A Garden Harvest You Won't Believe

Yes. From our two new blueberry bushes, the harvest came up to exactly 1 tiny but incredibly delish blueberry. ONE.

Other crops are producing just fine. Oddly, yellow squash is outperforming zucchini this year. Usually it's the other way around.

The garden layout as seen from the patio.

My experiment of potatoes in a bag is going astray. This bag has a hole. I am fairly certain the kitties have provided assistance in broadening the gap.

Volunteer sunflowers are in full bloom and are attracting families of goldfinch. The kitties have been warned that goldfinch are not on the menu. Starlings, yes. Goldfinch, no.

How is your garden growing?

The Old and the New - Mmmmm

Uh-huh. Created a great new recipe today. Using some older ingredients (from my summer garden) and some freshly purchased items.

Stuffed Autumn Squash
(See? I am still using up leftover squash from fall.)

Oven 375/425/400

Ingredients:
6 squash (smaller variety, acorn, delicata, or butternut); cut in half and cleaned
Olive oil
Salt
Fresh ground pepper

Place squash on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Cover with foil. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes. Notice to change the temp and up it to 425 for another 30 minutes. :)

Meanwhile...

Stuffing ingredients:

1 - pound ground turkey
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1-2 cups cabbage, chopped
Handful of dehydrated kale (from my summer garden; fresh would work as well); crunched
T. of crushed dried sage (from my garden)
2 T. Mrs. Dash or other salt free favorite herb mix
Freshly ground black pepper
Crushed peppers
15-oz can diced tomatoes
2 c. 1/2 and 1/2
2 cubes chicken bouillon (add to about 1/8 cup boiling water, mash)
Half a head of broccoli, chopped into florets
1 small bag of mixed frozen veggies (carrots, peas, green beans, corn)

Add turkey to large saucepan. Add some olive oil and brown. As it browns, add garlic, onion, cabbage, and spices. Add crushed peppers to your spice level. Angie likes it lotsa hot...

After meat is cooked through, add all other ingredients, including 1/2 and 1/2, tomatoes (include the juice), and chicken bouillon. Add more 1/2 and 1/2 if you need more sauce. Bring to a boil, stirring regularly.

Remove squash from oven and uncover them. Add scoops of stuffing to each, including plenty of sauce. (I had leftover stuffing, all the merrier for another meal).

Place uncovered back in oven at 400 for about 20 minutes.

Top with parmesan cheese (or your favorite choice). Mmmmmm.

Delish reheated.

Thinning the Herd

Yes. Thinning. The herd of kale. Which appears to be my best and most wildly growing plant in the raised beds. Italian red kale, in particular.

Kale capades.

The garden is a bit odd this year. Kale abounds. Radish abounds. Maybe zucchini and yellow squash. But everything else...kind of sad. I believe something is eating the seeds and seedlings as fast as they appear. Especially green beans, which I have planted 3 times and still have a few scrawny plants. Of course, since last year my friend gave me her pickled spicy green bean recipe and it was a hit. I don't think I'll have extra beans this year. Or any.

Back to kale. Not to be confused with Kale (Dragonspell female protagonist who rocks on adventure), or Kale (a preschooler I know), but kale - super food of current publications, health shows, and the cooking world.

I seriously thinned the kale herd. Thinking I was original, I wondered how good dehydrated kale would be (as in = sneak it into baked goods, soups, stews, salads, and so on). Just to check, I found myself in line behind hundreds of posts about others doing the same thing. Drats. Not original.

But for me, a first. The completely crammed dehydrator easily shrank my overabundance of super greens into a quart jar of crunchy powder. An added bonus was one blog that suggested that frequent use of kale encourages ongoing leaf production. A never ending supply!

Following the suggestion of Health magazine, we did Meatless Monday - on Tuesday. Kale, hominy, and black bean soup. Pretty tasty and spicy. I think I loved the roasted poblano peppers the best. Mmmmm.

Followed up by a fruit smoothie using banana, strawberries, blueberries, Greek yogurt, almond milk, and yes, the hidden ingredient, kale.

When asked this morning if he had tasted any kale in his smoothie last night, the husband replied, "Huh? I didn't want a veggie smoothie."

Translation: He LOVED the smoothie, but was surprised to find that I had pulled one over on him and added a surprise treat.

Still to be tried are kale chips (I've made them with store bought kale) and homegrown kale and sausage stuffed delicata squash. Which, incidentally, are also not growing well. Already tried so far: scrambled eggs and omelets with kale, various forms of soup including kale, kale on sandwiches, and kale in salads.

Just call me Greeny, the kale hunter.

Stir Fried Garden

Another delicious meal, compliments of my garden, God (the Grower), a few grocery store items, and leftovers from a BBQ. Oh, what to do?

Stir Fried Garden Beans & Zucchini
1 zucchini, sliced
1 yellow squash, sliced
10 or so small yellow tomatoes
1/4 of an onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 c. fresh green beans, whole
1 leftover BBQ'd sausage, thinly sliced
Olive oil
Fresh ground black pepper
Crushed peppers (to taste)

Add a few T. of olive oil to a saute' pan. Saute' onion and sausage. Add green beans when other is hot. Let beans begin to turn cooked green and add squash/zucchini. Let cook almost all the way (not mushy). Add tomatoes the last 2-3 minutes of cooking. Sprinkle with black pepper and crushed peppers. Eat warm. (We ate ours with multi-grain pepper jack cheese quesadillas).

C'est bon!