Bean and Pepper Harvest

We grow pole or runner beans because they climb up on fences, poles or other structures created to keep them up in the air. We like the colorful flowers of Scarlet Runner Beans but their seeds are pretty tough and take many hours of simmering to soften. So we also plant a white-colored bean that cooks more quickly.

Scarlet Runner Beans with Flowers, Immature Beans and Tan Dry Pods

Woodchucks and rabbits seem to ignore the tough stems near the ground and the tender tendrils, flowers and developing beans are out of their reach. Some birds like cutting off tender pods or teasing out mature seeds - but not enough to diminish harvests too much.
The pods of bush beans often lie directly on the soil and deteriorate it they remain wet for very long. Because we mulch quite heavily, the soil is usually moist that leads to the pods and the seeds inside molding before they dry. Slugs and snails also attack fruit near the ground much more than those high up in the air. 

Second Harvest of Dry Scarlet Runners: 4.5 Pounds of Shelled Beans.

We eat quite a few meals of the tender green beans but most we let mature and dry. When their pods become brown, we periodically pick and shell them, letting the fancy beans dry completely in shallow baskets store against the ceiling above the wood stove. We like to harvest the dry beans every two weeks, or so, to prevent a flock of birds from stealing them. When a single bird figures out that there are nutritious beans inside the innocuous pods, it takes only hour or days for them to shred them all. We're lucky that most years they don't figure it out.

Third Harvest of Scarlet Runners: Six Pounds of Dry Beans

Sweet peppers mature much faster than hot peppers. Of the five types of sweet peppers, we like the large orange and red types the most because they are meaty and sweet. The purple ones are thin and even when mature, taste very much like mild immature green peppers. Small bright yellow ones son't have much taste and this year they are spongy. Other years these small yellow peppers were our favorite because they mature very early and continue producing into October when other varieties crashed. And critters seem to leave them alone. Many of our larger peppers are nibbled by rabbits, mice and voles, often making holes to access the seeds inside the fruit. Daily harvesting catches damaged fruit so to minimize waste we simply trim away nibble marks and eat them in the next salad or stir fry.

Variety of Peppers, Tomatoes, Squash and Eggplant Waiting to Be Eaten. When the Stove Is Not Being Used for Heat, It Makes a Great Table!

Bottling Hard Cider

I finally got around to bottling last year's cider that has been resting in the basement for almost a year. To five gallons, I added 24 ounces of maple syrup before bottling it in 40 flip-top bottles. The most significant work involved washing and sterilizing the glass, removing and scrubbing the rubber washers and then reinstalling them. These bottles have been in storage for years, having come across them, empty, at a large event that featured European beers.

Forty 16 Ounce Bottles of 2014 Hard Cider Ready for Final Fermentation. Extra Empty Bottles on the Counter Behind.

In a few weeks, it'll be time to pasteurize them so they maintain a bit of sweetness and don't explode from too much carbonation. The 6.5 gallon brewing bucket is now ready for this year's second batch.

Peppers!

We're having the best harvest ever of both hot and sweet peppers. Five varieties of both sweet and hots are planted in beds separated by a few hundred feet so bees don't transfer hot genes to seeds developed by sweet varieties. Though we usually grow out specific varieties completely isolated from other peppers and have thousands of seeds stored in our freezer that were harvested this way, we'll save some of this year's seeds taken from the most healthy fruit for good measure. Some variety crossover may yield some that grow even better in our neighborhood!

Mix of Ripe Sweet Peppers

We planted more than twelve dozen each of the not too hots and the sweets for variety and to insure that we get at least some hot and sweet for eating. So far, every variety is producing well with very little insect damage: Tangerine, Orange, Mexican Red, Purple Beauty and Yellow Round that are mild and sweet, and Serrano, Jalapeño, Alice's Favorite, Poblano and Shishito that are mildly hot peppers. We used to grow a few colors of Habanero peppers but they were too hot for most people. One batch of salsa even caused one challenger in a hot salsa eating contest to drop unconscious!

Sweet Peppers Sorted by Color

Alice's Favorite Hot Peppers

Serrano Hot Peppers

Preparing to Reglaze the Greenhouse

Thirty years ago we erected a greenhouse on the south side of our shop building. It has 12 triple thickness polycarbonate panels that are four feet wide and 20 feet long. Their projected life was 20-25 years and they definitely showing their age. Eight years ago I had flipped them all upside down because hail had penetrated the top layer or two so that there were 25-50 holes in each panel. Snow that flowed into these openings froze preventing sheets of snow from sliding down the glazing.

First Glazing Panel Removed from Greenhouse.

It's really important to warm the greenhouse with as much winter sunlight as possible to keep everything inside from freezing. Snow has to be removed. It didn't take too many shoveling sessions in windy, freezing conditions to convince me that the work involved to put the smooth bottom glazing layers on top was worth it. This greatly reduced the amount of snow shoveling but the snow that piled up at the base of the greenhouse still had to be removed to allow more snow to slide down the glazing.

