Entries Tagged 'Garden' ↓

At long last! It’s finally tomato harvesting time! We got tons of lettuce, are still getting kale, and have been getting green beans and cucumbers for a few weeks now, but there’s something momentous about that first big batch of tomatoes. Something that says, “your garden has arrived.” Everything leads up to tomatoes; they’re the climax. The winter squash and fall kale are the denouement, with canning, perhaps, as an additional baby climax.

My friend Simon (fellow vegan, drummer for Ineffable Robot [new tracks up soon!]) was in over the weekend and we ate largely from the garden. The first night, we had Shells al Pomodoro and Cucumber Salad.

Shells al Pomodoro

• 4ish medium-sized tomatoes, gutted and diced
• 6 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 small green bell pepper
• 1 fresno chili, seeded and diced (optional)
• 1 large handful of fresh basil, chopped
• cooked shells (or noodle of choice)
• salt & pepper, to taste
• olive oil

In a medium-large pan, saute the garlic in olive oil for a few minutes, until it just starts to brown. Toss in the tomatoes and peppers, cooking until tender. Salt and pepper to taste. A minute or two before serving, stir in the basil. Serve over pasta. Easy! Delicious!

Cucumber Salad

• 2 – 3 cucumbers, cubed
• 1 tomato, gutted and cut into medium-sized pieces
• rooster (Sriracha) sauce (to taste)
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 – 2 tbsp olive oil
• toasted pita or tortilla, chopped (optional)
• salt & pepper, to taste

Toss everything together. That’s it.

Be forewarned: this was not one of my best efforts. We had something similar a few weeks ago at an Indian restaurant and I really liked it, so I thought I’d attempt my own version, what with all of those cucumbers to use up. It was a little spicy, because I went overboard with the rooster sauce. I think I also over-soy-sauced it, so add everything little by little. I’ll have to return to this at some point to perfect it. We have a LOT of cucumbers.

The next day, we biked 20 miles (and 20 miles back) to a neighboring town to try out the Red Pepper, a raw vegan restaurant. After the ride there, we were mighty hungry. We got the Italian Pizza and the Raw Tacos, both of which were quite good. The pizza’s crust was probably its standout feature. The tacos were made with a seasoned walnut “meat”. It was pretty amazing. The “shells” were just lettuce, though, so this was a bit more like a salad than tacos. We got some energy shakes for the ride home, which were also good, though I was a little over-full, and thus kinda sluggish for the ride. 40 miles of super hilly terrain is a lot harder than I thought it would be (we biked 25 flat miles two days later, and it was a cinch, comparatively). We were so pooped when we got home that we couldn’t be bothered to cook, so it was vegan pizza time.

We made homemade brats (the best batch ever!) the next night, but that post, friends, is forthcoming.

The next night we rocked this Tempeh & Kale Stew (we’ve also got tons of kale right now):

This stew is very much like the Spicy Potato & Kale Soup, but with carrots, and minus the spicy and parsley. It was pouring out, so this was something of a summer rarity, but very appropriate.

Slimetime’s since hit the road, but I still have lots of maters to use up, so last night I rocked a chili.

There’s no chili better than one made from your heirloom tomatoes, especially if you’re growing multiple varieties. The freshness and variation in flavor really take the flavor in interesting, often inimitable, directions. This particular batch was made with Black Krim (our favorite–dense, not too sweet, not too acidic, very flavorful), Supersonic Orange (a new one this year–very tangy), and Oaxacan Pink (gigantic, fairly sweet). It made for a somewhat sharp, but slightly sweet chili–a perfect chili for crackers. Outstanding!

Last night our good friend Blue stopped in for dinner, and brought a giant picnic basket full of fresh zucchini, summer squash, kale, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes from the local community garden, who he’d been doing some work for (he’s a carpenter/artist). Amy and I had been wracking our brains for something interesting to make and she pointed out that we had a big jar of israeli couscous that we’d yet to try. Putting two and two together…

We used an onion and some garlic as well (of course), and added some black-eyed peas for some protein and to round out the sort of Southern feel the sauteed kale provided. The couscous was really interesting–much more like orzo than standard couscous, like small fluffy noodles. Apparently, it’s also awesome nutritionally.

Garden Israeli Couscous

• 3 small zucchinis, cut into discs or semi-circles
• 2 small summer squashes, cut into discs or semi-circles
• 1 large bunch of kale, de-boned (optional) and chopped coarsely
• 1 medium-sized white or yellow onion, chopped coarsely
• 4 cloves of garlic, diced
• 4 cups (2 cans) of black-eyed peas
• 2 cups israeli couscous
• 3 cups veggie stock (we used our leftover chik’n seitan broth)
• 1 large handful of fresh basil, chopped
• 2 stalks of thyme, de-stemmed
• 1 small handful of fresh oregano
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• olive oil
• salt & pepper, to taste

In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the veggie stock to a boil, then add the couscous. Cover and remove from heat.

