Amazing Turkey Brine! Smoking' Turkey!

Fantastic Savory Turkey Brine & Smoked Turkey

Simmer and then cool the brine. You can leave it covered at room temperature in a sauce pan while you roast the turkey.  You will be injecting the brine every 2 hours.

2 cups apple juice
2 cups water
1/2 cup salt
3-4 fresh garlic cloves
1 cube butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp ginger
20 whole cloves
2-3 Tbs Lowery's Seasoned Salt

Inject into the breast, thighs, and legs

Rub with olive oil, paprika, seasoned salt, minced garlic, or favorite seasonings

Strain the garlic and whole cloves out and put inside turkey

Loosely cover with foil.

Inject the turkey every 2 hours while roasting

Cook until temperature reaches 180 degrees.

If smoking cook 15 1/2 lb turkey for 10-11 hours at 250 degrees.  Inject every couple hours when adding wood.  This can also be roasted in your oven.  We usually do this one in the oven and use the recipe below for smoking a turkey.


Smoked Turkey

For a 10-12 lb turkey

4 cloves of minced garlic
2 Tbs seasoned salt
1/2 cup butter
1 can of coke
1 apple quartered
1 onion quartered
1 Tbs garlic powder
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs ground black pepper

Preheat smoker to 225-250 degrees
Use Hickory Pecan wood mix
Rinse turkey and pat dry.
Rub with crushed garlic and sprinkle with seasoned salt
Place in disposable roasting pan
Fill turkey cavity with butter, cola, apple, onion, garlic powder salt and pepper
Cover loosely with foil

Smoke at 250 for 10 hours or until temperature reaches 180 in thickest part of the breast and thigh.  Bast the bird every 1 -2 hours with juices.  You can also inject this with the above brine.

Fresh frozen veggies from the garden!

America's Pie Pumpkin

 

I am completely fascinated with pumpkins and winter squash.  What would fall be without a pumpkin patch? Large vigorous vines spreading, reaching, and climbing up fences and corn stalks.  Beautiful flowers with squash bees getting the job of pollinating done.  And finally after patiently waiting until fall, pumpkins in all shapes, sizes, and colors pop up through the green vines.  I'm hoping my love of pumpkins encourages you to designate an area for your own pumpkin patch. 

When you visit a pumpkin patch you are on a quest to find the perfect pumpkin.  I consider myself on a quest to grow the perfect pie or sugar pumpkin.  This last season I tried a variety that made the top of the list.

Pie Pumpkins or Sugar Pumpkins

I want to introduce you to America's pie pumpkin, the Dickinson pumpkin.  Elijah Dickinson introduced Dickinson pumpkin seeds to Eureka IL in 1835.  The result was one of the most valuable heirlooms and literally a million dollar pumpkin.  

His family developed this large blocky pumpkin into the pie pumpkin we are all familiar with.  Dickinson is the pumpkin used in Libby's canned pumpkin puree.  

Making Pumpkin Puree

Sixty years after Elijah Dickinson brought his seeds to Illinois, his family acquired a canning factory.  They started producing canned pumpkin.  They sold the cannery during the depression to Libby. Libby eventual developed their own hybrid strain from the Dickinson pumpkin; it varies little from the original Dickinson.  It is now considered the most widely grown heirloom.

As most heirlooms have a story to tell, there is more intrigue with the Dickinson pumpkin.  Dickinson family legend claims the recipe on the back of the Libby pie came from Elijah's grandmother.  One day his grandfather, who remained a manager of the plant after Libby purchased it, came home and told his wife Hazel,  "We need a pie recipe for Libby's." She baked lots of different recipes some better than others and the family ate them all.  Eventually the perfect recipe was reached and the rest is "canned pumpkin history."  The Libby or maybe more appropriately the Dickinson pie recipe has been on the label of the Libby can since 1950.  I have a Libby label folded up in my recipe box.  It's my favorite pumpkin pie recipe.  (Information from The Wholesale Seed Catalog from Baker Creek)  

So with such a charming history I hope you decide to try this heirloom in your garden.  It is moshata species, a pumpkin which is not as commonly grown as other species so that's good for those saving seeds.  The flesh is a beautiful bright orange inside with a dull smooth ribbed skin outside.  It is a stunning pumpkin.  They weigh 10-30 lbs giving you lots of puree to freeze.  This pumpkin also is an excellent keeper that will store up to five months. It needs a long growing season, warm nights, and plenty of water. Dickinson is a heirloom I treasure and will continue to include in my pumpkin patch.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

 

How to Make Pumpkin Puree

It's that time of year! With fall harvests, it is time to enjoy pumpkin desserts and treat.  Using your own pumpkin puree from pumpkins you harvested makes everything pumpkin even better.  Making pumpkin puree is simple but a little messy.

