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Food For Life Garden Update!

Inspiration "A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust." Gertrude Jekyll

Wow, in Southern Missouri it has been like a rainforest for over two months now. We get our almost daily rain shower, and more often rain dumps accompanied by a thunderstorm. The humidity in the air feels thick enough to slice. Makes your clothes cling to your skin and they are about as wet from sweating as they would be after getting caught in a down pour.

Bugs are at their troublesome best and pretty much a full time job to deal with, without much impact. There are just so many. Japanese beetles are defoliating the trees, the tomato hornworms are back, cabbage worms are creating skeletons with cabbage leaves, and squash bugs are rampant. However, the chickens are happy about their daily extra protein rations that I collect for them.

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In the garden: I harvested all my garlic and it is now curing, hanging from the ceiling. You can find out how to do that in my garlic growing guide and keep it handy for garlic planting time this fall! If you had a decent garlic harvest, I've got a great recipe for fermented garlic paste that you can keep in your fridge year round for convenience and it tastes awesome. And stock up on fermented garlic honey to be ready for cold and flu season when it hits.

I've harvested my first handful of potatoes, cucumbers, and lots of my favorite beans. If you haven't found your favorite variety of beans yet, I can highly recommend the Contender (Buff Valentine) heirloom bush bean. I appreciate them more every year and even more after I had to plant others last year because all the Contender beans were sold out. The other varieties I tried were super frustrating. Blue Lake had weak branches that kept breaking off when trying to harvest beans, Provider and another that I can't remember, never produced that well for me, and some of the other varieties didn't hold up in canning and freezing. I do have one other variety, Dragon's Tongue, that I love for fresh eating. They don't hold up to processing very well either, but they taste delicious, and are beautiful.

I'll be canning some beans later today and cook some bone broth, to make some room in the freezer. I'll try to record everything for another post or two, so look out for it.

Then I've been back to fermenting vegetables and will be posting more fermentation posts soon. My peppers are coming in really strong and it's time to make more hot sauce and other pepper dishes. For now you can find my favorite hot sauce with cantaloupe from last year, which I'm still eating and it goes on almost every sandwich (I made a lot). Yumm! You'll also find a recipe for fermented cantaloupe, which is brand new. I'll introduce it below, so read on!

The hot weather calls for making more homemade, naturally carbonated soda and I played with new flavors, which I'll post later this year. So keep a look-out for delicious elderflower soda and mimosa soda. For now you can learn how to make your own soda starters and how to craft your own probiotic home brews from the variety of posts listed on my beverages page. You'll also find switchel there, a electrolyte hydration drink to keep you hydrated and well while active in the heat. And do try the hibiscus soda, it's super delicious!

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What you can still plant in late July: If you're going to plant a fall garden, get your seeds now. Kale, broccoli, chard, cabbage and more can be started now and transplanted early in August for a fall harvest or overwintering if your climate allows it. When your garlic, spinach, and peas are done, use the space for bush beans, cucumbers, carrots, beets, turnips, zucchini, basil, and cilantro for harvesting in a couple of months.

And, speaking of Zucchini: Here is a recipe for a delicious healthy version of Zucchini Bread if you have a few extra zucchinis to process. Healthy, delicious, wholesome!

Replay: Consider pre-ordering your Garlic now for the best selection: Garlic is planted in the fall. Read more about growing garlic and be prepared to plant your own this fall. If you'll be planting from your homegrown garlic, after curing your garlic bulbs, set aside the largest ones for replanting and eat the smaller ones.

Here are my favorite stores that sell seed garlic. They carry beautiful big ones, which is so important. Keene Garlic and Baker Creek. My favorite garlic are hardneck garlic: Music, Pehoski Purple, Chesnok Red, Georgian Fire, and German Extra Hardy. They make big bulbs and store well and can be grown from the north down to about zone 8. Farther south you'll want to plant softneck garlic varieties.

