into a smooth ball.
Steps 7-8: Grease 2-3 bread pans. Divide dough into three oblong loaves and put them in the pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. for one minute and then turn off the oven. Place the pans in the warm oven and allow them to rise for 20-40 minutes, until the dough is nicely domed above the tops of the pans.
Step 9: Without removing the pans from the oven, turn on the oven again to 350 degrees F. and set the timer for 30 minutes. The oven will go through the whole preheat cycle now, which sets the crust.
Step 10: The bread is done when the tops are golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 190-200 degrees F.
Step 11: Once the loaves are baked, immediately remove the hot bread from the pans to cool on a rack.
Delicious
I think this recipe will be my go-to recipe for whole wheat bread. I was so happy with it that I ordered a 25 lb. sack of white whole wheat berries from Amazon! Beats trying to bag it up myself at the health food store!
Surprise! The whole garden is now planted! Just a week ago we were thinking we weren’t going to be able to do that for another week or two. We were still anticipating a few nights with below, or near freezing temperatures; and then the days of rain made it impossible to even get into the garden. So much difference a week can make! The long-range forecast does not show any below freezing temperatures, so we decided it was safe to plant the things Bert had started in the shop under grow lights.
In the last few days, Bert set up the rain barrels and I didn’t even know it! (See last year’s detailed post about how that is done (https://marykisner.com/setting-up-the-rain-barrels/). It finally stopped raining…and now it probably won’t rain for a week or two!
Yesterday, we got to work. A few things just needed to be moved outside to the patio, like the strawberries:
I put seeds in the raised planter for my lettuce and radishes two weeks ago and all the rain must have really helped get things started.
I bought 6 tiny Swiss Chard plants and a single Cherry Tomato plant at a local greenhouse tent set up near the mall to round out the patio plantings. It felt good to see something already growing, while we wait for seeds to sprout in other areas.
Swiss ChardCherry TomatoI did plant Spinach seeds here…but nothing interesting to look at yet!
The rest of the planters down near the patio are not quite as interesting, but hope springs eternal in May!
I planted a few seeds each of four different shell beans in one planter…just to see if they will work here. I’m sure I won’t get much, but I should learn something about what I’d like to grow next year.
Nothing to see yet!
The Cucumber plants (2 kinds) were small but healthy and the Delicata Squash looks very similar. They are in the second fenced beds so they will have wire to crawl up.
The upper garden looks pretty barren, but hopefully in a week or two we’ll see evidence of all the seeds we planted. I’ll try to document the growth in the same order each time so it makes sense as things grow.
Two rows of carrots and the lavender coming back from last year.Green and Yellow beansSuper Sauce TomatoesGarbanzo beans (not sure how they will do, but we’ll leave them in the garden until fall to dry).Echinacea, coming back from last year!
Now the challenge will be to keep up on watering. There is something about the anticipation of sprouting seeds that keeps us going this time of year! I am jealous of all you folks that live in places where you can garden all year. On the other hand, after a long cold winter spring anticipation feels pretty good too! Enjoy!
I love egg rolls! Since I was diagnosed with egg and dairy allergies several years ago, I have been very careful about eating anything that was mixture of ingredients. I have avoided casseroles of all kinds, especially if I didn’t make it myself…too often they have hidden eggs, cheese and other dairy products. Somehow, egg rolls fell into that “unknown mixture” label and I avoided them. I recently came across a recipe for egg rolls and discovered there were no eggs anywhere in the recipe! I went to the grocery store and read the ingredients on the wrappers…no eggs! To think I’ve avoided egg rolls all this time when I didn’t need to!
This picture shows egg rolls that had been deep fried. Look so good!
I also wondered why they were called egg rolls…when no eggs were involved! An early reference to egg rolls appeared in a 1917 Chinese recipe pamphlet published in the United States. The 1917 recipe described a meat and vegetable filling wrapped in an egg omelet, pan fried, and served in slices. (Wikipedia, Egg Rolls).
