Gardening

Swift, Sweet, Simple Squash Soup

by nan on 2011/11/30 · 0 comments

I was so hungry last night, and there was nothing already made to heat up. In the fridge, though, I did find some vegetables. So, while I munched on crackers, I made soup real fast. It was really sweet and SO simple! All these ingredients, except for the oil, bay leaf and rice came off the farm. Squash and kale are fall crops, so you can make this fresh for many months! photo: flickr WhitA

olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
1 quart vegetable broth (This is water I save from steaming vegetables or boiling potatoes.)
bay leaf
cooked winter squash (This is what makes it sweet! I had half a buttercup squash leftover.)
kale
herbs: dill weed and lots of basil
cooked rice

Saute the onion in olive oil on medium heat. When it’s almost completely translucent, add the garlic, and turn the heat to low. Stir to keep the garlic from burning. When it’s almost cooked through, add the broth and bay leaf. Heat to a simmer, then add the squash, kale leaves and herbs. When the kale is cooked, add the rice, and heat it through. All these foods, except the kale, are already cooked, so it doesn’t take long to heat them up! And kale takes 5 minutes to cook.

You can buzz this in the blender to make portable soup. In a bowl, it would be good served with Jack cheese grated on top and homemade muffins. I had neither, but it was still delicious!

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Roasted Garden Vegetables

by nan on 2011/09/27 · 2 comments

This recipe has morphed over time, as all recipes do. It started out as a dish my late friend, Cate, used to make when her kids were little. She’d put chicken legs, potatoes and carrots in a cast iron skillet and baked it for an hour. I expanded that to, from bottom to top, a full cut-up chicken, potatoes, carrots, zucchini and onion in a cast iron Dutch oven. After about 45 minutes, I brought the chicken to the top, then put it back in the oven with the lid off to brown for the last 15 minutes. The chicken and zucchini made juice that we’d pour over the potatoes.

When both my daughters went away to school, I eliminated the chicken and roasted a big variety of vegetables. A typical summer day here is clear and warm until mid-afternoon, when it normally clouds up and rains. The temperature can drop from 85 to 60 in one cloudburst. This is great cooking weather! I don’t know many people that bake in July or August, but we do!

Roasting vegetables is a great way to use up the overflowing garden bounty. Your dish can be different every time, depending on what’s available. If you don’t have a Dutch oven, you can probably use a large baking dish or a lasagna pan. I’ve never had anything but cast iron, so you will have to experiment with what works best for you.

In your baking pan, layer your vegetables. From bottom to top, these are my favorites:

potatoes, quartered
carrots, 1/2″ slices
beets, quartered
zucchini, thick slices
apples, quartered – one or two
onion, thick slices to make rings that cover the top
a few tablespoons of water to keep it from burning until the vegetables start releasing water

Bake at 375 covered. You may want to reduce your temperature to 350. I think 375 works well with cast iron. Experiment! After 45 minutes, check to see if the potatoes are done. When they are, the rest is cooked through. You can bring the potatoes to the top and brown them if you like. I’ve never done this, though.

Sometimes I leave out the potatoes and serve the vegetables over rice. Sometimes I add a box of drained tofu between the beets and the zucchini.

Jack cheese is really good melted over the top of individual servings. I serve steamed kale with this. Greens don’t survive roasting! This dish lasts for several meals, and if there are leftovers, they go into a pot of soup.

Root crops work best for this dish, and since so many are ready in fall, this is a great dish to warm up the house on chilly evenings. Experiment with your favorites. This is another no-recipe recipe with lots of flexibility! That’s the only way to cook, if you ask me.

Enjoy!

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Portable Soup

by nan on 2011/08/29 · 0 comments

Every recipe has a story, and this one is no different. You have to read to the end to see how this dish got its name.

This is another no-recipe recipe. When the greens are overflowing in the garden, this is what I do with them.

olive oil
1 onion, chopped
garlic, crushed and chopped – to taste, which is 2-3 cloves for me
1 quart vegetable broth (Water saved from steaming greens and/or cooking potatoes. I save it in quart containers and freeze it.)
1 bay leaf
3 med sized potatoes, quartered
4-5 carrots chopped
2 huge bunches Swiss Chard, chopped or torn (You can use kale, spinach, beet greens – whatever is in abundance)
herbs (I like sage, tarragon and savory with this, and I add cayenne to everything!)