In a large skillet, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. After a few minutes, add in the zucchini and squash. When everything is tender, add in the kale and fresh herbs (and probably more oil), stirring well. Add in the black-eyed peas, also stirring well. Stir in the nutritional yeast, then salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over the couscous. Consider Palestinian couscous tomorrow for a two-plate solution.

While you certainly don’t have to be vegan to garden, and don’t have to garden to be vegan, the two are tightly connected. It’s true that the local farmers at the farmers’ market probably know a lot more and do a lot better at growing food than us. And we aren’t (yet) able to grow enough food in our yard to live off of. BUT. Tending a garden is a great way to get closer to your food. It doesn’t matter if you’re just growing a few herbs to freshen up your meals, or feeding your entire neighborhood–the mere act of growing something you can eat, in some small way, opens up and illuminates the entire process of food production.

What’s most informative/instructive, however, isn’t the success–what ends up on your plate; it’s the questions and problems that arise in the process:

• Where will you get the water you need?
• Is your soil suitable? If not, what will you use for soil and where will you get it? Will it be vegan?
• What do you do about pests, both insect and animal?
• Is ___________ really worth growing?
• How much zucchini can you really eat?
• How much will all of this cost? And will you actually save any money?

The most fundamental question is probably your soil, which you have little control over. You’ll probably need at least some additional soil/dirt/compost, even if your soil is great–and maybe quite a bit if it isn’t. In the past, we’ve used Mel’s (Bartholemew) Mix, which is 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost, and 1/3 peat moss. We found this to be a little too loose and have gone much lighter on the vermiculite, a bit lighter on the peat moss and heavier on the compost (the linked site recommends 1/4, 1/4, 1/2, respectively). You can also supplement this with top soil–but you need to check what’s in it. Also, if you’re buying bagged, it’s probably had to travel a great distance to get you–which brings up an interesting question: How local is local?

The same is true of compost, with the additional caveat that most compost is made from animal waste–which brings up an even more interesting question: How vegan is vegan? Most of the vegetables you eat are grown using animal-based compost/fertilizers, so your garden is one of the few places where you can get truly vegan veggies. In any case, if you’re going with store-bought, look for mushroom compost. You’ll also want to find additional sources of compost, to produce a mix. This makes for healthier, less homogeneous soil. A great place to start–with the added benefit of greatly reducing your waste–is creating your own compost. As a vegan, all of your food waste is compostable (though you may want to avoid some seeds, lest your compost pile turn into a garden itself). Ours is a franken-pile made out of a small plastic deal from Lowe’s, chicken wire, and electrical conduit poles. You can (and probably should) leave out the plastic deal and just go straight for the chicken wire and poles–no plastic, much cheaper, and nicer looking.

In some cities, you can also get compost made from municipal yard waste. This is generally free and helps keep city waste down. Additionally, it keeps your compost even more diverse (though you never know exactly what’s in city compost–it’s supposed to be all plant matter).

You can also often get wood chips made from municipal yard waste (from chipped tree branches and fallen/removed trees). Like the compost, this is usually free (we get ours from the same location). Not only does this save you money, but it also lowers your ecological footprint by:

1. ensuring that your wood chips are local (so no long-distance transport)
2. avoiding the use of plastic bags
3. avoiding the use of toxic chemicals in wood treatment

Here are our recently acquired wood chips, used to mulch around the gardens:

You’ll also notice our good friend the rain barrel, chilling leisurely by the garage. We have 5 home-made rain barrels stashed around the house and garage and have only had to use municipal water twice–both times this last weekend, only in two beds, and on the tail-end of both a heat wave and a short drought. That’s 3 1/2 months of free, renewable water! Importantly, it’s water that didn’t require any additional energy (except the calories we expend in watering) to get to our gardens.

You can buy these commercially, but they’re pretty expensive. You can make your own cheaply and somewhat easily–there are lots of tutorials online (and maybe a someday post here, if there’s demand). Watch Craiglist for 55 gallon drums–but be careful about what was in them. We got ours from a power-washing place, so (a) they’d previously contained non-toxic soap, and (b) they were washed very thoroughly. I think they were $20, though I’ve seen them much cheaper, and occasionally more expensive.

Here’s the rain barrel in front of our house. While you should be proud of your rain barrels, it’s possible that you might not want all of them highly visible. We moved a few plants to mask the rain barrel and gas meter, with a fern in a bright red pot for a little visual distraction.

