Locally grown

Tzatziki

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My favorite no-cook summer recipe is Tzatziki…or maybe it’s Raita…it’s a toss up.  These similar nutritious dishes are delicious, and their subtle differences complement other foods so well that we make and enjoy both frequently.  Serve some with a handful of kalamata olives and a little block of feta and a mint iced tea and you have the perfect summer lunch.

Right now there is a lot of dill in the garden, so today Tzatziki it is!  (Whip up a batch of falafels and we’ll call it “good” for dinner.)

Here’s my recipe:

Baker Family’s Favorite Tzatziki

3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tbsp Vinegar (you can use homemade, but a light-colored vinegar is best, so as not to discolor the sauce)

3 large cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press

1/2 tsp salt

large pinch of white pepper (optional)

2 tsp fresh dill, finely chopped

1/2 onion, very thinly sliced

2 large cucumbers, peeled (or half-peeled as shown above) and thinly sliced

2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt (Greek is best, or you can set homemade yogurt in a strainer for an hour or so to drain)  OR for a yummy twist on the original: 1 cup whole-milk yogurt + 1 scant cup tahini blended with juice of one-half lemon

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil and vinegar.

Add crushed garlic, salt and pepper, and dill and whisk well.

Then whisk in yogurt (or yogurt-tahini blend).

Gently fold in onions and cucumber.

Cover and chill for at least two hours before serving.

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Enjoy!

 

 

Peonies and Raspberries

Dessert last night - chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and raspberries.
Dessert last night – chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and raspberries

Well, I’ve been knocked down somewhat with a summer cold, and didn’t make the Yarn Along this week.  I finished a pair of socks for a friend, and hope to post photos next week.

Calendula in bloom
Calendula in bloom

We have company visiting, and volunteers in the garden, and swim lessons and so much summer goodness and fun.  We’ve been baking and playing with the neighbor kids and cutting posies in the yard.  And stuffing ourselves full of raspberries on a daily basis.

I had volunteers here this morning, and together harvested loads of organic produce for BCS – baskets full of Spanish shallots, raspberries, 4 kinds of mint, herb packs, French Tarragon, rhubarb, Russian Red kale, Rainbow chard, snow peas, currants, and lavender.   I was too busy picking to take photos, but will try to make a point of documenting next week’s harvests.

Hope you have a good weekend.  We are looking forward to:

-hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa B, who are visiting from Florida

-making Mujaddara, falafels, and kale salad for dinner tomorrow

– biking at Sunday Parkways with my sister

Blessings!

Waiting for spring

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It has been a while since I’ve posted.  Life is tremendously hectic (I feel like I say that too frequently).  Friends having babies, and they need meals.  Kids sick with colds that become pneumonia and bronchitis.  Hours of garden work every single day.  House chores I cannot keep on top of.

The grey rainy days and too many hours inside being ill are starting to wear thin on everyone.  We are looking forward to spring.

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During George’s nap today, Harold and I went outside to spread mulch (an unending chore when you are trying to build biomass and increase fertility in a garden with poor clay soils).  Much to my surprise, 5 of the 8 rhubarbs are beginning to wake from their winter slumber.  Oh, it made my heartbeat quicken for a moment – a sign of spring!

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In the front yard, underneath the honeyberry bushes and prune plum trees, the first of the daffodils and crocus are beginning to emerge.   Here in Oregon there are many, many more weeks of grey and rain and chilly weather, but the end is in sight.  Winter is beginning to ebb at last.   We look forward to the rebirth of spring.

Christmas Posey

Our first frost date is October 15, but we have yet to have a hard freeze this year.  Tender plants that are normally wrapped in burlap or provided with wind screens are thriving free in the mild weather.

While George was napping, and the big kids were playing quietly inside, I spent a little time working in the yard.  I am grateful for the mild weather, because I hadn’t finished planting garlic (usually completed in October), and the un-frozen ground allowed me to get several rows in and mulched right next to the driveway.

Afterward, while picking some Lacinato Kale (above) for dinner and poultry snacks, I noticed that the Tangerine Sage (Salvia elegans) was still blooming.  What a surprise!

Tangerine Sage (far right of top photo) is a tender perennial, and rarely survives the winter here.  I planted mine two summers ago in a sheltered area, and mulch it for the winter, and wrap it in burlap when temps dip below 25.  Even so, it struggled to make it through last winter.  Any yet, with temperatures in the 40s, it thrives and blooms beautiful red spires.

