Too much of a good thing?

I love late summer. Fruits and vegetables are so plentiful it's easy to get carried away. Often I find that I've purchased or grown too much of something and don't know what to do with it. Good intentions lead me to believe I really will can all 10 pounds of beans and Pickle three bags of cucumbers in one day. Then I don't. Panic and guilt set in. What to do? Read on......

Triage your projects, so to speak. If you have raspberries, corn and peas to deal with all at once, chances are your in over your head. Sure you wanted to can them all, but that's not look like a reasonable goal right now. If you just can't live without raspberry jam, deal with that first. You'll be glad you did. If your crunched for time after that, try freezing your corn and putting your peas in to the dehydrator. Or the other way around. Whatever works. Below are some specific suggestions:

Peas: These are best frozen. Peas are the one vegetable that even professional chefs tend to use from the freezer. They don't keep long fresh and tend to get mushy when you can them. Alternatively , pop them into your dehydrator. They'll be great for soups later.

Green beans: Can them, freeze them, dehydrate them. Use small tender beans for making 'dilly beans'. Large thick green beans are better for canning as they don't turn to mush as easily.

Corn: Freezing is great, canning is fine, dehydrating is easy and convenient. For something special, try making corn relish.

Tomatoes: Canning or dehydrating is best. Dehydrated tomato slices are delicious snacks, are great in pastas, and go well in salad dressings as well as casseroles.

Zucchini and yellow squash: These are a toughie. They won't taste very good after being frozen and aren't very tempting canned either. But there are some tasty exceptions: try zucchini jam, zucchini pickles, or freeze grated zucchini for cake or breads. Also, dehydrate the slices for use in winter soups.

Carrots: Who doesn't love carrots? They are so versatile! Again, you can freeze them, can them, or dehydrate them for soups. They adapt well to all types of storage.

Blueberries: Freeze for use in pies or baked goods. Blueberries make excellent jam and if you want to try something different, they be dehydrated to use in granola, pancakes, muffins, or just snacking.

Blackberries: My husband's favorite jam is blackberry! Around here they grow wild everywhere. Free Food, yay!! Take advantage and freeze as many as you can to make pies.

Apples: In the fall, I can't seem to make applesauce fast enough to put some away for winter. The kids eat it as fast as I make it. Which is good because it's very healthy and easy to make. For a fantastic snack, dip apple slices in sugar before dehydrating. Or leave the sugar out for healthier eating. Try pureeing apples to make fruit leather in your dehydrator. And finally, make some apple pies ahead of time and freeze them to bake later on.

*When you open your cupboards/freezer and see all the good the good things you've stored for winter it's a very good feeling. Best of luck in your endeavors. If you have questions, email me at edibleoregon@rocketmail.com

-E

Reasons why......

....you might be hesitant to get started gardening and my personal solution/rebuttal:

1. " I live in an apartment", "I have only a small backyard"

solution(s)- Container gardening. I've seen people use everything from actual flower pots, to coffee cans, to buckets, and even cheap plastic storage tubs from Walmart.
You can grow an entire salad garden on your window sill or in a pot on your back porch. Dwarf varieties of carrots grow well this way. So do herbs.


2. " I don't have time for that kind of thing."

rebuttal- Yes you do. The first year I gardened, all I did was put some seeds in the ground and water occasionally. I purposely chose easy care plants and kept it all low key so I would not get overwhelmed. It is only as hard as you make it!


3. " Look at my thumb. It's black! I'll kill all the plants."

rebuttal- There is no such thing as having a green thumb or a black thumb. If you want something badly enough- YOU CAN DO IT!

4. " Isn't gardening an expensive hobby?"

rebuttal- Again, it's only as expensive as you make it. Buy seeds once. After that, let some of your plants go to seed, collect those and plant them next year. If you save your own, you won't have to continually buy them.

Also, get your hands on the current issue of Backwoods Home Magazine. They have the cheapest, most innovative garden ideas. It isn't necessary to buy a ton of gadgets to have a good garden.

5." Gardening is for women, or old people. "

rebuttal- Not anymore. Although many of us have nostalgic memories of Grandma's kitchen garden, today's gardeners are of every age, social/economic strata and walk of life. They have discovered what others already know: gardening is fun and rewarding.

6. "My neighbors will complain about my garden"

rebuttal- Because my backyard is all shade, my garden is in my front yard closest to the street. I live in a nice neighborhood and feared complaints. My neighbors LOVE looking at our veggies. They have had nothing but nice things to say about it. Just keep your space clean and attractive.


If you have any other concerns or questions, ask me. If I don't have the answer, I will go find it.

hugs,
-E

Your front yard "gourmet grocery store"

Listen, anyone can grow fresh gourmet veggies. And there is very good reason to do so. Have you looked at the price of snow peas and sugar peas in the grocery store? $4-$6 dollars a pound!!

Here is another compelling reason to 'grow your own': Convenience. It's no secret that I love to cook. And it's frustrating to continually run to the store for every little thing. Especially fresh herbs. You pay $2 for half wilted basil that you only use a portion of . The rest turns black before you find another recipe.

