Gardening Adventures: The Good, Bad, Ugly

Now that the garden has officially been put to rest for the winter, it's time to reflect on how well (and not so well) we did and what lessons I can pass on to others.

Based on our lessons learned from last year, we decided to change it up a bit this year. I decided to remove Cucumbers and Zuccini - not because I don't love those veggies, but because they just take up too much space. The squash family of veggies like to spread so you need quite a large space for them to move.

Instead, I chose to plant one butternut squash plant which yielded (is that the proper past tense for yield?) six squash - pretty good when you consider the price I paid for that one little plant (about 1.50). They are much cheaper when you get them in seeds but since we planted a little late this year (because of our wedding in Jamaica) I used a home depot card to get all of the flats pre-grown about 3 inches). I guess you could consider this cheating but in my opinion, keeping them from dying is a whole challenge on its own.

We kept tomatoes because they are pretty easy to grow but my cherry tomatoes came out way better than the field tomatoes - I don't think we tied them up properly and should have spaced them out a bit better. Actually, we should have spaced out pretty much everything -when you plant them as little plants or seeds they don't seem that big, but when you consider how big they will get, you have to plan accordingly.

My herbs all did well and you really can't screw those up - water is really all they need.

Peppers: greeen, scotch bonnets, sweet chili's - all turned out great! I had a plan to make home made hot sauce but I just didn't get around to it and I'm blaming Mike Corey haha (Adam doesn't eat hot stuff so I really had no motivation to make this and a partner in crime was needed but he was too busy traveling the world in 80 days. (I highly recomend you check out his videos).

Red Swiss Chard: these things grow like weeds and I ended up giving most of it away

Brussle Sprouts: FAIL

Our first mistake is that we bought way too much and I felt compelled to plant them all (mistake number 1). This meant I put them way too close together and little did I realize how big they would get.

To be honest, I'm not sure I'd grow them again, even if I did it properly. For the amount we'd actually eat, it's much easier to just buy them from the local farmers market.

Peas: FAIL

I planted these from seeds that we had left over from last year. I don't know what happened but only 5 of the 30 plus that I planted actually sprouted. I planted then along the perimeter and adam put up some chicken wire so they had somthing to climb (and to keep out the bunnies).

What's in store for next year? Well for starters, we're going to expand so that I can separate my herbs and give them their own space. I'd also like to try some broccoli or cauliflower. I'm hesitant to try lettuce because they attract way too many animals.

I'm going to decrease the amount of tomato plants - by September I didn't even want to look at them and its only now in November that I'm open to eating them again.

Next summer, I plan to post on each veggie throughout the season rather than just waiting until the end because there is just way too much to type and I just got lazy throughout the summer.

Do you have any success stories or lessons learned?

Harvesting My Blog

So I may have neglected this blog thing for a while... my problem is my hobbies become "chores" and then I resent doing the activity so much that I just retreat. Knowing my usual patterns, I've decided to try and make this more manageable and set some realistic goals that I can actually commit to.

I'd like to give this a new name, and eventually a new domain, but for now, I'm going to focus on content and see where that goes (I think it may be premature to come up with a new name, before I really know where this is going to take me).

I don't want this to be just another food blog, because there are a million out there. Now don't get me wrong, there are some great ones out there that I love to follow (insert shameless promo here) such as Happy or Hungry.

But what I do hope is that I can share what I'm learning and hopefully, help someone else reading along the way.

So here's my vision (drum roll please)...

• Educate myself and readers on herbs and spices (I'm going to pick one item from my spice bible each week and we're going to try out a recipe and learn everything there is to know about that spice - growing, harvesting, history of origin, what to pair it with etc.
  
• Discover the local markets in our small communities (can we say ROAD TRIP?)
• Best bang for your buck - how can we take full advantage of cooking from scratch, preserving goods, learn to be self sustaining?
• Food politics - I took a great course in University about the subject and it made me question things like fair trade, organic foods, fad food movements etc.
  

Of course, a vision is only a theoretical idea until its actually put into place AND, the biggest factor I haven't included is understanding your audience....

So, I'm putting it out to the universe - what topics would you like to see covered? What do you think about my proposed vision? I need direction so please, any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Souperlicious: Sweatin' To The Oldies

"The guy who runs the place is a little temperamental, especially about the ordering procedure. He's secretly referred to as the Soup Nazi."

"Why? What happens if you don't order right?"

"He yells and you don't get your soup."

- Jerry and Elaine, in "The Soup Nazi"

Fall is the perfect time of year to make soups. With an abundance of veggies in harvest, it's the perfect way to "hide" our favourite food group. I've never really been a fan of soups - mainly because I've based my opinion on the canned and packaged soups which I find too bland or salty. But after seeing my co-worker bring in some delicious home-made soups, I decided it was time to turn down that nose, roll up the sleeves and enroll in a soup class through the town of EG. For $45 I learned how to make 5 different soups in 6 hours and the best part was we took home the leftovers. Actually, the best part was being surrounded by so many foodies who share a passion for cooking!

What did I learn? I think the most important thing i learned was to let your veggies "sweat" before adding water. You can achieve this by cooking them on low in either butter or olive oil. A healthy substitute is vegetable stock but I find the butter or oil taste better.

Another great tip is adding the dry spices at the beginning when the veggies are sweating. If you're going to use fresh herbs than throw them in near the end of the soup cooking process because the flavour doesn't last as long and they can get mushy.

So if you're thinking about making the following soups, give me a shout and i'll do my best to add my two cents.

