Filed under: gardening
We are still eating okra, eggplant, butternut squash, peppers and cucumbers from the summer garden.
I have planted about 80% of my fall garden. The broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, and brussel sprout transplants are in now.
And the seeds are coming up. The kale and mustard are about 3 inches high. The lettuce, spinach, collards and turnips are about an inch high. The carrots and rutabaga are just coming up. And I am still waiting for the snow peas to show there faces.
My gardening neighbor got the rutabaga seeds on his recent trip to Iceland. Did you know that rutabaga is the national vegetable of Iceland? Probably it is all they can grow in that “ashtray of a country.” That is what my soon to be son-in-law calls Iceland.
Filed under: recipes
Ingredients
- 4 cups of green beans
- 1 cup of chopped onions
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- scant teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 tsp of pepper
- 2 Tablespoons of oil
- 2 TBSP fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 4 oz of tofu
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
Directions
- Heat oil in a cast iron frying pan.
- Add onions and cook on medium until translucent(carmelize), about 8 minutes.
- Add green beans and salt and stir so onions are no longer on pan bottom.
- Cover and cook until green beans are done but not soft , just crispy done.
- Add walnuts, stir again and cook for 5 more minutes. Watch it so it doesn’t burn.
- Put the pan’s ingredients in the food processor along with the tofu, pepper and lemon juice.
- Process until creamy.
- Add fresh parsley and pulse once or twice.
- Chill and serve.
I harvested wild amaranth from the outskirts of the big compost pile at the community gardens.
I took them home, washed them, let them soak to make sure there were no bugs on them and steamed them for 5 minutes. I added a sprinkle of salt and ate them.
Then I gave a half of cup to my 17 year old who ate them willingly which is not usual. She said she liked them better than spinach. In truth they are quite similar to spinach in that they have much oxalic acid.
They were delicious and had 138mg of calcium per half cup. That is a huge amount considering that one needs 1200 mg of calcium a day.
Filed under: gardening
With Uncle Joe watching I planted beets, turnips and radishes in my garden on Tuesday. When I checked today they were already coming up. The heat lets them germinate quickly. Along with the broccoli, kale and collards that I planted 2 weeks ago my garden is getting reinhabited by lovely plants. However the potatoes I planted at the same time have not come up at all. I am trying to be patient, but I have almost lost hope that they will germinate. They were leftover from my spring potatoes and were tiny.
Filed under: recipes
Wednesday was my lucky day. I took my 89 year old uncle to the Farmer’s market at the Triangle in Austin and we scored organic apples for $1.00 a pound. Mind you they were culls, but no matter. I got out my Victorio mill and canned up the Texas grown local apples.
- First I got Uncle Joe to cut them in half.
- Then I put them into a large pot with one cup of water, brought it to a boil and cooked them until soft, about 20 minutes.
- Next we poured them into the Victorio Mill which spat out applesauce from one end and seeds and skins from the other.
- I put the applesauce in jars. put on canning lids and screw bands and brought them to boil in a water bath for 20 minutes.
- This winter we will enjoy this delicious, organice no sugar applesauce, if my 17 year old daughter doesn’t open the jars immediately. She loves homemade applesauce.
Eat Veggies, save the planet 