Some bright red sage blossoms and a few sprigs of rosemary seem like a fitting Christmas posey.

Time to get some sewing completed (finishing up Christmas skirts for the girls and their cousin).  So, we’ve put the holiday greenery in the windowsill next to the sewing machine.  I’ve always loved the particular combination of citrus and rosemary, and it fills the breakfast nook with an energizing aroma as the girls and I get ready to tackle a mountain of fabric.

.  Back tomorrow with pictures of our sewing (provided we actually finish this afternoon!)

Eggsceptional

Washing eggs in the late afternoon.

Bolt, our Speckled Sussex, lays pinkish eggs with lavender speckles.  When I find one of hers in the nest box amongst the deeper browns laid by the Australorps, and blue and greens of the Auracanas, I can’t help but smile.  So utterly different than anything on a grocery store shelf, and so very beautiful.

Every time I wash a batch of eggs, a certain poem runs through my head, and I chuckle to myself.  Ruth was helping me box up the clean eggs, and gave me a raised eye brow and a bit of an eyeroll.  (Because moms are so corny to an almost-ten year-old, you know?)

Here it is, so that when you’re washing (or cooking, or eating) eggs, you can chuckle to yourself, too.  🙂

EGGS RATED

by  Shel Silverstein

These eggs
Are excellent.
I’m not exaggerating.
You can tell by my eggspression
They’re eggceptional–
Eggstra fluffy,
Eggstremely tasty,
Cooked eggsactly right
By an eggspert
With lots of eggsperience.
Now I’ll eggsamine the bill….
Ooh–much more eggspensive
Than I expected.
I gotta get out of here.
Where’s the eggxit?

Low Key

Garden work for me is meditative, and therapeutic…much like knitting, actually.  Today even more so, as we spent the afternoon enjoying the early October sunshine and

snuggling with our Welsh Harlequin, Bumblebee…

dead-heading dahlias…

picking lemony Tuscan kale for dinner…

planting crocus bulbs where the gravel edge of the driveway meets the garden…

inspecting tender five-toed feet…

as well the progress of pumpkins…

Can’t think of a more soothing way to spend the end of the day.

Late September Evening

We’re trying to make the most of the absolutely stunning late September weather, spending as much time as possible in the waning garden.

Picking and washing Concord grapes before dinner.  As we wash them, their aroma reminds me of my grandfather and his beautiful grape arbor.

The girls grew their own patch of runner beans (on a teepee), with the goal of making a pot of bean and ham soup with them.  We’ve let them dry on the vine, and now they’re ready to pick and store in jars until the time is right to make that pot of soup.

The grapes paired perfectly with our salmon and rice dinner.  Their intense flavor is a strong reminder of how blessed we are to be able to grow and enjoy truly special food that so nourishes our bodies and spirits.

Nature Play and a Lunch Recipe

The past two mornings, the kids and I have worked on harvesting the end-of-summer lavender, which we will use for winter craft projects.  (More on that next time).

The lavender plants are all in the front yard, which is unfenced, and we are along a bus line.  Keeping a busy toddler safe and occupied while we work on front yard projects is a must.

George was kept very happy by his big sisters, who were dead-heading dahlias for me, and bringing him the spent blossoms to play with.   He had such a grand time shredding the flowers, flinging petals in the air and giggling to himself.

After harvesting lavender for quite a while, it was time for lunch.  The older three children take turns being my lunch helper on different days of the week.  This gives me a chance to get some one-on-one time with each of them and teach them culinary skills safely.  This lunch couldn’t have been easier, and it was a hit with all four kids.   Here’s what we made:

Bea’s Bacon-Peach “Pizza”

Preheat oven to 400 F.

For each person, you will need:

4 slices cooked bacon (leftover is fine)

4 slices of fresh peach

2 slices stale rustic bread (we had leftover levain)

a few tablespoons of pizza sauce

mozzarella,and Parmesan

fresh basil leaves (optional)
Directions:  Place sliced bread on a jelly roll pan.  Spread sauce, add 2 slices of bacon per piece of bread, top with cheese, then 2 peach slices, then more cheese.  Garnish with basil leaves if desired (kids prefer to leave it off).

