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Backyardnotes

~ All things botanical in photos and words—in my West Seattle garden and elsewhere; seeing and creating art and assorted musings.

Backyardnotes

Category Archives: EAT!

NOT EXACTLY CANNING…

07 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, EAT!, Gardening, Harvest, Vegetable garden, Winter

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Tags

cauliflower plants, fermented cauliflower, fermenting, pickling, Romanesco cauliflower, Veronica Cauliflower, Weir Seal, Western Stoneware crock

My heirloom preserving crock

My heirloom preserving crock

IN MY PREVIOUS POST I SAID no more canning for awhile. While strictly true, I seem to have to much of a good thing in my vegetable garden. And that would be several Romanesco type cauliflower plants in various stages of growth and at least two needed immediate harvesting. I have pickled and canned cauliflower in the past and since I am decidedly not in the mood to pickle and can in the usual sense, I am having a go at fermented cauliflower pickle. This will certainly be something different and I hope, tasty.

Romanesco cauliflower 'Veronica'

Romanesco cauliflower ‘Veronica’

I don’t know how much this large head weighed but it was about seven inches across. A second, smaller one was more conical and not as flat as the one pictured above. I really like this type of cauliflower for its unique color, flavor, texture, and of course the showy form. The plants are quite robust, with stalks that top out around 2-3 feet high and here at least, need staking against winter wind.

The Western Stoneware with Weir Seal

The Western Stoneware with Weir Seal (any relationship to the meaning of a weir dam?)

I have a lovely and cherished, old heirloom crock that belonged to my wonderful, late mother-in-law who taught me to can and helped me plant my first vegetable garden many, many, years ago. The crock is Western Stoneware and proudly proclaims its maker, provenance and Weir Seal on its lid. I have a feeling that the crock originally belonged to her mother; her brother’s initials, JFM, are scrawled on the bottom of the crock with a grease pencil. The Mahoney family had a farm along the Willamette River in Gervais, Oregon, where my mother-in-law, Helen, grew up. I came into possession of it after she passed away in 1999. I think the capacity is not quite a gallon. I have used it for fermenting as well as making fruit infused vinegars. Just one more thing that reminds me of her generosity and love when I use it.

Not ready to pick, but soon!

Not ready to pick, but soon!

I layered the cauliflower florets and peeled, sliced stems with a few small carrots (from the garden too), garlic (homegrown), onion and a couple of dried ancho chiles, some typical pickling spices and a 5% brine solution.

Ready to go!

Ready to go!

Fermenting is kind of exciting because the results are always a surprise. It is also an exercise in patience and diligence.

The homemade plastic 'seal'

The homemade plastic ‘seal’

This is my version of a ‘seal’ to keep the contents of the jar submerged. I saw something like this on someone’s website several years ago and it works great. If your ingredients still want to bob-up, a brine filled plastic bag will sit neatly on top. Cut up any plastic lid that is slightly larger than the mouth of the vessel; cut a slit from one edge to the center, fold to a cone shape and place over the contents and push down until the liquid covers the plastic and it is seated. The ‘seal’ is reusable or cut a new one next time.

Now I wait; will it be five days, seven days, or as long as two weeks for results? Darn! I’ll report back.

 

 

 

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A SCHOOL BUS & RADISH TOPS

20 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Cooking & Eating, Creative, EAT!, Flowers, Harvest, Inspriation, Vegetable garden

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Asparagus, pesto, Radish tops, Radishes, school bus, school bus planter, Sockeye salmon, toy school bus

LindaBus_4

A FRIEND OF OURS IS RETIRING FROM SCHOOL BUS DRIVING TODAY. I wanted to find a little toy school bus at Goodwill. What the groundskeeper found instead was a BIG school bus toy with an open top that I immediately saw as a planter! After a few holes were drilled in the bottom for drainage, I added window screen mesh on the inside to keep the soil in. I added a few homemade stickers and plants and here it is. I think it’s adorable and I think our friend will too.

LindaBus_5

 

Our friend is a dog lover who fosters dogs.

Our friend is a dog lover who fosters dogs.

ABOUT THE RADISH TOPS. I had intended to make this post yesterday after a prolonged hiatus of from the blog (too many other projects to deal with), but that bus planter was just too darn cute to leave out.

I picked some very nice radishes on Wednesday and the tops were too nice to toss into the compost. They had a slightly tart flavor and I thought they would make a nice ‘pesto’ type sauce.

grwingradishes

I combined the radish tops with some aspargus spears and four or five garlic scapes in the food processor.

Garlic scapes and aparagus

Garlic scapes and aparagus

Ready to purée

Ready to purée

radishpesto_1

Add some olive oil and a little salt, pepper, and purée until smooth. Taste for seasoning. At this point it can be put up in small jars, topped with a little  olive oil and frozen for later use or top with oil and store in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Cheese can be added just before using if you plan to use it on pasta in a more traditional pesto style.

I managed to fill a pint jar

I managed to fill a pint jar

We cooked a piece of Alaska sockeye salmon on the grill adding some of the sauce near the end of cooking.

Sockeye salmon with radish top pesto

Sockeye salmon with radish top pesto

Radish greens

Radish greens

Using radish tops was new for me. I knew they were not much different from most mustard greens other than the leaves being a bit fuzzy, so I thought: Why Not? It’s nice to figure out ways to get the maximum out of what I harvest from the garden. Maybe carrot tops will be next! How do you maximize your harvest?

