Back at It

So apparently I am terrible at follow through; it’s been two years since I remembered to post something to ye ole blog. I have good excuses though! Lots of good excuses! The most exciting of which is I bought a house last year! Woooooo! It’s been 14 months of renovating and saving for renovating and then renovating some more. There is literally NO END to the work that needs to be done on this place. About six weeks ago though, I finally bit the bullet and had some raised beds built in my garden. I didn’t even bother to test the soil. It’s West Oakland. That shit is seriously fucked and there’s nothing I can do about it.

 Natural state of my backyard.

Pre-patio, pre-new back door and pre-getting rid of those hideous bars.

I had a few main concerns about the garden beds. Redwood is pretty and lasts forever, but I’m on a budget, and will likely only be in this house ~5 years. We ended up going with douglas fir for both of those reasons (redwood for the patio though). I also knew I wanted my beds to be 2ft high, so figuring out a way to combat outward warping/bowing of the wood was key. We ended up filling the lower third of the beds with vermiculite to keep everything lighter (added bonus of increasing drainage!). I wish I could say that this lowered the cost of filling the beds with soil, but the vermiculite was only nominally cheaper. We went with EcoScraps for compost and the soil (2:1 ratio), because it’s pretty much the only brand Home Depot carries that isn’t owned by the devil or filled with a bunch of terrible crap.

Another piece of my garden pie was making the most of the existing space and the non-functional yet extremely heavy fountain that sits smack in the middle of the garden. I opted to create three distinct spaces in the backyard: a patio, the garden, and what will eventually be a small fire pit/hangout space. If I had to guess (and apparently I feel like I do), we probably spent about $3k on the project between labor, soil and materials for the patio and beds. Not exactly cheap, but well worth it to create my happy place.

Getting the pieces together...

Fits like a puzzle!

Since the garden didn’t get finished until mid-may, and even then not all at once, the plants I chose this year are a little different from years passed. Now that I pretty much live alone, I’m trying to grow mostly foods I can put up for the off-season so things don’t go to waste. Instead of growing all the tomatoes, I’m growing four Roma tomato plants to can for sauces and paste. We’re growing seven kinds of chili peppers because I can’t live without hot sauce, and carrots, cukes and radishes to pickle. I am determined to have a pantry that would make my great grandmothers proud.

 Thanks for the action shot, Annie!

2014 Planting List

Roma Tomatoes

Romanesco Zucchini

Carrots (Carnival, Red Chantennay, Little Fingers, Tonda di Parigi)

Japanese Eggplant

Artichoke

Mesclun

Spinach

Delikatesse Cucumbers

Pickling Cucumbers

Chioggia Beets

Golden Beets

Watermelon Radishes

Petaluma Gold Rush Beans

Sugar Snap Peas

Black-eyed Peas

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Bunching Green Onions

Chili Peppers (Serrano, Thai, Super Chili F., Hot Banana, Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Jalapeno)

Basil

Dill

So, six-ish weeks into growing things are a-happening. Once again, aphids are the bane of my existence (seriously, aphids, fuck off and die), but they don’t seem to be doing much harm other than raising my blood pressure. Chard and lettuces are ready to be enjoyed, and we've harvested 2 giant hot banana peppers that are currently fermenting with some habaneros and garlic in my kitchen (post on adventures in fermenting hot peppers coming at some point!). Things, as they say, are going tits. And I like it.

First harvest of the year!

Conversation Killing Chili Sauce

This stuff is good - really good - but it is certainly not for the faint of heart or tastebuds. This recipe makes a chili sauce that is sweet and tangy up front, but then kicks your ass with the heat on the back end. This is a general recipe for the small batch that I made last week, you would need to at least double to get a whole small jar.

