Archive for July, 2007
July 28th, 2007 - One local summer (I have no idea what week it is)
Just had my local dinner tonight: local made summer sausage and veggie munster cheese along with a couple carrots from the garden. It was a yummy, easy to fix, cool meal for a summer night. And of course local milk to drink.
It’s a good thing I wandered a bit in the garden this morning. I found quite a few Thumbelina carrots were larger than they should have been, thnned some other carrots, discovered the first three lemon cucumbers, realized the rain did a wonderful job growing Yugoslavian finger fruit (they were tiny one week ago and huge today), and last but not least got my first zucchini before it became a boat.
I also picked more beans (still have preserved them–intend to free them in the morning) and dug the last of the garlic. Just heard about garlic soup this morning–will have to try that out when the weather cools off.
July 27th, 2007 - Growing Sunflowers
As three of my sunflowers have bloomed and a few more and preparing to do so, I’m getting excited about harvesting them. That won’t be for a few more months (end of September at least). In the meantime, I found a good article about growing them including roasting info (OSU).
I can’t wait! I hope the birds don’t eat them all.
My plans for the sunflowers didn’t work out. I fell in love with the book Sunflower Houses in the spring. The house is made with four rows of sunflowers shaped in a box. I just made two parallel rows since that’s what I had room for. She used morning glories vining up and across for the roof; my research indicated these are invasive so I chose a long vining nasturium instead. Extra bonus: edible! (Except I forgot to eat them except one of the first blooms that I took with the 4th of July salad.)
Well, the sunflowers didn’t get nearly as tall as expected–8 feet+ I think. The tallest are a bit over 6 foot. And that’s only half of them. “Them” meaning the ones that grew, which was only about half. :( And the nasturiums have been really short. Just recently, I noticed that some were longer and maybe I can get them to vine up still. The area is getting overgrown so I’m not sure if I can train them up or not. The sunflowers really shade that area–I didn’t need vines to bring across for a roof!
I also planted these out front to provide shade for the porch. None of the sunflowers grew and the nasturiums were stunted. They’ve now been covered by the pumpkin and guord vines so I suspect they’ve died. But the pumpkin vine is starting to shade the window instead!
This weekend, assuming it dries up a bit (rain, the last couple days), I will work on cutting back some of the vines. I really shouldn’t plant pumpkins again. Or, I’ll only do it if I buy the bush pumpkin. I swear.
July 26th, 2007 - Presto Pesto!
Presto! is not the right word for my marathon pesto making session last night. From heading out to pick the basil to final cleanup, it took me about 3 hours. ::whew::
I made 4 double batches of pesto (recipe below). Maggie helped with the leaf stripping for a while. She loves being my helper. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold her interest for very long so she kept coming and going. And she got in trouble when she decided to try a basil leaf, then tried to spit it out into the bowl! You can try foods, just don’t spit them out into the clean food! LOL
I don’t think this is enough to last me all winter. If I figured correctly, this batch along with the double batch I made two weeks ago will give us one pesto meal a week until next July. That’s not much! And that’s if Maggie continues to use just one cube and I use 2. I actually prefer 3. (I freeze it in ice cube trays for the most part. And if you are thinking of canning it, as I did, it isn’t recommended since it’s an uncooked food.)
My recipe is adapted from one Dad sent me a few years ago:
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 cups basil
1/2 tsp salt
5 twists of a pepper grinder (1/4 tsp in original recipe)
1/2 c olive oil
1/2 c freshly shredded parmasan cheese
Put the garlic in the blender first. You may wish to chop it up a bit to help. I sometimes put in even more, as I like garlic. Then put in the basil. I pack it down a bit, because I love basil. Then put in the salt and pepper, and cover with the olive oil. Process on lo/grind (my blender has lo/hi plus about 8 speeds; grind is 3/4s up) for 5 seconds, stop, scrape down and around, process again, repeat about 5 times until the leaves get crushed up. You don’t want liquid, but you don’t want whole leaves. This part always drives me nuts because at first, nothing but the bottom inch or so gets ground up. But every single time, it eventually works! Mix in the cheese with spatula.
