Random Stuff from the Last Few Months and a Sandwich

I realized today that it has been longer than I thought since I've posted anything.  Several months in fact.  Oops.  I haven't really been doing anything interesting (other than growing a person), which has contributed to the lack of posting.

Here's a little summary of what I've been up to recently:

The garden also went in really late this year - we kept having frost warnings right through the end of May!  It also hasn't really stopped raining, which hasn't helped getting things into the ground.
This year's garden is much smaller than usual, since I don't plan on spending too much time out there near the end of this pregnancy.  The only things I've planted are:
Black Plum Tomato
Lipstick Pepper
Cantaloupe
Cinnamon Basil
Rosemary
some flowers out front that the munchkin picked out

The tomato plant is a very prolific (and very tasty!) variety, and I'm looking forward to re-supplying my stash of salsa!

The sage, chives, thyme, spearmint, rhubarb and strawberries all survived the winter, which was also pretty convenient.

The two books that I have read since my last update, which have stuck out to me are: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (slow moving, but very atmospheric and sadly sweet) and The Acolyte by Nick Cutter (this one is a distopian novel where the science-denying, Evangelical religious right have taken over and instituted a sort of dictatorship.  Very creepy read!).

Finally, I'm very happy the seasonal farmer's markets are back!  There is a year-round market not too, too far from us, but I am fond of the seasonal market that is much closer.  When my finds at the market are combined with what we get in our produce delivery box, some very tasty meals can be had!
I've ended up making this sandwich for lunch the past two days in a row (I only have a cell phone pic, so my apologies if you can't view it well)

Delicious Sandwich!

What you see in the photo includes:
Herb & cheese sourdough from De La Terre Bakery
Garlic & chive fresh chevre (goat cheese) from Fifth Town Artisan Cheese
Spring mix from one of the veggie vendors at the market (I can't remember which one!)
Sweet Russian Mustard from Kozliks Canadian Mustard (I prefer the spicy Russian, but we ran out!)
and then tomato, cucumber and radish from the produce delivery.

Do you have a market nearby, or a favourite sandwich?

2014 Garden Update: August Tomatoes

Well, it is a new month, and I thought I'd give a garden update.  I'm only going to talk about my tomatoes though, because reasons.

The Mountain Princess beefsteak tomato plant has not loved life.  It caught some sort of tomato plant disease and mostly turned yellow & withered up.  It was very sad.  I did get a handful of fruit from it before it gave up the ghost.  They were tasty, but not special tasty.  I don't think this is a variety I'll grow again.

On the other hand, the Isis Candy cherry tomato plant is growing like mad and starting to take over the raised bed.  The tomatoes themselves are really sweet & have a lovely variegated red-orange-yellow hue.  See?  Cute AND tasty!

The nasturtiums are also growing like crazy, and have managed to avoid aphids so far.  They got planted near the onions and escaped spearmint, which helps I think, since bugs generally don't like mint or alliums.

Oh, and I am finally getting sunflowers!  They are a lovely pale lemon yellow colour - almost the same colour as my kitchen.  Since the pack was a variety pack, I can't wait until the rest of the blossoms open so that I can see their different colours.

How are your gardens doing?

Garden Update: July 2014

Now that we're in July, I thought I'd do a quick update on the garden - especially since I got my first serious haul of produce into the house the other night (as opposed to the little smaller bunches of stuff that I've grabbed).

Sugar Snap Peas, French Breakfast Radishes and a mess of green beans!

I have pulled up quite a few radishes & eaten a lot of sugar snap peas before this photo - these are just the ones that have largely made it into the house unscathed.  The peas especially are lucky to have made it this far - I find them extra delicious right off the vine.

Here's the main veggie patch.  

I know that it largely looks like a big green mess, but from left to right, you can make out: potatoes, in a light beige pot, sweet peppers, in the plastic terra cotta looking pot, broccoli (the dark green leafy thing behind the peppers), snap peas, carrots & dill all mushed together behind the broccoli,  the cherry tomato in the pink cage in the centre, the white rectangular pot of lettuces, celery, radishes & beans to the right of the cherry tomato, and in the last tomato cage, the beefsteak tomato plant.  Also, lots and lots of weeds . . .

The beefsteak tomato is not loving life this summer.  Most other things at this end of the garden seem to be doing okay though.

Here's the left side garden.  The blasted daylillies are taking over again.  However, the white patch in the front is my lovely thyme, all in bloom.  The chives are also doing really well. The oregano is still struggling along in the middle of the patch.  The far end is where the sunflowers ended up, and so far, so good with them.  We'll see what happens when we finally get some flower heads - especially when they get seeds.  I suspect I will have it out with the neighbourhood squirrels again.

