Let it rain CORN and BEANS!

The MVG is in full swing and the vertical gardening is proving to be well worth the time and energy to set up.  As you can see in the picture above there is lots of green leaves and plump veggies to harvest.  This week, in preparation for the annual Harvest BBQ, we had our bean and corn harvests!

The bean box has matured and is producing handfuls upon handfuls of long firm Burgundy beans.  These beans are great when eaten raw but also taste good when canned or used in casseroles.  I will be using all three types of beans, Burgundy, Blue Lake and Scarlet Emperor, to make a bean stir-fry for this year's Harvest BBQ.  Additionally, any beans not canned or eaten have been blanched and frozen.

Here is our bean breakdown for this season:

• 4 quarts blanched and frozen
• 2 pints of Bread and Butter beans

Our corn harvest occurred on a cool Wednesday morning.  The harvest went well but is very small when compared to our corn harvests in the past.  We reduced our number of corn rows and used the remaining years-old corn seed when planting this year's corn crop. This decrease in quantity and quality has brought forth a small corn harvest for the 2012 victory garden season.  Luckily we had a great harvest last year and have plenty in storage for the Harvest BBQ this year.  Elote! Horn Corn! Cheese Corn! Mayo Corn! It does not matter what you call the yummy corn dish but one this is for certain... corn, lime mayo, Cojita cheese and hot sauce will be on the 2012 Harvest BBQ menu.

Corn husked and ready to be blanched.

I decided to store only the corn kernels from this year's harvest.  Here is my step by step process for freezing corn kernels.

1. Blanch the ears of corn in boiling water for five minutes.
2. Immediately transfer the corn to a cold water bath to cool down.
3. Once the ears are cool, cut the corn kernels off and pack them in Ziploc freezer bags.

I was able to pack 5 quarts of corn.  It might not sound like much but to eat sweet corn in the dead of winter is sweet delight!

Typical July Harvest

The victory garden is in full swing.  We have daily harvests of zucchini, yellow squash, beans, peppers, a variety of herbs, and cucumbers.  As expected, the harvests are increasing in size.  Today's harvest  (pictured below) produced a sink full of vegetables, strainer full of beans, and one lonely pepper.

I have some good news from the eggplant patch.  We officially have a SECOND GENERATION EGGPLANT growing in the garden! Woo hoo!  Remember my post, Transplanting and Mulch, about the eggplant that survived winter?  That eggplant has grown exponentially and is now giving birth to three eggplants.  There are over ten flowers on the plant and I hope to see everyone turn into a delicious eggplant by the end of the summer.

Second generation eggplant

All of the eggplants grown, from seed this season, have begun to push out flowers or fruit.  I envision lots of BBQ eggplants and eggplant lasagnas filling my table and tummy later this season. YUM!

eggplants are growing bigger each day

The strawberry pot is doing very well.  Each day I pick two to four large strawberries, rinse and freeze them.  So far I have 1 1/2 quarts of frozen MVG strawberries.  These frozen berries taste great in homemade slushy drinks or strawberry jam. I hope to have the second quart bag filled by the end of July.

daily harvest of strawberries

Pickling veggies... DILLicious!

dill is a great herb for canning

I love our bread and butter veggies from last season.  My mom and I snack on them throughout the day. I just take the jar from the pantry and place it into the fridge. A few hours later you have cold, crisp, and sweet zucchini and squash.  I have also eaten them as a side dish to a sandwich, a bowl of soup or a soy dog.  Either way canning veggies has brought lots of variety to my family's diet.

Zucchini is getting big...yikes!

We also make dill pickles and enjoy eating pickles by themselves or as a side dish to a meal.  Dill does not last long in my herb garden and often goes to seed by mid-summer.  I wanted to take advantage of the fresh dill while canning my first round of veggies.  I searched through my sacred text, Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, and found two recipes that produce canned vegetables with dill.

July 1, 2012 harvest

The first recipe explains how to make dill pickles.  I substituted cucumbers with the three vegetables I have on hand.  I like to keep my canning moving throughout the season and use only what the garden produces. Making dill veggies allowed me to use most of the dill from Herb Row and a variety of beans, zucchini and yellow squash from the garden beds.

Victory Garden 2011 - corn, cucumbers, and zucchini

The second recipe is titled Pickled Garden Vegetables.  The recipe asks for a large variety of veggies, such as carrots, onions, zucchini, squash, etc.  I only have beans, squash and zucchini and found this same combo worked great with the Bread and Butter Pickles recipe.  I used a variety of Burgundy, Blue Lake and Scarlet Emperor beans. The key to this recipe is to cook your dill with the liquid and add garlic.  This is very different from the dill pickles recipe, which does not include garlic. Additionally, when making dill pickles you place the dill in the jar with the cucumbers before adding the liquid. I welcomed the variety in cooking procedure and taste. I cannot wait to try my first batch of pickled garden vegetables... mmmm! I can still smell the dill and garlic boiling in vinegar, sugar and salt.

June 30, 2012  canned vegetables

In total, I canned three quarts of pickled garden vegetables and four quarts and 2 pints of dill vegetables. Yeah!

The first canning of the season has successfully added more food and variety to our pantry. My family has begun consuming the remaining jars of bread and butter, dill, and kosher pickles from 2009 and 2010. These yummy pickles will help fuel my efforts in trying new recipes while canning veggies and fruit this season.

Where there is growth, there are flowers

2011 Season - Burpee French Filet Stringless bean plant flowers

The victory garden has seen much growth.  With growth comes flowers and were there are flowers there will soon be yummy veggies!

Our zucchini plants have many starfish shaped flowers opening up each morning.

The sugar snaps are blooming!

The Scarlet Emperor plants have opened their red/orange petals, while still maintaining their vertical climb.

Lastly, and I am really excited about this one, last season's eggplant has produced a flower.  I cannot believe my little eggplant is one year old and just pushed out her first flower.  WOW! I hear a Strictly Jug Nuts' song seeping into my brain... OH NO!  I hope there are no killer eggplants in the victory garden.

Do you Fuyu?

We have a new permanent member to the victory garden.  Say hello to Fuyu.  She is a persimmon tree.

Fuyu is staked into the ground.

Fuyu was planted on March 8th. Since that time, she have seen much growth.  Green buds grew.

Then, light magic, the buds pushed out green branches and leaves.  She is growing to be a big part of the victory garden.

Strawberries are showing their colors.

The rest of the victory garden is growing nicely in the sun.  The tomato plants have have been transplanted.  They are still small but will grow quickly in the next month.

Cucumber sprouts

The battle with the evil gastropods continues.  The gastropods devoured the cucumber plants.  I replanted.  We now have a nice row of cucumber seedlings.  I have swept the garden and destroyed most of the intruders. But they will be back.  Gastropods are persistent.

(L to R) Burgundy, Scarlet emperor, & Blue lake beans

The Scarlet Emperor beans are growing quickly.  They have reached the netting and are now beginning to crawl.

Lettuce is coming along...

Sunshine, check.  Water, check.  Now cross your roots and hope for more growth.