Seasonal Ontario Food

German Butterball Potatoes

2012-01-20T08:00:00.001-05:00

I've been hearing about these potatoes for several years, so this spring when Eagle Creek had some for sale we decided it was time to give them a try. I'm glad we did! This is an excellent potato.

German Butterballs are a late season potato, ready in 120 days or so. I have to say, ours went on and on and on - they took much longer than our Russet Burbanks to die down and I think if the weather had not started to get cold they could have gone on growing even longer.

Like the Russet Burbanks, we grew them in a raised box, and covered them with soil as they grew, in the hopes of producing a bumper crop. You can read about that process here. The German Butterballs produced 88 pounds of potatoes in the box, compared to at least 100 pounds for the same amount of Russets planted. That was, I believe, 2 kilos of seed potatoes (hard to believe it was 2 pounds, but they don't have their package size listed at the moment, and I can't find my receipt. Anybody know?) At any rate, it's hard to complain about a harvest like that, even though I did feel like there was an awful lot of dirt in the box in proportion to the amount of potato. They seemed to form potatoes at the bottom, where the original potato was planted, and at the top near the soil, but not in between, unlike the Russet Burbanks which were scattered throughout the soil.

The German Butterball plants were extremely rampant. They grew all down the sides of their growing box and pretty much engulfed the next-door blueberry bed. They had white flowers and produced more seed-balls than I have ever seen on any of the other potatoes I've grown. I've saved a few in the hopes of starting some potatoes from true seed, and seeing what I get. They are said to be disease resistant.

As for the potatoes themselves, the name is very apt. They are a roundish to slightly elongated, mid-sized potato, although somewhat variable in size. The flesh is a bright yellow, the skins are a slightly russeted beige. We are having some trouble telling them apart from the Russet Burbanks until we cut them, although in general the Russet Burbanks are larger and longer. They are compared by some people to Yukon Gold potatoes because of their colour, but I consider them a far superior potato. (Not hard. Yukon Gold have a strange, sweetish flavour that I really quite dislike.) Everyone who has eaten them around here has enthused over them, including me. They are really delicious. They are also very versatile, good for baking, boiling, mashing and frying. I'm told they store well, although that has yet to be seen.

German Butterball is described as an heirloom potato, but it is very hard to find anything about its history. Apparently it was introduced to commerce in 1988 by David Ronniger, of Ronnigers Potatoes, but I can find no further information.

Flan de Coco

2012-01-18T07:59:00.001-05:00

Flan is THE quintessential hispanic dessert, and in tropical climes it has picked up a few twists... like coconut. Very yummy. And also very, very rich. Smallish portions are probably indicated.

Caramel is pretty easy to make. The big secret is not to stir it once it gets cooking, but don't leave it alone as it will turn colour very quickly once it goes.

8 to 12 servings
2 hours - 30 minutes prep time

Make the Caramel:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

If you can, put the sugar and water right in the flan mold and cook it directly on the stove. If your flan mold is not able to do that, put the sugar and water into a large pot. Stir once to dissolve, then cook without stirring again but watching it constantly, until it turns a deep golden brown. Either swirl it around the flan pan until it sets, or rapidly pour it into your flan pan, and swirl it around until it sets. It will set quite rapidly.

Make the Flan:
1 1/2 cups unsweetened shredded dessicated coconut
2 398 ml tins coconut milk
plus light cream to make 4 cups
8 extra-large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup dark rum

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put a large shallow baking tray in the oven, and pour water into it, allowing for the fact that you must put in the flan tin - so it must fit in - and the water should not be so much that it would overflow once you add the flan tin.

Put the dessicated coconut into the caramelized flan tin, spreading it out fairly evenly.

Pour the coconut milk into a 4 cup measure, and add light cream to make 4 cups - probably about half a cup or so of cream.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl, then mix in the coconut milk and cream. Mix in the vanilla and rum. Pour this into the prepared flan tin.

Place the flan tin carefully into the tray of water in the oven. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 and one half hours, until golden brown on top, and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely. Set the flan tin into a dish of very hot water, and run a knife carefully around the edges. Jiggle it a little, and once you can see it is loose, put a serving dish with a lip (to catch the sauce) over the top of the flan tin, and turn it over quickly. Ta da! Coconut flan.

Picadillo

2012-01-16T07:58:00.001-05:00

This simple, hash-like dish is quick, easy and inexpensive. Again with the olive and raisin combination, this time maybe with eggs, which I always think of as being a very Chilean combination. Maybe it's actually Spanish, although I can't say I came across it in Spain. Maybe I was in the wrong places though. It certainly seems to be a thing.

4 to 6 servings
1 hour prep time

2 medium onions
1 large green pepper
4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 or 3 tablespoons tomato paste

500 grams (1 pound) ground beef
250 grams (1/2 pound) ground pork or chopped ham
salt & pepper
2 teaspoons cumin seed, ground
1 1/2 teaspoons rubbed oregano
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons sherry

2 medium potatoes
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup stuffed green olives, chopped
4 to 6 eggs (optional)

Peel and chop the onions. Wash, destem and deseed and chop the pepper. Peel and mince the garlic.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Cook the onions and pepper gently, until softened and reduced. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two, until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes, until well amalgamated.

Crumble the beef and pork into the sofrito (the mixture in the pan) and add the seasonings, sherry vinegar, and sherry. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently and breaking up any large clumps of meat.

Meanwhile, wash and dice the potatoes, and boil them until barely tender. Drain them and add them to the picadillo. Add the raisins and the olive, roughly chopped.

Serve the picadillo over steamed rice and if you like, top each serving with a fried or poached egg.

Last year at this time I made soup with Blue Pod Capucijners.

Ropa Vieja with Alcaparrado

2012-01-13T08:16:00.004-05:00

Aaaand another Cuban dish just about everyone knows. The Cubans do a lot of soupy, stewy dishes, much more Spanish influenced than on most other Caribbean islands. Or not so much more influenced, as less influenced by other things, and by other things I mean spicy things. Cuban cooking is fairly mild, with many dishes starting out with a sofrito, that is onion and green peppers cooked soft in oil then cooked some more with tomatoes of some kind. That's what happens here. Seasonings are cumin and oregano, almost always, and the Alcaparrado is also very typical; a mix of olives, capers and raisins.

4 servings
45 minutes not including pre-cooking the beef (2 hours)

Pre-Cook the Beef:
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
500 grams (1 pound) flank or skirt steak
salt & pepper to taste
2 cups water
2 or 3 bay leaves

Heat the oil in a skillet. Cook the steak, patted dry, on both sides until nicely browned, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. When it is well browned, add the water and the bay leaves, and simmer for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Keep the meat and the broth from cooking it in separate containers in the fridge until wanted.

Make the Dish:
1 large onion
1 large red pepper
1 large green pepper
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
2 teaspoons cumin seed, ground
1 1/2 teaspoons rubbed oregano
4 cloves of garlic
2 or 3 cups crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoon red wine or sherry vinegar

Peel the onion and cut it into slivers. Wash and destem the peppers, and cut them into similar sized slivers. Heat the oil in a large skillet, and add the onions and peppers. Cook, stirring regularly, until they soften. Do not let them brown. Add the ground cumin seed and the oregano.

Meanwhile, peel and mince the garlic. When the vegetables are well on the way to being cooked down, add the garlic and cook it for just a minute or two. Add the tomatoes and the broth from cooking the meat, and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the mixture is amalgamated and somewhat reduced.

While that is happening, shred the meat into long strands. This can be done by pulling strands off with a fork, but I always remember the family motto: "fingers were invented before forks." Once done, add the beef strands to the pan along with the vinegar and simmer for another 15 to 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until everything in the pan is very well acquainted. It should be moist and juicy, so you may need to add more broth or water or tomatoes, if it shows signs of drying out.

Make the Alcaparrado:
1 or 2 teaspoons drained capers
8 to 12 stuffed green olives
2 tablespoons raisins
1 tablespoon roasted red pepper

Chop together the capers, olives and raisins, to form a coarse relish texture. The red pepper should be mashed quite smooth. Mix it in to hold the alcaparrado together. (I admit that for the red pepper I used a bit of my Ajvar. Why not? It was good.)

Cuban Black Bean Soup

2012-01-11T07:57:00.001-05:00

This very classic Cuban soup is usually made with a meaty ham-bone or smoked hock. I made mine vegetarian, as I had a vegetarian guest at the time, but if you want to add it back in, there is no reason not to.

8 to 12 servings
1 hour prep time, not including cooking the beans

Cook the Beans:
450 grams (1 pound) dried black beans
8 cups of water
3 or 4 bay leaves

Rinse the beans and put them in a large pot with the water and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat off. Leave them covered for an hour or two. Repeat, until the beans are fairly soft. Once they are close to being done, leave them on a simmer for an hour or so until completely cooked. This can be done a day in advance.

Make the Sofrito:
2 stalks of celery
2 medium onions
1 large green pepper
4 to 6 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
2 teaspoons rubbed oregano
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, ground
1 teaspoon smoked sweet Spanish paprika
1 cup tomato sauce

Wash, trim and finely dice the celery. Peel and finely dice the onions. Destem and deseed the pepper, and cut it in fine dice. Peel and mince the garlic.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Cook the celery, onions and pepper until soft but not browned. Add the oregano, cumin, paprika and garlic, and stir until well combined and fragrant. Add the tomato sauce and cook for another 20 minutes or so, until the whole is well amalgamated and somewhat reduced.

Finish the Soup:
4 cups ham, chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup rum
finely chopped sweet onion, steamed rice, OR sour cream

Meanwhile, drain the beans and return them to the pot with the broth. Pick out the bay leaves. Bring the beans to a simmer.

When the sofrito is ready, add it to the beans. Simmer for a few minutes. Remove about one third to one half of the soup, and purée it, or at least mash it very thoroughly. Return it to the pot.

Just before serving, add the lime juice and rum and heat through. Serve traditionally, with chopped raw sweet onion and spoonfuls of steamed white rice, or with sour cream. Since I was serving the soup as a "primero" in a larger meal, I did not serve it with any rice.

Last year at this time I made Bean & Barley Burgers.

Bocadito Elena Ruz

2012-01-09T07:52:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone! I'm not here right now, but at the sound of the beep...

Oh, wait; that's not right. Let me try again. Hey, everyone! I'm not here right now. I'm in Cuba! Yes, Cuba! For 2 weeks. In preparation for this momentous occasion I have made a few Cuban dishes which will, thanks to the miracle of modern computing, appear at intervals until I return; at least, that's the plan. We'll see.

This one is a simple sandwich of cream cheese, strawberry preserves, and sliced cooked chicken or turkey on a plain white or slightly sweet sandwich bread (challah, for instance). It was invented in the 1930's at the request of a young Cuban socialite who would go seeking a late-night snack at one of Havana's trendy cafes. It's also very handy if you still have any leftover Christmas turkey around, and if you decide to put in cranberry sauce rather than strawberries preserves, well, it will be much less Cuban but perfectly tasty. It's traditionally toasted, but you don't have to. It's a sandwich, - a bocadito, - for heaven's sake.