In the Food Forest: Prune your stone fruit trees in the summer, this helps to prevent diseases vs. winter pruning. Cherry, plum, peaches, and nectarines benefit when pruned in the summer. Remove crossing branches, branches that crowd the inside to allow a bit of air flow, but not so much to make the fruits prone to sun scald or wind damage. Leave a few protective branches inside the canopy. Don't prune if the tree has high bug and disease pressure. And make sure to leave a collar when cutting a limb off a trunk. Here is a good illustration for making a correct cut.

Cheese Making: I posted two more summer cheese dessert recipes, which are made with Homemade Quark, but I also listed alternative cheeses you can purchase in any grocery store. Read more below.

And, just as a reminder, and if you got my previous newsletters, you already know this, but...

Don't forget to make compost to nourish your soil and plants throughout the year! You can make great compost in just 3 weeks, and use it for side- and top-dressing your planted garden thoughout the season. And if making a huge compost pile isn't your thing, there are lots of other ways to compost!

Don't miss my guide for starting a medicinal herb garden! Not only will you have herbs to use for your herbal home apothecary, but many are great for seasoning your foods, to attract pollinators, and deter pests.

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​GET YOUR SEEDS HERE! True Leaf Market has many vegetable varieties, as well as a big selection on herbs! Plus, they offer Free Shipping over $75.-. So get your seeds before they sell out or it's too late to plant!

​Herb Seed Collection! Here is a great deal I found for a herb seed starter pack from Amazon. A collection of 36 herbs for just over a dollar a packet. I got one for myself and had good success with germination. This contains most of the seeds to grow the herbs I mention in my medicinal herb garden post.

Your source for information about gardening, planting a food forest, permaculture, farming with animals, growing meat, and milking goats. Learn about making cheese and sourdough bread, preserving your harvest, traditional homestead recipes, off-grid living and more! Visit foodforlifegarden.com​

New On The Blog

Fermented Cantaloupe Recipe: Fabulous Preserved Melon!

​Ferment your extra melons and have some awesome melon pickles to eat all year round! Tasty, tangy, slightly sweet, they make a great probiotic snack or side for your meals. Fermenting will increase the health benefits and nutrients of melon and add probiotics. This is a great way to get more probiotics into your diet for better digestion, gut health, immune support and so much more!

Fermenting foods is such a perfect way to preserve them. The melon will stay nice and firm for a year in the fridge or cellar and will be a great treat for you while waiting for next year’s harvest. Give your gut a healthy dose of probiotics, and maintain a healthy digestion and better health over all.

Lacto-Fermented, Probiotic Cantaloupe

The Ultimate Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars Are Dessert Perfection

Don't you just adore blueberries? How about blueberries and lemon? And I can do you one up on that by adding delicious cheesecake and a cookie crust. Now there you have a combination that begs for a detour to the blueberry farm down the road to load up on those delicious berries. Soon you'll be rewarded with one of the best summer cakes ever, Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars!

This is a seriously delicious and addictive dessert. Take this to a picnic or potluck! Or serve it anytime at home. It's healthy enough that you can indulge! This can be made with homemade quark cheese, cottage cheese, queso fresco, or other alternatives. Grab this delicious lemon blueberry cheesecake bars recipe and take advantage of this year's blueberry season!

Get The Ultimate Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Recipe!

The Best Healthy Lemon Cheesecake Mousse From Scratch

​Lemon Cheesecake Mousse is a decadent, creamy, incredibly delicious dessert that you’ll come back to for more. And that’s ok! This is healthy!

If I would have to choose just one favorite dessert, this could very well be it. It fits the bill for awesome flavor, creaminess, tanginess, fluffiness, and healthiness. If you love lemon and cheesecake, you’ll be ecstatic over this little delicious dessert! I’m listing 2 ways to make it, both are delicious, and while this is a quark cheese recipe, it can be made with cottage cheese, ricotta, or other substitutes. So head on over to the blog to learn more and get the recipe for this awesome lemon cheesecake mousse!

The Best Lemon Cheesecake Mousse Recipe