Goodnight and Goodbye Garden

Ultra-moist Vegan Pumpkin Bread

With fall comes pumpkins! And with pumpkins comes yummy pumpkin treats! Here is my recipe for an ultra-moist and vegan pumpkin bread....not the ultra sweet and oily kind that dries out in two days. Please try and enjoy, you won't be dissappointed!

Vegan Pumpkin Bread- makes 2 loaves

3 Tbs ground flax
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups pumpkin puree (fresh or canned)
1/2 cup canola oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 oats
3/4 cup turbinado sugar (refined works too)
1-2 Tbs molasses
1-2 Tbs agave nectar (maple syrup or honey works too)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2-1 cup walnuts or raisins (optional)

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Mix ground flax and water in large bowl, then add in sugar, molasses, and agave nectar as well as oil, applesauce, and pumpkin- stir
-In medium bowl mix flour, oats, spices, salt baking soda and powder
-Add dry to wet slowly
-Fold in walnuts or raisins if using
-Grease loaf pans lightly, pour in
-add a garnish of oats on top and pop in oven for about 55 min.
-let cool in pan for at least 15 min.
-serve plain or with cream cheese!

Little bit of life left...

I apologize for the long stretch of time that has gone by without showing you any attention, but actually I haven't been very present to the garden either...so don't feel that bad.

I had to go and get married and do that whole thing so I've been putting the garden on the back burner. Yesterday, however, I found myself drawn to the outdoors even more than usual and realized it was time to get back to the plot. It was a crisp, overcast day, leaves were falling and I had nothing much to do besides write hoards of thank you notes. I needed a break so I gathered some envelopes, scissors, marker, tape, camera, harvest basket and boots.

Here is what I came across:

Besides the beets and lettuce shown in the pictures, the tomatoes, peppers, squash, and basil are all still producing. I harvested seeds from the marigolds, cosmos, zinnias, and cilantro. Next will be the sunflowers and basil. I plan to let the seeds dry out and then create my own little seed library to use for next planting season! Seeds, seeds everywhere!

It's an amazing day here...76 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and a light breeze to liven things up.
The garden enjoyed last night's rain shower but it surely wasn't enough to make up for the severe lack of precipitation otherwise. Although it is September and I expect a cooling off and a general slowing down of life...I did not expect to have a yard covered in leaves. The heat and dryness is causing a rapid and somewhat premature death of the leaves on the trees. When I visted St. Louis this past weekend, it was the same story there. Fall is on it's way!

Since the veggies in the garden are worn out, and the fall crops of lettuce and beets that I planted are no where near ready to harvest...I am left with little to do. Some dead-heading of the zinnias, grabbing a few tomatoes, and beholding the beauty of it all are about the only things I've been doing lately. Hope you are getting a chance to enjoy your garden and life as we all get ready to slow things down.

The Moon and Stars Melons are a growin'















Spider on a Squash















This one is an Amish Melon




















Lettuce for a fall harvest

They don't look that beautiful but they're still producing like mad!

Summertime and the harvest it easy...

A baby buttercup squash




















Tater collection II















A lemon cucumber

This is it for the green beans.

A Prayer for Growers and Eaters

Just a little prayer I found in a lovely cookbook given to me as a wedding shower gift: Simply in Season

Hope you like it too!


A Prayer for Growers and Eaters

Generous God, Source of all we enjoy around this table,
thank you for the rich flavors, crisp colors, and simple foods
that fill us and please us.

We remember those who have labored long on our behalf.
For farmers near and far, for their households,
their land and their communities,
we ask your sustaining grace.

Give hope, health, and fruitfulness to your people who farm.
Fill us with the Spirit's generosity and joy
so that we may fittingly eat at the table you have set
and serve the world you have made. Amen.

-Jennifer Davis Sensenig

A Happy Garden

Late Night in the Garden

So it's pretty hot these days. So hot that just going outside makes me feel like I'm done working out for the day. A face full of sweat and shiny shins stay with you as loong as the sun's out. Thus, gardening is something I don't dare try until the sun is way down, and in the summer that's 9 o'clock.

Although it gets harder to see every little detail and you don't have the benifit of taking as long as you'd like, late night gardening is splendid. The bats and swallows swoop about the air, a breeze weaves through the rows, and the crickets chirp their nightly songs. Working at dusk in the garden can be nothing but peaceful, cool, refreshing. Its fleeting nature only heightens the experience.

Yesterday, however, I braved the heat for a basil harvest which I needed for a recipe. I also gleaned the first "real" tomato of the season and of course, tomatillos, cherry and yellow pear tomatoes. Mmm...mmm.

