Well, we have had three hard freezes at my house. NOT according to the thermometer, that has officially read 37 or so. But the frost on the ground and the ice on the windshield and the wilting garden veggies triggered my woods-lore instinct and I realized things had frozen.

With the predicted low of 37...accompanied by a freeze warning...I used my internally-timed season clock to tell me to harvest the tomatoes. So, something like three bushels came into the garage! About two of those bushels green. I've since dried about four dryer loads (two Excalibur brand dryers...total of 14 shelves), yielding about five gallons of dried tomatoes. I also got a full gallon of dried eggplant, about a quart of dried bell peppers (red and green), half gallon of dried sweet onions, and several gallons of dried zucchini and yellow crookneck squash.

About three shelves of tomatoes are in the dryer now. Next, I still have about 2.5 bushels of tomatoes left...most green, or still unripe enough for drying. After that, I have 30 eating variety pumpkins sitting on the trailer in the garage--most of which are orange.

Earlier I asked somewhere on this forum if anyone had any recipes for stuffed squash. Receiving no answer, I found several on line and then made up my own based on what we had thawed and ingredients on hand. It tasted GREAT!

Ingredients:

One six inch diameter (or so) pumpkin

yellow onions

green peppers

Japanese short grain rice

ground beef

black pepper

Amounts are not listed because I (we) didn't measure them.

Cut off the top of the pumpkin as if you are going to make a jack-o-lantern, save the lid.

Remove pumpkin seeds and pulp.

Add 1/4 cup water to inside of pumpkin and replace the pumpkin lid.

Place in glass bowl large enough that there is one inch of space around all sides of the pumpkin.

Add enough water to the glass bowl so it comes one-half inch up the side of the pumpkin.

Microwave pumpkin 10 minutes, which will make it half done.

Brown burger and drain grease. Stir in chopped onion and peppers and cook until wilted/browned.

Stuff burger mixture into pumpkin shell and add some cooked rice. Replace pumpkin lid and microwave another 10 minutes.

This small pumpkin fed three adults.

Tip...the pumpkin doesn't hold lots of the stuffing or rice. So we served one-quarter pumpkin in a bowl with the stuffing, and added more stuffing and rice. Added butter and black pepper to taste.

Don't eat the rind, it separates easily from the cooked pumpkin.

Yum.

Most of the recipes we looked at online also included using pork as well as beef burger, adding the rice either half cooked or uncooked, some other stuff and then baking in the oven for two to two and a half hours! We were hungrier than that. Cooking the ingredients separate and adding them to the pumpkin for microwaving twenty minutes (total) worked out grand.

PS...my microwave is PC. I put up a kite during a thunderstorm for the power source or put a wheel in the irrigation canal 200 feet behind the house.

Sparks

Oh,
I almost forgot to mention my asparagus...probably because I didn't harvest any...it being the first year crop.

The shoots went up about 18 inches and then went to seed and the fronds looked to be about four feet high! To get double use out of the bed we planted tomatoes in the same bed. Tomatoes over-topped some of the asparagus. Next year the bed is totally reserved for asparagus...no supplemental veggies.

Sparks

Very interesting Sparks. This was our first year at having a garden. We didn't get anywhere near the yield you did but did get some good out of it and had fun too. How much ground did you have planted?

Got down to 38 degrees here last night, but garden is still producing.
We've got a bunch of onions,green chile,tomatos,tomatillos,corn,beans,squash,pumpkins,cantelope..and zuchinni. LOTS of zuchinni.
Got the ingredients to make up some calabacitas, a traditional New Mexican dish.
If you want to try it, here's the recipe.

CALABACITAS

2 tablespoons oil
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 medium onion, chopped
4 medium sized zuchini, quartered lengthwise, then cut into 1/2" pieces
1 1/2 cup sweet corn kernels (or one 12oz. can drained)
2 fresh peeled green chiles (or 4oz. can diced)
1/2 cup grated chedder or jack cheese
Salt to taste

In a large heavy skillet, saute the onion,garlic and zuchini in oil. Discard the garlic. Mix in corn, chopped chiles and salt. Cover tightly and heat through until zuchini is tender. Mix in cheese and serve.
This recipe feeds 4.

Very old recipe. I'll bet Kit Carson enjoyed a few bowls of this in Taos...

Deercop,
I'll need to try that one. A fellow list member just sent me 8 stuffed pumpkin recipes. A couple days ago we were wondering what we were going to do with these 31 pumpkins...seemed like I'd be making pies and/or drying pumpkins for months. Now that we discovered stuffed pumpkin, I am already thinking of planting MORE next year!