Anyway, a very happy new year to all, and I'll "see" you when I get back.

Last year at this time I made Caroline's Low-Sugar Sweet Potato Cake.

Peanut Brittle

2012-01-05T08:05:00.004-05:00

I've had candy thermometers at various times, but either they haven't worked or I do not have what it takes to use them properly. It's not like I need to be making candy anyway, but there are a few things that are fairly foolproof and can be done without one.

We used our! own! homegrown! peanuts for this, which was very exciting, but you could use any nuts you like, or pumpkin, sunflower or sesame seeds for that matter.

The sugar should turn a good definite dark brown, even a little darker than in the photo although, of course, you don't want to burn it.

2 cups shelled roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (optional)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt

Have the peanuts measured and ready. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper, and grease it generously with the butter.

Put the sugar and honey into a fairly deep, heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring only once at the beginning to get the sugar dissolved.

Once the mixture is boiling briskly, but in no danger of boiling over, let it boil for another 4 to 5 minutes, watching it closely but not stirring. When it turns to a deep golden brown, remove it from the heat at once. Mix in the peanuts, and the baking soda if you want to add it. This will give the peanut brittle a very different texture, as it will make it full of tiny bubbles.

Spread the hot peanut mixture out on the prepared parchment paper, spreading it as evenly and as thinly as you can. Sprinkle the salt over the top evenly. If you used the baking soda, use less salt. If you did not use baking soda, you can use a little more salt. Let the brittle set for several hours in a cool spot, then break it up and store it between sheets of parchment paper in a sealed tin.

Pizza Mushrooms

2012-01-04T07:46:00.006-05:00

If you can find a little oven space, these are an easy appetizer to make and very tasty. You can use other pizza-type toppings instead of the pepperoni if you like; maybe stuffed olives, chopped ham or green peppers.

36 large mushrooms
45 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

36 large button mushrooms
200 grams (1/2 pound) cheddar or mozzarella cheese
1 cup tomato sauce
1 teaspoon oregano
100 grams (1/4 pound) pepperoni

Clean the mushrooms, and remove the stems. Reserve the stems for some other use. Set the mushrooms on a baking tray, gills up. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Grate the cheese and mix it with the tomato and oregano. Chop up the pepperoni and mix it in as well. Spoon this mixture into the mushroom caps. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot.

They will exude a lot of juice as they bake, so make sure the baking tray has edges to prevent it from running off the edge.

Last year at this time I made Jerusalem Artichoke, Celeriac & Turnip Salad with Ginger-Orange Dressing.

White Bean & Dried Tomato Dip

2012-01-03T08:11:00.004-05:00

I keep trying with the white bean dips. I find an awful lot of them pretty dull, actually. Perhaps I have finally gotten enough other stuff in there that it can actually be tasty. At any rate, this was quite popular.

If you don't want to cook the beans, you should use 2 540 ml (19 ounce) tins.

about 3 cups dip
20 minutes prep time, not including cooking the beans

1 cup raw pea (navy) beans
1/3 cup parsley
1/2 cup dried tomatoes
2 cups grated celeriac
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon sunflower seed oil
the finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon salt (maybe)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon rubbed basil
1/4 teaspoon rubbed rosemary
1/2 teaspoon rubbed oregano
1/4 teaspoon rubbed thyme
1/4 cup stuffed olives (optional)

The beans need to be cooked the day before; put them in a pot and cover them with generous amounts of water. Bring them to a boil, then let them soak for several hours. Bring to a boil again, and then simmer until tender, about an hour.

Put the drained beans into a food processor. Add a good handful of parsley, washed and squeezed dry (and without any tough stems).

Put the tomatoes into a small pot with water to just cover, and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let them sit, covered, for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel and grate the celeriac. Heat the oil in a medium skillet, and cook the celeriac gently until softened. Add the peeled, sliced garlic and cook for a minute or two more.

Add the drained tomatoes and the celeriac and garlic to the beans. Add the lemon juice and zest, and the seasonings, and the olives if you want them. Note; the amount of salt called for supposes home-cooked beans and no olives. If you use canned beans and/or olives, you should reduce the salt accordingly. If you use both you will not likely need to add any.

Last year at this time I made Pasta with Roasted Squash, Mushrooms, Onions & Dried Tomatoes.

Cornmeal Pancakes

2011-12-30T08:09:00.001-05:00

I trust that when I call for cooked, cooled cornmeal mush you recognize that it's leftovers. Make cornmeal for cereal one morning, cook some extra and have pancakes the next day. In order to have a cup of cornmeal mush left over, you should cook a generous 1/3 of a cup extra. Cornmeal gets cooked at the rate of 3 parts water to 1 part cornmeal, with a pinch of salt.

Delicious with maple syrup, honey, peanut butter, applesauce, applebutter, jam; all the usual pancake accompaniments in other words. These are a bit more solid and moist than regular pancakes with a nice delicate flavour. As always with pancakes, honestly: buttermilk is so much better than regular milk. It keeps extremely well (generally a couple of weeks past the date on the carton) and is useful in all kinds of baking. It should get used more often.

12 4" pancakes
40 minutes prep time

1 cup cooked cooled cornmeal mush
1 tablespoon sugar
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
about 1 cup buttermilk or milk
mild vegetable oil to cook

Preheat the oven to 150° to 200°F. Put your plates in there to get warm.

Mix the sugar into leftover cornmeal mush. Beat in the eggs.

Mix the baking powder and salt into the flour, then beat it in.

Mix in the buttermilk to make a smooth, pourable batter. Start with 1/2 cup and add more as needed; 1 cup will probably be about right, but it depends on how thick your cornmeal turned out and how thick you would like your pancakes to be. You will likely need a bit more buttermilk than you would plain milk.

Cook in an oiled pan at pancake temperature for about 2 minutes on each side, until nicely browned. Keep them warm in the oven on the plates there until they are all cooked.

Last year at this time I made Paprika Soup.

Cranberry Cole Slaw

2011-12-29T08:10:00.003-05:00

Cranberries! They go with so many things, even cole slaw. What can I say? I do love those fruity, nutty salads. Here's another one.

Makes 6 to 8 servings
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time

Make the Dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise (light is fine)
1/2 cup buttermilk
a little finely grated lemon zest
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon anise seed, ground
salt & pepper to taste

Mix the mayonnaise and buttermilk. Grate in a little lemon zest, about 1/8th of a teaspoon, then add the lemon juice. Grind the anise seed and mix it in, with salt and pepper to taste.

Make the Salad:
6 cups finely chopped cabbage
2 medium apples
1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans, almonds or hazelnuts)
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

Put a pot of water on to boil.

Chop the cabbage finely. Wash the apples, and cut the in quarters. Core them, then dice them. Mix the cabbage, apples and nuts.

When the water boils, add the cranberries and boil them for one or two minutes, until they are mostly popped but still whole. Lift them out of the water with a slotted spoon, draining thoroughly, then add them to the salad. Discard the water.

Toss the dressing with the salad, and let rest in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.

Hazelnut Macaroons

2011-12-22T08:16:00.001-05:00

Here's a quick and easy recipe just in case you need to make some Christmas cookies at the last moment. Of course, you will then be left with the egg yolks. Maybe you could make Eggnog Shorties with them, unless there is call for them elsewhere.

I'm going to step away from the computer for a while since Christmas is indeed just about upon us. Hope everyone has a great holiday, and a happy new year. And best of all, todays the day: from here on, the days get longer and the nights get shorter!

24 cookies
40 minutes - 20 minutes prep time PLUS overnight

2 extra-large egg whites
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup ground hazelnuts
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon almond extract

Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Beat the egg whites until very foamy. Continue beating, and add the icing sugar, about a quarter at at time, until it is well amalgamated and the egg whites form stiff peaks. Fold in the ground nuts, lemon juice, and almond extract.

Scoop out with a melon baller and place on a the prepared cookie sheet. Let the cookies stand overnight in a cool spot (not the fridge) to dry. Preheat the oven to 350°F and bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes.

Last year at this time I made Dried Tomato Pesto.

Cranberry-Orange-Poppy Seed Loaf Cake

2011-12-21T07:54:00.005-05:00

This is a cake I came up with about 10 years ago, to combine some of my favourite cake flavours. It was still in the days of low-fat cooking, so I really cut back on the butter a lot. It seems to work fine though. Nowadays I am probably more worried about the amount of sugar in things. Heigh-ho. Still, I don't make cake all that often, in spite of the inordinate number of desserts that I seem to be posting this month. Hmm. This was for someone's birthday, honest.

I actually made this particular cake with Meyer lemons instead of oranges. They worked out very well. I used 3 in the cake and 1 for the glaze. If you use oranges, don't forget you will need 3 of them if you want to glaze it.

8 servings
1 hour 15 minutes - 30 minutes prep time

Make the Cake:
2 cups fresh cranberries, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 extra-large egg
the zest of 2 large oranges
2 cups soft whole wheat flour
1/3 cup poppy seeds
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup buttermilk or milk

Chop the cranberries coarsely; actually I just cut them in half individually. Lightly butter a large loaf pan or 8" round springform pan. If using a springform pan, line the bottom with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Put the butter in a mixing bowl with the sugar, and work it in until it is evenly distributed throughout. Beat in the egg. Grate in the zest from the oranges, and mix it in.

Measure the flour and mix it with the poppy seeds, baking powder, and salt.

Mix the flour into the sugar and egg mixture alternately with the orange juice and buttermilk. Gently stir in the chopped cranberries.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out evenly. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Optional Glaze:
1/4 cup orange juice
1/3 to 1/2 cup icing sugar

If you would like to glaze the cake, while it is still warm mix the orange juice and icing sugar until smooth. Poke the cake all over the top with a fork, then drizzle and spread the glaze over the top of the cake as evenly as you can. Let the cake finish cooling before serving.

Last year at this time I made Baked Ricotta Cheese.

Brussels Sprouts Salad

2011-12-20T07:49:00.005-05:00

I feel like I always add fruit, nuts and cheese to salads. Look! It's another salad with fruit, nuts and cheese! Surprise!

But really, that's the salad that I like. So here it is again, with Brussels sprouts this time. Yep, you can eat them raw. Who knew? Okay, I'm surprised.

4 to 6 servings
30 minutes prep time

Make the Vinaigrette:
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup lemon juice (the juice of 2 medium lemons)
2 teaspoons honey
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/3 cup hazelnut or walnut oil
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all the above ingredients in a small bowl and whisk, or put them in a jam jar, seal, and shake until well blended.

Make the Salad:
1/2 cup hazelnuts
200 grams (scant 1/2 pound) Brussels sprouts
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 or 3 clementines or mandarin oranges
1/2 cup coarsely grated or finely shaved Parmesan cheese

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry skillet, stirring frequently until they turn a little darker in spots. Put them out onto a plate to cool.