Saute the onion in olive oil. When it is translucent, add the garlic and stir so it doesn’t burn. When it smells really garlicky, add the broth and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, add the potatoes, carrots and herbs, turn the heat to medium, and cover. When the potatoes and carrots are almost cooked (15- 20 minutes), add the chard. Simmer with a lid on until everything is cooked through (maybe 15 minutes).

Remove the bay leaf, and buzz the soup in a blender bit by bit. Put in a cup or so, and buzz til it’s blended. Pour that batch into a separate pot. Add another cup or two, and buzz. Do this to the whole pot of soup, and you’re done! Serve with grated parmesan or jack cheese melted on top. Dunk bread or crackers in it.

You can exchange the potatoes for cooked brown rice, which you would add after the carrots are done. You can saute zucchini or add grated beets. The only thing you have to be sure of is that everything is cooked thoroughly so it will buzz well. The soup should be a thick liquid.

I put this soup into quart yogurt containers to store. One night, Daniel breezed in on his way back to the farm from town. It was dinner time, but he didn’t have time to sit and eat, so I gave him a container of soup to take home and heat up. He called me later to tell me he drank it in his truck on the ride home.

When I told Kevin Gilkes this story, he called it Portable Soup.

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Zucchini Tofu Delight

by nan on 2011/08/01 · 0 comments

It’s garden season, and I’m in the kitchen. I have unlimited access to any vegetable I’m not growing, so I’m having fun and getting creative. It’s zucchini season now, too, so experimentation goes to a new level.

This is a take-off on a basic zuke/tomato side dish that was served in a restaurant I worked in when I was 19 (a million years ago). I made it that way for years, but now I’ve expanded it. It’s different every time, depending on what’s available. That’s my favorite kind of recipe – no recipe. The name comes from what I see and feel when I serve this to Daniel, the farmer – delight.

1 onion, chopped
garlic – as much as you can stand – 3-4 cloves for me, crushed
5 zucchini, sliced or cut in small pieces
1 jar marinara sauce or fresh tomatoes (paste or salad)
1 box tofu with the water squeezed out and cut in 1″ cubes
herbs of your choice – bay leaf, basil, sage, tarragon, dill weed, winter savory, cayenne, whatever – experiment!
Jack cheese
brown rice

Saute the onion in a big pot. Add the garlic when the onion is translucent. Stir so it doesn’t burn. When it smells really garlic-y, stir in the zucchini. I cover it at this point to steam the zucchini, but you have to keep stirring it to keep the garlic from burning.

When the zucchini is about half done, add the marinara sauce or tomatoes, tofu and herbs. Stir it all together gently, and cover it. Let it simmer for about 30 minutes or so, stirring it once in a while, then turn it off and let the flavors mingle. This is really good if you make it in the morning for dinner, or make it a day ahead.

Put a serving in a bowl, cover with shredded Jack cheese and put it under the broiler to melt. Yum. Heaven. If I need to stretch this, I add rice. It goes good with something crunchy, like a romaine salad or lightly steamed kale. Crusty bread could sop it up.

When I made this over the weekend, I had about 1/2 cup of fresh shelled peas in the fridge. I tossed them in. I frequently add broccoli florets and the inside of the stalks. I’ve grated beets and carrots into it. It’s like soup – the proportions are never crucial, and the ingredients vary with what’s on hand or in season. You can serve it over pasta or with other grains, and the tofu absorbs all the flavors. The variations are endless, which is really handy when the garden is at peak production!

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Hollyhock Heaven

by nan on 2011/07/04 · 0 comments

I can’t help but write about my garden this year. In the worst drought on record for New Mexico, my flowers look the best ever! My farming partner and I were wondering if there are more flowers this year, because the plants are feeling the stress of the drought.