  

The right side garden.  The daylillies on this side are largely containing themselves.  Between these guys and the hostas you see in the background, the strawberries are doing okay - they did not fruit very well this summer, but they are everbearing varieties, so I may get a better crop in August.  The onions seem to be going along alright, as is the nasturtium I got.  The spearmint from last year escaped its pot and somehow got into this patch, so, that will be a forever struggle to keep it under control.  

Finally, the deck pots.  I have two of the rectangular pots - the other is just out of frame.  They both contain the watermelon radish seeds, and neither is doing well.  Too much rain, and the squirrels have been digging in them.  Rosemary and lavender are also performing decently.  The cinnamon basil (the dark green pot) however is also not loving life.  I can't figure out why.  On the upside, at least it is giving me (and the bees) a decent amount of flowers to look at.

The globe basil to the left is doing awesome.  I love it.  Really, you have no idea how excited I am for pesto making.

That concludes today's tour.  How are your gardens growing?  Have you harvested anything yet?

The Garden 2014: A Start

The raised planter and some of the pots.  There are so many seedlings in this photo!

Gardening - it is a thing that I do sometimes.  I'm pretty lazy, so I don't always weed when I should, or remember to water consistently, and I have a toddler 'helper', so it is generally not worthy of a magazine photoshoot.  However, it is something that brings me pleasure, especially the bit where the food parts ripen and I get to eat them.  Plus, the toddler seems to enjoy being outside with her little gardening tools, digging holes and yelling "I help! I do it!"

I've planted stuff out back in the last few weekends, laughing (carefully, while knocking on wood, just in case) at the prospect of a late frost.  As gardens are always a work in progress, especially when you inherit a space, we're still working out some placement issues.  This means that there are still seed packets on my kitchen table, and empty pots in the shed.

Here is a little list of what is already in the ground (most seeds and seedlings I purchased from Urban Harvest, although a few seedlings came from one of the convenience stores near my home).

• Broccoli
• Celery
• Mountain Princess Tomato (it is a determinate, so it is in a pot.  We'll see how it goes)
• Isis Candy Cherry Tomato (isn't that a great name?  Apparently, the individual tomatoes ripen in all different colours. Whee!)
• a rainbow pack of carrot seeds (including: Atomic Red, Cosmic Purple, Lunar White, Scarlet Nantes and Solar Yellow)
• Six Week Bush Beans
• Sugar Daddy Sugar Snap Peas
• French Breakfast Radishes
• Watermelon Radishes (not yet planted, but these are neat.  They are green inside instead of white, so they look like little watermelons)
• Lipstick Sweet Red Pepper
• Onions - I planted Evergreen Bunching Onion seeds, but something dug up that patch, so I planted yellow onion seedlings in the same area.  Hopefully, I'll get both!
• A 'Lucious Lettuce' variety seed pack of lettuces
• Dwarf Nasturtium
• potatoes, that I took from our produce delivery box
• French fingerling potatoes 
• A new second blueberry plant (one of the two I planted last year got attacked by local wildlife and did not survive)
• Two new strawberry plants (about half the existing strawberry patch did not survive the winter)
• A sunflower mix (not yet planted)

I also added to the herbs.  The chives, oregano, thyme and lavender all survived the winter.  New is:

• garden sage
• spicy globe basil
• dark opal basil
• cinnamon basil (what can I say? I'm apparently a sucker for basil) 
• and an additional bit of lavender.

Are you planting anything this season?

Note to Self: Next Summer, Make More Pesto!

My belly will be very sad when it realizes that the last of the pesto I made from my basil harvest in the garden this summer was part of tonight's (delicious) dinner.  The pesto was really tasty, and I am very sad there will be no more until the next harvest of basil comes in.  I am especially sad because the current weather reminds me that this is going to be months & months away!

Tonight's dinner was inspired by receiving this week's produce delivery box, and realizing that we had to use up some of last week's delivery so we could fit everything in the fridge!  I ended up making a quick & easy pasta with the pesto, tomatoes, mushrooms & spinach, and then a quick little salad.

Here's what you will need to make it yourself:

Squiggly pasta shapes (I used a combo of fusilli and scooby doo/cavatappi noodles, since they were open)
1/2 pint of cherry or grape tomatoes
2 cremini mushrooms, sliced
a large handful of spinach, washed & sliced thinly
1/2 small zucchini, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 small red onion, diced
olives - the black, wrinkly kind (optional) - as many as you like, because this one is really subjective
olive oil for frying
4 ice cubes worth of pesto (or about 4 tablespoons)

Start cooking your pasta as per package directions.
Heat up the olive oil over medium heat in a frying pan or large saucepan.  When the oil is warm, add your onion, and cook, stirring occasionally until starting to soften.  Add the garlic and spinach and cook another two minutes.  Dump in your cherry tomatoes, zucchini and mushrooms and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until everything is warmed through and the tomatoes start to wrinkle a little.  Then add your pesto and olives (if using).
At this point, your pasta should be cooked.  Drain off most of the water, and then add the pasta & remaining water to to your pan of sauce and stir/toss so the pasta gets completely coated.  Leave on low heat if you think it needs a little more cooking time, or you haven't started the salad yet because there is a toddler demanding your attention by holding onto your knee and yelling.

