Tomatoes!!

I know the last garden update was a bit of a downer.  While it has been a tough year for our garden, not all is lost!  We have not given up.  Our tomatoes are doing amazingly well and I'm on Vat #3 of pizza sauce.  It's the best year yet for our tomatoes!

Pizza dough rising (left) and the 3rd vat of pizza sauce reducing on the stove (right)

We are expecting guests in town later this week, so I whipped up some whole wheat pizza dough this morning to go along with it so we can all make our own, fresh pizzas later this week. When I was at Whole Foods last week I noticed 1ball of pizza dough cost $2.99 each.  I made 8 of them just over a buck.  That's a savings of over $22 bucks!!! 

Monday Garden Update

It's Monday again...

Is it me or did last week go REALLY fast?  Time goes by so much quicker in the summer.  Guess we were all too busy having fun.

We harvested the last of the peas and the broccoli and tilled those babies down.  We replanted with some summer squash.  We should have squash all summer long this time with this planting.

I'm dry curing our first few onions.  You may remember we planted these last year just before winter.  The ones that are ready are the smaller ones.  We've got some biggins so we have a lot to look forward to this summer.

The first patty pans have been out for a week or so.  Soon, it'll be harvesting time.  The patty pans were directly sown in mid-April.  You know, I think I will do the same as this year and won't bother growing these from seed and transplanting them like we did the year before last.  They come up so fast on their own and there is plenty of stuff in the garden to eat while we wait for them so I just don't see the need. 

Well, that's all for now.  Check out Feet Off the Table for more gardening adventures!

Monday Garden Update

It's Monday...err make that Tuesday and you know what the means, time for a garden update!

We were nervous to leave the garden last week.  Temps were in the upper 90's and humid and we had noone to water the garden.  I wasn't sure what we'd be coming back to.

To my surprise everything did well despite the heat and lack of water.  We still had some ripe strawberries to pick and we have new blooms on the ever bearing varieties.

I had yet to completely unpack and the vacation laundry was piled high and I was left pondering.... Laundry? pick peas? laundry? peas?.... the peas won  .I also picked a bunch of broccoli florets for dinner.  I have yet to shell and freeze the peas... I best get on that. 

I can always count on the squash taking off in the heat.  We are also growing buttercrunch lettuce for summer eating.  It is suppose to be tender and delicious all summer long.  We had some with dinner last night and it was delicate in flavor and absolutely delicious.  I'll never go back to regular lettuce again.

The blueberries have started to ripen and we've been eating them a handful at a time.  It feels like such a luxury to just go out in the garden feeling like a snack and grabbing a handful!

Lastly, our beans are doing well, though a 5 foot section of them never sprouted.  Guess that is just how it goes.  If I get off my butt, I'll replant.  If not... well it will just look weird.

That's all today folks!  Hope to see you next week at Feet Off the Table!

Garden Update

It's been a while since my last garden post.  Unfortunately, my 4 year old computer caught a virus and the old hard drive died.  All is resolved now that we have a brand new computer.

So much has gone on the garden since the last post.  For one, we are already enjoying broccoli though it's technically the result of a huge blunder.  Nick forgot to add soil ammendments prior to planting the broccoli plants and they are heavy feeders so they weren't getting the nutrition they needed.  They grew fast and spindly.  They are delicious though and it hasn't stopped the kiddos from eating the raw broccoli by the head.  My kids are weird.

Strawberries are in season now as well.  It's so hard to squeeze off all the flowers the first year, but it has really paid off.  We've already gotten 2 large containers worth since Thursday when they started to turn red and there is plenty more on their way.  This is our first season of having strawberries and we had to celebrate with a big batch of Feet Off the Table's Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp.

 

Pickin' with GreenEyes.

I have never had rhubarb.  Ever.  But I couldn't help but grow it when I saw it at the co-op when we first started our garden.  You're not supposed to harvest it the first year so this our first year enjoying it as well.  It came in a while back along with the aspargus and I thought now was the right time to try it now that the strawberries are also in.  I harvested several sprigs out of the garden today, brought it in, rinced it and tasted it raw.  It tasted weird.  I was afraid to ruin my giant batch of fresh garden strawberries by mixing the rhubarb with them so we ended up with the plain strawberry crisp.  Let me tell you, it was still amazing!

 Yumm!

The peas are close to being ready for harvesting, the onions are starting to flower, and we planted tomatoes, squash, carrots, etc. a few weeks ago. Let's hope it's a fruitful year!

