Pantry Gardener

Rock Garden...

2010-01-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

"I have a rock garden. Last week three of them died."

~~Richard Diran

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

~~Douglas Adams

"Garden: A thing of beauty and a job forever"

~~Anonymous

"Count the garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall. Count your life with smiles and not the tears that roll."

~~Anonymous

"Teachers who inspire know that teaching is like cultivating a garden, and those who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers."

~~Anonymous

"Criticizing another's garden doesn't keep the weeds out of your own"

~~Proverb

"As is the gardener, so is the garden"

~~Proverb

"To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed that can make life a garden."

~~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use. But the bee . . . gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own."

~~Leonardo da Vinci

"All these things have you said of beauty.
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.
It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.
People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and your are the mirror."

~~Kahlil Gibran

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy of Gardening Cookbook

2010-01-06T16:10:00.000-08:00

Everything I do, I do on the principle of Russian borscht. You can throw everything into it beets, carrots, cabbage, onions, everything you want. What's important is the result, the taste of the borscht. ~~Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet

Beets, what do you do about a vegetable like BEETS? Answer, grab a copy of Janet Ballantyne’s “Joy of Gardening Cookbook” (10^th Anniversary Edition). Glad I stumbled across this book, it is excellent for turning vegetables into wholesome food that allows you to taste the essence of the vegetable. The recipes are reliable and not to complicated, if you want gourmet recipes, this ain't it. Then again there are some inventive and tasty little gems here.

There are no exotic vegetables covered in the book (e.g Jeruselum Artichoke, Artichoke, Rabi), which would be great for Asian or Latin American veggies that are in fashion now. However, there are basic recipes that are written and encourage you to use them with any veggie you can think of (i.e vegetable cream or essence soups). So if you have a Kolrabi, just adapt one of the basic, Greens, or Brassicaceae recipes. Also, peppered throughout the book are some gardening, harvest, and kitchen technique tips.

I have been collecting cook books for two decades, and this is a great book for anybody with a farm share, a big garden, or a yen to learn to make vegetables more palatable. You won't win Iron Chef with this book, but you will make veggies more interesting at the next potluck. Also, the recipes are adaptable so a green bean pate recipe can be changed to make a combination of flavors with blanched green beans & onion with a zesty sauce. If you have some skills, you can adapt the flavors of one combination and present the taste in a new form. Remember, the quality of the vegetables is key, thus garbage in, garbage out, fresh wholesome veggies in, fresh zesty flavor sensation out.

Finally, the recipes are mostly easy to execute. Janet Ballantyne is an educator, and knows how to present recipes in a fool proof fashion. Go ahead and get this book so you can enjoy your garden fresh veggies more.

More information:

Joy of Gardening Cookbook by Janet Ballantyne
Also, Desserts from the Garden this looks very interesting.

Earthworm

2009-12-28T11:37:00.000-08:00

Streamlined to the ultimate for functional performance the earthworm blindly eats his way, riddling and honeycombing the ground to a depth of ten feet or more as he swallows.

~Anatomy Underfoot, J.-J. Condue

Prayer and Potatoes

2009-12-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

Pray for peace and grace and spiritual food,
For wisdom and guidance, for all these are good,
But don't forget the potatoes.

Prayer and Potatoes, J. T. Peter

Most Beautiful Landscape

2009-12-12T22:09:00.000-08:00

Even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves the insects are eating each other; violence is a part of life. ~~Francis Bacon

Harissa Xmas...

2009-12-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

Manage with bread and salted butter until God brings something to eat with it. ~~Moroccan proverb

"It’s in a' can, it’s got to be good!" is what a friend told me at a dinner party after we had just seen Handel's Messiah performed at the Boston Symphony Hall. It’s rare that I meet a little exotic can with some Cyrillic, Arabic, or logographic script on it that doesn’t appear in my pantry at least once. All are opened and tried, but few stay and become a standard part of the inventory next to the cans of tomato sauce, chipotles, and pineapple juice. And then there was “Harissa!”

This chili based paste is exotic, it used in Moroccan, and other Mediterranean cooking. It appears in roasted meat dishes, in condiments made of tomatoes, and my favorite the Moroccan Carrot Salad. The version I have now is made from red hot chili, garlic, coriander, cumin, and salt. And there are other recipes that include cloves, caraway, and olive oil.

Although you will often see it added to barbeque sauces, smeared on poultry, added to yogurt marinades, and even as a dipping sauce, it shines with carrots. If you have vegetarians coming to dinner and want to spice up there life this is your friend. Just look for an authentic recipe from Morocco, Tunisia, or Algeria. What follows is advice & my smashup recipe;

Go buy yourself a little can of “Harissa Du Cap Bon” at any little grocery that says “HALAL”. Then look for a can about the size of a tomato past can that is typically metallic-yellow & red; the can will feature chili peppers, see picture*.

So start with the following ingredients:

Moroccan Carrot Salad

1 lb carrots
2 Tbl olive oil
1 garlic clove, large, minced
1 ½ tsp cumin, ground
1 tsp salt, kosher
1 tsp honey or sugar
½ tsp turmeric, ground
¼ tsp harissa, or to taste
1 lemon’s zest & juice
2 Tbl parsley, flat-leaf, fresh & chopped
¼ cup feta cheese, crumbled, or any other farmers cheese grated
12 olives, kalamata or others, pitted & halved (black olives in a pinch)

Prepare the carrots to your taste; grated them on a box graters or food processor, or slice & strip on a mandolin. You want to steam them a little to blanch them for maybe a minute; or just micro wave them for 1-2 minutes. In a pan heat the oil, then add the minced garlic for 30 seconds to infuse the oil. Add the cumin, turmeric, and salt to bloom the spices 15 seconds, then add the harissa and the honey; stir until a paste forms, about 1 minute. Add the lemon juice, then the carrots, and the lemon zest, in that order. Stir and mix in the pan, its fine if the carrots brown a little, but just cook for 3-5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight; it’s better the next day.