So now that your gardens have healthy soil, plenty of water, and attractive mulch, everything is going great, right? Maybe. We’ve had problems with a variety of critters, both animal and insect. A few years ago, we noticed that something was happily munching on our kale and lettuce. We first assumed it must be a local freegan, but this person would have been given away by their tiny, rodent-like mouth. After nearly a month of half-assed vigils, we eventually caught a glimpse of a ground hog. With our setup, building fences wasn’t ideal, and we certainly weren’t interested in harming or trapping the ravenous little guy. We eventually settled on what might seem a strange choice: coyote urine. This simulates the presence of a natural predator. It is animal-derived, so I have mixed feelings about using it, but most companies are fairly transparent about their collection methods–which almost universally seem to be drains in the floor at legitimate conservation operations (it’s how they help subsidize the cost of maintaining the animals). While this seems like the most humane method to all involved, I’m open to better suggestions.

If you notice that your leaves are being eaten from the inside, you’ve got bug problem. For us, those bugs are mostly slugs. We tried a variety of deterrents–stuff like cayenne, for instance–to no avail. We’ve only found two good solutions, both deadly. One is saucers of beer. Yes. Beer. If I had to choose a way to go, drowning in a drunken haze wouldn’t be worst. The other is iron phosphate (Sluggo ™, by brand). This is a tough choice for many vegans. We’re the type of vegans who capture bugs and bring them outside, so we don’t take the decision to kill slugs lightly. But, if they’re eating all of our greens, then we have to get our greens from the farmer’s market. Do those farmers kill bugs and predators? We buy organic, but that only ensures that no genetically modified crops or inorganic pesticides were used. Everything about your diet can get really complicated, really fast.

You start to understand how a farmer could be convinced that buying genetically modified seeds to produce pest-resistant or pesticide resistant crops is the way to go. If we’re struggling with just a handful of kale and lettuce plants, what’s it like to worry about a whole field?

To further complicate matters, each type of plant has its own special needs and problems. So you have to become an expert on each one. You start to understand why some farmers give in to monocropping. Since you’re probably doing this in your spare time, and as a supplement to your diet, there are limitations to your efforts. You’ll decide that some crops aren’t worth the effort for a small crop (growing one singular broccoli plant was pretty dumb, in retrospect) and that others are a mainstay (there’s nothing better than walking outside and harvesting a salad or canning your own tomatoes). You might also find that you’d prefer to get awesome at growing tomatoes, and that your neighbor likes doing greens–you could start a local cooperative (this would probably work fantastically in an apartment complex with shared garden space, or even in community gardens with a little planning).

While we’re not totally up to the Food Not Lawns standard yet, we have been trying to increase the amount of food that we grow. Here, we’ve converted a flower bed into a tomato and basil garden:

That being said, we like to have flowers in the house, but don’t like getting our flowers flown in on planes from South America. So having an assortment of (mostly) perennials is a free, sustainable way to keep things fresh indoors and out. If friends or neighbors are growing different species/varieties, you can trade to spice things up.

Of course, we’re relative newbies at gardening ourselves, and still have a lot to learn. We recently attended a permaculture workshop which was both exciting and humbling. Got ideas? We’d love to hear them!

And finally, here’s a small gallery of garden photos, for your viewing pleasure (sorry about the repeats!):

A guest post by our pal Ryan!  Let’s hope he behaves himself… 

I wanted to call this Mod’ed Polenta with Lemon Asparagi and Chickplease but my hands were slapped, and I was told NO because it isn’t nice for folks searching for a delicious dish with asparagus and chickpeas. I could have told the hosts of this guest post to go stuff it and f-off, but I guess I can surrender to a bit of authority for a moment in pleasing some friends.

After an afternoon of working in a hot and sweaty room, staring at computer screens, a dish that was light and delicious was in order. So Mark, Amy, Val and I (of imjustdoingthisthing) cooked down a delicious meal. Amy in her quest to eat healthier found this amazing looking recipe on FatFree Vegan Kitchen. Since the recipe is mod’ed I’ll try to really only point out the differences and save pixels (mods of ingredients are in italics).

Alright, I probably didn’t need to re-post the recipe and wasted more pixels than I wanted to, so here is where I am going to save on pixels. The polenta and the chickpea/onion mix of goodness were cooked as suggested by the FatFree Vegan Kitchen recipe, go there for how to cook that part. The asparagus was the big change and if you have ever read Val’s and my blog (another shameless plug) you would know that I like to grill. In preparation for the grill: rub the oil on the asparagus, sprinkle on the salt, pepper, paprika, sesame seeds, and thyme. Toss on the grill, over a medium high heat, and cook until al dente. Be sure to flip them over once so that you get nice purty grill marks on both sides. Once done remove from the grill let cool (to handle) and chop them into 1-1/2 to 2 inch bits. Pour some lemon juice on, sprinkle the zest on top, and add salt and pepper to taste if necessary.