Flowers = Seed = Reproduction = Survival

Maybe the flower show this year is a survival tactic. Our conversation did not produce any definitive answers, and I didn’t find any in my googling, either. No matter – my hollyhocks look great this year with the least water they’ve had.

Hollyhocks are a Taos icon. They are glorified in paintings, postcards and photographs, especially as their spires rise in front of old adobe buildings. Aside from their beauty and fame, they are excellent bird food. Because they reseed readily, the garden looks different every year.

Here are a few of mine:

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It’s a Dry Year When I’m Watering My Native Plants!

by nan on 2011/06/21 · 0 comments

New Mexico saw an unusually dry winter. Spring has been hot, dry and windy, and wildfires are rampant all over the southwest. Conditions are perfect for fires to start easily and take off quickly over thousands of acres.

It’s dry out there. Did I say that already?

How dry is it?

It is SO dry, I watered my native plants. That’s a desperate move.

Over the winter, I lost several plants. If plants don’t survive, I don’t replace them. My garden is full of plants that will put up with and thrive in the elements, no matter how diverse they are. These days, the elements are unpredictable, and I’m always surprised at what vegetation will not do well.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed my gaillardia was wilting. This is a plant that is very hardy, wild in my area, and which reseeds readily. I never have a problem growing it, so I was concerned when it was wilting. That was my signal to start watering the flower beds.

As I examined the gardens, I noticed a few plants had not come back:

> Echinacea purpurea – This is a tried and true drought tolerant plant. Too much drought, I suppose!
> Callirhoe involucrata (Poppy mallow) – I have always had a hard time getting this to do well. I think it needs more water than I’m willing to spend. I’ve planted it in clients’ yards with irrigation systems, and with regular water, it spreads nicely.
> Rudbekia (Black eyed Susan) – This is normally another diehard plant, but it did not come back this spring. I was sad about that, since it was right outside the kitchen door. It does not have a long flowering season, but the subtly colored seed heads are gorgeous all winter long.

As bad as that is, I marveled at the plants the continue to do well despite my treatment of no supplemental water and nature’s treatment of drought, heat, snow, hail and wind, all at the wrong time of year! Photos are below the descriptions.

> Yucca – These put out more and more flowers every year. Here it is with the flower stalks from last year. The birds like to perch on them.

> Monarda (Bee balm) – This gets run-off from the roof, which has been scant for the past year. It comes back every spring, even having been trampled by the dogs!

> Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian sage) – No supplemental water. This is in various places around the yard, and it does well with or without roof run-off. This is native to central Asia, but, obviously, is very well adapted to my climate. Photo below.
> Centranthus ruber (Jupiter’s Beard or Red valerian) – This is one of my favorite plants. It blooms all summer and takes a lot of abuse, including little water. Here it is with the Russian Sage at sunset.

> Gypsophila (Baby’s breath) – This is a groundcover that volunteered in a border where there is no water from the roof and no irrigation hose. Some little bird dropped that seed a few years ago, and the pink flowers put on a show every spring. This is not a plant I ever bought, but it is doing great despite the odds! See the photo below.
> Veronica (Speedwell) – This is another low border plant that does not grow quickly, but it does reseed easily. It sits next to the Gypsophila mentioned above. This is a very dry flower bed, but everything in it is doing great! See the photo below.
> Achillea moonshine (Moonshine yarrow) – I have been growing this for decades. The yellow flowers are not the bright yellow you’d expect of a summer flower. They have a muted cast to them, and I think that makes them stand out more. This grows in a few separate beds, but it is in the bed with the Veronica and Gypsophila and no run-off. This bed is very showy every year. Nothing has ever died back in this bed. It’s the first thing you see as you come into my yard and towards the house. See the photo below.

Achillea moonshine (yellow in back), Gypsophila (pink in front) and Veronica (deep purple on the left) in a bed that gets very little water from the roof. Neither does it have an irrigation hose in it, but these plants never fail!

> Buddliea (Butterfly Bush) – This is another shrub that grows well with little water. This one is not near a water source, and is only three years old. Here it is planted with Moonshine yarrow.

