Couldn’t resist adding some of those freshly dug carrots to our menu last night! Roasted carrots and onions drizzled with local maple syrup, oven baked chicken fried steak with fermented raw ketchup, kale salad with onions, carrots and raw cheddar cheese tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette, garden potatoes with raw butter and home-cultured sour cream. All from the garden and local family farms!
Fall Carrot Harvest
We planted our second crop of carrots after harvesting our onions during the first week of August. My favorite variety...’Bolero’ is averaging 6 to 8 inches long. They are beautiful! We tried a new variety for our fall harvest, too! ‘Short and Sweet’ lives up to it’s name! Fat little carrots that are sweet, crisp and tasty!
Time To Harvest!
Brrr! It’s going to be cold tomorrow morning! We’re bringing in the last of our second planting of ‘KK Cross’ cabbage...and they are beautiful!
Raw Milk
If you look closely toward the top of this gallon of raw milk, you will see the line where the milk and cream have separated. In addition to consuming the milk, we’ll be making cottage cheese, sour cream, cheese, butter, buttermilk, ricotta and we’ll use the leftover whey in baking. The possibilities are endless! We have four gallons of raw milk in the refrigerator and we won’t waste a drop!
Napa Cabbage
Our first planting of ‘Rubicon’ Napa cabbage withered in the early season heat but our fall crop is picture perfect! Also known as Chinese cabbage...it’s delicious when eaten fresh or used in stir fries! It’s great for fermenting, too! This gorgeous head is on its way to becoming sauerkraut!
Homemade Mozzarella Cheese
Homemade raw milk mozzarella cheese. So easy and beyond delicious. This is going to happen again very soon!
Clear Creek Organic Farms
When I learned about Clear Creek Organic Farms I knew I needed to visit. The moment we arrived, I realized we had landed in a very special place. Clear Creek is located near Spalding, NE. It is owned and operated by Robert and Kristine Bernt and their twelve children. This family has an amazing work ethic and a strong belief in raising healthy, nutritious food. Bob graciously sacrificed two hours from his busy day to give us a tour of their facility while his family smiled and waved as they worked around the farm. Clear Creek offers raw milk and cream from their organic farm. Their herd produces A2 protein milk. Some people who have a low tolerance for dairy products are able to consume raw A2 protein milk. The Bernt family also produces butter (both raw and pasteurized/salted and unsalted), ice cream and amazing varieties of cheese including raw cheddar. Clear Creek has an on-site facility for processing the animals raised on their farm as well as a commercial kitchen. Bob shares my belief that heathy plants are raised in healthy soil. He sends his vegetables to a lab to be tested for nutrients. As an example, he shared the results of a test conducted on a carrot from his farm versus a conventionally grown carrot. The conventionally grown carrot tested high in sodium due to the amount of chemicals in the soil while his organically grown carrot did not. Two fistfuls of his soil contain over 22,000 living microbes that nurture the vegetables grown in his gardens. Bob uses a mixture of raw milk mixed with Epsom salts and sugar to prevent pests in his gardens...a practice we will be experimenting with on the flower farm. Clear Creek delivers their products through their coop to Omaha and Columbus. Visit their Facebook group...Clear Creek Coop (Omaha Metro) for more information. The coop delivers from spring to late fall and stops when milk production ceases. We would LOVE to have a Clear Creek coop established for Fremont! Please contact the farm or myself! If there is enough interest, maybe we can make that happen next year! In the meantime, I’ll be supporting this farm and family by making the occasional road trip to Clear Creek Organic Farms to purchase their amazing products!
Dehydrating Tomatoes
Just when we thought we’d have a small tomato harvest...they rallied! We’ve canned, frozen and fermented. Now we’re dehydrating them for use in soups, stews and tomato basil bread. Slice tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick and dehydrate at 135 to 145 degrees for about 24 hours or until dried. For long-term storage place dehydrated tomatoes in freezer safe bags or containers and store them in the freezer.
Pumpkin Spice
Pumpkin Spice with real pumpkin and real spice...fermenting for our Saturday class!