We had a salad on the side made of freshly picked lettuce  and radishes from the IV garden, carrots, red onion, tomatoes, and candied pecans lightly tossed in vegan caesar dressing. Our bellies are full. Hopefully you will one day enjoy this meal.

Alright this has been fun; hopefully someone will at least spell check for me before posting. This is Ryan signing off from a guest blogging stint.*

*Amy here: I think Ryan was an all-around superlative guest!  (and spelling…checked!)

Well, okay, this isn’t really about Earth Day. In fact, I rarely pay attention to Earth day. It’s like a Hallmark holiday for the planet–telling us that if we can just pay attention one day a year, we’re great people and everything will be okay. Most readers will already be attuned to the fact that adopting a vegan diet is one of the biggest things you can do for the environment.

Adopting a vegan diet has a greater impact in the fight against global warming than switching to a hybrid car does.

-  GoVeg.com, Eating Your Way to a Smaller ‘Ecological Footprint’

That being said, we’re always trying to challenge ourselves. Or, in this case, Amy’s mom helped to challenge us; last summer she bought us a push mower for our yard. The push mower is the bike of lawn mowers.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that gas-powered push mowers emit as much nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons per hour as 11 cars. Riding mowers emit as much as 34 cars.

- Union of Concerned Scientists, Low-Cost, Low-Impact Landscaping

One of the key reasons for this is the lack of regulation for lawn mowers. As slow as it’s going, the fight for better vehicle fuel standards is moving along. But what about lawn mowers? As bad as 11 cars?! Granted you’re probably only mowing 1 -2 hours a week, if that. But that’s 11 – 22 car hours–which isn’t trivial, by any stretch of the imagination.

Now, like biking, this is probably only a feasible option for folks with a sufficiently small lawn (well, you can bike if you have a big lawn, but not too big of a commute). Push mowing doesn’t take any more time, but does require a substantially greater amount of energy. But look on the bright side–after a few weeks, you’ll be able to crush a human skull with one hand.

It may also be worth noting that our mower is quite old; Amy’s mom found it at a garage sale and had the blades sharpened at a local hardware store. It’s very heavy. There are new mowers available that are as light as 20 lbs.

You’re already committed to the environment–why not take another small step?

Mark agreed to do the dreaded task of mulling through the taxes today, so I wanted to take good care of him and feed him well all day.  For some reason, I feel like having breakfast cooked for you is one of the most comforting acts someone can perform, so I declared it breakfast day and decided to make a couple of different breakfasts throughout the day.  I decided to indulge and make some pancakes for actual morning-time breakfast.  I adapted this recipe from Vegweb.

Buttermilk Pancakes (emphasis on butter)

On Vegweb, this recipe called for Egg Replacer and oil in the pancakes.  I like a buttery taste, and use Egg Replacer as seldom as possible, so I substituted apple sauce for the egg and melted Earth Balance ™ for the oil.  To make the pancakes fluffier, I used a little apple cider vinegar to curdle the soymilk and make buttermilk.

• 1 cup white all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp apple sauce (we use apple cinnamon flavor)
• 1 cup soymilk
• 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons melted Earth Balance ™ plus more for cooking

Mix wet ingredients in a medium sized bowl.  Mix dry ingredients in a larger bowl. Pour wet ingredients into dry – mix well until smooth consistency.

Dollop some batter onto medium heat (preheated) pan with a pat of Earth Balance ™ melted into it. Flip over when each pancake begins to bubble on top and goes from shiny to matte.

Serve with toping of your choice- ours is more Earth Balance ™ and piping hot real maple syrup.

Yum-er-oo!

Rainbow Chard Tofu Quiche

The other day we were at our local coop and saw a beautiful bunch of rainbow chard, which we had never really worked with before.  A recipe from the latest (March/April 2010) issue of VegNews involving chard came to mind and we snapped it up.  Having declared today breakfast day, I decided a yummy quiche should be our dinner and busted out the VegNews.  Now you recall the great quiche-off of 2009.  I was never hot on either of those quiches.  I think it’s because we tried to get all cheesey with them, when this quiche is perfect without any kind of cheese substitute.  This one is also so much “eggier” somehow- fluffier, not pastey like the other two.  At any rate, here it is, re-written by us here for you, and adapted a tiny bit based on the ingredients we had on hand.

First make the Basic Flakey Pie Crust:

(the recipe calls for shortening, but I didn’t have any, so used our friend Earth Balance ™ instead and upped the amount to increase the fat content)

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cold Earth Balance ™ (the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening)
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup of very cold water

In a large bowl, mix together flour and salt.  Slowly cut Earth Balance ™ into flour mixture, until you are left with pea-sized balls of flour-butter mixture.  Drizzle a tiny amount of the water over the mixture and gently work it in, first stirring, then moving into kneading when it seems solid enough.  Repeat with water until a firm, slightly sticky ball of dough has formed.  Wrap dough in a large sheet of wax paper and refrigerate for an hour.

