Fall Gardening

By the time Autumn comes around, most gardens have been harvested and plants removed to make room for winter crops.  For me, I do not stick to a strict gardening calendar since the weather can be unpredictable.  At this moment I still have tomatoes, peppers, a few cucumbers and my cantaloupe growing in my garden.  The weather cooled down and a brief storm passed over Northern California a few weeks ago, then the temperatures rose back into the 80's and now we had a very cold storm pass over that brought snow to the Sierra's.  The 80 degree weather was plenty warm for my tomatoes and peppers to ripen, though a bit slower.  Once the nighttime temperatures stay in the low 50's and do not get above 75 degrees during the daytime, then I will pick whatever is left on my plants before digging them up.  So when I heard the weather predictions of this storm I picked the last of my pepper and tomato crop, even the green tomatoes.

Here's a tip on ripening your own green tomatoes, if you are tired of fried green tomatoes, just put them in a paper bag and allow to ripen.  I will tell you that ripened green tomatoes in a bag are not quite as good as freshly picked vine-ripened tomatoes, but they are still better than conventional tomatoes.  You can make a tomato soup with your leftover crop, check out what I did last year HERE.

Unfortunately I do not have a greenhouse of my own to grow some vegetables year round, so I have to pay attention to weather patterns.  My herbs, for the most part will continue to grow through the winter, except my basil, which I will harvest before the first frost.  I replanted my Swiss chard so that it can grow during the winter and I also added some blueberry plants to my garden.

Swiss Chard

Tomatoes!

Blueberry Plant

One more Cantaloupe on the vine

The last of my summer vegetable crop

Is this a World Record Cucumber?

The other day I went out to water my garden and pick my ripe vegetables.  To my surprise I found an Armenian cucumber hidden behind another vegetable plant.  I kept lifting it out of it's hiding spot and it was HUGE!  This cucumber didn't even want to detach from the plant vines.  Now I did not use chemicals or non-organic fertilizers and this plant was started from seed.  Check out my past posts on my garden this year, HERE, HERE, and HERE.  So why did this particular cucumber end up growing so large?  That is a question I cannot answer completely.  I know there are several other Armenian cucumbers growing on this plant and the vines on it have really spread this year.  My record setting (at least in my garden) cucumber is just under 20 inches long and 13 inches around.  Now that I have shared this with you, I need to decide what to make with this . . .

From Garden to Table

There is a huge pressure of air over California this week, causing temperatures to rise all over the state.  With  temperatures reaching over 100 degrees this week, my tomatoes and cucumbers are ripening quickly.  I find a baby Armenian cucumber on the vine and a few days late it's huge!  So I have been trying to find recipes that use my garden vegetables and require little cooking.  Heating the house with a oven or stove just results in more electric use.  And a power outage is one thing we do not need in the neighborhood, so I try to do my part.

The recipes I have tried, besides a typical salad are Tabouli (wheat bulgur and vegetables) and a Panzanella Salad.  Both recipes can be modified depending on what vegetables you have on hand, for instance I added red onions to my Tabouli and left out the celery leaves.  For the Panzanella, I didn't want to turn the oven on so I cut the bread into slices and toasted it.  It may not turn out quite as crispy/crunchy as oven-toasted, but it tastes as good.

Oh and I added a sunflower patch to an un-used corner of my garden.  The seeds were a party-favor gift from a recent baby shower.  So far the Sunflowers have been growing rapidly in height and I can't wait for the flowers to develop and bloom.  It was a mix of sunflowers and the colors should be brilliant.

Yellow Straight-neck Summer Squash

Melon Vines

Huge Cucumber

Pickling Cucumber plant

Honeydew melon

Sunflower patch

Wheat Bulgur and Vegetables

Panzanella Salad

Sausage & Peppers and Kebabs

When the temperatures rise in the high 90's and 100's during the summer I pull out recipes to that don't require the oven or long cooking times.  It's just too hot to turn the oven on when you're already trying to keep the house and yourself cool.  Plus you will save on heating/cooling costs if you avoid using the oven in hot spells.

My first recipe was inspired by an episode of Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello - Sausage and Peppers.  Click Here for the recipe.  I used organic chicken sausages, so you can follow the recipe with substitutions.  I also halved the amount of onions and peppers since I was not cooking for a large group, as well as leaving out the Serrano pepper and tomatoes (since they weren't in season at the time).  After poaching the peppers (as the recipe states), I cut the sausages in half and grilled them for a little color and extra flavor.

Sausage with peppers, feta cheese and toast.

My second recipe involves the same Italian chicken sausage (it's great to buy the larger package and freeze it in portions).  I used another portion for making kebabs with peppers, onions, eggplant and squash.  I find kebabs are a great way to use several vegetables and leftover sausage on hand, plus it's quick and easy.

