cooking Archives : Page 7 of 13 : Cast Iron Garden

November 24, 2022November 24, 2022

11/24/2022 plenty of thanks

We thought it was supposed to rain today, so yesterday we picked up all the tomato cages and put all the vegetable debris in the city compost pile. (I don’t know that ours gets hot enough to kill any diseases.). We piled the dead marigolds on the bed where we’ll put peppers next year. We put some sugar pea seeds there to see if the debris will shelter them. We took the plastic off the greens so they could get rain. We put cilantro seeds everywhere and carrot seeds among the greens.

For Thanksgiving, Paula started our Corrientes cowpeas soaking.

The Turkey is from Paula’s aunt and uncle in Texas where they raise some. All the veggies in the beans are from the farm share except garden poblanos. Wes used some store apples and store ham as flavors. But otherwise the veggies are all our garden or the farm share!

November 13, 2022November 13, 2022

11/12/2022 frosty

Marigolds are done. Photo by Paula.

Winecup rosettes are fine for the winter! Photo also by Paula.

We went to look at Saxon park.

It was fun.

Then we went home. Having dog thoughts in the backyard.

Catctus

Tom kha (Thai coconut chicken soup). Has garden lemongrass in it. Lemongrass is not frost hardy so Paula divided the stems to keep a few indoors over the winter, and froze a bunch of stems to use.

October 3, 2022October 3, 2022

10/03/2022 Bean Club dinner and other excitement

My colleague gave me these delicious tiny tomatoes from her sister’s garden east of here. She said it’s a hybrid between tommy toe and another variety and has bred true for two ish years! I’m saving some!

A yellow iris by the rock garden.

Polenta with cranberry beans from Bean Club and fancy sausage from California. Salad includes farm share peppers and the main mean also included summer squash from the farm share.

A cooked cranberry bean. They were very creamy in texture!

The cranberry bean broth was very savory. The Chef laughed at us taking a picture.

Here’s some of the remaining cranberry beans. They have a tan base but occasionally the red speckles and stripes turn the bean almost completely red!

You can see they are nice chunky big beans. Larger than the average pinto.

October 2, 2022October 2, 2022

10/02/2022 complex dinner

Tomato basil soup (basil, onion, and garlic from garden; celery from farm share), fried farm share potatoes, chicken with garden onions, and farm share peppers on the salad.

September 3, 2022September 3, 2022

09/03/2022 popcorn testing again

The tiny bowl on the left contains popcorn from a deeper container. The tiny bowl on the right contains popcorn from a shallow bowl. Both are stored near an air vent. The sample on the right had nearly all kernels pop. The sample on left did not. We have decided we need to at least stir that container.

August 24, 2022August 24, 2022

08/24/2022 giant squash time and other things

I thought I saw something in a firewood piece.

It was a mason wasp!

The Chef made a delicious dinner. BLT with farm share tomatoes and Paula’s sourdough bread. The okra and peppers side was breaded and pan fried, with both farm share and garden okra, topped with cholula hot sauce.

These corrientes cowpea leaves seemed maybe diseased because they were covered in light yellow speckles, so I removed them.

Some sort of fungus maybe on the basil? It is the round dark spot I’m pointing to with my snippers. I have been removing them. If anyone knows otherwise, I’d let a leaf miner live.

Trimmed all the basil this evening for the Chef to do a pesto batch.

This corrientes cowpea stem is flat like a ribbon.

Side view of flat stem of cowpea. A mystery.

Last but definitely not least, the giant green-striped cushaw squash.

I’m not sure if Briar was concerned or unimpressed.

We got out the bathroom scale for this magnificent beast. The squash weighed 14.5 lbs. Last year’s big squash was barely 7 lbs.

July 27, 2022July 27, 2022

07/27/2022 pesto pasta

All other veggies from the farm share. The Chef made the pasta.

July 27, 2022July 27, 2022

07/27/2022 pesto progress

A blender full of garden basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan, and pine nuts.

July 16, 2022July 16, 2022

Catch-up on dinners

Couscous, roasted chicken, and roasted okra from farm share.

Noodles with sauce, I forget what kind, but it has garden onions and garden purple bell peppers in it.

Cheesy grits with farm share tomatoes, roast chicken, and roast okra.

Briar knows about the roast chicken. Mostly farm share veggies here, I can’t remember if garden onions involved?

Not sure if Shackleton is here for the chair or the chicken smells.

A veggie and chicken omelet with couscous and cilantro. Veggies included garden onions and garden purple bell peppers.

July 11, 2022September 5, 2022

Okra: a poll (n=17 people) for future reference (updated Sept 2022)

Roast okra with olive oil and salt until softened or blackened: 5
Fried: 3
Don’t like it: 1
Pickled with or without hot peppers: 3
In various saucy bases:
- In tomato sauce with garam masala: 2
- Coconut curry (Sri Lankan): 1
- Bangladeshi curry: 1
- Curry (region unspecified): 1
- Chili: 1
- Gumbo: 4
Don’t even bother: 1
In chili: 1
Boiled: 2
In patties with egg, flour, and onion: 1
Not sure: 2
Eat it raw: 1
Saute in any vegetable with seasoning such as garlic granules, salt and pepper, smoked paprika, vegetarian spice blends: 1