Spred out wax paper on your countertop (I used a rolling mat so the paper wouldn’t slip).  Lightly flour your rolling pin and gently roll out dough, working from the center outward until dough is 1/4 inch thick.

Picking up the wax paper, carefully flip the dough over and lay evenly onto a pie plate. Tear off pieces of excess dough and patch any holes uneven areas around the edges. Fill with quiche filling and bake according to directions below.

Rainbow Chard Tofu Quiche (filling and baking directions)

• 1 lb. firm tofu, drained
• 1/3 cup unsweetened soymilk
• 1 tbsp safflower oil (the recipe calls for olive oil)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced (the recipe calls for 2)
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
• 1 tsp salt (the recipe calls for 1/2 tsp)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• a few cranks of pepper from a pepper mill (the recipe calls for 1/8 tsp)
• 1 medium-sized bunch of rainbow chard (the recipe calls for a large bunch of red chard) leaves thinly sliced and stems finely diced
• 1 Basic Flakey Pie Crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a food processor blend the tofu and soymilk until smooth and set aside.

In a saute pan, heat safflower oil over medium-high heat.  Add garlic, onion and salt and cook for several minutes until onions are translucent.  Add oregano, turmeric, pepper, and chard.  Cook until chard leaves are bright green and stems have softened.  Turn off heat and fold into tofu mixture.  The recipe doesn’t specify, but I would taste the mixture at this point and add salt and/or pepper to taste.

Pour mixture into prepared uncooked pie crust, spreading smoothly and evenly.  Bake for 25 minutes, remove from oven, drizzle top with a touch of oil, rotate and place back into oven for 20 more minutes for a total 45 minutes of cooking time (or until crust is golden brown).  Let cool and eat up!

This is our new go-to quiche recipe!

We served the quiche with a little fruit salad of apples and clementines and mimosas to celebrate the completion of taxes (with a nice little return) for yet another year!

As a side note, even though we still have a bit of winter left here in Michigan, our seedlings for our garden are growing up up up!  We spent the after-dinner hours transplanting the lettuce, kale and tomatoes into larger pots so they can grow big and strong.  Behold:

Okay. I know we assured you previously that the hatches were officially battened, that you could rest easy, tucked in for the winter. But, as Derrida suggests, battening is always deferred. There’re always some loose end to tie up.

Remember those herbs from out garden that we hung up to dry? Well, you eventually have to do something with those. It’s pretty easy, actually. Once they’re dry, take them down, untie them, and try to get the leaves off of the stems. This is pretty easy (if not tedious) with thyme and oregano, and slightly more arduous with sage. Additionally, since thyme and oregano have relatively small leaves, you don’t really have to crumble them any more than the what occurs in the stem removal process. They can go directly into spice jars. The sage will need to be crumbled by hand, or even ground lightly with a mortar and pestle. If you’re wondering about the parsley…instead of drying, ours withered and turned brown. Last year, we potted it and it left it through the winter in our three-season room. So, like the rosemary, you may decide against drying the ol’ parsels and just keeping it fresh on hand.

Since we recently got some new spice containers, we had some of our old ones handy for the dried herbs. Be sure to label them with a date.

The moment you’ve been waiting for is finally here!

Well.

The moment I’ve been waiting for, at least–cooking! All this work putting the gardens to bed, canning tomatoes, drying herbs, and freezing veggies and pesto, and nary a recipe, nary a meal.

As the final chapter in putting our veggies to bed, we needed to use up those last few tomatoes–the green ones on the verge of going bad. I think a lot of people just give up on these guys, but after all that work growing them, I wanted to use ours, come hell or highwater, devil be damned, and any number of other sundry euphemisms. So the logical answer was Fried Green Tomatoes. We rarely deign to fry at home–not because frying isn’t delicious, but because it makes the whole house smell and is better left to the infrequent bar meal–so I thought, why not bake these bastages? It turns out that VeganYumYum was actually using FatFreeVeganKitchen’s recipe for Oven-fried Green Tomatoes to begin with!

Neither Amy nor I had ever actually had fried green tomatoes, though I did see the movie for the first time last year. I don’t think I fully got the significance of the title until making them–taking something that isn’t ripe yet, on one hand, yet also on the verge of spoiling, on the other–and turning it into something amazing. Transforming waste into a delicacy.

I made a few adjustments to Susan’s recipe–essentially merging it with my Chik’n Almond Bake recipe. Additionally, our friend Ryan recently had the genius idea of dipping squash in soda water before battering–this works like a charm for getting batter to stick to slippery veggies.

The tomatoes wouldn’t be enough alone, so we paired this with a pesto pasta–using pesto made this last weekend. F. Yes. Feel the power.