Bake at 400F for 8 min.  Place under broiler for another 1-2 min or until cheese is caramelized and bubbly.

Serve with salad and a fruit smoothie.  Viola!  Lunch!  And happy kids!

Who needs toys when you can shred and fling and mash and revel in blossoms?

While some moments are rough, and we’ve had our stresses and hiccups the past few weeks, we are doing our best to be intentional with each other in our homeschooling, our living and being together, and in celebrating the last breath of summer before the return of Oregon’s inevitable grey, rainy autumn.

We love the snuggly, wooly, apple-cidery things that will come with the coming chilly weather, but for this week, we’re holding on to the blossoms, the lavender bottles, the juicy fresh peaches, the playing outdoors together while we can.

Accidental harvest

Since I just did a post on walking onions, l thought it might be good to talk about another fine spring allium that is often overlooked by home gardeners.

Last summer, when George was just a few days old, friends came to help with the garlic harvest.   We harvested 40 lbs of organically grown heirloom garlic, but, inevitably, some heads were missed.  Here you can see three distinct heads of garlic that were forgotten in the ground.  We have about 2 dozen of these clumps around the farm.

When they germinated in late fall/early spring, we left them be.  With so many bulbs planted close together, they will be too crowded to each create a new head of garlic.  That doesn’t mean they don’t produce a tasty crop of their own, however accidental.

The veggie these neglected garlic heads produce is an altogether unique food called “Green Garlic”.  They are much -prized by chefs, and can be quite expensive in the store/at the farmers market, if you can even find them.

Raw, they can be used in a similar fashion to scallions, but with a bit more of a garlicky kick.  I particularly like them in on top of mashed potatoes.

Cooked, green garlic mellows to a delicate flavor reminiscent of mature, aged garlic, but without the heat.   You can prepare them as you would young leeks, splitting them in half lengthwise, and either roasting them with olive oil, or poaching them in salt water or stock.  They can then be pureed and added to any soup, savory souffle.  Or, green garlic is equally delicious chopped and sauteed with pinenuts and pea-shoots.

If you’re looking for other green garlic recipes, there are some tasty ones here.

 

7 Fluffy Chicks!

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Our chicks have come!  We were worried they’d be delayed because of the cold, but they arrived this morning, and we picked them up at the feed store this afternoon.

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Because of a raccoon and a freak illness, we are down to 4 hens: 2 black Australorps and 2 Speckled Sussex.

To our flock, we hope to add these heritage breed girls: 2 more black Australorps, 2 Auracanas, 1 Delaware, 1 Buff Orpington, and 1 Faverolle.

We’re big-time Australorp fans, but are always up for trying new breeds.  The Auracanas are to replace our beloved Nudge, who fell victim to a raccoon.  She was such a prolific layer, 6-8 extra large green eggs/week at her peak ,we figured we needed two regular auracanas to make up for her.

I originally wanted some Welsummers (for their lovely chocolate-colored eggs), but none were coming in the same week as the Australorps, so we decided to try some other heritage breeds instead.

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Everyone is so excited to have these puff balls in our breakfast nook, and can’t wait until they’re old enough to the join the flock (just in time for our shipment of ducklings to arrive!)

For tonight, we’re off to a Girl Scout Thinking Day event, and then it’s a frantic clean-up in preparation for tomorrow morning’s visit of volunteers from our church, who have generously offered to help us spread compost and mulch and plant peas in the garden.

If your weekend is as bustling as ours is going to be, we hope you get a little rest in there somewhere!

Kicking off the Garden Year

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We’re back!  I can’t believe I haven’t blogged in over two months!  Morning sickness is finally (mostly) gone, and life is getting back to normal a little bit.

The garden year is just kicking off – in the past two weeks, our friend Scott added wood-and-wire gates so the chickens and children can safely roam the backyard.   We planted several more dwarf fruit trees, as well as more currants, blueberries, silverberries, huckleberries and thimbleberries from One Green World (and boy, it’s doubly hard work when your pregnant!).   The planting plan for the year is all set, we even managed to seed the eggplants this week. (Although, we’d better get the grow lights set up before they germinate!).

Earlier this week, the free load of wood chips I ordered from the power company finally came (the order had been placed in early October, but better late than never!).  Your electric utility is a great source of FREE wood chips for mulching garden beds and paths.   All of the trees they trim out of the power lines are chipped up and thrown away.  If you call and place an order, they will gladly dump them in your yard instead.

