Category: Preserving

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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!
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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.
Half of pesto prepared for freezer.
A view into the now half empty big bucket of pesto with the ladle and whisk
The last half of pesto.
The big freezer full of containers. Many are pesto.
Freezer full of pesto.
The Chef stored the pesto in a five gallon bucket before dishing it out to freeze next day. 30 pounds is almost two Grams or definitely over three Tuqus!

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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
True bug nymph
A brownish jumping spider with iridescent green pedipalps peeks out from its web, which holds a bright green basil leaf folded over as shelter.
Jumping spider
Close up of the face of a praying mantis. It is watching me.
Praying mantis
We had several little friends come in on the basil. All were released back into the shelter of adjacent plants outside.
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10/05/2023 three chef meal

Credit for fancy salad to Paula. The Chef made the bacon cheese chicken rounds and sautéed veggies. All of us and our guest rolled out potato gnocchi. The potato gnocchi is topped with pesto made with garden basil. the sunflowers are the ones from the garden from two days ago.
Our guest brought this exquisite chocolate flourless cake topped with chocolate ganache. Paula added the edible flower of Texas mallow. (It tastes… like a plant haha.). The cake was DIVINE.

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Recent dinners I hadn’t posted yet

Garden basil as an add-in for homemade pho (even broth from scratch).
Garden oregano (hiding in the meatballs)
Sushi… no garden stuff but the Chef wanted to show off.
Pesto has garden basil and the salad tomatoes are “Jennifer’s Arkansas”. Yum!
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06/22/2023 garlic business

The garlic, picked on the solstice (accidentally). Almost every one was very large. I have been growing these for years from the same cloves and they were never this big.
The biggest and smallest creatures in the house for scale.
Shackleton thought the garlic smelled of Outside and Dust and was very intrigued. Tuqu was interested as well but not as comically.
This is probably the most accurate size comparison photo. Tuqu is small. Garlic is large.
On the 22nd Paula moved the garlic to a mostly shaded area in the backyard where it can dry for a while warm before we bring it in the house. She did a good job!