Baked Green Tomatoes

• 4 large green tomatoes, cut into slices
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup quinoa flour
• 2 tbsp almond meal
• 1.5 tbsp nu yeast
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp salt, more to taste
• ~1/2 cup soda water

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Slice up the maters. Dunk each tomato in soda water then dunk in the batter, coating thoroughly. Place on an oiled baking sheet. Douse lightly with olive oil and make 15 minutes to a side. You may need to bake an additional 5 minutes to a side, depending on your oven. You want each side to be brown and crispy.

Pesto Pasta

• Pesto
• Pasta

Cook and eat!

I jest. But it is almost that easy. Make as much pasta as you want–hopefully you’ll have made more than enough pesto. About 3:1 dry pasta to pesto is a reasonable rule of thumb. For the pesto, I want to avoid a strict recipe–you often don’t control how much basil you have, so any exact recipe can only lead you astray.

You’ll need:

• basil
• pine nuts
• OR walnuts
• OR both
• olive oil
• garlic
• salt

In a food processor, grind the basil in enough olive oil to keep things moist. Add in nuts and garlic a little at a time–you can’t really over-process this, so better not to overdo it. Pine nuts produce more oil than walnuts and have a stronger taste; keep this in mind as you mix. When the pesto is nice and creamy, add salt to taste.

If you made a lot, you can freeze it in ice cube trays. We used half fresh/half frozen in the pesto pasta and it worked like a champ.

When you’re satisfied with your pesto, toss it with the noodles in a frying pan over medium heat. Add in a few fresh, ripe tomatoes for color and a touch of zang.

Now relax. You’ve done what needed doing. You, my friend, are a true champeen.

Hatches = Battened

Okay. So we’ve pretty much got tomatoes covered (we’ll talk about green tomatoes in the next post). So let’s talk about gardens, and the putting-to-bed thereof.

Wait. First let’s talk about the gardens themselves. A few years ago, while visiting Amy’s fambly in Georgia, we stumbled upon an old copy of Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening that belonged to Amy’s uncle. Amy got about 3/4 of the way through it before the weekend was up, so her uncle kindly donated the book to “the cause”–the cause being our gardens. We’d put together some ramshackle first-timer gardens the year before, with a moderate amount of success, so why not bite off way more than we could possibly chew and plant four (4) square foot gardens (Mel recommends one or two for first-timers–booo-ring!)? And, just to make sure that we didn’t have any extra time to spare, why not build five (5) rain barrels?

Long story short, the weather wasn’t great, Mel’s soil recommendations weren’t very good (we have great soil here–Mel recommends creating your own soil mix and totally disregarding what you’ve got…we respectfully disagree), and our gardens weren’t that happy.

This year though, we were far more prepared. We made spreadsheets. Let me say it again for effect: SPREADSHEETS. We raised a few beds, busted out the rain barrels, and prepared to kick major garden ass. And over all, this year went really well. We got enough rain to almost entirely avoid municipal water and had good enough weather that most of our stuff thrived: lettuce, green beans (performed like true champeens), cucumbers, zucchini, kale, tomatoes, summer squash, bell peppers, hot peppers, celery, carrots, potatoes, and herbs. We had some failures too, of course: spinach never did a thing; the second crop of lettuce gave up without a fight; the butternut squash was strangled evil-twin-in-the-womb-style by the summer squash; and the bell peppers I just claimed as a success were actually pretty damn small.

We found ways to eat most of this stuff as it came in…though we struggled with a few things. I mean, zucchini got it’s own tag. We still haven’t used it all.

And here we are at the end of the season. So what to do with all the stuff that’s still there?

Carrots: Dig ‘em up, remove the greens, wash ‘em, and refrigerate. Carrots will last quite a long time in the refrigerator. If you have a huge surplus of carrots, you can blanch and freeze them. In theory, you can also leave them until spring; they’ll be larger and sweeter. We couldn’t wait. (more info)

Potatoes: Dig ‘em up, wash ‘em, store ‘em in an attractive bowl. You can also blanch these, if you have too many. Or make a bed out of mashed potatoes. Your call. We had a lot better luck with our red potatoes than brown, for what it’s worth. They’re smaller and seem to thrive better in smaller gardens. (more info)

Celery: Same as carrots. Seriously. Exactly the same. That being said, a lot of our celery was still looking a little small, so we covered them in 1′ cubed garden boxes, in hopes that they’ll keep trying. Don’t they love us? (more info)

Green Beans: Almost the same as carrots. Green beans won’t keep as long, and it’s far more likely (if you’re gardens are identical to ours) that you’ll have more than you can use before they go bad. You’ll very likely have to blanch these guys. We did. Just boil them for 3 minutes, then bathe in ice-cold water for another 6 minutes. Freeze. I hope I’m not ruining the suspense, but that’s pretty much all blanching means for most produce (except tomatoes). (more info)

Peppers: There’s no way you have enough peppers to be worried about this. If so, please send by carrier pigeon to: Ypsilanti, MI, USA. I’m sure either I or Jennifer from Scrumpdilly will get them. Otherwise, you can: (more info).