> Prunus x Cistena (Cistena Plum) – This has fragrant white flowers in spring and red foliage all summer. I love when it’s backlit! Mine is planted away from the roof run-off, so it gets watered once a year, maybe. Photo below.
> Alcea (Hollyhocks) This is an iconic Taos plant. They are everywhere! They reseed madly, so I could almost grant it ‘weed’ status. Nevertheless, it is gorgeous all summer long, attracts hummingbirds, and needs very little water. Before flowering, it made a contrasting backdrop for the Cistena Plum.

A soaker hose winds its way through the flower beds. I turned it on last week and gave the plants a deep soaking. That will hold for a while. Our summer rains should start in the next week or so, but it’s been so dry, I’m not hopeful for a wet year.

Despite the extremely dry conditions, my yard is beautiful! People think native and drought tolerant plants are not as pretty as water hogs, but I hope I have shown otherwise. Look at the pictures, and remember! These plants get no supplemental water, unless it’s a severe drought.

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Garden Journal 6.3.11 – Water, Weed, Mulch

by nan on 2011/06/03 · 2 comments

The weather this spring has been bizarre! Winter was warm, early spring was cold and dry, and late spring is windy. The weather is actually normal, but it’s two months late, and right now, it’s unusually hot.

This week, I waited for the forecast thunderstorms, but they never came. I’ve watered my gardens and nursed my seedlings and transplants along. As soon as I water, the 30+ mph winds pull the moisture right out of the ground. Well water suffices, but rain water makes plants sing!

Today, I got up at 5 with the first light of day. The air was still. I had a cup of coffee and some yogurt, walked the dog, and headed out to the garden before the wind picked up. I decided to finally do a deep watering, weed and mulch the beds to keep that precious moisture in and new weeds out. I had to wait until all the seeds sprouted to put down mulch. I needed to see the actual rows! (photo: beets, peas and radishes with fresh mulch on them)

I put a soaker hose for an hour on one bed at a time. With the soil drenched, the small weeds pulled out easily.

I love my weeds. They are wildflowers that have found the perfect environment in which to thrive. I pull them, though, because every lush plant near my fruit and vegetable beds steals moisture and nutrients from my food! So, as gorgeous as they are, I pull them and put them to work in the compost pile (pictured at right).

So this evening, the beds are wet, weeded and covered with 4″ of organic composted cotton burr between the rows of peas, radishes, beets, carrots, strawberries and herbs. This will greatly reduce my need to water by hand twice a day! As the mulch decomposes, it will improve the soil and add valuable nutrients for next year’s crops.

Strawberries and perennial herbs:

Stay tuned for an update on the flower beds full of native and drought tolerant plants. They look great in this unusual weather!

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8 Benefits of Raised Bed Gardening

by nan on 2011/05/23 · 2 comments

The soil here in northern New Mexico is heavy clay and unfit for food production. Think about it – we make rectangular blocks out of it, then stack them like bricks to build houses. Native plants thrive in it, of course, but we need to improve it for years to grow decent crops.

My solution has been to create raised beds for my vegetables, herbs and strawberries. If you have less than perfect soil, no soil, or slow drainage, raised beds are the solution. (photo: flickr All Things Michigan)

> You have control over the environment – water, soil, sun, nutrients.
> Raised beds can be installed anywhere, even on concrete. Line the bottom with plastic that has drainage holes in it, if your base surface is impermeable.
> You can vary the sizes for different purposes and aesthetics.
> You can create a premium soil mix with good drainage, proper pH and necessary nutrients.
> The soil warms up faster in the spring and stays warmer in the fall for an extended growing season.
> You can plant intensively for more production in a smaller area. Think Square Foot Gardening or Grow Biointensive™.
> Crops are easier to reach for planting, maintenance and harvest.
> Your beds can be part of a complete, creative landscape design with decorative walkways, a garden seat, an arbor or whatever your imagination can concoct. Don’t forget to include compost bins!

Raised beds are the perfect solution to less than perfect conditions! I highly recommend going this route if you want fresh, organic produce without waiting to improve your soil.

