Catching up on Shares and Immune Foods

I've been so immersed in earth plastering, processing tomatoes and making pickles I forgot to update last weeks share. Not much mystery in it's contents: Dill, montana cucumbers, tomatoes and every type of onion from the garden. We're still eating chard, mizuna greens, kale and the final round of peas but seeing that most have had their fair share of the above mentioned greens we're focusing on filling you up with the warm season gems.

Week 18's share is tomatoes, some spaghetti squash, parsley and more onions. We've officially filled the 20 weeks of shares in 18. Thank-you all for a wonderful, supportive season. We'll be including a request list in the winter for things you'd like for us to potentially try next season and what you cared for this past season and didn't taste for too. It's a challenging grow season here but we're always trying to improve and adjust.

Well, I've been canning diced tomatoes to create with later this winter. We found the last time we canned copious amounts of salsa that we tired of the flavor come March. This time we'll jazz it up as we open them. Chutney's, pasta sauces, soups and salsas and other delightful tomato creations. We've also been dehydrating then freezing the tomatoes just in case all the moisture did not escape. I was hoping to freeze more whole tomatoes but the bags and bags of frozen bok choy and chard are taking up too much space. Good greens are hard to come by in the winter so we're prepared. Did you know most plants in the Brassica Family have more Vitamin C than Oranges? The greens were hiding 2 gallons of Huckleberries. Alright!

Today I made some delicious garlic butter. An easy recipe that can be modified with herbs like parsley and sage or try something sweet with lemon and anise. Pre-made lavender butter is perfect for cookies too.

Garlic Butter

Melt 1 stick of butter in sauce pan

Add 2 Bulbs of Minced Garlic(about 8-10 whole cloves)

Heat on low-avoid browning then pour into wide mouth 8oz mason jar.

We added it to mash potatoes during lunch and stir fried chard and spinach in it. This evening we spread it on tapioca/millet biscuits. My sense of smell has disappeared the last 2 days but this actually trickled in.

With the weather shifting Elderberry Syrup was on the Agenda yesterday. Daily dose around here is at least a tsp and when under the weather 3. Come winter we drizzle it on Huckleberry waffles. mmm....

How to Make Elderberry Syrup
3 cups Fresh Black Elderberries or 1 cup dried
3 cups water
1 cup local honey

Bring water and berries to a boil then cover and simmer for 30 minutes
Mash berries and boil and additional 5 minutes

Strain through a fine mesh strainer or jelly bag overnight or for at least 8 hours for Juice to develop
Add Honey to the Juice

Add Juice of One Lemon to Preserve
Bottle and Refrigerate

We used fresh berries that we harvested a few weeks back and froze and Just by chance I discovered freezing is the easiest way to shed all the berries from the stems. They simply fall off with a little shaking. We spoon are Flathead Honey from their gallon tub. Bees are simply amazing.

The Fall Garlic Crop goes in next week. We're trying for 1000 hardnecks and 1000 soft necks but won't really know for sure till we crack the bulbs.