Kale: See Peppers. You’re pretty much just stuck eating kale, which isn’t a bad thing. In general, you can freeze greens, but you’d have to be working pretty hard to grow enough greens that you couldn’t use them up before they went bad. But maybe you craftily picked up a ton from a local farmer? Well…you can freeze them. As usual, just blanch and freeze. Can you see the pattern here? (more info)

Cabbage: Okay. I’m actually serious this time. You can’t possibly have enough cabbage to really be overthinking this. Of course, one head of cabbage lasts like a month…so, if you grew two, I guess that’s a problem. You can blanch cabbage. But c’mon!

Squash/Zucchini: You can just cut and freeze this directly, according to Disposable Aardvarks Inc. It can get pretty tough to use. Man.

Tomatoes: We’ve already detailed our adventures in canning, so what more could there be? Well, not all of your tomatoes are going to be ripe. But you need to harvest the green ones before it gets nasty out, or they’ll all just rot. So. Here’s what you do: take the heartiest greens and wrap them in paper and put them in a box. Store the box in a cool place (in theory a basement or cellar–we have ours in our three-season room). They’ll ripen. In the box. How awesome is nature? We did this two years ago and had fresh tomatoes into December. The not-so-hearty, will-be-rotting-soon, have-started-to-rot-but-are-still-salvageable tomatoes can be saved too. Cut off the bad parts, slice ‘em up, and make Baked Green Tomatoes.

Blanching

Before freezing most veggies, you’ll want to blanch them. Though the time can vary a little depending on the veggie (pay close attention on potatoes [they're a starch]–you can wing it on most other stuff, if you’re a wingin’ it kinda person), the general rule of thumb is put in boiling water for 3 minutes, then put in ice cold water for 6. The less dense the veggie, the less time it needs. So green beans, for instance, only require about a minute in the boiling water. You can freeze veggies as soon as they’re drained.

Herbs: This is a little more complicated, depending on which herbs are perennial and which aren’t. So here ya go:

Perennial

• sage
• oregano
• chives
• thyme
• rosemary (BUT–this can’t deal with major cold; you have to transplant and bring it in.)

Annual

• cilantro
• parsley
• basil

Any/all of these can be dried. Just hang them in a warm, dry place. The more you can separate them, the better they will dry. In terms of harvesting, you should grab all of the annuals and pull up the roots. The perennials, you can leave–except for the rosemary; it doesn’t like temps under 30 degrees Fahrenheit. You need to dig it up, pot it, and bring it in. The rest of the perennials should be harvested almost fully; just leave enough for the plant to start strong next year.

Additionally, cilantro, parsley, and basil can all be made into pesto, put into ice-cube trays, and frozen.

This might seem like a lot of work, but it’s all pretty easy and the payoff is well worth it–far easier than canning.

Now if we could just teach our cats to run an indoor hothouse for year-round lettuce.

If, like us, you live in Southeast Michigan, winter is nigh! Last weekend was the first freeze, so it was time to batten down the hatches and begin the winter nesting ritual: putting the gardens to bed, harvesting the veggies, bringing in the rain barrels, and this year, canning.

Canning is something we’ve meant to do for years now. If you’re interested in eating local, canning is a great way of making the produce from your garden or your local farmer’s market extend into the winter. We don’t grow enough for our gardens to necessitate this, however, so it’s never been a huge priority–just a matter of curiosity and conviction. On top of that, we’re lucky enough to live near Eden Organics, so we can get local canned tomatoes and beans, as well as soymilk year round. This comes with the caveat, of course, that they prefer/try to source local ingredients. Ethics aside, though, there is certainly something more intimate about using tomatoes that you’ve grown, or that you’ve gotten from a local farmer directly.

So this year was the year. It turns out that canning is a lot of work, depending on how fastidious you are. Since we’re newbies and didn’t really have any of the necessary supplies on hand, we figured we do this right and get a pressure canner. I know, I know. Regular water bath canning is pretty much just fine for tomatoes–they ride that fine line between being too acidic and being just right. But. Theoretically, it’s safer to use a pressure canner, because at 10lbs of pressure it brings food to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Regular water bath canning only reaches 212 degrees. Most of the dangerous wee beasties are killed at 240 degrees. This is easily remedies by taking the proper precautions, but we like not getting botulism. So pressure canning it was.

We ended up splitting the tomatoes roughly in half–half for sauce and half for plain ol’ maters.