Jarrahdaleis a beautiful blue gray heirloom from New Zealand.  Wonderful used in winter squash recipes and pumpkin recipes.

Kogigu  a Japanese squash with deep ribs and a waxy brownish orange color.

Kogigu Squash

Pie or sugar pumpkins or winter squash  grown specifically for eating are sweeter, less stringy, and contain less water than a pumpkin grown for carving.  They are beautiful coming in many shapes, sizes, and colors.  They can be used to make puree or roasted using your favorite winter squash recipe.

Winter Luxury is a 1893 heirloom that makes smooth velvety puree.  One of the best!  Unique nettled skin 5-7 lb pumpkins.

Long Island Cheese Wheel

STEPS TO MAKING PUMPKIN PUREE

1. Select your pumpkin.  Use any that do not have stems or appear to be seeping first.

2.  Wash outer skin

3.  Cut in half and use a ice cream scoop to remove seeds.  Save seeds for roasting.

4.  Place face down in a cookie sheet with sides or a shallow pan.

5.  Add water to the bottom of the pan

6.  Roast at 350 for 45-60 minutes until it can be easily pierced with a fork.  The roasting time will depend on the size of the pumpkin.

7.  Allow it to cool slightly.  Scoop out pulp with an ice cream scooper. 

8.  You can puree pulp in a blender or use a stick blender.  You will probably have to add a little water.

9.  Store in pint canning jars or freezer bags in the freezer if you are not using it immediately.

Use in your favorite pumpkin recipes for desserts or soups.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Root Crop Recipes

 Roasted Vegetables

Cube any of the following vegetables you have available to you.

• Potatoes
• Carrots (it's fun to use orange, red, and purple varieties.  Dragon's Tongue is a favorite that is purple all the way through)
• Beets both red and golden 
• Quarter an onion

You can also add mushrooms, rutabagas, cabbage, or peppers if you like

Mix:  
Oil (Olive, avocado, or grape-seed oil)
garlic powder, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, or your favorite herb combo

Pour over the vegetables, stir, and dump into a sheet cake pan.  Top with Parmesan cheese towards the end of roasting.  Roast at 425 until tender.  It takes around 45 minutes.  I love this dish.  You can be creative with the seasonings and vegetables you use. One of my favorite side dishes and everything is from the garden.

Purple Viking potatoes, Golden beets,  red beets, Dragon Tongue purple carrots, and orange carrots. Such a colorful dish.

Rutabaga Souffle

2 cups cubed rutabaga

1/2 tsp sugar

2 eggs, separated

2 Tbs butter

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup sour cream

Buttered breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper to taste

• Boil rutabagas and sugar in a saucepan until tender.  Drain and mash rutabagas.
•  Beat egg yolks and add to rutabaga with salt, pepper and sour cream
• Beat the egg yolks and add to the mixture
• Put in a buttered casserole dish. 
• Top with buttered breadcrumbs
• Bake at 350 F for  30 minutes

Recipe from Capper's Farmer Magazine

Cheese Carrots

20 carrots sliced

1 small grated onion

1/4 cup of butter

1/4 cup of flour

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp dried mustard

1/4 tsp celery salt

2 cups milk

1/2 lb American cheese, sliced

1 cup breadcrumbs

• Cook carrots in a saucepan until fork tender
• Saute onion in butter
• Stir in flour, salt, pepper, mustard, and celery salt stirring until thickened
• Arrange layer of carrots and cheese slices in a casserole dish
• Pour sauce over the top
• Sprinkle with bread crumbs
• Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes

Recipe from  Capper's Farmer Magazine 

Glazed Carrots

Carrots, Julian cut

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup water

1/4 sugar

• Melt butter in a saucepan
• Add water and sugar
• Add carrots
• Bring to boil reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender

This is a family favorite! Love, love theses!

  To learn how to grow and harvest root crops check out the link below.

Fall Root Crops 

Fall Root Crops

Fall season has it's own unique colors, smells, sights, and activities.  Pumpkins, winter squash, and gourds are plentiful. Hay rides, corn mazes, Halloween parties, and Thanksgiving.  It is also the time to harvest root crops that where planted late summer. Root crops have been a staple that our ancestors have depended on to survive.  A rutabaga may not be the most glamorous and sought after vegetable in the garden but along with other root crops such as carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, and parsnips they are a delicious addition to fall meals and a great long term storage crop.

