New Year's Day, 2008 - Snowstorm

A Happy New Year?
Hope so, Snowy New Year? Looks to be!

Wow. No kidding, we've gotten more snow already this season than we did the entire season of 2006 into 2007!

The snowbanks along the road are 6 to 7 feet high - making for dangerous driveway exits...

I snapped a shot of the sunflowers along the road. Most were taller than 6 feet just a few months ago, back in September. Check out how much taller the snowbank is than the old sunflowers!



















I also got a few photos of the Herb Garden which is surrounded by a 4 foot tall fence of chicken wire - you can easily see the snow level is above the 3 foot mark.



















It may be cold outside (24 degrees right as I type this) but inside, the wood stove has been going for over 24 hours and the crock pot is full of a new recipe I created with some Roman Beans and the house smells wonderful!






















The photo above shows a little of the orchard, but mostly the forest on the mountain behind it after the heavy snow.

Speaking of the Orchard... this is the magical 3rd season since I have brought these neglected trees back from oblivion.

I have been pruning and fertilizing them to hopefully inspire them to blossom in the spring.

2008 will be year #3, which most experts say is the amount of time in which the trees respond to the TLC.

We'll see if they're right or if I did it right...

:)

Charlevoix Bean Soup

Nothing is more rewarding on a cold winter’s day than creating a soup or stew in your crock pot.



















Last Sunday, I worked with heirloom organic beans from Seed Savers Exchange called Charlevoix Dark Red Kidney Beans -- "Prized for the tasty thick broth it produces in soups, stews & chilies."

I had a 12 oz. sample of the Charlevoix beans to work with, so here is my complete recipe.






































Ingredients:

1 12 oz. package of Charlevoix Dark Red Kidney Beans

1 12 oz. bottle of St. Pauli Girl Dark beer (or your favorite dark beer)

1 14.5 oz. can of chicken broth

1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes with green chilies

1 jalapeno pepper diced (optional)

1 large onion diced

1 head of orange cauliflower cut into 1 inch sections (plain cauliflower is fine)

1 head of broccoli cut into 1 inch sections

2 carrots peeled & sliced

2 stalks of celery chopped

3 cloves of garlic chopped

Notes:

For each can of chicken broth add 1 can of water.
For each can of tomatoes & chilies add 1 can of water.
Beef broth can be used instead of chicken, if you prefer.




















Preparation:

In a large sauce pan, Pour 4 quarts of boiling water over beans to cover with at least 4 inches of water.
Soak beans for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare crock pot by adding the following:
1 bottle of dark beer, 1 can of chicken stock with 1 can of water, 1 can of tomatoes & chilies with 1 can of water.
Set crock to “high” and prepare and add vegetables.

Slow cooked (recommended)
After beans have soaked for an hour, drain.
Add beans to crock pot. Stir once or twice each hour for at least 8 to 10 hours.
Set crock pot to “low” an additional 8 to 12 hours (usually overnight).

The longer you let the beans simmer in the crock pot, the thicker the broth will get—well worth the wait!

Faster cooking time
You may speed up the cooking time by preparing the beans on the stove:
Drain after 1 hour soaking and add fresh water.
Bring to a boil then simmer 45 minutes or until tender.
Add to crock pot and let cook for 2 hours.


Comments:

They weren't kidding when they said that the Charlevoix Dark Red Kidney Bean makes a thick & tasty broth - Wow, outstanding!

This is the fundamental recipe for all of my bean soups. I used one variety here but in reality, you can do multi-bean soups such as the 15 bean soup packages at your local supermarket.

I am planning to buy Charlevoix beans to plant in the 2008 garden. Hopefully they will do well so I can make more great soups next season.

December Brings Snow

The first week of December has come and gone. So too has "global warming" - ha!

The mild winter of 2006 was one for the record books, but it too is history. No such luck this year...

My trusty weather station has logged each frigid day from December 1st through December 7th and recorded a low of 6.4 degrees F on 12/06/07 @ 7:30 AM and the highest temp of the first 7 days was back on 12/03/07 @ 2:10 PM with a sizzling high of 34.2 degrees!

Today, 12/08/07, was somewhat tropical with a high of 38.7 @ 1:30 PM -- strange how after getting accustomed to a mean daily temp of 19 degrees it can feel "warm" at 38 degrees! Ah, but that's life in New England for you.

As of today, the gardens are asleep under a blanket of sleet & snow. Even dirt needs its beauty rest. Not much can be done outdoors anymore. The time spent at home is divided between reading up in the recent flurry of seed catalogs mailed to me, reading gardening books, cooking with the crock pot and keeping the fire going in the wood stove.

I'm already planning to break new ground in the spring. Simple strips of rotor-tilled rows will be made where the lawn mower once cat grass. Beans of every size and color will be grown next season.

The 2007 season focused on heirloom tomatoes. It was fun but not too productive. I saved some varieties of seed but haven't yet found the best type of tomato for here. 2008 will be Beans & squash.

I guess this isn't much of a post for the blog. But at least I got to ramble off some thoughts and weather data. Nothing really special for photos either, but at least this is something to look back on when December 2008 rolls around.

:)

Preparing For Winter

What a typical New England November gray day...

The weather is bleak, although my weather station data shows that the coldest it ever got was 32.8 degrees last night at 11:20 PM. Since then, it has been a steady climb up to the current temp of 41 degrees.
This got me into "Winter-mode" and I went outside to get a few much needed chores done.
First, I took-up the bamboo tomato stakes from two of the gardens. I will re-use these for many more years. The key is to store them each winter.

Next, I went around and emptied many hanging baskets and pots into the compost pile. The extra soil is great to mix with the table scraps & yard waste for next year's soil for these very same hanging baskets. I store them in the shed as seen above.

I've been watching how the Pac Choy (there're many different spellings - see link below) is doing and I'm amazed to see it so hardy & alive this far into the season. I had a lot of fun growing this Asian delicacy for the first time this year. As you can see, it's got yellow blooms all over the place. I tasted some leaves and it still tastes as good as the first leaves did harvested in July!

You can learn more about Pac Choy here:

http://theheirloomgardener.com/pacchoi.php

One last garden observation for today. The small corn patch (about 14 x 14 feet square) has finally died back and is ready to cut for holiday decoration. Up until about two weeks ago, this corn was still green when many other corn crops I saw in the Hilltowns were at this stage in the beginning of September.

In closing, it's great to spend some time outdoors but the best thing about that is coming back inside, adding another log or two in the stove and settling in for the rest of the day. A gray November day makes for a cozy day indoors as well!

:)

November is here!

Radishes in November?


Yes!

This variety is called "German Giant" which can grow as big as golfball-sized.

These were planted back on September 1st, and they're ready for picking as of today.

November is best described around here as "brown."

The colorful autumn leaves have moslty all fallen from the trees and their brilliant reds and oranges turn to brown.

The temperature got down to 28.5 degrees F. recorded at 7:35 AM this Friday morning.



I photographed a few today that were still covered with last night's frost - even though it was well past noon!

We've been getting steady frosts here for the last week - most notably, the first hard frost of the season hit on Monday, October 29, and the first 3-day consecutive run of hard frosts went from 10/29 thru 10/31 this year.