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August 2020 Garden Update

August was an eventful month in the garden. In the beginning of the month, I pulled a tomato plant because of fungus. On the 27th, I pulled my cucumbers from the fabric pots. They began forming very misshapen fruits, and the leaves were dying off rather fast. I also planted radish seeds that day in the two open fabric pots and in the free rows of the raised beds. They already have decent sized sprouts, and the rainy weather helps too. I noticed several of my tomatoes had blossom end rot, but I added some crushed egg shells and with lots of rain in the forecast, it had only happened to 3 tomatoes. Finally, I also ordered garlic to be planted beginning to mid-October. I tried to grow garlic last winter, but I really had no idea what I was doing, so they didn’t make it through the freeze. Finally, I’ve also begun trying to root a pineapple top. And, I found a volunteer pumpkin vine by the house.

I’ve also been thinking extensively about the garden for next Spring, Summer, and Fall. Josh and I plan to build 2 more 8X3 or 4 beds. We plan on placing them by our baby peach tree and we plan to place lower maintenance plants there, though I check on my garden at least once a day. Beans grew really well for us this year, so we plan to grow more green beans. We bought heirloom garlic from MI Gardener, so we plan to grow 3 varieties. We didn’t have much luck at all with tomatoes this summer, so though I’ll be more careful next year to water more often and soak them, I plan to up our quantity to 10 tomato plants with 2 heirloom varieties. I’d like to grow bell and banana peppers next year, potatoes and sweet potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, and more onions, but this time from seed. And, once garlic in harvested in July, we’ll wait about a month or so, and plant some peas. We are ambitious, but this summer has been such a blessing to us that we’d love to have even more fresh veggies next year! We would plant zucchini, yellow squash, or eggplant, but my in-laws always grow lots, so we help absorb some of their excess. Finally, we contemplated more carrots, growing celery, and beets, but we’d like to grow the garden in increments that won’t overwhelm me, and hopefully doubling in size won’t be too much.

This summer we also got quite a bit of seed from our garden. The radish seed pods below is about 1/2 the quantity I got from about 4-5 plants I let go to seed. It took me about 3 hours to break and filter out the seed, and I easily have 100-200 seeds. I also got 3 onion flowers from my sets this year. They formed seeds, but I want at least one other variety, so I will also be buying a packet of seeds. Finally, as I mentioned, my green beans have been doing great. We were harvesting once a week, but just Monday when I was harvesting, I found about 3 pods that were drying. So, I also got 12 new seeds from that, and I will now be harvesting beans twice a week until they slow down. I also am letting my lettuce go to seed, though we’ll see how far they get before I turn my beds.

August 18

August 27

September 1

Plants Outside the Garden

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Garlic Shrimp Fettuccine with Green Beans

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Fresh pasta is completely different from store bought. If you don’t have to time to make homemade for this dish, I recommend using a higher quality pasta, which is usually sold in nests. The texture of the pasta makes this dish. The onion flavor is an under tone of this dish while the garlic is the real star. The tender yet firm green beans add fresh flavor, and the shrimp pairs wonderfully with the garlic and green beans. Top your serving with grated parmesan and enjoy this rich and flavorful meal! This recipe makes 5 adult sized servings.

Garlic Shrimp Fettuccine with Green Beans Recipe CardDownload

What You Will Need

  • 4 Cups Cooked Fettuccine
  • 1/4 Cup Butter
  • 2 Tbsp Oil
  • 2 Cups Cooked and Thawed Shrimp
  • 1 Small Onion, Diced
  • 3 Garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 Cup Green Beans
  • Large Frying pan/Dutch oven
  • Tongs and Wooden Spoon

Directions

  1. Prepare your ingredients as listed.
  2. In a large frying pan, melt butter and heat oil over medium heat. Add diced onion and cook till fried. Add garlic and green beans, cook for 1-2 minutes.
  3. Add cooked pasta and shrimp to butter mixture. Cook together for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and serve.
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Homemade Pasta – Fettuccine

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Homemade pasta takes some time, but it’s so much better than store bought or boxed pasta! Homemade pasta has texture and substance. This is the same pasta recipe I used for ravioli, however instead of making squares, we made strings. I also saw afterwards that it’s easier to cut the pasta by rolling it first before cutting, so make note. Making nests is also important, though I didn’t do that. When I cooked my pasta, it held the shape it was in, so it had lots of awkward bends and twists than would have been present if i just make them into nests. Finally, form into 4 nests, because this recipe makes 4 adult sized servings.