Winter Gardening

First, I just wanted to wish all our Out in Them Sticks readers, friends and family, Happy Holidays and a prosperous, healthy New Year!  I apologize for the lack of posts lately.  The hustle and bustle of the holidays combined with the exhaustion of the third trimester has meant that I haven't really gotten much other than the absolute must-do's complete and unfortunately, the blog just hasn't been on the must-do list. 

I'm very happy to report that we had a very enjoyable, peaceful Christmas this year.  Since having children, I have to say that the last few Christmases have been the best we have ever had.  In fact, the past few years have been the best years of our lives.  Sure, not every moment is peaches and sunshine, but the kids are at a great age and life is just plain good right now!  I just wish I could press the pause button.

The kids were really into Christmas this year.  Santa came into town and spoiled the kids rotten. Nick and I have been able to benefit from quite a bit of quiet time of late with all the new toys keeping the kiddos occupied!  Nick is using the extra time to help us finally set up the nursery for #3.  I guess you could say it's about time being just 5 or so weeks left now.

My ladybug turned 4 today which is just crazy to me. We don't celebrate her birthday until her half birthday though because it is just so close to Christmas. I've been hoping to get everyone on board with that but we've had mixed success.  In the future, she will decide when she wants to celebrate but for now, I think it's good we set up this tradition so it doesn't get overshadowed.  With just a day between Christmas and her birthday I just know that we can't give her a proper celebration!

Ladybug and Olive playing in this winter's first snow.

Thus far, it has been a cold winter for us.  We've been lucky though and have only had two light snows.  Most of it has melted now.  I finally managed enough nerve to go out and pick some of the salad greens we've been growing in the garden this afternoon.  The wind was something else though and I could barely feel my fingers by the time I was done cutting.  I suppose I will have to wear gloves and a coat next time I attempt to pick salad greens!


The plants under row covers are doing fine though they certainly aren't growing fast.  They resemble more micro-greens than the mature versions we saw this spring.  The mesclun lettuce mix that sewed itself after the previous spring planting and isn't covered has mostly died back except for the Mache and Red Deer Tongue.  They are alive and well despite the light snow and hard frosts.  Let me tell you the colder weather has done wonderful things for the flavor of the mache.  It is extra spicy and delicious.  I MUST not slack next year come fall.  They are such a treat.

Red Deer Tongue

I didn't know a lot about the red deer tongue so I did a little research on the web and apparently you can plant red deer tongue during the summer for a spring harvest the following year.  I guess if that is the case, I shouldn't be picking them right now but they are so delicious and plentiful that I figure we can manage to do both.  It is AWESOME to be at the end of December and still enjoying fresh greens.  The fact that the red deer tongue will also overwinter and can be enjoyed come early spring is just all the more thrilling! 

Today's Pickins!

Farm Tour 2010

We started our morning off really early today so that we could tour local farms as part of the Meet Yer Eats Event.  The first tour started at 8:30 in the morning so we rushed out the door to learn a little about sustainable farming in our area.  I thought I'd share what I gained from the tours.  Please note that the highlights below may or may not be entirely accurate as my memory is less than perfect!

Wolf Creek Farm

Wolf Creek Farm specializes in grass fed beef and was the first stop on our farm tour today.  It was incredibly interesting to see what it takes to run a medium sized cattle farm.  The owner discussed his difficulty finding good labor, the cost of  processing his steer, what it takes to keep his heard healthy without antibiotics, the roles of heifers vs. steer, as well as how the cows are selected and bred. I knew that most of our grocery meat was from feedlot cows but I wasn't aware that most of our grocery store hamburger is actually from spent milking cows.  The milking cows are often only 3 or so years when processed (i.e. they generally last just two milking cycles) whereas his heifers last 15 or so productive years until they are sold to less selective farms for their meat. The meat from Wolf Creek farm is exclusively from steer.

Wolf Creek Farm!

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 Ladybug in her boots.

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 Along for the ride.

Waterpenny Farm

After the awesome two hour tour at Wolf Creek, we headed on over to Sperryville to take a self-guilded tour of Waterpenny Farm.  It is a 10 acre farm growing a plethra of organic vegetables and chickens.  I learned so much information about gardening problems I can't possibly discuss it all here!  It was well worth the Farm Tour Ticket!! 

Here are some of the highlights:

-The owner stressed the importance of mulching EVERYTHING to reduce erosion, minimize the spread of disease, keep the vegetables clean, add organic matter to the soil, provide habitat for soil microbes and reduce soil compaction.  However, they warned us to not use hay for horses as the high quality hay is routinely treated with Picloram which is devestating to broad leaf plants.  Know your hay source!