The recipe was for a Caprese Pasta Salad and it was delicious, especially because I used so many garden goodies! As usual, I made my own recipe from bits and pieces I had found elsewhere. Here's the deal:

-Cook about 1 lb. of pasta (I used penne) until just done- al dente is way better in pasta salad
-Let pasta cool at room temp (mix a bit of olive oil in to prevent stickiness)
-Dice about 3-4 tomatoes and a package of fresh mozzarella... set aside
-In small bowl, wisk together 1 tsp. mayo, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/3-1/2 cup olive oil as well as crushed sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
-Chop a handful of fresh basil leaves into 1/4 inch strips or pieces

-Mix tom/cheese into cooled pasta and add half of the dressing, stir gently with a spatula
-Add in basil
-Let sit covered for hour or more at room temp.
-Come back and taste- add more dressing, salt, and pepper if needed
-Makes a great summer side dish!

Going on a Treasure Hunt

Now that I've returned to town for good, I can finally concentrate on the garden. I surveyed the damage and it isn't all that bad... Of course there are the weeds. Dried up cripsy leaves? you ask. Well, yes. Plants that probably hate me, yes. Peppers that could care less about growing, yes. Tyrannical flea beatles attacking my eggplant, definitely. But, like I said it's not all that bad. Completely salvageable.

Thus, I decided that first on the the to-do list would be a treasure hunt...a delicious potato treasure hunt. Start with locating the 'X'. Well, not exactly an 'X' but rather a dead potato plant marks the spot.














Next, slip pitchfork (really should use a potato fork with blunt edges so as to prevent dissecting one's precious potatoes) into soil at a 45 degree angle about a foot away from the base of the plant. Apply pressure downward and pry up the soil containing the potato plant.













After a little digging and sifting with your hands, you should behold your treasure!













Keep digging until you achieve basket o' taters!
Those are Red Gold and Austrian Crescent (fingerling) varieties by the way.











After playing pirate I harvested tomatillos, a few yellow pear tomatoes and green onions. I also tied up tomatoes, weeded as much as possible, dead headed marigolds and snipped me some zinnias for a small bouquet.










On watch: green beans with a possible case of rust, stupid peppers that wilt for no reason, and the eggplants with leaves of lace..thanks to those pesky flea beatles. No worries though.










See, I'm still happy.

Happy 4th of July!

Not in the garden for a couple weeks....received update that things are wet, that the melons are still small and the peppers are still sad looking. Wishing there was better news to share.

In Virginia for the 4th. Hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend!

Summer Has Arrived!

A windowsill full of yum

Birdhouse Gourds trellising themselves











Black Hungarian Pepper!

Tomatillo

What's wrong with my peppers?? Anyone?

Don't you just love Zinnias?

Dwarf Sunflowers in front of a big one

When the tomatoes start falling off the vine into your hands....you know summer has arrived. Along with some cherry tomatoes, I harvested my first peppers (one bell and one Black Hungarian) this morning and three tomatillos. I also grabbed some carrots and a few beets. The beets are currently boiling and the carrots were just added to some fresh cabbage picked up at the Madiera Farmers' Market. The scarlet skin of the red dragon carrots add something special to my typical coleslaw.

Last night, the power went out, my boots got soaked on the porch, and three and a half inches of rain fell. I wore my galoshes to the plot this morning, scattered blood meal about the tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos, grabbed whatever I saw and got out of there before the next thunderstorm rumbled through.

Too Hot for Broccoli

So, as you have noticed, I've been absent. Chris and I were out of town for marathon wedding attending...Sandusky, St. Louis, then Colorado and back to Cincinnati. So much fun, but we sure did miss a lot on the plot.

We were elated when we arrived there for a few hours of work yesterday; I felt so at home taking care of our veggies. However, not everything in the garden was something to smile about. The radishes had all bolted (went to seed), the peppers are all limp, the eggplant are yellow, only two of the Amish melons germinated, and the broccoli died. It was too hot for most things in the cole family...cabbage, broccoli, radish. They prefer 60 to 70 degrees and it's certainly been hotter than that. The leaf lettuce is done for. The little that I harvested tasted quite bitter but the romaine is still pretty delicious so I'm leaving that in the ground for a bit longer. Along with the lettuce and some basil, I harvested 4 cherry tomatoes and 1 yellow pear tomato, as well as 4 red beets and 3 red dragon carrots; I had a terrifc salad for dinner.

Thankfully, my mother was willing and able to hoe and harvest while we were away. She reported a lot of rain which explains the yellow eggplant and plenty of heat which explains everything else. Also, the aphids which I forgot to mention are gone after spraying the tomatoes with a solution of 5 parts water, 1 part soap, and 1 part olive oil. Things are back on track even if it's too hot for broccoli.

Fruits of Our Labor

LABOR













FRUIT







YUM