Comfort Food

Spaghetti Squash Recipe: 

As we have grown older, our produce "repertoire" has also grown.  20 years ago we had never heard of spaghetti squash.  As a spaghetti lover, the first time that I cooked it, I was surprised that it did not actually taste like spaghetti.  (Duh!!!????)  It was Doug who really, really liked it.  As a result, this wonderful winter squash is a staple in our garden.  We are trying to figure out a way to keep the 'fruit' up off the wet ground.  If the squash's outer "skin" is kept blemish free and stored in a cool, dark, semi-humid space, they can last up to six months, with no processing.  We did roast a couple of squash, let them cool, scraped out the insides, zip lock bagged them for the freezer.  We will see how it works. 

The following recipe is from one of our customers who also loves spaghetti squash.  Great winter 'comfort' food. 

Vegan Moroccan-Spiced Spaghetti Squash

In the forefront on the left is a stock tank planted with asparagus, center is a mini dwarf cherry tree, and far right is a horse bunker containing strawberries.  The white pipe is pex pipe and the bird netting clipped to it keeps the starlings/robins out.  In the background, Doug (on the Ford Tractor) is tilling the small garden by the barn and laying cover crop.  And on the John Deere is a friend cutting the pasture one last time before winter sets in.  

AND 294 cloves of garlic planted in a raised bed!  Pictures to follow.  Have a wonderful day!  

Produce Stand Closing for Season - Dusk 10-18-19

A Season of Fun and Joy!

True to our name "Freshly Doug Vegetables," our produce was harvested from our gardens in the morning and in the stand for sale within an hour or two.   We did have some trouble figuring out if the corn was ripe or not - but, we eventually figured it out!  Duh????!!!!   

Looking west at the produce stand.  Both stock tanks were planted with free samples of edible flowers, (nasturtiums).  The right stock tank was planted with a variety of cherry tomatoes and the left tank was planted with basil.  Ripe, right off the vine!      

We have begun preparing for next season.  Cover crop has been planted.  As you may or may not know cover crop adds organic matter, nitrogen and protects the soil through the winter.  Raised beds have also been planted with cover crop, except for the one where we will be planting garlic this month.  We will be picking up all of the hoses and markers from the two main gardens.  During the winter months, we will be selecting and ordering a wide variety of favorite, heirloom seed, staging planting from greenhouse to garden, building four more raised beds, bringing the total to 12.   And, looking forward to spring!

As a beautiful season comes to an end, at dusk on October 18, 2019, Doug and I are grateful to the many people who stopped by to support our efforts to grow high quality, reasonably priced, organic produce.  You rock!  Thank you!  Hugs and make it a great day!

Howden pumpkins

 

Bean Doing Okay?

Yup.  Bean doing great!  

More than several years ago, I asked my mom why she never grew green beans in the small patch of garden out behind our house where she would throw a couple of seeds and grow the biggest, tastiest tomatoes.   Her response was, "You kids never liked them."  (As an adult, fresh green {string} beans have become one of my favorite vegetables.)  Her response caused me to reflect..  As a young girl, I remember sitting on the neighbors' front porch with my sister and their younger set of twin girls, with big bowls (similar to the picture below) of fresh green beans between us, talking and laughing, all while cleaning and snapping green beans. The older set of  twins and their mom had picked the beans earlier and "our job" was to get them ready for pressure canning for winter meals.  Our ulterior was obvious, my sister and I helped the twins with their chores so the four of us could 'goof off' together.  Win/Win

Maybe it's just me, but, I could NOT recall ever eating any cooked, fresh green beans.  Oh snap! Light bulb ON.  Of course, we ate green beans - but they were store bought, canned ones, that were then boiled for another obligatory 15 minutes. (Frozen beans were too expensive.)  So, what ended up on our plate was pretty much mush.  No wonder we (I for sure)  didn't like them.  It was the mushy, flavorless, texture!  Ugh!   Don't get me wrong, my parents did the best they could with what they had and at least we had food.  And I did try to eat a spoonful or two, each with a bite of potato.  My point is that today the vegetables I eat and love have more flavor than the ones I grew up eating … asparagus is another one that tastes different fresh rather than canned and boiled the required 15 minutes!  

Lesson:  Try a vegetable that you didn't like when you were a kid - you might be surprised.    
 

3.5 pounds of Blue Lake Pole Beans, straight out of the garden.  Half were cleaned, snapped and put in a crockpot on top of a layer of bacon.   Made a great meal after a hard day's work.  After cooking for three hours ... not mushy.  

The extra table set up to accommodate the winter squashes, tomatoes and eggplant.  

Fresh sweet corn coming soon.  

Make it a great day!  

Happy Birthday, USA!

2019 Season has officially BEGUN!

What a great day to be grateful! 

Outside of the produce stand are stock tanks brimming with u-pick edibles, nasturtium flowers, basil, peppers and cherry tomatoes.  Also new this year is an herb garden.  The summer heat is pushing the herbs to go to seed. (Plus, it didn't help that a little bird nested in the parsley and snacked on the herb container next to her nest. So, as soon as we noticed she was there, we stopped watering that particular container.  The three babes have left the nest and watering will resume, plus, we have new parsley sets.  Thank you, Mom Nature for sharing.)

In the cooler is lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, green onions, couple dozen fresh eggs, snow pod peas and on the table is some zucchini and potatoes.  

Hope you can stop by.   We will be open as we have product and close when we run out.  Great crop of garlic and potatoes on deck.  

 Happy Fourth to you and yours and make it a great day.  

Raised Beds

Raised Bed Project - 2019

The soil in our main gardens stays pretty wet until around June.  So, as many of you gardeners know, there are plenty of crops, i.e. peas, carrots, beets, potatoes, etc. that can be planted in March/April when the soil is cool and fairly dry, i.e. no mud.  Not good to plant in mud, even with shoe covers, the plants don't like it. In order for us to begin planting earlier, we determined that raised beds would be our best option.

Empty pallets 

Side note:  In 2004 we started out with "temporary" concrete block raised beds. "Temporary" in that the blocks were set on smoothed out soil, filled with sand and some covered with plastic lumber.  All a big experiment.  Several problems arose - wasps built their nests under the plastic lumber, and because we didn't cover some of the blocks, we had to weed in the individual blocks, and the rain did wash much of the sand out of the corners of the blocks.  BUT, even with these issues, the beds were a resounding success!  We learned how to manage the soil in the beds.  The decision was made, that since we had all of the concrete blocks, that we mortar each bed and put a permanent cover over them.  So, ta da!

Hoping to open the stand in Mid-June give or take a week or two!  Adding an herb garden just outside of the stand.

 

Gravel walkways will allow for weed burning.

Yay, Spring ... Your arrival is soooooo Welcome!

Yawn!  Big Stretch!  Just like our lawn, the asparagus, rhubarb, daffodils, tulips, and our Mason Bees, we are waking up to Spring and the fun work ahead!  The lawn has been mowed a couple of times … always a good warm up.

Here is a short list of what we've (Doug mostly) been up to:    

March:

• grafted apple and prune (plum) trees;
• set out Mason Bees;
• dormant sprayed fruit orchard;  
• mortared together (with very good help) raised beds; 
• weed whacked the cover crop in our small garden;
• planted radish seeds (that the little birds pulled out of the ground);

April:

• planted cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower (in a raised bed);

April to do:

• replant herbs, I.e. marjoram, parsley;
• plant onions, lettuce, peas, carrots;
• flowers in containers;
• in the greenhouse start peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes;
• and a whole lot more!  

Good to be back!  Don't be afraid to make it a great day! Char