Vegetables

  • Herbs,  Recipes,  Vegan,  Vegetables,  Vegetarian

    When Is Tuna Fish Not Tuna Fish?

     

    No-kill “tuna” salad!

    Prior to being a vegetarian, many years ago, I did enjoy a tuna sandwich or salad now and then.  A perfect dish for a hot afternoon.  During my almost twenty years of vegetarianism I’ve sampled many tuna substitutes, with various results.  Most of them were discontinued, or were imported to a store on the East coast and then resold and shipped.  Have you ever noticed how foods that are marketed as substitutes for other foods either have quotations around their names as if someone was whispering it behind their hand?  Or else the names are spelled wrong, like Tuno or Bakon.  There is also the saner although still questionable method of placing the word ‘mock’ in front of the word, such as ‘mock-tuna’, which is better than misspelling.  Anyway, back to the topic, in trying to keep my carbon footprint low I’m eliminating the purchase of goods that require so much shipping. 

    This week I discovered a marvelous tuna substitute (I say, “discovered” when really I’m probably the last to know).  It is low calorie, high in protein and fiber, inexpensive, easy to prepare, doesn’t kill tuna or dolphins, and they grow here in California.  I can also buy them organic.  They are garbanzo beans, otherwise known as chickpeas. 

    Mash garbanzos (what a great name for a bean!) until they are almost smooth.

    The flavor of garbanzo beans is very mild and takes well to light seasoning.  Substitute mashed garbanzo beans in your favorite tuna salad or sandwich recipe.  If you use Veganase – a dairy-free mayonnaise substitute – then you have a mock tuna salad or sandwich that won’t be dangerous to eat at picnics because neither the beans nor Veganase spoil quickly.  Incorporating dill into the mix gives the mix a fishier flavor, since dill is so commonly paired with fish.  Simple, nutritious, inexpensive and very yummy.  Can’t go wrong with that!   

    Mock Tuna Salad
    Author: 
    Recipe type: Entree
    Prep time: 
    Total time: 
    Serves: 2-4
     
    A high-protein and fiber, low-cost tasty tuna substitute without any trace of mercury or dolphin!
    Ingredients
    • One can organic garbanzo beans
    • 2-3 tablespoons Veganase or mayonnaise
    • 1 teaspoon minced dill, preferably fresh
    • 2 stalks celery, chopped
    • 2 -3 cups cooked, cooled small shaped pasta, such as shells
    • ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
    • Salt and pepper to taste
    • Chilled iceberg lettuce
    Instructions
    1. Drain and empty canned garbanzos into a small bowl.
    2. Mash with a potato masher until almost smooth, keeping some of the lumps for texture.
    3. Stir in Veganase, dill, celery, cumin, salt and pepper.
    4. Stir chickpea mixture into cooled noodles until well mixed.
    5. Serve over iceberg lettuce with a dill pickle on the side.

  • Breads,  Breakfast,  Cake,  Dessert,  Recipes,  Vegan,  Vegetables,  Vegetarian

    Two Sure-fire Zucchini Recipes

    Zucchini plants are like cats:  They both look harmless when small, so you think the more the merrier.  One plant is always enough, but it is hard to plant just one seed in case it doesn’t come up.  Then the sprouts are hard to thin.. what if something eats it?  Then before you know it, there are five enormous plants growing giant green clubs in the dead of night, just after you’ve checked all the plants.  Well, that’s my situation anyway.  Too many cats; too many zucchinis.  When there are enough all at one time, we’re taking them (the zucchinis, not the cats) to the Fallbrook Food Pantry along with pumpkins and tomatoes.  Until then, we’re exploring new ways to eat them.  And I refuse to sully cheesecake with zucchini! (yes, there is such a recipe!). 

    My son who is studying Culinary Arts at the University of Hawaii sent me a link to smittenkitchen.com with an exceptional zucchini pancake recipe… not sweet, very light and completely tasty.  I’ll include my version.  But first I want to explain my ‘discovery’, which everyone but me probably knows about anyway. 

