Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Seasonal Eats


With cool weather crops in full production we canned another 35 quarts of mustard greens. With 50 jars in the pantry we continue to eat it fresh and share with the chickens, rabbits and turkeys. I don't think I will can anymore but rather maybe plant a little fall patch of turnips for greens and roots. 


Now we can go out every morning and pick a hand full of something out of the garden. Today mustard, spinach, lettuce, peas, new potatoes, onion thinnings, strawberries and broccoli.


During the day it becomes lunch and dinner. This day it was a lunch of spinach salads.


Then for supper creamed new potatoes and peas.


Mustard greens and pork steak on the grill.


And those strawberries became dessert.


Nothing like fresh and seasonal vegetables and fruit. I don't know if we could ever return to eating from the supermarket shelves? Canning the surplus feeds us through the winter months and then some with plenty to share with the animals. 


It is work doing all that planting picking, weeding and watering.


What are you eating from your garden this week?




Blessings from The Holler


The Canned Quilter

16 comments:

  1. So not fair, CQ! I just ate breakfast and now you made me hungry again. lol

    Everything looks so good!

    So now you have me curious too. What do you buy from the store? We are buying the basic staples that we can't grow (spices, wheat, oats - although hubby wants to try wheat and oats) and a few fresh fruits and veggies here and there especially til our tomatoes come in.

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    1. Dairy, oats, some spices, sugar and the occasional vegetable although not many of them. Vinegar, corn starch, baking soda, alcohol and peroxide. The list of things that I buy outside of my farm gets shorter every year.If we raised our own dairy that would cut it way down but I am just getting too old to wrestle cows. Been there : )

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    2. Looks like our lists are pretty similar.

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  2. What time is dinner tonight? and I need your address. LOL Looks great!

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  3. Love this. It looks and sounds so wonderful.

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  4. CQ, I'm with Osage Blue Quilter, lol
    Everything you posted looks so inviting and wonderful.

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  5. I'd love your recipe for the creamed peas and potatoes! We're not harvesting anything yet although I've threatened to go steal some new potatoes! Maybe Hubby will let me by the time the peas are in.

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  6. The harvest from your garden looks like a picture in a cook book or magazine. Everything looks healthy and delicious. My Grandmother used to make peas and potatoes like that and they were really good. I think I want to move next door to you and maybe get invited for one of your delicious meals!! Heehee. Take care--------- Shannon

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  7. Creamed peas and new potatoes is a favorite of all of my brothers and sisters. To us it was always "harvest food" as it was always available at the same time we were cutting wheat. I'm currently picking all the greens (lettuces, spinach, swiss chard, etc), radishes, peas, broccoli, green beans, green onions, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash (yes, already!), apricots....I think that's it. Blackberries should be any day now. Everything is so early this year but I'm loving it! Here in KS tonight, we're having LOTS of storms moving thru--perfect! Hope you get some of this wonderful rain!

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    Replies
    1. I am sooo jealous that you have squash and zucchini already : )

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  8. Mrs.CQ do you share the canned/frozen greens with the rabbits? I have 6 little rabbits to begin our little rabbitry and I am curios to know how you and MR. O feed yours?i am new to raising rabbits for meat,is their a certain breed you both use? ty in advance:)

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    1. You know I have never tried to give my rabbits either canned or frozen greens! Give it a try and see what happens. I do pick greens from the garden for my rabbits as well as sharing any green weeds that I pull. Rabbits also like a green limb to chew on to keep their teeth trimmed and a little alfalfa hay from time to time. Don't forget the salt and mineral block also. Remember a larger breed of rabbit will produce more meat. If you are raising them for meat keep that in mind. We had a more expensive registered rabbit when Baby O was showing them for 4-H but now many of ours are just mixed breed larger variety rabbits. During extremely hot weather we fill old soda bottles full of water and freeze them. Every morning we put one in each rabbit pen. They lay on the frozen soda bottles to keep cool and lick the frozen bottle as it melts for the cool condensation that collects. It helps during the hot summer quite a bit. Don't forget that the bunny pooh is great for the garden!

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  9. What kind of salt and mineral block do I need to look for and do you give it in the winter or summer months?I'm thrilled to see that i am on the right path with the frozen Ice bottles and I add a few icecubes to their water bowls in the afternoons we have hit 95 degrees already,swooo, we placed the cages under a pecan tree, can they eat a pecan branch I don't have any apple trees planted here ..?They have eaten all the collards (shared with the goats) and we have moved onto corn leaves and cucumbers. I have also given them rose petals when I'm not in the mood to make Rose Petal Jelly.Their most beloved treasure I have found is their bananas we share when they are in the store for .39cents.Do you feed only from the farm or pellets as well? I am in love with the Pooh lol so easy to add to the garden ,question there do you add before planting or any time of the season as plants are producing?

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    1. Any feed store or farm supply that sells rabbit supplies should have the salt/mineral block. It is a little round disk with a hole through the middle that we wire in the cage for them to lick. Any green limb will do for chewing mine love mulberry branches to chew. I give mine pellets and a mixture of garden scraps and weeds along with a little alfalfa hay from time to time. An old amish farmer recently told me to feed my rabbits oats in the summer that they help keep them cool and corn in the winter warms them up. Have no idea if there is any basis to this but we are going to give it a try. Maybe mix a little in with their pellets. I add my rabbit pellets any time of the year. I think you cannot find a better fertilizer. Try making a tea with it and watch the plants grow right before your eyes it seems LOL

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  10. TY mrs CQ, will be working on all the advice you have given,it was all so needed , have a Blessed day:)

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