» Garden

Friend and Foe

Tricia — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:35:04 +0000

Early this month I was in the garden harvesting all the green cherry tomatoes and dried bean pods before the big freeze, as well as pulling up frostbitten eggplant bushes to make room for some cold-season vegetable transplants. All this activity caused some critters to come out of hiding, seeking quieter refuge.

This praying mantis captivated my attention, until I heard some fluttering among the crackly morning glory vines. I reluctantly went to investigate, and look what I found!
A tobacco hornworm moth! I couldn’t tell: Was it was fresh out of the cocoon, or was it dying? It fluttered madly and stumbled around. I gingerly picked it up for a closer look, and then I set it out of harm’s way. While its larval form is a demon, I’m quite fond of moths and was thrilled by its presence.

Decokrating

Tricia — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 01:20:08 +0000

After growing okra for the first time last year, I saved some whole pods for funky indoor decorations. A couple of weeks ago, I pulled out those pods to replace them with fresh ones from this summer’s garden. However, I liked the looks of the papery, old pods — all splayed out after I collected the seeds — so I decided to keep some of them around. (Jeez, this is venturing into agrarian erotica.) The look probably won’t appeal to everyone, but I think it works with my eclectic style. What do you think?

An arrangement I took to the Oklahoma Food Co-op Hootenanny: sunflowers, okra pods, Malabar spinach tendrils.

Garden Tour

Tricia — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:38:36 +0000

February 20, 2011
I moved here in January.

I needed something to nurture, so I spent several afternoons this spring digging up a 10′ x 10′ patch of Bermuda grass for a garden. (Apparently, the garden wasn’t enough; I adopted a dog in May.)

September 21, 2011

Save the Popeye Pies and a couple of sautés, I didn’t use the amaranth greens as much as I could have. Unfortunately, none of the stunning red amaranth germinated. More about amaranth here.

October 21, 2011
I like the wild nature and textures in my garden. Although it’s a bit messier than I intended because there was a big rain after I planted, and the seeds intermingled.
I’ve been thrilled to see an increase in the number and variety of birds hanging around. I grew a couple of varieties of sunflowers, which went to seed at differing times throughout the summer. The Maximillian sunflowers are flowering right now, and were rescued from Bob Waldrop‘s yard during a code enforcement predicament.

The passionflower vine I planted struggled to get established, and didn’t host the Gulf Fritillary butterfly or larva. Hopefully next year!

October 11, 2011

Peck of Peppers

Tricia — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:46:29 +0000

I’m a bit frantic. I feel winter’s approach, and along with it a sense of urgency about putting up food in this window of time between insane heat and frosty evenings. That’s not to say I’ve been super motivated or productive in the kitchen lately. No, I just have this anxiety looming about I should be doing.

I did take advantage of my neighbor’s bumper crop of jalapeños that she shared with me. I already have some roasted peppers in the freezer, so with this batch I turned to Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning to make pickled peppers.

Ugh, these photos are disgusting. Please bear with me until I can afford a real camera.

The jar on the far right contains peppers I pickled in mid-July.

Instructions for pickled peppers:
slice peppers
mix with copious amounts of salt
cover and refrigerate for 24 hours
drain on a towel or in a colander
fill jars with peppers
top off with vinegar
secure lid
let them set for at least one week
ta-da!

Oil & Vinegar

Tricia — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:01:27 +0000

My enthusiasm for water-bath canning might be waning a bit. I hope it comes back, but in the meantime, I’m really glad I picked up a copy of Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning.

Not only is this book great because of its low-tech premise, but the “recipes” are straightforward instructions for assembling ingredients, which makes food preservation a lot more approachable. Guidance on traditional preservation techniques (salt, sugar, oil, vinegar, alcohol, etc.) is uncommon in this age of hyper-liability-conscious USDA food preservation manuals, and seeing these simple instructions in a formal (published) form, gives them credence.

Pickled garlic, pistou, basil vinegar, basil oil

I always plant too much basil, so finding new uses for it is a perennial task. What do you do with it? Last weekend I made “pistou,” the Provençal cousin of the Italian pesto.

Pistou
from Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning
1 large bunch of basil
4 cloves garlic
salt
1 c olive oil
small jars and lids

Grind the garlic and basil, add a pinch of salt and cover with oil. Mix all the ingredients well and spoon into small jars. The jars will keep very well for more than a year if kept in a cool place. I look forward to cooler weather when I can bake some bread to eat with my pistou.

With the remaining basil I made basil-seasoned vinegar and oil. I used a chopstick to shove the leaves into bottles and filled most of the bottles with apple cider vinegar. One bottle was filled with olive oil.

After I finished the basil projects, I started on the garlic. I put on some good music (Wilco, Neko Case, Neil Young) and went to town peeling garlic cloves. And then I took a nap. It doesn’t look like all that many, but it was time-consuming, and eventually, painful. I began to really appreciate the cloves with skin that slipped off in large, cohesive, crispy pieces. Were those a different variety, or just older? I’d like to know.

Look at the variety of shapes.