    SAUTEED ZUCCHINI

     I had grated zucchini for bread and had some left over.  It was dinnertime and I was alone, so I experimented.  I heated a skillet with a little olive oil in it, threw in the grated, undrained zucchini, and stirred it around on medium-high heat for about five minutes.  When it was beginning to wilt and brown a little on the bottom, I sprinkled sesame oil on it lightly, and then gave it a touch of Bragg’s Amino Acids, which I use for many things.  A light soy sauce may substitute, but Bragg’s is high in nutrition, low in salt and a wonderful flavoring.  Buy it online or in health food stores.  The zucchini came out tasty and with a mouth-feel of wet wide noodles.  It was fantastic.  I’ve since made it for my daughter a couple of times, and each time we wanted more!  Imagine that!  On the plus side, it used up a medium zucchini.

      You really must give these pancakes a try. 

     

    Fabulous Zucchini Pancakes
    Author: 
    Recipe type: Breakfast
    Prep time: 
    Cook time: 
    Total time: 
    Serves: 4
     
    A light, flavorful, really good pancake that uses up a lot of zucchini and tastes like zucchini bread.
    Ingredients
    • 2 large eggs
    • 3 tablespoons olive oil
    • 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
    • ¼ cup buttermilk or soured milk
    • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 2 cups shredded zucchini
    • 1 cup all-purpose flour
    • ¼ teaspoon table salt
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • ⅛ teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
    • ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
    • Oil, for coating skillet
    Instructions
    1. In a large bowl whisk eggs, olive oil, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla until smooth.
    2. Stir in zucchini.
    3. In a smaller bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.
    4. Stir dry ingredients into zucchini batter, mixing until just combined.
    5. Stir in chocolate chips.
    6. Heat oil or butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat.
    7. Scoop ¼-cup rounds of batter in pan so they do not touch.
    8. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface, about 2 to 3 minutes.
    9. Flip pancakes and cook another minute or two.
    10. Keep pancakes warm in on a tray in the oven set on low or in a toaster oven.
    11. Repeat with remaining batter.
    12. Serve warm with or without traditional pancake toppings.
    13. Pancakes freeze well.

  • Gardening adventures,  Heirloom Plants,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Vegetables,  Vegetarian

    Fun Vegetables

    A small green zebra, not quite ripe

    In a past post I related how my mother had witnessed a woman staring hands-on-hips at the produce selection in a grocery store and exclaiming, “I wish they’d come up with some new vegetables!”  How true is that?  How many ways can you cook the limited offerings in your average supermarket produce section without going out of your mind?  That’s where a trip to an ethnic grocery store can be a life-saver.  Or, plant some fun new varieties in your garden. 

    Thanks to Baker Creek Heirloom (Organic) Seeds and their fantastic catalog, I was spoiled for choice. I also buy a lot from Botanical Interests , an organic seed company which has packets for sale in stores such as my neighborhood Joe’s Hardware.  Their wildflower seed mixtures are highlights of my garden and attract birds, butterflies and other insects.  Here are some newbies I tried this year, and the keepers:

    Zucchino Rampicante : an heirloom zucchini that grows on a vine.  This squash grows curled or straight on long vines that need support.  The fresh squash can be used like zucchini, but are firmer and have a mild butternut flavor that goes well with everything.  I am completely in love with the taste of these. 

    Some zucchinos are straight, some follow their own tune

    PLUS: if you leave the squash on the vine, it grows huge and unlike those monsterous zucchini clubs that are practically inedible and unwanted, zucchino then hardens and you can store it and use it as a winter squash!   How marvelous and unwasteful is that!  Zucchini without the pressure.  No more alienating your neighbors and friends with excess squash.

    Zucchino shapes are marvelous

     Green Zebra Tomato :a large, lime-green striped tomato that develops a slight yellowish tinge between the stripes when ripe.  These gorgeous tomatoes are rich and slightly tart, but without heavy acid.  Marvelous on a open-faced sandwich or in a caprese salad to show off the color inside.

