Garden Harvest & White Bean Chili

Hello Fall!!! I'm so in love with the weather right now and loving HARVEST TIME!  My garden is in full force and I'm overeating all kind of amazing things like, tomatoes, swiss chard, zucchini, beets and carrots!  We also enjoyed peaches and apples from the trees in our yard as well, although they need some serious grooming.  

Above:  These are our square foot gardens with tomatoes/zucchini/squash planted behind them straight in the ground.  These gardens are so incredibly easy!  As you can see, they are sectioned off into squares and I plant per square instead of in rows.  This way of gardening has made life so much easier!  Weeding is minimal and the weeds pull out quickly and easily.

I'm thrilled that as Fall sets in I am able to make soups, stews and chili's.  There is nothing more comforting to me that having something like this for dinner!  This Chili has been one of my favorites and I used to make it with Chicken, and I decided to try it without.  Just as good!  Yes!  Hope you enjoy.

White Bean Chili

1 onion, chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

1 heaping tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon salt or 2 tablespoons Liquid Aminos

1 small can diced green chile peppers

4-6 cups Great Northern Beans, cooked 

(add as many beans as you'd like for thickness)

6 cups vegetable broth

Saute onion and garlic in a little water.  Add cumin and saute for at least 1 minute.  Keep a little moist with water.  Add diced green chile peppers, beans, & vegetable broth.  Season with a little salt or Liquid Aminos.  Heat through and serve with chopped green onions, cilantro, salsa on top, or as seen above, hot sauce!  It also makes a great dip for chips!  Enjoy!

Our Garden & How to Cook Beets

We put in several new 4x8 foot gardens in our backyard this year and I was anxious to see how they would do.  We planted swiss chard, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, black kale, green/red peppers, bush beans, and some herbs (parsley, basil and oregano).  Outside of our boxes, in flower beds we planted tomatoes, zucchini, squash, cabbage, eggplant, and leeks.  Here are some pictures of the garden in July.  We have just finished harvesting most of our garden.  The only thing left are a box that is half full of beets!  Below I have posted how to cook beets.  We love fresh beets with lemon on them.  They are super delish on salads!  I love them hot, after just cooking them.  Our peppers and broccoli didn't do so well this year :(  Everything else was beautiful!  I already miss my garden :(  Can't wait until next Spring to begin again!!

Above: This is my Mom's garden box.  Her box does so well every year.  It is in a different part of the yard than our other boxes.

 Lettuce

 Bush Beans

 Dan harvesting beans

 Swiss Chard.  They are small in this picture, they were huge when harvested!  We actually harvested them a little at a time...

 Carrots and Cilantro that went to seed :(

 Cabbage!!  They were huge!

 Black kale.  We found these were delicious harvested young.  As we let them grow, they got a billion little white bugs that were a pain to wash off!

Above: Swiss chard, aren't the colors beautiful?!!! I love it that they look like veins and all those nutrients flow through our veins.  Love it!

 Italian Parsley

 Beans

 Dill (loved this in dressings and fresh on our salads!)

 Our garden, my daughter Rachel running through the tomato plants :)

 Room to grow!!!

How To Cook Beets

Thoroughly scrub the outside of beets, removing tops.  Place beets in a large pot.  Add enough water to cover the bottom about an inch or two.  Place lid on top and turn to medium heat.  When the water in the bottom is boiling turn to medium low heat and let steam until the beats are soft.  I use a butter knife to test, if the knife enters the beet and feels soft, they are done!  Remove from heat and empty hot water, fill pot with cold water and let sit for a few minutes.  As you see below the skins are loose and easy to remove.  Cut off tops and slice or dice.  

*We like lemons juice over our beets, or plain.