After the usual morning things, my garden fairy and I went to a nearby friend's home and picked the rest of her Concord grapes. She had used all she wanted and offered. It was fun and we came home with about 25 pounds! I will wash, stem and figure out what to do with them. Stay tuned for that. Here are some of the grapes. :)
After we got back, we went out into the garden and picked everything that needed picking. Here are pictures: This is a Marina di Chioffia winter squash. (More about this later.)
Tomatoes, of course...:
Some smallish winter squash and a honeydew melon:
I couldn't resist digging up one the sweet potato plants!
I had some onions drying out there.
Zucchini squash:
Cucumbers:
Peppers:
I dug a small bucket of potatoes to use.
Ok, so now about the squash. It weighed 24 pounds. The bugs had started getting to the stem, so we decided it was time to take it in before it starts to rot. The only way I could figure out to cut it open was to use my hatchet. So, here goes!
That was not enough. I went and got my hammer to help cut all the way through.
At last!
Here it is on a baking sheet in the oven. It took nearly 2 hours at 350 F before it was all tender.
Before baking, I scooped out some of the seeds to save for next year.
Here it is out of the oven with a knife sticking in it so you can see it's very tender. It was also sweet and delicious! I ate some with butter, mashed.
On to the sad part of the day. We have/had a young rooster. He became a very enthusiastic breeder and hurt 3 of my hens, because roosters grab the feathers on the back of the hen's neck. My Buff Orphington hens are very docile, and they were getting the worst of it. See this poor girl?
We've been dealing with this for a few weeks now and made the decision today that our poor, beautiful boy was going to become dinner. :(
Here is the garden fairy, plucking his carcass:
I roasted him in my clay baker with a peeled onion inside of him, poured melted butter and salted and peppered him and sprinkled on some ground poultry seasoning. 500 F for 45 minutes Here he is, cooked.
I had to remove the drumsticks before putting him in the clay baker, so he'd fit. I have to say, his meat was a little tough, but quite delicious.
So, now I have a lot of produce I need to deal with. It's a wonderful blessing to have too much food. We had squash and chicken for dinner. I didn't expect that. Much nicer than the salmon burgers I had planned.
I really enjoy seeing your harvested vegetables, and of course how you prepare them. I do not think I have ever heard of that squash. We have decided we need to keep a simple garden journal to remember when/how/where we have planted, so as to improve each year. Thanks for the visit!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Melynda. We bought the seeds for that squash from this company. They carry only heirloom seeds and publish a fantastic catalog.
Deletehttp://www.rareseeds.com/
I'm always amazed at the amount of vegetables you harvest from your garden in just a day. That squash looks kind of creepy, like it has tumors all over it. Weird... I'm sorry about your rooster, that is sad. :(
ReplyDeleteIt is rather amazing, actually. I made a lovely pie from that squash for dinner for tonight. We had the missionaries over. Everyone loved it. I also froze enough for probably 8 or 10 more pies last night. And we also ate some of the squash for dinner last night. There was a lot of food in that one thing!
DeleteAll our homegrown chickens seemed dry after we cooked them, so I'm thinking that a brine might moisten them. The ones we get from the store usually have broth added anyway.
ReplyDeleteLove the harvest!
Hello Yolanda, So nice to see your vegetable garden bounty. It was funny to see that huge pumpkin, it made me think of the way my mom taught us how to cut a pumpkin as large at yours. Here it goes: You hold the pumpkin with your 2 hands as high as you can, and right in the middle of the kitchen, throw it to the floor, the pumpkin will crack from the fall. And then it will be easier to cut. I have not idea where does she got that idea. But it works! :)
ReplyDeleteThat is really funny. Thank you, Mely! Next time I'll do that!
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