Meanwhile, wash trim and shred the Brussels sprouts as finely as you can and put them in a salad bowl. Add the dried cranberries. Peel the oranges, and divide them into segments. Cut the segments in half and add them to the salad. Chop the nuts roughly and add them to the salad.

Toss the salad with the dressing, then sprinkle the cheese over and mix it in gently.

Last year at this time I made Finnish Nisa (Pulla) and German Stollen.

Squash with Roasted Squash Seeds

2011-12-19T07:59:00.007-05:00

This is a ridiculously simple way to serve squash, and it uses the whole thing. I love the rich, nutty flavour of the roasted squash seeds.

You can use any other squash besides butternut, provided it is reasonably dense and mashable, and the seeds are tender enough to be nice to eat.

4 to 6 servings
1 hour 45 minutes - 15 minutes prep time

1 medium butternut squash, about 1 kilo (2 pounds)
2 or 3 tablespoons butter
salt & pepper to taste
2 teaspoons mild vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the squash in half and clean out the seeds and any stringy bits from the core. Peel and cut the squash into thickish slices or chunks to be roasted. Put them in a shallow roasting pan, and dot them with the butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Roast until tender, about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.

Meanwhile, go back and clean the seeds, picking out all the stringy orange stuff that attaches them to each other or the squash, and discarding it. Rinse the seeds thoroughly, and drain well. Put them in a shallow roasting pan and toss them with the oil, and salt to taste (or other seasonings if you like). Roast the seeds for 20 to 30 minutes, ideally timing them to come out at about the same time as the squash. They should be lightly browned and a bit crisp.

To serve, mash the squash with the butter it was roasted in. Coarsely chop the roasted seeds and sprinkle them over the top of the squash once it has been placed in a serving dish.

Last year at this time I made Jelly-Glazed Acorn Squash - more quick and easy squash.

Kipferl; Nut Crescents

2011-12-16T08:10:00.003-05:00

I got this recipe from my great-aunt Hilda many years ago, but I could have gotten it anywhere, just about. This is a ubiquitous and much-loved Christmas cookie for many people. I've adjusted it a little; more nuts and flavouring but otherwise it's the same. I had my usual problem with shortbread type cookies here, in that my crescents were very much inclined to flatten out. Delicious, though. I like that you get most of the hit of sweetness from the icing sugar on the outside, leaving the buttery, nutty richness to shine through in the middle.

48 to 64 cookies
1 hour prep time

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups soft unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups ground hazelnuts (OR almonds OR pecans)
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 3/4 cup icing sugar

Line 2 large cookie trays with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar, and mix in the extracts. Mix the flour, ground nuts, and salt. Mix the flour into the butter until well blended.

Divide the dough into 48 to 64 equal pieces. I find it best to divide the dough into 4 equal portions and work with one portion at a time. Keep the remainder of the dough in the fridge while you work. Cut each quarter into quarters again, and each small quarter (sixteenth of the original dough) into 3 or 4 equal pieces. Roll each little piece into a spindle shape; that is, a cylinder a little thinner at each end than in the middle. Lay the dough thus rolled on the prepared cookie tray, and arrange it in the form of a crescent.

When the first tray is formed, put it in the freezer until the second tray is formed. At this point, preheat the oven to 325°F. Continue forming the cookies for the second tray. Bake the first (cold) tray of cookies for 10 to 13 minutes, depending on their size, while the second tray goes into the freezer to chill. Let the first baked tray of cookies cool while the second tray bakes.

When the first tray of cookies has cooled for about 10 minutes, measure out the icing sugar and sift a little onto a plate. Gently place as many cookies on the sugar as will fit on the plate and sift some more sugar over them. Turn them to be sure they are completely coated, then return them to the tray. Continue sifting and coating the warm but not hot cookies in icing sugar until all are done. Store in an air-tight tin. Cookies are best after several days, and will keep for a couple of weeks if kept dry and cool.

Last year at this time I made Aunt Alethea's Famous Squares.

January King Cabbage

2011-12-15T07:55:00.003-05:00

The first thing people comment about when they are talking about January King cabbage is how beautiful it is. And it is. It's one of the most gorgeous vegetables out there, and veggies in general are things of beauty. January King is not quite a savoy, and not quite a smooth cabbage; not quite red and not quite green; it combines the most attractive features of all those cabbages.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me also note that it's been one of our most successful cabbages in the garden; slow-growing but but it can be left to stand in the garden for a long time, and it is tolerant of both heat and cold, although cold weather brings out the best colours and sweetens it. The flavour is excellent and it keeps well when properly stored. The heads aren't quite as tight as some cabbages, but dense enough and they can get to a good size.

While it is often thought of as an English heirloom, grown there before 1885, it is recognized that it came originally from France. There it is known as chou de Milan de Pontoise, "de Milan" indicating that it is a savoy type cabbage, and Pontoise being a town to the north-west of Paris where they were traditionally grown.

At 120 days to maturity, this is a slow-growing cabbage. We planted ours out in early June and didn't pick them until after the first snow in December. We didn't weigh ours, although they were plainly our largest cabbage. They are supposed to reach 3-5 pounds and that sounds about right.

Brassicas in general are not a great crop for us. We give them plenty of manure but they still aren't completely happy. Cabbages do the best, and January King is one of the better ones. They don't seem to be quite so thronged with happy crowds of cabbage butterfly larvae as some of the other brassicas, although we do need to check. Most of our starts formed heads, with fewer frizzly-leaved meltdowns than any of the others. Our soil is more acidic than brassicas like; that's one problem. Possibly we are also low on some other vital nutrient. However, as noted, this was our best cabbage crop. We will be growing it again, along with Copenhagen Market, which is a much earlier cabbage. One for the summer, one for the winter.

One thing I find amusing about January King is how readily it forms little sprouts along the stem. Yes, rather like Brussels sprouts. I wonder how much this variety contributed to the eventual development of Brussels sprouts. When I harvested our January King cabbages, I set all the sprouts aside as I trimmed them, and we had those for a couple of meals. They did indeed taste like a cross between cabbage and Brussels sprouts.

Cabbage with Coriander & Juniper

2011-12-14T07:45:00.002-05:00

I read a description of a way of cooking cabbage from ancient Rome, with coriander and rue, and I was intrigued. From research it seems that was coriander and rue in the form of fresh green leaves. Neither of those are really available at this time of year, and I wouldn't want to cook with fresh rue either. It's bitter and nasty - I have grown it as an ornamental and knowing it used to be used as an herb I cautiously tasted it; ptui - and I'm pretty sure it's not even all that good for you. The seeds of a related plant are used as a spice in Ethiopia, but I wouldn't be able to get any easily. I did however have some juniper berries in the cupboard, as well as the coriander seed.

The result is a dish with complex flavours, slightly astringent. In short, a very good thing to serve with rich meats such as duck, pork or goose. I served mine with some nice juicy sausages.

4 servings
20 minutes prep time

1 teaspoon corander seed
4 cups chopped cabbage
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup water
4 or 5 juniper berries
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons sherry
salt & pepper to taste

Lightly toast and grind the coriander seed.

Wash and chop the cabbage and drain it well. Put it in a pot with the butter, water, coriander and juniper, and bring to a boil. Cook until the water is mostly evaporated, about 7 or 8 minutes. Add the sherry vinegar, sherry and salt and pepper as required, and continue cooking for just a minute or two more, until the vinegar and sherry are absorbed.

Do watch the cabbage carefully as it cooks, and don't let it scorch, which can happen quickly as the water boils off.

Black Forest Cookies

2011-12-13T08:05:00.001-05:00

Here's one of my more decadent creations. I love Black Forest cake; the chocolate! The cherries! The cream! I've tried to carry that theme into other desserts such as trifle, or these cookies. Maybe I should try a Black Forest cherry pie, but that will have to wait for cherry season. In the mean time, these are awfully good, and so rich I daren't make them more often than once every 4 or 5 years.

36 to 42 cookies
1 hour prep time

1 cup dried cherries
1 tablespoon kirsch or rum
100 grams (4 ounces) unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 extra-large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups soft unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
225 grams (1/2 pound) white chocolate chips

Put the cherries in a small bowl, and soak them in the kirsch or rum. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line 2 large cookie trays with parchment paper.

Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler, or in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.

Put the sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat in the eggs and the vanilla extract.

Measure the flour, and stir in the baking powder and salt.

Mix the melted chocolate and butter into the sugar and egg mixture. Mix in the flour, then the cherries and rum or kirsch and the white chocolate chips.

Drop the batter by spoonfuls (or use a small disher) and flatten slightly. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes, until firm around the edges and just setting on top. Do not overbake - these should be moist and fudgy. Let cool on the trays before removing.

Last year at this time I made Scalloped Sweet Potatoes.

Sausage, Radish & Apple Stew

2011-12-12T07:51:00.004-05:00

This is an odd little dish in some ways, but I've been growing all these damn winter radishes and now I need to do something with them. You could use regular radishes too, if you can still find them. You can often get Ontario radishes in the bags much later than you expect.

One thing I have decided is that radishes is radishes. The quick spring kind or the big winter ones for storage: they all taste pretty much alike, some are just prettier than others or grow better. They sweeten and mellow when they are cooked, although a fairly slow cooking like this will leave them with a little bite still. I put in 4 different kinds of radish here, but apart from providing a little colour they all tasted the same. In spite of the rather unusual combination of ingredients here, we enjoyed this.

The sausage should be a raw, garlicky one, or you should be prepared to add some more garlic at the appropriate time (just before the apple cider and veggies go in).

2 servings
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time

250 grams (1/2 poound) garlic pork sausage
1 large onion
1 stalk celery
450 grams (1 pound) winter radishes such as daikon or lo bak
2 medium carrots
1 large apple
3 cups apple cider
1/4 teaspoon each salt & pepper
1 teaspoon fennel seed

Cut the sausage into bite-sized pieces, and put it in a large skillet with abut 1/4 cup water to get it started cooking, or a little oil if it is very lean. Get it started browning and letting off a little fat. Meanwhile, peel the onion and cut it into large chunks. Add them to the sausage and let them cook and brown as well. Chop up the celery and add it. Stir regularly.

As soon as the onions and celery go in, start peeling the carrots. Cut them into bite-sized pieces. If the skins of the radishes are thin and tender you can leave them on, otherwise they should come off. Cut the radishes into bite-sized pieces.

Add the carrots and radishes to the pan, along with the cider. Season with the salt and pepper, and the fennel seed, which should be ground. Simmer for about 30 minutes, until the radishes are tender. Stir regularly.

While the stew is cooking, wash the apple, and cut it in quarters. Remove the core, and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Add them to the stew 5 or 10 minutes before it is done. The cider should be reduced to a rich sauce, and the radishes should be tender.

Last year at this time I made Jap Chae.

