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Within the confines of this blog, you will find bits and pieces of the life and times of myself, my family and friend dear and near., far and wide, few and far between. You will find bits and pieces of my world, tho small to some, but huge to me. You will find everything from 'soup to nuts',; recipes, hobbies,crafts, gardenings,loves of my life, GrandLoves-a-Plenty, and even my pets... Sooo, if you can handle family life, enjoy the tour of my 'Stuffings'.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Waning Harvest

First, let me thank you for your concern and prayers.  My hand is  healing and I'm able to type again, no more ' one finger dar,  ' so I'm Baaaaack!  

Let's begin where we left off...harvesting the garden.
We have already made a first batch of Saurkraut a few weeks ago.

 These 7 cabbages weighed in at a total of 66.75 lbs. of bounty.  This 10 pounder was one of the smaller ones, but prettier :).  I think it would have taken a blue ribbon at the fair.
 Five of the seven were used in the second batch of kraut, filling a 6 gallon Redwing Crock and half a 5 gallon bucket.
I could not believe I could only get 3 heads in an average laundry basket as I cleaned them.  They were huge and heavy.
 Once again, we are handing down tradition, teaching one of the Grandsons how to ' stomp.'  Grandpa told him to wash his feet so he Did think he was going to be ' stomping ' the old fashioned way.  We love his curiosity and desire to learn.
 This sure juiced up nice.  It looks like it's going to be another stellar  ' kraut ' performance.
 We've been very happy with the cabbage growth this year.  It has produced some large, solid, jjjjuicy heads.
 The first batch yielded 23 pints.  One did not seal so is in the fridg for first use, and another was sent home with a neighbor, when he said, " Oh, I see you're making saurkraut. "  Of course, I gave him a taste.
 The onions have been drying off in the garage on an iron grate.  Bill picked the ones in his garden ( those with the greens on them yet ) a bit too soon, but they were beginning to spoil with the damp ground.  
 We spent some time today, rubbing the outer dirt and skins off, cutting the dried tops off, and bagging them.  What you see here is about 45-50 lbs. of beautiful yellow onions.
 The onions will hang in the garage until it freezes.  It will give them time to dry a bit more, and loose some of their strong smell.
Some of these are so strong, they make your eyes water just walking past them, but they sure are tasty.
 How about these for some collassal veggies!
The tomatoes are ripening beautifully.  They are so large, firm and not a blemish.  I love a tomato slice that is big enough to cover a slice of bread, or my hand.  Now, that's a tomato!
 This celery that came directly out of my very own garden is amazing.  It stands tall in my high-backed patio chair, just to show you how well it grew.  
I grow the celery with a 2-liter pop bottle around it with the top and bottom cut off.  It keeps the stalk clean from the dirt splashing up on it during rains.  The bottle also keeps the stalk from toppling over during growth, and keeps the ribs lighter.
The flavor is more intense, so I mainly use mine in soups, stews and as flavoring in salsas and relish.  Personally, I don't mind an intense flavor, so Ants On A Log, ( peanut butter topped with raisins on a celery rib ), suits me fine.
Thanks for stopping by and staying a bit interested.  It makes my day.  I love reading your entries in return.  It's amazing what we learn from one another.  What a wonderful thing.
BlessYourHeart

9 comments:

jack69 said...

So glad you hand is better. I'd hate for Wild Bill to have to 'stomp' all the cabbage!!!!
It all looks so good. i do love all the green veggies you have but, but I LOVE the beautiful tomatoes. Onions also. I don't think any of mama's onions ever made it to a bag, she grew only a few and I think I ate half of them when they were young as I was heading to the river to fish, with a pint jar of pintos in my overall pocket. ahhaha.
Beautiful entry. I know it is a secret German recipe held in the head of Mr. 'O', and passed to the daughters.
Love from Bangor, ME

TexWisGirl said...

thanks for the memories of saurkraut! :)

Paula said...

Glad your hand is better. Those onions look straight from heaven. I put onions in every thing. I like a tomato slice that covers the bread too. I can take or leave the sour kraut but I sure like Waldrof Salad.

RURAL said...

I love blog posts that are informative, and teach me something. Oh and all that yummy kraut, oh yum.

The celery trick is wonderful.

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

imac said...

So pleased your hand is healing and what a show of veggies too.

Remington said...

Yummy! I wish I were at your house!

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Girlie, SO SO SO SO good to hear from you... Sorry to hear about your hand...

Your veggies look awesome. That is alot of cabbage... AND--I love seeing that celery and those onions.. You are making me hungry!!!!!! ha

PLEASE keep on coming back.

Hugs,
Betsy

Anonymous said...

Unlike the rest of my family, I adore cabbage and would eat cole slaw every day of my life!

Cicero Sings said...

So glad your hand is better. I tried making kraut once. Disaster. But I don't think my cabbage was juicy like yours (I only tried to make a littlbe bit). I too learn things from your post ... like how to grow celery for instance. I don't know if celery would grow in my area our growing season is so short. I'm not even harvest carrots yet. What little carrots (size wise) I have will stay in the ground until just before the snow flies as they keeper better there. Same with my puny potatoes. My soil really needs something! I'm doing the mulching thing this fall and hopefully that will help. Keep the worms busy all winter.