Tearing Up My Lawn Part 2

As from my first post a while back, I decided to tear up my backyard to start growing food. The first three strips were dug out in early spring and I planted garlic in one row, lettuce and fennel in the next row and onions in the third. I wanted to add two more rows for tomatoes. I bought some seeds and only got one plant out of that batch. I bought additional seeds and got twelve more, each one I prepared ended up growing. I was already to get them into the ground over Memorial Day weekend, but was sidetracked by having a heart attack.

While I was recovering I desperately wanted to dig up the yard and get those tomatoes into the ground, but didn't have the strength. To the rescue came family and friends, not the government. Maybe it's because we don't have a gardening czar, yet. My mother-in-law and close friends Heidi and Keven came out the next Sunday and helped dig up the next two strips. The ground wasn't as soft as it was a few months earlier when it was raining all the time, but Kevin and I were able to get the grass up.

My dad gave me advice that I remember doing when I was a kid, plant milk jugs into the ground with holes punched in the bottom. Fill them with water and it will drain into the soil helping keep the tomato roots well watered. I started saving my 1% half gallon jugs in February in the garage, I cleaned them out first of course. It was a struggle explaining to everyone why the milk jugs would be buried in the ground, but everyone agreed and pitched in.

As soon as the grass was removed and the milk jugs buried, bagged soil was added to the ground to mix in with the current soil that was broken up slightly with the new ground weasel spiky evil sharp thing to tear up earth. This was raked in and then I planted the tomatoes in between each milk jug. A baker's dozen which I'm hoping this will give me a bunch of tomatoes. Red and greens, especially the greens since I haven't had a pickled tomato in years. The tomatoes will be canned as sauce, chopped and whole to use during the fall and winter. My goal is to not have to buy canned tomatoes ever again, so I'll need to calculate over the next few years how much this will take.

So the garden is getting there, I actually had some lettuce the other day. I found a few garlic plants already growing when I cleared out some weeds near a rose bush. At first I wasn't sure but after pulling it out found some cloves on them, I cooked them in the chili I made (recipe listed in Farmer's Market part 4). The fennel is starting to grow strong, a few onions are starting to shoot up and the jalapeno I dropped in is still growing, I'll see if it gives me any peppers. As the vegetables grow I'll keep updates.

Forest Grove Farmer's Market Part 4

Another trip to the farmers market yesterday and there were a lot more booths there as well. Before I go into what my wife and I got there, I want to update from the last post of what I cooked. If you remember I got sugar snap peas, some of them were snacked on but the remainder were used in a stir fry with rice noodles. The potatoes were uses just as I stated, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted in the oven until tender. The onions I used in a batch of homemade chili, the recipe of the week.

Everybody has their own chili recipe, if you don't, start with this one and build from there. I focus more on the flavor and not so much on the spice. Granted I eat incredibly spicy food, to the point of inhuman levels but I can always spice it up after it's made and that my wife doesn't eat spicy food. She is getting better now, when we first met she found oatmeal spicy (just kidding, please don't kill me dear if you read this) but now she can handle small amounts of spice. Ether way its good to know how to make chili, its a good dish to serve to a bunch of people or cook up a large batch and freeze for yourself.

Home Style Chili
1 to 2 medium onions
8 or more cloves of garlic
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 lb chopped meat
28 oz can whole tomatoes
14 oz can beans
chili powder
Italian seasonings
season salt
lemon pepper
Balsamic vinegar

First fry the chopped meat and drain most of the fat. Cut up onions, garlic and peppers to saute in the pot that you browned the chopped meat in. Cook for a few minutes to get the mixture tender. Add the can of tomatoes, juice and all, and chop up with a knife or your hands until it resembles small pieces. Add the meat back and the spices, use as much as you want according to taste, a few shots of vinegar is always nice. Then the controversial issue of adding the beans, I'd add them now but my dad used to add them in the last hour of cooking. I usually use kidneys or black beans but this time there was a special mixture for Southwestern style with red beans, some other beans, corn and Southwest spices which usually means extra salt and sugar. It tasted good and I think it helped this batch. Pinto beans, chili beans, pretty much any type of bean will work. Cook at a low temperature for two to three hours stirring occasionally, like every thirty minutes. I served it with rice or just eat it plain. If you can, cook a day in advance, it is so much better if you let it sit in the refrigerator overnight then reheat it. Chili is one of those few foods that taste better the next day, like cold pizza.

