Harvest Time = Hard Fun

August and September are two beautiful months to live in Iowa. Admittedly, this wasn't my first choice of location to settle in for the long haul. But when harvest season rolls around I'm practically elated to be living in the heartland. There is so much bounty everywhere you look. The sweet corn and melons taste amazing, tomatoes are ripening daily, green beans are producing like weeds, cucumbers make a crisp and refreshing snack on a hot afternoon. I can't grow all of this in my city garden at this point, but being able to take a short walk and buy sweet corn and a melon straight from the farmer off the back of a truck is pretty awesome. The biggest problem this time of year and is making the most of the harvest. This is the time of year when my garden is producing more food than my family can eat and there is so much variety available at the farmer's market. So canning and freezing all this freshness become regular activities in my house. This week I worked on freezing as much sweet corn as I could handle.

I bought a bushel of a sweet corn off the back of a truck which amounted to 5 1/2 dozen since she threw in an extra ear per dozen roughly. I naively thought I would be able to get it all frozen in an afternoon by myself. HA! I do tend to work slowly and methodically, but I think even if I sped up the pace it still would have taken me one full 8 - 10 hour day, at the end of which I would have been pretty grumpy. When I put on some good music, work in batches and take breaks however, I find the whole process pretty enjoyable. 

There are a couple of ways to freeze corn. This is the method I adopted. 

I work in batches of six ears at a time because this is what my pot holds comfortably and this is also the amount that I need for my two favorite recipes. I shuck several bunches of six ears before I begin so that I'm not held up by the shucking later. I boil the whole ear for six minutes and then plunge them into ice cold water for at least 8 minutes, but it wouldn't hurt leave them in the ice water longer. 

When I pull them out of the ice water I dry them off on a towel and begin removing the kernels. For some of the batches I freeze the kernels on a cookie sheet before I bag them up so that they are not all stuck together and it is easier to remove a small amount. Other times I remove the kernels straight into the bag and freeze it. This usually results in one solid, flat brick, but like I said, for some recipes I use all six ears. 

I really like this method of freezing. When the kernels are removed after the blanching process I get to "milk" the cob by running the back of my tool up and down the cob and all of those juices and bits stay with the corn. When the kernels are removed before blanching you lose all of that yumminess in the boiling water and then some more in the cold water bath. I have had sweet corn that was frozen by the latter method, however, and it was still pretty darn tasty. 

Here are my two favorite recipes using frozen sweet corn. 

Summer Corn Chowder With Bacon

Adapted from the June 2004 Bon Appetit by Hannah Levitz

Make 6 servings

6 slices bacon, chopped

6 cups fresh corn kernels (cut from 6 to 8 ears)

1 1/2 cups chopped celery and onion

1 cup cubed russet potatoes

3 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth

1/2 cup almond milk or goat milk for the lactose intolerant, or whipping cream for the lactose tolerant

2 tbsp fresh herb of choice

Saute bacon in large pot over medium high heat until crisp and brown. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Add celery and onion and a dash of kosher salt to the drippings and sauté over low heat for until tender and translucent and the juices released by the salt have reduced, 10 - 30 minutes. Add corn and potatoes and sauté for about 5 minutes. Pour in 3 cups broth and simmer uncovered over medium heat until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Use and immersion blender to puree soup in pot or transfer to a blender. Stir in milk or cream and season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with bacon and herbs.

*If you don't want to use bacon, you can omit it all together and sauté the vegetables in oil and butter. For some crunch at the end try adding some chopped toasted walnuts.

Real Creamed Corn Pudding

Bon Appetit, Nov. 2009 by Amelia Saltsman

*I didn't make any adaptations to this recipe, it is perfectly delicious!

Makes 10 - 12 servings

12 ears of corn shucked and pureed in a food processor or blender

4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, divided

2 cups chopped onions

1 cup chopped celery

2 1/2 tsp coarse kosher salt, divided

4 large eggs, separated

1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream (we use soy sour cream in our house)

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat over to 425F. Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a 10 - 12 cup large cast iron or other skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onions, celery and 1/2 tsp coarse salt. Saute until tender, but not brown and juices are reduced 10 - 30 minutes. Scrape mixture into bowl and wipe out skillet. 

Whisk egg yolks in large bowl 2 minutes. Stir in corn mixture, onion mixture, creme fraiche OR sour cream, 1/8 tsp pepper and remaining 2 tsp coarse salt. Whisk egg whites in a medium bowl until stiff, but not dry; fold into corn batter in 2 additions.