The original recipe also included parsley and pine nuts. I don’t have any parsley in the garden (maybe next year) so don’t bother. Don’t grow pine nuts either and am not terribly impressed with them nor their price, so don’t bother either.
It will keep for a couple weeks in the fridge. Otherwise, freeze in small amounts. I use ice cube trays. Freeze for at least 24 hours, then pop out and put in freezer bags. Best to get out the day before you want to use them, but I usually don’t know. Will thaw in microwave in about 20 seconds for 3 cubes. Sometimes, they don’t pop out very easily and I end up with chunks. The trays are also VERY oily when done, but clean up nicely in the dishwasher.
Except for the salt and olive oil, I’m not particular about the measurements. Even on the olive oil, you needn’t be. One bottle ran out at 3/4c (double batch remember) so I just used that. Seemed fine. Another batch seemed a bit on the oily side with the full amount. Who knows? And garlic–I usually put in at least 5 regular or large cloves then one or two small ones, too.
Oh, yeah, the garlic came from the garden, too. Now, to make pasta this weekend?
July 25th, 2007 - Wash and dry baggies in the dishwasher.
I’m very tempted to buy a Bag-E-Wash so that I don’t have to hand wash baggies anymore. And so that they don’t pile up for a month or more on the counter before I finally do so.
But is it worth $10 + shipping? They do come from Minnesota, however, which is always an added bonus.
July 25th, 2007 - Lovely week last week
I didn’t write last week because Michael (my brother) and Ann Marie (his fiancee) were visiting! We had a lovely week including
* a visit to the Forevertron and the International Crane Foundation, and the Baraboo Candy Company>/a> factory outlet store (home of the Cow Pie).
* blueberry picking (I wish I’d gotten more; the ones I didn’t preserve are nearly gone and I want more!!!). Which also involved a lovely drive there and back through the countryside. On the way out, it was quite foggy. The way back was sunny. Both were enjoyable!
* playing with Maggie
* talking and laughing and visiting
Oh, and yes, Michael has asked Micheal and Michael to be in his wedding party!!!!!!!!
July 25th, 2007 - Sometimes it costs less to pay the fee
Last week, I paid our annual car registration. I started writing the check as usual, when I noticed on the form that I could pay online for a $1 service fee. Usually, I scoff at these fees. Until I realized that I would actually save money by paying the $1! Our registration fee is $70. By paying online, I could use a credit card that gives us 1% back, 70 cents. Stamps are now 41 cents. So paying online saved me 11 cents.
And it was faster than writing a check, finding an envelope and stamps, and addressing it.
July 16th, 2007 - One local summer, week ?
I meant to post this yesterday to count for last week, but forgot! Last night, weh ad the traditional Paulukonis family Sunday night dinner, popcorn, cheese, and apples. The popcorn was bought at the farmer’s market–and I checked to be sure she’d grown it herself! (And it was packaged in a recycles peanutbutter jar.) The cheese was also from the market, two different local companies, one an xtra sharp cheddar that’s so strong I eat it in small quanitities, the other a veggie cheddar that is oh so lovely I didn’t want to share it. And the “apples” was apple cider I made last fall from apples bought directly at the apple orchard.
The popcorn was a little disappointing. There were a lot of old maids and the pops were smaller than when I’m used to it. On the other hand, it was local! And tri-colored, which was neat. In addition, the old maids that had split but not popped were not too hard to eat, unlike store-bought popcorn were you can break a tooth eating them.
July 11th, 2007 - Help the elephants get $100,000!