 

 

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FORAGING THE DECEMBER VEGETABLE GARDEN

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Cooking & Eating, December, EAT!, Fun in the Garden, Winter

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Foraging, lacianto kale, mixed greens, mustard greens, radicchio, Rubine brussels sprouts, salad dressing, treviso, Winter salads, winter vegetable garden

The vegetable garden at partial rest on the last day of 2013

The vegetable garden at partial rest on the last day of 2013

EARLIER THIS MONTH we had some decidedly cold weather for these parts–a week of temperatures in the low-to-mid 20’s overnight and not much above freezing during the daytime. Some of the more winter hardy vegetables are rebounding and shedding leaves that have turned to mush. Often at this time of year there are slim pickings for salads, but who doesn’t love a challenge?

Treviso type raddichio

Treviso type radicchio

Late yesterday I went foraging for salad material. I was able to collect some small, barely heading radicchio, lots of parsley, some Mibuna type mustard greens, cilantro, lacinato kale, small leaves from Rosalind broccoli, and some Rubine brussels sprouts; all hardy, hearty and strong greens.

Mixed, washed greens

Mixed, washed greens

Small lacinato kale leaves

Small lacinato kale leaves

Shaved Rubine brussels sprouts

Shaved Rubine brussels sprouts

Now, to put together the right dressing, equally hearty with flavors to stand up to and compliment the bitterness and ‘greeness’ of some of the greens.

The salad dressing

The salad dressing

My favorite salad bowl was probably made for proofing bread dough once-upon-a-time. My grandma Aggie always had it filled with unshelled nuts, especially from Thanksgiving to Christmas and I never saw bread dough in it. I have owned it for 40 plus years and it is well seasoned by now. I mashed 2 cloves of garlic with some coarse salt into a paste; mashed 2 anchovy filets into a paste as well. To the garlic and anchovies, I whisked in 1 1⁄2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, two teaspoons Dijon mustard and three tablespoons of grassy olive oil. About a tablespoon or so of capers added some extra punch.

The dressed greens

The dressed greens

I added the greens, a little sliced celery and sweet slices of pear, the last one from our tree; tossed all together, sprinkled on some pomegranate seeds and a few grinds of pepper.

dressedgreens_2

It was a fantastic salad, with bright and biting flavors. It may be on the menu tonight too!

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has stumbled upon this blog and paused to read one of my posts, and to those of you who subscribe. This is my 151st post since I began the blog in 2009. This year posts were kind of sporadic and I took a two month break; I might still have something left to say in 2014.

May you all have a HAPPY NEW YEAR IN 2014!

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EATING SPRING

12 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Cooking & Eating, EAT!, Food, Herbs, Spring

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basil pesto, fennel fronds, foccacia, food, greens, herb pesto, herbs, pesto, purple mustard, Spring, Spring in a jar

Spring greens & herbs

I LOOK FORWARD TO EARLY SPRING WHEN HERBS RETURN TO LIFE. Forget about boring old basil pesto. Cut a big variety of herbs and your favorite greens; fennel fronds, sage leave, rosemary, thyme, parsley, cilantro, purple mustard leaves, kale, arugula, or whatever strikes your fancy! Don’t forget the chives!

processingherbs

Strip the smaller leave from woody herb stems, otherwise just tear the leave coarsely and pile as much as you can into a food processor, add two or ten cloves of garlic, salt to taste (a little at first) and some olive oil (a quarter to half cup) to get things going and puree, adding more oil as needed until mixture is smooth or the texture you like. Taste and adjust seasoning and amount of oil.

The finished pesto

Spring in a jar!

At this point I jarred half of the mixture and added lightly toasted walnuts and pine nuts to the remaining puree in the processor and processed until smooth. I covered the pesto with a film of olive oil, sealed up the jars and put some into the freezer for later use.

Add a spoonful to a vinaigrette dressing, smear some on a plate and top with roasted, skinned and cooled roma tomatoes and fresh mozzarella; treat as you would basil pesto and toss with pasta or…

Foccacia dough

Add a big spoonful into some foccacia dough or savory quick bread batter.

foccacia_1a bakedfoccacia

HERE’S to SPRING!

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RADISH FEVER!

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in EAT!, Fall, Vegetable garden

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backyard farm, black radish, Daikon radish, food, french breakfast, planting radishes, radish salad, Radishes, Shrinmei radish

French Breakfast, black, New Crown Daikon, Round Core Shrinmei & Easter Egg.

IT’S A FEAST OF RADISHES HERE at Backyard Farm. Most were planted mid-to-late August. The smaller French breakfast type are now getting a bit hot and woody/spongey. The large daikon type radishes are probably good for another month or more if they don’t become buggy as they grow larger and some of the black radishes are golf ball size or larger.

Pretty round core and assorted radishes.

So far, the favorite is the red centered round core – so pretty, tasty and photogenic! Lots of paper thin slices tossed with a bit of lemon juice, finely chopped parsley, some olive oil, and salt make for a wonderfully sassy and refreshing salad. The daikons are sweet with just a little heat; the black radishes have some heat, need peeling, and good for raw eating if sliced paper thin, but are probably best when cooked (like turnips).

Got a favorite radish variety or ways to eat them?

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