Stuff You Need

o  Large mortar and pestle

o  25 dried chili peppers (I used new mex twilight, machu piccu and thai chilis)

o  4-6 garlic cloves, peeled and diced

o  salt

o  sugar

o  1 tsp Ethiopian curry

o  1/2 tsp powdered ginger

o  3/4 tsp mustard seed

o  1/2-1 cup rice vinegar

o  1/4 tsp orange zest

Putting it Together

Grind the chili peppers with the mortar and pestle until they  take on a uniform texture and there are no large flakes or chunky bits. Add the garlic and grind until thoroughly blended into a paste. Add in the ginger, mustard, curry, a small pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp of sugar to start. Grind well. 

Add a few tablespoons of rice vinegar at a time, mixing and grinding well before adding more. The desired texture is thick and wet (see below pic). Once you've got the texture right, taste a tiny bit and see if you need to add more salt (maybe) or sugar (probably). Add orange zest and grind.

Add sauce to a skillet and simmer over medium high heat until any excess liquid has cooked off, being careful not to let anything burn. 

Remove from heat, let cool, and pour into a sterile jar. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. 

Enjoy responsibly! 

The Stew to End All Stews

I really, really like stew. I like to cook it and eat it and share it with the people in my life. I've tried out a number of stews over the years, and this is the one that I make now.  A good stew is labor intensive and takes time, so make sure you have at least 3-4 hours to get down.

Stuff You Need

o  Cooking oil & olive oil

o  16-20 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

o  2 cups diced onion

o  3-3.5 lbs stew beef, cut into small cubes, 1"x1"

o  1.5-2 cups dry red wine

o  2 cups chopped carrot

o  2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

o  1 teaspoon black pepper

o  2 bay leaves

o  2 cups beef broth

o  2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, with juice

o  3 pounds peeled potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces 

o  1 cup water

o  1 tablespoon butter

o  2-3 tablespoons flour

o  1.5 cups green beans, stems removed, cut into 1”-2" pieces

o  2 cups portabella mushrooms, cut into pieces

Putting it Together

Preheat oven to 300°.

Heat a large Dutch oven or all metal soup pot over medium-high heat. Coat pot with cooking oil. Add garlic and sauté until it begins to brown. Set the garlic aside in a big bowl and re-coat the pan with oil. Sauté your onions until they get translucent and tender, and then add them to the garlic bowl and re-coat the pot with oil. Add 1/3 of the beef to the pan and brown it on all sides. Dump the meat and meat juice in the garlic bowl. Repeat until all meat is browned and added to the garlic/onions.

Add wine to pot and bring it to a boil. Add beef, onions and garlic to the pot, and stir in beef broth, tomatoes (with juice) and water. Add bay leaves, pepper and rosemary. Bring to a boil and then add carrots and 1/3 of your potatoes - these will cook into the broth. Turn off the stove, cover the pot and bake at 300°. 

Now is a good time to prep your mushrooms. Heat a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and add mushrooms. Sauté until cooked down and tender, adding salt and pepper to taste. Put mushrooms and juices aside in a bowl. Wash your pan and melt the butter, adding in the flour until it makes a nice thick roux.

Remove the stew pot from the oven after an hour to an hour and a half. Add the rest of the potatoes, beans, mushrooms and roux. Now is a good time to test the broth and see what's going on. You may want to add more broth, wine or water, salt and pepper or other spices. When you're satisfied, cover the pot and bake for another hour and a half to two hours. 

Fish the bay leaves out of the pot and serve with nice crusty bread.

So I Guess It's Spring...

All the plants seem to think do anyway. We've only had 3.25 inches of rain so far this year, and our average high for February has been 62. I've got new growth on the raspberries, pomegranate, jasmine and wisteria and flower buds on the grapefruit, lemon and blood orange. I decided theres no arguing with mother nature, so it's best to just go with the flow and get a head start on summer.

I bought a sweet new shovel to replace the one that was douchily stolen from our backyard a month ago, and last week I started a bunch of seeds for the Summer 2012 garden. We've got heirloom tomatoes, sweet and chili peppers, dill, English lavender, echinacea and Roman chamomile. For info on seed starting, check my posts from last year on the subject.

