Autumn Recess

November 23, 2016

Autumn has arrived in North Carolina, bringing with it the final harvest of bell peppers, roma tomatoes and serrano peppers.The herb garden has brushed off the first few light freezes and stands ready to make meals fragrant and savory for months to come. I am confident that the thyme, oregano and sage will over winter well and hope that the french tarragon and parsley will also.Parsley is such a staple of fall and winter dishes that I have more growing on my deck. I have been poaching from the deck parsley for a few weeks thinking that it would not handle the frosts as well, but so far it is also doing wonderfully.In previous years I have repeatedly removed pine needles from the garden beds only to replace it with a different mulch. This year I have come to my senses and am embracing the pine trees taking care of mulching for me.Collards, carrots, cabbage and parsnips are tucked into their naturally (and effortlessly) mulched beds.The fall planting of sugar snap peas has been supplying tender pea shoots and now has peas forming as well.The hydroponic herbs were changed over 10 days ago to the varieties I know and love to cook with and are already doing quite well. I am growing 2 plantings each of my favorite basils and cilantros, 3 of the flat leaf parsley and just for fun I am trying to grow 2 red kales hydroponically.With the Super Bowl and attendant tomato starts almost 2 months away, this cozy, fall garden that is mostly taking care of itself feels like a recess.

Aero Garden Update - Day 46

November 14, 2016

Day 46 of the prepackaged herb pack that came with my AeroBount and I have excellent basil growth, both genovese and thai. The mint was just starting to grow and the cilantro, parsley and chives never really took off. The genovese basil, while in the same family, is not the basil I usually grow. I do not know if it is a function of the variety or of the hydroponics but it bruises extremely easy and blackens quickly on warm dishes.My Baker Creek order came in last week with seeds for my hydroponic herbs and counter top microgreens so I decided to ditch the prepackaged herbs and start my own this weekend.My aero garden has space for 9 pods so I planted 2 of each except for the parsley that I planted 3 pods of because fall stews + parsley = YUM!

Taking The (hydroponics) Plunge

October 2, 2016

It all started so simply...I was looking for a birthday gift for a friend. She does some gardening and is always looking to eat healthier so I went to a few of my favorite online shops and searched Gifts For Gardeners to see what came up.What came up (over and over) were the counter-top, hydroponic growing contraptions that promise fresh herbs, greens and veggies faster than their soil bound counterparts. The reviews spanned the positive to strongly positive and some of the user videos showed amazing results.I have been resistant to the idea of hydroponics because it is not a natural system and doesn't even attempt to mimic a natural system. Food plants grown hydroponically are not dining at the full banquet of known and unknown plant (and human) nutrients, minerals and components found in organically rich soil, but instead are fed a simplified diet of nitrogen, phosphate, calcium and magnesium diluted in water. What does that mean for the creatures that are eating them? But there is the not-so-small matter of having fresh herbs to cook and garnish with through the winter months... Many of my outdoor herbs are still doing very well, though my beloved basil is already beginning to look pretty rough and with fall officially here, some of the others will begin to say good-bye for 2016 in the coming weeks. This is the time of year I usually begin my indoor herb garden in the dormer nook upstairs as a stop-gap measure to cover the basics (basil, rosemary, oregano, cilantro) until they can be sown outdoors again.Overall, my indoor herbs usually do pretty well each year in their little corner of the house, though they do have to cope with occasional fungus flies, aphids, powdery mildew outbreaks and a water deficit when I travel. The more I considered it, the more it seemed that growing a mix of fresh herbs through the winter months right on my kitchen counter, right where I cook and where I can be a bit more attentive on a day-to-day basis, even if it is hydroponically, is maybe not such a bad idea. Herbs are especially dense on flavor and hopefully will not have a watered down taste. Enter the AeroGarden for my friend and myself.I opted for the Bounty Elite from William Sonoma because it has the most space for plants (up to 9 depending on variety) and the LED light can raise from 15" to 24" as plants grow.I have to admit, I was impressed by the touch screen display that shows days since planting, days until nutrient add and monitors and alerts for water level. It is programmable by plant group being grown (herbs, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, flowers, etc).If you happen to have kids under the age of 10 in the house, the space age looking pod domes are an added bonus.So I am taking the plunge, I hope this particular horticultural/culinary experiment works out well - if the herbs I am growing are as robustly flavored as their soil bound brethren, it will mean my indoor garden upstairs is relegated to spring seed starting and even more herbs are making into everyday meals than they already are. Updates to follow!

Making Hay While The Sun Shines - Part 3

August 7, 2015

The wonderful thing about being taken under the wing of a traditional southern food mentor is that in addition to the lesson at hand, there are other tantalizing tidbits sprinkled throughout the lessons like breadcrumbs, just waiting for me to pick up the trail.During my green bean pressure canning lesson, the utensil drawer was opened to look for some other object and the Norpro Wood Corn Cutter and Creamer made its debut into my life. My mentor explained that device is used to cream corn, which she does annually with Silver Queen, her favorite hybrid variety. The tool was dropped back into the drawer and the green bean lesson continued.That night I began researching the tool and process of making and preserving creamed corn. My mentor uses the "Another way" method described at the bottom of this link over at the National Center for Home Food Preservation (the online bible for how to safely preserve food). The creamer tool was so inexpensive and the corn so abundant at the NC State Farmers Market, I had to give it a try!My whopping 45.5 lbs of corn had 65 ears in it and sold for only $25 - one of the many great reasons to grow or buy abundantly in season and preserve in wholesome ways for the off season.I enlisted help from the cutest and most enthusiastic corn shucker imaginable to get through the pile.Once shucked, the corn was washed, trimmed of any ear worm damage and ready to be creamed. It took a little experimentation to get the cutters to the right height for the chunkiness I desired. I found compromise by setting it on a creamier height and using knife cut corn once every 8 or so ears to get nice big kernels.Following the instructions from my mentor and the National Center for Home Food Preservation the creamed corn was cooked in two double boilers for about 10 minutes.Once thickened it the pots were set in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.Once cooled, it was ladled into the freezer bags that work with my vacuumsealer at serving sizes of roughly 15.5oz each. They were frozen flat to take up less space then vacuumsealed.All in all, my 45.5lbs of corn ended up being 15.5lbs of creamed corn with much of the difference being the cobs that were cut up and added to compost so they were a gain for next year's soil also. The entire process took about 4 hours from shucking to the last batch being put in the freezer and finished with a total of 16 servings. I froze 15 of them for the months to come and made one fresh that night. I knew the project was a success (and one likely to be repeated before the end of corn season) when my little shucker took his first bite of our homemade creamed corn and asked if there was enough for seconds.

Attention - Manufacturers

May 25, 2015

Have I got an idea for you, a FREE idea! Hydrocortisone infused socks! You already make socks infused with lotion to soften our feet. How about a little something for those of us who are losing the organic battle with chiggers?Chiggers - 2 (feet)Me - 0

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