If you choose not to use olives in the pasta, I would recommend maybe adding some chili flakes, or some parmesan or other stronger, salty cheese, just to give it that little extra kick.

The salad I made was just a quick toss of romaine lettuce, two small, sliced carrots, orange bell pepper and avocado, since those were the quick veggies to hand.

I hope this is something you can use during your hectic days, since it comes together in just over the time it takes for the pasta to cook.

Still on the Preserving Train! This Time: Walnut Pesto & Oven-Dried Tomatoes

Although the weather has started to vary (yay, never knowing if you need rainboots or a jacket when you leave the house for the day!), I'm still getting tons of stuff out of the veggie patch in the garden.

I've been trying to use up as much as I can, but there's always something that outgrows your efforts.  This year, for me, it has been the basil and the cherry tomatoes.

As a result, this weekend, in an attempt to preserve some of the bounty I oven dried some of the cherry tomatoes, and made some walnut pesto with the basil.

To make your own basil walnut pesto, you will need:

2 cups packed basil

1/3-1/2 cup olive oil (start with 1/3 cup, and add more as needed)

1/2 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese

1/2 cup walnuts

1-4 peeled cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you want it)

Start by putting 1/3 cup of olive, and all the other ingredients in a blender.  Blend until well combined.  If you need more oil, feel free to drizzle it in.

If you aren't using your pesto right away, as I was not, you can pour your pesto into an ice cube tray and freeze it.  Once it is set, pop out the cubes and put them in a freezer bag.  Then, you can just grab cubes of pesto as needed!

To make your own oven dried tomatoes all you need are some tomatoes (plum tomatoes usually work best, but my cherry tomatoes went pretty well), salt, vinegar, olive oil, and if you like, some herbs for extra flavouring.

Preheat your oven to 200F.  Put a cooling rack on a baking sheet.  Cut your tomatoes in half (if using plum or other large tomatoes, some may need to be cut into quarters).  Sprinkle them with salt, and put them in the oven.  Keep the door slightly ajar (I used a wooden spoon to keep mine open), so that the moisture can escape.  

Depending on size, the tomatoes should take 3-6 hours.  They are done when they are leathery and a deep red (which means that you'll need to check on them periodically).

When they are done, and cool enough to handle, put them in a bowl and sprinkle them with a little bit of vinegar, and toss to coat. 

If not using right away, put them in a clean, sterilized jar, and cover with olive oil.  If you are using herbs, add them in as well (I put rosemary in mine).  The longer you leave them in the jar, the longer the herbs flavour will infuse through the oil and tomatoes.  Mine is now in the fridge for extra safekeeping.

Have you been setting aside anything for winter?  Got any recommendations on how to use up the tomatoes I still have coming in?  I'm starting to run out of ideas!

Jelly Time! (with a garden update)

Now that the internet flashback is over, on to the actual post:

The long weekend is almost over, and I've been doing things!  Jelly things!
Today, I made both grape jelly:

And savory garlic jelly:

I have made garlic jelly before, but this time I did not add the sweet pepper pieces.
I have never made grape jelly before, but it was pretty easy.  Especially since I got lazy and used unsweetened store-bought juice instead of making my own.
So, now I have six jars of grape jelly (plus a bowl of extra jelly in the fridge) and two new jars of garlic jelly.  I should have gotten three garlic jelly jars, but I think I let it boil a little bit too long and there wasn't quite enough for three jars.

I've also been harvesting a lot of produce from the garden recently.

It turns out that the golden cherry tomatoes were mislabeled regular cherry tomatoes.  They are still quite tasty, and the plant is huge!
The Black Krim tomatoes are incredibly delicious.  They are so flavorful, and I'm really glad I decided to give them a try.  The only downside is that when it rains a few days in a row, they tend to crack fairly easily.  I've lost a few of them this way.
As you can see in the photo above, I've also gotten some cayenne peppers, and I got my first sweet pepper today!  It was also really tasty, and is going on my list of plants to try again next year.

Not in the photo are the handfuls of herbs and lettuce that I've been able to get almost daily.  The basil and oregano have especially been loving the recent weather.

Finally, and sadly, I'm announcing the demise of one of my blueberry plants.  Either a squirrel or a cat dug it up, and it did not survive being replanted.   I'm sure this is not the last garden face-off I will lose against local critters.

Has anyone else been canning or enjoying their garden results recently?