Wow! There has been so much zucchini in the garden!! If you need me to show you were it is, please stop by I will show you where to look. There are golden zucchini and the traditional green zucchini. They both taste the same to me.I hope that you are all enjoying the bounteous harvest we are being blessed with.  Here is a yummy zucchini bread recipe using white beans! So yummy! It comes from Dealstomeals.blogspot.com  Check out all of the other recipes she has to try using this yummy vegetable!

Let's start with zucchini bread. Many recipes for zucchini bread is dry, flavorless and not worth the calories. I love our recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread, but I think I have finally perfected the cinnamon, more traditional version of zucchini bread.  What I did was I took my mother in laws AMAZING banana bread recipe and just swapped out the banana for zucchini, added some cinnamon & a few cinnamon chocolate chips. It worked perfectly and was buttery, sweet, moist & delectable! Want a healthier version? The second time I made this I used 1/2 of the butter amount with pureed white beans and I even liked it better! It was still just as moist, but stayed even a little more light & fluffy--all with half the fat. Bonus!

Zucchini Bread
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter (or 1/4 c. butter & 1/4 c. pureed white beans)
1 c. shredded zucchini
4 T. sour cream
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. flour (you can use part wheat flour)
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
Milk or cinnamon chocolate chips (I used cinnamon and loved it!)
Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the eggs and add the soda and sour cream, Combine the batter together and then add the flour and the rest of the ingredients. Grease and flour two bread loaf pans (you can have one super full bread loaf or two smaller loaves..take your pick). Bake the bread at 350 for 1 hour (plus or minus a few minutes depending how thick your bread is). Once the bread is done, let it rest on the counter for 10 minutes and then knife around the loaf of bread and turn over on the counter to cool.

kale & chickpea soup $6.12 recipe / $0.77 serving

This recipe is from budgetbytes.blogspot.com

Here is a recipe to try using the kale from the garden. If you noticed we have a ton! Go eat some!

kale & chickpea soup

$6.12 recipe / $0.77 serving

I know hot soup may seem characteristically out of place, especially since I'm posting it on the unofficial first day of summer. But, at my work place it's a perpetually cold 65 degrees every single day and a warm bowl of soup is still much appreciated mid-day.

I love this soup because it's light, and packed full of veggies with all of their varied flavor and TEXTURE. Plus, as you may already know, I'm in love with kale... and I love chickpeas only second to kale.

Anyway, I kept this soup simple. I seasoned with bay leaf, oregano, and just a touch of curry powder to add a slight "sweetness." I have a feeling this soup would be amazing with a full-out curry flavor. So, if you love curry, go ahead and up the curry powder for more of an Indian flare. Chickpeas, kale, and potatoes all go really well with curry.

Serve this soup with some hearty bread and you've got a really great, albeit light, meal!

Kale & Chickpea Soup

Total Recipe cost: $5.98
Servings Per Recipe: 8 (about 1.5 cups each)
Cost per serving: $0.77
Prep time: 10 min. Cook time: 35 min. Total: 45 min.

INGREDIENTS		COST
2 Tbsp	olive oil	$0.36
1 medium	onion	$0.59
2 cloves	garlic	$0.16
1 bunch	kale	$0.99
1 (13.5 oz) can	diced tomatoes	$1.09
1 (14.5 oz) can	chickpeas	$1.09
1 whole	bay leaf	$0.10
1 tsp	oregano	$0.05
1 tsp	curry powder	$0.05
6 cups	vegetable broth**	$0.78
1 large	potato (optional)	$0.86
TOTAL		$6.12

**I used vegetable base plus water to make 6 cups of broth.

STEP 1: Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add both to a large pot along with 2 Tbsp of olive oil and cook over medium heat until soft and transparent (about 5 minutes).

STEP 2: While the onion and garlic are cooking, pull the kale leaves from the hard stems and tear them into bite-sized pieces. Discard the stems and rinse the torn leaves in a colander. Add the rinsed leaves to the pot and cook until wilted (about 5 minutes more).

STEP 3: Add the can of diced tomatoes (with juice) and the can of chickpeas (drained). Also add 6 cups of vegetable broth plus 2 cups of additional water. Add the bay leaf, oregano, curry powder, and stir.

STEP 4: Wash the potato well and then cut into small cubes (small enough to fit on a spoon). Add the cubed potato, bring the pot up to a simmer, and cook until the potato is tender (about 15-20 minutes). Give the soup a final taste and adjust the salt or other seasonings to your liking. Serve hot!

How to freeze fresh green beans

Freezing is accomplished in a few very simple steps.

1) Choose the freshest green beans you can find.

2) Rinse your green beans in cool water. Drain.

