Harvesting and Storing Beets

The past two days have been occupied with numerous garden chores. Unfortunately my bee balm, which was the most prolific this summer that I can ever remember, now was covered in powdery mildew. Yesterday I cut it back to the ground so that it would not infect the other herbs that reside next to it in my herb garden. I had the added surprise of finding a huge creepy spider. I actually took a picture of the underside of it, although I thought it was it's back. My mind said "What is it? Is it poisonous?" I didn't wait to have it bite me. I killed it. O.K., here come all the comments, but I panicked.

 

On to the beets. The first of my beets have been ready for harvest for the past couple of weeks and we really have enjoyed them, but I don't think my husband wants to eat them every night. Beets are great keepers into the winter. If you are lucky enough to have a root cellar they stay firm and sweet with just a couple of precautions. We live in an 1880s house with a dirt floor and a brick and stone foundation, so we have the perfect root cellar.

Pull the beets by hand and trim the tops to 1/2" from the beet itself. Pack them in a wooden box, or in my case I use an old wooden bushel basket. Do not use a plastic tote because you need good ventilation to prevent your crop from getting moldy. Pack the beets in soil, sand, or wood shavings. I place the basket of beets and wood shavings on an old table. This way they are up off of the ground to avoid mold, but still benefit from the cool, dark conditions. Check your beets regularly and remove any moldy or soft beets.

I planted the beets at different dates throughout the summer so I can harvest up until frost. I usually have fresh quality beets for up to 4 months after I put them in the cellar. This year I planted "Soldier Beets" and "Detroit Dark Red" beets. Both are vintage heirloom varieties and really dark red and nice and sweet.

 

 



                                                  Going home at the end of another day!

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Finally Tomatoes!

I feel like my tomato plants have lived on and on, without the benefit of a ripe, juicy tomato. Finally we are eating our cherry tomatoes "Sweet Baby Girl". They were definitely worth waiting for and definitely sweet, although it has been a long wait since March 15th when I started the seeds under grow lights in the house.

A very cold, rainy Spring and early Summer really set back the growth of the plants and emergence of the tomato blossoms once they were set outside, but now we have them in abundance. Now I wonder about the larger "Brandywine" tomatoes I planted. Although they are slowly getting bigger they are still very,very green.

 

 

The only problem now is with lots of blossoms and green tomatoes, will we beat the first frost with a bumper crop or will we be disappointed with only a handful of slicing tomatoes this year? Time will tell, but with an average date of the first frost for this area being between September 27 to October 7, I'd say the odds are in my favor with frost still a month away. If not, there is always next year to try again, and of course we will.

 

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Welcome Francis

Our farm is home to a delightful small flock of registered Old English Babydoll Southdown Sheep. These sheep are truly the sweetest breed of sheep and their compact size makes them so much easier to handle than bigger breeds. They really make wonderful pets, are producers of ultra soft wool , and are earth friendly lawnmowers. These are the "original" Southdown sheep, one of the oldest breeds of sheep from England. The demand for larger cuts of meat from the sheep resulted in breeding a larger Southdown in the early 1900s. These Old English Babydoll Southdown's are the diminutive size, not the modern large breed Southdowns. For me, looking at their smiling teddy bear faces everyday always makes me smile, you just can't seem to help returning their happy outlook on life.

 

Francis is our newest member on the farm. She has been here almost 2 weeks and has fit in beautifully with the other sheep, although still a little shy with me. She is 6 months old and has become fast friends with another 6 month old lamb we have named Martha. They seem to be inseperable, always running, jumping, playing, and especially eating the apples that have started falling from the two ancient apple trees in their pasture. What a life!

 

She has become especially fond of our resident duck, Francesca, who thinks she is a sheep. As you can tell, Francis is even thinking of taking a swim with Francesca, well at least definetly a cool drink. For more pictures of life on the farm visit www.thefarmatmillvillage.com

 

Peach Pie

   Well, our plans often take time to come to fruition and we must be patient. The case in point being the planting of peach trees on our farm. I read up on all the species of peach trees and came to the conclusion that the "Reliance Peach" was the one to plant in Vermont in order to have it survive our cold winters and produce luscious fruit for jams, pies, and just eating. I started with one tree (this is it's third summer here) and added two more trees this spring. I thought for sure this would be the summer we would pick peaches from our first tree, but all we got were two blossoms in the spring and no peaches this summer.