    Green Zebra: beautiful inside

    Thai #2 Red Seeded Long Bean: The seeds were given to me by the woman who introduced me to Baker Creek Seeds, and who built my chicken and quail coops.  I planted the seeds by stakes that turned out to be too short for the vines. 

    Long beans growing very long.

    However, these beautiful flowers eventually came, followed by spectacularly long thin green beans two feet long!  One bean per person! (Just about, anyway).  They are good stir-fried.  I haven’t tried to tempura one yet, but its tempting.

    Six long beans slice up to a serving for two!

    Mortgage Lifter Tomato : Now THESE are the ultimate sandwich tomato.  These heavy pink-red fruits have mostly meaty insides and have an incredible savory flavor.  I have found my favorite red tomato.  Beefstake has nothing on this baby.  It also has a cool name.

    Mortgage Lifter is very meaty and savory

     

    Rice Blue Bonnet: the jury is still out on this one.  This is a dry-land rice.  I didn’t thin it when I should have, so it is growing in clumps and hasn’t progressed beyond the thin leaves.  My fault.  It is growing and would probably be successful if I handle it right.

    Basil Custom Blend HEIRLOOM Seeds :  I planted a row and have regular and purple basil, lime basil, and cinnamon basil (one of my favorite scents).  Today I used the regular and purple chopped over an open-faced tomato sandwich, and my daughter added leaves from the other two to a fruit salad.

    Sesame, Light Seeded : Beautifully flowered plants with seed pods full of sesame seeds!  How great is that?

    Sesame pods.

    Broad Windsor Fava Bean : I planted a lot of legumes to help build the soil (they set nitrogen), and tried fava beans this year.  They grow like crazy, take a lot of neglect, and produce a fantastic protein source in the form of a tasty bean.  They are a little trouble to shell, but well worth it.  I wrote about favas here.

    Blue Potatoes: These I started several years ago from an organic blue potato I bought at a grocery store.  Since there are usually some small tubers left in the soil, I have volunteers sprouting every year.  These blue potatoes – whatever their true variety is – are a lovely purplish blue outside, with a lovely purple center as well.  They aren’t starchy, but are best used like red potatoes.  Very fun.

    Peeled purple potatoes
  • Animals,  Chickens,  Gardening adventures,  Heirloom Plants,  Herbs,  Other Insects,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Photos,  Ponds,  Quail,  Vegetables

    What’s Happening in the July Garden

  • Compost,  Gardening adventures,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Soil,  Vegan,  Vegetables,  Vegetarian

    Fava Beans

    Fava flowers

    Have you ever eaten Italian, Greek or Middle Eastern food and found some enormous beans in it?  Most likely those were fava beans.  Commonly called broad beans or horse beans, these ancient beans are native to Africa and Asia, but can be found in cuisines worldwide.

    There are a lot of reasons to grow them, even if you don’t eat the beans.  First of all, they are nitrogen fixers, being a legume.  However they don’t tendril like green beans do.  The plant is a tall stalk (different varieties grow different heights) that sets beautiful flowers down the trunk.  From these flowers grow some very weird-looking veggies.  The pods look like clusters of swollen green fingers, I kid you not.  The stalk can grow unsupported, but may topple over once the heavy pods are set.

    Another reason to grow them is that they are hardy and can tolerate cold, and soils that are heavy in clay and salts (which pretty much describes my yard).   Often broad beans are grown as a cover crop, then cut and allowed to decompose on the soil surface while the roots release the nitrogen under the soil.

    Then there is the reason that these very industrious plants produce an interesting protein-rich bean that enjoys notoriety worldwide (hence, easy to find different recipes for them!).  The young leaves and flowers are edible as well.

