Friday, August 14, 2009

Local Bounty

As many readers are aware I have limited outdoor space and only have 163 sqf of raised beds to grow veggies in. I have enough space to grow produce for immediate consumption but lack the space to do any major preserving from the garden. One day I will live in the country but that is in the distant future so for the time being I turn to local produce for preserving. Below are photos of the produce we purchased today and a short write up of what its future holds:

Here is 7 litres of baby cucumbers, they are about 3" long and 1" wide. I will be turning them into baby dill pickles this evening, should be a late night!

Here we have 9 large field cucumbers, I think they call them slicers in the States. They will be made into sweet green relish at some point this weekend.

These are your standard high bush blueberries and there is 6 litres of them. Tomorrow they will be washed, dried and divided into freezer bags for pies, muffins etc.

Here we have the best blueberries you can find. They are wild blueberries that grow on low bushes up north. They are about the size of a small raisin and have a very concentrated sweet blueberry taste. They are also rather pricey at about $12 a litre(quart). These will also be washed, dried and froze tomorrow for muffins, pancakes & cereal.

Well out I also took a few photos of the county and animals:

Over grown tractor

Goat eating spent corn

Goat, I think? He was a friendly guy.

6 comments:

  1. The billy goat in the last picture looks like he is smiling! I adore goats. Wish I had more acreage so I could indulge in keeping a few of them along with some chickens!

    The pickling cukes look superior and the blueberries too. Yes we call those slicing cukes in the states. :)

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  2. You're going to have a lot of dill pickles, Dan!

    When I make that relish, I slice the cucumbers in half the long way and take the tip of a spoon to scrape the seeds out. It goes really fast that way. I think I have enough sweet relish now to last me about 3 or 4 years!

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  3. Wow that is a lot of cukes for pickle making. I so adore dill pickles. I ought to go out and see if our wild blueberries are ripe. I'm guessing they have all been picked by the local wildlife though. The winter moths are eating the flowers of of the blueberries so we don't get many.

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  4. kitsapFG - The billy goat had just looked up at me, I wish I was a little faster with the camera. The cucumbers were very nice, not so nice to clean the field dirt off each one though.

    Granny - Last year I made the same 7 litres(quarts) of dill's and we have two left. So we have well over a years worth now. Thanks for the cucumber prepping tip. I'll be using a food grinder as well but now that I think of it they probably have alot of big seeds in them. I am going to double your recipe to make 8 pints and I think I am going to sub more cucumber in place of the onions & peppers.

    Daphne - Aren't the wild ones the best. My first taste was from a bush growing over a huge piece of granite ledge by Quebec. I later found out that's were you find rattlesnakes! They have figure out how to cultivate them up north so they are much more available at the farm stands now in the south. My favorite is buttermilk pancakes with wild blueberries, yum.

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  5. Rattlesnakes in Quebec ? Nah …
    Quebec is reknown for its blueberries ! Lac-Saint-Jean area is a huge producer. (We commonly call anyone that comes from there a ‘Bleuet’ (blueberry).

    The meadow is simply lovely Dan. I love a country setting. The goats are adorable.
    Happy pickling !

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  6. Those blueberries look so yummy!

    We've got raspberries blooming... now that I significantly reduced the grasshopper population.

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