-The importance of providing habitat for beneficial insects near your garden, i.e. areas that are unmowed and untouched.  They used Echinacea, BeeBalm, and Rudbeckia beds to provide good refuge for beneficial insects.

-To deal with flea beetles on eggplant the owner said she sprays the ground with Pyrethin (organic pesticide) before transplanting the eggplant and then uses floating row covers until the plant flowers.  Only then does she remove the covers.  After that she periodically sprays as-needed but once the plants are established they usually aren't a problem.

-To get rid of squash bugs the owner sprays her squash crop with kelp and baking powder every two weeks. By contrast, Radical Roots (see below) deals with squash bugs by growing his winter squash in flats and transplanting them.  He then uses row covers until the squash plant flowers.  Once the squash flowers the covers are removed and the squash bug impact is usually minimal. Good to know, right?!

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 The Mobile Chicken Unit

Radical Roots Farm

Radical Roots was our last stop on our tour.  By the time we got there it was already 3 in the afternoon and we had been farm touring since 8:30 in the morning.  It was a miracle our kids were not nightmares by that hour.

We chose to visit Radical Roots Farm (there were 18 farms to chose from) because it was the size of our property and we were curious to see how productive a community farm the size of our property could be.  We were pleasantly surprised!  They grew an amazing range of fruits and vegetables (even figs) as well as chickens.  Their system closely resembled Waterpenny's.

They had a lot of "pilot" programs/experiments including some untilled beds and such.  Radical Roots Farm was located on a hillside with sloping topography.  This was of particular interest to us because it too resembles our own yard. The owner talked quite a bit about the importance of entrapping water flow to reduce the need for irrigation. The garden beds ran parallel to the contours, hugging the hill.

These owners live by their sustainable ideals in every facet of their lives.  Even their home embodied the basic eco-principles of biomass and energy entrapment. For example, their floors were made of compacted adobe to retain and hold heat during the winter months.  The exterior walls were 18" thick and made of bricks made from recycled wood pallets and concrete pylons.  The owner was gracious enough to give us a tour of the entire home.  The house was only 1000 SF (20'x50'). but it was masterfully planned such that it felt like more than enough space for their family of four.  I was blown away.

 The Owner of Radical Roots.

Another mobile chicken unit!

Lasagna Mulching (Cardboard with wood mulch on top of black plastic). 

The house's interior.

One of my favorite features was this woman's pantry.  What a beautiful use of old canning jars!

Monday Garden Update (early, late? you decide)

There was no garden update or any posts last week because we left for Hatteras Island for a family vacation.  Unfortunately, there was a mandatory evacuation on Wednesday morning so we were forced to cut it short.  We were disappointed but we are making the best of it!   Since then, we've been back home doing a few day trips and enjoying the rest of hubby's time off.

When we got back, it was nice to find that we had a nice little harvest of eggplant and peppers.

I had enough peppers from my one meager plant that I actually decided to go ahead and roast them.  I also saved what I could of some of the seed for next years crop prior to roasting. 

I learned how to prepare New Mexican Chiles while living in New Mexico.  During chile season there you can buy a GIANT 25 lb. bag of roasted green Hatch chiles for a whopping 19 bucks.  It was such a great deal, I couldn't pass it up.  Of course, I soon learned why they were so much cheaper (by comparison a tiny, itty bitty tiny can of canned, roasted green chiles costs about $2).  When I got the chiles home, I spent the next 6 hours slumped over the kitchen sink peeling and seeding the chiles in two sittings and vowed never to do it again!  It was a crazy amount of chiles and I had yet to master how to peel and seed them efficiently.  It was a huge pain but we enjoyed the green chiles throughout the following year.  Green chiles freeze well and I saved a bundle compared to the canned versions.  The flavor is also phenomenal.

There is an interesting article about New Mexican chiles in the most current issue of Organic Gardning (Oct./Nov. 2010). You won't find the article on the web just yet (I checked).  I imagine they won't post it until the magazine officially releases in October.  The article was eye opening. Apparently Hatch chiles are grown on infertile sandy soils often using genetically modified seed and traditional gardening practices (i.e. heavy fertilizers and pesticides). It's nothing too suprising but apparently there are heirloom varities grown in the Northern part of the state on richer soil that are grown more sustainably. It's a very interesting article I suggest anyone interested in growing New Mexican chiles read. This year I grew New Mexico Jim's. My peppers aren't near as big as I thought they should be but I'm pleased to know they didn't lose a thing as far as flavor and I know what's in them!