    To harvest favas, pull the swollen (but not too lumpy or they’ll be tough) pods from the stalks.  Here comes the drawback: you have to shell the beans and it is a chore.  Turn on a movie, pull up a bag of fava beans and an empty compost bucket, and go to.  You may want to use a sharp knife to run down the seam, but I just used my fingernails.  I watched the 1980’s TV show Cheers, which I never saw because I haven’t had television in about 17 years.  Three episodes and I finished a big bag of favas!

    When you’ve shelled the beans, you must blanch them for 3 minutes, then drop them in an ice bath.  Rub the beans to remove a waxy coating.  Then you can sautee them, mash them with potatoes, use them in fritters and soups, try an exotic Middle Eastern recipe with them. Fry them until they are crisp and serve salted as a snack.  If you want to freeze them, then give the beans the blanch and ice water treatment, dry them and freeze them on a cookie sheet.  Put them into a freezer bag.  When you want to use them, then thaw, remove waxy shells and use.  Some people don’t remove the coating, but its better if you do.

    Fava beans have a nutty, slightly bitter and earthy flavor that becomes quite addictive.  Two warnings, though.  Some people, particularly those of Mediterranean decent, may be allergic.  Also if you are taking anti-depressants, the beans are rich in tyramine and should be avoided by those taking monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors – a type of medication used to treat severe depression.

    Add fava beans to your garden and landscape.  Just tuck the seed into the ground and stand back.  Mine weren’t nibbled by rabbits or bothered by anything; however last year I grew six plants in a raised bed, and something opened all the pods and ate the beans.  This year I have them planted all over the property to help build the soil, and the harvest appears to be all mine.  I’m glad that Cheers ran so many seasons!

  • Bees,  Compost,  Gardening adventures,  Health,  Heirloom Plants,  Other Insects,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Soil,  Vegetables

    Integrated Gardening

    Wildflowers, tasty borage, milkweed for the Monarch butterflies, and herbs.

    There are still those who prefer to have all their plants separate, each plant type confined to its own space.  Vegetables should definitely not be allowed in the flower garden; herbs may be there only if more ornamental than useful, but don’t ever mix desert, country cottage or rose gardens together.  That style of design is a matter of preference, and many gardens following those rules are very beautiful.  They are usually also high maintenance, heavily fertilized, watered and sprayed, with poison set out for rodents.

    A breadseed poppy is emerging in the sage.

    The blending of useful and ornamental plants is certainly not a new idea, and yet it isn’t often done.  When it is, gardeners should find that the loss rate of plants to pests is quite low, and the yield of the vegetables is high. 

    Onions, native mallow, tarragon and sweet potatoes under a white fringe tree.

    Why is this?  For one thing, planting mixed seeds which include ornamentals, herbs and vegetables masks the scent of the most yummy plants from its preditors.  There aren’t rows of the same type of plant for the insects to find.  Since different plants take up different nutrients from the soil, the soil isn’t depleted of one particular nutrient, so mixed plantings usually make for healthier and tastier plants.

    My first tomatoes of the season, off of a volunteer along the pathway. Oh so yum!

     Wildflowers with cilantro, dill and basil not only are more successful and appealing to look at, but if let go to flower are excellent pollen sources for bees.

    Young parsley, California poppy, cilantro and dill by rain lilies.

     Allowing desirable plants to reseed not only saves you money, but makes the new plant hardy and adapted for your particular garden.

    Volunteers are welcome, such as this squash.

     Of course mixing plants is what an edible forest garden is all about, although the mixing isn’t random. Each plant serves a purpose.  I use fava beans as a great edible nitrogen-fixer, along with other beans, peas, sweet peas, lupine, and nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs.  Artichokes grow quite large, and their leaves when cut and left on the ground make superb compost, as do the leaves of comfrey.  Artichoke leaves keep growing back, and the plant will produce many very yummy artichokes.  (Artichoke hint: wipe Vaseline around the stem below the bud to keep ants and earwigs from finding their way between the leaves.) 

    Artichoke and fava beans beneath an apricot tree.

