asparagus

baby asparagus!


the first raised bed, with its asparagus crowns in the back.


harvested baby asparagus. some of it got SO tall just from one day to the next. you really have to go out there and check them every single day!


as they got bigger, they got as big around as my finger


they really grow fast!


puppy and molly figured out they could just put their paws up on the edge of the raised bed and nibble on the asparagus.


i had to put a fence up.


darn dogs are too smart for their own good.

pulling up the beans and trellises, putting the garden to bed

i pulled up all the beans and the trellises


pulled out some of the tomato cages


some tomatoes still left


empty garden. beans used to be here.


tomatoes


brussels sprouts


asparagus ferns


ripening green tomatoes with the help of a couple apples (and a fruit fly trap lower left)

more garden pictures

The trapped watermelon. by the time i discovered it, it was already too big to pull back thru the fence.


Molly outside the garden looking in at me. She’d been sniffing at the trapped watermelon.


Regular watermelon on the ground


Zucchini


Broccoli is still growing




Baby cantelope


Cherry tomatoes


Amish paste tomatoes


Tomatoes growing tall


Cauliflower


The lettuce seeds that also sprouted some tomato seedlings and some other unidentified stuff (all the tomato seedlings have been pulled out at this point)


Stevia and basil


Asparagus and volunteer ground cherries

garden pictures

This bin was full up with shredded leaves last fall. I used them all for mulching my garden. i probably could have used an entire second bin as well.


newly mulched section of the garden


watermelon vines


cantelope vines


zucchini


onions


tomato plants


baby tomato


raised bed. you can see the tall fluffy asparagus in the back. in front is the stevia and basil.

pear buds and cauliflower and asparagus

pear tree buds




cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and broccoli newly transplanted into the garden.


my older brother was growing asparagus in planters at his townhome, and gave them to me. we planted them in my raised bed.

canning asparagus, beans, and pickle slices

on 7/28/12 my mom and i went to my brothers friends house to do some canning. his friend has a lovely kitchen, and i didnt take any pictures of it!



last weekend my mom picked me up and took me to the farmers market. we bought 5 bunches of dill and some smaller cucumbers. my brother and his friend picked up 8 large bunches of asparagus from sams club, along with pre-peeled garlic and a few green beans.

all ready peeled garlic, how awesome and time saving is that! we used about 2/3 of the bag.


five bunches of dill (last time we ran out, so we wanted to make sure we had plenty. we used most of it.


asparagus and beans


smaller cucumbers


pickle slicers! because my mom and i really enjoyed the ones we'd made two years ago (the last time we pickled stuff).


mmmm, pickles


dilly asparagus


ends and leftovers. they trimmed and discarded the raw ends off all the asparagus to clean them up. but then they had to cut another inch or two off the bottoms to make them fit in the quart jars. they made a jar of the ends last time we did this and they were just as good as the whole stems. so this year they pickled all the extra end pieces. and one of their friends really liked the pickled garlic, so they threw in a bunch of extra of that too.


we had one jar blow out. this happens occasionally with older jars. we also had one jar crack, but not come apart. it just didnt seal. this one dumped its guts all over the inside of the canner. at least it was the last round of jars.


pickle slices in back, dilly beans in front, asparagus on the right.


all told, we had
2 containers of cucumbers
5 bunches of dill
8 bunches of asparagus
2 bags green beans
1 three pound bag of pre-peeled garlic

we ended up with
9 pint jars of pickle slicers (minus one jar that cracked)
9 pint jars of dilly beans
2 pints cut ends of dilly beans
1 pt of asparagus
14 quarts of asparagus (minus one jar that broke)

our brine recipe was
5 cups vinegar
5 cups water
1/2 cup pickling salt

every pint got two smaller sprigs of dill and one clove garlic. every quart jar got two larger sprigs of dill and two garlic cloves.

the dilly beans and asparagus got 1/2 tsp cayenne, 1/4 tsp red pepper flake, and also a pinch of yellow and brown mustard seed. Then we put some dried jalepeno in too. thats for a pint jar, double it for the quart.