When you’re ready to serve, remove from fridge and bring to room temp; garnish with parsley, feta, & olives.

Variations: Add some 1/8 tsp clove, a tsp of brandy, 1 Tbl sherry, change the cheese to any farmers cheese grated, garnish with 1-2 Tbl fresh cilantro, more garlic, or roast the garlic, roast/broil the whole carrots first, substitute limes, substitute orange, MORE harissa, and/or make your own harissa. You can use cider vinegar or any mild vinegar.

Off the reservation: balsamic vinegar, use some cooked parsnip, first roast or grill everything, balsamic & some beets, add some roasted nuts, substitute other types of sugars such as agave nectar, try some mace, more harissa. hot, hot, hot! Oh, and you could just take it an heat it up run it through a blender and server it as soup with garnishes on top, now that is a mash-up!

Have fun with this, and I hope you add a little can of harissa to you panty. This is a beautiful dish with the orange of the carrots, red tinged harissa, green parsley, white cheese, and earthy olive colors.

Bon Appetite & Happy Holidays!

* In the majority world (used to be 3rd w.) cans picture what’s inside them; i.e. peaches, pig, peppers, goat milk, guava, Gerber babies… lol. And the color patterns of various ingredients tend to be the same across brands for similar ingredients. Just think being a Japanese worker in Morocco, or a Frenchmen in South Africa, or a Moroccan in France.

More information:
Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon This is the BEST cookbook for this cultural type of cooking. Hands-down it will get you started and on your way! This is my recommendation for a Christmas or Hanukkah gift.
Cooking at the Kasbah: Recipes from My Moroccan Kitchen Nice book!
The New Book of Middle Eastern Food I checked this out of the library once, I covet this book.
Mustapha's Moroccan Harissa The gourmet stuff!
Harrissa in Tube - Puree of Dried Hot Peppers More like peasant stuff!

Catching up with Ketchup, Step #1

2009-08-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

So here is a little weirdness, I collect old tomatoes. I keep them cryogenically frozen, like little heads. I supposed I might name one Walt once in a while. Okay, I jest, but I do have pounds & pounds of frozen tomatoes. My wife calls them canonballs, mainly because when she opens up the freezer one shoots out at her once and a while and they skitter on the tile floor. Very exciting! The cats hate it.

So WHY!? Well, I love tomatoes and tend to buy 3# weekly at Haymarket. The tomato guy likes me because I always ask for a range of ripeness, so I can use them up before they spoil. But even with this little bit of preparation, I often have a tomato here & there that is to ripe. So I simply freeze them. To make tomatoes soup (no milk, hate milked T-soup, makes me retch) or make sauces. And what is America’s favorite sauce? One guess genius... "Ketchup", or as the English like to say Catsup. Repeat after me give me a K, give me a E, you can finish from there. It’s so good and so well like our government in it’s wisdom has deemed it a vegetable. Several people including me have deemed french-fries as just a delivery system for ketchup. Don’t be ashamed it’s true.

So why make your own ketchup? #1 for me, I like to make everything once & awhile so I know the difference between crap & caviar. #2 why not?! #3 Yeah everyone is so concerned about sourcing local, local this and that, but folks no one is making local ketchup, no one. Just like I am one of 2 people I know making there own mayonnaise & mustard, hey it comes up in conversations. So I want another feather in my cooking cap.

Where to start, where to start okay Google, found some nice Amish recipe during work a few weeks ago. And the Joy of Cooking, of course my favorite general cookbook. Plus I have some books cooking garden veggies & sauces so I am figuring out where to go from there. Oh, I am making smoked spare ribs tomorrow and want to make BBQ sauce for them. Two types one kinda classic hickory smoked & my Mongolian BBQ sauce.

So I will get back to you on how many pounds of cannonballs ah frozen tomatoes I have lurking in the freeze o be reanimated into a Disney Studio HEAD, and figure out a game plan... I’m going to make a plain ketchup, sort of like HUNT’s, maybe with the zest of Heinz, but I want a canvas to make other sauces on. Oh and the best thing is mine won’t have any evil HFCS bleh! (High Fructose Corn Syrup)

Eggs in Hell

2009-02-04T07:56:00.000-08:00

With times gettin' tougher and the penny being pinched out of your hand by the Fat Cats. What to do? Preparation is worth a lot and changing thinking is probably best. Our grand parent went through the Great Depression. While things are cheaper and you have cash stocking up the pantry with dry goods when they are on sale, and can goods of essentials. Plan a garden for the summer for maximum yield would is good planning. And then there is economizing.

M.F.K. Fisher was a writer of inspirational culinary talent. She wrote many diverse books on food and cooking (e.g. A Cordiall Water..., Here Let Us Feast..., etc), but the most interesting is "How to Cook a Wolf. The book focuses on substitutions and variations to a penny pinching degree. Although Ms. Fisher wrote in the 40s on through the 80s, this books knowledge was hard learned in the Depression Era and the time of rationing during World War II. Want to make a cake without butter well render some bacon fat and with strong spices it’ll get-her-done. The book also looks at the quality of your life and how to maximize the experiences of it in simple ways. Eat, drink, and be merry for perhaps tomorrow the wolf will get us or the larder will run bare.