    Melons and squash make an incredible ground cover during the hottest months.  Their large leaves shade the soil surface and block evaporation.  Remember that raccoons aren’t supposed to like going through squash vines, so plant them around your corn. 

    Green melon and corn by a variegated lemon (Sophie the dog by the car).

    Integrating your plants, especially when following the edible food forest guidelines, helps increase soil fertility (different plants remove different things from the soil).  Mostly this is done by keeping the soil a more moist and inviting habitat for soil microbes and worms, but also by dropping their leaves which become mulch. 

    A guild: kabocha squash, heirloom squash and gourd (on wire) with onions interplanted to keep seedlings safe, along with something else that I don't remember planting, wildflowers, artichoke (under the milk carton for bunny protection), scented geraniums, lavender, borage, orgeano, sweet potatoes (not up yet), cowpeas, fava beans and Swiss chard by a small avocado tree.
  • Gardening adventures,  Heirloom Plants,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Recipes,  Vegan,  Vegetables,  Vegetarian

    Kohlrabi: A New (Old) Vegetable

    Cute hot air balloon veggie

    Once, my mother came home from the grocery store and was laughing about a woman who stood hands on hips in front of the produce section and announced, “I wish they’d come up with a new vegetable!”

    I entirely sympathize.

    The whole plant is edible!

    This year I planted a vegetable that I hadn’t grown, and perhaps had never eaten before.  Kohlrabi.  It certainly isn’t new; its been mentioned since Roman times and used on many continents. But it was new to me. The name is German, and it can be found in (East) Indian, Italian, French as well as Asian cuisine.  It is very low in calories, yet very high in fiber, potassium and other vitamins and minerals.

    It also is very cool looking.  You can either imagine an alien, or a hot air balloon.  The entire plant is edible, and can be eaten raw.

    Peel the outer layer of older bulbs.

    When young, the leaves, stems and bulbous base can just be munched on, chopped up in salads, grated for slaw, used like jicama for dips, stir-fried, and even barbecued.  When older the leafy parts should be separated from the tougher stems, like older chard leaves.  The base should then be peeled before use.

    The flavor is very mild, and is kind of turnip-radish-broccoli tasting.  There are two types, a purple and a light green.  I grew the light green, but have read that the purple variety is sweeter.  I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but I may try that next year.

    I braised and steamed the leaves, ate some of the bulb raw and stir-fried the rest.  It was tasty.  It was cute. It was fun to say.  It was NEW.

    Stir-fried kohlrabi with sesame oil and seeds, served with brown rice noodles and fresh orange.

    And, if you want to send a grocery store checker into confusion and hold up the line, buy some kohlrabi.  They’ll have no idea.

  • Animals,  Chickens,  Compost,  Gardening adventures,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Soil,  Vegetables,  Worms

    Fifty Ways To Leave Your Compost

     

    Its not fruit; its pre-compost!

    I have no idea how many years I’ve composted kitchen scraps.  So many that when I see anyone dump veggie bits, egg yolk and shells, plate scrapings, old leftovers and even floor sweepings into the regular garbage it sets off all of my alarms.  How can anyone waste all that good stuff?  That is like throwing gold away!  Its not dead stuff… its all living and ready to transform in to perfect soil, which shoots health into your plants!  Most people say that they don’t have the time to compost, or they don’t want to turn a heap.

    Well.

    Here may not be fifty ways to compost easily, but certainly enough for ANYONE to keep their compostables out of the mainstream trash.  And apologies to Paul Simon.

    A blurry glimpse into my sink composting bucket. Egg shells, tea bags, banana peels, and tissues!

    1. You Just slip out the back, Jack, with that little pail you have in or under your sink, into which you scrape everything compostable.  They warn you about bones and meat because of animals digging through your heap to get to them, but if you bury your compost deeply, you won’t have that problem.  I use a little bucket that they gave me for heaven-knows-what-reason at the hospital when I had my gall bladder out.  It isn’t pretty, but it does the job.  When I had both my children at home there was a lot more veggie peels to deal with, so in my kitchen I had a woven laundry basket, and inside I had two plastic liners, one for recycling and one for compost.