This year I'm using peat pots again, but actually using potting soil, so I should already be ahead of the game :) We're adding more tomato varieties to this year's garden and a number of chili peppers I haven't grown before. I started two of each type below, and three San Marzano seeds in anticipation of my growing saucing needs:

Tomatoes
-Black Cherry
-Black Krim
-Black Prince
-Evergreen
-Green Copia
-Jaune Flamme
-Pink Ping Pong
-Primrose Gage
-Random Annie
-Red Cushion
-San Marzano
-Super Snow White

Peppers
-Sweet Bell Mix
-Sweet Cherry
-Thai Chili
-New Mew Twilight Chili
-Machu Picchu/Charapita Chili
-Scotch Bonnet Chili
-Hawaiian Chili

Somehow four of the tomatoes germinated in four days. About half of them are up now, seven days after sowing. The chamomile has been up a few days, the dill is working on it, but I have one solitary one pepper seedling barely poking through the surface. Some of my hot pepper varieties can take up to 45 days to germinate, so here's to me finding the patience to wait for them all. Game on!

Homemade Body Butter

I find that it is easier to make homemade products in small manageable batches while I am testing out new recipes. The below is a pretty good starting recipe for anyone looking to dive in and make some nice-smelling shit that will also make your skin soft.


Stuff You Need

1 cup sweet almond oil
1 oz unrefined shea butter
4 tbsp beeswax (I like to buy it in beads so I'm not constantly hacking chunks off a block of wax)
1 tsp cornstarch
10 drops/2 capsules vitamin e oil
10 drops essential oil (I used jasmine and lavender for this project)
Hand mixer or a whisk

First things first, you've got to get things warm enough for the beeswax to melt. Take the almond oil, shea butter and beeswax and either heat gradually in a double boiler or microwave in 40 second increments until the wax has mostly melted.

Transfer to a bowl and add in cornstarch and vitamin e oil. The vitamin e acts as a natural preservative to keep the oils from going rancid, and the cornstarch will make the texture less greasy. Add essential oils of your preference (go easy on these or every time you use the butter your entire life will reek of its delicious aroma for hours).

Now mix/whisk away to your heart's content. Oh your heart is content already? Isn't that sweet. Keep mixing. This will take at least 15-20 minutes. You are aerating the mix as it cools, which will help it keep a fluffy body butter texture. You can cheat and speed up the cooling by placing your mixing bowl in a bowl filled with ice (don't let any water in the mix!) but then you have to be diligent about mixing like your life depends on it. No breaks for you. Once your butter is sufficiently fluffy and cooled (it should have peaks like merengue or whipped cream) spoon or pour it into airtight jars. Store in a cool dark place.

Finished butter in the tubs on the left!

Stay tuned for the scrub recipe coming soon!

Momma's Stuffing

My mum went through like 15 stuffings before she finally found one that our entire family liked. This is that stuffing. Can be made veggie if you want, subbing in apples for sausage and veg stock for chicken. But I don’t want to, cuz I love pork.

Stuff You Need

3/4 cup chopped mushrooms (don’t skimp on these babies. Get the good stuff – chanterelles, shitakes, baby bells, whatever. Just not those little white pizza death mushrooms)

3/4 cup diced onion

1/3 cup celery chopped super thin

1/3 cup butter

1/2-3/4 cup cooked spicy Italian sausage

4 cups dried bread crumbs, the more grains the better (all the grains, yes)

Lots of chicken stock to moisten. Like oceans of chicken stock. Or at least more than you think you could possibly need.  I’d say probably more than a box/ a few cans of that shit. Besides, you can never have too much stock, since you should totally also be making gravy. Oh, maybe I should do a post on gravy…

Fresh Herbs! Lots of ‘em! I like sage, rosemary, thyme and a bay leaf. You can either chop them up super fine and mix them in with the rest of the ingredients (what I do), or leave them whole, on top of the stuffing, to be removed after baking.

Cook the sausage.  You want it to be in small pieces. If I'm feeling super ambitious, I’ll squeeze the sausage meat out of the casings before cooking.

