Future Pumpkin Pie

Yum.

Harvested the first pumpkin of the season and have visions of pumpkin pie swimming around in my head.

Via Williams Sonoma:

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 Tbs. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
2 cups pumpkin puree
3 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup milk
Prebaked and cooled deep-dish piecrust (see
related recipe at left)
Directions:
Preheat an oven to 375ºF.

In a bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Add the pumpkin, eggs, cream and milk and whisk to combine.

Pour the filling into the prebaked piecrust and bake until the center is set, 60 to 65 minutes, covering the edges of the crust with aluminum foil after 30 minutes if they brown too quickly.

Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool completely, at least 2 hours, before serving. Serves 10.

Winterizing the Vegetable Garden

This winter I’m trying out the concept of green manure. What is that, you ask? Green manure is an organic way to fix nitrogen into your soil that has nothing to do with the business end of a horse. Using a cover crop in fallow patches has the benefit of fixing the soil with needed nutrients and nitrogen. In the spring, all you have to do is cut it down and incorporate the roots into the existing soil. Viola – instant soil amendment!

The two I’ve selected to use, based on the pH values of the garden are Crimson Clover and Mammoth Red Clover. As you can see on the photo, each seed was selected based upon the pH of the various soils in my garden. The raised beds are alkaline, the Crimson Clover works best in that soil condition. The ground soil is quite acidic so I’ve selected the Mammoth Red Clover to use in that soil.

The seeds were quite big and I simply spread by hand a generous amount over the beds, covered them lightly with compost and watered well.

So far, the cover crop is doing well in the raised bed and I look forward to seeing the results come the Springtime.

Gardening Year 1 – Lessons Learned

Has it been more than two months since I last blogged on this website?

Apparently so.

You Know Fall is Creeping Up On You…

When you start organizing what seeds to order for Spring 2011:

Spring 2011 Seeds

and this guy appears in your garden:

Scarecrow

Lest we forget – checking to see how the pumpkin patch is coming along. I’ve two pumpkin plants that are slowly creeping along the fence.  These are pie pumpkins and I cannot wait to harvest them. I live for pumpkin anything through the fall and winter.

Related Articles

• Ideas for Carving Pumpkins Into Jack O Lanterns for Halloween (socyberty.com)

Carrot Harvest and Seedling Update

Not bad for a beginner! Next time, I will be more aggressive when it comes to thinning the carrot seedlings and loosening the soil. The varieties pictured above are Chatenay and Scarlett Nantes. Two safe (i.e. practically guaranteed to grow) types of carrot. I’m perusing Territorial Seed catalog for next year’s selection and am digging the purple ones. I will say the carrots grew remarkably well on the 4X4 raised bed. Next year, I’ll try them in the 3X6 bed and in containers on the patio.

The beets are coming up quite well and I can’t wait to put these in the 4X4 raised bed. I’ve got three varieties – Red Sangria, Golden, and Striped Chiogga growing in the greenhouse. I’m hoping for a good Romaine lettuce harvest before the first frost as well.

I’ve planted more Romain seeds as well as Burpee’s Red Beet seeds – one can never have enough beets. Yes, that would be my eastern European ancestry coming through. There is nothing like a good onion and beet soup – mmmm..mmmm..good.

Green Manure for Raised Beds

Crimson Clover - Green Manure

Crimson Clover, a green manure, arrived today along with a packet of free seeds encouraging gardeners to donate fresh veggies to a food bank.

This green manure will be sown on the three raised beds this fall and will remain over winter till it is cut down early spring. The cover crop is then blended into the soil adding much needed organic material. This is an all natural way to boost the nitrogen content in your soil which in turn will boost your crop yield.

Apparently, that chem class in HS or College was not completely useless 🙂

Green Arrow Peas

Green Arrow Peas

Planted in a container with a trellis heirloom Green Arrow Pea seeds.

This is a dwarf variety which produces large 4″ pods each containing 9 to 11 sweet peas. Since it is a cool season plant and I missed out on spring planting, I’ve decided to plant out my spring collection this fall.