Preserving: the Beginning

The farm stand is selling veggies steadily now - not very much, but at least a few things sell every day. Kale is the biggest seller - more than bagged baby greens, cucumbers or lettuce. Herbs seem to sell fairly consistently, especially after I started cutting them nicely and putting them in little bags with a damp paper towel to keep them fresh. Oh, and zucchini - it sells out every time it's out there. I didn't plant very many since I heard over and over about the beginner gardener who ends up having to give away bucket loads of zucchini. We only have 3 plants now and I wish I'd planted double that. It does take up a ton of room in the garden though. 

What we are overloaded with at the moment is cucumbers! They don't stay crisp for very long so yesterday I tried making refrigerator pickles for the first time. It was pretty easy, so hopefully they taste good. I just added dill (the flowering heads apparently taste the best for pickles), garlic, onion, pepper flakes, apple cider vinegar, salt and water - enough to cover the cucumber slices. These are slicing cucumbers and not pickling cucumbers so they might not end up as crispy.

With the less crispy cucumbers I'm making relish. So far I just chopped the cucumbers up (in my fancy new food processor) with some onion and the green mush is in the fridge with salt mixed in to draw out the moisture.

Tomatoes are ripening!

Yellow cherry tomatoes - they're neon yellow right now.

Good thing I love beans! They definitely need to be picked every day - the few that I missed yesterday got huge and tough. 

Yum - baked with soy sauce, sesame oil and garlic is definitely my favourite way to eat beans.

I shamelessly use baking to lure people to the farm stand...except Nathan and I ended up eating 99% of these ginger cookies.

I've been working on halter training Oprah and Thomas (through the fence). So far, so good - I can put loops of rope around their faces and heads while feeding them and they don't freak out. I'm going to make some halters this week. If Thomas is halter trained then at least he can be restrained if we have to check him closely for anything. We'll probably end up having to make a pen, too. 

The weekend is approaching quickly...survey your kingdom while you still can, mister...