Sautee all of the veggies with the butter, adding a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Mix all of your stuff in a deep pan – bread, sausage, veggies, herbs. I add all of the accumulated juices too, because that shit is tasty. Moisten liberally with the stock. If you have bird drippings you can use those too for extra tastiness.

Stick your stuffing in the oven at about 300-350 degrees, but don’t forget about it for too long. When it looks like it’s starting to get toasty and dry out, take it out, toss everything and add more stock. Add some extra butter if you want, I won't tell. 

KEEP DOING THIS WHOLE DRYING THEN MOISTENING THING until you are sure your stuffing has been saturated and then re-toasted to your desired level of crispy. Since everything is already cooked, it doesn't really matter how long you do this part, but I like my bread crumbs to be a little crisp and herby on the outside and deliciously stock and butter flavored on the inside.

I’m pretty sure that’s it. Easy peasy.

Full disclosure: I hate soggy or jiggly foods, so in-bird stuffing is useless to me unless it has been removed from the bird carcass and recrisped in the oven separately. But you could totally do it in-bird if you want. 

Food, Glorious Food!

Since it is now January and my garden has pretty much gone dormant, I’ve decided this is a great excuse for me to post some of the recipes I’ve been meaning to get up here! I've been posting about all this crap I grow, with nary a mention of what it is I do with it!

So I don’t lose track of what I want to do, here are the recipes I’m planning on getting up here as soon as I sober up. Oh 2012, you are already the shit.

            -Jam’s Awesome Sauce Rib Rub

            -Momma’s Multigrain Stuffing

            -The Stew to End All Stews

            -Homemade Body Butter

            -Homemade Body Scrub

            -Save Your Life Salve

I’m sure there are plenty more recipes banging around this ol’ noggin just begging to be posted, but I like to have tangible attainable goals. So there you have it. 

Slugs Suck

Today's Lesson:

Things that will grow with no direct sunlight - kohl rabi, garlic, onions, radishes, artichokes, beets, dinosaur kale. Maybe the carrots?

Things that will not - everything else I planted in the winter garden, including but certainly not limited to bok choy, mustard greens, all the basils, mache, butterleaf lettuce, spinach, chinese kale. Maybe the carrots :(

Things that may well have made it, had it not been for the gluttony and ambition of a monster slug colony - acorn and butternut squash, brussels sprouts.

Pretty much everything that we started inside got munched up overnight by those motherfucking slugs. Who knew they could do so much damage in less than 24 hours?!? When I set out the beer trap the next day, I caught at least 20 happy fat slugs and 2 jerusalem crickets and didn't feel bad about it one bit. Douchebags.

Aside from discovering which of my seeds can survive in seriously low light, this development was a serious bummer. I had all of these lofty dreams of hearty winter vegetable soups, which are now clearly unlikely to come to fruition. Once the days start lengthening again (Thursday! Woot!), I may give the winter crops another go, even though I am wary of wasting seeds. And who knows, if I give them enough time, some of the seeds could well sprout once it warms up a bit in a couple months.

If I do end up resowing this winter, you'd better believe I'll be putting each little seedling inside a little fence of plastic cut from bottles and what not to keep the Colonial Slugs from stealing my thunder.

Project Update 2.2 - Seed Saving!

Saving seeds is one of my favourite parts about gardening. So much possibility and so much room to fuck it all up. High stakes gardening and what not, since your seed saving skills may determine what you have to plant next season. Some seeds are super easy to save, and others have all kinds of stratification and pre-treatment requirements. It's a good idea to familiarize yourself with common seed saving terms before getting started.

The first thing to do is establish from which fruit or plant you would like to save seeds. You should choose based on desired traits and characteristics, such as flavor, colour, size, disease resisitance and time to maturity. Usually, you will have to grow your produce for more time and to a larger size than normal. Culinary ripeness (good for eating) is usually not considered physiologically ripe (viable seeds produced). For example, I harvest my french round squash at 3"-4" for eating, but leave the seed saving squash on the plant for an extra couple of months, until it reaches 6"-8", forms a hard outer shell and turns a yellow-ish colour.