Place remaining 2 tbsp butter in the 10 - 12 cup cast-iron skillet or baking dish. Transfer to oven and heat until butter begins to brown, about 4 minutes. Brush butter over inside of skillet. Add pudding. 

Bake pudding 15 minutes. Reduce over temperature to 350F. Bake pudding until set and golden, about 30 minutes longer. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before serving. 

This is my favorite side dish at Thanksgiving. It is magnificent! 

Happy Harvest!

Green Beans Are Growing . . . Finally!

This year I planted two rows of pole beans. One row of Cherokee Trail of Tears beans and one row of Blue Lake. I planted them half way around each of eight tomato cages. My garden is relatively small and I wanted to plant lots of tomatoes this year so that I would be sure to have enough to can tomatoes to last us at least half way through winter if not longer. This didn't leave me much space, so I had to let go of the bush beans and plant pole beans. I used the tomato cages as the support. I'm still waiting to determine if this was a good idea or not. So far, the beans and tomatoes seem to be existing well together, if not a little too crowded. I know the idea of interplanting is definitely not new. I have just never read about tomatoes and beans being partners yet. However, if there is one thing that I have learned about small scale gardening, it is that one should not be afraid to experiment. What have you got to lose!? The bean plants have been growing well all summer, but it wasn't until very recently that I started seeing those beautiful blossoms - that sign that fruit is not far behind!

It's no surprise that, yet again, I find something in my garden to be extraordinarily beautiful. . . But how can you not . . .

Most of the beans growing today are still very small. I did find two that were full sized and I quickly plucked them off the plant and ate them while I was snapping away. It was a little taste of heaven. 

Photographing Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

 I have been obsessed with photographing my sungold cherry tomato plant this summer.

It's a bit ironic since I don't love eating them. I grow them for my son and to share with neighbors.

They were the first tomatoes to ripen and provide the burst of color that I had been waiting all summer to see in my garden. 

Watching them ripen is musical. One can almost hear the crisp clear notes as each tomato ripens down the line. 

The color is so saturated and delicious.

Will They Ever Ripen?

Like everything else in my garden, my tomatoes were planted much later in the spring than I would have preferred.  It had been so cool and wet and the kids kept us busy with end of the school year activities. Now I have gorgeous, healthy looking 4 - 6 ft tall plants with loads of blossoms and several green tomatoes. It seems like the tomatoes that are visible have been green forever. This morning when I went out for my daily garden survey, it seemed like a few were beginning to blush, but it's entirely possible that I'm simply willing myself to see color. I'm growing more and more anxious. I feel like I'm not fully enjoying summer cooking and eating yet without fresh tomatoes from the garden. I bought a few from the farmer's market when I was entertaining, but it made me a little grumpy to have to spend money on tomatoes when I have a garden full of large, healthy plants. For now I'm enjoying photographing the blossoms and baby tomatoes. 

Texture, texture, texture. I love it!

I planted at least ten different varieties of tomatoes this year.  From a distance the blossoms all look pretty much the same, but when you get up close you can see the little differences between each plant. They are so subtle. 

I love photographing my sungold tomato plant. I'm not a true lover of the cherry tomato, but my son devours them. I plant a bush in the corner of the garden each year and he snacks on them while he is playing. It is beyond satisfying to see him pluck them off the plant and pop them into his mouth. No concerns with food safety here! 

Watching the sungold cherry tomato plant bloom and grow is fun. It's like nature's little assembly line. The blossoms develop in succession down to the tip of the stem and before the last blossom opens tomatoes are already growing fat at the opposite end. Watching them ripen is even more beautiful as you see them progressively change from green to deep orange on one stem. It's harder to photograph that action though, since my son usually gets to the ripe ones before I can get there with my camera.

My sungold tomato plant. It is always fun to step back and take a look at the whole plant before or after looking at the macro shots. It looks like an overwhelming mass of leaves, but there is so much beauty upon closer examination. 

My Cucumbers

I planted my cucumbers pretty late this year. Our spring in eastern Iowa was cool and wet. Every time I had the chance to plant, the soil was too wet to work with. . . and inevitably when the soil conditions were just right for a 24 hour period, I was too busy. I did manage to get them in, but now I'm anxiously awaiting the first blossoms and fruiting. I'm trying a different variety this year. On a whim I bought a packet of Holland White Cucumbers from Seed Savers Exchange (SSE). According to the seed packet it was first offered by Glenn Drowns in the 1995 SSE Yearbook. It promises that the cucumber has sweet, crunchy flesh and that it scored near the top for flavor in an evaluation of 200 cucumber varieties conducted in 2009. That all sounded good to me.

