Yesterday morning the Duck Lady sent me a text wanting to know if I wanted her extra celery {she grew 80+ this year!} and green onions and so of course I ran over there with containers so I could swoop them up.
When I got there she was out in her {massive, obviously religious commune sized HA HA HA} garden gathering up items to sell at her little roadside stand.
Apparently people can’t get enough of her snapdragon bouquets this year. That’s something to note if you are thinking about selling flowers. People LOVE snappy’s!!
One of her prize winning cauliflowers. She said it took her 4 years of trying to finally get some real beauties.
Her pole beans. 2 things to note:
- The landscape fabric
- The beans are growing like mad {almost 5 feet tall already!}
It’s only the end of July and she’s already got pumpkins! And again, notice the landscape fabric? If you were on the fence about buying some for next year… hop off that fence and order some. Because seriously, it works!!
I’ve already ordered 2 rolls for our religious sized family garden for next year.
Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to spend the summer weeding? And the best part about that landscape fabric is that it traps in moisture {I pulled a little of her landscaped fabric back to see for myself} and you can reuse it year after year.
Here’s a picture of the beautiful onions she’s growing in her field. My onions are all about the size of the third one in from the right. 🙁
After a look around her garden, I got busy harvesting!
And after that she took me around back to see her chicks, ducks and baby turkey.
The Duck Lady had ordered 2 turkey babies but one of them died on the way {because her shipment was delayed} and so now she only has 1 little turkey and she {we both think it’s a she} is just the sweetest thing ever and LOVES being held.
She was so cute that I wanted to take her home.
But I didn’t. Instead I went home with a boatload of celery, green onions and kale.
I dehydrated about half of the celery, onions and kale and then sauteed the rest and packed them into muffin tins to use later this winter.
Have you done this before? If not it’s super easy to do and it’s a fantastic way to “preserve” your garden produce. All you do is sautee your vegetables in a little olive oil {my first layer was kale and green onions} and then spoon the cooked vegetables into muffin tins.
Kale and green onions on the bottom, carrots and celery on top.
Once you get your muffin cups filled, pop the pans in the freezer overnight until they are frozen solid.
Then, the next morning remove the vegetable pucks from the muffin tins and pop them into a freezer baggie and into the freezer again and you’re all set.
These home grown vegetables will make a great addition to soups, pot pies and quiches this winter. Hey, anything I can do to avoid having to walk into a grocery store during the holiday season… I’m all for it. 🙂
So how is YOUR garden doing this summer? Have you been busy preserving anything lately? Curious minds want to know.
Have a great day everyone,
~Mavis
Tamara says
Those vegetable pucks are a GREAT idea!
Tracey says
I agree! I was going to say the same thing!
Lainey says
Oh my wow! I love this idea!
Mavis Butterfield says
Thanks! They work best if you start with a “nest” of leaves {kale, chard, spinach}. It helps hold everything together so you don’t need to add a liquid. I dont like adding a liquid to the pucks becuase I never know exactly what I’ll be using them for.
Julie says
I’m canning up quarts of vegetable soup base this morning with garden goodness. I have raspberries, gooseberries, and black currants in the freezer to make jams with as I get time. And I’ve been dehydrating chard, kale, and herbs.
Audra from Ohio says
Julie would you mind sharing your recipe for your veggie soup base? I was inspired by Mavis’ recent post on canning beef soup but I’m vegetarian.
Deborah says
Audra, my grandmother made hers with tomatoes, all kinds of vegetables and froze hers in quart bags. To can it, look at a canning book and use the time for the longest veggies that you use. I loved my grandmothers soup mix. It was so good. Oh, she also put in one whole green cayenne pepper in each bag. They didn’t make it hot. I hope this helps.
Susie says
Audra, I’m not sure if this is what Julie did, but going along with Mavis’ veggie pucks, maybe Julie prechopped & seasoned all the veggies first & canned/froze them so later she can just add veggie stock. I found a recipe for “homemade vegetable soup base” on the site Food In Jars (all one word) dot com. (I don’t think I can post a link on here!)
Susie says
Whoops, I meant just add water! The other ingredients make it stock!
Andrea says
Isn’t it awesome to have a gardening buddy?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes! 🙂
Angie says
I’ll be canning pickles this weekend since cucumbers are in plentiful supply Around here. Also some
Sweet Pickle relish will be made.
Thanks for the idea of the muffin tin freezer veggies! I’ll be using that for the greens I plan to grow this fall and some zucchini that I wanted to shreds and freeze for bread making when Cooler temps arrive.
Jamie says
wow, I would love to know how she can grow celery like that. Mine never looks like that!
Wendy C says
She has a beautiful garden! And love the idea of the veggie pucks. Brilliant. I had no idea you could freeze celery. I ended up with 67 quarts of black-eyed peas frozen. Last Saturday I canned 12 jars of salsa from the garden produce. Right now I am dehydrating figs, eggplant, and mushrooms. Will probably do one more batch of salsa and then just can the rest of the tomatoes for soups.
Mavis Butterfield says
Wendy that is a ton of peas! I wish I had figs. I wonder if they’d grow here in Maine.
