Grilled Zucchini!!!

In the last couple of days we've gotten about 5 pounds of zucchini from the garden.  We decided that we had to prepare it in our favorite way.  We grilled it!!!

Those slightly caramelized round slices of zucchini are delicious!!! Here's how we grill it.

Grilled Zucchini

•  Slice or cut spears from small to medium zucchini
• Brush both sides lightly with olive oil
• Season with your choice of seasoning (we use Canadian or Montreal Seasoning)
• Place on clean grill on medium or about 350 degree's
• Cook until both sides have heavy grill marks, the zucchini is soft and each side is caramelized in spots.

I like to season both sides of the zucchini, my family thinks this makes the vegetables too spicy so we should only do one side.  You'll have to try both ways then decide for yourself.

Enjoy and God Bless!!

The Garden on Mothers Day

This week we had a horrible wind storm.  I wasn't home at the time, my wife and son both were and were sure we had roof damage.  With the winds roof damage is to be expected and the damage we saw at neighbors was pretty bad, windows on cars were broken and one person had a cab over camper blown from one side of his property to the other.  Today I got on the roof to check the damage, only to find none, no cracked shingles, no missing shingles, nothing.  We were very blessed in this storm.

While I was up on the roof I took some pictures:

Happy Mother's Day

Relaxing in the shade on Mother's Day

The tomato's and beans are really growing.

The chickens free range and the goat pen is soon to be enlarged!!

We recently cleared brush down by the fence line.  You can see the brush piles.

We spend a lot of time out here in the evenings, it's on the east side of the house.

Garden Mid April

Yesterday we had to cover all the plants in the garden.  We were scrambling to find enough things to cover the plants and we didn't make it.  The beans, corn, yellow crook neck and zucchini that didn't get covered seems to have come through the frost alright, we had the tomatos and peppers covered, we also covered the grape plants with sheets.  Below is some pictures of the garden that Trudy took today.

The tomato's are here, we're trying something new and supporting them with recycled pallets.

Over here are beans, corn and summer squash.... there's a bunch growing but they're not showing up in the picture.

I don't even know if I like artichokes, but I want to try to grow it.  Did you know potentially you can get 50 chokes off one plant?

Sharon, we took these and posted these pictures for you...

Have a good day folks.

Gardening 2012

There's a lot going on around here.  I'll try to show some of it in pictures rather than a wordy blog post.

We had to renew our flock, because a predator carried off our original

 

 

Compost piles are getting started and/or turned

Jake helping turn a compost pile.... I need to get him off the pile, the boys growing like a weed.

 

 

 

Seeds are started and tended to by my lovely wife.

Meat is being canned, this is hamburger.  In the canner tonight is both turkey and ham.

Sauerkraut is being fermented.

The garden is being prepared.

Strawberries are growing, and there's a tone of berries growing on the plants.

Seedlings are being hardened off.

This is a blackberry plant I thought was going to die.

Elderberry, the coffee can was used to keep ants out of it.

Onions in a temporary home.  We'll replant some of them around the tomato and pepper plants to try to keep bugs away.

The watering system is going in.  We lay the soaker hose down, sow the seeds or plant the plants then mulch to keep weeds down and moisture in.

In this picture you can see that I moved the tomato supports to the west side of the garden.

Chomping at the Bit

It's now mid March and today the sun is out, the leaf's are coming out and and I can't plant.  This weekend the weather forecast is cold and rainy.  Maybe Tuesday afternoon we'll be able to plant.  We're going to try a three sisters type planting in one corner of the garden with corn, pole beans and squash planted close.  A quarter of the garden will be tomato's another quarter will be bell peppers, we are also going to have a lot of bush beans. 

We had winter stuff in the garden broccoli, onions, spinach, lettuce, that's all coming out and we are going to plant.  Most of the herbs over wintered pretty well and are growing now that the weather is warming.  The grapes are leafing out and so are the elderberry bushes.

Anyway I'm ready to get to planting and canning and producing.  I'm tired of the winter activities...

Desert Broom, Cement and the Garden

I have been remiss in posting over the last several days.  It all stems from trying to get ready for a craft fair that we went to on Saturday.  You see last week I was trying to get as many pens as possible done, and spending a lot of time in the garden or in the shop, so the thing that had to suffer was the blogging.  So here's a bit of an update.

Last Thursday night we grilled zucchini, I think I posted about that.  For that grilling I think we pulled seven zucchini from the garden.  Then Saturday I pulled two more from the garden, well last night we pulled eight out of the garden.  I think we're going to slice and fry some of them and slice and grill others of them.  We are probably going to end up drying a whole bunch of zucchini in the excalibur this season (again).  The cucumber plants have really taken off and are growing.  I need to get the support up for them to grow on.  The tomato's are growing, although not putting off a lot of tomato's yet and now that the hot weather has set in I'm not sure we're going to get many until September.  Although I might get surprised. (praying for the tomato harvest)

Yesterday we went to scope out a new farmers market, at which to sell our pen's and cutting boards.  It didn't look promising.  I'm still ruminating on whether to branch out to this one or not.  There we only ten vendors there and not many shoppers so not too much activity going on.  Once we got home from that we spent most of the afternoon in the house, as it was 100 degrees outside and the sun was intense, so it was pretty relaxing.

In the evening we went out work on another detail to Jake's fort.  It's gonna have a chin up bar connected to it.  To do that we had to dig a short pole out that was cemented in place next to it.   My wife and son had both worked on it last week while I was at work, and found it.... daunting.  I took a sledge hammer and crow bar and was able to break the cement away from the post and pull it out then pull the cement out in chunks. So that is done until I get cement to put the new, longer post in place.

With that done we started in on removing a desert broom stump.  I took the sledge hammer and crow bar and started breaking chunks off.  It worked pretty well until the head of the sledge hammer came off.  So now I have two things to stop at the hardware store for.  A sledge hammer handle and a bag of cement.

That's the update for now... sorry for no pics.

God Bless!

Grilled Zucchini

I never spell zucchini right so if I have it wrong in the article just pretend it's spelled right.   Two evenings ago after work my wife and I were in the garden and we looked at the zucchini's on the vine, they weren't quite ready, overnight someone must have replaced the vegetables, because yesterday my wife harvested seven fully grown zucchini's.  On my way home from work I had to stop at my parents to print business cards for our business and then and skeedaddled on home knowing those zucchini and my wife were waiting on me.  You see I love fried zucchini, seasoned just right then fried to a nice golden brown, however there's a better way to cook it.  If you slice the zucchini then brush on some EVOO and season it (I use montreal or canadian steak seasoning) then throw it on your grill it is a great treat.  During the summer we eat this all the time, and when I grill it I have to harvest and grill extra because I love eating it right off the grill.  Grill this up as a side for a nice steak or london broil cooked on the grill and you've got a meal fit for a king.  Be sure to leave the zucchini on the grill long enough for the sugars to caramelize and enjoy!!