Junque Yard - oh happy day!

Yesterday I got to go to my favorite local garden center, Milaeger's. I almost wish it was a national chain so that you all could experience the goodness that comes from them, but at the same time, I haz a happy that it's mine. ALL. MINE! Muahahahaha...

It's a small family owned nursery with 2 locations both close to me. In the spring and early summer when they put out their plants, I get all giddy and stuff.

I went yesterday afternoon, because I couldn't make it to the local farmer's market in the morning. It was pouring, and my back was hurting too badly to make that trip. At least at Milaeger's I can lean on a cart.

Anyway, my budget was $20-30, and I was looking for some of the less common food plants that I like to grow, that I don't have seed for. For $29, this is what I picked up:

a Stevia plant. If you've ever chewed a leaf, you'd be surprised how sweet it is.  Stevia is the herb from which Truvia comes from. It's an herb found in South America that has been used to sweeten things with no extra calories. I bought 2 last year, but due to having hand surgery last fall, I wasn't able to pick and dehydrate the leaves like I wanted to.  I fully intend on doing that this year.

a chocolate mint plant. Why by mint when it's it's so invasive you ask? Well, chocolate mint smells wonderful. And I grow it in containers so that it doesn't invade the rest of my gardens. I honestly don't do much with it, except sniff it. It makes me happy.

a Pineapple Sage plant. It really does smell like pineapples.  I bought one last year, and put it in a pot, but it didn't last very long. I'm determined to keep one this year. It said it's a perennial, but hardy only in zones 8-10, so I can't keep it out in the herb garden, but I'm hoping to keep it alive and bring it into the house come fall.

A yellow bell pepper and a purple bell pepper plant.  My bell seedlings are taking forever to show some growth. And most of them didn't even sprout this year. I think seeds are too old. Besides, most of my bell peppers are green to red...and I luuurve the purple (or chocolate) bells. They have a unique taste. They yellows just taste great, and since red, orange and yellow peppers are so blinking expensive in the stores, I'm hoping to get a good crop of them so that I can freeze and dehydrate some.

Another patchouli plant. I bought one for my mom last year, and amazingly, it's still alive (we really abuse our indoor plants by forgetting to water them regularly). But it's sparse, and I wanted to add another one and help it bush out. I think it will benefit from a summer outside.  If you like the smell of patchouli, get one of these plants, they actually smell great, and are not overpowering like patchouli oil is.

One banana pepper plant, because the 'nana seeds I started didn't propegate well. I'll have to pick up some more so that I can do my usual pickling of banana peppers. They are so good, we put them on almost everything. Especially pizza. I've even got my mother liking them. HA!  :)

And lastly, I got a sugar snap pea, because I didn't start any earlier. I'm hoping it's not too warm, and I get a few snap peas. I love them long time.

We also got a 5lb bag of Yukon Gold seed potatoes. I can't wait to get those in the ground to start them a-growing. Yum!  We did red potatoes last year, and still have some left over. They've sprouted, so we will probably plant some of those too.

I just don't know where we are gonna put all this stuff!  Such a problem to have, right?

More Musings from the Junque-pile

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday was rainy and muggy as all get out. This morning dawned chilly and sunny. I'm not even sure it's supposed to make it higher than 70 today. I'm happy for not sweating, yet sad that autumn is coming. Me no likey da cold weather.

Things were busy yesterday despite the rain. daHubster pulled out the potato cage and spent a good chunk of time *carefully* digging up our potato crop. Those little guys have very delicate skins. Since this was our first year trying to grow potatoes, we weren't sure what to expect when we dug them up. Would there be a lot? What size would they be.  I was actually pleasantly surprised with the amount of taters he pulled out of the ground. And they were all shapes and sizes, from the size of a pea to the size of an orange!  There was quite a lot, too...probably about 10 lbs worth. Not bad for a $1.50 investment of seed potatoes, planted about a month too late. They are currently wrapped in burlap in the basement. Everything I've read about potatoes says they need to dry for about 2 weeks.

Yesterday I hit the farmer's market hard for more peppers. since my little guys didn't produce the luscious amounts of bell peppers I wanted, I wanted to supplement them with the gorgeous, ripe reds, yellows, and orange bell peppers that the market is offering right now.  I found one vendor that must have had a bumper crop, and was selling orange peppers 3 for $2.00. Reds and yellows were 75 cents each. BARGAIN!  Peppers are still around $3.00 in the grocery store. EACH! That just gets my goat. I spent a few hours chopping my load of peppers for the freezer yesterday afternoon, plugged into my iPod.