People ask me: "Why do you write about food, and eating, and drinking? Why don't you write about the struggle for power and security, and about love, the way the others do?" . . . The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry.” ~~M. F. K. Fisher
Culinary tastes in America have thankfully broadened, and at least for the middle-class the ingredients that are available are amazing. Honestly if one can’t afford all that imported-organic-rip-off stuff anymore, then don’t worry flavor doesn’t need to suffer. Cook like a French romanticized country peasant, or a American pioneer with a good garden and a spice-rack. Buy stuff on sale and buy things you know you will use in bulk (i.e. rice, pasta, dried beans, honey, lentils, etc). Rice is a lot cheaper in bulk and so is pasta, split the cost with your siblings family and each of you take 20# of that 40# bag you just bought. Simple ingredients doesn’t have to mean bland food.

Here is a recipe from M.F.K. Fisher that follows:

Eggs in Hell
------------------
From How to Cook a Wolf, by M.F.K. Fisher
SERVES 4

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 onion, minced
2 cups tomato sauce
1 teaspoon mixed herbs, minced (basil, thyme, etc)
1 teaspoon parsley, minced
8 eggs
Slices of French bread, thin, toasted

1. Heat olive oil in a saucepan that has a tight cover. Split garlic lengthwise, run a toothpick through each half, and brown slowly in oil. Add the onion, minced, and cook until golden. Then add the tomato sauce and the seasonings and herbs. Cook about 15 minutes, stirring often, and take out the garlic.
2. Into the sauce break the eggs. Spoon the sauce over them, cover closely, and cook very slowly until eggs are done, or about 15 minutes. (If the skillet is a heavy one, you can turn off the heat and cook in fifteen minutes with what is stored in the metal.)
3. When done, put the eggs carefully on the slices of dry toast, and cover with sauce. (Grated Parmesan cheese is good on this, if you can get any)

This is a great little recipe and has a lot of historical context that might need to be cleared up. Firstly, most middle class woman at the time had had classes in cooking (remember home-economics), they knew how to cook, they didn’t need to be told that you start the pan on high to get the oil frying. They knew how to brown the onions over medium heat. These women also had there own dirty little secret whose name could only be whispered, the culinary lover was “garlic”, but the evidence had to be disposed of. So they infused the oil with garlic and then removed the clove-evidence. Today we just mince the garlic and leave it in the sauce. Also the olive oil does not need to be EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), for sauce cooking or anything outside of drizzling, dipping, or dressing use the OO (olive oil, from the second pressing) trust that no one will know the difference. Olive oil back in the 40s & 50s was harder to find, typically bought at the pharmacy or the local Italian ethnic grocery store. As for the French bread, well any dry bread will do. Remember Depression Babies wasted “nothing”, an old crust of bread will soften up in sauce so it is delicious & edible, those day old bread crusts that the birds get fed with, just shove it under the sauce. By the way seasonings mean salt, pepper, and the house secret ingredients to taste. And finally the heavy pan most likely Ms. Fisher means cast iron.

So a modern economizing interpretation of this recipe might be as follows:

Eggs in Heck
-------------------
2 tablespoons oil (olive oil preferred, don’t waste your EVOO, vegetable oil in a pinch)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, minced
2 cups tomato sauce (any cheapo sauce from the store, or homemade, or 2 cans diced tomato)
1 teaspoon mixed herbs, dry (Use up that Italian spice jar you have) (fresh use 1 Tablespoon)
1 bay leaf
1 Tablespoon parsley, minced (dry parsley is blah (1 tsp), use fresh as a garnish, thrown the stalks in for the cooking)
8 eggs
Slices of French bread, thin, toasted (or any reasonable substitute such as steamed potatoes, toasted/dry bread, pasta, or rice)

1. Heat oil in a saucepan that has a tight cover over medium high heat. Drop a tiny piece of onion into the oil when you think it is hot enough if it sizzles drop in the rest of minced garlic & minced onion. Once it starts to sizzle again turn down to medium - medium-low heat and cook until golden. Stir often to get an even golden texture. I would put in any seasoning spices (not herbs) now to bloom them (release the essential oils) this take 10-15 seconds. Then add the tomato sauce/diced, bay leaf, and Italian herbs to the sauce. Also make a little bundle of parsley stalks (tie of with cotton string). Once the sauce starts bubbling turn it down to low to a bubbling simmer, and cook about 15 minutes, stirring often. Stir in some hot sauce, ¼ tsp cayenne, or a dash or two of Worchester Sauce, to taste. This will add some dimension to the flavor once you have made the recipe a couple times. Remember to have started boiling rice or pasta water before this step too
2. Into the sauce break the eggs. Don’t drop an egg on top of the parsley stalks to avoid a mess later. Spoon the sauce over the eggs, cover closely, and cook very slowly until eggs are done over a low simmer, or about 15 minutes over. (If the skillet is a heavy one, especially cast iron, you can turn off the heat and cook in fifteen minutes with what is stored in the metal.)
3. When done, pull bay leaf & parsley stalks to discard, put the eggs carefully on the slices of dry toast (or what ever starch there is that day), and cover with sauce. Garnish with minced parsley (grated Parmesan cheese is good on this too, if you don’t have any, any salty and/or strong cheese will do (e.g. Romano, Provolone, etc)).

The thing is to economize, remember “substitution is the child of invention”. M.F.K. Fisher expresses a bon vivant attitude for life. We are more fortunate then her generation in the availability of ingredients and a society where culture mix more readily. I also hope that we will not need to suffer as much as the previous generations, although our excesses are catching up with us. Now is the time to look more to the past and rediscover the flavor in just a simpler life and the bounty it brings.

