The Road Home

The Road Home
There is no place like home.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Final Harvest Meal

Well, the final harvest of the above ground vegetables has come and gone. We had our first frost on November 2nd. We harvested most of the vegetables a few days before and the last of the sweet potatoes on that day. The only thing left in the ground now are the red potatoes we planted to see if we could get a fall crop. They were bit back a little by the frost, but are still green and growing slowly for now.








We had a little bit of this and that, so I decided to make a meal of it. I brought in the first batch of sweet potatoes we dug and sorted out a few that were cracked to cook first. We don't usually add anything to our sweet potatoes, just peel, slice, cover with foil and bake.




We had just a handful of green beans, so I put them on with a dash of salt and a little bacon grease.
 


The first batch of lima beans we cooked up we did not enjoy. This is all I got from the last picking and this time I tried something different. This onion is sprouting and needed to be cooked. I had an abundance of peppers that needed to be eaten. 

And I had a little bacon in the frig. So it was time for another experimental meal. I fried the bacon then took it out of the skillet. Then I sauted the onion, lima beans and peppers with some salt and pepper. After a while I added the bacon and some soy sauce. It took longer for the beans to cook than I expected, so I put the lid on to let them steam a little.


It's rather eclectic, but here is our final harvest meal. The green beans were good. The sweet potatoes really didn't have much flavor at all and were rather disappointing. We hope the rest will taste better after they have had a while to develop more of their characteristic sugars. I read somewhere that sweet potatoes really aren't much good until they have been stored for a while. I tried to find that information again in one of my books, but haven't run across it again. The lima beans? Well, I will continue to go with my original assessment. Next year we will devote the time, space and effort into something that produces more and tastes better. Now who can I give those seeds to?


It is almost a relief to put the garden to rest for the winter. The days are now much shorter with the change in time and there is little daylight after coming home from work. We will be having one set of baby goats around Christmas time, so there will always be plenty to do. But for now, a little slower pace and time to get things organized and ready for winter is a welcome opportunity. There are some things we feel the need to complete and have ready for the coming months. What about you? Are you ready?

Until next time - Fern
  

5 comments:

  1. Had to laugh at your 'experimental' meal - my husband has been calling them "your mother is trying to kill me" for 33 years! We too are somewhat relieved to have the garden done with and get out the yarn buckets and quilt squares and fire up the wood stove! Love the season and the cold!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Salt pork! I just remembered that that's what my mother cooked the lima beans with. Your mention of bacon grease reminded me. I use ham hocks instead. She'd make a stew of the salt pork, beans, and onions. Now I realize why hers was so salty. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. Space related producing plants catch our eye. We had our final harvest meal yesterday with the last of our peppers and tomatoes that were really too small to can. Sweet potatoes are supposed to 'cure' to get the best flavor. Ours were too small this year to do much with so I just threw them in with peppers, regular potatoes, beets and onions in a roaster in the oven with olive oil and my favorite spices...ginger, cinnamon and pepper. We grew Hungarian Black Peppers this year and they were a total success, 29 to 35 peppers per plant, jalapeno sized and sweet but hot flavor. Not as hot as jalapenos but very nice. Black peppers ripening to a deep dark red. Beautiful purple flowers too. Just a success! We are so enjoying your blog.

    Fiona and Ralph

    ReplyDelete
  4. You can sprout the lima bean seeds & eat the sprouts or feed them to the chickens. Sprouts are quite nutritious.

    ReplyDelete