by Rose on May 19, 2008
Dreaming of a beautiful, fresh, organic vegetable garden but not sure if you have a green thumb, the space or the time? Here are some tips to help anyone get started. (Also known as if I can manage not to kill it so can you! 
)
- Show no fear. Let’s get one issue out of the way right away. You are going to kill some plants. Accept and make peace with that fact. 10 years later when your friends think of you as a master gardener you will still occasionally kill some plants. It will just happen a lot less often. The nice thing is most plants, especially vegetables, are cheap. As I recently heard a farmer put it, “The cool thing about gardening is you always get a fresh start next year.” It’s a good thing too since this year I tried growing cauliflower. I’m not sure what I did wrong but it went from angry to dead in about 2 days.
- Size doesn’t matter. To grow fresh produce you don’t need a farm. You don’t need a yard. You don’t even need a balcony. All you need is a location where you can combine a little sunshine and a little dirt. A garden can be as simple as a single herb or lettuce plant in a pot in the window or as complex as a multi-acre field. In fact if you are just starting out think small. Grand dreams can lead to grand burnout. Dig a little. Plant a little. See if you can maintain it and then expand. I loosely follow the Square Foot Gardening system because it lets you expand literally one foot at a time.
- Plants forgive a lot. If you sit down and read a garden book you will quickly find yourself overwhelmed with descriptions of soil acidity, sun/shade levels, proper fertilization, etc. By the time you are done reading it will seem like you need a PhD just to plant a tomato. The truth is if you get all these right you will have bigger, stronger, healthier plants. However if you get them all wrong you will still have plants. When starting out don’t let perfection get in the way of having something. Plant a little. See how they do. Fix things if they turn out to be broken. Plants will forgive a lot. For example a strict follower of Square Foot Gardening digs in certain proportions of compost, peat moss, and organic fertilizer. When I did my plots I dug in a layer of each but I have no clue of the exact proportions.
- Plants need water. This may seem obvious but I actually had to pause at this point and go water my garden… a day late. Sorry plants! Some of you may be lucky enough to live somewhere that rains routinely and your soil is always perfectly moist but not too moist. I will try not to curse you. For the rest of us there will be times when your garden needs water. Usually this will occur the moment you leave for a 2 week vacation. If at any point in the growing season you need to run sprinklers on your lawn you will need to water your garden. Make your life easy and protect your investment in money and labor. Set up a low effort watering system. For example my husband setup a drip irrigation system on a timer for me last summer. This weekend I’m re-enabling it before I almost kill off any more plants. It was relatively cheap from parts at the local hardware store and let me go on vacation… or just have a rough week, garden worry free.
- Plants can be picky about temperature. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my kale plants survived all winter long. Now I know they are cold hardy and will plant accordingly. On the other hand my tomato plants died the first night it frosted. That’s expected in the fall but it can be quiet a surprise in the spring. The first warm day in early spring is not the time to plant everything. Each plant has a certain amount of cold hardiness. Some will just stall if it frosts… others will die. To save a lot of frustration look up the average frost dates for your area. Then for each plant look up how many weeks before or after the date they like to be planted. Peas are forgiving and can go in early. On the other hand tomatoes better wait until you sure they aren’t going to get frost tinged
Image: 2007-12-07_1125 by rosewx12, on Flickr
by Rose on May 13, 2008
Ok, I must apologize for this recipe taking longer then a week to post. Here’s my current favorite pancake recipe. Feel free to spruce it up by tossing berries or small chunks of fruit onto the pancakes after you pour the batter in the pan. My favorites are banana or blueberry. Also, when making them for small children free hand two extra small circles of batter on one side and you have mouse ear pancakes. It’s the only way my daughter will eat them now.
Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes
Adapted (with changes) from “I’m Just Here for More Food” by Alton Brown.
- 2 c Whole Wheat Flour (I like White Whole Wheat. It has a slightly milder flavor.)
- 1 t Baking Powder
- 1/2 t Baking Soda
- 1 t Salt
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 c Milk
- 1 c Yogurt
- 4 T Melted Butter
- 2 T Honey
- Whisk together the 4 dry ingredients
- Whisk together the 5 wet ingredients
- Poor the wet on dry and mix just until combined
- Let sit 5 minutes while preheating a lightly oiled pan
- Cook over medium high to medium heat. Adjust the temperature so the bottom is brown at about the same time as you see bubbles popping on top and leaving a slight hole that doesn’t immediately refill with batter. (This takes a little adjusting.)
- Flip and cook through.
- Eat with yogurt, honey or maples syrup and fresh fruit.
- Freeze leftovers. To defrost either toast or microwave on defrost. In this case I actually like the microwave because the “soggy” bread syndrome actually makes the pancakes nice and soft the second time around.
Image: gingerbread pancakes by rachel is coconut&lime on flickr
by Rose on May 3, 2008
It’s that time of year again. The Boise farmer’s market has been open for 3 weeks and I am in heaven. In case you don’t know I’m a confirmed farmer’s market addict. I search them out as travel attractions when ever we vacation. Just ask my husband about the time I picked him up from the Bend airport and “just happened” to stumble upon the bend market on my way there.
