garden dinner by description

We've been taking turns with dinner, all of us, punctuated by a known snack party night and days we know we're going to be out or are just exhausted.  So I said, "I've got Thursday."  I knew there were things in the garden that needed to be eaten.  It is funny that that is sometimes the hardest part of the garden -- getting it out, getting it up, getting it eaten.  I said I'd cook everything that was ready to be eaten.  That turned out to be:  kale, new potatoes, green beans, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes both ripe and green, country gentleman corn.

I actually didn't take any photographs of the process.

The husband and I got in a hassle on the way down to harvest.  Because, you know, real life.  I picked beans from three different spots.  He graveled out a few potatoes and cut the kale.  I gathered cucumbers off of vines that are dying. Mice ate the plants meant to replace these that were in the greenhouse, more's the pity.  He gathered the ripe tomatoes and the largest green ones.  We picked the corn last.  Then we realized we'd forgotten the onions so he went back for them.

The bag with the tomatoes was splitting.  I had the green beans and the corn in a peach basket already, but I had to tie the tomato bag to that handle to keep it from falling out and support it from splitting, so I ended up walking up the hill to the house with the basket balanced on my head as it was too heavy to otherwise carry.  The little button on my cap didn't help but it IS a handy way to carry things.

I sliced cucumbers and onions into vinegar and water in one bowl; vineger, sugar, and water in another bowl.  We strung the beans while the kale soaked in salt water to get the bugs and slugs off.  I chopped the kale.  We shucked the corn.  I washed the potatoes.

The kale was a whole big pot, once wilted just covered the bottom.  After it was steamed, I added salt and oil and "fried" it to reheat it.  The beans and big new potatoes went in a pressure cooker with some fatback.  The small new potatoes I boiled, then drained, put milk over it, added pepper and some thickening.  I put a pot of water on to have hot to put the corn in for just a few minutes right when we were ready to eat.

I ran out of steam before I got the green tomatoes fried.  That will have to be another supper's endeavor.  I did do filling for potential later fried pies -- raspberry and blueberry.
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Rave reviews.  Even from the goats who got the green bean strings, and the rabbits who got the corn shucks and cucumber peelings