Add caption

Carrots

Carrots belong to the Umbelliferae family along with parsley and fennel.  Carrots are biennials meaning they need two growing seasons to produce flowers and seed.  The orange varieties, which are a mutation, are high in beta-carotene.  This powerful antioxidant is converted to vitamin A.

Orange is not the only option when it comes to color.  The gardener has a rainbow of colors to choose from- purple, red, yellow, and white.

Growing Guide
  Carrots prefer a loose, moist soil free of rocks.  Any obstructions, such as rocks, the roots hit will cause them to split and start growing two shoots.  A deep dug raised bed of fine soil is ideal.  

The small seeds of a carrots need constant moisture to germinate and the fine soil allows for good surface contact to ensure good germination.  

Carrots are best sown directly in the garden.  The seeds can be mixed with fine soil in a shaker  or use your finger to make a small trench and distribute the seeds.  Just barely cover them and keep them moist.  Fluctuating moisture will cause poor germination.  You can cover the area with a row cover or weed cloth to keep the ground moist and remove it when they start to germinate. Water gently so you don't wash the seeds away.  After they germinate, mulch around carrots.  Carrots prefer even moisture throughout the growing season.  If the crowns of carrots are exposed cover them to prevent them from turning green and bitter.

 For more information on varieties of carrots here another post.

Root Crops: Carrots & Beets

A bed of carrots and beets.

Beets

Beets are a member of the same family as chard and spinach.  The seeds are a cluster of multiple seeds and if not thinned will not develop roots. Technically the beet seed is not a seed at all but a dried fruit that may contain one to six seeds which is why they will require thinning. When thinning cut plants off at the ground  with scissors instead of pulling them out.

 Young beet greens are delicious in salads and smoothies.  Blood red beet tops are a beautiful maroon color and make delicious tops. I add them to salads.

 Older greens can be cooked in the same manner as chard and spinach.  My absolute favorite beet is Touchstone Gold.  It is sweeter than red beets and has a milder flavor.  They are so good roasted.

Beets store very well in the refrigerator.  Cut the tops off leaving 1 inch of green, brush off the dirt and store in bags in the a cool, dark place.  They can be canned, pickled,  or roasted. 

Beet roots have the highest sugar content of any vegetable and are extremely low in calories.  They are high in iron and potassium.  They are a great storage crop.

Beets.  The maroon leaves are the Bull's Blood Beet a favorite top to eat.

Rutabagas

Rutabagas and Turnips

"There is nothing in the garden as unromantic as a turnip, unless perhaps it's a rutabaga.  Strong-flavored good storing root vegetables, they are rarely invited to sit at formal tables.  But they are good, earthy peasant food."  
Barbara Damrosch The Garden Primer

Rutabagas and turnips are often considered to be twins. Both have the same cultural requirements and similar taste.  They are actually two different species.  The rutabaga is a result of a hybridization between a cabbage and a turnip.  I prefer the taste of rutabagas over turnips.  They are sweeter.

Turnips have been cultivated anciently since the Romans.  Rutabagas are sometimes called "Swedes" and are believed to be native to Sweden.  Rutabaga's leaves are smooth, while a turnip green is rough and slightly hairy.  Rutabaga flesh is yellow, while a turnip flesh is white.  Turnips are rich in vitamins while rutabagas are high in beta-carotene.

The turnip is a quick maturing vegetable.  Ready in only a couple of months while the rutabaga is slower and needs four months to mature.  I plant both for fall crops.

Turnip roots are best harvested when the roots are 2-3 inches in diameter.  Rutabaga roots should be harvested when the roots are 4-5 inches in diameters.

Like beets and carrots they store well in the refrigerator, root cellar, or cold garage.

Parsnips

Parsnips are another very unromantic vegetable.  They are a rough, dirty white root.  Parsnip were anciently used as a sweeterener before the sugar beet came along.  Fed to pigs, they are said to sweeten the meat and make delicious hams.  Next spring we will be getting pigs and I will try this out.  Since I'm not overly fond of parsnips I wont' mind sharing with my pigs.

Parsnips seeds are very slow to germinate taking up to 21 days.  It's best to purchase new seeds each year.  Use the same cultivating methods as for carrots.  Sow the seeds in early spring when the daffodil blooms.  Wait until after the first frost to harvest parsnips.  A frost is what encourages them to develop their sweet flavor.  

