Woohoo! First Tomato of the Year

In all its glory...

 Picked my first ripe tomato today, it's the Oregon Spring one that's been hanging around for over a month.  In a normal year the first tomato would be picked in mid- to late June.  This has not been a normal year.  On the plus side it weighed in at 7.5 ounces.  Also the two volunteer cherry tomatoes I left in the ground still haven't ripened anything, so I don't think my late planting really affected the other tomatoes; they are right on par with their volunteer cousins.  It would seem that the weather alone has been responsible for the tomato tardiness. 

Tomato and the first two pickling cucumbers.

 The pickling cucumbers are finally beginning to produce, not a lot so far.  I have a dozen plants, but if they don't start doing better i will never have enough cukes at once to pickle.  The slicing cucumber is cranking out fruit faster than they can ripen, I'm guessing I'll have about 3 cukes ready to pick tomorrow and more a few days after that.

I didn't take a photo of the onions i pulled earlier this week, nor did I weigh them, they are curing in the laundry room/grow room/pantry and once cured they will be weighed in and photographed.  I only pulled the ones with good sized bulbs and developed skins, which accounted for about a quarter of what was planted.

Herbs (this basket holds about 2 gallons)

Also, above is the photo of the herbs I trimmed the other day.  Most of this is rosemary, which is buried under the thyme, sage, spearmint, and lavender.  The oregano wasn't big enough for trimming yet, and the cats have mauled the catnip too much to harvest.  All of these herbs were lightly rinsed (to remove spiders and dust), blotted dry, bundled, tied up, and hung to dry.  Once they are crispy i will strip them from their stems, crumble them a bit, then mix up seasonings or bag and freeze them, or fill my nearly empty spice jars with them.  I am a bit disappointed the oregano didn't grow more, I was hoping not to have to buy it for making Italian Seasoning Mix.  The mint and lavender will likely be saved for potpourri or teas, since I don't do much cooking with them.

The one other major thing I did was pull a few problem plants: the last celery that I left to flower for the beneficial bugs, the cilantro (it had long ago gone to flower and was seriously shading out the rhubarb and some peppers) and the dill that was completely infested with aphids and ladybugs.  I let the dill stay in the garden long enough for the ladybug eggs to hatch, and the nymphs to grow into adults, but they were failing at eating enough aphids fast enough so I moved them onto other plants and tossed the buggy dill.  I'm disappointed that I lost the dill before the cucumbers were ready for harvest though, i had hoped to use my own dill for pickling.  The nasturtiums have done their job of black-fly-aphid-traps so well that the aphids are killing them and moving onto other plants nearby, so I pulled a few of the most infested nasturtiums and left the others to continue their work.  Hopefully the aphids will stay out of the other plants again and move into the healthy nasturtiums.

Taking Stock

Just had a little fledgling swallow land on the sill outside my window and chirp at me for about five minutes while I sat at the computer.  Apparently he had something important to share with me.  Lol.

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It always kind of amazes me that there are so many people of my generation (and younger) that have no idea how to make certain things from scratch and assume those things just come from the store.  A good example of this is stock.  Vegetable stock, chicken stock, beef stock... so many people think it comes in a can from Swanson and either don't know how to make it or think it is a huge time-consuming task.

The other day I was watching the Food Network and caught Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa) discussing her recipe for making stock.  Now, I appreciate that Ina makes good food with high quality ingredients, but I find her show a disappointment for the average viewer because she lives such an elitist lifestyle and it shows in her food choices.  Not too many of us can sit around nibbling crab cakes for a Sunday afternoon apperitif before moving onto the main course of fresh caught salmon steaks, with caviar and caper compote, arugula chantrelle salad and sherry trifle for dessert in December.  Sorry Ina, but most people can't afford these things.  So I stumbled across Ina showing how she would make a lovely chicken noodle soup for lunch using her own homemade chicken stock.

Ina's recipe for stock sounds delicious, but who can afford to use three whole chickens just to make broth? And piles of fresh veggies, and fresh bunches of herbs as well?

Here's my recipe for stock, it's simple, inexpensive, and yes it does take a lot of time, but like doing laundry, you're actual involvement in that time is negligible.