Joely says
I have a chicago fig that I overwinter in the garage. I’m in hardiness zone 6a. I bet you could grow them in Maine.
Mavis Butterfield says
Thanks Joely.
Margo says
Just pulled out my what remained of my cherry tomatoes. I have dehydrated, frozen, stewed, canned, sauced a lot of the ripe ones this year. Had a bunch of green ones this time and pickled them. Ive had pickled green tomatoes but I’ve never done this with cherry tomatoes before so we will see if they turn out ok. Think the veggie pucks are genius! A new way to preserve our veggies. Going to try this, only the two of us in the house these days and I hate throwing out veggies that we don’t get a chance to use up. Thanks Mavis.
Mavis Butterfield says
Well done on your tomatoes! It sounds like you covered everything. 🙂 I love it.
J in OH-IO says
Anyone tell me how to dehydrate kale and Swiss chard- what size pieces do I use in the machine? After dehydration how should I store it and use it? Does it crumble into a powder or keep it’s shape (i.e. smoothies or soups)? I’ve only dehydrated apples and Roma tomatoes. Both I keep in the refrigerator… any advice?
Mavis Butterfield says
I used full sized leaves this time {cut out the center rib and they will dehydrate faster} at 135 degrees for 3-4 hours. You know they’re done when all the moisture is gone. If you want long pieces, simply store them in a tall glass jar. If you don’t mind broken pieces {for soups} you can store them in a zip baggie or a glass jar {pressing them down so more will fit into your jar}. Hope that makes sense.
https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/recipe-baked-kale-chips/
https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/recipe-how-to-make-kale-powder/
J in OH-IO says
Thank you for this information and links! You have been so encouraging to everyone to go garden and to plant a fall garden! Thanks for the inspiration!
Annette says
Would the landscape fabric work for a flower bed? Maybe mulch on top to make it look better?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes.
Gigi says
I would advise against the mulch. As the mulch decomposes, you’ll have dirt with fabric underneath. Better off just mulching without the fabric.
Wendy Cockerham says
That’s a great idea with the vegetables. We have a ton of excess celery right now and we were wondering what to do with it.
Susan says
Our garden is really taking off right now! It was a slow go.
First time planting onions (I know, right??) My son’s friend gave us 30 starts
They are doing great!! Walla Wallas
Dehydrating kale, chamomile, calendula and cabbage
Getting our first yellow squash. Eating lots of lettuce. Need to braid garlic
And dill!!!! It’s actually starting to grow!! 🙂
The only thing not doing ok is beets. Not sure why
Mavis Butterfield says
I LOVE the Walla Walla onions! They’re my all time favorite.
Becky says
for your reading list
https://modernmrsdarcy.com/maine-literary-tourism/
Geunita Ringold says
I’m just curious. Does she take up her landscaping cloth in the winter and then put it back down? How does she amend her soil? Thanks.
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes. She pulls it up at the end of the year. In the spring she cleans out her chicken coops and adds the shavings/straw to the gardens.
Tarah says
Oh man, those coop cleanings probably a big reason as to how the Duck Lady’s veggies look so great. Great manure that gets worked in!
Judy says
What an absolutely amazing idea!! I learn something different from you almost every day…….
Sue says
I do this freezing in larger muffin tins. I make soups to have in the winter, just freeze and pop out but I first wrap mine in freezer paper. Label and put in zip lock bag’, have done leftovers also.
Teri says
Love the shape of your carrots! How do you do that?
Mavis Butterfield says
All I did was peel and then chop the carrots. 🙂 They do look a little squared off though. Ha.
Deborah says
We had a huge garden one year and I canned 97 pints of green beans. I also froze some, and gave some away. They just wouldn’t stop producing. LOL Contender brand. I also canned almost as many pints of purple hill peas. Yes, I know some call them cow peas. They are really good. I dehydrated tomatoes and made powder from them. I dehydrated my excess celery from making cornbread dressing and will use it next time. You can make a powder of it as well. Onions, the same. And garlic too. Ive done all of these and they turned out great. I love doing this. I don’t like weeding the garden, so I’ll get some of the cloth.
Joanna says
This might be off topic… Why can’t I grow zucchini ? I get beatiful yellow flowers but no zucchini? What am I doing wrong?
Tracey Bally says
Sounds like the female flowers are not getting pollinating. Try hand pollinating. There are lots of good YouTube videos showing how to do it.
Laura says
I’m having this problem as well. All male flowers. Not a single female so no zucchini for me. No idea why.
Alice says
I am making fruit pucks. Strawberries mashed up and frozen in silicone cube trays or peaches. I put the pucks in freezer bags and when I want a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast I put one puck in my oats/water mix and microwave for a minute and half. Add milk/cream and some sweetener and it is the BEST
Judy says
Hi Mavis. I am canning pickles and making pickled jalapenos this weekend. Thanks for sharing the veggie puck idea. Will start doing that.
We had a pet turkey that we named Butterball, but we just called her Butters. Whenever I picked her up she would put her head in my neck for a snuggle while I petted her. She got along with the chickens and was a real character. Would come running at feeding time. We miss her but she had a good long life.