Happy New Season!

We are almost two weeks into the new year and the new gardening season is coming! I hope you all enjoyed the fall/winter holidays and are excited for the possibilities of this new year.

Even though we are well past Thanksgiving, I just wanted to show you a few pictures from our meal. My family came out for a few days and some of Steven’s family joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. My goal for the meal was to have as much as possible come from our garden or very close by and I think we did pretty well. Here are some pictures from our dinner…

Yes! The cranberry sauce from our cranberries! Hopefully there will be more next year.

Roasted potatoes, carrots and beets, with olive oil (not ours yet)

Green beans with garlic and hazelnuts (hazelnuts from Freddy Guys Hazelnuts in Monmouth)

Dilly beans, sweet peppers, celery, carrots and celeriac

Corn, garlic, sweet peppers and basil (corn from Kruger's Farm Market on Sauvie Island)

Turkey (legs) raised on Sauvie Island by Dan from Linnton Feed and Seed

What's left of the pork loin roast from Brown Dog Acres on Sauvie Island

I didn’t make dessert until Christmas, when I made a pumpkin cheesecake. I used the recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, using the biggest Sweet Meat Hubbard squash I had (over 18 lbs).  I roasted half in the oven and chopped up the other half to freeze.

The roasted hubbard squash

The puree from the roasted squash

I pureed the roasted half for the cheesecake and still had plenty left over for a curried squash soup and more to freeze. I still have three more hubbard squash in the garage. I am glad they store for a long time!

The pumkin cheesecake is ready!

And now for the new year and the new season. I am very excited about getting to work  planning, building and strengthening  the health of the garden and the orchard.

Out in the orchard today

The Appple Grower...an amazing book

Last week I started my research and reading for the apple orchard, with The Apple Grower by Michael Phillips.  Everytime I read about holistic approaches to growing I get energized. It all makes so much sense, I can’t imagine gardening in any other way.  As for the refurbishing of the orchard,  it could take a lot longer than I was expecting to gather all the information that I want. But hopefully, I’ll get a start on the work that needs to be done.