The past week has been busy putting up the harvest. We don't grow much more than what we can usually eat fresh or easily give away because we don't have a deep freeze. This year's harvest, especially the broccoli leaves and the plums (they fill a gallon bucket), was abundant!
Broccoli and leaves have been blanched and frozen.
The last of the apples are now applesauce. Two pounds made 3 pints.
The first batch of plums are now low-sugar jam. I expect there will be 2-3 more batches. I didn't even come close to using the entire gallon of plums.All the carrots and beets have been harvested. Neither did as well as I had hoped, but they are still very usable.
The carrots only grew to about 1-2 inches each and will be a good side dish for us at least twice. The carrot greens grew to about 16 inches tall. I juiced them (they smelled like fresh cut grass!) and froze them in small disks using my muffin pan (because I think I donated all my ice trays so I didn't have to keep storing them!).
The beets were oddly shaped but several were a good size. All looked beautiful inside and the greens were so tender. I juiced the beets and the greens and froze them like the carrot greens.I know, you're probably wondering what I do with the frozen juice. I make a juice blend of carrot, celery, beet, spinach, ginger, apple, and greens (carrot and/or beet) nearly every day. I call it my "Go Juice" because it keeps me from running out of steam mid afternoon around 2pm. I'll defrost a "green disc" overnight to mix in with my Go Juice. MMMM... BTW... Go Juice smells like dirt and ginger.
sounds like Dr. Oz's green drink. What kind of juicer/blender do you use?
ReplyDeleteJoey & Hailey gave me a Breville for Christmas last year (after I blew up 2 other ones!) I love it!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of that brand. We've been looking at Vita-Mixes and Blend-Tecs. I like that Blend Tec lets you control more than the Vitamix, and that it isn't as tall, so it will fit on the counter better.
ReplyDeleteHailey says it one of the best for the money. I love it b/c it runs so quietly. The pulp comes out really dry (which means it's doing a good job capturing the juice). If you can, find one with a reset button or a good wty on the motor. Food sometimes jams and you need to make sure the motor doesn't fry easily. The first one I had would just stop the motor if a jam happened. That was good. The second one only got one jam. It killed the motor instantly and permanently. No reset switch. This one has a reset. Mine is big and bulky. It won't fit in any of my cabinets when assembled. I don't care. I use it almost every day anyway so I leave it out on the counter. I just need to make a cover for it!
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