Books of interest by M.F.K. Fisher
----------------------------------------
How to Cook a Wolf
A Cordiall Water: A Garland of Odd and Old Receipts to Assuage the Ills of Man and Beast
The Gastronomical Me
Here Let Us Feast: A Book of Banquets

More on M.f.K. Fisher
Bio
Website
Video
Archives of The New York Times

Daffadowndilly

2008-07-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

Daffadowndilly
Has come into town,
In a yellow petticoat
And a green gown.
~~Mother Goose

Poetry & gardening seem to go hand in hand. Any gardener given enough time will compose a little prose about th're patch eventually. Now to get them to admit this and perhaps recite one or two of these little ditties may take a lot of time, trust, and/or wine.

I have found that my heart and mind combine in the garden in calm though. And after a long days slog in the garden a little poetry after dinner lightens my heart even more. I don't have a recipe for this, except I do slip little poem cards into my recipe box here and there, and they amuse the heck out of me or whom ever I have looking though my recipe box.

A.A. Milne, of Winnie the Pooh fame, wrote about daffodils in his poem "Daffadowndilly" and this reminded me of poems and how important like gardening & cooking, an appreciation of poetry is important to pass alone to children. Most children's books are poetical in some way, and it is best to encourage. I have found most people that pooh-pooh something do it out of lack of understanding, or they are just parroting something they have heard. Poetry like music as structure and takes an active mind to perform. I found an interesting book on teachng poetry to children, and if I can get it I will, its called "Poems Please: Sharing Poetry", it looks quite interesting.

Strow me the ground with daffadowndillies,

And cowslips, and kingcups, and loved lilies. ~~Spenser.

Dinner Reconciled

2008-03-31T21:59:00.000-07:00

Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.

~~Samuel Pepys

S is for Sunflower

2008-03-31T15:08:00.000-07:00

Sunflowers have always been one of my favorite garden plants. Lets just say it brings the 5 year old out in me. Especially, I adore the “giant sunflower” and what child doesn’t marvel at a plant that wasn’t and now looms 12 or more feet off the ground.

Besides its beauty, cheeriness, and presence; what has it done for us lately. The sunflower (Helianthus annuus or Mapi'-na'ka) is a native North American plant and has been farmed for at least 5000 years. Archaeologists have found evidence that the Indians of Arizona & New Mexico have cultivated the plant since 3000 B.C. Now-a-days we feed wild birds and critters with it mainly, and some health conscious folk include it in bread and on their salads. In the 1880’s a process for extracting the oil from the seeds was patented and we got sunflower oil for cooking. So what else can we do with the plant?

Well, have you heard of the “Three Sisters” in gardening, well IMHO the “Sunflower” the cousin that hangs out in the garden too. Let me explain corn, beans, and squash are the three sisters in Native American farming. Basically you plant the corn, then the beans so they can climb up the corn as it grows, and finally plant squash at the base to acts a mulch. There is a lot more to this marriage of sisters, but that is for a later post. Anyway, Native Americans also grew a lot of sunflowers. Why?

The seeds are actually very useful just raw, roaster, braised, as flour, and as a portable food. But let’s start at the beginning, when to sow the sunflower seeds. When the ice breaks up in the rivers, start trying to work the ground once you can plant your sunflower seeds. You might also want your planting to correspond with the first full moon of the April; some tribes refer to this month as “Sunflower-planting-moon”. Clever. Plant the seeds 3-4 inches deeps in friable soil, or as shallow as 1 inch in heavy soil.

Sunflowers are a very hearty plant and will do their best to grow anywhere you put them. This said they prefer full sun and growing in well drained moist fertile soil. They are very tolerant of sandy or clay soil but help them by adding lots of organic compost. Sunflowers are hardy and car little about the day length. Just remember doing plant the seeds in “wet” soil they will suffocate & rot. I use sunflower as trellises for morning glories, red runner beans, and for beans. The seedlings germinate in about 7 days or longer depending on temperature.

Sunflowers respond positively to liquid fertilize either chemical, organic, or fish. You might want to support your sunflower tops if you use them as a trellis; summer thunder storms tend to topple the tops. To jump ahead a little once the seeds start developing you might want to protect you flowers from birds if they start harvesting them before you do. But I have found this to be rare unless you leave the heads up to long.

Then the only thing you need to figure out is what you want to do with the sunflowers bounty. Some recipes to follow, but you can finds recipes for parching, making salted seeds (good for hot climates), and meal-cakes with fat as an energy pick me up.

References:
Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians (Borealis) This is excellent book on finding out how Native Americans farmed. If you like archeology, sociology, food history, or just knowing how other folks garden this is the book for you. I have read this book twice, and it is a quick easy enjoyable read.

Heirloom Sunflower Seeds - Flash Blend Flower Seed Organic - Get some variety in you garden, these may not be the biggest sunflowers you have ever seen but they will be the most divers.

Peas Epicurean

2008-03-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

Spring is almost here in Pilgrim-ville. Time to try an turn the veggie beds and try to start some peas & lettuce early. Here is a little old fashion recipe for PEAS:

Peas Epicurean

2 cups peas
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 table spoons minced onion
1 heart lettuce, shredded
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper
Water
1 tablespoon minced parsley

Slowly cook peas, oil, onion, lettuce, sugar, salt, & pepper in enough water to cover, until the peas are tender and most of the liquid has boiled away. Add parley.

Note: Obviously, you'll want to update this recipe to modern standards. Can you do it?