Now for this week, first grabbed two cucumbers from where I got some a few weeks ago. They were really good and they seem to be the only booth selling cucumbers. When I went to buy them the guy selling them asked if I would take the last one in the bin and all three for two dollars. I agreed and I now have three cucumbers. My wife then got a small container of white and red raspberries. The guy selling said he didn't have any more change and for the additional fifty cents offered another cucumber from a different bin, so now I have four cucumbers.

That night with dinner I got lettuce from my garden, the first batch pulled out of which I am so proud, and added one of the cucumbers. This was a terrific cucumber, one of the best I have tasted in years. Usually the ones you get at the supermarket taste like water, this one tasted great. One down, three to go.

As my wife and I continued to walk through the market I was stopped by someone from Oregon Environmental, or something like that, they are the new name of OSPRIG. He started to talk to me about cap and trade of which I then explained to him why it doesn't work and the only way to solve pollution problems is through the free market. After about five minutes talking to him he realized and said that you have to use capitalism to trick businesses into doing what's right for the environment. I'll accept that as a minor victory.

While I was talking my wife was busy getting other stuff. When I ran back into her she had already got a gluten free chocolate cookie, some baking mix from the same gluten free vendor, a pint of strawberries, and some more small red potatoes. We then went to the booth where I got the sugar snap peas from last week and before we left a big bag of garlic Parmesan popcorn of which we will take down this weekend when we go visit our friends. We both realize that we would finish it by Friday but since there would be enough salt to kill us, it's better to have other people to share it with. Not that I am trying to kill people with salt, at this moment in time, but popcorn is much more fun when it's shared with friends. And of course less kernels stuck in your throat. I'll update what I cooked after the next visit, may use the fruit in a pie if I have the time and energy.

I'm telling you officer, that really is my compost pile!

So many things in life start with the best of intentions. I had always looked forward to composting, yes I know, I shoot for the moon. What I have now looks like a dead body in my backyard but it's not how it all started.

For years it frustrated me that I would throw away food scraps; onion peels, strawberries that have gone bad, apple cores, etc. In fact this is why I started to make pumpkin bread. I was upset that I would throw away the pumpkin after I would roast the seeds. I love roasted pumpkin seeds, pulled out with the stringy stuff on them, put on a sheet pan with salt and roasted slowly at a low temperature until they are dried out and taste like heaven. Addictive too. So to make pumpkin bread I found a recipe in Fanny Farmer, my cooking bible, and went to task. Anyway, I was ready to start composting!

When we bought our house I was all ready to get a compost pile started. Two things held me back, first I am nervous before I do anything for the first time. After I try it I get confidence and quickly become an expert. But that first step is the hardest. The second is that my wife was in the hospital for the first month that we lived in our new house. The compost pile was put on hold.

I looked at brochures, glanced at some books and talked to people who already compost. I realized that I am making more out of my fear of trying composting and should buckle down and do it. What's the worst that could happen, satellites falling out of orbit from the sky? Actually that would be pretty cool. So I put together a compost bin.

To save the poor bin's feelings I don't have any photos of it. It was a tomato cage that I wrapped with chicken wire. Took me two evenings to finish it, but I was excited and ready. I placed it out in the backyard and started to fill it up. I realized that in a matter of days it was getting rather full of vegetable scraps and raked leaves and that I was not able to turn it easily or at all. And I saw that I had no more room in there so it was scrapped for compost bin 2.0.

The new bin started out great as you can see. I got plywood and glued the boards together to form this box. I poured out what was inside the old cage and started to add to the pile and turn it. Then I started to tear up my backyard to start my garden. Where can I put this turf and soil, why lets put it into the compost bin. The bin grew and grew and grew (sounds like a fairy tale) and then exploded.

I filled the bin too much and the walls fell over and my crime scene was now there. Also the soil is clay and my 2 to 1 ratio of brown mixture to green is so far off its funny. But I keep adding to it and my guess is that sometime by next year I'll have the proper ratio. I keep it watered and put a sheet over the top to keep as much moisture in the pile. When I did move the grass I dug up over to the pile I brought a bunch of worms. I have seen some of them in the pile, some actually are really large, almost radioactive large, but nothing to fear, yet.

I'm proud of my compost pile, I know it will work. In fact I have seen some of the decomposition happening in the pile, things I put in there months ago are making the soil softer and mulchier, if that is a word. The important thing is that I am enjoying myself and even if I do it wrong, then I'll learn. It can't be that hard, people do it everyday. But I feel good knowing that I am not adding to the landfills. Sure it may only be a few pound of waste a month, but every little bit counts. And of course if I do get it to work I'll have nice soil to use for next years garden.