Ingredients:
Sausage
Bell peppers (any variety)
Eggplant (preferably Japanese)
Red Onion
Summer squash - Zucchini and/or Straight-neck
Bamboo skewers

1.  Soak the skewers in water for about 30 minutes to 1 hour.  Or use metal skewers, just rub a bit of olive oil on.

2.  Slice sausage; dice in about 2 inch pieces all other ingredients.

3.  In any order place all ingredients, alternating, on the skewers.

4.  On a heated and lightly oiled grill place skewers.  Every few minutes turn the skewers, depending on the heat temperature you will have to watch to avoid burning any side.

5.  Serve with side dishes or your choice.

Garden Update - There's ripe Tomatoes!

Summer is almost upon us and my garden is growing.   My parsley has sprouted and I have a few peppers and tomatoes already on the vine.  My melon vines are growing and I have my summer squash in the ground.  And I finally had a few sweetheart cherry tomatoes that ripened.  More should be ripening with the current heat spell, and I can hardly wait!  Freshly picked tomatoes cannot be compared to anything else.  The closest someone can get without gardening is a local farmer's market.  So juicy and sweet, unlike imported tomatoes that are picked green.  That's another reason why I really enjoy eating with what's in season.  For example, I just bought about 20 pounds of apricots at the farmer's market.  Freshly picked, these apricots are sweet and juicy, even my dogs love them.  I will probably can or jam some to savor apricots in the winter.  It's really just going back to the basics for me.

 

Chipotle Sloppy Joes Recipe

I was recently inspired to recreate my own sloppy joes recipe (I haven't eaten sloppy joes since I was a kid) when I was flipping through a magazine the other day.  The recipe I saw was for a barbeque sloppy joes on Texas toast, so I decided chiptole sloppy joes with sourdough bread would be a great revamp.

When I was a kid, my Mom used to make sloppy joes on occasion, which usually consisted of tomato sauce, ground beef and some spices.  So in order to recreate this recipe and also make it healthier I needed to add some diced veggies and I chose to use bison meat which is 90% lean instead of the usual ground beef.

Here's my recipe:

1 lb. ground bison meat
2-3 carrots, diced
1 large or 2 medium white/yellow onions, diced
6-8 baby bella mushrooms, diced
4-6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 chiptole peppers with some of the adobe sauce
1 24oz jar of chunky tomato sauce (more if you desire more tomato taste)
1-3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp agave nectar or honey, to taste
about 2 tbsp of cumin
1-2 tbsp chili powder
1-2 tsp mexican oregano
1-3 tsp smoked paprika
olive oil
Beer or wine, to deglaze
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat a pan on medium heat with about a tbsp or so of olive oil, saute onions.  Add carrots after a few minutes of cooking onions and a little salt.  Saute until softened.

2.  Add mushrooms and garlic, cook until all are soft and aromatic, about 5-7 minutes.  Remove from pan and set aside.

3. In the same pan, add a little more olive oil and cook bison meat until there is no pink meat.  Add about 1/4 cup of beer or wine to deglaze pan.

4.  Add cooked veggies from step 2 to the meat, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and chiptole peppers.  Cook for about 2 minutes.

5.  Add the remaining spices and combine.  Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer, stirring occasionally.

6.  After about 15-20 minutes, taste the mixture, if you like the seasoning and taste, serve, or continue to cook a few more minutes.

7.  Serving suggestions, sourdough bread and avocado.  Garnish with parsley, basil or cilantro.

Other variations:  Add swiss chard, kale or collard greens, cauliflower or corn.  Enjoy!

Oven-baked risotto

Oven-baked risotto - sounds crazy right?  Well if you love risotto, but find it takes forever to cook or you always mess it up then this is for you.  I found the recipe in Rachel Allen's  Favorite Food at Home book and I love her recipes.  But you can find basically the same recipe posted at this website. It's so easy plus you get lots of green vegetables in it.

I picked up some local, freshly picked and shelled sweet peas, asparagus and spinach.  A great combination and you don't taste the peas (it you aren't a pea lover).  I love this great spring recipe and it is easy to serve for a dinner party.

Vertical Gardening Ideas

With my garden planted and growing, I had to figure other ways to utilize my small space.  The majority of my vegetables are in pots, so don't think you can't grow vegetables in pots.  There are many varieties, even tomatoes, that you can grow in a pot, just be sure to have one that is large enough.  Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers (of all sorts), cucumbers, zucchini, and green beans are all in pots in my garden.

This year I decided to grow cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon which happen to be vine plants that grow horizontally.  So I needed to come up with a vertical option - a trellis.  This also required a watermelon variety that produces smaller, personal size melons.  And to utilize my space I planted all three melons, with some space apart, in the ground with a trellis (that has some netting attached) behind them that can lean on a wall.  The netting and wall should add enough support to help hold the weight of each melon and provide staking for the vines to grow vertically.

The second vertical garden idea is staking my cucumbers and green beans.  To cut cost I found a trellis netting to hang along the fence so that I can space some of the cucumbers and green beans using the same netting.  For the rest of the cucumbers, I made a tepee with wooden stakes, using twine to tie them together.  This tepee is a little different than most you see pictured in gardening books.  My Mother drilled holes in each stake (in the same spots) and then strung the twine through.  The concept will be a tepee that has support for the cucumber vines to climb, but when the season ends will fold compactly for storage.