The Sauce

• ~ 15 lbs tomatoes, diced
• 1 medium-sized white or yellow onion, diced
• 1 medium-sized green bell pepper, diced
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 – 2 tbsp brown sugar
• olive oil

We took the easy way out on the sauce–we didn’t blanch, seed, or peel the tomatoes. We just sauteed a little garlic (supposedly, you want to go easy on thing like onions and garlic in canning, as they can become somewhat bitter over time) in a small pond of olive oil, diced up the tomatoes, and cooked them down over medium heat. Meanwhile, we diced and sauteed a white onion and green bell pepper. When the onion and pepper were soft, and the tomatoes had cooked down quite a bit, we strained the tomatoes over a pot. This gets rid of all the excess juice–which we later used to can the other tomatoes in and to make tortilla soup. We put the maters back in the pot and added in the onions and peppers and let cook for another 45 minutes  – 1 hour, as we prepared the rest of the tomatoes.

Yield: 3 1-quart jars

The Rest of the Tomatoes

For the other 15 lbs of tomatoes, we blanched them in boiling water (leave in for only about a minute) and then immersed them in an ice bath. We removed the peels and cut into quarters. We didn’t remove the seeds, but a sufficiently fastidious person might. This process sounds simple when reduced to a sentence, but I find blanching and peeling tomatoes utterly miserablech. By the end, my hands were getting wrinkled from all the tomato juice.

Yield: 5 1-quart jars

The Canning Process

We dishwashed the jars and tried to time it so they’d still be hot when all of the tomatoes were done. You want the jars still hot–people often boil them. We boiled the tomato juice leftover from the sauce and packed the tomatoes into 5 jars, filling in with boiling tomato juice and tbsp of lemon juice (helps preserve flavor and inhibits wee beasties). They got pressure cooked for 10 minutes at 11 lbs. They look like pickled innards, but also kind of beautiful.

We plopped the sauce into 3 jars and also topped with lemon juice. These got pressure cooked for 15 minutes at 11 lbs. Well, more like at 11 – 15 lbs, as I was having a hell of a time getting the pressure set where I wanted it. I guess this is something you learn about your pressure cooker and your stove over time. I’m pretty adept at getting our smaller pressure cooker to work with beans, but the big guy is still something of an enigma. I guess as long as you don’t drop under 10lbs, you’re okay; you want to keep enough pressure to maintain a steady 250 degrees.

The downside of the pressure canner is you don’t get that fabled POP!. By the time it’s done its thing, your stuff is sealed as tight as a drum.

But is it Cheaper?

Ultimately, I don’t know that we saved much money. Organic tomatoes usually go or $3.50 – $4.00/lb at the farmer’s market. We got a pretty decent bulk price of $2.50/lb for a little under 30 lbs. Using your elite maths, you can see that this is almost $75 worth of tomatoes. This got us 3 jars of sauce and 5 jars of tomatoes. Eden sells canned tomatoes @ $3/28oz, directly, so with our coop’s markup and the 4 oz difference, that’d be about $4 for an equivalent amount. We made 5, so that’d be about $20. Ugh. The sauce would probably be $5/jar equivalently. We made 3 jars, so $15. For a grand total of $35. Ouch! It makes me feel slightly better that Walnut Acres (based on New York) sauce goes for like $8/jar at our coop. I think we came in at about $10/jar of sauce and $8/jar of tomatoes.

Was it Worth it?

Warm fuzzy feeling aside, was it worth it? For the experience, for sure. I always think there’s value in learning where your food comes from by doing it yourself. It helps keep things in perspective and keeps you closer to your food. On the other hand, it also helps you appreciate industrialization and specialization, when carried out in an ethical way. Eden can make this stuff much more efficiently than Amy and I.

Is there social value in canning? Absolutely. We buy most of our produce from the same farm and it’s certainly worth helping to keep their business viable.

Is there ethical/environmental value in canning? Well…it’s certainly about is local as you can get–especially if you can your own produce (which is obviously far more cost effective). We know where our produce came from, and we processed it in our own kitchen, so the alleged food miles are about as low as they could be.

And I’m sure if you ask us after we pop open that first jar of sauce if it was worth it, you’ll get a resounding “Hell yes!”

Feel Free to Stop Here; I’m About to Philosophize

It takes a whole afternoon and costs a lot more; could this time and money have been put into a better cause? This is always the big question. In this, the age of specialization, the most efficient use of my time will always be web programming–my area of specialty. I can then use the money I make to pay other people with less specialization (cheaper) or more specialization (faster) to do the good that I would have done directly. And while this is the natural aim of progress, it also limits our experience and, thus, our understanding of the world. Let me curtail this philosophical digression by saying that, yes, I do think there’s some inherent value in acquiring understanding–that while we didn’t save any money and probably didn’t do much either way environmentally–we’re more geared to make better food choices and to help others make those choices.