---
“People are getting tired of going out to expensive restaurants and spending lots of money for seven pea pods and a two-inch steak.” ~~Anonymous

Saint Green

2008-03-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

On Saint Patrick's Day, I planted my spring garden seedlings . Well it has been a week-and-a-half and most of the seedlings are up. I got some heating pads under the trays and it really seems to help. But my lighting is insufficient, so I moved everything the the living-room plant table, the light it better ans although some of the seedlings a little bit leggy, and they are thickening up.

I planted two of every heirloom tomato collected last year. And a bunch of spring veggies, and some summer veggies. I figure I will plant some summer squash and okra early, and if it makes it I will have an early crop. But anyway I will have Swiss chard, chervil (herb), and early tomatoes.

I have the lights on a timer and it comes up 2 hours before the sun hits the window and 2 hours after dark. Just want to give some extra light.
Have a 96watt compact fluorescent lighting system but the bulb is bad and is on order. Got to work with what you have on hand.

---
May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.
~~Irish Blessing

Nude Live Plant Show 2008

2008-03-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes.

~~Clare Ansberry, The Women of Troy Hill

Attended the Boston Flower Show (2008) this month and as always enjoyed my self a great deal. One of the best parts for me is that the houseplant displays. I always see plants that my friends & family have had; plus there are just so many cool plants out there. The show always has a lot of plant vendor that have exotics. Last year I bought a bunch exotics such as Rabbit-foot Fern (Davallia fejeensis), a Rat Tail Cactus (Disocactus flagelliformis), Pregnant Onion (Ornithogalum longibracteatum), Mother-of millions (Bryophyllum spp.), & Orchid Cactus (Epiphyllum). This year I got an Elkhorn Fern (Platycerium bifurcatum), Bird's Nest Fern (Asplenium nidus), and Asparagus Fern ( P. densiflorus cv. Myersii ).

These are all really cool plants that I have always wanted. My pregnant onion is blooming this spring just like the one in the picture. All I have left to get on my want list is some begonias, and a Climbing Onion (Bowiea volubilis).

At these shows there are always so many vendors that seem out of place to me, e.g. cars, motorcycles, & hottubs. Yes, hottubs can be in the garden, but who goes to a garden show to buy a hottub? Perhaps I am limited in my world view.

It seems that the age of the "Dip Mix" vendor s over with though. For that last few years there has been one vendor that sells dips herb mixes and at $4 a bag it seemed quite profitable. Well this year there were 3 vendor doing the smae thing and 2 other venders had this as their side line. Oh, well to bad for them, I do love the sample dips. Yum!

Got Bar?

2008-01-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

Basic drink recipes & a list of the essentials liquors, mixers, ingredients, glasses, & tools need for a bar.

Essentially you only need a nine-bottle bar to meet a myriad of your cocktail needs. This will allow you to make hundreds of various cocktail recipes. Just add some beer and wine and you’ll be cooking with gas folks.

The Liquors

Here is the list of 9 liquors needed to start a basic bar.

Bourbon (i.e. whiskey)
Cointreau $$$ (or Triple Sec $-$$) - you’re mixing it in, only the highly educated pallet and soberest of people can tell the difference
Gin
Rum (light)
Scotch (blended)
Tequila (white)
Vermouth (dry)
Vermouth (sweet)
Vodka

The Mixers

The list that will let you make most common cocktails without to much fuse. And remember if you are featuring a specialty cocktail you need it’s special ingredients.

Cola, ginger ale, sprite, club soda, sparkling water, & tonic water,
Lemons
Limes
Cranberry juice
Orange juice
Angostura bitters
Simple syrup - sugar water, see recipe below.
Garnishes – other then the fruit already listed have those thins required for special drinks, such as pearl onions, mint, cane-sugar, etc.
Green olives (pitted) with or without pementos.
Lemons
Limes
Kosher salt
Maraschino cherries

The Hardware

Well folks you will need some things to prepare all the ingredients with, but remember some substitutions are possible. Use your common sense…

Bartending handbook, see below for some recommendations
Bottle opener
Cocktail napkins
Cocktail spoon, long
Cocktail toothpicks
Corkscrew – buy a good one you thank me later.
Cutting board, wood or plastic (never ever use glass or stone or tile it dulls the blade in 2 shakes of a labs tail)
Jigger – 1 1/2 ounces (jigger-shot) on one side and a 1 ounce (poney-shot) on the other. The jigger lets you quickly measure out this amount of liquor for a recipe, a jigger (1 1/2 oz. is equal to 3 tablespoons)
Juice squeezer
Paring knife (Watch your fingers!)
Peeler
Standard shaker - is a metal bottom, metal lid with a built-in strainer. This is great for the beginner. If you don't want to invest in a shaker use any food-safe container that can be sealed a shaken.

The Glassware

Martini glasses — nothing says “cocktail” like this glass.
Highball glasses
Wineglasses, all-purpose

The Cocktail Recipes

Cape Cod'er:
1 1/2 ounces vodka,
3 ounces cranberry juice
lime wedge garnish
Serve over ice in a highball glass.

Cosmopolitan:
1 ounce vodka
1/2 ounce Cointreau/Triple-sec
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce cranberry juice
lime wedge garnish
Shake with ice and server strained in a martini glass.

Gin fizz:
2 ounces gin
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 dash simple syrup
club soda
Serve over ice in a highball glass.

Gin rickey:
2 ounces gin
juice of 1 lime
2 dashes simple syrup
club soda
lime wedge garnish
Serve over ice in a highball glass.

Manhattan:
1 1/4 ounces bourbon
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1/2 ounce dry vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
maraschino cherry
Stir with ice and server strained in a martini glass.