Dave,
I made raised beds out of 2x6 boards. Each box was two boards high, 4' wide and 8' long. We made and planted nine of these. That makes 32 square feet each, or 288 square feet, or .0066 acres for the total garden. We planted four pumpkin starts...one each on two corners of two boxes. Next year we will plant them in the back part of the yard, as they tend to take over and crowd things out...especially if you're just 'farmin' .0066 acres!
Sparks

Well, here is one more for you:

Russian Stuffed Pumpkin
Categories: Desserts, Russian
Yield: 8 servings

4 lb Pumpkin
1 1/2 c Long-grain rice
2 lg Tart cooking apples (like
-Granny Smith), peeled,
-cored and diced
1/2 c Golden raisins
1/2 c Dried sour cherries
-(available in specialty
-food stores)
8 tb (1 stick) unsalted butter,
-melted
1 tb Sugar or more to taste
3/4 ts Ground cinnamon
Salt to taste
1/4 c Hot water

This spectacular stuffed pumpkin can be the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving table. Pumpkin is stuffed with rice, apples, raisins and sour cherries, then baked.

Cut the stem end of the pumpkin as if you were about to carve a jack o'lantern. Set aside "lid". Remove insides of pumpkin and discard (or save to roast and munch on). Using a grapefruit knife or melon baller, scoop out the flesh of the pumpkin as much as you can without piercing the skin. Chop flesh and set aside.

In lg saucepan, bring 3 qts of salted water to boil and dump in the rice. Cook over high heat, covered until still a bit hard to the bite...about 15 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In large bowl, combine, pumpkin, partially cooked rice, raisins, dried sour cherries and melted butter. Season with sugar, salt and cinnamon. Spoon stuffing loosely into pumpkin, sprinkle with the hot water and put "lid" on tightly. Place on baking sheet and bake till pumpkin is tender to a point of a knife...about 2 hrs. Cut into wedges and serve.

Serves 8

Growing season was so poor here this year folks are asking for zuchinni!!!!!!I could have eaten the seeds I planted and done better and saved lots of work.I have 18 tomatoes in and have yet to get the first ripe tomato,no sun for 3 month just rain. Just rotten and falling on the ground.Spinach didnt even bolt this year.Good year for maple syrup 62 pts in the root cellar,only cooked three days.
Big Ugly you sure you mean 3 QTS of water for 1 1/2 cups of rice!!!!!!!

quote:

Big Ugly you sure you mean 3 QTS of water for 1 1/2 cups of rice!!!!!!!

That's the way the recipe is written. Notice it also says drain well.

Big Ugly Just wondering most times it 2 to 1 is the ratio so 1 1/2 cups rice to 3 cups water would make the ratio as I understand it.This is the way I do it now and was taught in Japan back in 1968.Inquiring minds ask.Sure appears to be a lot of water though,maybe not.Well drained, OK well drained it is.Sauce pan that holds,3 qts = 3/4 gal of water,well drained OK well drained it is,I guess.

I've heard the one to three ratio for some rice. As an experiment, I'd first try cooking rice however you like to cook it usually. I suspect there might be an error...but maybe not.

At any rate, I do thank Big Ugly...not only for this recipe but for the eight he mailed me personally.

Sparks

The rice won't be sticky if cooked with that much water. I cook mine with that much water and ( check often for soft grains)rinse, butter, fluffy rice ..Peashooterjoe..

Sparks, that sounds like what I did only mine were smaller. 2x6 boards, 4'x 4' and only 3 of them. Just wanted to get my feet wet this year. Yeah, I'm gonna plant the zucchini & summer squash out back next year as well. They took over the boxes like your punkins did.

I'm not planting yellow crookneck summer squash at all next spring. Seems they quit producing when it warms up. I think Zucchini were an early Everready battery company product.

I had good production of mustard varieties early in the year, but I tried planting a crop for fall harvest and they got so buggy we couldn't even harvest them...mostly manifested in the egg casings on the underside of the leaf every square inch! No more fall mustard.

Tomatoes can also occupy the site 100% and crowd everything else out, including themselves. Next year we plant way fewer tomatoes and only ONE cherry tomato plant.

If you have trouble with squash beetles and they slow the production way down on your plants, pulling all the squash will send many of the beetles to your pumpkins (basically a winter squash). Don't ask me how I know this.

Hey Sparks, We tried your recipe night before lastand it was pretty good. I used deer sausage and ground beef mixed with long grain brown rice. Added a can of cream of mushroom soup to the mix and it thickened the mix up quite a bit. Really enjoyed it and will keep playing with the recipe. Will let you know if I come up with anything worth telling.

Love to hear from you when you do...just saying you tried it pleases me. I'll add some of your suggestions. The major difference between what we (including you) are doing is making it a meal rather than a dessert. That said, I still think pouring some maple syrup into the cavity once the pumpkin is stuffed sounds like it would be delicious.

Sparks

for those of ya that are useing raised beds for the garden there is a GREAT book out there called "Square foot gardening" by Mel Bartholamew. Rather than planting in traditional rows he figured out how to plant by the square foot instead. The book can be found on most of the used book sites and also at the library iffen ya want to check it out before buying. It walks ya through the whole system of interplanting, growing things up on trellises, useing flowers here n there to attract good bugs n just for the beauty, as well as how many plants to plant per square foot etc. It really is a great book and can save ya lots of time n work weeding etc. I've planted my gardens useing this idea for years now n never have had any complaints at all, Check it out. YMHS Birdman