Homemade Pasta Fettuccine Recipe CardDownload

What You Will Need

  • 2 Cups Flour
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 Tbsp Oil
  • Rolling pin and knife or pasta roller
  • Flour to dust
  • Optional Saran Wrap
  • Optional Freezer Bag

Directions

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or on a clean counter, add flour. Add the eggs and oil, and mix until it becomes a shaggy dough.
  2. On a floured counter, knead the dough until it comes together. It is a drier dough that should not be sticky or wet, you may add a bit of warm water if it won’t come together.
  3. Wrap in saran to roll out later. You can also choose to roll out the dough now. Using a rolling pin, or a pasta roller, make the dough less than 1 cm thick. Use a pasta cutter attachment, or flour both sides thoroughly, loosely roll, then cut the dough into pasta. Shake out pasta then hang on a pasta rack, or form into nests. Cook nest(s) for 30 seconds to 1 minutes, or place nests into freezer bag, seal and freeze.
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Meals Without Refrigeration

This weekend, Josh and I were looking at an end of season camping trip. As the weather was getting colder, we decided it was now or never for finally going on a summer trip. We chose not to, but I did lots of research, and below that I will have a list of refrigeration free meals and snacks. This is not only a good resource for future camping trips, but it’s a good idea to have some of these items in storage for the next possible natural disaster.

Meals

  • Cereal with Evaporated/Powdered Milk
  • Oatmeal with Evap./Powdered Milk, with dried fruit
  • English muffins with Butter or Jelly packets
  • Bagels with Butter
  • Muffins, Banana/Pumpkin Bread
  • Canned Meat Sandwiches/Soups (Tuna, Chicken, Ham/Spam, Salmon, Clams, Etc)
  • Boxed Mac & Cheese
  • Canned Pasta (Ravioli, Spaghetti Os, etc)
  • Canned Soup (Condensed Chicken Noodle, Vegetable Beef, Chicken and Rice, Etc)
  • Spaghetti with Red Sauce
  • Cheesy Chicken Casserole, make in a pot over fire, and used canned chicken, exclude cheese if don’t have shelf stable
  • Tuna Salad Cucumber Boats
  • Buffalo Chicken Sandwich
  • Fried Rice with canned veggies/meat
  • Tuna Noodle with Evap./Powdered Milk and Canned peas

Snacks

  • Peanut Butter on bread
  • Crackers, Chips, Nuts, or Cookies
  • Pop Tarts
  • Fresh Fruits/Veggies
  • Apple Sauce
  • Granola Bars
  • Trail Mix
  • Fruit Cups/ Canned Fruit
  • Muffins
  • S’mores
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Carrot Top Pesto Shrimp

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To see my recipe for Carrot top pesto, click here! When I froze this pesto, I didn’t add any parmesan, so if you are using store bought or even your own homemade pesto, please note that I did not add double the cheese. Also based on flavor, add some sugar or salt to flavor the sauce before adding the pasta.

This pasta is easy and straight forward, pasta, pesto, and shrimp. I didn’t strain my pasta in a colander, and instead used a slotted spoon to transfer the pasta to the pesto. I then boiled my shrimp for 1-2 minutes before using the same spoon to transfer them to the pasta mixture. I boiled my shrimp because I bought precooked shrimp, and at the time I hadn’t thawed them, so it was a great way to warm them up. If you will be doing that yourself, just be careful not to overcook the shrimp. Shrimp is fully cooked when it forms a “c” in shape. If the shrimp looks like an “o” then is will be over cooked, and tougher to eat. This recipe made 4-5 adult sized portions.

Carrot Top Pesto Shrimp Recipe CardDownload

What You Will Need

  • 2/3 cup Pesto
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan
  • 1/2 Tbsp Sugar
  • 1/2 cup Pasta Water
  • 1 1/2 cup Rotini Pasta
  • 1 1/2 Cup Shrimp
  • Large frying pan
  • Large sauce Pan & Colander

Directions

  1. Use the large frying pan with 1/2 Tbsp oil to cook any raw shrimp, 2 minutes per side in a hot pan. If using cooked and frozen shrimp, place your shrimp in a bowl with cold water for 5-10 minutes to thaw then strain through a colander.
  2. Fill a large sauce pan 3/4 with water and bring the water to a boil. Add rotini and cook until al dente. Reserve pasta water before straining.
  3. In a large frying pan, add pesto, sugar, and parmesan. Heat over low heat and combine.
  4. Add cooked pasta, cooked shrimp, and pasta water to pesto. Stir together and heat for a 3-5 minutes over low heat. Serve immediately.
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