First of all you have to have a system in place for stock-making, the goal with stock is to use every part of the food and waste nothing, it is what poor people have done for decades to get the most flavor from their food.  A good system involves a "Stock" bag in your freezer, to which you can add the leftovers of whatever mirepoix (meer-pwah) ingredients (that's carrots, onion, and celery) you use.  The centers of celery with the short pale stalks, the ends of carrots, skins of onions... so long as these trimmings are not dirty or moldy they will work fine.  Each time I use these vegetables in the kitchen, or if they start to fade before I can use them, I toss them into the "Stock" bag in the freezer. If my stock bag is slim I will fill in with fresh veggies, but I prefer to use the trimmings in the stock bag.  Appearance of the veggies in this doesn't matter, you just need the flavors.  I know this post isn't very garden related, but if you have a garden it's a great way to fill your stock bag, veggies that were nibbled by pests make a great addition to the stock bag, as well as those that bolted or became woody or failed to bulb (the flavor's still there, they just don't have the right texture or appearance).  Why toss them in the compost when they can be used in stock? 

Stock bag from the freezer.

Secondly, you need a source for your meat flavor (obviously this isn't needed for vegetable stock).  Generally when I make a roast chicken for dinner, the first night it is served as roast chicken, the second night the remaining meat is served as some kind of soup or casserole, and the third day the bones and drippings are used for stock.  This is why Ina Garten seems very wasteful to me, one chicken should be able to provide nearly three meals for a family of four.  So my third day chicken carcass provides the meat flavor.  This also works with pot roast leftovers and beef bones, or ham bones and hocks to make ham stock, or turkey bones and drippings, etc.

Ingredients collected

 Finally, you can throw any seasonings you'd like in your stock, in my case I tossed in some garlic cloves that had sprouted a bit and then dried out in the fridge and a handful of thyme I had accidentally cut off while trimming out dead branches on my thyme plant.

Veggies and herbs go into the pot.

 Throw your chicken carcass, including all of the skin, bones, fat, and drippings into the pot.

Looks terrible, smells and tastes fabulous.

 If you want to, you can add salt or pepper to your stock, I usually save that step for when I'm ready to use it in preparing a meal though.

All set for a nice long simmer.

 Fill the pot with water, you need enough to cover all the ingredients, but leave a little room at the top of the pot to avoid a boil over.  Put a lid on it, bring it to a boil, uncover, stir, and let simmer for several hours until the liquid is reduced by about half.  Every 30 minutes to an hour it helps to walk by and give it a quick stir to ensure nothing scorches on the bottom of the pot.

Reduced by half.  3-4 hours later.

 Once your stock is reduced turn off the heat and let it sit for another 30 minutes to an hour so you don't burn yourself when you strain it out.

Colander full of strained chunks.

 After cooling set a colander in a large bowl (for a super clear broth lay cheesecloth inside the colander), then pour the entire pot into the colander.  Be careful as it may still be hot, and be sure to use a large enough bowl to hold it all.  Lift the colander out and dispose of the now flavorless remains.

Stock! Well, almost.

 What you are left with is a bowl full of beautiful, flavorful stock.  It's not quite done though.  Pour the stock into a freezer safe container (or two), label it, put a lid on it, then place it n the refrigerator overnight.

Ready for chilling overnight.

 The next day uncover your stock, you should be able to see a top layer of pale fat over the stock itself.  Spoon off this semi-solid fat for a nice lean stock.

Fat separated to the top of the container.

 Finally, you are left with your chicken stock, low fat, flavorful, ready to use in soups or whatever meal you'd like.  It will keep for months in the freezer, but only another day or two in the fridge.  Now wasn't that easy?  Time consuming yes, but really not that much work.

Ready to freeze for chicken and dumplings!

And I didn't even need 3 whole chickens and 6 handfuls of fresh herbs.  Plus, if you started with organic chicken and veggies it's completely organic too.   ;)

It's Pizza Night!

Garden veggie pizzas are another recipe worth making.  Pizza cravings get out of control some days, but it's expensive, full of stuff that's bad for us, and lacks any nutritional value (my kids are straight up pepperoni eaters so don't even get veggies with their pizza).
To make pizzas throughout the year you need to plan during the vegetable season.  Make up some batches of spaghetti sauce, and blanch, chop/slice, and freeze some veggies in small portions.  Or you can get crazy and make tons of pizzas up in one day and freeze them in gallon bags for frozen pizzas ready to bake.