• Curried Carrot
• Hot Sausage, Lentils, Spinach
• Black Bean
• Lemon, Kale & White Bean
• Potato & Leek

Dear Vegetables: Can We Change Our Relationship Status?

Dear Vegetables,

I'm sorry you haven't been part of my life lately. When I was little, I had to eat you everyday and, well I just felt the relationship was one sided. So I ended it. Actually, I cheated on your first with Mr. Chocolate Bar. I know. I was young and vulnerable then. I hope you can forgive my foolish ways.

Today, I'm writing you this letter to say I'm back. I thought the V8 experience was a one night stand but it made me realize how much I need you. From this day on, I vow to eat you regularly. No more sidedish label for you. I'm ready for a full commitment... actually for facebook purposes I'd like to be in an open relationship so I can still have meat products in the picture.

Let's meet tonight for dinner.

Ok so corny. BUT the point is I'm taking a vegetable challenge. I'm going to try and have veg's at every meal (breakfast may be a challenge but i'm up for it). Now lets get one thing straight here people. I'm NOT going on a VEGETABLE ONLY diet. That would be silly and unhealthy. I'm making a public pledge to eat more vegetable's because Canada's Food Guide said so. Actually, the eat tracker tool through Dietitians of Canada website is pretty cool.

So.... let the eating begin (tomorrow though cuz I have to go grocery shopping ha!)

Parsley: More than A Garnish

Parsley is more than just a pretty face. I have a few parsley plants growing in the garden and decided to use a few to use in my pasta dish tonight. I pulled out the good ol spice bible and here's what I've learned:

In medieval times, parsley was surrounded by much superstition - one being that the long germination period for the seeds was to allow them to travel to hell and back seven times before sprouting. Some farmers refused to transplant parsley, and some were too afraid to grow it at all! In the 17th century the early colonists took parsley to America and it never looked back.

Here are a few dishes it compliments quite well:

• Omelets, scrambled eggs and savory souffles
• Mashed potatoes
• Tabouleh
• Soups
• Pasta dishes
• Sauces for fish and poultry
  

Combines well with:

• basil
• arugula
• bay leaves
• chives
• dill
• garlic
• mint
• rosemary
• sage
• oregano
• thyme

Storage:

I keep most of my herbs in an herb keeper (I sell them through pampered chef if you need one). You can also freeze parsley (never tried it but might this winter).

As you can see this versatile plant is more than just a garnish. Next time you're cooking, add a little parsley love and let me know how it goes

It's Da Bomb!

Herbs...

Last year, Adam bought me a spice bible for christmas and although i've flipped through it, I have to admit I haven't used it as much as I should. So i'm going to devote one blog a week to an herb or spice and educate myself and you about different ways you can use it. Last saturday I hit up the Bradford Farmers Market on a hunt for mint and to my disappointment they were all sold out. The friendly farmer offered me some lemon balms as an alternative. For $1.50 I thought.. why not?

Thanks to google, I found out that the lemon balm is a perennial in the mint family. Its use is both medicinal and culinary, often used to flavour ice cream, teas, fish and pesto (this plant had me at ice cream).

So thanks to Vitality Magazine, here's a yummy recipe for lemon pesto

Serve this pesto with fish, chicken and seafood or toss 3 tablespoons with 2 cups cooked rice for a zesty side dish.
(Makes: 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup natural almonds
2 cups fresh basil
1/4 cup fresh lemon balm
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
Salt
In a food processor or blender, combine garlic and almonds. Process for 20 seconds or until chopped. Add basil, lemon balm, Parmesan cheese and lemon zest. Process for 30 to 40 seconds or until chopped. With motor running, add lemon juice and then add olive oil in a steady stream through opening in the lid. Keep adding oil, 1/4 cup (50 mL) at a time, and blending until pesto has reached the desired consistency. Taste and add salt as required, process 3 seconds to blend.
Store: Cover tightly and keep for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer.
Recipes adapted with permission from The Vegetarian Cook’s Bible by Pat Crocker (Robert Rose: Toronto, 2007).

Budding Ideas

I swore to never blog, but after reading so many good, bad and sometimes ugly blogs, I decided that someone out there might be interested in something I have to say (even if it's just my mom!)

The great thing about the social media world is the opportunity for geeks or should i say gleeks, to unite and talk about their hobbies. For me that's food. Being the oldest of three girls and having two working parents, I would come home from school to find a long honey-do list that always started with, empty the dishwasher, start dinner, do homework. My first dishes were naturally KD, Hot dogs, and the odd time, Taco's. Since then I've developed a knack for cooking and discovered that its really stealing other people's recipe and adding a dash of love and pinch of....(yes I stole that from Monica Gheller from Friends but what can I say, she's my role model).

Ok i love food so much that I took a 4th year course in university called Food Politics - the one text book i opted not to sell.

Moving to Bradford has opened my eyes to a whole new way of viewing food. Being the "Salad Bowl" of Ontario, the Holland Marsh has some of the richest soil in the country. With over 125 farms, you are bound to find a vegetable you like (by the way there's over 40 veg's to choose from).

Maybe I've gone "Native" (I knew that anthropology class would come in hand) but being surrounded by so many farmers, Adam and I decided to start our own veggie garden.

Ok so this picture is a little dated (pre sod, soil and plants). So far my radishes are winning the race and I've already picked 3 to eat.

I'm not sure what the blogging etiquette is on length (is anyone even still reading?) so I guess I should shut up and do some more research for my next entry.