Preserving the Harvest

I finished my detox yesterday. Though, I liked how I was eating so much that the only thing I did differently was have a cup of coffee blended with coconut oil in the morning and a gluten free spritz cookie that my sister-in-law gave me after dinner :). I like how this way of eating makes me feel and I want to continue in the same way and really moderate my intake of sugar so I don't go overboard again :). 

Now, onto the garden.

As wonderful as it feels when things start growing in the garden, that is only half the battle. The other half is making sure it is harvested and processed before it goes bad. Sometimes I am better at this than others. Though I have to say, the threat of impending frost is a good motivator and 3 weeks ago I finally went out and harvested the rest of my stevia and peppers.

The stevia was bundled with yarn and hung from the window and hanging fruit basket. 

My kitchen was a very happy place while my stevia dried. I love having green things in the house!

After 2 weeks it dried completely and I stripped off the leaves and stored them in mason jars. I use the dried stevia to sweeten my herbal infusions. At some point I also want to try making my own liquid stevia. 

In my last harvest I got a total of 90 habaneros! That is a lot of spice!

With the green habaneros I made hot sauce following this recipe. The green hot sauce recipe is the third on her post. It is orange because I used some paprika when I blended it up. I also used fresh garlic and onion instead of powder, and simmered it all on the stove for a few minutes to soften everything up for blending. It turned out fantastic! Not too spicy at all with a lot of great flavor. 

The rest of the habaneros were hung to dry and I will make habanero powder when they are done.

We had 2 really hard frosts in a row last week. My greens did beautifully, however their stems were affected by the frost and many leaves were drooping to the ground. In an effort to beat the bugs I went out and harvested all the droopy leaves. With the cold weather I doubt the plants will grow much more, but maybe the plants can hold out until spring and have another grow spurt so I can get another batch of greens :). 

I did not plant these. I think they are radishes? They were a pleasant surprise to find in the garden. I cut them up and roasted them with olive oil, salt and pepper. It was a great low-carb alternative to potatoes. 

Another picture of my beautiful mountain of greens :). Here we have arugula, mustard greens and kale. 

I de-stemmed, chopped and blanched all the greens. Crazy that a table full of greens got reduced to a tupperware. There is a lot of nutrition in that container! I have already used quite a bit in adding to stir-frys, soups, and reheated with hot sauce and goat cheese. 

Then I took the stems from all the greens, chopped them up and sautéed them with some olive oil. They are a great replacement to celery! 

I also had about 30 jalapeños from a friend that I deseeded and finely chopped and put in the freezer. Now I can just break of a chunk and add it to any stir fry or soup when I want some spice :).

Finally I made my weekly batch of english muffins. Coffee and sourdough were the only two things that I really missed during the detox, so I look forward to eating one of these today :).

What do you still have growing in your garden?