We Need Your Vote! Rezoom.com’s national competition for “A Better World” has begun. The daily voting period will only last one month, and the winning $100,000 charity will be chosen solely on the number of votes. Please help me help The Elephant Sanctuary compete for this national prize by voting for The Elephant Sanctuary once a day, every day, until the end of the contest. Cast your vote here! (You will have create an account first. The vote button will take you the place to do so. I have not received spam based on my account as far as I can tell.) Invite your friends, colleagues and family to join in, too and help us make it “A Better World” for the elephants!
The Elephant Sanctuary, founded in 1995, is the nation’s largest natural-habitat shelter for female elephants. They cater to the needs of endangered elephants from Asia and Africa that may be aging or sick after retiring from circuses and zoos. The sanctuary covers 2,700 acres and is broken into three different environments to provide a safe, liberated and universal environment for the elephants to live in. My favorite elephant, I don’t know why, is the African Tange. Lots of great pictures of Tange, Zula, and Flora. (I’ve written about the Sanctuary before (skip the first two posts).)
Go vote, please!
July 10th, 2007 - First (non) green bean!
I went out to the garden this morning to pick my first zuchini. To my disappointment, the little one I’d seen growing last week had shriveled up. But I glanced at the nearby Dragon beans-white with purple stripes-and found one ready to eat! It’s in my salad for lunch.
I forgot to mention before that I also have had sprouts in my local salads. I grow them off and on in the cupboard with varying degrees of success. I find it hard to use them in the winter since there isn’t much I eat that they go with, but I do try to remember them on soup and chili. Anyway, the local natural foods store (the one in Oshkosh, that is) doesn’t carry much variety in sprouting seeds, but had alfalfa, which I hadn’t tried. I LOVE it! It’s crunchier than the mixes I’ve tried with some sweetness. (I don’t care for bitter ones like radish.)
There won’t be many more salads. The spinach has bolted and everything else is getting tough. Perhaps one more this weekend to share with Michael and Ann Marie. Then, perhaps the beans will be coming in stronger and some zucchini will grow? The peas have just about had it with the heat; I thought they were gone last week, but found a good amount still growing yesterday. Maybe one more picking. The garlic is ready to dig up; wish I could do it tonight, but have to teach. Hopefully, it will rain today and will still be damp tomorrow to make it easy.
July 9th, 2007 - Kholrabi
I originally wrote this as a comment on Sugar Creek Farm’s post about cooking kohlrabi, and decided it was good enough to share here, too!
The best way to eat kholrabi is long before what you see at the markets. I’ve rarely bought it there since it’s so nasty when it’s that big. You should eat it when it’s small, smaller than a tennis ball, preferably around the size of a golf ball. And then eat it raw with a little salt.
Oh so yummy!
If the skin is tough, peal it, but the smaller ones can be eaten skin on.
I really should grow my own so I can eat it small again. Got some tennis-ball sized ones at the market yesterday; hope they are small enough for raw in my salad tonight. My Grandfather Frost always loved kohlrabi, too (not to be confused with the Russian Grandfather Frost. My grandpa’s last name is Frost).
July 9th, 2007 - For all the eat local folks
New American Dream is having a challenge this month to eat locally.
If you sign up, and invite some friends, you have a chance at winning a $6000 yard makeover (and some other things, but I didn’t pay attention after that one. Wow! I’d love that!!!). Those in One Local Summer will probably already do this as part of that challenge, but perhaps you’d like to join in on NAD’s as well. Click on the image and you’ll be signed up as my friend.
July 9th, 2007 - A Place in the Woods by Helen Hoover
A Place in the Woods by Helen Hoover is her tale of moving to the woods back in 1954. The book covers their first year in a cabin and a summer cottage in the north woods of Minnesota. (So, of course, I HAD to read it.) From having almost no money (after buying not one but two houses) to their car getting wrecked (45 miles to the Village) to a bear in the basement to the beauty of the north woods in the winter and the spring and the summer….A great story of 2 city folks adapting to living in the wilderness. An excellent read!
And now to get her book that tells of their life later on, Gift of the Deer, but which was written before this one. And maybe a couple others she also wrote–they sound like they could also be about this place.