Stuffing or Dressing Bread

2011-12-09T08:08:00.003-05:00

Somehow while American thanksgiving was happening, I spent an awful lot of time reading about what people planned to make, what they were eating, and then, once they were done, how good it all was, and the end result was that I got a serious hankering for some stuffing, or maybe some dressing, depending on which you want to call it. I didn't particularly have a hankering to roast a turkey though, or even a chicken for that matter. And then I thought: stuffing bread! Like garlic bread, only with poultry seasoning. How could it be less than fabulous? True; not bathed in juices of a roasting turkey, but on the other hand, toasted in butter. Toasted in butter, people. And yes, it's grand. Truly grand! This may have been a mistake, in fact.

Also, I am not the kind of cook who calls for "1/2 an onion" (or whatever). You want less onion? Use a small one. You want more onion? Use a big one. So when I say "2 teaspoons minced shallot, sautéed in a teaspoon of butter", I don't do this lightly. Two teaspoons minced shallot, and what you do with the rest of it is up to you. Sorry.

1 small loaf
30 to 40 minutes, 15 minutes prep time

Mix the Seasonings:
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
3/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon dry rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon savory
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Grind the pepper, celery seed and rosemary. Mix with the remaining ingredients.

Make the Stuffing Bread:
2 teaspoons finely minced shallot
1 large clove of garlic
1/3 cup unsalted butter

1 demi-baguette or small loaf or crusty white bread

Peel and finely mince the shallot and garlic. Preheat the oven to 350°F or 375°F. (I am assuming that this is likely to be made when something else is in the oven; it's fairly flexible about what temperature it can be baked at.)

Put aside the 1/3 cup of butter, minus 1 teaspoon, to soften in a small mixing bowl. Heat the teaspoon of butter in a small skillet. Cook the shallot gently until soft, just a minute or so, then add the garlic. Remove from the heat as soon as it is strongly fragrant and set aside to cool. I remove it from the pan and put it in the bowl the herbs were in to stop it cooking any more.

Cream the herb mixture into the softened butter. When the shallot and garlic is cool, mix them in as well. Cut the bread into slices, almost but not quite all the way through. Gently separate each cut enough to spread some of the prepared butter on one side of each slice.

Transfer the bread to a sheet of aluminium foil, and wrap it loosely around it. Bake for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the temperature of the oven, the heft of the bread, and how toasty you would like it. Serve piping hot.

Last year at this time I made Fried Tofu with Stir-Fried Cabbage.

Shchi; Russian Cabbage Soup

2011-12-08T08:15:00.004-05:00

Shchi is simply Russian cabbage soup. I've seen recipes that are your basic peasant fuel, and I've seen rich and elaborate versions fit for the Tsar. Over the years I've developed my own idea of what it should be like, which is somewhere in the middle. All the richness in this version comes from the bacon, and if you get good, lean bacon it won't even be that rich - it will just seem that way. You could take it over the top if you like by adding some cream or sour cream, but really I think it is absolutely fine without it. This is a thick and filling soup, so some good rye bread would make it a complete meal.

You may wish to rinse the sauerkraut before adding it to the soup. Check it and see. Some is mild and doesn't need to be rinsed; some of it can be quite sour and briny. It will also depend on your taste, of course. I tend not to rinse mine, but you should consider the possibility.

8 servings
1 hour prep time

Prepare the Vegetables:
1 cup celeriac, peeled and grated
1 large parsnip
OR 1 large parsley root
1 large carrot
2 to 3 large shallots
3 cups finely chopped cabbage

Peel and grate the celerariac. Peel and grate the parsnip or parley root. Peel and grate the carrot. Peel and finely chop the shallots. Set these all aside together.

Chop the cabbage finely and set it aside by itself.

Make the Soup:
4 cups pork, beef or chicken stock
3 cups sauerkraut
2 or 3 bay leaves
3 tablespoons tomato paste
250 grams (1/2 pound) smoky bacon
2 cups water
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon dillweed
2 tablespoons soft unbleached flour
2 tablespoons hot horseradish
salt & pepper to taste

Put the stock, sauerkraut, bay leaves, and tomato paste in a soup pot and bring it to a simmer.

Meanwhile, chop the bacon and cook it over medium heat until it is about half cooked and a bit crisp. Add the celeriac, parsnip, carrot and shallots, and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until well softened and slightly browned. Add everything to the soup.

Put the cabbage with the 2 cups water into another pot and bring to boil; cook until bright green then add both cabbage and cooking water to the soup.

Make a slurry of the paprika, dillweed and flour mixed with a couple of tablespoons of cold water, and stir it into the soup. Continue simmering the soup, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 20 minutes more. Season with pepper to taste. You may need some salt, but check it first - there may be enough from the ingredients in the soup already.

Hard Sauce

2011-12-07T08:16:00.002-05:00

I've never figured out whether hard sauce is called that because it's pretty firm, for a sauce (well, really it's icing, is what it is) or if it's hard sauce because it is full of booze. Whatever the actual reason is, I belong to the get-as-much-booze-in-there-as-you-can school of thought, so I put in the 4 tablespoons of rum. I like my hard sauce hard enough to be a little runny, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. Other people may have other ideas. This is not exactly a hard and fast recipe, if I may use that phrase. Everything can be adjusted as you see fit.

4 to 8 servings, depending on if it gets doled out or people help themselves...
5 minutes, plus chill time

1/3 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 to 4 tablespoons dark rum, sherry or brandy

The butter should come out an hour or so before you make this, to allow it to get soft. Once it is, cream it with about half the icing sugar. Mix in the vanilla, and about half the rum, or whatever. Mix in the remaining sugar and then the remaining rum, or whatever.

Chill before serving, although it will certainly melt once it hits a hot pudding.

Steamed Chocolate Date Pudding

2011-12-07T07:59:00.007-05:00

If you want a traditional Christmas pudding, but you also want something chocolate, here's a possibility. This pudding is moist, rich and chocolately, but not overly sweet, so as to be able to support ridiculous amounts of hard sauce without your teeth running away screaming. If you don't want to serve hard sauce with it, I would double the sugar. Although if you want to serve it with, say, ice cream, I wouldn't.

I like the ginger in it, but I think I would skip the peel next time. It's not bad, I just think it could do without it. It depends how much you like candied peel, I guess. Or you could put in some other kind of dried fruit to replace it if you like. Just as a note, the dates pretty much dissolve and you wouldn't know they were there, except for the sweetness they add.

12 to 16 servings
1 1/4 hours to 1 1/2 hours - 30 minutes prep time

1 1/2 cups finely chopped dates
1/4 cup canded peel (optional)
1/4 cup finely chopped preserved ginger (optional)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
150 grams (6 ounces) unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup sugar
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups soft unbleached flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup buttermilk or milk

Chop the dates and measure them, and measure the candied peel and ginger, if using.

Put the butter and chocolate in the top of a double boiler, and heat gently until both are completely melted. Stir regularly. Set aside to cool slightly.

Beat the sugar with the eggs and the vanilla extract.

Measure out the flour, and add the salt and baking powder.

Butter 4 large mouthed 500 ml glass canning jars, or a 2 quart pudding mold.

When the chocolate has cooled slightly, beat it into the sugar and egg mixture. Mix in half the flour, then mix in the chopped dates, and other bits, if using. Mix in the rum and the buttermilk. Mix in the remaining flour to make a smooth batter.

Divide the batter evenly amongst the prepared jars or put it in the prepared pudding mold.

Cover the jars with a layer of parchment paper and a layer of aluminium foil, then hold them in place with the rings. If using a pudding mold, also cover it with a layer of parchment paper and foil, but you will need to hold it in place some other way, such as with string.

Put the pudding(s) in a steamer and steam for 40 minutes if in the jars, or about 1 hour and a quarter to 1 hour and a half if in a single mold. (Test with a toothpick or straw to be sure it's done, but don't over cook it. I would start checking at the hour point, just in case.)

If you want to seal them in the same way as the Christmas Puddings I made last year, take them out at the 30 minute mark to put the lids on then return them to the steamer for the final 10 minutes of cooking. More detail at the Christmas Pudding recipe. To keep one large pudding until Christmas or New Years, sprinkle it generously with more rum, then wrap in parchment paper and foil. Keep cool.

To serve, it's most easily reheated in the microwave. The small puddings reheat in as quickly as 3 minutes, but it will depend on your microwave and how hot you would like them.

Amsterdam Maxi Forcing Carrots

2011-12-06T08:03:00.001-05:00

I've been very resistant to the idea of planting "baby" carrots. My thought is we plant regular carrots and get baby carrots anyway, half the time. I see no benefit in planting carrots, covering them in burlap, watering them, weeding them, thinning them, waiting, waiting - then pulling them up and getting something dinky. I'd rather get a nice big, fat carrot.

However, Mr, Ferdzy talked me into trying these, and I have to say I'm extremely impressed. We planted them on August 9th, some in our wet bed - thick, sticky clay - and some in our dry beds, which are sandy and quick draining. They both did fabulously. William Dam says they are ready in 45 to 55 days, and they might have been, but we left them much longer (we picked the last on December 4th) and they held very well. Only a couple have split out of hundreds. We also had much less trouble with forking than usual, but that's because we have finally gotten the message: no manure please, we're carrots. We were very slack about thinning them, and they just stood there shoulder to shoulder, mostly getting to a perfectly respectable size anyway. They pulled out easily, and while some were on the small side, at about 4 or 5 inches long, some got as long as a foot*, and a good width too, although none were really fat. And sweet! And juicy! And yummy! These are a real winner, and all this in an open-pollinated heirloom carrot.

I wouldn't want to plant them much later than when we did, but it was a good time. Our annual July drought was over, and we were getting some rain. As you may suppose by the planting date, they went in after we had harvested an earlier crop of beets and turnips - two crops from one space, very nice! Next summer we may try these first, with beets and turnips to follow and see how that does, as these would be an excellent summer carrot, as they are so crisp and juicy; delicious raw. William Dam says they store well. We have enough that we should be able to find out.

In spite of the name, which suggests to me Victorian market gardening and a Dutch origin, the earliest references I can find to the Amsterdam forcing carrot as a variety seem to be from 1948. Given the tendency of seed sellers to re-name vegetables if it seems like a profitable idea, these may well be an older variety than that. They may even be Dutch in origin, although they are certainly extremely popular in England. Apparently the Dutch grew many forced vegetables, including carrots, in the latter part of the 18th century, although the practice began to wane in the early 19th century. Holland is also the apparent origin of orange carrots in general; until the 16th century orange carrots were unknown or rare, most being a muddy brown, red, purple or white.

At any rate, I do intend to "force" some of these in the spring; that is, to plant them earlier then normal in our coldframe, and also under one of the plastic hoop-houses. We'll see how they do, but I am optimistic. Also, I am not proposing to try growing carrots in pots, but if I were, this is probably the variety I would choose. Certainly they are a good choice for smaller gardens. Or anyone, really - they're a great carrot.