The key to market shopping in the early spring is to get there early. There’s fresh produce but it can be sparse and goes fast. If you want a good laugh imagine me running around the house trying to hurry everyone into the car. “If we don’t leave now there will not be any baby bok choy!!!” Yes, I really am that crazy about my farm fresh produce.
In the spring and summer my favorite cooking style is to keep it simple. Most spring produce fresh picked out of a garden or farm is so light and tasty it really doesn’t need much help. Not to mention that frees me up to spend more time in the garden, at the park, hiking the foothills, writing this blog, etc. For the vegetable portion of lunch after the market I like to make a simple dip and serve it with a big bowl of the latest fresh vegetables.
All Purpose Farmer’s Market Dip
- 1/4 c Plain Yogurt
- 2 T milk
- 2 T Aioli (Garlic Mayonnaise) or Regular Mayonnaise
- 1 t Honey
- 1/2 t Vinegar (Your favorite type)
- 1 Medium Clove Garlic Crushed (Feel free to add more )
- 1 t Dill (Fresh or Dried… I killed my dill plant last year so it’s all dried here)
- Fresh parsley (To taste and optional)
- 1/8 t Salt
- Smoked Paprika to Taste (This makes the dip and is well worth hunting down. It adds a smokey good baconish taste)
- 1 Crisp Cooked slice of bacon finally diced (Optional, I’m experimenting with using this instead of the smoked paprika since my youngest is allergic to paprika. Yes you can be allergic to anything!)
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Let sit long enough to wash the vegetables and cut into sticks if needed. Better over night… but I never plan that far ahead.
I’ve currently used the dip with the following spring finds:
- Baby Bok Choy (My Favorite!)
- Carrots in sticks (Some markets have carrots if the farmer winters them over)
- Raw asparagus (Tastes kind of like snow peas with a stronger overtone.)
- Baby greens
The nice thing is this basic meal can be used all spring and summer. It’s always changing based on the vegetables in season but the basic steps are the same. Feel free to customize the dressing with your favorite herbs. I recently discovered I had 3 bottles of dried dill in my spice cabinet… so there’s going to be a lot of dill eating in this household. (Sorry dear.)
Thank you to Eat. Drink. Better. for featuring this article in their Farmers Market Fare.
Thank you to Kelly the Kitchen Kop. This article is in the Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival.
Image: Farmers’ Market 2 by Julia Manzerova on Flickr
by Rose on May 1, 2008
I have lost count of the number of times I’ve needed a good buttermilk substitute. In fact the one thing I can guarantee is that if I want to make a recipe that calls for buttermilk it will not be in my kitchen. I just don’t use it frequently enough. In the past I would buy it and it would sit unused until expiring and then I’d want buttermilk pancakes the very next day. Now I have yet to find a single brand that doesn’t have additives and fillers that would make my daughter sick and make me wonder what exactly I was buying.
I have tried four different buttermilk substitutes:
- Plain Milk – There are two main problems with just using milk. The first is chemistry. Baking recipes are balanced so the acids and bases react in just the right way to create just the right lift and browning level. If you subtract out an acid like buttermilk your finished good may not rise or brown correctly. The second is flavor. Most buttermilk recipes are designed to have a rich tang to them. Regular milk doesn’t come close to adding that depth of flavor.
- Milk plus Vinegar or Lemon Juice – Adding some acid to the milk corrects the chemistry problem. Now the recipe should behave chemically just the same. However I found it still failed the taste test. The recipes I found suggest letting the milk and acid sit for 5+ minutes to curdle and thicken but even then I found there was something missing from the taste. It just didn’t have the same depth as a real cultured buttermilk.
- Yogurt- Adding yogurt instead of buttermilk worked wonders for the chemistry and the flavor. I found a good plain yogurt with no extra additives, just milk and cultures, had the same depth of flavor as the buttermilk and contributed lots of acid. However it did create a new problem. It was way, way, way too thick! If you can turn your bowl upside down and shake it and the batter stays put you have a problem. (Ok, I didn’t actually do that… but I’m pretty sure I could have!)
- 50/50 Milk and Yogurt Blend – This buttermilk substitute is my winning combination. The yogurt half adds the acid and the depth of flavor. The milk half adds enough liquid to create the same consistency. Depending on the brand of yogurt you use you may have to adjust the proportions slightly. I use Nancy’s Plain Organic which is very thick.
I’ve tested the Milk/ Yogurt Blend with both pancakes and drop biscuits and had great results. The only problem I see with this combination is if you have the same issues with yogurt as I do with buttermilk. It’s never arround when you need it. In that case I suggest the following substitutions to keep plain yogurt a constant feature in your kitchen:
- Plain yogurt instead of sour cream. Tastes great… a lot less fat and fillers! I make a killer ranch dip / dressing with this substitution.
- Plain yogurt instead of sweetened yogurt. Just add one or more of the following to taste: apple sauce, pear sauce, jam, honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, dried fruit, etc. It’s a staple of fast breakfasts in our house.
- Plain yogurt instead of milk with cereal. I HATE soggy cereal and made this switch a long time ago. It works great with granola and an excessive amount of honey.
Come back later this week for my Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancake recipe. Have you tried any of these buttermilk substitutes or have one of your own? Do you use yogurt as a staple in your cooking? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
Image: buttermilk pancakes by paul goyette on Flickr