When I stop to look at my cucumbers I note how they are growing, how healthy they look, and if there are any pests that I need to worry about but the patch itself always looks like a jumbled mess of leaves and vines. So I love to dive in a little deeper and look at the nooks and crannies.  I'm always pleasantly surprised with the abundance of beautiful shapes and forms within the plant, even before the beautiful yellow blossoms begin to appear.

There always seems to be an explosion of activity at the end of every vine.

I think the texture of the plant is amazing.

The shoots that the vines send out to grasp anything within reach to assist in the climbing of the plant form such beautiful curls and twists.

When you focus your attention you get to witness the birth of the first flower. The plant's promise that something even more exciting is happening. 

The leaves of course, are also incredible. 

Baked Brown Rice with Sweet Potato and Kale

I planted some lacinato kale in the garden for the second year in a row. Last year I didn't have too much luck with it. We go through a lot of kale in our house, however so I figured growing it was worth a second try. I have been harvesting kale steadily for two weeks now. I'm glad I didn't give up.

We like to juice it, add it to smoothies and cook with it. One of my new favorite recipes is Baked Brown Rice with Sweet Potato and Kale. It is delicious and colorful and the kids eat it without complaining. I like to double the recipe and freeze one for later. It's not much more work and you reap twice the reward. Win, win!

Baked Brown Rice with Sweet Potato and Kale
*Adapted from Baked Zucchini and Rosemary Risotto in Healthy Gluten-Free Cooking by Darina Allen

3 cups brown rice of your choice
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 large onions, finely chopped
4 or more garlic cloves, minced
1 large sweet potato, peeled and shredded
Kale, choppped - enough to equal 8 cups when combined with the shredded sweet potato, at least one big bunch
6 medium eggs, beaten
7 tablespoons almond milk
chopped fresh thyme to taste
8 oz. mozzarella or other cheese of your choice

2 - 8 in. springform pans

Prepare the springform pans by brushing with olive oil and lining the bottom with parchment paper cut to size.

Preheat the oven to 350

Cook the rice according to package instructions. When the weather is warm, I like to make the rice the night before and chill in the refrigerator until I need it. This keeps my kitchen a little cooler and makes the preparation go that much quicker the next day.

Heat enough oil to coat the bottom of a heavy-bottomed saucepan and slow cook or sweat the onions with a small quantity of salt on medium-low heat. You can do this for roughly 15 minutes or as much as 30 minutes. The longer the better, just be sure that they don't brown. They should be soft and translucent. Add the garlic near the end and cook for a minute or two.

Add the sweet potato and kale and a little more salt. Cook on high heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Remove the sweet potato mixture from heat and let cool slightly.

Mix together the beaten eggs, almond milk, thyme, a little salt and pepper. Combine the egg mixture, sweet potato mixture, pre-cooked brown rice and mix in shredded cheese. You can save some shredded cheese to sprinkle on the top if you like.


Separate the mixture evenly into the prepared pans and bake approximately 50 minutes or until the surface is golden brown.

Cool for 5 to 10 minutes in pans. If you are going to freeze one, let it cool completely and then wrap in wax paper and cling wrap and store in freezer. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

I like to serve this with some fresh salad greens and toasted raw sunflower seeds or walnuts. 

I also love to sauté mushrooms with some red wine and a splash of balsamic vinegar or white wine with minced garlic to spoon over the top. I still top with some toasted nuts or seeds because I love the crunch that they add to this softly textured dish. 

My Pear Tree

I planted a Dwarf Everbearing Collette pear tree approximately 4 years ago. Watching it grow has been relatively uneventful. I have never seen beautiful blossoms in the spring and the two pears it produced last year were a complete surprise that were discovered by my middle daughter when she plucked them from the tree well before they were ripe. I actually haven't been expecting too much from this tree since from my brief research I was lead to believe that a different variety of pear tree was required for good pollination. We haven't had a chance to clear a space for a second tree yet, so I figured we would just be growing something akin to a poor shade tree until we could make time to better groom our yard.

This year has been very different!

When I saw the tree covered in blossoms I thought maybe this would be all the excitement for the year. I didn't think the blossoms would actually pollinate with no other pear trees nearby. 

However, now the tree appears to be covered in gorgeous baby pears! I'm trying not to get too excited for a nice harvest of fruit since there are always so many variables in the gardening season ranging from invasion of pests to weather, and in my case - eager children. 

For some more information on the Everbearing Collette, this blog has a nice description of the fruit:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/homesandgardens/2009/09/collette_pear.html

Here's hoping . . . .