*Not, admittedly, the ones planted in the clay. But they got long enough, and I did harvest that batch about a month before the others.

Braised Lamb Shanks with Beans

2011-12-05T08:04:00.001-05:00

Still in love with braising... it's just the thing for cold weather meals.

I braised 4 lamb shanks, since that's how many come with a lamb. If you are buying them as their own thing, you could put up to 6 on this amount of beans and vegetables. There were 3 of us to dinner, and the leftovers were turned into soup by removing the meat from the last shank and shredding it, and adding a bunch of broth. That was another 2 meals for the 2 of us. So plenty of beans and veg here, is what I'm saying. If you were going to braise 6 shanks, you will need a very large dish or - probably a better idea - divide it all amongst 2 baking dishes.

4 to 6 servings
1 hour prep time, not including cooking the beans
4 to 5 hours to braise

Cook the Beans:
1 1/2 cups dry pea (navy) beans
1/2 teaspoon salt

Rinse and pick over the beans and put them in a pot with water to cover. Bring them to a boil, then turn them off and leave them, covered, to soak overnight. The next morning, change the water (fresh cold water to cover them by about an inch) and add the salt. Simmer until tender, about 1 to 2 hours. This can be done a day ahead, if you like.

Braise the Lamb Shanks:
2 medium leeks
2 cups peeled, diced celeriac
2 medium carrots
1 cup peeled, diced rutabaga
2 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup tomato paste
the juice of 1 lemon
3 or 4 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dry rosemary leaves, ground
1 to 2 cups lamb or beef broth, or water, or some portion of this in wine
salt & pepper to taste
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
4 to 6 lamb shanks

Put the cooked beans in a large, shallow baking tray with their cooking liquid.

Wash and trim the leeks, and cut them in half lengthwise, then into thin slices. Peel and dice the celeriac. Peel and dice the carrots. Peel and dice the rutabaga.

Heat the oil in a large skillet, and cook the vegetables until softened and browned in spots. Turn them frequently. While they cook, peel and mince the garlic. Add the garlic once the vegetables are ready, and cook for just a minute or two more, stirring frequently.

Put the vegetables into the baking dish with the beans. Add the tomato paste, lemon juice, bay leaves, ground rosemary, the broth and the salt and pepper. There should be enough liquid to come to the top of the vegetables, but no more. The amount of salt will depend very much on how salty your broth is.

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Add the remaining oil to the skillet in which you cooked the vegetables, and heat over fairly high heat. Brown the lamb shanks on all sides. They need to be quite dry when they go into the pan to brown well.

When the lamb shanks are browned all over, nestle them into the bean and vegetable mixture. Cover the dish, with foil if it does not have its own cover, and bake for 4 to 5 hours, until the meat is very tender and coming off the bone.

Last year at this time I made Leek & Brussels Sprout Soup.

Thelma Sanders Acorn Squash

2011-12-02T07:41:00.005-05:00

Also known as Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Squash, this is a lovely little squash. It was grown for generations in Adair County, Missouri, before it was passed on to Sue and Tom Knoche, two early members of Seed Savers Exchange in who released it in 1988, and named it for the woman who first supplied the seeds. This one caught my eye as I share a last name with Thelma. I was happy to see that this is has become a very popular squash with home gardeners, and with a bit of luck you may find them at farmers' markets too, as they become more popular every year.

In spite of their southern origin they do well in northern gardens, as they are fairly quick growers, with fruits ripening from 85 to 90 days after planting out. They are also known for being quite prolific, reliable and disease resistant, and also tolerant of very variable conditions. The vines do get large, but this would be a good candidate for trellising if you wanted to grow them in a somewhat constricted space, as the squash themselves are on the small size.

Most of them are the classic heart-shape of acorn squash in general, but some of them tend to be more elongated, like the one I cut for the photo above. The skin is a warm creamy yellow, much like the raw flesh. The seed cavity is neat, with the seeds very easy to remove. If you are cooking more than one squash at once it is well worth rinsing off the seeds and roasting them with a little oil and salt. (One doesn't have very many seeds, although if the oven is on anyway you may wish to find some room for them.)

The flesh is dense and flavourful when baked, and a bit on the drier side than most acorn squash. It gets compared to sweet potatoes, or chestnuts. I find them just right for cutting in half and baking one for the two of us, or cutting a larger one into smaller pieces if a number of other vegetables are to be served at the same time.

Like all squash, they should be set in a warm room to cure for 10 days before being eaten or stored for the winter. They will store best if they keep their stems, but they are inclined to come off the stems when being picked, so be careful. Use the stemless ones first. Leave them on the vine as long as you can, but they must be picked before the first frost. I've seen reports of them storing for up to 5 months or more, but in general acorn squash aren't the best for storage. I doubt I will have much in the way of personal observations to make as I expect we will eat all of ours long before the end of winter - we are already burning through them. Some people say they improve with storage, being best in the new year, but we'll be lucky to have more than one or two left by then - they are plenty good right now.

Broccoli & Chick-Pea Salad

2011-12-01T07:57:00.005-05:00

As usual, a bit late here. I hope you can still find local broccoli. I was lucky enough to find some very big nice bunches at the local grocery last week. This has been an amazingly long fall, although it looks like it's over now.

Anyway, this was a nice substantial salad. It should serve 4 to 6 people if it is the main part of the meal, or go quite a bit further as a side dish. It could also be easily cut in half if you prefered. I'm calling for a carrot because I really meant to put one in, but somehow it got overlooked. I think it would have done the salad nothing but good.

4 to 12 servings
30 minutes prep time, not including cooking the chick peas

Make the Salad:
4 cups cooked chick peas
1/2 cup dried tomatoes
1/2 cup boiling water
2 large heads broccoli
1 medium carrot
1/4 of a red bell pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
200 grams (1/2 pound) diced feta cheese
OR 200 grams (1/2 pound) bacon, diced and cooked

If you don't cook the chick peas yourself, you will need 2 tins. If you do cook the chick peas yourself, you will need about 1 1/3 cups of dry chickpeas, and to start cooking them the day before.

Put a kettle of water on to boil. Pour about half a cup of boiling water over the dried tomatoes, and put them aside to soak. Cut the broccoli heads from the stems and use the stems for some other purpose. Cut the florets into small pieces. Put them in a strainer, and pour boiling water slowly over them to blanch them. Rinse in cold water and drain well. Put them in a bowl with the drained chick peas.

Peel and grate the carrot, and add it to the bowl. Wash, trim and deseed the pepper, and dice it finely. Add it to the salad. Wash, drain and mince the parsley finely, and add it to the salad.

Finish by adding either the feta cheese, rinsed and diced, or the bacon, chopped and fried until crisp and drained.

Make the Dressing:
1/3 cup mayonnaise (light is fine)
1/3 cup buttermilk
the juice of 1/3 lemon
1 teaspoon rubbed basil
salt & pepper to taste

Whisk together the above ingredients and add them to the salad. Toss well.

The amount of salt required will vary considerably, depending on whether you cooked the chick peas yourself or used tinned ones, and how salty the cheese or bacon is.

Samosa Pie with Apple Butter Chutney

2011-11-30T08:02:00.007-05:00

I don't deep-fry! I've said it before and I pretty much mean it. But it did occur to me that you could bake samosas, like a pie. And then it occured to me; well why not just make a pie with samosa filling? So I did.

It also occurred to me that I could adapt this recipe to make a pie crust that was sturdy yet flaky and not too rich, and it worked fairly well. I may try tweaking it a bit more, but it's certainly good enough to go on with. We really liked this, both warm from the oven and cold. Which is good, because it was a bit time consuming to make. I made the dough and the filling the night before, and assembled the pie the next day. That is not a bad way to do it at all. The result is an impressive and tasty vegetarian main dish - I'm thinking it could very well get served at Christmas time along with the Vegetarian Tourtiere for a meatless feast.

And yes, that is lettuce from our garden in the last picture. It occurs to me that I'm amazed.

Start the Dough:
1 cup hard unbleached flour
1 1/3 cups hard whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup boiling water
1/4 cup cold water

Mix the two flours and the salt in a mixing bowl. Stir in the boiling water with a fork, then the cold water, until a rough dough forms. Turn it out and knead it briefly, until it is all amalgamated and smooth. Wrap it in parchment and put it in a plastic bag. Refrigerate until wanted, at least one hour to overnight.

Mix the Spices:
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seed
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander seed
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed
3-4 pods of cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne
1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt

Toast the whole cumin, coriander, fennel and cardamon in a dry skillet until slightly toasted and aromatic. Turn them onto a plate to cool, then, grind them. (Discard the papery outer shells of the cardamom.) Mix them with the remaining spices, and set aside until needed.

Make the Pie Filling:
750 grams (1 1/2 pounds) potatoes
6 large shallots
2 or 3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
1 tablespoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger

Wash, trim and cut the potatoes into dice. Put them in a pot with water to cover, and boil until tender, about 7 or 8 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, peel and chop the shallots finely. Heat the oil in a large skillet, and add the well-drained potatoes. Fry for several minutes, until browning in spots, turning regularly. Add the shallots and continue cooking for several minutes, turning regularly, until the shallots are softened. Start with the 2 tablespoons of oil, but add a little more if it looks like it may stick.

Add the ginger and spices, and continue cooking for several more minutes, turning to ensure the spices are evenly distributed. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool somewhat as you proceed.

Finish the Pie:
1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons unsalted butter
flour to roll the dough
1 1/2 cups frozen peas

The butter needs to be quite soft and spreadable, although not melted. Use 1 teaspoon of it to thoroughly butter a 9" pie pan. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Divide the dough into 2 not quite equal portions, about 60% and 40%. Roll out the larger portion on a floured board into a large rectangle, very thin. Turn the dough and sprinkle with more flour as needed to keep it from sticking while you work.

Take 60% of the 1/4 cup of butter - (just eyeball it, okay?) - and spread it as evenly as you can over the dough. It doesn't have to be all that even; see the first picture. Fold up the bottom line of the dough to roll the whole thing up into a cylinder. Roll the cylinder of dough into a coil (second picture), and roll it out flat again, into a circle this time. The circle should be large enough to fit into your prepared pie pan.

Mix the frozen peas in with the potato filling, and put it in the pie crust.

Roll out the second piece of dough and smear it with butter in the same way as the first piece of dough. Coil it up, and roll it out to fit on the pie as the top crust. Pinch the edges sealed and cut some vents in the top of the pie.

Melt the remaining teaspoon of butter, and brush it over the top of the pie. Bake for 1 hour and 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm to room temperature with the chutney.

Make the Chutney:
1/4 cup apple butter
the juice of 1 small lime
1 teaspoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger

Mix in a small bowl.

Last year at this time I made Aunt Hilda's Spanish Cream becomes Ricotta Panna Cotta. Quicker to make than to type.

