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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

Tag Archives: food

PICKLED ASPARAGUS

15 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving

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art studio, Asparagus, canning, Ellensburg, food, Pickled asparagus, pickling, Spring, thorp

Washington asparagus

Washington asparagus

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE ASPARAGUS. IN NEARLY ANY FORM. PICKLED IS ESPECIALLY GOOD. I could probably eat it every day. The first weekend in June I made a trip to Ellensburg for an art studio tour with a friend, one of my daughters and granddaughter. In particular I really wanted to visit Dick & Jane’s Spot. On the back west to Seattle we stopped at Thorp to buy local, Washington asparagus.

One problem with pickling asparagus are the leftover ends. I solved that problem last year in the following way:

The un-pretty ends

The leftover ends

Once the lovely spears have been cut to fit the jars, cut the remaining ends into just-larger-than-bite-size pieces (do not use the tough ends) and stuff into jars and process along with the spears. Just as tasty and little to no wasted asparagus.

All the pieces!

All the pieces!

15 pounds of asparagus yielded about seven pints of spears and pieces.

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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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PLANTING THE FALL VEGETABLE GARDEN

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Planting, Vegetable garden

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Buttercup squash, food, lettuce seed, mustard greens, plants, radish, Rescue Pear, seedlings, solarizing soil, Spartan Apple, vegetable garden, vegetable seeds, volunteer seedlings

ANTICIPATION IS SOWN WITH EACH SEED THAT GOES INTO THE GROUND. With the first sign of germination is the hope that success and sustenance may be in the offing. No seeds deliver like those of the radish family, pushing up through the soil within three days of planting. Carrots, onions and celery on the other hand come with hand wringing and second-guessing since they can take up to 21 or more days to pop through the soil.

MY vacation from gardening now effectively over, soil prep and direct seeding began the first week of August as there is plenty of time here for late fall-early winter harvesting of many vegetables and many overwinter nicely around here.

When I put the garden to bed before our long trip I used heavy black plastic to keep the weeds from taking over. And so far, the only unwanted seeds that have sprouted are squash, melon and tomato seeds from the compost that I laid down for the fall garden. Weeds are blessedly absent!

Volunteer squash seedling

Although it is really late in the season to see any productivity from these volunteers, I have left a few of the squash (melon? cucumber?) seedlings to see what develops.

The volunteer(s) 28 days later and still an unknown.

Arugula seedlings, like radishes up quick!

Carrot seedlings, germinating over a period of 8 to 21 days

Direct seeded: Beets (3 types), turnips ((2), carrots (3), radishes (5), fennel (2), kohlrabi, kale (3), chard (3), arugula, dill, Chinese/Napa type cabbage (2), radicchio, Asian type mustard greens (3), Walla Walla onion (for transplanting in February), and a big mix of a lot of lettuce seed that is anywhere between 10 and 2 years old (kind of my own mesclun mix to see what actually germinates.) In my experience lettuce seed seems to have the shortest viability of all vegetable seed.

Red cabbage start from the nursery

I also started a number of brassicas, some chicories (endive, escarole, etc), and a few lettuces in six-packs just now ready for transplanting. Thankfully mornings are cool this time of year, perfect for transplanting. I also purchased a six-pack each of purple cauliflower and red cabbage a couple weeks ago that had a big head start on my starts.

Buttercup squash

I planted some squash seeds when I set out the tomato plants and this buttercup squash is the only one to have germinated and survived in our absence. It is happily crawling up the tomato trellis and there are three squash so far. And the half-dozen tomato plants have produced tomatoes in spite of the lack of regular water and pruning for seven weeks. Hurray, all is not lost.

The vegetable garden, week five–anticipation rewarded!

Rescue Pear

The pears are lovely and large again this year even without thinning. The Akane apples are a total loss due to the apple maggot but we have lucked out with the Spartans which are sweet-tart, crisp and picture perfect!

Spartan apples

Now all that’s left to do is harvest some tomatoes, apples and pears and plant garlic and fava beans next month.

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MAKING THE MOST OF THE LAST

16 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by backyardnotes in Vegetable garden

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cabbage, cabbage flowers, Celery, Fizz kale, food, tomatoes

Red cabbage blossoms

LITTLE BY LITTLE MOST OF THE VEGETABLE GARDEN is headed for a long nap. Nearly all of winter’s plantings are gone now.

Only a few ‘Fizz” kale plants (above and really good kale), some endive, escarole, and volunteer lettuces remain. The garlic won’t be ready to pull until mid-July and we should be back home within a week or two after that.

Celery ‘Red Venture’

Last spring I planted Red Venture celery. The leaves have a strong celery flavor and were useful in soups, herby pesto type mixtures and a few leaves chopped and added to winter greens salads. The stalks were slightly bitter. Now the plants are bolting. When I cut the bolting stalk, it seemed tender and I sample a slice–sweet and tender!

I cut a few, peeled and sliced them and added to a salad. They add a sweet note paired with bitter greens and a robust dressing of garlic, anchovies and red wine vinegar. A revelation in that most bolting stalks of lettuces, etc. are tough and woody. Always something new to learn when you grow your own vegetables.

I have five Arrowhead cabbages just now maturing so have to figure how to use them. Not enough time to make sauerkraut before D-day, I think.

Our weather has been fabulously warm the past week so yesterday I planted the seven tomato plants purchase at the end of April at Christianson’s Nursery in Mt. Vernon. I pulled a whole row of fava beans to make way for the tomatoes and pulled off the string bean sized pods. Planning to cook them as green beans and see how the taste. That will be a first!

So that I will have something to look forward too upon our return I also stuck some squash seeds in the same bed as it will be the only one watered in our absence. And, I couldn’t imagine being without brussels sprouts this coming winter so I dropped some seeds in a few pots; with luck they will have germinated and be ready to plant before our departure. I had wonderful luck with these varieties last year: Roodnerf, Oliver and Bubbles, the best I’ve ever planted.

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