Martini:
3 ounces gin or vodka
dry vermouth to taste
lemon twist or olive as a garnish
Stir with ice and server strained in a martini glass. Yes you can shake it and say “Bond, James Bond!”

Old-fashioned:
2 to 3 ounces bourbon
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash simple syrup
lemon twist & maraschino cherry garnish
Serve over ice in a highball glass.

Tom Collins:
2 ounces gin
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 dash simple syrup
club soda
maraschino cherry garnish
Shake this with ice and the whole thing into a highball glass.

Whiskey Collins:
2 ounces bourbon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 dash simple syrup
4 ounces club soda
Orange slice & maraschino cherry garnish
Shake this with ice and the whole thing into a highball glass.

Whiskey sour:
1 1/2 ounces bourbon
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce lime juice
1 dash simple syrup.
Orange slice & maraschino cherry garnish
Shake this with ice and the whole thing into a highball glass.

The Other Recipes

Simple Syrup:
Heat 1 part sugar and 1 part water in a saucepan. Simmer, do not boil, until the sugar dissolves. Simple syrup keeps at room temperature for a couple of weeks; eventually it will crystallize. In a pinch, superfine sugar can be substituted. You can simply reheat it to desolve the crystals.

Plants Poisonous to Your Pet

2008-01-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

Plants that are poisonous to your pet are a special problem since most people don't know which ones are hazardous to their pet's health.

Being aware of poisons and controlling your pet's environment may save its life.

Protect your pet from poisoning by knowing what common household items and plants might be dangerous to it.

Close containers securely and dispose of them when empty.

Allowing your pet to run freely increases its risk of poisoning.

Below is a list of plants that could be poisonous to your pet:

Amaryllis
Andromeda
Apple-seeds
Arrow-grass
Avocado
Azalea
Bittersweet
Boxwood
Buttercup
Caladium
Castor Bean

Cherry Pits
Chokecherry
Climbing Lily
Crown of Thorns
Daffodil
Daphne
Delphinium
Dieffenbachia
Dumb Cane
Elephant Ear
English Ivy
Elderberry
Foxglove

Hemlock
Holly
Hyacinth
Hydrangea
Iris
Japanese Yew
Jasmine
Jimson Weed
Laburnum
Larkspur
Laurel
Locoweed
Marigold
Marijuana
Mistletoe
Monkshood
Mushrooms
Narcissus
Nightshade
Oleander
Peach
Philodendron
Poinsettia
Poison Ivy
Privet
Rhododendron
Rhubarb
Stinging Nettle
Toadstool
Tobacco

Tulip
Walnut
Wisteria
Yew

Some symptoms of poison are swelling, cramps, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, effects on breathing and circulation, weakness, drooling, and sneezing. If you suspect your pet has been poisoned, keep it warm & dry. Note the symptoms and call your veterinarian as quickly as you can. Take a sample of the plant suspected of poisoning your pet along to the vet if you can.

Info sourced: Nat'l Animal Control Association, Kansas City, MO

Home Grown Tobacco - Part 1

2007-11-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

So I have taken up to smoking a pipe; this is not unusual in my family. Most of the men have smoked a pipe at some time or other. I have actually inherited my fathers pipes & my great-great-grandfathers from Sweden. I have been shopping for my pipe sundries at Leavitt & Pierce in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass. And is the best smoke shop & men's sundries shop I have ever seen. Anyway, after trying 3 tobaccos now (Cherry Cavendish, Cavendish, and another) it occurred that one could grow tobacco. Or can one…

Apparently tobacco is not hard to grow, but to make it palatable to smoke the leaf needs to be cured for 1 to 6 years. Goodness, at least gardeners are supposed to be patient. Not just that the leaf can't just be hung next to the oregano & thyme and just dried. Curing requires the right condition, and the first article I read recommends construction an appropriate building. Blimey, I’m not against constructions, but just wanting a couple ounces of extra leaf is looking like it ain't going to be a cake walk.

Many years ago, grew some tobacco plants along with a bunch of Artemisia to make homemade insecticide, but in that case just dried the young plant as needed and made the deadly potion. I think I figured it was to hard to cure tobacco then because one of my roommates has worked picking tobacco in Georgia for a couple years.

There were references to tobacco in “Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden” by Gilbert Livingstone Wilson, Ph.D. (1868-1930) that would be another good place to start. However, there are a couple of problems with references to tobacco before the 1900’s. Firstly, they are not always talking about tobacco, often references are talking about cannabis. Secondly, they cured the tobacco in their hurts near the fires and the huts have the correct environment for curing smoky, humid, and warm. If I remember the old men stored & cured the leave for years in leather pouches too.

Some open quests are:
o Where do I get the tobacco seeds?
o What species of tobacco do I want to raise? There are several variations.
o How will I cure the tobacco? Apparently temperature, humidity, & time are major factors.
o Are there any easier methods for curing tobacco that tastes good? There is probably reasons that no one I knows grows their own tobacco.
o Could one learn from cooking on how to pre-treat the tobacco before it cures. Perhaps soaking it in a base or acid solution and then hanging it to cure.

Assuming that curing time is going to be an issue (1 to 6 years), I had better start next year. I just don't want to spend 3 years curing some tobacco only to get something that tastes like a Russian cigarette.

Canapés of Grey Squirrel

2007-10-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

A top restaurant is serving up free grey squirrel pancakes to hungry diners.