July 9th, 2007 - Sadly, a non-local meal
I thought I was going to have a local meal last night. Until I read the ingredients list on the Great Harvest Bread. I think of them as a good, wholesome company baking bread daily that is much like homemade only in larger quantities. Hah! The bread included high fructose corn syrup for heaven’s sake! So what if it’s baked only 12 miles from my house. The ingredients are just as bad as store-bought bread.
So, although my cheese was local, I ate a nectarine with it instead of my local cherries.
I have an idea for next week: At the market was some popcorn. I didn’t buy it as I just recently bought some popcorn and Maggie and I haven’t had any anyway. (Too much fresh food around.) But we could have a LOVELY local dinner with popcorn and cheese. Perhaps next Sunday with Michael and Ann Marie. If I get to the market and they still have some jars of it.
July 9th, 2007 - Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland is so good I’m going to go check out Hegland’s other books right away! This is one of my favorite types of books–post-apocolyptic Earth. Only this time, it’s not generations after the apocolypse, but during/after. It’s the story of two sisters in their late teens who live in the woods alone (Mom and Dad died in the last couple years, told in flashbacks). For reasons I do not recall and which don’t really matter anyway, gas and electricity slowly disappear. Without electricity, many other aspects of society also disappear, such as hospitals, schools, travel, banks, etc. So here they are, living in the woods trying to survive on what’s around them, while also believing as most others do that things will get better in the fall.
A gripping tale of survival. And who knows if this won’t come to pass sooner than expected with the talk of peak oil either being here or just around the corner?
If you go looking for this book, pay attention to the author. It is not the little kids’ book of the same name.
July 9th, 2007 - Hit by a Farm by Catherine Friend
Hit by a Farm by Catherine Friend is the delightful tale of a woman who never wanted to live on a farm but agrees to her partner’s wish to do so. It’s a leave nothing unsaid look at becoming farmers, from the funny to the gross. A great story for anyone who thinks they want to do it, and for those of us who just dream about, knowing we never actually will. For either side, it includes lovely stories that make it sound wonderful as well as the awful things you’ll also have to face.
Also, a tale of how she came to carve out a separate life for her writing and not get sucked 100% into working the farm, which she honestly did not want to do.
July 7th, 2007 - Local meal tonight
I know, this is one boring as well, the usual salad. But it’s the best local meal these days. Actually, I didn’t even use any greens from the garden, since I still have leftovers from two weeks ago. Aack! Can’t believe the lettuce is still good. But in the salad, I also had a few tiny carrots from the garden–I did a little thinning earlier in the week. I love waiting until they are big enough for a bite or two. Also had some chicken–yup, it’s still good, too. (We have an awesome fridge I guess.) And bleu cheese. A bit of basil from the garden as well. That was yummy!
Oh, and the best part: A squash blossom. I’ve never had these before, but I’ve read of fried squash blossoms, so I figured I could eat them raw, too. (Thinking about it now, that is NOT a good idea. There are some flowers that you can only eat cooked. I think lilies are included in that. I should have checked before eating it. I haven’t died yet.) It added a delicious taste to the salad I can’t describe.
I finished off the meal with yellow cherries bought at the farmer’s market this morning. Wish I’d bought two baskets, but they were $2 each, so I hesitated. Maybe next summer I will have my own!
I wonder if I can find some locally made pasta, or make my own this week. I have some fresh pesto that would make a lovely local meal. (I borrowed a pasta maker from the neighbors that I’ve not yet tried out. I should.) Don’t know where I’d find local pasta. Trying not to go up to the Red Radish, nor even farther to the Free Market in Appleton. Maybe one of their farmer’s markets would carry something like this, too. But I don’t think a 10-20 mile (one-way) trip is a good idea just to get one local ingredient. (However, the Appleton farmer’s market did have carrots today. I was hoping for them at ours, but no such luck.)