French round squash at edible size/maturity.

6 lb. squash for seed saving.

Squash guts and seeds.

Fun with squash!

Sometimes you'll get a seed surprise, and a couple of them will have started to germinate before you even open the squash.

Seed surprise! These three started germinating inside the squash.

To save squash seeds (or any cucurbit), you first need to gut your squash, and separate all the flesh and pulp from the seeds. If any seeds are small, thin, or flimsy discard them right away, as they probably won't be viable anyway. Rinse your seeds in cold water to get all the slime and gunk off, pat them dry and then place them on paper towel in a single layer to dry out completely for a week or so. I usually flip mine after a couple of days do encourage even drying. Once your babies are thoroughly dried, store them in a small ziploc or glass jar and be sure to label them with the variety and seed saving date. Bam. It's that easy.

When saving tomato seeds, I prefer to undertake the process when I am already canning or making tomato sauce, since those processes already require separating the seeds (and skins) from the flesh, and I don't like to waste anything.

Tomatoes prepped for sauce: blanched, peeled,

seeds removed and set aside.

Tomato seeds need to ferment a bit, so I put the pulpy seeds into shot glasses with a few drops of water and loosely cover them with paper towel to keep fruit flies out.

Flamme and Mystery Yellow tomato seeds.

After a few days some of the water will have evaporated and the pulpy casing around the seeds should be fermented and more thick. Dump the mess in a sieve (make sure the holes are more fine than your seeds!) and run cool water over it and give the goo a little rub. The mess should wash away easily, and you will be left with just the seeds. Spread these out on a paper towel, and once they are completely dry, bag 'em and tag 'em.

*Note about saving tomato seeds: The tomatoes I grow are all open pollinated (OP) heirlooms, so there is a high likelihood of cross-pollination. This means that plants I grow from my saved seeds, with likely not be true to type, and instead create some new kind of heirloom hybrid tomato. I don't mind, because this is all one big experiment for me and I like the idea of making brand new cultivars, but if you want to keep your seeds true to type, tie paper bags over the flowers you want to isolate. Tomatoes are largely self fertile, so the fruits should still develop, but the flowers won't have an opportunity to be cross polinated by insects and the next generation of plants should be true to type.

Glossary of Gardening Terms

acid - having a pH of less that 7

alkaline - having a pH of more than 7

annual - A plant that completes its life cycle in one year or less.

biennial - A plant that lives for up to two years under outdoor conditions, flowers and produces seed the second year.

bolt - When a plant flowers prematurely.

characteristics - General features caused by unidentified complexes of genes including but not limited to freeze tolerance, cold tolerance, regional adaptability, winter hardiness, early maturation, and flavor.

cross-pollination - When pollen is exchanged between different flowers from the same or different plants.

cultivar -  A horticultural variety or strain that originated and has persisted under human cultivation.

damping off - Over watering seedlings promotes the growth of mildew that causes seedlings to keel over with shriveled stems. The most common disease of greenhouse seedlings, it is aggravated by extreme swings in temperature like warm days and cold nights. The best prevention is to water in mid-morning and to allow the soil surface to dry out between waterings.

deciduous - A plant that produces fresh leaves annually (and sheds old leaves)

determinate/indeterminate - Determinates flower once or twice a growing period, usually early in the season, and yield mature harvests all at one time. Indeterminate plants flower and fruit continuously throughout the growing season.

dormancy - A period of low or absent plant growth

hardening off - A process of helping plants that have been raised under cover to adapt to cooler outdoor conditions and direct sun. Gradually introducing greenhouse plants to outside conditions for one to two weeks before planting in the ground is one recipe for hardening-off.

heirloom - Time-tested, open-pollinated varieties of primarily European descent, that have been passed down for at least three generations. For many reasons, including flavor, vigor, local hardiness and dependability, these have become favorites. Often, heirloom seeds are the repository of unusual genes that can help to preserve genetic diversity.

epiphyte - A plant that has aerial roots, used to grip trees. (ex: some ferns, moss and orchids)