Container Grown Sweet Potatoes
We save valuable real estate in the vegetable garden by growing some of our vining crops such as sweet potatoes in containers. This year’s harvest is over 11 lbs. from two containers. We’ll save the smaller tubers for starting next year’s crop. In January, we’ll bury those tubers halfway in a flat of soil insuring the ends are covered. In time they will sprout and provide us the slips we need for next season’s harvest!
Still Producing!
Oh, my GARDEN goodness! Our ‘Jade’ green beans never let us down! We harvested last weekend and picked all of these again today...and they’re still blooming!
Lacto-Fermented Hot Pepper Sauce
Beautiful ‘Guajillo’ peppers on their way to becoming Lacto-Fermented Hot Sauce!
http://www.tlcinthekitchen.com/lactofermented-hot-pepper-sauce
Thankful For Another Harvest
As we harvest from the vegetable garden, we use that space replant. Sometimes we play a game of tag with Mother Nature’s idea of our first freeze date...but most of the time we’re rewarded by our efforts. Thankful for another harvest of ‘Snow Crown’ Cauliflower! More to come!
Freezing Tomatoes For Instant Pot Recipes
It’s the day after our Fall Open House and I have two card tables filled with very ripe tomatoes in need of attention. I use this fast and easy method to get them into the freezer for future Instant Pot meals such as ‘Sue’s From The Garden Instant Pot Chili’ and ‘Sue’s Instant Pot Bean And Bacon Soup’! Simply wash, core and cut the tomatoes into pieces and place them in a gallon sized freezer bag. It’s a good idea to place the bags in a baking dish until frozen and when thawing to contain any liquid that may come from an accidental tear in the freezer bag. When you are ready to use the tomatoes in a recipe just thaw and crush them!
Hoping For A Fall Garden?
Hoping for a fall garden? Get a head start with these ‘KK Cross’ cabbage and ‘Snow Crown’ cauliflower plants...only $1.00 each. Fall Open House September 6th through 9th. Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9 to 5 and Sunday from 10 to 4. Locally grown pumpkins, gourds, squash and other farmer’s market goodies from one of our favorite farm families...The Fitzkes! Local raw honey, freeze dried florals, furniture, garden art, vintage treasures, lots of succulents and beautiful fall-blooming mums grown right here on the flower farm! Bring your camera! We have some great places to get fall photos of the kiddos and the hummingbirds are having a blast out here!
An Afternoon’s Harvest
A colorful and delicious afternoon harvest! There’s more cucumbers under there too! 🙂
It’s Salsa Making Time!
It’s salsa making time! This fermented, probiotic-filled recipe is a favorite at our classes and it’s fast and easy! Happy Fermenting!
Honey Fermented Garlic Cloves
It’s time to prepare for the upcoming cold and flu season! Honey Fermented Garlic Cloves help lessen the effect of colds and viruses....even keeping them at bay! It takes about a month for this ferment to be ready so now is a great time to get started. Use caution if purchasing heads of garlic. American grown garlic will still have it’s roots attached. Garlic imported from China and other countries will have had it’s roots removed. Peeling garlic cloves can be a tedious job but we personally avoid pre-peeled cloves since we’re not sure what they have been rinsed in to inhibit mold growth. Fremont’s Hy-Vee carries beautiful heads of garlic with large cloves that are easy to peel. Their produce manager assures me this is the only variety they sell. We have local, raw honey coming to the shop sometime next week. If you need some before our open house please send me a message and we’ll arrange a pick up time for you!
http://www.tlcinthekitchen.com/honey-fermented-garlic-cloves
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Our first hill of potatoes weighed in at 5.3 pounds! That means there should be over 200 pounds of home-grown garden goodness under all these vines! Garden tip: We use a vintage wire egg basket to harvest our root crops then wash the produce outside with a garden hose. Less of a mess in the kitchen!
From Farm To Freezer
From farm to freezer! This year’s last order of chickens from our friend and neighbor. If you’d like contact information for 2019 send me a message!
