Night, Night, Garden...Sleep tight

Farmer Jeff put the garden to bed today. He has been spending the last few days cleaning out the various irrigation systems, the green plastic mulch, the tubing we used for growing green beans and anything else that needed to be removed. As you can see in the photo above, he is roto-tilling the earth and tomorrow will plant "green manure", which is a nitrogen fixer.













On Tuesday and Wednesday, the last of the peppers, chiles, and tomatoes were picked. Farmer Jeff carried bags of peppers to the outdoor kitchen where they were sorted for either grilled, sauces or pepper jelly.



Starting 4 years ago we have been making a fiery Salsa Ranchero with the last of the tomatoes, peppers and chiles. The very first batch was roasted in our oven but all subsequent batches have been roasted in the wood burning oven. I think Farmer Chef Jeff gets the biggest thrill when harnessing fire to cook with. What a guy thing!

Once all of the items were roasted together, he took them to work where he pureed them and added some seasonings. He called to tell me this was a fiery batch. NO KIDDING. We poached eggs in them this morning and boy, howdy! Talk about hot!!! For those of you wondering, we also had whole grain pancakes and Farmer Chef Jeff's Molasses Cured/House Smoked Ham!

We grilled/roasted the anaheim chiles on our big grill and then we peeled them. We will freeze them and use them through out the year, until we have next years harvest. Yesterday Farmer Chef Jeff made 5 cases of pepper jelly, in his spare time, of course!

We have been so pleased with ourselves this week. Not only did we plant and grow a bigger than usual garden, we have done everything we could, and have succeeded, in preserving the harvest!Before we let any more time pass, we would like to formally introduce Erik, the Sebright Rooster, to you. He used to be a hen named Lacey. Isn't he darling?