Now if I can only convince the police...........

Forest Grove Farmer's Market Part 3

Another week, another visit to the farmers market. Lots of strawberries, too bad I got a bunch at the supermarket last week. I'll use the one's I have to make a fruit pie with what ever else is laying around. No rhubarb but now there are strawberries, I'll get some next week and come up with some good recipes.

I did grab some baby red and Yukon gold potatoes, real tiny ones that can be cooked whole in about fifteen minutes in the oven. Or put them on a skewer and roast over a barbecue grill. I'll toss them in with something in the next week. Sweet onions are in season so I grabbed a bunch of them, I already have onions but I am going to use these first. Nice round white bulbs with the tops on them, add them when you cut up onions they are edible too. And some sugar snap peas, maybe use them in a stir fry but I doubt that they will last that long.

Last post I talked about using the red potatoes to bake, I went against that and had a craving for horseradish garlic mashed potatoes. Our stove, the burner section, went out last weekend while I was trying to made a batch of curry. Having to wait from Saturday to Monday without a stove was too much for me, so I needed a meal to comfort me. So along with the shake n' bake pork chops, I made my Thanksgiving staple. Great recipe that I'm sure that can be amended.

Garlic Horseradish Mashed Potatoes
6 Potatoes (any will do, this time I used small reds)
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon grated horseradish*(see note/rant at bottom of post)
Granulated garlic
Salt
White pepper

Cut the potatoes into small chunks, skinning is optional, and place into a pot of water with enough to cover and bring to a boil. Cook until potatoes are tender, a knife will slide though easily. Don't over cook the potatoes, or anything ever for that matter, they will be harder to deal with and won't taste as good. Add remaining ingredients as to your taste level. Remember white pepper is spicier than black pepper. Use a good potato masher until you get the consistency that is desired, for me that means no lumps of potatoes. I got that from my dad who would make me mash for hours until my hands bled to get smooth mashed potatoes. Horrible memories but really great tasting mashed potatoes.

*Note on grated horseradish - Only use grated horseradish, they type they sell in the refrigerated section of the supermarket, or make it yourself. Creamy horseradish is the greatest crime against humanity, seriously. It tastes terrible, looks terrible and is terrible. Don't use it ever, get the good stuff, real grated horseradish.

Forest Grove Farmer's Market Part 2

I'm posting later than usual, but I did make it to the May 27th Farmers Market. Since I was still in recovery from my mild heart attack, I had very little energy but trudged through. I missed the next one on June 3rd, but that was my first day back to work and I was exhausted.

Just like the previous week, not too many booths selling produce but more than the week before. Grabbed some red potatoes of which I will most likely cut up and roast in the oven. Got two small cucumbers which I sliced up and added to salads, very tasty. And got some asparagus which I cooked in this great recipe.

Asparagus Stir Fry
8 to 12 stalks of asparagus
5 or more cloves of garlic
Sesame Oil
Soy Sauce
Rice Wine Vinegar
Dried Mustard
Cayenne Pepper
Corn Starch (optional)

Cut the bottoms off the asparagus and then slice diagonally into half inch strips, cut the garlic into small pieces, almost minced. I prefer to use much more garlic usually a small head, adjust to your taste. Since I'm not that accurate when using spices I don't have exact measurements of how much to add. I add as much as needed to flavor with. So for the sesame oil I added just enough to coat the frying pan. Once the oil was heated up I added the asparagus and garlic and saute for about a minute or two. I added equal amounts of rice wine vinegar and soy sauce (I used low sodium) about a tablespoon or so if you want to measure. I added the dry spices, about a half a teaspoon, adjust to your taste. The dried mustard can be substituted with Chinese mustard, I also added some five spice I got at Trader Joe's a while back and used Korean red pepper instead of the cayenne, not much difference. Once it is heated it's ready to eat. Corn starch can be added, about a teaspoon or less depending on how much liquid is in the pan, to thicken up the sauce. I didn't add any this time.

Serve as a side dish or over rice. What you have is a basic stir fry base so if you wanted to make a nail soup you could add onions, broccoli, peppers and other vegetables as well. To add more flavor and protein put in some meat, chicken, pork or seafood. I added some leftover pork to the remainder after I made this and had it for breakfast over some brown rice.

Hopefully I'll make it either this week of the 8th or next week back to the market. I know each week more items will be available and I'll have an opportunity to enjoy more fresh food.