I also pruned my basil plants, the leaves were starting to fade, and I didn't want to lose the whole thing. I love the dried basil. I used it all winter in soups and sauces. This year I planted Purple and lemon basil in addition to Large Leaf. I think next year I will stick to just the large leaf. The lemon basil smells great, and the purple is pretty, but I think I prefer just plain old basil. I wonder if I threw some more seeds into the basil pot if I'd get another small crop before it gets too cold for them outside. Hmm...

I also bought some more bunches of green onions that I also chopped and dehydrated (outside) overnight. Green onions are so pretty in their little air tight glass containers when they are dried. And tasty too. I threw a handful into some scrambled eggs for yesterday's breakfast. Delicious.

End of summer is my favorite time. I've fallen in love with putting food away for the cold months. Figuring out bargains, then chopping, drying, canning, freezing...it's all good!

Junque Yard & Junque Food

I feel like it has been forever since I updated here.  I haven't because there hasn't been anything Earth shattering going on around here. My knee is healing well, and I'm off crutches and the cane I downgraded myself to last week.  So that makes me happy.

Yesterday I bought tons of veggies at the farmer's market - green onions to dehydrate, more garlic (homegrown tastes so much better than what is in the store, I cannot recommend it highly enough), more banana peppers (mine are still producing, but not the quantity I got last year, and I am running out of jars of pickled nanas at an alarming rate), cukes (I'm getting tons of flowers, but not so much are actually fruiting) for pickling. I keep picking and using the bell peppers I have, so they aren't turning red on the vine - however, I found a vendor that had an over abundance of orange and red bells for 75 cents a piece - SCORE!  Those will be chopped and frozen for putting into dishes.

My biggest score, and here's my nuttiness showing, was a 10 lb box of Michigan blueberries. A greenhouse I pass by on my way to work everyday has been advertising the blueberries for a couple of weeks now, and I realized that if I wanted to make jam and freeze a bunch for the winter, I had to get them NOW. So I did.

Now, I'm staring at the bounty in my kitchen, and wondering WTF was I thinking? Good thing I have tomorrow off, Imma be processing all this stuff for freaking ever.

I have my mother coming over today to help with the processing, which is greatly appreciated.

I have a friend from out of town coming over tomorrow, which makes me happy, too...She can yack at me while I'm chopping and canning.

It's a great thing that I work better under pressure. I have to finish cleaning the house, and then just dig in.

I couldn't be happier.  :)

To my East Coast peeps, I hope that Irene does you no harm. Take it easy out there...

Junque Food - Sunday meal

DaHubster and I have long been talking about buying meat locally from the farmer's market we frequent. The prices are more expensive than at the grocery store, but as we are wanting to try to eat more local it makes a bit of sense. Local farms produce grass fed meat, which is supposed to be healthier for you and the animal. Smaller farms have more expensive overhead than commercial farms. I get it. We are even rebellious enough to want to "stick it" to the government that dictates what and how we eat, even if it means paying a little more for it. Those of you who talk to me during the week have heard my political views ad nauseum, and I won't bring that hear. Sufficiet to say, we want to try locally grown meat, particularly lamb, which is claiming a premium in the grocery stores anyway these days, so why not?

There's a vendor at the farmer's market we go to who sells beef and lamb. They freeze it solid and take it in coolers to sell instead of taking orders one week and have their customers pick it up the next week. We discussed it amongst ourselves, wondering if we should try some lamb, and initially decided against it this week. Then changed our minds when the blueberries I'd wanted to buy for jam weren't available as I thought they would be. Hubster actually went back to the market to get it. Unfortunately, they were out of lamb steaks by that time, so he picked up 2 lamb shanks. Neither one of has cooked it, but the seller told DaHubs to cook it long and slow. He thought that meant indirect heating on the grill, more so than how you would cook a steak, but I had doubt. Calling on my best friend in the world, the internet, I saw that long and slow for lamb shanks really meant braising in a dutch oven for HOURS. The meat is tough. Looking around for recipes, I finally settled on this one. I figure if I have to cook it for hours, why heat up my house for it? So, the crock pot it is! this recipe has all the goodness we love in food: garlic, onions, more garlic, tomatoes, etc. It's going to be a hit, I just know it.


I also have a garden bounty salad marinating in the fridge of cucumbers, hot nana peppers, onions, and carrots. YUM.

I will let you know how it comes out.  :)