Meal planning also becomes easier. I can stroll out to garden and see what is currently ready to pick and plan accordingly. In early spring it is usually just a green salad with a few fresh herbs tossed in. As the season continues, I can add spinach, radishes, and peas. Soon I'm planning meals around broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, new potatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash.

The sad truth is our economy sucks right now. And our pantry is showing the sign-of-the-times. The end of each month is often quite lean for us.

Yesterday I opened our fridge to look for a veggie for dinner. There was only a sad, old bunch of celery in the crisper. "Not salad again", I thought to myself.

Out to garden I went. And guess what? After 10 minutes of careful fussing and picking, I was able to get enough sugar snap peas to saute' for dinner for a family of six. No driving, no shopping, no money spent.

Tomorrow I'm going to address stumbling blocks to starting your own garden. Most gardening challenges are easily overcome. So do not fear!

Then we'll talk about some simple easy preparations of garden veggies. As side-dishes, soups, and even main meals.

Many friends have commented that we eat well at my house. You can do the same at yours! Stay tuned..........

Mid-season garden update

I absolutely love this time of year. The garden really starts to pay off in June and July. We have more lovely salad greens than I know what to do with. The peas are getting quite prolific, lovely dark green heads of broccoli are appearing. Veggie Paradise!

Something new we tried this year was potatoes and boy was it worth it! 10 Yukon gold starts have yielded more gorgeous spuds than I ever thought possible. They are so large the ground above the plants is crumbling as they burst through. It is so much fun to dig into the ground and find large new-skinned potatoes just lying around like rich women on lawn chairs!

The spinach is all gone now. It got fairly large but bolted too quickly and began to gather powdery mold due to all the rain. I had to run outside and pull it up all at once to save it. In it's place I've planted a multi-colored carrot mix. The package promises purple, white and red carrots. If they really turn out, that is going to look so cool! We have a juicer and I want to drink some purple carrot juice.

Ahhh, soybeans. Such enigmatic little plants. I fear our climate gets too much rain and too little heat for them. But they shyly hold their own. I really have high hopes for them.

Also new this year: exotic radishes. Why radishes? I just don't know. Max likes them, they are easy to grow, and there are some wicked cool varieties available. We planted these monster sized red radishes that looked just like carrots. They were pretty nifty. But check this out, I just planted some variety of Black radishes. And since we are big lovers of Japanese food, Daikon radish has been planted as well. More on that later.

Also new, the herb garden. The unused space just outside the front door under the eaves is our new herb garden location. Up and running are Borage, Cilantro, Sage,Mint, Chamomile, Parsley,Rosemary and Marjoram. The Thyme is dead. What is it about Thyme? It always dies! Is there some Thyme god I need to sacrifice to , to get this stuff to grow?

Newly planted herbs include Lemon Balm, Coriander and, ummmmm..... shoot I forgot. Something else.

On the far end of the herb garden Is a new wooden trellis I added specifically for growing climbing beans. The particular variety we are growing this year are bright red. The pretty vines are winding themselves up the trellis and climbing higher each day. One of the vines has wound itself around a sunflower. Yes, that's right. Sunflower.

All those years I lived in Kansas and never grew the dang things. Now I have three of them in my front yard! It happened because we use our rabbit compost in the garden. The rabbits eat a mix of grain and seeds, i.e. sunflower seeds. A few of them sprouted and I am letting them do their thing out of sheer curiosity.

Also new this year strawberry plants in large flower garden and baby's breath growing around the mailbox. Whew! I'm almost as tired typing this as I was doing all that work. Thank goodness Dante' is such a good helper. :)

Eating Pasta , AKA "Please Try This At Home"

This isn't a recipe so much as it is an idea for what to make in a hurry. But it is one of the fastest ways to get a delicious meal when your tired of the same old thing.

you need:

long-cut pasta (such as linguine or spaghetti)
butter (margarine will do in a pinch)
anchovy paste or tinned anchovies (don't you dare say "Yuck", it doesn't taste like fish at all, but it imparts a gorgeous depth of flavor, I promise!)
Parmesan

optional: parsley, capers, fresh lemon

To Make:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil, add your pasta

2. While waiting for step one to complete, get out a saucepan and gently melt some butter. Use a few tbsp for one person, 1/2-1 whole stick for several people.

3. Squeeze in just enough anchovy paste for saltiness and flavor. If using tinned anchovies, start with one and take it from there. Stir to amalgamate the flavors.

4. Drizzle this velvety mixture over your already plated pasta. Top with Parmesan.

NOW, if you really want to make this dish _SEXY_ , add one or more of the following:

1. finely chopped parsley (chefs call it "chiffonade")

2. a sprinkle of capers (brined will do but the cured in salt kind taste better)

3. A squeeze or two of fresh lemon juice (don't used bottled, you'll regret it)

***** This pasta is the cure for bored palates!

Notes: keep tinned anchovy in your pantry as well as capers. You can make this supper anytime you want to without having to run to the store for ingredients.