Nuts: Grey Squirrel is served in canapes
Peking duck-style squirrel wraps are being offered to diners at The Famous Wild Boar Hotel. The restaurant at Crook, near Windermere, in Cumbria, is giving diners the chance to try the canapes free of charge. The grey squirrels were caught in the hotel's 72-acre woodland grounds and have been prepared by head chef Marc Sanders.

Nibble: Wild Boar Hotel head chef Marc Sanders with the Peking duck-style squirrel treats

I couldn't make this stuff up... thank you, I'll pass, vermin makes me queezy... Although I like the angle that it helps endangered brown squirrels.
Or, "Sometimes you get the nut, sometimes the Nuts get you."
Or, even better, "This doesn't have a fly-squirrel's chance in Hell of catching on in Boston!"

To bad we have lots of fat grey squirrels in Beantown, and they are TRASH feed. I'm not knocking it I'm just saying this is out there for you culinary enjoyment. It's nice to see British Cuisine coming into it's own with historical dishes like this. In Maine where I grew up this Grey Squirrel Pancake was also know as "roadkill". You needed a spatula and burlap bag to collect it thats all. My favorite line from the article is "I haven't tried grey squirrel but people I know who have say it tastes like chicken used to taste when it tasted like chicken."

Food Don'ts

2007-10-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

Don't eat the green ones that’s for sure, it has been my observation that most crustaceans such as lobsters, crabs, crawdads turn reddish when cooked. ("dish", get it! ) I agree that eating things out of the sewer is to be avoided, I think that is above the rule don't eat the yellow snow. Yup, I don't even need to call my mother on that one...

I'm trying to eat my way through the animal kingdom; I’m up to 147 critters, although I have a couple rules.

1) Don't eat things from sewers.
2) No primates or above, this includes chilled monkey brains.
3) No German shepherds
4) No octopus' unless it would be rude; squid are fair game (they are predatory bastards); cuddle fish are marginal.
5) Avoid vermin; i.e. rats, door mice, and wild caught urban rabbits.
6) Cannibalism is only allowed if the other person is dead first and there are no alternatives as grubs, ants, aunts, cats, dogs, or birds around. Don't eat random frozen corpses you find in ice.
7) Pigeons, seagulls, and squirrels count as vermin.
8 ) Don't eat clowns they taste funny.
9) Don't eat the brains of ancestors they could contain sub-viral diseases similar to mad-cow-disease.
10) Always ask what exactly is in the dish if ordering in a foreign country such as France, Spain, China, Japan, or Malaysia. Although last time I was in France I added about 15 critters to the “Ate List.”
11) Never eat the "meat-on-a-stick" severed in a Korean Beer tent, or any beer tent as far as that goes. Actually, avoid meat on a stick in general especially where hygiene or meat suppliers are suspect.
12) If it doesn't smell right don't eat it.
13) Lettuce should be green; shades of olive or yellowed-green don't count. Beige is to be composted.
14) Avoid things that are described to you as "wafer thin" when you are stuffed. (ref: Meaning of Life, Monty Python)
15) If you have to choke something down request one of the following: a) it be smothers with butter or oil and garlic (snails, grubs, etc) b) it be covered in chocolate (grasshoppers, bumble bees, crunchy-frog), and/or c) a cold beer be supplied (oysters).
16) Worms are for the birds, unless you are on a morning show with a worm-do cooking expert .
17) Don’t eat the green ones, this includes Soylent Green.
18 ) Peas are a fruit not a mortar, avoid them if they are not green.

There are a few other things on this list but they are mostly contextual.

Ouch!!! Orchid Thief

2007-10-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

At least one could say “I am an Orchid Thief”… of sorts. . I was in Florida last week for a little R&R and spent some time flip-flopping to the beach to-&-fro. Along the way I spotted a cactus growing out of a ornamental mangrove tree. After a day or two I figured out it was an Orchid Cactus (Epiphyllums) of which my house has two already. Plus, have been trying to convince a friend to trade me cuttings of his white midnight blooming variety.

The Florida cactus had a ton of bloom buds and the flower is impressive 4 to 8 inches across and lasts for a day. So I swiped a pad from the rundown empty summer rental and have brought it home to Massachusetts (Zone 5). I usually ask for cutting from people gardens and am hardly ever refused. I’ve found gardener’s like to share their plants and garden knowledge. Even if they are a curmudgeon normally.

Have let the cut scab over and will place it in a sandy loam pot with some wood chips to hold moisture. And hang it in the sunniest widow and pray that it lives. Then next May I will put it out on the sunny porch with the others and let the sun bake it; this effort might reward me in 3 years with a bloom… ah!... gardening the teacher of hope and patience.

Epiphyllums, commonly referred to as Epis, or Orchid cacti, have tremendous blooms - in size, color, & FRAGRANCE! Fragrance is the one aspect of Epis that is simply not admirable unles you own one. A single bloom on an 'orchid cactus' has the ability to incense an entire house. Though they don't bloom often, and in many cases blooms only last a single night, stunning beauty and ease of care make Epiphyllums a wonderful plant that can suit many lifestyles. Attractive and for themost part disease free foliage also makes them brilliant plants when they are not blooming!

For more info on orchid cactus take a look at these sites & pictures:

San Diego Epiphullum Society, Inc.
Wikipedia - Epiphyllum
Albert’s Greenhouse
Epiphyllums Orchid Cacti Pictures
GardenWeb - Orchid Cacti

“A human being isn't an orchid, he must draw something from the soil he grows in”

~~ Sara Jeannette Duncan quotes

Falling for Compost

2007-10-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

Fall is one of the best and worst of seasons for me. David Letterman once quipped “Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.” Which are sort of my sentiments; can’t wait for the leaves to fall and dry so my feet can drag through them and hear the crunch in the crisp cool air. However, gardening time is finishing up, I might get some peas out of the garden and some late lettuce, but basically it’s over. No fresh produce on the garden, no watering chores at 6am in the morning. I get to rest like the ground until spring.