Blurry, but this one day's harvest is enough tomatoes to make a whole batch of sauce.

Garden topping options include:
-spinach
-kale
-tomatoes
-mushrooms (trade with your neighbor who grows shiitakes in a closet)
-sweet peppers
-jalapenos or other spicy peppers
-onions
-fresh basil
-fresh herbs in general
-artichoke
-garlic
-zucchini

I wouldn't necessarily build a pizza with all of these toppings, but you could pick 3 or 4 for each pizza you make.  Some ideas: artichoke, zucchini, mushroom, and chicken with pesto sauce;  mozzarella, kale, tomato, fresh basil on tomato sauce;  barbecue sauce, jalapeno, sweet pepper, onion, hot Italian sausage.  That one's for the spicy fans.

Not all veggies work out well for toppings, the ones that don't you save for your sauce.  While pizza sauce is primarily tomatoes, it won't hurt it to work in some other veggies to give it character and nutrition.  Basil, oregano, onion, garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, and bell peppers (any color) are pretty much expected to be in a good spaghetti or pizza sauce.  Some you might not think of though are: eggplant, this mild flavored vegetable thickens sauces and is decidedly an acceptable addition to many Italian foods; carrots/sweet potatoes, these orange veggies add beta carotene and can help to sweeten a too-acid sauce without adding sugar, they also won't change the color of your sauce noticeably; summer squash, my stepmom believes these belong in everything, cooked into tomato sauces they add nutrition without making a drastic change in flavor; kale/spinach/chard, unlike some greens, these have decent cooked properties, they are full of nutrition and pizza may be your only chance to get your kids to eat them (use sparingly to avoid the obvious color change).

Pizza crust is easy, any bread machine comes with some kind of pizza crust recipe, or you can pick up a Boboli or refrigerated tube of crust.  I prefer to make my own in the bread maker or by hand from scratch.  Recipes are all over the internet for pizza crust, just pick one and give it a shot.

Sauce recipes are much more challenging.  You have a few options in sauce, you can do home canned pizza sauce, or a spicy version of home canned, or a pesto sauce, or a white (alfredo) sauce.  If your goal is to use up your garden produce choose one of the first three.  If your goal is to keep the nutrition content high and fat and calorie content low for your pizzas, also choose one of the first three.  Alfredo sauce has it's place, but on top of a pile of empty calories, topped with a pile of saturated fat... it probably isn't worth it.  It would be delicious over homemade whole wheat linguine with fresh spring vegetables though!  I am a foodie, but I am not a chef.  Sadly my mouth's idea of delicious and my hand's ability to cook often end up on separate sides of a cookbook.  So we keep it simple around here.

To make a basic tomato sauce:

Get together enough tomatoes to fill a glass baking dish about 8x11, use primarily saucing tomatoes.  Saucing tomatoes are meatier than slicers or cherries, they tend to have smaller seed pockets and less juice to them.  Heat a small pan of water to boiling, with a slotted spoon dip each tomato in the boiling water for a few seconds then drop in a bowl of cold water.  This is totally a two person job and having a helper makes it go much faster.  Once each tomato has cooled you can easily cut off the stem and core, then slip the skin off the tomato.  Chop each tomato into large chunks and toss into the roasting pan.  Don't worry about all the juice and seeds on the cutting board, in fact squeeze the juice out of some of the bigger tomatoes before chopping.  All of the juice and seeds will just make it take longer to thicken your sauce.  If you want to add red pepper to your sauce it's a good idea to core and quickly chop them as well to roast with the tomatoes.  Set your oven to about 350F,  roast the tomatoes for an hour or so.  When they are done they will be tender and have developed that fabulous roasted vegetable smell.  Nearly all of the vegetables can be roasted like this before being added to a saucepan for simmering, I don't recommend it for greens, mushrooms or herbs though.