Our Homegrown Green Chiles

You can roast chiles many ways but as our grill is out of commission I went ahead and roasted them in the oven.  To roast in the oven, I broiled them on high for 20 minutes, rotating them every five or so minutes until I got a nice char on all sides.

After that I put them in a sweating bag (a.k.a ziploc bag) for 10 minutes.  Doing this makes them easier to peel as they continue to steam in their own skin.

After that I put them in a water bath to make them even easier to peel.

I then peeled, seeded, and chopped the chiles.  Easy as pie. 

Peeling and Seeding Green Chiles

Cutting the Chiles

The Final Product

Eggplant Experiment #1 - Eggplant Parmesan

I've had eggplant only a few times in my life.  I think the last time I had eggplant, it was at one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in downtown Orlando.  Unfortunately, the dish was not well prepared and I got a fried eggplant sandwich that was way too greasy and soaked with oil.  Yuck.  It must have been an off day for the chef.  I never ordered it again.

Having only recently researched this glorious ingredient, I've learned how important it is to not use too much oil with eggplant as it acts like a sponge and will absorb almost all of it.  So, use oil sparingly when dealing with eggplant!  Though I really wanted the sandwich I described yesterday, I ended up deciding I'd first go with something I thought I could connive my kids into eating.  I figured I couldn't go wrong with Cooking Light's version of Eggplant Parmesan.  You can find the full recipe here.

I was very pleased with the result!  The fresh garden basil really made this dish shine.  I didn't have sliced mozzarella (just the usual bagged and shredded stuff) but it still turned out fantastic.  I told the kids the dish was a kind of lasagna and they totally ate it up (though my daughter was somewhat skeptical of the green bits, i.e. basil).  I think this recipe just may be a seasonal staple in our house.
 

I first dredged the sliced eggplant in an egg mixture, coated it with seasoned panko crumbs,

and then baked it until golden brown.

Then, I layered the eggplant in a pan with sauce, a ricotta mixture including fresh garlic and basil, and mozzarella cheese.

I then repeated the layers and baked as directed per the recipe.  VOILA, the end result!

Monday Garden Club

Sorry for the lack of a post last week.  I have no real excuse, it just didn't happen.  :)

In Season Now: Carrots, Parsnips, Tomatoes, Peppers & Eggplant

I do have garden news to report.  The eggplants are finally in!!  I think this will likely be the last exciting bit of news for the year as we wind down the garden.  We "pulled the plug" on the broccoli under the house because I just don't have the energy to deal with prepping and planting beds right now.  As it is, I'm figuring next year we will have our hands a little too full to grow our tomato, eggplant and peppers from seed, let alone expand the garden as we had initially planned earlier this year.  We'll see what we can manage to fit in.  It will likely be more modest next year.

I thought the eggplant were going to get bigger so I left a couple of them on the vine and the few larger fruit I left on the plant rotted.  It seems like the size above (about 5"x4") is about the maximum size for this variety in my garden. I had a lot of picking to do this weekend and I'm not entirely sure what to do with all of them.  I found a delicious-sounding, eggplant parmesan recipe that I think I might try today for the eggplant in this month's issue of Cooking Light. 

Then again, a local restaurant I just love, Revolutionary Soup, posted this on their Facebook Page:

"We slice the Eggplant thick, batter it in local Eggs and Flour and then it is fried in really good olive oil. While crispy it is put on a roll and dressed with Basil and Red Pepper pestos, spread thickly with Chevre and then the entire sandwich is pressed on the griddle until the bread becomes nice and crunchy. Almost ...entirely local, this sandwich is healthy, tasty and refreshing. Eat seasonal veggies while you can."

Sounds serendipitous to me.  Maybe I should try my hand at that one first?  Does anyone have any tried-and-true eggplant recipes they'd like to share?  I'm sort of swimming in them.

Monday Garden Update

We finished harvesting our shallots and potatoes this week and we had quite the bounty.  I'm shocked and delighted by the results.  We will be definitely doing both again next year for sure!  The plunder has left the garden looking a little bare though.   It doesn't help that none of the brussel sprouts I planted in the lower level have srpouted either!  Oh well, we aren't big brussel sprout eaters anyway, just wanted to give it a go!