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Michael Pata’s Experimental (and Successful!) Vertical Garden

by nan on 2011/05/16 · 1 comment

(Nan’s note: A couple weeks ago, Michael tweeted that he was experimenting with a vertical garden this year at his home in Florida. I asked him to tell me about it, and he sent me this wonderful email that I have posted below. This is only his second garden, and I hope you get inspired by what a beginner can do! Michael will update me later in the season; he promised. Follow him on Twitter, or visit him at Animals.com. All photos are copyright ©Michael Pata.)

I have been thinking of doing a garden for a few years now. As I learned about pesticides, GMO’s, and bacteria in the food supply chain, I decided now was a good time for a garden. I was hoping to be able to add some control to what is in my diet.

I first looked at where would be the best place for my garden. I found a low spot off to the side of my view that turns into a pool during heavy rains. The spot was perfect except for it being a little low. I added a load of dirt to elevate the area. I then decided I would do a vertical garden along with a couple of rows in the ground. The vertical system would solve the low are problem if I did not put enough dirt down.

After looking at what is on the market and soooo many opinions I decided to build my own structure. I bought pots that I could stack on top of each other in a criss-cross fashion. Once I had my plans, I counted how much space I had and I went to buy organic seeds. I started my seeds in January in my Florida room and the clock was now ticking.

I drilled the pots so that water from the top would drip down to the next pot and continue till it reaches the ground. I also drilled a larger hole in the center for a stake I would drive down the center to hold the full stack in place. Each stack would consist of 5 pots as this is the maximum height for me to be able to manage while standing on the ground. I then went to the local mushroom farm and for $10.00 I bought a pickup truck full of compost. I brought this home and added garden soil to it. I mixed 1/3rd mushroom compost to 2/3 garden soil. I then filled my pots and created my 5 planting stacks each holding 5 pots. My idea was to allow me to plant in the corner of each pot so that in each stack I could plant 20 plants.

I then created 2 rows next to my stacks where I laid out a foot deep of my planting mix and each row is about 10 feet long. I created a frame wall over one of the rows where I draped plastic mesh down and secured it in place. I ran drip lines down my rows to conserve water and I ran a tiny plastic tube over to my stacks and placed a micro watering sprinkler at the top of each one. I wanted to conserve as much water as possible and get the most out of this small space I picked.

Now it was close to the end of February and my seedlings were all ready to come out. I was hoping I missed the last cold snap as I took all my seedlings that were a week or 2 overdue for planting and placed them in the garden. I planted a row of sweet corn. The row where I created the net wall I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, and snap peas. In my stacks I planted romaine, Swiss chard, red leaf lettuce and on each of the top stacks I planted broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. I then planted a cantaloupe to grow on the ground of the garden.

Needless to say my garden took off. I was amazed that:

> After 30 days after planting I no longer needed to buy lettuce.
> After 45 days I was giving away romaine lettuce while enjoying all the romaine I could eat along with red leaf and Swiss chard.
> After 60 days I was harvesting snap peas and cucumbers every week. Pic ~~~~~~>
> Now 90 days after I planted my tomatoes are coming online as is the yellow squash is about ready to pick and so is the sweet corn, broccoli and cauliflower. The cantaloupe is doing incredible and I have baby cantaloupes all over the place.

Lessons Learned

I have discovered a few things with this gardening thing I am now into that I have to revisit. I did not know that I should put down rocks 1st in the bottom of each pot to help with drainage. Now that my lettuce has run its course and I have some going to seed, I will take the stacks apart, place some gravel or rock at the bottom to allow for better draining. Although my watering system worked great and with very little waste water, my pots became impacted and were draining off the top instead of through the bottom. Next is the placement of my planted row with the net wall. I did not anticipate the entire wall filling up and will need to reinforce it for the weight it carries. So far so good. I cannot believe how much food I created from this small space and currently I have seedlings sprouted to redo my stacks with spinach, romaine, Swiss chard and red leaf lettuce.

Later this month I will be putting in backyard chickens and next year I will create an aquaponics garden where I recycle all my water and add fish to the mix.