Pickled Garlic
from Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning
1 lb. garlic
1 quart water
1 T salt
bay leaves
black peppercorns
1 c vinegar
½ c water
¼ c sugar
a saucepan
small jars and lids

Peel the garlic. Boil one quart of water with 1 T salt. Add the garlic and continue to boil for 3 to 5 minutes. Drain the garlic. Fill small jars with the garlic, one bay leaf, and five black peppercorns. Boil the vinegar along with ½ c water and ¼ c sugar, pour this mixture over the garlic, and immediately close the jars. The garlic will keep for a very long time, and is particularly tasty in salads.

Popeye Pies

Tricia — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:34:23 +0000

Hand pies have a special place in my heart. Nine years ago, while studying abroad, I got lost in Plymouth, England. I kept having bouts of misplaced confidence (or just plain stubbornness), and ended up circling the town a couple of times before I asked for help. (The irony is that I was in the British Isles for geography field school, so one would assume I could simply refer to a map!)

I was broke and tired, but having a fun, liberating adventure. One of my memories from that day centers on the cheap, hearty, delicious meat pie I bought from a sweet, gray-haired lady. I remember being astonished at the deal and pleased by the pie’s portability. Prior to that experience, my notion of hand pies came in a Mrs. Baird’s wrapper (nonetheless delicious!).

Nearly a decade later, and — guess what — here I am still broke and occasionally tired, but having a fun, liberating adventure and I find myself turning to hand pies.

These Greek hand pies that would make Popeye proud. I’ve used greens gathered from my own and friends’ gardens: chard, amaranth, beet greens, lambs quarters, along with mint, basil, oregano and dill. The first time I made the dough, I followed the recipe, which calls for olive oil. The second time I used lard, which was more enjoyable to work with.

These pies are surprisingly delicious and nearly free. I have twice devoted the time to make a batch to freeze for quick meals. Taken straight from the freezer, they take about 20 minutes to fry.

Look, Ma!

Tricia — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:14:44 +0000

“Yay! I can feed myself!” For some reason, I really get a kick out of saying this — like I’m a toddler or something. I guess I’m still surprised/pleased when I turn out a decent meal for just myself. This has been challenging, but it’s getting easier, helped along by the inherent ease of summertime eating. Feeding other people on the other hand, that’s always a pleasure.

Here are some photo-worthy meals I recently prepared for solo dining:

Roasted okra and sautéed corn. I grew the green stuff. The tomatoes are from Guilford Gardens and the corn is from W Bar M.
And a shout-out to Lagunitas Brewery in Petaluma, California: home of the most entertaining brewery tour I’ve ever taken and some delicious bitter brew. Plus, they sell awesome Lagunitas wide-mouth mason jars for your sipping pleasure. Too bad I lost custody of that bad-ass vessel.

Chipotle-cornmeal cake, sautéed lambs quarters, and fried eggs.
Without the beer, this meal cost less than $1. Pennies for the cornmeal and tomatoes, free lambs quarters from Smordy Goot Farm, and 66¢ for the two eggs from Barley’s Garden Patch.

Dried Herbs

Tricia — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:48:58 +0000

Toward the end of last summer when all my basil bushes were overwhelming me and I couldn’t make any more pesto, and I had already tried to preserve the herb in another fashion, I just cut off the branches and stuffed them into brown paper sacks. (Why I didn’t let some go to seed, I don’t know.) I twisted the bags closed, secured them with rubber bands, and hung them (and some oregano, too) in the basement until I was reminded of their existence in early April.

I had more dried basil and oregano than I could ever use in a year, especially since I hope to have enough of both herbs to repeat the process this summer. I took my excess to a seed exchange where I happily shared last summer’s bounty.

Curry Favor

Tricia — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:58:25 +0000

Last night I made some massaman curry to eat for lunch this week.
Yeah, it looks gross. I use massaman curry paste that I get at Super Cao Nguyen. Mixed with coconut milk, it makes anything taste damn good.

My curry includes:
:: Sweet potatoes from Guilford Gardens.
:: Okra harvested from my garden and frozen on the autumnal equinox.
:: Cooked turnip greens and spinach frozen on October 27.
:: Snow peas harvested from my garden and frozen on December 4.

Pea patch in late October.

Pretty pods in mid-November.

Basil-Pepper Jelly

Tricia — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 02:56:04 +0000

It’s funny how I planted this pepper plant hoping I would be able to make salsa. Well, the tomatoes never really came on and the cilantro was done long before the peppers (and lots of them) ripened. That’s how it goes, I guess.

So, I was left with all these peppers and no real need or demand for them.

To use up the lemon peppers and basil, I consulted my trusty copy of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Basil-Pepper Jelly was just what I was looking for.
Fashionable foods are almost as prevalent as that of clothing and jewelry, and it seems like a couple of years ago it became trendy to pour pepper jelly over cream cheese and serve it with crackers. It’s usually a fruity jam, like raspberry.

My pepper jelly didn’t call for fruit, and I think that’s its shortfall. The clear jelly isn’t as appealing as the fruity pepper jams.
I took a jar of it to my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. We mixed some in with plain yogurt cheese and spread it on Earth Elements handmade, whole wheat crackers. It was very good, but looked pretty gross.
I think it will make a good meat glaze. Here’s to hoping, since I have several more jars to use up!