Harvest from the Garden

May 28, 2025

On Monday (May 26), after it stopped raining for a bit, Bruce and I dressed up in our coveralls. We headed out to clear the section on the south fence under the trees. We had a lot of branches down from the storm last week.

We loaded the branches into the mower cart, then unloaded them into the burn spot in the back pasture.

Once we were done moving branches, Bruce mowed the area. While Bruce mowed, I pulled the cut up branches from pine number three to the large pile for chipping.

Once I finish that, I stopped by the garden to harvest one group of onions. The steams had fallen over and the leaves were turning yellow and brown. I could’ve left them a bit longer, but I decided to grill a few on my new grill.

I picked peppers to grill and some to spice up the red beans and rice I plan to make soon. I harvested jalapeños, a poblano, Italian hot long pepper, cayennes and shishito peppers.

The five gallon bucket method of growing peppers is working great!

For dinner, for an appetizer, I split the jalapeños in half, seeded them and stuffed them with cream cheese. I did the same to the Italian hot long pepper, only I added some Gruyère cheese to the cream cheese. I put the stuffed peppers into a small cast iron skillet.

I cooked a bone in pork rib roast, using the grill as an oven. I cooked it in one of my cast iron skillets. I turned on the grill to get it to 450 degrees F. I rubbed olive oil over pork rib roast, salted it, rubbed it with Afia – Baharat 7 spice blend, put it in the cast iron skillet and placed the skillet with the roast in the grill.

After 15 minutes, I turned the grill down. I had fiddle a bit with the burners to get the temperature to 350 degrees F. I also put the cast iron skillet with the peppers on the grill.

I sliced part of a French bread loaf on diagonal. I drizzled olive oil over the bread, sprinkled it with garlic salt and herbs de provence (a gift from my friend Jeanne from ajeanneinthekitchen.com).

I grilled the bread and removed the cast iron skillet with the peppers.

I added some of the smaller onions harvested earlier to the skillet containing the pork rib roast.

Bruce and I ate the peppers with most of the slices of bread. We left two slices of bread to eat with dinner.

I checked the roast at 60 minutes after I turned down grill. The temperature was 147 degrees F. The roast was ready to eat!

After the pork rib roast sat for 5 minutes, Bruce carved the roast.

I loved the Baharat 7 spice mix on the pork rib roast. It was delicious! The just harvested garden onions were delicious.

After dinner, I put sunflower seeds out for the birds. The cardinal came to visit.

Yesterday (May 27), I went to PT. I managed to overdo when lifting weights and found myself hurting more than expected. My physical therapist was concerned since it was a sudden sharp pain in a new area and it wasn’t letting up. He had me stop and put heat on it. It started raining after PT, as if the rain had waited for me to walk to the truck. It rained on us all the way home.

I had to take it easy for a bit when we got home. I lay on the vibrating bed until the pain let up.

The rain let up and the next rainstorm didn’t arrive until late afternoon. I took advantage of the pause in the rain to look at the garden and pick peas.

Bruce and I go out to the garden and pick the English peas and Sugar Snap peas together. We shell the English peas right there, eat the peas raw and throw the shells into the garden. We also eat the Sugar Snap peas raw, tossing the ends and strings into the garden. We’ve had enough English peas to have a cooked side, but we’d rather eat them fresh. I have picked a few Sugar Snap peas and used them in a salad.

I picked the ripe tomato and shared it with Bruce. We were both a little disappointed with it: not acid enough or not sweet enough, and a little watery. The tomato had split from all the rain.

I transplanted some basil, growing from a seed spill, to other spots in the garden.

Bruce started mowing the backyard, finished the backyard, managed to get the side yards mowed and front up to the pines mowed before the batteries needed to be recharged. Bruce called it good enough. He stopped by the garden to let me know he was done mowing for the day. He got the mower in the barn, just as it started raining. We got a deluge.

After the rain, I transplanted the lemon and lime trees into the large pots I brought at TJ Maxx.

As I made supper, I stepped out a few times to get a picture of the sunset.

I do love the sunsets here on Blackberry Homestead.