Garden Update

I finally have all my vegetables planted and only have three more that I am starting from seed.  Most of my seeds have been successful, though I had to replant my straight-neck squash, sugar pumpkin and Japanese eggplant.

Lemon Balm

And my herbs are looking good!  I added lemon balm and dill this year.  The dill should be great for making my own dill pickles once I have cucumbers on my pickling cucumber plant.

Basil seedlings

If any of you have ever watched an episode of Mythbusters, maybe you have seen the experiment that showed playing heavy metal music to peas produced taller plants and more peas.  Guess this shows that "talking" to your plants might have an effect and I am seriously considering trying this experiment with my tomatoes.  Though I am very excited to see some small tomatoes on my Sweetheart tomato plant as well as some peppers.  The heat this week should be great for my plants, even though my dogs and I am not entirely enjoying it.

Fresno Chile

Green Bell Pepper

Sweetheart Cherry Tomato

My garden is growing

With the storms past, Northern California was hit with a bit of a heat wave, with temperatures hitting the 90's in some places.  Personally I wasn't ready for such hot temperatures so early, but it does wonders for my garden. Now the temperatures are cooling and the spring breezes are back.  Whew . . . summer can wait a little bit longer.  My irises are in full bloom with only two of them not blooming; my azaleas are also in full bloom, and the rest of my garden is growing.  Take a peak at my garden (a work in progress at the moment).

Green bean 2 weeks after starting from seeds

Left to Right: Green bean 3 weeks, rosemary, cucumber

Tomatillo (a new addition) already in bloom

Lemon Balm - Will be great to add to my drinks this summer

Black Beauty Eggplant

Strawberries

First harvest of Swiss chard

It's A Warm October Day . . .

Well it is, here in Northern California.  70 and 80 Degree temperatures are not our norm for this time of year.  My tomatoes are still ripening, as are my cucumbers and peppers.  I see no reason to dig them up, instead I am enjoying the vegetables.  However, several weeks ago who would have thought we are well into fall and winter here.  Winter storms with cold temperatures, even snow in Sierra Nevada Mountains.

My winter vegetable crops are partly planted.  Kale and Boston Lettuce, so far.  And those seeds are already sprouting.  I hope to get Swiss Chard and Collard Greens in soon.

If you think you can't grow any vegetables or herbs, think again.  Here is a quick project (I think I read something similar somewhere).  All you need is one (or two or more) of the plastic salad rectangle containers you buy salad/lettuce mixes in.  You can put a small whole or two in the bottom of the container.  Add soil, seeds, water and watch them grow.  Be sure you know how much sun the seeds need, otherwise your seeds may not sprout or grow as fast.

I planted some summer lettuce seed mixes in one and here is what I have already.

Give it a try.  You may be delightful surprised!

Happy Gardening

Roasting Green Chilies

I love spicy foods and green chilies are fantastic to add to so many different dishes.  On my quest to eliminate BPA, chemical and pesticides from my food and life, I decided that I did not want to buy canned green chilies.  This lead me to several websites on roasting green chilies, I finally used the instructions on this one http://denvergreenchili.com/roastgreenchiles.aspx

So once you read about roasting green chilies you realize that one of those giant roasters would be the best way to roast.  Don't worry though, you can roast at home without a roaster and even without a BBQ.  Now it would be great to roast on a grill outside, that way you don't heat the whole house by using the oven.  If you plan on using the oven, as I did, try to do it on a cooler day that way you can open the house and not heat the house up or have to use the A/C.

Now keep an eye out, most grocery stores do not have New Mexico green chilies in all year round.  I found my local store had them on sale recently and I bought several pounds.  Those several pounds do not  take up that much space once you roast them.  Keep that in mind that it looks like a lot more that the final result.

Here is the process I followed:

Step 1:  Wash and dry the green chilies.  Turn oven to Broiler, temp. High

Step 2:  Line baking sheet with foil (for easy clean-up) and spray with olive oil or oil of your choice.  Do NOT oil the green chilies.  Place several chilies on sheet with some space between them, do not overlap.



Step 3: Put green chilies in the oven on a top rack near broiler.  Watch carefully and turn 1-2 times, making sure all sides of the green chilies are roasted.  Refer to the website above for more information.

Step 4:  Take out of oven and place in another container (preferably glass or a baking dish, NOT plastic) and cover.  Let green chilies rest or "sweat". 

Step 5:  When they are cool enough to handle, peel skins and remove seeds.  I would recommend using food gloves to handle the green chilies as they are hot (not in temperature).  If you do not have them, you can use your hands, be sure to scrub with a salt skin scrub (which I found works best) as well as soap.  Avoid touching your face, especially your eyes. 

Step 6:  Place in a freezer bag or container.  You can chop if you desire to have the chilies diced before freezing or leave whole.


It is worth the time and effort to make a large batch of these green chilies and have them in the freezer ready for use when you need them.  Such a great way to have green chilies without buying more cans.

Enjoy!