When the pan of tomatoes is roasted, pour off some of the liquid at the bottom of the pan.  Chop some onion and garlic.  Get a large stock pot or 6-8 quart pot and heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in it.  Sweat the garlic and onion in oil until it is soft, and gently browned.  Taking the time to do this will give these aromatics a sweeter flavor.  Pour in your roasted tomatoes, roasted red peppers, and any other veggies.  Give this mix a quick twirl with a stick blender (or blend briefly in a regular blender before adding to the pot).  Cover and let simmer about 20 minutes.

Homemade spaghetti sauce on the stove

After the 20 minutes is up, blend to a nice smooth puree.  Your sauce still won't have much flavor, but it should smell great.  Add in dried herbs: bay leaves, Italian seasoning, and salt (lots of salt!).  Remember this is a big batch of sauce so add quite a bit of seasoning to give it the flavor you want.  Allow the sauce to simmer for another 10 minutes, then taste and add more seasoning as needed.  Lastly, add about a cup of red wine (capestrano, zinfandel, or anything that isn't sweet is fine), and throw in some fresh basil.  If your sauce still tastes too acidic, add a couple tablespoons of sugar.  Uncover and turn the heat down to a low simmer, let the sauce cook down to the desired consistency.  Double check that it tastes right and salt, sugar or season until the flavor is right.  Remove the bay leaves.  This sauce is pretty basic and can be jazzed up when you are ready to use it for lasagnas, spaghetti, pizza, or in a meat ragu or whatever other recipe you have.  Italian seasonings can be skipped over also to make an even more adaptable tomato sauce.

You are then able to can your tomato sauce using a water bath method, but be sure to add a tablespoon of lemon juice to the bottom of each pint jar to ensure the acidity and prevent botulism.**  Or you can scoop the sauce into freezer safe containers the appropriate size for one meal and freeze up to a year.

**Disclaimer: AnywhereEden shall not be responsible for any illness or loss due to home canning and preserving.  If you plan to do home canning get the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for full instructions on safe home preserving.  I am not a pro at canning, please be advised that tomatoes border on low acid and it is always safer to pressure can or freeze them.  Adding acid will help prevent botulism but is never a guarantee, and always follow canning safety measures.  Keep jars, lids, and rings clean; throw away any jars with broken seals, visible mold, bulging lids, or strange smells.  If it doesn't look right... throw it away! Don't take the risk of eating spoiled foods. Learn about botulism here.

Save some time and freeze sauce in meal-sized containers.

Pesto Sauce:

Pesto is an easy sauce to make, it's delicious and recipes for basil pesto can be adapted to make other herb pestos, if you've made pesto in the past and been saddened to see it oxidize (turn brown), you can prevent this by adding some lemon juice to the pesto and also by not allowing it to get too hot.  Tossing fresh pesto into hot pasta is guaranteed to make it change color, instead let the pasta cool a bit before adding the pesto and it shouldn't brown as much.  Some grocery stores' canning aisles carry oxidation prevention agents that may work to improve this but I have never tried one so can't advise regarding their effectiveness.

2  cups firmly packed fresh basil leaves
3/4  cup grated Parmesan cheese
3/4  cup olive or vegetable oil
3  cloves garlic
1/4  cup pine nuts
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

   1. In blender or food processor, place all ingredients.
   2. Cover; blend on medium speed about 3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape sides, until smooth.
   3. Spoon into 8 oz. or smaller freezer containers and freeze up to one year.


After a long day of making sauce, the perfect way to end your day is to throw together your pizza crusts, toppings, and sauce into a garden pizza feast.

Enjoy!

Perennial Herb Culture

Perennial herbs are generally the herbs with woody stalks that survive year after year.  In milder climates some soft herbs can survive for more than a year, such as chives.  Primarily the perennial herbs people think of are rosemary, lavender, thyme, oregano, sage, the mint family, and marjoram.  There are others but the culture of these plants is pretty similar between species.  Personally I don't recommend starting these plants from seed, the seeds are incredibly tiny, and a bit finicky to get started.  Plus they are available as starts everywhere and aren't terribly expensive.