    Big ol' basket, divided in half inside. One part recycling, the other compost.

    I only emptied it once a week.  I didn’t like using so much plastic, but I’d put the plastic bag in the recycling.  They sell all kinds of really nifty compost buckets now.  Get one with a lid to keep those annoying little fruit flies from developing.  Or if you have an open bucket like mine, just fill it partly with water so that the compost is submerged.  It is easier to dump out that way and keeps cleaner, too.  Especially if you’re going to…

    Is it a Vita-Mix, or is it a composting machine?

    Make a new plan, Stan, and instead of making a compost heap, you put all those scraps (barring big pits and nut shells) with water into a blender and whip it up.   Then march outside and pour that brew around your plants!  You can always kick a little dirt over it if its thick.  This gives your plants a fantastic compost boost.  Since it is undecayed pureed plant matter, you don’t want to bind up the nitrogen around seedlings or young plants, so pour it outside the drip line (how far the roots come out), or in an area you are preparing to plant in the future.  This compost will decompose with days, depending on how warm the ground is (cold weather kills off or slows down microbes and wormies).  If it is snowy winter where you are, then you might just freeze the stuff, in ice cube form or in paper cups.  When the soil warms, plant those cubes!  (Be sure to label them when in the freezer so no one thinks they are smoothie-pops!)

    Freeze your blended compost, then empty the cubes into a bag and LABEL.

    You don’t need to be coy, Roy, but depending on your neighbors you may not want them to see you burying your compost.  That’s right, you don’t have to make a heap, or blend it up.  Just march outside with your bucket and a shovel or trowel, dig some small holes and bury it!  The wormies will turn it into soil for you in weeks.  Sometimes you’ll get surprises, like when a potato sprouts…. free veg!  Here again for those who have frozen winters, you can pop the compost as is in a bag in the freezer.  The only problem is freezer space.  Just think, though, every bit you can save helps your garden!

    Dig it in!

    Just get yourself free from all your hangups about compost heaps and go buy a compost bin.  I’ve a Rubbermaid bin for about twelve years.  When my compost container is full I march it down, open the top, toss in the contents and away I go.  When I pull weeds or thin the garden, I throw that in there too.  Do I turn it?  Heck, no!  But if I wanted to I could very easily.  The sides and two halves of the top fit together like enormous puzzle pieces, so I just need to take them all off, reassemble them right next to the heap, then pitchfork the compost back into it.  The stuff that was on the top would now be on the bottom.  Fresh compost can be shoveled out of a hole in the side on the bottom.  Compost that is turned is not only matured faster, but is of a better quality and more broken down than that which isn’t turned.  But as the bumperstickers say, compost happens!  Stuff breaks down.  Throw stuff into the top of the bin, and rake it out the bottom.  Free your mind from compost regulations!  Just go for it!

    Throw it on! Compost happens!

    Hop on the bus, Gus, and become a real composter.  You can build compost bins very cheaply.  If you can nail things together so that they actually stay together (I can’t), you can build a three-section compost bin out of old pallets.  There are lots of YouTube videos showing how.  The best kind have removable slats in the front so that you can start low and gradually add to the front as the heap grows.  Then when you want to turn it into the next bin, you may easily remove the slats for quick  access.  You can also just take a section of wire and make a cylinder out of it, then pitchfork in the weeds, grass, and throw in the kitchen trimmings.  When its time to turn it, just undo the wire or slip it off, and set it up next to the pile again.  Or have a line of wire cages.  I have three, plus my bin.  Do I turn them either?  No.  I keep throwing on excess weeds, and it keeps sinking down.  Remember: compost happens!

