There must be something in the water this year

or the weather, or all the manure, mulch, etc that we've added to the garden. The veggies have been going nuts. Officially the "veggie freezer" is full and there's still a bunch of stuff to wedge into it - what a terrible problem to have. ;-) 
Travis dug a hill of potatoes last night for supper and this is what we got. 

Over seven pounds of potatoes...

 including this sucker which weighed in at over two and a quarter pounds. 

 

Liquid Sunshine

Peach Jam!

Busy little bees

Yesterday we worked like these guys, 

and now all the hay is in, stacked and tarped. 

 

Fast Food

On  tonight's menu...Gnocchi with pesto, zucchini and cherry tomatoes. 

This is one of those 15 minute meals and features zucchini and basil from the garden, and cherry tomatoes from Whites, the local greenhouse where we get all  of our tomatoes until ours are ripe. 

Our tomatoes?

They're on their way.

Back to the recipe. Pesto is easy to make, it's just a matter of getting good ingredients - they'll do the work for you. I think it might actually take longer to type the recipe out than it takes to make it.

I used a mortar and pestle, because Travis gave me a big gorgeous one, but you can easily use a food processor or blender.  

Crush two or three cloves of garlic with a bit of course salt, pick the leaves off a big bunch of basil and grind them up with the garlic. Toast some pine nuts and then toss them in and keep grinding, add some good olive oil and then some good (as in real) Parmesan cheese and finish grinding it all up. I like mine when there are still some little chunks of cheese - a bit on the "rustic" side.  And that's pesto. 

Put a pot of water on to boil and saute some zucchini in a  bit of olive oil.  Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.  When the water boils throw in a bag of pre-made gnocchi that you bought at the grocery store, or use pasta. The gnocchi only take 2 minutes to cook, which is one of the reasons why I like them. 

When they're done, throw them in with the zucchini, add the cherry tomatoes and then toss in the  pesto. Stir it around till it's mixed together. Done. 

Picking favourites

While I'm pleased with all of the lambs we've produced this year, it's hard not to have favourites. 

Here she is. 

Here she is with her twin sister and her mother FLK 354T. They'll turn 3 months old on August 5th.

Weed Control

Field with weed control.

Field without. 

 Oxeye daisies - a whole lot of them.

Our weed control.

 

 

Fast food

A little something I threw together the other night. It took about 20 minutes tops, to make and that included a trip out to the garden.

I call it...

BBQ'd rib eye with a warm salad of greens and new potatoes...cause that's what it is.

Why? Because we are over run with greens right now. It doesn't matter what's for dinner - greens come with it. The other night I was feeling especially creative and came up with this on the fly. Here's the "recipe".

Barbecue a steak (or any other protein you've got kicking around).

Cut some little baby potatoes in half and start frying them in a pan with a bit of duck fat (or any other fat/oil you've got kicking around. Note to self - cook another duck and replenish duck fat supply. 

Finish the steak and let it rest. Resting it means you won't be running in and out the door trying to watch it and the greens all at the same time AND the foodies swear it gives you a better steak. I'm still on the fence about that part.

Head out to the garden and thin one of the "greens" rows. Right now that means beet greens, chinese greens, or chard. It's all the same. It's all green.

These won that night

While you're out there, pick a few green onions, or if you are lucky like us, pick a few wandering onions. 

Wash the lot and chop it up.  

When the potatoes are tender, throw in the greens and onions as well as some salt an pepper. Toss them around a bit to wilt them, then add some red wine vinegar and some maple syrup to taste. You're looking for a sweet and sour kind of dressing and not a ton of it. 

Pile it on a plate, put the steak on top and your done. Looks great, tastes great, and there's only one pan to clean up.