Brussels Sprouts au Gratin

2011-11-29T07:52:00.002-05:00

Please don't be lead astray by the photo, which is admittedly humdrum. It is so very hard to photograph things at this time of year, when it gets dark so very early. This was amazing. Truly. It may have been our slightly bohemian homegrown Brussels sprouts, although I didn't treat them kindly - they spent 4 days sitting on the laundry room floor before I got around to removing them from the stems and cooking them so I didn't have high hopes for them. But even with regular commercial sprouts I can't see this being anything less than marvelous.

I'm considering a variation where I omit the butter and cheese from the crumbs, and replace them with very, very finely chopped raw bacon, just a little on the fatty side. That could be good too. I will have to find out. Hard to imagine it being better though.

6 servings - maybe
50 minutes - 30 minutes prep time

1 cup fine fresh bread crumbs
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

500 grams (1 pound) Brussels sprouts
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons flour
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup light (5% or 10%) cream

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Prepare the bread crumbs, by grating stalish bread, and grate the Parmesan cheese finely. Rub the tablespoon of butter into the crumbs, and mix in the Parmesan. Set aside.

Wash and trim the Brussels sprouts, and cut them in rough slices. Put the chicken stock in a large pot, and bring it to a boil. Add the Brussels sprouts and cook until just bright green, about 4 minutes. Stir once in the middle.

Meanwhile, rub the remaining butter, flour, salt, and pepper together. When the sprouts have finished their parboiling, drop the glob of butter and flour into the pot, and stir thoroughly to distribute it throughout. Add the cream, and continue to stir until the mixture thickens and coats the Brussels sprouts.

Turn the mixture out into a medium-sized shallow casserole dish and spread it out evenly. Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until nicely browned and bubbly. Oh man.

Last year at this time I made Beans & Kale with Tomatoes.

Chicken with Quinces in a Creamy Spiced Saffron Sauce

2011-11-28T07:54:00.001-05:00

I was lucky to find some quinces for sale last week, although I suspect the season is drawing to a close. They are not easy to find, anyway. However, if you are so fortunate as to get your hands on some, this is an excellent thing to do with them.

Since this is a rich and special dish, you may wish to serve it to company. Parts of it can be done in advance, which would make that quite possible. Cook the quinces, shallots and chicken, and put them in one covered container. Simmer the cider and seasonings, strain and keep in another covered container. Then, when ready to proceed, mix them in your pan and cook for the 20 minutes (a little longer to allow them to reheat) and add the cream at the end as usual.

4 servings
1 1/4 hours - 1 hour prep time

6 large shallots
2 large or 3 medium quinces
2 tablespoons butter
500 grams (1 pound) skinless, boneless chicken pieces
1 1/2 cups apple cider
6 pods of cardamom
4 slices of ginger, each the size of a quarter
2 teaspoons coriander seed, ground
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup light (5% or 10%) cream
1 tablespoon arrowroot or cornstarch

Peel the shallots and cut them in halves or quarters lengthwise. Peel, quarter, core and slice the quinces. Make sure the chicken is in bite-sized pieces.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet. Put in the quince slices, and cook them gently for a minute or two. Add the shallots and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until both are softened and slightly browned.

Meanwhile, put the quince peelings into a pot with the cardamom pods and peeled ginger slices. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes, while the quinces, shallots and chicken cook.

When the quinces and shallots are softened and browned, remove them from the pan. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter, and brown the chicken pieces well. Return the quinces and shallots to the pan, and strain the apple cider into it as well, discarding the solids. Grind and add the coriander seed, and add the salt and saffron threads, rubbed between your fingers to break them up a bit. Add the lemon juice.

Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until slightly thickened. Mix the arrowroot or cornstarch into the cold cream until no lumps remain. Stir it into the chicken mixture, and cook until thickened, just a minute or two. Do not let it boil once the cream goes in or it may curdle.

Serve with rice.

Last year at this time I made Christmas Plum Pudding. As I noted, I was late in getting them going, but they were perfectly fine. It's not too late!

Rum & Raisin Baked Apples

2011-11-25T07:58:00.003-05:00

Baked apples are such a quick and easy treat to make. Good for dessert, good for breakfast, if you are willing to be a little decadent at breakfast and I have to admit I am. I thought this filling would be more like mincemeat, but it turned out much lighter, in colour and flavour. Nothing wrong with that. The amount of filling probably fits 6 apples better than 4 apples, but I got Mutsu, and they are just so big. They're a good baking apple, but Cortlands or Northern Spy are other good choices as well.

4 to 6 servings
1 hour - 20 minutes prep time

2 tablespoons butter, plus 1 teaspoon
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup light raisins (sultanas)
1/4 cup mixed preserved peel (citron)
2 tablespoons dark rum
the juice of 1/2 lemon
4 large or 6 medium apples
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/4 cup apple cider or water

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Use the teaspoon of butter to butter a casserole dish into which the apples will fit fairly snugly.

Put the remaining butter, honey, raisins, and peel in a small pot. Heat gently until the butter melts. Remove from the heat and add the rum and lemon juice. Set aside to cool as you prepare the apples.

Wash the apples, and cut the cores out of them. Peel one strip off around the middle of each apple - this will allow steam to escape as they cook and prevent them from bursting. Set the apples in the casserole as they are done.

Mix the bread crumbs into the pot of raisins, etc until they soak up the liquid. Divide the filling amongst the apples, pushing it down into each hollow core. There may be a bit left over; let it fall around them. Pour the apple cider or water into the dish and bake the apples for 35 to 40 minutes, until soft. Serve warm, or at room temperature.

Last year at this time I made Radish Fried Rice.

Creamy But Non-Dairy Pumpkin Soup

2011-11-24T08:05:00.000-05:00

The pumpkin or squash does need to be baked in advance, but apart from that this soup is ridiculously simple. It didn't taste simple though. It tasted smooth, creamy and rich. Well, there is all that coconut milk, I'm afraid.

I used my Galeux d'Eysines pumpkin for this, but you could use Butternut squash instead. It might be a little denser so you might want to add a little more chicken stock in that case.

8 servings
1 1/4 hours to prepare the pumpkin - 15 minutes prep time
1 1/4 hours to make the soup - 30 minutes prep time

Cook the Pumpkin or Squash:
1 medium pumpkin or squash (1 kilo or 2 1/2 pounds)
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut the pumpkin in half, and remove and discard the seeds and stringy bits. Rub the cut flesh lightly with the oil, and place the pieces on a baking tray. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until tender. Let cool and refrigerate (wrapped) until wanted.

Make the Soup
6 large shallots
2 large apples
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil (or butter if you like)

4 cups cooked squash
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 3/4 cups (a 400 ml tin) coconut milk
1 teaspoon anise seed, ground
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
the finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
the juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and chop the shallots. Core and chop the apples. (Peel them as well, if you think your blender won't handle the skins.) Heat the oil or butter in a large skillet and cook the shallots and apples until soft and slightly browned in spots.

Meanwhile, put the squash, chicken stock, coconut milk, and ground anise seed in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add the ginger, lemon zest and lemon juice, and simmer for another few minutes.

Purée the soup until very smooth. No doubt this will take 2 or 3 batches in the blender. Reheat to serve.

Last year at this time I made Leek & Potato Soup.

Ginger-Lime Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2011-11-23T08:04:00.004-05:00

This is an easy and straightforward way to serve sweet potatoes. I've come to the conclusion though that there is one way and one way only to cook sweet potatoes: bake them. Steaming is bad, and boiling? Don't EVEN think about it. Actually, I have pan cooked them in slices and that's okay. Just keep them away from water unless you like bland sogginess.

4 large (750 grams, 1 1/2 pounds) sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
the juice of 1 large lime
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Wash the sweet potatoes and poke them several times with a fork. Bake them for aproximately 1 hour or perhaps a little longer, until tender.

While the sweet potatoes are baking, put the butter, lime juice and ginger in a small pot or dish and heat until the butter melts. Set aside until the sweet potatoes are ready.

Let the cooked sweet potatoes cool enough to handle, and peel them. Mash them with the butter, lime juice, and ginger. Season to taste with salt and pepper. This can be re-heated in the oven or in a pot, if you let it cool that much.

Last year at this time I made Rutabaga Hash.

Roast Lamb Shoulder with Cranberry-Nut Buckwheat Dressing

2011-11-22T07:39:00.005-05:00

I was quite surprised how enthusiastic everyone who it ate it was about this dressing. I mean, I worked on making it good and all that, but I wasn't expecting raves. I guess that's because I am used to living with Mr. Ferdzy, who doesn't get all that excited about buckwheat. He says it tastes like cardboard. However, a bunch of people who had never had it before were amazed and impressed. So there you go! If you haven't had buckwheat before, maybe you should try it.

The bits about toasting it and dropping it into water that has already reached a boil are important. Otherwise, it can get sadly soggy and mushy, and then no-one will be very excited about it. Also, it was a happy day when they first started to sell pistachios already shelled. I suggest you look for them.

6 to 8 servings
2 1/2 hours, not including cooking the buckwheat - 40 minutes prep time

Cook the Buckwheat:
1 cup buckwheat
2 teaspoons mild vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water

Heat the oil in a large skillet, and add the buckwheat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the oil is absorbed and the buckwheat is toasted. Remove it to a plate to cool. Put the water and salt into a pot and bring it to a boil. When it boils, add the buckwheat. Cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed. This can be done up to a day in advance, and kept in the fridge until wanted.

Make the Dressing:
1 small onion OR 2 or 3 shallots
2 or 3 stalks of celery
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
the finely grated zest of 1/2 large lemon
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1/2 cup dried cranberries
the juice of 1/2 large lemon

Peel and chop the onion or shallots. Wash, trim and chop the celery. Heat the oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion (shallots) and celery until soft and slightly browned. Meanwhile, grind the rosemary and pepper. Add the seasonings to the pan, along with the finely grated lemon zest and the pistachios and cranberries, and mix well. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool enough to handle. Mix in the lemon juice.

Stuff and Roast the Lamb:
1 boneless lamb shoulder, about 2.5 kilos or 4 to 6 pounds
lamb or beef stock, OR water

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Remove the string or elastic bag holding the shoulder together, and spread it out in a baking pan. Spread the dressing over it and fold it closed again. Tie it back together so as to surround the dressing with the lamb. The pan should be of a size to hold the prepared roast somewhat snugly. If you can't get all the dressing in (probably not) arrange whatever is left around the roast. Add enough stock or water to cover the bottom of the pan by about a quarter inch.

Bake the lamb at 450°F for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325°F and cook for a further hour to hour and half, depending on the size and thickness of the lamb and the degree of doneness desired. Let rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Last year at this time I made Curried Noodles with Vegetables.