Four Panels to Go!

Another hail storm last year poked 15 to 30 holes in each of the flipped panels and these would impede snow from sliding down this winter. As you can see from the photos, the glazing is very yellow/opaque and probably lets less than 50% of the sunlight penetrate. That is okay for lettuce but not vegetables that need to grow large enough to plant outdoors in late spring. The glazing has also become quite fragile and had to be patched where flying debris broke holes through it.

Glazing Panel Repaired by Laminating a Clear PC Layer Behind.

So now we are in a race against the first frost: will the new panels arrive in time to install them before the first frost?

Last Panel!

All Panels removed!

View Showing Supports at 1/3 and 2/3 Positions Along Panel Length That Prevent Snow Loads from Bowing the Panels Too Much. A New and Improved Panel Option May Allow Eliminating These Supports.

Processing Tomatoes

We grow almost 200 tomato plants in two separate gardens. This year we are trying six varieties and not saving tomato seeds so each section has more than one variety. When we save seeds, we grow only a few types and isolate each variety to keep the seed pure and less likely crossing with another. This time of year this many plants deliver a few bushels of ripe fruit each week that we share with family, friends and neighbors. We also deliver 40 to 100 pounds each week to a local shelter.

The "Squeezo" Separates Tomato Skins and Seeds from Pulp and Juice. We Put the Skins and Seeds Through Twice to Maximize Yield and Dry the Dregs for the Chickens.

Hand Cranked Food Processor with Interested Dog, Cupcake.

This week was our turn to process ripe tomatoes. We separate the juice and pulp from the seeds and skin using the same "Squeezo" food processor that we use for apples. We add lots of garlic, basil, oregano, and hot peppers (Serrano this time) and let boil for half an hour. 

Tomatillos, Serrano and Sweet Peppers We Added to Flavor the Tomatoes

On top of the bubbling puree we then float a metal colander with small holes so we can ladle out most of the clear liquid. We preserve this in quart jars for soup stock that we use to reconstitute dry beans during cold months. It takes three or four quarts to make a large pot of soup using a pound each of dry beans and frozen sweet corn. We usually add hot turkey sausage and any fresh vegetables available. The wood stove in the kitchen is hot or warm from October to April since it heats our home so it's no trouble to slowly cook soup for eight hours, or so, every week. 

Metal Colander Floating on Top of Cooking Tomato Sauce That Facilitates Ladling Out Tomato Plasma to Thicken It.

Tomatoes processed this way make twice as much soup stock (flavored tomato plasma) as it does thick sauce that we use for pasta or pizza.

Day One: Nine Quarts of Thick Tomato Sauce and 19 Quarts of Soup Stock, That Have Various Amounts of Tomato/Flavoring Solids. Fewer Bits and Pieces Go Through the Holes in the Colander As the Sauce Thickens. 

Day Two: Five Quarts and One Pint of Tomato Sauce, 11 Quarts of Soup Stock On Top of the Stove We'll Use for Cooking All Winter.

Processing Apples

Anticipating the largest apple harvest in over a decade, I modified an exercise bicycle so that I can grind up apples by pedaling with my feet, while cutting up the apples by hand and removing bad parts. We pick apples for eating and those used for pies and baked goods, but it takes too long to pick the dozens of bushels ripening this year. We need a way to squeeze the juice out of apples we pick off the ground that's quick and easy. Adding a second shaft to the exercise bike makes it easy to change the gear ratio between the pedals and the drum that grinds fruit. If it's easy to do, make the drum turn faster than you pedal. If it's difficult, gear it down.

Exercise Bike Closeup Showing Intermediate Shaft That Allows the End Drive to Rise Well Above the Pedals and an Easy Way to Change Gear Ratio.

The drum I chose came from an auction many years ago and is welded to a shaft, all stainless steel. The drum has grooves that quickly grind up apples but then fill up and require lots of hand work to continue working. I tried different thickness plates for the drum to mash apples against, but all three didn't change throughput. They all took a lot of work to enable it to continue mashing apples.

View of Drum Showing Grooves Filled With Mashed Apples

The Pedal-powered Apple Masher Showing Processing Table and Feeding Chute but Not a 5-Gallon Pail that Receives the Mashed Apple

Once you have many pails filled with ground up apples, there is the task of separating the juice from the rest. I built a conventional slat-lined cylinder that I hoped would let liquid quickly flow down to a tray that emptied into a bucket. I used a 12 ton hydraulic press to push on a tightly fitted piston. The first quart came out very quickly but then slowed way down until almost nothing more came out. Even with many additional tons of pressure on the top, very little cider came out the open strips between the slats. With over 5 gallons of mash in the cylinder, less than a gallon seeped out in 14 hours, periodically pumping the hydraulic ram. It seems that the volumes of pulp near the openings between the slats quickly drained away and blocked liquid from the interior from getting through.