According to Wikipedia, while they are closely related to the spring rolls served in mainland China, the American egg roll was probably invented at a Chinese restaurant in New York City in the early 1930s. Originally, egg rolls included ingredients like bamboo shoots, roast pork, shrimp, scallions, water chestnuts, salt, MSG, sugar, palm oil and pepper. Notable, they did not include cabbage at the time, which is the main filling ingredient in modern egg rolls.
A 1979 article in The Washington Post speculated two possible theories for the word “egg” in the name: “1) that the Chinese word for ‘egg’ sounds very similar to the Chinese word for ‘spring’, and 2) that Chinese chefs in the South relied on using actual eggs when trying to make the thin noodle skin from flour and water.” (From Wikipedia, Egg Rolls).
The other issue I had with egg rolls was the necessity to deep fry them…sounded messy! But this recipe said I could use my air fryer or even bake them in the oven! That sounded possible!
The ingredients were pretty simple: egg roll wrappers, cooked chicken, cole slaw mix and salt. I added little minced onion just for flavor.
The ingredients shown with my first batch of egg rolls ready for the air fryer.
Preparing the stuffing
Step 1: In a large frying pan (or wok) saute the cole slaw with a little olive oil until wilted (I added the minced onion here).
Step 2: Add shredded chicken for a few minutes until all mixed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. I just added the can of chicken, broken up with a fork.
Making the egg rolls
Step 3: Add 2 tablespoons of slaw/chicken mixture to the middle of the egg roll wrapper. Fold up the sides one at a time and for the last fold add a little water so it sticks. Makes 11-12 egg rolls.
Sorry…out of focus!Ready for the Air Fryer!
Step 4: Fry your egg rolls until golden brown.
Air Fryer Instructions:
Lightly spray or brush the basket or tray with olive oil. Place egg rolls in the air fryer. Be sure they are not touching. Cook at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, turning halfway.
Air Fryer at work!
Oven-Baked Instructions:
Lightly coat egg rolls with cooking spray and place, seam side down in a greased pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown, turning halfway.
Store in an airtight container. Refrigerate for 3-4 days. Freeze for up to 2 months.
Reheat in 350 degree oven, 10 minutes if thawed; 18-20 minutes if frozen, turning halfway.
With our son visiting, these egg rolls did not last very long! Yummy!
Another idea:
One of the suggestions in this recipe was to try filling the wrapper with apple pie filling. That would be like a mountain pie cooked over a campfire! Sounds like a great dessert!
I can see lots of potential for stuffing! I’m sure I’ll get better at rolling the egg rolls up too! Give it a try! Enjoy!
Seems like it’s time to share our beginnings of this year’s garden. It is still too early to put plants in the ground because we could still have a frost over the next few weeks, but Spring is definitely making obvious inroads.
Our Redbud trees are beautiful and the grass is so green.
Redbud flowers are so stunning in the spring!
The hummingbird feeders are ready and the birds have found them. The geraniums are beautiful this year.
I planted lettuce and radish seeds in the raised planter on the patio.
The Super Sauce tomato plants have thrived under grow lights. Now a little sunshine and wind will toughen them up.
The strawberries are determined to get on with making berries, so off they go!
We’ve got to get the ones in the bucket into a different planter soon!
The cucumbers, Delicata squash and zinnias are still under the grow lights.
Up in the main garden the Lavender is showing signs of surviving the winter. I’m not sure what to trim away, so I guess I’ll just have to wait!
The Echinacea came back so that end of the garden should be pretty this year.
So that’s the tour of what’s happening right now. Soon it will be time to get the rain barrels set up, but we’ll wait another week or two. We set them up last year on April 27, 2021, so we must have been optimistic that the really cold nights were over. If you’d like to read about how we set them up, you can see it here: https://marykisner.com/setting-up-the-rain-barrels/.