 

 

 

 

So patient I will be, and dream of all the juicy peaches-next summer. In the mean time I bought the most beautiful peaches grown in Pennsylvania (not my own yard) at the local market in town. Bright and early this morning I baked the pie I have been dreaming of, even if I didn't grow the peaches.

   Here is the recipe I use for a simple peach pie from my first cookbook "Betty Crocker's Cookbook" bought almost 40 years ago when I was in high school.

 

Prepare pastry for a two crust 9" pie. Everyone seems to have a favorite family recipe for pie crust, so use the one you like best. Do you have to be from the Pillsbury family to use their pie crusts? I don't think so!

 

For the filling:

5 cups sliced fresh peaches

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 Tablespoons butter

 

Heat oven to 425. Peal and slice peaches, mix with lemon juice. Stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon; mix with peaches. Turn into 9 inch pastry lined pie pan, dot with butter. Cover with top crust, which has slits cut into it or prick with the tines of a fork, seal and flute. Cover edge with foil to prevent excessive browning. Remove foil last 15 minutes of baking. Bake 35 to 45 minutes for 9" pie. Cool and enjoy!

 

 

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Sunflower Days

Today is just the most beautiful day in late summer imaginable-low humidity, a heavenly breeze, and temps in the 70s. Tonight we are looking for temperatures to dip into the 40s in central Vermont. It was the perfect day to set up a roadside table with cut flowers from the cutting gardens. I grew five varieties of florist specimen sunflowers (no pollen to get on clothes or tablecloths,etc.) and all of the varieties are magnificent. Along with the "Benary Giant" zinnias they have made sunny, happy arrangements. Visit us at www.thefarmatmillvillage.com

 

 

Freezing Green Beans

All the rest of my green beans have been picked, frozen, and stored in the freezer. I did leave some beans on the bushes that were past their prime to dry for next year's garden planting. I really liked these heirloom beans I planted this year, so I will dry the pods, shell them, put them in an envelope and store in a dry place until planting next Spring. Freezing the beans was so simple that I am sharing the step by step process.

 

1.Wash and trim ends off of beans and cut into desired size pieces.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a vigorous boil. Immerse green beans for 2 minutes. Drain beans in a large colander.

 



 



 

3. While your water is boiling with the beans, prepare a large bowl or basin of iced water. Submerge beans in the ice bath, as soon as you have drained them in the colander, to stop the cooking process. Leave for several minutes in ice bath.  

 

4.When beans have cooled, drain in colander again and then spread them out on paper towels to dry. Blot as necessary.

 

When dry, pack in freezer bags. Be sure to squeeze out as much air in the bags as possible to prevent freezer burn. Label and date bags, then place in freezer to be used within 6 months.

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End of Summer Gardening

There are a lot of end of Summer gardening chores to be done this week. All of the onions were taken up out of the ground last week and now need to be cured for Winter storage and use. None rotted in the ground despite the wet Spring and Summer in Vermont. I gently lift the onion bulbs out of the ground with a small garden fork and then dry them on wooden framed screens in the garden for a couple of weeks if the weather is dry. I then continue to dry them in the storage room of the barn until they are firm and dry. The dry tops will twist right off then and they should be stored in mesh bags in a cool place.
The last of the green beans will be picked today. We had a great crop of " Filet Fin Des Bagnols" bush beans purchased from The Cooks Garden. What we didn't use or give away this year I tried freezing, since I am not a huge fan of canned green beans. The results look great. More freezing to be done today!

The Farm

We are a small farm located in beautiful central Vermont along the first branch of the White River. The Farm at Mill village is home to registered Old English Babydoll Southdown Sheep, a flock of chickens, three labrador retrievers,a tabby cat and one duck.I hope you will follow my blog and enjoy the day to day experiences of Vermont country living.http://thefarmatmillvillage.com