You can see how large the load is compared to my two year-old – it’s a very large truck and it dumps a lot of chips.  It may seem like you could never use that much mulch, but we have gone through 4 loads so far on our 1/4 acre, and from now on, will probably use about 1 load a year to keep paths and beds replenished with mulch.  We could never have afforded to purchase that much mulch, so this is a great economical choice for us.

If you’re interested in mulching your yard to conserve water, suppress weed growth, reduce muddy patches, and add biomass to your garden, now (before the growing season gets going) is the time to place an order!

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A few tips/tidbits of info when ordering chips from the utility company:

1)If you’ve never had a load delivered from the power company, please be aware that this is NOT the neat, uniformly shaped pieces of wood you might get when buying bagged wood chips from the garden center.  It is chipped-up tree trimmings, and it will include large pieces, twigs, possibly leaves, pine needles, and chips of several different species.

2)If your yard is like ours, you can make it work no matter what they bring you.  If, however, you need mulch specifically for plant beds, it’s good to check that a load isn’t 100%  pine before they drop it on your driveway.  Pine is far too acidic to mulch beds, unless they happen to be blueberry or currant beds.  It does, however, work great in pathways.  Our first load was almost all maple – and we used it all on planting beds, and waited for a less-perfect load to mulch the paths.

3)If you want mulch free of leaves, order chips in the winter, when deciduous trees will be bare.  Chips full of leaves are more difficult to shovel and spread, and don’t look as neat.

4)If your load has long sticks as this load did for us, put them off into a pile and use them for pea brush and other plant supports.  Or, place them underneath the cardboard when sheet mulching a new section of yard.  Over time, they will break down and add biomass to the soil.

5) When ordering chips, make sure it isn’t Black Walnut, which contains juglone, a chemical that inhibits plant growth.  You don’t want this on your veggie beds!

Next up: seed starting!

Blessings on your as you start your garden year,

Angela

Early September Garden

 

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Temperatures have been dipping down into the low 50s and high 40s at night, and there’s been a crispness to the air that says Autumn is on her way here. 

Many plants are waning, having set seed and beginning to shut down for the year.  So, this afternoon, in the bright sunshine, we cleaned up many, many wheelbarrows full of biomass for the compost. 

Cosmos and sunflower stalks have to be chopped into small pieces to break-down well, but the chickens feasted on heads full of sunflower seeds. 

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Most of the sunflower seeds were set out to dry on the picnic table, so that the chickens can have them for snacks throughout the winter, and we’ll have seeds to plant next year.

As we pulled up spent flowering plants all over the yard, we carefully collected their seeds as well, so we can replant them in the spring, and share them with friends:

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Calendula seeds, still in the seedhead.

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A bucketful of nasturtium seeds, in various stages of drying out. 

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Coriander seeds.

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Sadie’s Horse Beans (a rare heirloom similar to a Scarlet Runner Bean, but with immense beans – I purchased them through Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds many years ago, and have been saving the seeds each year.)

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The patches of amaranth are almost ready to harvest as well – there isn’t enough for chicken treats this year, but we’ll save the seeds and plant a large patch next year just for the hens. 

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We’ll continue to harvest green beans, summer squash, tomatoes and tomatillos as long as the weather holds, and look forward to bringing in the winter squash, kale, chard, leeks, and some remaining herbs. 

Are things winding down in your garden?  Or still going strong?

Ripe, with a recipe

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The tomatoes are starting to ripen!  Can’t wait to take them in to BCS on Friday!!  Families have been asking for the last month when we’d have fresh, ripe tomatoes.

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90 percent of the tomatoes are still green, including many gigantic beefsteaks, like this Brandywine (look at that sucker in my hand! HUGE!).  If you’ve got a moment, say a quick prayer that they’ll all ripen before the cooler weather sets in, or I’ll be sending out lots of green tomato recipes with the week’s harvest (green tomato chutney, green tomato pickles, fried green tomatoes…).

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The first of the tomatillos are ripe as well – these are the DeMilpa, which have  a purple blush, and regular old green tomatillos mixed together.  We have ten tomatillos plants, so there will be many MANY pounds of tomatillos to harvest in the next two or three weeks.

