Garden Fuss

Me & Basil Just before the big chill Basil Gone Bye Bye ~ It's Pesto Time The bitter cold has set in much too soon for most of us in this region. It's just the second week in October and a Minnesota ski parks has opened sooner than another parks in the country with real (manmade) snow.... With the rain that has just started to make it out of the atmosphere in the last couple hours I'm thinking the snow won't last very long. However the very cold day and night time temps has been conducive to flake making and the killing of all essential tasty things in my and other gardens around town. 
Speaking of casualties, our basil was almost caught and destroyed by the too cold temps. However,I raced out snatched the whole plants from the ground and proceeded with removing the not so succulent leaves and washing them. Since the cold makes me really lethargic I waited a couple days to process the leaves into what you see here...

Last month I jumped at an opportunity to assist with a Solar Cooking demonstration; a skill share that I would be assisting Amy Gooder from Rumble In The Kitchen with. This particular skill share was part of the Como Cookout. Which combined a potluck, tomato tasting, classes on seed saving, herb preservation, fermentation, canning, and a host of other events and activities sponsored by the NE/SE Local Food Resource Hubs. If you have visited my blog a time or two you can see that cooking and baking are my “it things” besides gardening. Before I went to the Como Cookout I had close to no knowledge about cooking outdoors using the sun. Last winter break after a particularly heated discussion with my son regarding wasted opportunities to “fry an egg” on the concrete (my fault of course); we made up by a unanimous decision to peruse Youtube on the subject. We found several videos to fuel our new passion for extreme outdoor cooking. Including videos showing how-to use a car to bake choc...

This is day one of garden clean-up. As you can see we had a bumper crop... Wait what is a bumper crop anyway? Pardon me as I digress, I just looked this up on Wikipedia and they refer to a Bumper Crop as: "In agriculture , a bumper crop refers to a particularly productive harvest yielded for a particular crop ." Not only did we produce a crazy amount of Table Queen Acorn Squash, we grew and harvested an amazing amount of pole beans (kentucky wonder I believe). We've enjoyed stir-fry, soup, casserole, and even green bean pickles. The latter being a huge hit in my and my brothers home. I am now down almost two jars; there happens to be approximately 5 beans floating in a nummy garlic dill brine in my refrigerator. I am way into the thick of it when it comes to putting food by these days. My kitchen is oober full of large pots, produce, and a couple scrap buckets...

  Just made it back from walking the dog. What is disturbing to the hubby and me is that along the creek bed we saw only rocks and small puddles with stranded fish. What was worst of all was hearing only quiet as we walked to where the water "falls" over the sandstone into the lower creek bed. There was a trickle that didn't fall it kind of just sheened down the rocks into what was a very small kiddie sized pool of water. Kids from a neighboring school yelled, "crane" "crane". As we edged closer to see that there indeed was a crane plump full with fish that were very easy pickings. We've always wondered if there were fish going over the falls and today proved that yes there were and that they depend on the falls for their lively hood. It gets them from one place to another, and carries valuable nutrients and food to them. Until today the drought in my mind only consisted of brown grass, thirsty trees, and dried up vegetation. Today's visi...

    I've waited all year to try my hand at making my own hot sauce. Yes I know there are plenty of grocery stores in my area that sell a variety of peppers that would have allowed me to try this out before now. However, there is nothing like the satisfaction one feels from growing their own and learning to create valuable pantry staples directly from their own land (yard). The recipe was so flippin easy I smacked myself on the forehead for not doing this sooner.   The beauty of making your own condiments allows you to control the sugar and sodium in the final product. I wish we had scratch and sniff monitors so you could have smelled and felt the spice coming from the teeny tiny Thai Peppers. Everyone in the house had very high oxygen levels after the preparation of this I'm sure because it opens you right up.   Tina's Thai Chili Hot Sauce: Ingredients A handful of Thai Chili Peppers. 4 cloves of peeled garlic 1 large o...

One Giant Roma, 6 stalks of Dino kale, a small white onion (all from the garden); mixed with a splash of cream make a delicious easy sauce for pasta. 3 year old and adults approve and I must agree that this recipe is a keeper. Now with only remnants of all the goodness left in the pan I am realizing that I should have made more. So much for my simple brunch plan... I was sure the guys wouldn't like it so I made a small pan. Next time I'll know to go all out.
Happy Harvesting!

Tina

House Plants..... Are simply a joy to most people who enter a home or mall where they bloom, sprawl or climb. Especially in the winter; in Minnesota. I know no one wants to think of the "W" word for a while but it is on my mind. Most of us flood the malls just to get a little view of greenery during shopping excursions or enjoying a nice hot chocolate while listening to our screaming children run from ride to ride at a venue like Mall of America.  I didn't really have this on my mind today when I took a trip to the Minneapolis Farmers Market to find discounted outdoor plants or shrubs. However, low and behold there before me in a stall next to piles of edamame were beautiful Peace Lillies, Aloe, and Pothos plants. Most people think my thumbs are stained green with how well I tend plants on the outside. I have had no real luck with house plants since..... Well, since we moved to this house. The direction of the sun is not conducive to what plants need in our family roo...