Perennial herbs need a sunny spot that won't be a swamp during the wet season.  They manage pretty well in my area which is basically a temperate rain forest, but if they are in a depression and get too much water with too little drainage they can die.  I have never had a pest problem or disease problem with these plants.  In fact they have strongly scented oils that can act as repellents to some pests, and at the same time most produce a flush of flowers in spring or summer that attract many pollinators.  These herbs are a great addition to any garden, attracting bees and butterflies, smelling fabulous, keeping out pests.  They don't require any fertilization so long as they are in moderately fertile soil to begin with.  Adding nutrients early in the spring can improve the abundance of fresh growth in the springtime; but don't add more after June since they are finished with most of their growth at that point.

You can plant them in pots or in the ground around your garden, I wouldn't plant them in among your annuals though as planting new annuals each year could damage the roots of the perennials, and the perennials will spread quite a bit over time leaving your no room for the annuals after a few years.  If you put them in pots make sure to move them to a warmer spot during the winter.  I have never lost a perennial herb to frost when they're in the ground, but pots are not as insulating and I often have to replace potted herbs the next spring.

Pots of perennial herbs between vegetable beds.

Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano and marjoram are all Mediterranean herbs; they are comfortable in hot, cool, dry or moist conditions; they will appreciate both thick clay soils and sandier soils.  In fact, I don't think I've met a soil they wouldn't grow in.  Mints on the other hand prefer a cooler spot with more moisture, sandy soil doesn't suit them well.  Different varieties of these herbs will grow in different ways also.  If you're looking for a ground cover an option to consider is a creeping or spreading version of rosemary or thyme, or a standard version of oregano.  All of these will stay low growing and spread over an area, they smell lovely and produce a sprinkling of tiny purple flowers in spring and summer.  Choosing variegated, or odd colored varieties can add some excitement as well, like lemon thyme with it's yellow and green splashed leaves, or purple sage.  For culinary use smell or taste the leaves of the plants before buying them to ensure they have the flavors you want as well as the look, woolly thyme for example is a spreading attractive ground cover but it is not as flavorful and therefore does not make a quality culinary herb.  No one will mock you for nibbling the plants at the nursery, I promise.
If you are looking for more upright growth in your herbs (for use as a back row with a fronting of bulbs or annuals, or something similar) chives grow a lively bunch of bright green onion-like tops, sage comes in a variety of colors and has a silvery fuzz to it's leaves, a standard (non-spreading) rosemary can reach 4 feet tall and act as a hedge, lavender stays fairly small and makes a great perennial border, and most varieties of mint spread by underground runner and stand up to 18 inches high.

All of these herbs can be cut fresh with a pair of scissors and added to foods, teas, or used as fragrance.  They can also be dried.  To dry herbs hold a bunch of stems in your hand no bigger than you can wrap your index finger and thumb around (if your bunch is too large the center may not get adequate air flow and can mold), tie the ends together with a string, hang in a cool, dry place where they will get ventilation.  Under the eaves of your porch, on a clothesline strung across your laundry room, wherever you can find the space.  I hang my bunches from my pot rack over the island, if my stove were underneath it I wouldn't hang them there because the heat and moisture coming off the stove could ruin the herbs.  Let them dry like that for a week or more, until the leaves are crisp and crumble under your fingers.  If in doubt about whether they are dry enough, just let them hang longer until there is no doubt.  Once they are totally dry you'll want to store them in airtight containers; either plastic bags stored in the freezer or in spice jars in the cabinet.  Either way you will save a lot of space by stemming the herbs and giving them a quick grind with a mortar and pestle or spice grinder. you can continue to hang your herbs in their bunches but they will lose flavor faster and can get a build up of dust on them if left for long.

My favorite way to deal with my dried herbs is to throw together some Italian seasoning, one of the spice mixes I use most often.  First I get my herbs all prepped for putting in jars or the freezer, then just mix together  roughly equal parts rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, and marjoram.  Then store in a glass spice jar labeled Italian Seasoning.  If this blend isn't to your taste you can also add in savory, or red pepper flakes if you prefer it a little spicy, some people also add garlic, onion, or parsley.  I prefer to keep it a simple blend and add those extras only for certain dishes, or if I have no fresh onion or garlic.

20 year old rosemary at Dad's, rhododendron behind.

Some other great ways to use these plants include: lavender sachets, dried catnip for pets, herbal soaps and lotions, potpourri, rosemary barbecue skewers, sage smudging, teas, mint sprigs in drinks, and medicinal tinctures and teas.