Considering the strange start to the year, our garden did surprisingly
well, not so for tree fruit though. Unseasonably warm in February &
March sent all the trees into blossom way too early, then some killing
frosts put an end to all chances of a harvest. We have just one
apricot tree, it produced zero fruit; 3 peach trees, they set about 8
peaches between them but tree rats got them before they even came
close to ripening; 4 pear trees, zero fruit; 3 sweet cherry trees,
zero fruit; 50+ apple trees, grand total of 6 Empires.
Yesterday we spent about 3 hours shredding cabbage, which is now
salted, pounded, weighted down and today there's already signs of
fermentation so, in 4 or 5 weeks we should be ready to process
sauerkraut, a bit over 46 pounds of it. Nothing beats homemade 'kraut!
Gerry was still feeling ambitious earlier today so she went out and
dug a bunch of Jerusalem artichokes. After washing they weighed in at
just under 3 kilos. We've tried various ways of cooking them in the
past, always with rather malodorous results but I've been assured that
pickled sunchokes don't have that result so that's what will happen to
them tomorrow. I hope you're right George 'cause I saved, and we're
using, the recipe you posted back in January 2012 entitled "Sunchoke
recipe as adapted by me to modern preserving". The cauliflower, onion,
green & red pepper will also be from our garden. Looking forward to
the results.

Ross.
Southern Ontario, Canada

On 11/1/2012 5:49 PM, Ross@home wrote:
> Considering the strange start to the year, our garden did surprisingly
> well, not so for tree fruit though. Unseasonably warm in February &
> March sent all the trees into blossom way too early, then some killing
> frosts put an end to all chances of a harvest. We have just one
> apricot tree, it produced zero fruit; 3 peach trees, they set about 8
> peaches between them but tree rats got them before they even came
> close to ripening; 4 pear trees, zero fruit; 3 sweet cherry trees,
> zero fruit; 50+ apple trees, grand total of 6 Empires.
> Yesterday we spent about 3 hours shredding cabbage, which is now
> salted, pounded, weighted down and today there's already signs of
> fermentation so, in 4 or 5 weeks we should be ready to process
> sauerkraut, a bit over 46 pounds of it. Nothing beats homemade 'kraut!
> Gerry was still feeling ambitious earlier today so she went out and
> dug a bunch of Jerusalem artichokes. After washing they weighed in at
> just under 3 kilos. We've tried various ways of cooking them in the
> past, always with rather malodorous results but I've been assured that
> pickled sunchokes don't have that result so that's what will happen to
> them tomorrow. I hope you're right George 'cause I saved, and we're
> using, the recipe you posted back in January 2012 entitled "Sunchoke
> recipe as adapted by me to modern preserving". The cauliflower, onion,
> green & red pepper will also be from our garden. Looking forward to
> the results.
>
> Ross.
> Southern Ontario, Canada
>
Our vegetable garden is still producing eggplant, cucumbers, and sweet
chiles. Harvested about fifteen chiles this afternoon and had eggplant
fritters for dinner. No peaches, no pears, no persimmons, no lemons.
Peach tree died from peach borers, pear tree killed by frost two years
ago, persimmons dropped after next door neighbor sprayed Roundup along
the fence line, also killed our quince tree. Both kumquat trees are
loaded with fruit again this year.

We didn't put in a fall garden due to the upcoming move so no cabbage,
broccoli, or chard. We need to harvest the sunchokes ourselves, may not
get to do so with the house closing getting nearer. May just leave them
for the new people. Maybe take a few with us to plant for next year, may
just go ahead and dig them, wash them, stash them and do pickles after
we're in a new house. Decisions, decisions.

The only way we eat 'chokes nowadays are as pickles. Absolutely no
problem with poison gas that way. Be very aware that fried, boiled,
stewed, baked, or raw things can get smelly very quickly. We had to
leave all the windows and doors open for a couple of days.<G>

Put a little pickle crisp in each jar according to directions, wait
three weeks and you've got some delicious mixed pickle. Ask Barb, sent
her a jar and she raved about them. That's special to us coming from the
jam, jelly, and pickle queen of Minnehaha Land.

In article >, Ross@home
wrote:

> past, always with rather malodorous results but I've been assured that
> pickled sunchokes don't have that result so that's what will happen to
> them tomorrow. I hope you're right George 'cause I saved, and we're
> using, the recipe you posted back in January 2012 entitled "Sunchoke
> recipe as adapted by me to modern preserving". The cauliflower, onion,
> green & red pepper will also be from our garden. Looking forward to
> the results.
>
> Ross.
> Southern Ontario, Canada

They're good, Ross!
--
Barb,
http://www.barbschaller.com, as of August 20, 2012