This is a parsnip that I overwintered to save seeds.

Radishes

As with many root crops, radishes are one of the anciently grown root crops.   There are many varieties of radishes.  They come in various shapes, sizes, and colors.  It is fun to experiment with new varieties every year.  

The key to growing a good radish is to grow them fast and harvest them fast. Left even one day to long in the garden they develop a hot sharp taste, become pithy, and split.  An impatient little root, many are ready in 21 days.  Also record the date you plant and days to maturity of the varieties you plant so you can harvest an edible radish.

They prefer cool spring and fall weather.

The key to enjoy these root crops is finding delicious recipes.  Here's a link to some good recipes that might make you rethink the root crops.

Root Crop Recipes

October Garden & Yard Chores

In most zones October is the grand finale for the garden.  Whether you are seeking to extend the season or accelerate the final days of your garden, there are some important garden chores for early fall that will help ensure a better season next year.

Garden Chores & Harvesting:

• Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and squash are going strong.  Continue to harvest.
• Watermelon, muskmelons, pumpkins, and winter squash  will continue maturing don't neglect the watering.
• Harvests of corn and green beans are coming to a close
• Keep harvesting all root crops, broccoli side shoots, and cabbage with cooler evenings these crops sweeten up

• Beans grown for dried beans are still maturing
• Dig potatoes
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  

Growing Potatoes: Tasty Tubers 

• When onion tops fall over, harvest the bulb.  Let it cure in a dry, warm, well ventilated place in the shade.  Under a porch on a table works well
• Continue harvesting root crops of beets and carrots
• Order garlic bulbs to plant in mid October 

Good For You Garlic 

• Tomatoes are still ripening.  
• Strawberries and raspberries are still producing until a freeze.

The Year Round Garden:

• Prepare low tunnels or cold frames
• Plant spinach, kale, and lettuce in the cold frame.  I prefer to start lettuce indoors and transplant out side
• Put out transplants of broccoli

Clean Up:

• After harvesting is complete, clean out bed and spread a layer of compost over the bed or row.
• Or plant a cover crop or green manure.  A green manure is a crop grown early spring or late summer which is incorporated into the soil to add organic matter and fertility.  Good fall cover crops are buckwheat, which matures fast and will winter kill before it goes to seed, or Austrian peas which is a winter legume for warm climates.  Both crops would be incorporated into the soil 4 weeks before you plan on planting in early spring.
• Clean up all plant debris especially diseased plants 
• If any areas of your garden or landscape continually struggle and do poorly gather a soil sample and have it tested.  Contact the extension office to do this.

Wage War on Weeds!

While your garden beds and flowers may be looking a bit tired, weeds seem to come on strong this time of year.  Like flowers, weeds can be annuals, biennials, or perennials.  Annual weeds are the easiest to control.  They have a one year life cycle.  Summer annuals sprout in the spring and go to seed in the fall.  Crabgrass, foxtail, pigweed,spurge, and lambsquarter are summer annuals that plague the vegatable gardener the most.  Hand pulling weeds in garden beds before they go to seed is extremely important. 

"One years seeds equals seven years of weeds"

If you struggle with a specific weed problem here is a link to look up cultural practices that may with help control the weed.  Nothing beats hand pulling and hoeing.

Common Yard and Garden Weeds 

Saving Seeds:

• Pick the seedpods and heads of any open pollinated flowers
• Learn to save tomato seeds
• Seeds from lettuce, beans, and peas that are open pollinated can be saved with little cross pollination

In the flower garden:

• Set out pansies, mums, and ornamental kale for fall color
• Plant spring blooming bulbs in flower beds
• Sow seed of next year's biennial flowers that need a cold winter to break dormancy such as forget-me-nots, sweet William, and foxglove.
•  You still can plant perennials in early fall.  

Fall Orchard Care:

• Keep all fallen fruit picked up.  Pigs or chickens enjoy this fruit
• Maintain spray for codling moth until harvest
• Mow understory
• Apply compost
• When 50-60% of leaves have fallen spray with fish with and neem.  Target the ground, trunk, and branches.  This is important for leaf decomposition. 
• Remove any limb spreaders
• Install tree guards on young trees
• White wash trunk to prevent winter sun scald injury.  Use interior cheap latex paint mixed with water you can add  little neem oil.  Paint trunks and bottom of lower scaffold branches. 
• Pick apples and pears as they are ripe

 

Gala apples.  The white film is kaolin clay which is an insect deterrent.

Sungold apples

 

Enjoy the early fall season and the harvests you have been blessed with.