Well sort of… there is the compost pile, my pride & joy. I have been composting all the kitchen scrapes, cutting, and flower deadhead all summer. Plus the score of the lawnmower bags that neighbors give me. The thing is we will have to do something with about 12 bags of leaves that always seem to accumulate around my apartment. My bin is already three quarters full so I need to use some of this ASAP and make plans for incoming material. Many towns in urban areas offer discounts on compost bins call your park & recreation, or waste disposal department, or department of public works. If your town doesn’t offer this ask why not, because they are missing out on federal grant money, and see if they have a reciprocal agreement with a neighboring town. This is a perfect time to get a compost bin started in your own back yard. Composting is easy. Add dried leaves (brown), fresh grass clippings (greens) and food scraps (nutrients) to the bin or pile, water and let nature take its course. You can create a choir for the kids to go and turn the compost bin every couple weeks, but it isn’t necessary. I like to add a shovel full of dirt to the pile every layer of so, this adds grit to the pile so that it breaks down and helps retain moisture.

Why do you need green and brown layers of material in a compost pile? That is a good question and you can find lots of info at http://www.epa.gov/compost/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting . These sites will help you get started. BTW: you don’t need to buy a bin if you don’t want to; you can just dig a hole and fill it, or make a compost pile. It all depends on the amount of room you have and your sense of ascetics. And perhaps you neighbors senses.

Anyway, next spring you will probably not need to buy as much compost or mulch to amend and cover the flower & vegetable beds and you will have save perhaps a hundred cubic feet of space in the local land fill. You will have recycled the material into your own environment and it will do a lot of good.

If you just don’t want to compost may I suggest to find out where your yard waste can be sent to be made into mulch or compost. Most towns can help you with this too.

Mission: Seed Saver

2007-08-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

Did you know that there's are thousands of vegetables such as onion, pumpkin, potato, tomato, carrot, and every thing else that have been common for all of history, but t would disappear if it wasn’t for the work of the seed savers?

A Seed Saver is an agricultural defender of bio-diversity to whom it falls to protect and share all kinds of seeds in order to protect variety. This is a none nonprofit organizations since the 1975 and for about ten years ago there's an Italian organization, called Civiltà Contadina, that defends bio-diversity through seed savings.

Plus there is a website that gives information about the ongoing projects, the kind of seeds which are in peril. The organization has a news space where in the field of seed saving & bio-diversity post their relevant news.

I simply enjoy any kind of fruit and vegetables, and find the news quite interesting. Go and read up on all the fights and effort that are going into preserving the legacy for humanity and the planet. Most countries in the world have agencies that work on keeping seed stocks including the United States. Although the farms, labs, & vaults have been shamelessly under funded since the Reagan administration. Norway is building a international seed vault for the Global Crop Diversity Trust up in the arctic circle inside a mountain. It’s so 007…

Vacation Burndown

2007-08-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

So I returned from vacation on Monday, and am full of ideas for the garden & the kitchen. Visited the Louisbourg, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia with it’s restored 17th century French kitchen gardens, a friends garden in the woods of Cape Breton, picking wild mushums in the wilds, having a Texas toast BLT with chanterelle mushrooms, trying to trap crawdads in main, farmers market shopping, fermenting tomato seeds, and picking my garden produce when I have been gone for 2 weeks. Plus the automatic watering system worked while I was gone. Lots of stuff happened garden, culinary, and otherwise…

chantrelle mushroom

Jiving with Chives

2007-08-22T15:19:00.001-07:00

The other day I had a discussion at my community garden plot on humble Chive. You know that innocuous, tough, grass looking, purple flower and interesting herd. Our garden plots have a lot of chives, almost to the point of weeds depending where you go. The guy next to me is using his plot to do some sort of garden scape that relies heavily on chives. He kind of has a veld of chives… Anyway, he is nice enough to let me pick some of the blooms in spring, and here we get to the beginning of the list of uses of chives that apparently only I have put together.

Let me start at the beginning, I use chives in cream cheese or on the rare occasion when I actually eat cottage cheese. You know just mix some pepper, salt, a pinch of sugar and some chives to taste into the dairy; let sit for a half hour if you have the time & enjoy. Also, I use chives on baked and mashed potatoes. I used to chop chives up with a knife, but now I just use my kitchen sheers to cut them into the perfect length.

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are great on salads and mixed into vinaigrette dressings. And when available I used the fresh blooms of chives in salads they add a lot of color, and some light chive flavor. I’m always looking for new flowers to eat in salads, so add chive blooms to the list of nastrums, roses, and borage blooms you can eat on you greens. And the blooms can be used in one other fun way; in vinegar. Use an old Patron tequila bottle (large opening and ability to cork it is why I like the bottle) stuff about two dozen freshly open blooms into the bottle and add some nice white vinegar. In about 15 minutes you’ll see some of the color of the blooms leaking into the vinegar; let this sit in the sunny widows for 2 weeks to age & flavor the vinegar. The vinegar has nice onion flavor and a nice reddish color. Great for cooking or making more vinaigrette.

I usually keep the chive plant bloom-free, because the stalks get harder and I have been told the chives get more bitter. However waste is not good so before the blooms open I pick all the budding stalks, and stir fry them in oil and splash them with sherry or sake before I serve them. They are great on top of meat or another veggie. This is just like serving Chinese onions which are a larger Allium.