Jerusalem Artichoke Caponata

2011-11-21T08:10:00.002-05:00

We had a gathering of the clan this weekend, and I experimented on them. (What else are relatives for?) I had had the thought, a while back, that perhaps the classic artichoke caponata could be made with Jerusalem artichokes - there really is a similarity of flavour, after all - and so I did. Yes, it works! Although the distinct flavour of the Jerusalem artichokes did come through; especially right after I made the caponata. Leftovers the next day actually tasted quite a lot like caponata made with actual artichokes.

I did not put olives in mine, I only garnished it with a few, as I knew I was serving some olive-haters. If you are not labouring under this handicap, I think it is not a bad idea to toss a few in. I've said 2 tablespoons, but since I didn't actually do it, I'm not sure. If anyone makes this and adds olives, please let me know what you think.

30 minutes prep time
8 to 16 servings

450 grams (1 pound) Jerusalem artichokes
1/4 cup dried tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
50 grams (2 ounces) Parmesan cheese, finely grated
2 tablespoons green olives (optional)
2 to 3 tablespoons mayonnaise (light is fine)

Peel the Jerusalem artichokes, cut them in half, and put them into cold water as you work. Put a small pot of water on to boil, and snip the tomatoes into bits.

When the water boils, add the Jerusalem artichokes and tomato bits and boil for 5 minutes. Drain well and let cool.

Peel the garlic, and chop it a bit. Grate the cheese. Put the Jerusalem artichokes, tomatoes, garlic, cheese and olives (if using) into a food processor and chop finely. Add the mayonnaise and pulse in briefly. Remove the caponata to a serving dish. You can serve it at once, but it's best to let it rest in the fridge for a couple of hours to allow the flavours to blend. Let it sit out for a few minutes before serving to come up closer to room temperature.

Last year at this time I made Stir Fried Brussels Sprouts & Mushrooms.

Apple Brown Betty

2011-11-18T08:05:00.002-05:00

This is a very old, and once very popular dessert. It seems to have been pretty much forgotten in recent decades, but I do think it deserves to be revived. It's original popularity was no doubt in part because of the simplicity and affordability of the ingredients - indeed, stale bread was once not so much affordable as inevitable, although still too valuable to waste. And apples, as any Canadian knows, are ubiquitous all winter.

Most old recipes for Apple Betty seem to be a bit bland and soggy. I hope I have managed to remedy those faults with this version. Forty five minutes should make the top fairly crisp; an hour will make it quite crunchy.

6 cups cubed stale toasted bread
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup Sucanat or dark brown sugar
2/3 cup apple cider
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
a pinch of salt
3 large apples

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Toast the bread and cut it in fairly fine cubes. Meanwhile, melt the butter. When both bread and butter are ready, put the bread cubes in an 8" x 10" shallow baking pan, and drizzle the butter over them as evenly as possible. Toss the cubes to distribute the butter even more thoroughly.

Put the Sucanat, apple cider, cinnamon and salt in a small pot and bring them to a boil. Boil, stirring occasionally, for 3 or 4 minutes.

Peel and core the apples, and cut them in small pieces, of a size with the bread cubes. Lift about 2/3 of the bread cubes out of the baking dish, leaving the remaining 1/3 evenly spread over the bottom. Distribute the apples evenly over them, then top them with the removed bread cubes. Drizzle the cider mixture as evenly over the bread and apples as possible. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how brown you would like your Betty.

Giraumon Brodé Galeux d'Eysines (Pumpkin)

2011-11-14T07:24:00.006-05:00

Suddenly, these seem to be everywhere.

They are an heirloom French variety of pumpkin, from Bordeaux, and were listed by Vilmorin in 1883. Then, apparently, they lapsed into obscurity until someone brought them to the Pumpkin Fair in Tranzault, France, in 1996.

The name is usually translated as "embroidered with warts from Eysine", but galeux means more like mangy or scabby than warty. They are certainly like no other pumpkin I have seen before. Beneath a maze of spongy peanut-textured protrubrances the pumpkin skin is a surprising shade of apricot pink.

Galeux d'Eysines, as they are usually referred to, are a variety of cucurbita maxima (so yes, they can get fairly large - 10 to 15 pounds is typical) ready in about 100 days from transplanting. They are reportedly quite drought tolerant as well as reasonably tolerant of cooler, wetter summers. Ours were grown in a very wet acidic clay bed. We did not get a bumper crop - I think they would have liked better soil - but they did not do too badly either, producing 2 large pumpkins per vine.

I did note with these, and with another "warty" variety we grew this year, that the warts are very attractive to slugs and snails. This is the last Galeux d'Eysines we have left as they did not keep well, partly because of the slug damage. In general though, I do not think they are particularly good keepers. One the other hand they are one of the most delicious pumpkins we have ever eaten, with soft, smooth, moist, rich orange flesh and a lovely sweet intense flavour, so I certainly intend to give them another try next year. In general, pumpkins are more watery than other kinds of winter squash, but this one is dry enough to be treated as a squash (although only just).

We should also have picked them a bit sooner. They get wartier and wartier as time goes by, and it is definitely better to get them before they are quite so smothered in warts as this specimen. The warts appear as a result of sugars developing under the skin, and also in response to slight damage. I understand that you could scratch your name on one when it is full-sized, but not yet warty, allowing you to display your name in warts later on. Yeah, I didn't. Maybe a paisley pattern or something next year.

Light Christmas Fruitcake

2011-11-12T11:12:00.003-05:00

For as long as I can remember as a child, my mom made this cake most years at Christmas, at least until I took over making it myself. I love this cake, not only because it is delicious but because of the lovely flavour of nostalgia.

This is the first time I have made this cake in about 10 years. It has gotten to be so very hard to find decent quality fruit to go into it. The stuff at Bulk Barn doesn't cut it, and as for the stuff at any regular grocery store around here, forget it. Fortunately I have discovered that there is a shop in the St. Laurence Market that has imported Italian candied fruits and peels, and I get my brother-in-law to pick some up for me. Hurray! Fruitcake again.

NOTE: When I cut the cake, it became clear that it had been somewhat overbaked. My mother said, "Oh yes, that's right. The time written down on the original recipe was too long." Thanks, Ma! Now you tell me. But I obviously never made that adjustment myself so what can I say. Baking time has been adjusted now.

a large 10" cake
4 1/2 hours - 1 1/2 hours prep time

Mix the Fruit:
225 grams (1/2 pound) blanched almonds
450 grams (1 pound) candied citron peel
450 grams (1 pound) red glacé cherries
225 grams (1/2 pound) golden raisins (sultanas)
1/3 cup soft unbleached flour

To blanch the almonds, drop them into boiling water to cover for one minute. Drain them, and pinch each one out of their papery covery as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

Mix all the fruit in a very large mixing bowl, then stir in the flour until the fruit is evenly coated with it.

Make the Batter:
3 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
6 eggs, separated
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1/3 cup good sherry
1/4 cup buttermilk or milk
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Measure the flour, and mix in the baking powder and salt. Set aside. Butter a 10" tube pan, and line the bottom with a circle of buttered parchment paper. Dust the cake pan with flour. Preheat the oven to 275°F.

Cream the butter, and beat in the sugar and the egg yolks, one or two at a time, until quite light and fluffy. (Put the whites aside in another mixing bowl.) Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts. Mix in the sherry, then half the flour. Mix in the milk and the remaining flour.

Pour this batter over the fruit and mix them together.

Beat the egg whites, with the cream of tartar, until stiff. Fold about 1/3 of the egg whites gently into the cake, then fold in the remaing 2/3 egg whites.

Scoop the batter into the prepared cake pan, smoothing it out and taking care not to leave large gaps in the batter.

Bake the cake for about 2 1/2 hours, until done. You will need to cover it with foil after about an hour, when it will be mostly as brown as you would like it. I would start checking it for doneness at the 2 hour mark.

Allow the cake to cool, and remove it from the pan. Wrap it in cheesecloth, and brush it all over with sherry. Wrap it in foil and keep it in a cool, dark spot until wanted. You can take it out and brush it with more sherry whenever you feel so inclined; no-one will complain.

Brussels Sprouts & Jerusalem Artichokes

2011-11-08T07:53:00.002-05:00

Finally! We got some more-or-less edible Brussels sprouts from the garden. Gosh, they are hard to grow. Ours are very loose and also, er, highly organic or is the phrase high in protein? At any rate I gave them a good soak in very salty cold water before I cooked them. Now if we can just figure out how to get them to form denser heads next time.

I hoped this combo would be good and I have to say, it really was. I'll be making this again, for sure.

30 minutes - 20 minutes prep time

Prepare the Vegetables:
12 to 16 Brussels sprouts
8 to 10 Jerusalem artichokes
4 large shallots

Wash and trim the Brussels sprouts, and cut an "x" in the bottom of each if they are large. Peel the Jerusalem artichokes, and slice them in fairly large slices. Put them in a dish of cold water as you go. Peel the shallots, and cut them in halves or quarters lengthwise.

Finish the Dish:
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
1 or 2 tablespoons soy sauce, low sodium is fine
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the Brussels sprouts, with a few tablespoons of water, and cook over medium heat until they turn a bright green and the water evaporates. Add the shallots and the Jerusalem artichokes, and continue cooking until the shallots are browned in spots and look cooked through. Season with the soy sauce and sesame oil, and as soon as they seem to be absorbed by the vegetables, remove them to their serving dish.

Last year at this time I made Swiss Chard Rolls.

Winding Down the Garden

2011-11-04T10:51:00.006-04:00

The weather has been holding up amazingly well. We had a week or so of cool, grey weather, but not so cool as to make working in the garden unpleasant. Now we seem to be having more sunny weather, but we still have had only 3 frosts so far, only the one last night being a hard one. This has been great for us because we have been very behind in getting the garden ready for winter and this has allowed us to get much of it done.

The bed above is where we grew our potatoes in boxes. We dug up the second half, which was planted with German Butterball potatoes and got 88 pounds. A good, but not spectacular harvest. We were expecting more, and are going to have to assess whether we want to go to all the trouble of planting potatoes in a box next year. On the other hand, we have the soil and we have the wood so we might. We'll see how ambitious we feel next spring.

Those little green fruits sitting on the dirt are berries from the German Butterball. I've never grown a potato that set so many. I might try saving some seed and planting them next spring, and seeing what I get.

The garden as a whole is looking very different than it did just a week or so ago. The biggest change is in the fruit beds. Melon and cucumber trellises down, tomato trellises down, and all the dead and dying plants removed. Garlic is planted, and we are clean and ready to go next spring, when this section will be planted with root vegetables. We have put up a record number of hoop-houses, 6 in all planning to have lots of spinach next spring to sell.

In the root section, winter radishes still look very lush, with carrots behind them. This late summer planting is doing very well.

The leafy greens, mostly brassicas, are in the other beds that are still in use. Cabbages need to be picked and stored, as do Brussels Sprouts. I'll cut the chard down this week and freeze it. The beds where we grew corn have already been cleared and replanted with spinach, lettuce and mixed greens for the spring.

