Garden uses Archives : Cast Iron Forest to Skillet

2023-12-032023-12-03

12/03/2023 salad

All salad lettuce was black-seeded Simpson lettuce. The dressing is made from pesto with garden basil.

2023-11-262023-11-26

11/26/2023 return of cilantro

A ramekin of pozole, a pile of refried beans, and half a turkey enchilada with green sauce on a white plate edged with black lines and squares. — Leftover turkey enchiladas with salsa verde (tomatillos mostly from farm share but a few from the garden). The turkey is from Paula’s uncle. Refried beans (“red beans” from the farm share. Pozole made from Rancho Gordo hominy from our Bean Club membership days and is topped with garden cilantro. Paula has vowed we will not let it take over and shade our other things again unlike in spring.

2023-11-232023-11-23

11/23/2023 peaceful thanksgiving!

The described meal, plated on white and black plate with a wine glass of champagne. — The Chef and Chef Paula made a lovely Thanksgiving dinner they considered simple but they were actually having a good time in the kitchen all afternoon. I kept out of the way and napped with cats on the couch. The turkey was raised by Paula’s uncle. The dumplings are cream cheese and onion pierogis. The Brussels sprouts are from the farm share and caramelized in crabapple syrup (jelly that didn’t jell).

$The champagne bottle (dark green glass) with the Chef’s hand designed reusable vinyl label. The vintage area is pink with darker pink letters saying “CHC Brewing”. Handwritten notes specify “Cran + Crab Champagne, batch 3, 10.3% alcohol”. The logo is CHC with the first C reversed for symmetry. The letters are red with ornate, almost fractal, curlicues around them in a slate dark gray background.$

Our sparkly beverage was 2021 vintage neighbor crabapples with added cranberry, bottled in 2022.

I’m holding a wineglass of sparkling beverage up to the 1970s shell chandelier that came with the house. The backlighting shows off the abundant bubbles in the bubbly. — Cheers everyone!

2023-11-232023-11-23

11/22/2023 shakshuka dinner

Shakshuka and couscous next to a bowl of salad — Shakshuka is a Mediterranean/North African dish that uses a lot of bell peppers in the tomato sauce. We had frozen slices of bell peppers from the last harvest this year before first frost. Yum!

2023-11-232023-11-23

11/21/2023 crabapple syrup

Four pieces of crispy fried chicken thighs arranged symmetrically on a four part round waffles. Cheese cauliflower on the side. — Technically there is no garden produce in this picture but we drizzled the crabapple syrup/jelly on it and WOW was it a delicious combination.

2023-11-052023-11-05

11/05/2023 saffron harvest

I’m holding a small clear quilted jam jar filled with 24 bright red threads of saffron — Today we found there were eight flowers in the backyard saffron, which at three threads each gave us 24 saffron threads! Now they sit in a jar in the plant window, with a loose lid to protect from cat ideas. This lets them dry out a bit before they join the spice cabinet. Very few bulbs are blooming so far, which I suspect is because I divided them extensively this spring. Probably next year we’ll have a lot!

2023-11-042023-11-04

10/30/2023 last peppers

The last peppers of the season piled on the gray ceramic kitchen table. There are long curly skinny yellow corbaci, big red bell, green bells, and brown-purple bells, and two little triangular apple peppers. — Before the hard freeze I cut down all the pepper plants (plus a few stray and unfortunately sized okra) and put them in the garage. The next day when I had time, I sorted and weighed them. we got a good last bunch of all our pepper varieties for this year! Paula notes of the sweet peppers, the apple peppers were sweetest when both red and green. The California wonder bell and chocolate bell were both more bitter when young/green. The Chef likes the thin and easy to cut corbaci peppers.

2023-11-012023-11-01

10/30/2023 basil units

The Chef wields a pesto-laden giant whisk above the food safe five gallon bucket. — The pesto settled overnight and needed the giant whisk.

Three stacks of several plastic clear containers of pesto, totalling 11 containers. — The pesto settled overnight and needed the giant whisk.

2023-10-292023-10-29

10/29/2023 first freeze forecast tonight

Piles of vegetable greenery on a concrete front poor with a black double door in the background — So, in spite of rain all day and temperatures in the 30s F, I went out and cut all the plants. That’s the giant pile of cut basil on an overflowing Rubbermaid tub and assorted cut off pepper plants nearby. The rest of the day was getting basil leaves off the stems.

An inch thick basil stem cut off, with my hand nearby for scale. — The basil stems were so big I had to use the loppers to cut them at the base.

A blue-gray rubber made plastic tub almost full of bright green basil leaves — 3608 grams of basil leaves. This is 7.95 pounds. Yes, we did tare the tub weight. Yes, it is a lot of basil. No, I don’t even know what’s going to happen.

Close up view of a red and blue striped leaf hopper. Its legs and tip of snoot grade to yellow. It has tiny hair like antennae. — Leafhopper

A small true bug nymph on my fingers. It’s small enough that you don’t see around my whole finger. The brown colors are speckled — Leafhopper

2023-10-282023-10-28

10/28/2023 dinner

Refried beans with chunks of feta cheese, a pile of Mexican rice, and a corn tortilla loaded with pork, avocado, lettuce, onions
, cilantro, and the flavorful pepper hot sauce. — Paula made refried beans with bolas maycoba beans from last year as well as some Rancho Gordo beans of some variety. The Chef made a pepper hot sauce from all the ripe Chimayó chile peppers in the garden plus everything pepper leftover in the freezer, including farm share jalapeños, two year old poblanos from the garden, and assorted mystery peppers.