As the Garden Grows........ May 5th 2014

Welcome back to another installment of "As the Garden Grows" as we share the evolution of a new garden. It has been a VERY wet spring here in north Florida thankfully our raised beds have kept us growing and healthy through many inches of rain :)

I can attest to raised beds making a garden much more manageable when life is crazy busy. Having been in nursing school since this garden was started (I just graduated last Friday) there really hasn't been much time put into maintaining the garden.

Rabbit Rabbit Everywhere...........

This is a continuation of rabbit processing day. In the past we have cut up and frozen our rabbit meat the same day it was harvested but this time we are trying something different. This time we let the carcasses chill in the fridge for a couple of days until they were past the rigor stage. This is supposed to make the meat more tender.

I debone the backs and most of the hind legs (I leave a few hind legs whole). The forelegs, rib cages backbones and hind leg bones all go in the stock pot.

As the Garden Grows.......... 12/23/2013

A weekly chronicle of the first year of a new garden.

Scurvy Elephant Farm moved to a new home this fall necessitating starting gardens from scratch.  This presents an opportunity to chronicle the process from the start. As life permits Monday's will be "As the Garden Grows" post days. 

Without further ado lets get started!

A garden is born.......................

I have been without a real garden for a while. We moved to the new property in August, the weekend before the fall semester started. Then I had back surgery, which really slowed the garden progress down. Thanks to a helpful husband and a really mild December, the first four raised beds are built and partially planted.

The project began with free wood I drug home.

Prickly Pear Jelly...........

I have been eyeing a rather large Prickly Pear just up the road from the farm ever since we moved in this fall. I comment on the ripening fruit and my desire to turn it into jelly. Thanks to a post from a friend about the need for gloves during this process to avoid bright purple hands, I finally went and picked some today. I am a huge fan of free fruit you can turn into jelly and other goodies!

For the love of Pears..............

The universe finally allowed time for some canning today! Our Sand Pear was the only one that bore this year due to the weird winter but she bore a phenomenal number of pears. My beloved Ball Book had a syrup recipe using Honey so that is how the batches started, when the honey ran out I replaced it with Agave, then added vanilla and cinnamon to the third Agave batch, finally ending with a brown sugar batch when the Agave ran out.

Fortuitously Erin over on the Polyface Hen House Blog  posted a nice Plum Cake recipe today that I stole and used pears instead of plums, it was a huge hit! So I thought I would share it here too. Just a note on using pears, I cooked mine in agave syrup for about five minutes before adding them to the cake.

Pear  Cake  (or other fruit of choice)

3 eggs; 1/2 c. butter, softened; 1/2 c. sugar; 1 t. lemon zest; 1 c. flour; 1/2 t. baking powder; 1 1/4 c. plums, pitted and sliced

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease and flour one 9 inch tube pan.  Separate the eggs.
2. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Beat in the egg yolks and lemon zest.  Stir together the flour and baking powder and then beat the flour mixture into the creamed mixture.  Gently fold in the egg whites.
4. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.  There will only be a little over an inch of batter.  Arrange the pears, attractively over the batter.
5. Bake for 40 minutes or until cake tests done.  Allow to cool before serving.

*** Recipe courtesy of Polyface Hen House Blog