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How to use tomatillos?  Well, there are several uses, but after removing the husk and washing these sticky little cousins of the tomato, I like to make them into the best salsa verde ever:

Larksong’s Super Simple Salsa Verde (this is sort-of a recipe – just wing it!)

Two to four double- handfuls of ripe tomatillos, husks removed and washed (how many did you pick in the garden today? Use what’s on hand…the amount is flexible!)

(optional – if you like it spicy!  I leave it out for the kids) 1 small jalapeno, whole

3 or 4 cloves of garlic (add more or less, to your taste), crushed

lime juice, to taste

sprinkling of sugar

flake sea salt.

Directions:

1)Line a broiler tray with foil, and oil very lightly.  Place tomatillos (and optional jalapeno) on the tray and broil, checking every 1-2 minutes, until blackened.  Remove tray, and with tongs, flip tomatillos (and jalapeno) over.  Place back under the broiler until all are blackened on the other side.  Remove from oven and let cool.  (Remove stem and seeds from jalapeno and slice, if using.)

2)Toss whole tomatillos and any accumulated juice into a blender with the garlic (and optional jalapeno slices – sometimes it’s best to put in half at first, so you don’t get it too hot).  Blend, then add sugar, lime juice, and salt to taste, blend again to incorporate. (My kids like a bit more sugar, and depending on the source of your tomatillos, they may be pretty acidic and not need much extra lime juice – so just taste as you go!)

3) Serve!  Enjoy!  Make lots, because it goes fast!

Rustic Summer Dessert

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Ah, summer dinners in the backyard…

Here’s one of my favorite summer dessert recipes – we’ve been making a lot lately, with whatever fruit we have on hand:

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Larksong’s Farm Stand Fruit Pie

For the filling:

5 peaches, peeled and sliced or 10-12 apricots sliced

4 big handfuls of raspberries, blueberries, or blackberries

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1/2 cup white sugar

For the crust:

1 3/4 cups unbleached flour

1/3 cup cornmeal (I like Bob’s Redmill‘s medium grind.  If you use their blue cornmeal, the crust will have a pretty lavender color.)

1/3 cup white sugar, plus 1 Tbsp for dusting the crust

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, grated with a box grater on the large setting

1 egg white

1.  In med bowl, combine all crust ingredients, except egg white, using clean hands to evenly distribute the grated butter.  Slowly add 4-5 Tbsp ice water, one Tbsp at a time, until nice dough comes together.  Shape into a ball and place in the fridge while preparing filling.

2.  Prepare fruit as necessary, and then, in a large bowl,  combine all filling ingredients, and toss gently (so as not to crush berries).  Make sure no lumps of cornstarch remain.

3.  Preheat oven to 425 F.   Lay a large piece of parchment paper on the counter and sprinkle with 1-2 Tbsp of cornmeal.  Remove dough from fridge, and carefully roll out on parchment into a round approx 14-15 inches.  Dough will be fragile – take care in handling it.

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4.  Mound fruit filling (using a spatula to scrape out any fruit juice/sugar remaining in the bowl) in the middle of the dough, leaving a 2-inch margin all the way around.  Carefully fold edges up over the fruit – leaving a large opening in the center.  Take care to seal any cracks.  Crust should have a rustic appearance – don’t worry about getting it perfectly round!

5. Carefully transfer parchment to a large, rimmed jellyroll pan (this will prevent any juice that bubbles over from spilling out and burning onto the bottom of your oven!!)  Brush outside of crust with egg white and sprinkle with additional Tbsp of sugar.  Chill for 20-30 min.   Then, bake at 425F for about 45 min, or until crust is golden and fruit is bubbly.

Enjoy! Excellent served warm with whipped cream or ice cream.  Leftovers make great breakfast the next morning!

The Garden at Sunset

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A few quick shots from the garden this evening at sunset.  It’s changing so much every day – the paths are disappearing, the dahlias have begun to bloom, and there will be the first of the pole beans to harvest by the end of the week.

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The beautiful blue-green foliage in the lower left of this front-yard shot are squash vines from some delicata seeds that Firecracker saved from a soup we made back in January and then planted (wherever she had the whim!) in April.  They have set several squash on fairly compact vines.  Delicatas are some of my favorite eating squash, but we had never grown them before – I had no idea their leaves were so handsome, as well.