3) Cut the ends of the beans off. Cut the beans to whatever length you prefer.

4) Put the green beans into rapidly boiling water, cover the pot and boil them for 3 minutes. (You can re-use this water three to five times - but make sure it's brought back to a rolling boil).

5) Use a large slotted spoon to remove the green beans from the boiling water and immediately plunge them into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Keep them in the ice water for 3 minutes. Drain them well.

6) If you have a FoodSaver a great time to use it is right now. If you don't, put the green beans into ziplock freezer bags. Make sure you get as much air out of the ziplock bag as possible to help prevent freezer burn.

7) Get ready to enjoy farm fesh green beans whenever you want!

This is my moms recipe.

Dilly Beans

4 quarts small green beans washed, cut off ends.

In pint jars pack:

1 head of dill

1 large clove garlic

Beans

Boil 6 cups water,1/2 cup canning salt 6 cups white vinegar & 2 Tablespoons mixed pickling spice.

Pour hot mixture over beans in jars and seal with hot lids. Water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes 7-8 pints

Jackie Wood  has a really good recipe too. She adds a slice of jalepeno for a little spicy kick.

Sometimes it is hard to find fresh dill. There is a guy in Orem willing to sell some that he has grown.

His name is Greg and his number is 801-360-5423. 

If anyone is interested in canning dilly beans I am willing to help and you can use my water bath canner. Just give me a call and we can arrange a time to make dilly beans or to pressure can green beans! 801-735-7646 (Kim)

Lets Keep Picking!

The secret to increase your green bean production is to keep picking them. The more you pick, the more will grow.

We're farming and we grow it!

Thought you might all enjoy this cute youtube video I saw this morning...

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=21134677&nid=1017&title=have-you-seen-this-im-farming-and-i-grow-it&s_cid=queue-1

"We're farming and we grow it!"

In the Beginning...

Working in the garden the other day, someone had a WONDERFUL idea.  Why don't we put together a community garden blog where we can keep track of everything that has happened in the garden, with pictures and written word as well as recipes on how to use the produce that we are harvesting!

What a GREAT IDEA!  Thanks to whoever had that idea.  So, today is my attempt to start the blog.  You are all welcome to add to the blog with your pictures and commentary or you can send to me via my email (susan_wheatley@comcast.net) and I would be happy to post for you.

However, one of the best reasons to have this blog is to keep you up-to-date on "notices" that I have been sending using email.  This will make these notices a little more appealing to the eye, so to speak.  This will replace the emails that I have been sending.  In other words, a notification will be sent to your email telling you that a new post has been added to the blog, with a link so that you can see what the message/post is... it will contain notices about weeding, harvesting, and the like, but ALSO pictures of our garden as it grows.  We would love to have you take pictures of your kids or other family members (but make sure they take some of you as well) while you are working in the garden.  This blog will be the garden's history.

Also, if you have recipes that you would like to share, WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE THEM!  So, to start with, if you have recipes for kale or potatoes or onions (or peas, if any of you still have some left), this is the place to do it!

I would also like to thank Kim and Cody Heward, who delayed their vacation by a day so that they could make sure that the garden was in good shape before they left for their much-earned vacay to Idaho for the 4th of July weekend.  I hope they get some good rest and that they come back to a well-weeded and bounteous garden.

So, to start this post, I wanted to show how your community garden began... the pictures taken below were the plants that you now see in the garden, but as they were first growing... in the basement of the Wheatley's home.  We planted over 200 tomato plants, about 200 pepper plants (both sweet and hot), broccoli, cabbage, kale, artichoke (and can you believe that we are actually getting artichokes -- thank you to the hot weather this year), and marigolds.  In the end, we had over 20 flats of veggies and flowers growing at various stages.



A littled overloaded!

The plants overtook all the downstair countertops!

About halfway through the growing of the seedlings process, the tomatoes started having some problems due to my overwatering (oops -- when will I ever learn).  One little known blessing that came our way was that I (Susan) went to Vineyard Gardens to ask what I could do to save these plants.  I was very nervous, as you can imagine, because I knew that we wouldn't have the money to purchase tomato and pepper plants, but wonderful "Farmer Grant" (owner of Vineyard Gardens -- a little old and sweet man) told me to bring them in for him to look at them.  We did that (ALL OF THEM) and bless his heart, he kept them in his greenhouses for 2 weeks and by the time we got them back, they were in danged good shape.  THANK YOU FARMER GRANT!  He did that out of the kindness of his heart and, as far as I am concerned, he has my business from now on.  He didn't want ANYTHING in return.  He just said, "Oh, I love community gardens!"  So, I am hoping to bring him a little momento of our community garden to thank him later this year.



"Under the lights"