F1 hybrid - The "F" in F1 hybrid stands for filial or offspring. F1 means the first generation offspring after cross-pollination. The majority of F1 hybrids are sterile or produce offspring unlike themselves. See "hybrid."

gound cover - Carpeting species that rapidly cover bare ground.

hybrid - Varieties resulting from natural or artificial pollination between genetically distinct parents. Commercially, the parents used to produce hybrids are usually inbred for specific characteristics.

hydroponics - Method of growing plants in a liquid culture

inbreeding depression - A loss of vigor because of inbreeding. Inbreeding is the result of self-pollination or pollination between two close relatives.

insect pollination - Pollen is carried from one flower to another by insects.

loam - Fertile soil that retains moisture while remaining well-drained

monecious - A species is monecious if it produces single plants with separate male flowers and female flowers on the same plant. (ex: french round squash)

mulch - Organic matter placed over the soul to conserve moisture and keep frost from the roots and weed growth.

mutation -  Abrupt change in plant’s habit

neutral - Having a pH of 7

offsetting - A plant that produces miniature replicas of itself, usually around its base (ex: artichoke)

open-pollinated - Open-pollinated varieties are stable varieties resulting from the pollination between the same or genetically similar parents. Not hybrid.

organic - A substance produced by plants or animals via natural means

ovary - The female part of a flower that contains the ovules. Fertilized ovules develop into mature seeds.

perennial - Plant that lives for at least three seasons.

perfect flowers - Individual flowers that contain both stamens and pistils.

Perlite -Sterile granular form of aluminum silicate used in composts.

pH - Scale by which acidity or alkalinity of soil is measured.

pistil - The female reproductive organ in a flower made up of the stigma, style, and ovary.

pollen - Equivalent of sperm in plants. Pollen grain fertilizes plant ovules.

pollination - The process of sexual fertilization in plants. The male chromosomes contained in pollen are combined with the female chromosomes contained in the ovules.

recessive trait - The variation of a specific, identifiable gene that results in observ able traits only if the dominant trait is not present. For example, wrinkled pea seeds result only in varieties where the dominant smooth-seed trait is missing.

rogue - The process of removing or destroying plants with unwanted characteristics or traits.

scarification - To abrade, scratch, or modify the surface for increasing water absorption.

selection - The process of saving the seeds from plants that exhibit desirable charac teristics and traits. To identify desirable characteristics, plant the same variety in different environmental conditions, or plant different varieties in the same environ mental conditions.

self-pollination - When pollination takes place within a single flower, usually before it opens. Other flowers or plants are not needed. Self-pollinating flowers are called "perfect flowers" because they contain the stamens that produce pollen and the pistil that receives the pollen. Isolation distance to prevent cross-pollination is not necessary unless insects are known to invade the flowers before pollination is complete.

stamen - A flower's male reproductive organ consisting of the filament, anther, and pollen.

stigma - The opening in the pistil through which the pollen passes to the ovary. 

style - Contains the pollen tube between the stigma and the ovary through which the pollen is carried.

sucker - shoot that grows from the rootstock (or from the crotch between the stem and a branch on a tomato plant).

traditional/native - Open-pollinated varieties that have evolved through centuries of growing by native/indigenous peoples of the world. They are often drought and pest resistant, hardy and nutritious and are still cultivated around the world.

trait - A specific feature traced to an identifiable gene or group of genes. Pea traits traceable to single genes include vine growth (bush or tall), seed texture (smooth or wrinkled) and disease resistance (fusarium, enation mosaic, and powdery mildew).

untreated seeds - Have not been coated with fungicides, herbicides, fertilizers or growth hormones.

viable - A viable seed is one that will germinate and produce a vigorous plant. Seeds must not be harvested before they have matured enough to be viable. There is wide variation in the point of maturity at which a seed can be harvested and still be viable.

vigor - Strong, vibrant germination and growth. A desirable characteristic.

wind pollination - When pollen is carried from one flower to another by the wind.