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This is a Golden Hubbard, which is larger than a football at present, but will grow much larger and weigh about 15 lbs at harvest time, with deep orange skin and flesh that is perfect for soups, stews, and baking.  (But look how much it’s grown since I photographed them less than two weeks ago!)

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Oh, the tomatoes!!  Just a few of the smaller slicers have begun to ripen, but most of the plants are loaded with green fruit.  We’re holding our breath an in anticipation of fresh tomatoes!

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This is a shot in the backyard, where the summer squash have finally caught up and filled the beds – the patti-pans in particular are really cranking out lots of fruit.

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The little rhubarb crown I acquired in March when I traded a fellow permaculture-hobbyist in exchange for some pear butter has grown enormous!  I was told I shouldn’t expect any harvest-able ribs for two to three years, but I had more than enough for a batch of sour cherry-rhubarb jam.  When it’s in full production, we’ll have lots of deep-red rhubarb to deliver to BCS.

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The Royal Burgundy bush beans are still blooming and producing really well.  I love their purple blossoms!

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This is one of my favorite corners in the garden right now – up near the front steps, with  some of the poppies still blooming and a big patch of thyme and rosemary right behind, there – Buttercup squash spilling out of the coldframe (which once held baby artichokes and summer squash).  They’ve begun to wrap their way up the artichokes (on the left) and have set several beautiful green fruit, which will ripen into what many cooks and gardeners consider the finest-tasting squash in existence.

And I think that’s it for tonight!  Happy gardening!

Late July Garden Update!

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It’s late July in the BCS Teaching Garden @ Salt of the Earth Urban Farm!  The pumpkin vines have taken over!  The runner beans are finally climbing their poles, and we have summer squash setting on every plant!

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The garden is really changing – we pulled all of the garlic and shallots from our family beds and will expand the Teaching Garden this fall (we’re planting fava beans there).  All of the peas are gone, and this week, we’re sowing fall crops like rutabagas, beets, and cauliflower, in their place.  The peas in the front yard will be replaced with leeks and a fall planting of broccoli.

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Look look look!!  There are about two dozen little Golden Hubbard winter squash that have set in the front yard!   The vines are attempting to migrate out into the street, and I have to turn the vines back toward the house every morning.  (Yes, I have paint all over my hands – I was painting trim (ugh) upstairs right before taking photos.)

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The center of the backyard is really taking off – our family bed of potatoes is almost finished, and we’ll be replacing it this fall with a few fruit trees.  The BCS potatoes  (planted a little later) are growing nicely, and volunteers have been mulching them every week with more straw.  The cold-stunted summer squash there are finally catching up –

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Patti-pans, crooknecks, and zucchini are all setting fruit!

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And, after much babying and coddling, and swaddling in plastic during our bitterly cold May, the tomatoes have decided to show their gratitude.  The plants are loaded with little green fruit, and a few cherries are already turning red!!

What exciting changes are taking place in your garden this summer?

Black Currant Jam

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Little Hen’s new favorite jam:  Black Currant!

I’ve always loved a little Cassis in my hot tea in the winter, but this is the first year we’ve tried jam made from these relatives of the gooseberry, which have a distinctive, smoky/ musky flavor.

Black currants are full of pectin, so they are perfect for jam – all you need is currants, sugar, water, and a little lemon juice.  (Although, next time, I think we’ll try adding some cardamom or cloves, as Sarah@ UrbanMamas suggested).

Here’s what we did:

Sterilize jars, wash lids and rings and get them hot.  Have canner going and almost up to a boil.  Then, you can start making the jam –

In a heavy bottom pot, bring to a boil:

2 1/2 cups water plus 5 heaping cups black currants, stems removed, and washed (that’s how much we picked).  Reduce and simmer 15 minutes, crushing berries against the side of the pot.   (Berries should be soft and well cooked.)

Add in 6 cups sugar + 1/4 cup of lemon juice and return mixture to a full boil.  Continue to boil until you have reached the setting point (22oF) (check often – mine took about 15 min – you don’t want to over cook!).

Remove jam from the heat, and continue stirring once a min for 5-7 min (this helps distribute any berries so you don’t have floating fruit).  Pour into hot, sterilized jars, place lids and rings on, and process 5 min in a hot-water-bath canner.
Enjoy!

