Tomatoes cooked = ketchup

Wow for our tomatoes! This has been a good year even though we had the blight.  I must say that trellising tomatoes has been a challenge this year.  I did not pick the suckers off of the plant and so, there were shots all over each plant that didn't get support.  Next year, I will give each plant more space for appropriate air circulation and better support system.

Now to make ketchup or not ! that is the question 

Farewell Vinnie

Vinnie was my beloved Bunny rabbit. He was a rescue from a nature center in VT. He lived with us for three years and now he has gone to pet heaven (I guess). HE had complications with his digestive system and died with me.  I made him a flower garden in the garden and buried him there. That and the fact that I am busy at work have kept me for posting more info about the garden.
Nevertheless the garden is doing well. We just got wood chips to do the paths in the garden and we have been also clearing some of the trash and raspberry canes that lived around the perimeter of the garden. It looks and feels way better !

Beans of all types and colors!

Soybeans 

Black turtle beans 

Royal burgundy bush beans

Yellow and green bush beans 




















This year we are growing soybeans, green beans and storage beans. 
The chipmunks ate some of the soybeans soon after I planted them, however, some of the soybeans sprouted and now they have pods on them.  I have to wait until the pods swell up a bit more before I can pick them.
The black turtle beans are for storage.  It is best to let the plant flower, set pods, fill up and die.  Then I will thresh the collection of plants and collect the seeds, that is before the chipmunks get to them first.
The other type of beans, you want to eat them before the pods fill up. You can dehydrate them or can them for storage.  We are eating them fresh now. 

Pecueca

Pecueca is our chicken that has gone to a better location with 

other chickens and a place to stay warm in the winter 

Chao pecueca!

On the other hand, we had the best pizza of the season so far,

Thin crust 

olive oil, garlic and basil as a "sauce"

fingerling potatoes, onions, tomatoes and buttercup squash

yummy

cooked at 500 F for 15 minutes 

Early harvest

Garlic drying inside our cabin underneath the 

stairs 

Tomatoes, eggplant and husk cherries 

New potatoes !

Fingerlings, red potatoes and blue potatoes

Food outside of the garden

I love the fact that we are living off the land in so many ways.  We have been growing our food and harvesting our wood for the winter, and now comes the best harvesting time of the year for me.  Wild mushrooms, more specifically, chanterelles. These are my favorite mushrooms to gather in the late summer.

I found quite a few around our cabin. They like to grow near water and in a mixture of evergreens and deciduous trees.

I collected them and the best way to keep them is to dehydrate them for 3 - 7 hours at 125 Fahrenheit