In other garden news, I'm almost ready to put the cauliflower and broccoli in jiffy pots.  It looks as though we only had a 75% germination success rate with them and I didn't plant much already because we only have but so much room in the garden so I'm a little disappointed by that.  Next time I'll have to plant extra in the event they don't all germinate like this time but have the will power to get rid of any extra if there isn't enough room in the garden instead of craming them in like I did this Spring!

Broccoli and Cauliflower growing underneath the house.

Our tomatoes are doing well for the most part although the roma tomatoes appear to be somewhat small.  The roma tomato plant suffered a setback early on with a mildew infestation.  We've been nursing it back to health with some organic anti-fungal spray.  All the new growth looks great so I'm kind of surprised they are still so small.  You can see the roma tomatoes in the picture below aren't but two to three times in length as the large grape tomatoes we have.  Let's hope they do better!

Big Boys, Roma and Grape Tomatoes

We've been continuing to harvest an AMAZING amount of green beans.  We are really going to love those this winter.  I'm glad I didn't hold back.  We've had several bushels fulls already and we have more to go!

The sunflowers I planted by the shed are not doing that great.  However, we have a bird feeder with sun flower seeds and below it we have many sunflowers that are going crazy.  So, I'd prefer to have them by the shed, but I'll settle our back yard!

I suppose that's all for this week!  For more garden reading check out Feet Off the Table's Monday Garden Club!

Shallot Harvest!!

Some Hanging Shallots in My Pantry

I just couldn't wait for my shallots to come in this year just to try this delicious recipe for a roasted shallot vinaigrette dressing. Nothing beats fresh, homemade salad dressing.  This particular recipe has only 5 ingredients, olive oil, pan roasted shallots, vinegar and salt and pepper. The simplest recipes are almost always the best.  Shallots have such a wonderful, sweet, distinctive flavor that I just love and a small shallot goes a long way as far as flavor. Last night, I drizzled the dressing over my grape tomatoes which I halved.  It was one word: phenomenal!  I can't wait to try it again over top some of home grown mesclun greens with a little feta and some roasted pecans this weekend.

Update on the Monday Garden Update

So, in my previous post I thought the potatoes were dead but apparently I just lack experience.  I knew they were going to die back eventually but I was thinking this would occur sometime in August, not mid-June.  I had begun to prepare myself for no potato harvest this year.

 Dead-looking Potato Plants

After some nudging from a garden friend (you know who you are), I quickly referenced  the seed packet the potatoes came and I realized I had planted early to early/mid-season varieties.  These varieties take 90 days to harvest and I planted them in early March so that means they should be ready.  Go figure!

According to another garden blog, I need to wait 2-3 weeks after the plants are completely dead to ensure the potatoes are the  largest.  I only had two plants that have been dead that long so I harvested those today.  It will be a week or two or more before I finish the rest of the potatoes!   I got about 8ish pounds or so of potatoes from the two.  I don't know if the yields are good or bad but I don't really care.  I have expensive blue potatoes and fingerlings and they were delish for dinner tonight!  From just dinner tonight I have made up for the $3.00 I paid for the potato seed because that's what specialty potatoes start at.

Russian Fingerling Potatoes

 Potatoes Prior to Roasting.

The Shallots have also been at death's door from some time as well.  The tops have withered and turned brown at the tips.  I planted 6 shallots total but I haven't harvest them all, just two for now.   The bulb packet they came in said they would be ready mid summer as well.  I'll be hanging them dry so they will store.  I've been eying an awesome Shallot Vinagrette dressing for some time (I'm sure I'll post about it later so stay tuned) so I'm thrilled!!!  I don't know why these are so expensive in the store but they are so delicious!  I'm very excited about these shallots!

 Yummy Havested Shallots!

Surprises!!

Well I'll be!  Nick found this wild blueberry bush in our woods.  Crazy.  This little bush tells me that if I can't get the blueberries to work in our yard than there is something wrong with my gardening. In a way, it's taunting me. 

This is just today's harvest!  I think it may be the last of the purple cauliflower and the broccoli though.  We have two more purple cauliflower plants out there but they are no where close to being done and it's hot out!  Try 90's with no end in sight.

Not only did we pick the above items from the garden today, we also picked these wild blackberries!

This is our current stash of squash that I will be pawning off on my friends, family, and neighbors.  You may notice the first mature winter squash (It's a delicata squash variety called Green Goliath) came in.  We are enjoying things really early this year.   The delicata is from the first flower buds so they aren't very big. 

I've had a couple awesome suprises this week I haven't even mentioned yet so I'll plenty more in the way of updates for Monday I assure you!