Sour Cherries

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A bit late, but here are some pics from our drive out to Sandy Farms last week to pick sour cherries.  (A big thanks to Chris at Lost Arts Kitchen for letting me know about the good cherry picking there!)

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This was the first time I’ve cooked with sour cherries, and we made sour cherry + brandy jam, and sour cherry + rhubarb jam.  Both were delicious!  We also started some cherries in brandy and some in vodka, for liqueur making next month, and froze a LOT of cherries for pies this winter.

It seems like the girls and I have been pitting cherries endlessly, but we’ve enjoyed the fruits of our labors –

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Not much says “summer” more than a rustic cherry pie (with cornmeal, butter crust), hot out of the oven!

Cherries and Meditation

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The early morning was spent preparing a big batch of Hood River organic cherries for the dehydrator.   We ate oodles fresh, and what is left will go in a batch of  sweet cherry brandy (makes the best fruitcake for Christmas).

If you don’t have a cherry pitter, check out this tip, and these, for how to remove cherry pits.   I like the way the cherries dry better when they’re sliced fully in half, but I do pit them when making brandy, pies, feeding them to the children.

Later this afternoon, we’re going picking for sour cherries (more on that tomorrow).  I’m excited to get some locally – I’ve actually never cooked with them before, and hear they make excellent pie and jam.

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I really like preparing stone fruit for jam, drying, etc.  It’s such a rhythmic, meditative process.   Gives me time to think, pray, while slicing the fruit, removing the pits to a separate pile.  It reminds me a bit of traditions that use prayer beads.   It’s a very peaceful thing, really.

Garlic

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We’re harvesting 8 types of hard and softneck garlic this week (and shallots, and pulling up spent pea vines).   Despite some of the garlic struggling with rust due to the rainy weather, nearly all of the bulbs are big and well formed and beautiful.

Garlic is so easy to grow, and heirloom garlic come in such an amazing range of subtle and sharp flavors – nothing like grocery store garlic (80% of which is grown in China, btw).  And shallots – which easily run $6/lb for organic shallots in the store – are even easier to grow (I buy the bulbs for planting at the Asian market for about $2/lb (much more economical than the $10+/lb for planting shallots at local nurseries in the fall – it’s not organic, but then I save some of the harvest for replanting, which, of course, were grown organically.)

We’ll save the best of the bulbs to replant this fall and expand our harvest for next year,  and also have some to share with BCS Teaching Garden volunteers, so that they can start a garlic patch of their own (the garlic planting class is coming in October – keep an eye out for more info this September.)

And a reminder – we’re having a workshop this Saturday from 9:30-11:30, followed by a potluck lunch – check the info out here if  you’re interested.

Wednesday Harvest

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A few things from this morning’s harvest.  Carrots, beets, 3 types of kale, lots and lots of chard, and buckets full of sugar snap and snow peas.

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So grateful for the constant stream of Teaching Garden volunteers today.  Folks were working hard from 9:30 am straight through to 4:30pm.    We’re feeling very, very blessed.   A big thank you to all of the helping hands!

Late June Garden Update

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It’s late June at Salt of the Earth Urban Farm (home of the BCS Teaching Garden)!  Finally, some warm weather (mid-upper 70’s) has settled in (the tomatoes,  summer squash and bush beans look much happier) and everything is flourishing. 

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The harvest is increasing – every week, we are taking a few dozen cartons of organic snow and sugar snap peas, as well as boxes and boxes of lettuce, chard, kale, bitter greens, and a few choice boxes of herbs and strawberries to Birch Community Services.  We are still looking forward to the coming months and being able to take in more and more food to share amongst the families at BCS (loads of organic bush beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and summer squash will be coming soon!).

Here are a few shots from around the yard – mostly in the front yard –

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A few shots of the front yard, here.  Can you believe just a few short months ago, it looked like this? —>

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(And a day before this, it was just weeds and lawn!  Taken late-February 2010.)

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Front to back in this shot – variegated land cress, beets (with a few Butternut starts peeking thru on the right and a crate of potatoes to the left), Italian kale, cardoons, salad greens, Oregon Sugar Pod II peas, California poppies and De Milpa tomatillos.

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Tomatoes in the front are underplanted with beets and cosmos.  In the backyard, with nasturtiums and lettuce (the shade from the tomatoes will keep the lettuce from bolting in the July/Aug heat.).