Dinner three months after starting my garden – Swiss chard, romaine, red leaf, broccoli, cauliflower, basil, onions, parsley, cucumbers and yellow squash. Yum!

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How to Avoid GMO Foods

by nan on 2011/04/29 · 5 comments

I was in the supermarket the other day to buy dog food. I spontaneously bought a large bag of Santitas corn chips to make nachos at home.

As I grated cheese and munched on chips, it dawned on me that these could be made from GMO corn. I looked at the bag, and the ingredients were corn, oil and salt. Well, at least it didn’t have a long list of words no one can pronounce. I was relieved with that.

I looked at the manufacturer – Frito Lay. Ugh, I thought. This must be GMO. A friend said he thought Frito Lay was GMO free, so I went to their website. The only info about GMOs was that their certified organic blue corn Tostitos® are pesticide and GMO free. Of course, if a food is certified organic, it cannot be GMO. The page about Santitas chips said they are free of trans-fats, casein, additives, gluten, lactose, MSG, onion and porcine, and that they are kosher. The corn is ‘premium quality, stone-ground’, but I still didn’t know if it was GMO or not.

GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, are foods that are genetically engineered (GE) or genetically modified (GM) in the lab to supposedly produce better results in the field. Disease resistance, faster growth, larger product (since these foods are sold by the pound) – it all boils down to the bottom line: making more money in a shorter period of time.

The side effects of GMOs are no secret, but agribusiness does not care about our health. Or their own, for that matter! Money overrides all sensible decision making.

Common GMO foods are:

> corn
> soy
> canola
> cottonseed oil (this is a pesticide nightmare, too – stay away from it!)

The short list of effects on your health:

> infertility
> reduced immunity
> allergies
> gastrointestinal problems
> eczema
> fatigue
> headaches

How to Avoid GMOs

Put pressure on your Representatives and Senators to get GMOs labeled. Until we can be sure of what we are eating, all we can do is avoid them.

> Buy Certified Organic food. For a food to be labeled ‘Certified Organic’, it can contain no genetically engineered products.

> Look for labels that say ‘non-GMO’. They may have other wording like ‘Not made with GMOs’, or you may see a label from the Non GMO Project. Go to their site for a list of products they have verified as GMO free.

> Avoid the list of GMO products above. Corn is in everything – corn syrup, corn starch, sweeteners, and so on.

> Buy grass-fed meat. Grains and alfalfa in commercial meats are most assuredly GMO. Again, look for the ‘Certified Organic’ label.

> Support your local organic farmer. I wrote about the benefits of CSAs a couple weeks ago. To buy from a local farmer, you know the source of your food, which is fresh and nutritious, and you support local industry. You also avoid GMOs.

> Grow your own food. Unless you can farm full time, it’s almost impossible to grow all your food. Grow what you can from certified organic seed and other sources, and supplement the rest from a local organic grower.

> Talk to your grocer. Ask questions about where their foods comes from, what is organic, what is GMO. They may not know the GMOs in their store, so you may be enlightening them. Tell them you want GMO-free foods. They are in business to serve you and make money. If there is enough demand, they will change their offerings.

> Know the code. This is directly from Rodale, ever-reliable and ultra-knowledgeable about organic food. Most of the attention focused on GMOs deals with commodity crops commonly used in processed foods (corn, soy, cottonseed oil, and canola). But biotech scientists have genetically engineered a bunch of other crops that are still sold in stores, though in smaller quantities, that don’t get quite as much attention: zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, sweet corn, and Hawaiian papayas. In other parts of the world, GM sweet peppers, potatoes, and rice are under development. One way to know if your sweet corn is of the frankenfood variety is to look at the little stickers attached to produce. According to international PLU-code guidelines, GMO foods contain the number ’8′ before the four-digit code printed on the produce sticker. Organic foods contain the number ’9′. I checked the organic apples in my fridge, and both varieties have the 9 on them. I was unaware of this, but I’ll be checking labels when I go to the store today.

I’ll also be working hard to get GMOs labeled! I want to know what I am eating!

More resources:

Non-GMO Shopping Guide

USDA

Center for Food Safety

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