    You don’t need to discuss much with wormies because they can’t answer you: their little mouths are so full of your kitchen waste that they can’t talk!  Make yourself a worm bin.  Or buy one.  You’ll need two dark plastic bins (one fits inside the other).  Drill holes all through the lid for ventilation, and in just one of the bins drill some holes along the top of the sides, then drill tiny holes in the bottom for drainage.  Fit the drilled bin inside the non-drilled bin.  Put wads of newspaper, or paper from your paper shredder (unless you are saving it all to pack your mail-out Christmas gifts with instead of those nasty Styrofoam things) in the bin up to about half way.  Lightly sprinkle with water.  Throw a little soil in there, but not much for these kinds of worms.  Find someone who has worms, or buy some red wigglers.  You don’t want earthworms.  Put these little guys gently into the bin.  Take your compost and put it into one corner.  Cover with a dampened sheet of newspaper and put the ventilated lid on the top.  Keep the wormies from extreme temperatures.  Some people keep a bin under their kitchen sink.  Many school kids keep wormies as projects and for fun (baby wormies are white and wiggly!).  As the wormies devour your compost they’ll leave behind castings, which look like sticky dirt.  This is gold.  If they had worm castings in Fort Knox instead of all that gold bullion our dollar would never fluctuate.  What collects in the bottom bin is ‘worm tea’, which is just as valuable.  Pour this stuff into your houseplants or directly on your plants.  Commercial worm bins have several sections to hold more compost, are a little easier to manage and have a spigot for the worm tea.  A perfect Mother’s Day gift!  That or a compost bucket or bin!

    Just drop off the key, Lee, with your housesitter when you go on vacation, and don’t forget to let her know to throw those kitchen scraps in with your chickens!  Or goat!  Or miniature pig!  You don’t even need a heap when you have beaks!  All those scraps are pure vitamins and minerals and chickens will not only devour them, but give you the best eggs you have ever tasted.  Don’t forget to crush eggshells and give them right back to the chickens!  They need that calcium to keep their eggs nice and hard.  Chickens turn your compost into great eggs for you and great poo for the ground.  Chicken manure can be used right away in your garden.  Goaties will eat just about anything, as will piggies, so kitchen waste is perfect (slops).

    Feed it to the chickens!

    And get yourself free from all that guilt that you shoulder when you throw food into the trash.  Oh, and separate your recycling, too!

  • Beverages,  Breads,  Breakfast,  Fruit,  Health,  Recipes,  Spices,  Vegetables,  Vegetarian

    A Painless Breakfast, and a Bombilla

    I'm all over this medicine!

    Food is the ultimate resource for health.  As my body complains ever louder about all the years of abuse I’ve put it through, I’m turning to diet to help with the pain.  Certain foods have anti-inflammatory properties, and they aren’t hard to eat at all.  Cinnamon, turmeric, and ginger are high on the list.  Cooked asparagus is excellent for kidneys and liver, and there is speculation that it cures serious illness as well.  Whole eggs are much more healthy to eat than separating out the white and throwing away the yolk.  The two parts compliment each other.  As well great sources of protein, eggs are excellent for the eyes.  The vitamin C found in fruit is an essential boost to your immune system, and helps other vitamins work better.

    I also take some supplements.  I take a multi-vitamin, a couple of natural menopausal relief pills, a vitamin C, and a couple of glucosamine/chondroitin tablets.  G/C is a miracle supplement if you have arthritis.  It helps keep the joints juicy.

    Hot ginger tea; good for your tummy and good for your joints.

    So for mornings after a full day of weeding, carrying, hauling, flinging, and planting, I need everything I can get to help get my hands and back moving again.  My ideal painless breakfast is: an egg from one of my hens, sprinkled with a turmeric and pepper combination (pepper is supposed to aid turmeric), some Trader Joe’s frozen grilled asparagus, heated, a piece of toast liberally sprinkled with cinnamon and coated with organic (sometimes home-harvested) honey, orange juice and a hot cup of ginger tea.  I keep a small white container of cinnamon on the table, as well as a small bowl of the turmeric and pepper combination.  That way I don’t forget to sprinkle it on my food.  Inflammation is the source of almost all illness.  If you can fight inflammation naturally, you’ll be a long way ahead health-wise.  You’ll be relieved from pain that you never knew you had!