IMG_7729Mature artichokes and cardoons take up a lot of space, but while they’re still growing, I’ve underplanted them with daisies, nasturtium and chives (winter squash, dahlias, sunflowers, fennel, and wildflowers are visible in the background.)

Not shown – I planted an herb bed in the front yard – three types of lavender (two culinary, one for sachets), three types of rosemary (I love rosemary!), tangerine sage, tricolor sage, lemon verbena,and curry plant from starts (when pinching pennies, get the 4-inch pots – they were $3 each, versus $9-10 for the next size up, and $30 for large rosemaries and lavenders in gallon pots.  They’ll grow big, too!  Be patient!)  I also transplanted in two types of thyme, oregano, Greek basil, Thai basil, and Genovese basil that I started from seed a while back (for a savings of about $15 over buying potted starts).

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Much of the back isn’t so pretty yet, but here’s a shot of the linear beds near the house  -front to back – garlic; parsnips, kale, chard, carrots; peas and poppies underplanted with kale.  I didn’t take any shots of the bush bean, asparagus, potato and squash beds, which make up about 60% of the backyard.

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Out back, we’re still doing the fairly miserable work of ripping up bamboo (rhizomes and all) for a future raspberry patch (to the left in this picture) and quince and pear stand (where the current volunteer hazelnut currently resides.)  The far NW corner of the yard (not pictured), which will eventually be our Zone 3 fruit orchard,  is currently overrun with weeds.  I did manage to get three apple trees and a Desert King fig planted back there, and my husband expanded the chicken run (while protecting the young trees), so the hens could make short work of the weeds and give me room to underplant the trees with red clover and more lavender.  We are still hunting for a persimmon, a dwarf apricot, and black currants to put back in that area.

More shots from out back in the coming month – the rows of bush beans and summer squash are quite small, and the limas and runner beans are barely reaching up their poles).

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If you’re interested – we’re having a free hands-on workshop on  Saturday, July 17th here at the garden from 9:30-11:30 and follow up with a potluck luncheon from 11:30-12:30.  We will be doing a garden tour, discussing high-summer garden needs and prepping for a fall garden.  We will be starting seeds for fall crops (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc), possibly harvesting potatoes, and doing regular garden maintenance.   Bring your garden gloves, shovel, and a dish to share.  Children are welcome.

Contact the garden coordinator for Birch Community Services, Tiffany, at  tiffany.mach@yahoo.com to sign up.

Watermelon Salad

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A while back, Sunset Magazine called for summer recipe submissions with 5 ingredients or less.  I sent in a recipe, and they published it in the July 2010 issue!

It’s a super easy fruit salad recipe based on a dish I make all the time in the summer.  (It’s a great dish to take to a potluck, btw.)  I basically use my homemade lime marmalade warmed up to make a dressing, and tossed with any cubed melon.  (Although, it’s also good with some fresh mint added, or using strawberries and oranges if melon isn’t available).

So, check out the current issue of Sunset for the recipe!

Surprise in the nest box

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While it’s by no means as big as this monster, we found quite a surprise in the nest box after church today.

Nudge, our Auracana, usually lays a large to extra-large sized egg (the pale green one in the middle (it looks a bit washed out in this shot)),  compared to our Australorps that lay medium-large eggs.  However, today Little Hen found that she had left us one the size of a duck egg (far right)!

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And just because – to finish up, here are some photos of the chickens that Little Hen took yesterday (our first sunny day in a LONG time.)

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Plucky, Sara, and Nudge soaking up some sunshine

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Me, holding Plucky.

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A rare shot of the Speckled Sussex chicks – they love to be held, but are difficult to photograph, because they are fast.  We finally named them this week (now that we can tell them apart) – Sugarplum (looking at the camera), Kate (eating a cherry), and Bolt (in the background, who, as her name suggests, is super fast).

And with that, we’re going to take it easy and get some real rest for the remainder of our Sunday.  After a crazy day crammed with hours and hours of yardwork yesterday, the rain today is almost welcome, because it’s forced us to stay in this afternoon.  I think my husband is doing to finish reading Skulduggery Pleasant aloud to us (while I get some knitting done for friends’ upcoming baby showers!), and then we’re going to make some homemade pizza for dinner.  And totally avoid all housework until tomorrow.

Wishing you peace and relaxation…