Hydraulic Press with Oak Slat Cylinder Filled with Apple Mash and Pressed for 14 Hours. Only Material Near the Openings Lost Liquid, the Rest Was As Wet As It Went In.

 I searched Craig's List for options and found an ancient grape crusher for $50 available two hours away. I brought it home, disassembled and cleaned it, but decided it would take a few days to both connect it for pedal power and also modify it. The two drums that rotate at different speeds are open at each end and were filled with dried grape stems, seeds and skins. These need to be sealed so they can be readily cleaned without disassembly.  

Top View of a Fruit Crusher. The Two Drums Rotate At Different Speeds So They Clean Each Other.

Side View of Fruit Crusher Showing Drive Handle and Spring Loading Mechanism That Pushes One Drum Against the Other.

My goals for the weekend were to start five-gallons of apple cider fermenting and to make a large batch of apple sauce. The quickest way to do both is to use a squeezer that separates pulp from skins, stems and cores. 

"Squeezo" Fruit Grinder That Separates Apple Peel, Stems and Cores From Pulp/Juice.

To remove the apple bits from the juice I made five platens that had hollow cores and tops with lots of holes that allowed juice to flow unimpeded. A gallon of apple pulp was loaded into a frame lined with a piece of cloth ten times the size of the platen. After folding over all sides of the cloth, the frame was removed and another platen placed on top and the process repeated. Once the five sandwiches of platens and wrapped apple pumice were complete, it took only ten minutes of pushing slightly on the hydraulic press to turn the layers of apple to moist fruit leather. It took two pressings using five 5-gallon pails of apples to make five gallons of cider.

Hydraulic Press With Receiving Tray, Five Platens, and a Frame for Holding a Cloth While Filling with Two Inches of Apple Pulp. The Cloth Is Folded Over in Every Direction and the Frame Removed. When All Layers are Complete, A Solid Plate Is Placed on Top and the Stack Compressed by the Hydraulic Cylinder. The Juice Flows Into the White Tray on the Bottom and Drains out a Hole into a Bucket on the Ground.

I had to process about eight more gallons of apples to make enough juice to make three gallons of moist fruit leather into proper consistency apple sauce. Cleanup took only a few minutes to rinse the metal parts in water. The cloths were folded, placed in a plastic bag and frozen until next batch. After adding some sugar and cinnamon, the processed apples made 30 pint jars of applesauce.

Next Year's Supply of Apple Sauce.

Summer Squash, Apples, Corn and Garlic

Following a dry spring, timely precipitation since May resulted in bumper crops of shell peas, sugar snap peas, string beans, potatoes, beets, strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, and many different herbs. 

Garlic Scapes Being Prepared for the Freezer

We're harvesting enough summer squash to be able to share more than 40 pounds a week with neighbors and a homeless shelter. 

Striped Zucchini Squash

Yellow Summer Squash

Our first planting of sweet corn was fully mature and we've harvested ears from all 160 plants. It's a hybrid yellow Se+ Corn called Sugar Buns from Johnny's Selected Seeds. 

The First Crop of Corn Has Been Pulled Out and Laid Down So It Can Compost. Four Rows of the Second Crop, in the Background, Is Beginning to Ripen.

 We steamed the ears for a few minutes and then stripped the kernels from the cobs using an implement made for this purpose that has a cylinder of stainless steel with tiny teeth on one end. By squeezing the handles together, the cylinder becomes smaller so it matches the diameter of the cob.

Seventy Pounds of Corn Ready for Stripping Off the Kernels

Leather Gloves Are Required to Process This Amount of Corn Because the Handles of the Tool Are Small And Eventually Cause Blisters. The Hand Opposite the Stripping Hand Often Gets Hit by the Sharp Teeth of the Stripper and a Glove Prevents Blood That Would Contaminate the Kernels.

160 Corn Plants Not Only Delivered a Few Dozen Meals for Us and Neighbors But Also This Pile of Cobs and Ready to Freeze One Pound Packages. Each Tray Weighs Around 35 pounds.

The next harvesting effort will be processing apples. One of our trees is laden with perfect apples - when last year it did not produce a single one. This process probably interrupted the parasite cycle so that there were none to devour this year's crop. Until they are all gone, each week we'll deliver 50 pounds of freshly picked apples to the homeless shelter we support. Every day we gather a bucket or two of drops that we'll process into juice and sauce. We've already made a few pies and crisps and will probably make a few more. We also have a few Granny Smith Apple Trees that are loaded, but their crop won't be ready until late September.

The Apple Tree Had So Many Fruit That Props Were Necessary to Prevent the Limbs from Breaking. 

This Unnamed Variety of Apple Is the Earliest Ripening One We Know: Last Week of July.