    Bombilla

    I considered giving the bombilla its own post, but it was in the breakfast photo so I’ll talk about this wonderous gadget here.  A bombilla is a metal or bamboo straw with a strainer on the end.  Ingenious!  Common in South America, it is commonly associated with the drinking of the new old fad tea yerba mate.  However, to my delight it works perfectly with loose leaf and herbal teas!  Instead of snapping and screwing and pressing tea strainers, I just put loose tea in my cup, brew it and drink it via the bombilla!  So easy!  Afterwards I scoop the spent tea into the compost, rinse the cup and the bombilla, and its good to go for the next batch.  Loose leaf tea is such a better experience than using tea bags.  With the bombilla, I now have herbal or loose leaf tea almost every time.  Bombillas have transformed my drinking experience!  I believe they are available at international marketplaces, but I bought mine online at Amazon.com.  I bought two for me and my daughter, who took hers to college, and another as a gift for my son, and then two more as extras at home.  Never can have enough bombillas!  What a concept!  A perfect drinking implement!  My life will never be the same.  Better still, I can now sip hot tea without losing my place in my book, or steaming up my glasses!

  • Animals,  Gardening adventures,  Heirloom Plants,  Permaculture and Edible Forest Gardening Adventures,  Ponds,  Reptiles and Amphibians,  Soil,  Vegetables

    Earth Day at Finch Frolic

    Snowy egret hunting. "Get the bullfrogs!"

    In celebration of Earth Day, I worked in the garden.  You can stop laughing now.  Yes, I know that I work in the garden nearly every day, and then spend time not volunteering or exercising, recovering from working in the garden.  It was an overcast day, which beach-bound teenagers probably cursed, but I found perfect for working outside.

    Roses in bloom everywhere.

    I had a visitor wishing me a Happy Earth Day.

    Do you notice anything about this wreath?

    This is an alligator lizard.

    "Hello!"

    Hopefully he enjoyed the ride as I opened and closed the door several times to photograph him.

    Alligator lizard from inside.

    Among other things today, I sifted compost.  I had moved my compost bin, and this good compost was still on the ground from where it had been.

    Sifting compost through a screen.

    I put it into a new raised (and wire-lined) bed.

    Adding sifted compost to the bed, which has been dusted with organic non-animal based fertilizer.

    Then I planted two rows of rice in it. Yes, rice.  It is an heirloom variety from Baker Creek Organic Heirloom Seeds (http://rareseeds.com/rice-blue-bonnet.html), and it doesn’t need to stand in water to grow.  Just something new and fun to try out.

    The rubber snake guards a freshly planted bed of rice.

    I’m also growing red seeded asparagus beans, the seeds of which were given to me by the woman who made the quail house.  She also introduced me to Baker Creek, and for that I’m sincerely indebted. (http://rareseeds.com/red-seeded-asparagus-bean.html .)

    Spinach, carrots, edamame, sesame, Kentucky pole beans, endive and tomatoes are finally coming up.

    The other veggie beds are finally sprouting, now that the evenings have warmed up.

    Collards and carrots, transplanted from another bed and doing well.
    An incredible parsley setting seed, peas, parsnips, spinach, rhubarb, carrots and beans.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Castor bean seeds were in the mushroom compost, and I'm pulling them quickly.

    Here are a few views from other areas of the garden.  Three weeds until the AAUW Garden Tour.  Yikes!

    General Mischief waiting near the quail house for dinner. The hose connects to the 700 gallons of cootie water (compost tea) and is irrigating native plants.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    A happy harvest. Strawberries and eggs. I'm freezing the berries for later to make jam.
    Lamb's Ear, whitebud, passionfruit and Bermuda grass

     

     

    Stunning blue iris in the pond.
    Fringe tree in bloom.

     

    Iris