We planted peas in midsummer hoping for a late harvest. They did not do well. We did not keep up on top of the weeds, and they were probably planted about 2 weeks later than ideal. We'll just get a handful of peas and snow peas.

The beans have died down. As soon as this photo was taken, I cut down the vines and strings so Mr. Ferdzy could take down the trellises. In fact, I have already started, you can see the pile in the right hand lower corner of the picture.

Our sturdier trellises had some mixed results. The plants stayed better within their beds, but the whole trellis was inclined to sway when the wind blew, and they ended up pretty crooked.

The hoop-houses have been great for allowing us to extend seasons and overwinter greens, so I thought I would show some detail about how we make them. We are bracing them more this winter than we did last year, when one of the 2 we put up collapsed under the weight of the snow. Mr. Ferdzy put in rough-cut spruce (construction strapping) along the top and bottom in the middle of each bed. This is the cheapest new wood you can buy, about $3 for a 4" x 1" x 16' piece. Our beds are 24' long so we needed a total of 3 pieces per bed, plus scraps to brace them.

First, we lay out the bottom pieces. Then Mr. Ferdzy takes the piece and a half for the top, and drills holes where the electical conduit used for the hoops goes through.

The electrical conduit (3/4") goes through, and is anchored on each side in a 1' piece of ABS pipe (2") sunk into the ground. These are placed at 4' intervals all along the beds, and are also used to hold up the trellises.

In goes the other end, forming the hoop.

First we do the ends, then the middle, then we fill in the rest.

The electrical conduit is stiff enough to be a little hard to bend, but you want it to be fairly strong.

Once all the hoops are in, Mr. Ferdzy screws lengths of wood in every 8' (i.e. every second hoop) between the top and bottom pieces of board to brace the hoop-house. How well does this work? We don't know, I'll tell you in the spring.

At this point my battery ran out, so I don't have any more photos, but there isn't much more to the hoop-houses anyway. We buy 100' rolls of 6mil plastic (the kind used as vapour barrier over insulation in construction) and cut each one into 3 equal pieces. This is the right size to cover one of our beds. We place it over the hoops, and weight it down with paving stones, rocks and bricks. And there you have it, a hoop house. Including the taxes, it probably costs about $100 to make each hoop house and it is not really worth making fewer than 3 of them because that's the size of the roll of 6mil plastic. This also includes the ABS pipe, which remains as a permanent part of the bed. Not cheap, but we expect to get at least 5 years out of each one and hopefully more.

Hopefully we will have the garden cleaned up and ready for winter in another week or so. I admit I am happy to be done for the year. I will stop thinking about it for a month or so, then it will be time to start looking through seed catalogues and get revved up for another season, which will of course be so much better than this one!

Doe Hill Peppers & Jimmy Nardello Sweet Italian Frying Peppers

2011-11-02T08:25:00.007-04:00

Last week we brought in the last of our peppers - and by the last, I mean most of the harvest we got this year; about a bushel in all. We kept our peppers going so long by covering them with a hoop-house once the weather got cool. Since it's starting to dip down below 5°C at night, we decided it was time to bring them in. They had reached a stage where they were keeping, but not growing or ripening any more.

Two of the peppers that did very well for us were Doe Hill, the little round yellow one, and Jimmy Nardello, the long red one in the picture above.

Doe Hill

Until a few years ago this pepper seemed practically unknown around here. It's an heirloom variety from the Doe Hill area of Virginia, grown there since before 1900. It looks like a small, squat yellow bell pepper, but it isn't. It's more in the family of tomato or apple peppers: small, thick-walled peppers named for their slightly flattened spherical shape. It tastes somewhat like a yellow bell pepper too, being sweet and mild yet with a rich strong flavour. That's when it's ripe. It can be eaten green, like a green bell pepper too. Everyone who tried this pepper this summer liked it very much. Me too! Since it isn't actually a bell pepper, I can eat it without getting the indigestion that bell peppers always give me. This is an exciting discovery for me!

Their one flaw, that I can see, is a tendency to go from golden perfection to a sack of mush overnight. Don't pick them until you need them, if you can help it, and watch them carefully if you can't.

The plants are quite compact, not getting much above 24" in height, and they produce a lot of peppers. They start early, about 60 to 65 days from planting out, and keep going all season, especially if you keep them picked. As all other peppers in this climate, they must be started indoors at the end of February or beginning of March, and planted out in late May once the soil warms up. They are said to be disease resistant. We had no disease problems this year, so I can't comment. I will definitely grow these again next year, and more of them!

Jimmy Nardello:

Like Doe Hill, Jimmy Nardello peppers are an heirloom variety, although better documented. Seeds were brought to Connecticut by Angela Nardiello in 1887 from the town of Ruoti, east of Naples in Italy. There's a very good article about their history here. Her son, Jimmy Nardello, eventually passed seed on to Seed Saver's Exchange. Like Doe Hill, they've been becoming more and more popular as they get saved and passed around.

In looks they could hardly be more different. They are a long, skinny pepper, turning from a medium green to a strong red when ripe. Their walls are thin, allowing them to dry easily and cook quickly. They are less sweet and more "peppery" than the Doe Hills, but they are in no way hot. If you read the history above, and the comments, you'll see mention that they can be fried directly from the dry state.

They are said to ripen in 75 to 85 days from planting out, but in my experience these are a fair bit later than the Doe Hills. The odd one will ripen earlier, but the majority of the peppers on the plant - and there will be lots - will not ripen until just before frost. I suspect that I'm at about the northern limit of their tolerance. Height of the plants is a little taller than the Doe Hills; somewhere between 24" and 30". Both of these varieties could reasonably be grown in large pots. I have had some difficulty in getting the Jimmy Nardello to germinate, using seed from 2 different sources. I now plant about twice as many as I want, on the assumption that many won't come up. They will also be pretty slow. The Doe Hill seem much more reliable, although my experience with them is more limited.

Ajvar

2011-10-31T16:56:00.004-04:00

I had never made ajvar before, and I was pleased to realize it's really very easy. A little tedious to peel all the peppers, but no biggie. And since we decided to haul in all our peppers and eggplants last week, I needed something to do with some of them. I realize this is rather late in the season for making this, but bookmark it for next year. Now to figure out what to do with the other 7/8ths of a bushel of peppers sitting on my kitchen table. Not to mention probably a peck of eggplants.

Ajvar, in case you wanted to know, is simply a paste of roasted red peppers and eggplant, seasoned with lemon juice, salt and pepper, and usually smoothed with a little oil. The word is related, through the Turkish, to caviar. It hails from the Balkans, where they all fight about who invented it and how it should be made exactly. (You wondered what all that bickering was about over there. Now you know.) The Serbians seem to be carrying the day, but the Macedonians are neither down nor out. Recipes vary from all-eggplant to all-pepper, smooth or chunky, hot or mild, so take my version with a grain of salt. Also with some good sliced bread and a sprinkle of parsley, although I intend to use it on pizza, spread it on baked chicken, dip chips in it, and maybe toss it with some pasta or rice.

4 to 5 cups
2 hours or more- 1 hour prep time

Roast the Vegetables:
4 small eggplants (or 2 large ones; probably about 1 1/2 kilos or 3 pounds)
2 heads garlic, cleaned but unpeeled
6 to 12 thick-walled mild to slightly hot peppers, again about 1 1/2 kilos or 3 pounds

Preheat the oven to 475°F. Wash the veggies and cut off any bad spots. Arrange them in a single layer on trays, and bake them for about 30 minutes, until soft and blackened in spots. You may wish to turn a few of them half way through if they look like getting too black.

When they are done, set the garlic aside, and put the peppers and eggplant into a sealed container to steam as they cool. Let them cool for at least half an hour to several hours.

Finish the Ajvar:
3 or 4 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons pickling salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black peppercorns
the juice of 1 or 2 lemons
1/4 to 1/2 cup sunflower seed oil

Peel the cooled eggplant and peppers, discarding the skins, stems and seeds. Put them in a food processor with the peeled roasted garlic cloves and the peeled raw garlic, salt and pepper. Chop until it has reached a texture you like. Remove it to a bowl and mix in the lemon juice and the oil.

I packed mine in sterilized jars, because I hope to keep it in the fridge for a few weeks, but if you wish to can it for longer storage it must be pressure-canned. I would be more inclined to freeze it, myself.

Last year at this time I made Stir-Fried Broccoli with Red Peppers and Onions, and Smoked Fish Pie. Okay, I lied. My mom made the fish pie.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage #1

2011-10-27T08:05:00.002-04:00

Well, back in the saddle I guess. We've been back home for a couple of days but scurrying around to get the garden ready for winter, which could come any time by the looks of things. I'm plenty ready for a break from it. Of course, now I have about a bushel of peppers sitting in the kitchen looking at me.

This is a pretty classic take on sweet and sour cabbage, easy and not too time consuming either. Just watch those onions; they should be nicely cooked but don't let them burn!

6 servings
20 minutes prep time

Prepare the Vegetables:
1 large onion
1 tablespoon bacon fat or mild vegetable oil
4 cups chopped cabbage

Peel and cut the onion in half vertically. Lay each half down and cut vertically again, then slice them horizontally to produce fairly long thin strips of onion.

Heat the fat or oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for about 30 minutes, until evenly browned and cooked down.

Trim and chop the cabbage, and put it in a pot with water to come halfway up it. About 10 minutes before the onions will be done, bring it to a boil and simmer until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well and return to the pot.

Make the Sauce:
1 tablespoon arrowroot or corn starch
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon caraway seed
black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons white vinegar
3 tablespoons water

Mix the above ingredients in a small bowl, until the arrowroot is smoothly dissolved. Set it aside until the onions and cabbage are cooked.

Drain the cabbage once it is cooked, and return it to the pot. Mix in the onions. Give the sauce a stir, and add it to the cabbage. Stir the cabbage and onions until well blended and the sauce thickens, just a minute or so. Serve at once.

Last year at this time I made Squash Gnocchi and Cranberry-Raisin Pie.

Miso-Tomato Soup

2011-10-20T08:35:00.002-04:00

There are still a very few tomatoes around, and they are best for cooking at this point. Mind you, this works perfectly well with tinned tomatoes too. Very quick, easy and low calorie; we just won't talk about the salt content. Also good with a few greens thrown in if you have them: a couple of baby bok choy, or a handful of chopped cabbage for that matter.

Mr. Ferdzy came up with this soup a few years ago, although given the simplicity of the ingredients he was treading on a pretty well known path. I made it this week as it was good for stretching out a meal of mixed sauté of leftovers. We were cleaning out the fridge, as we will be away for about a week visiting relatives... see you next week.

4 to 6 servings
20 minutes prep time

2 medium shallots
1 clove of garlic
1 teaspoon mild vegetable oil
3 large tomatoes (4 cups chopped)
2 cups water
1/4 cup light (shiro) miso

Put a large pot of water on to boil.

Peel and chop the shallots. Peel and mince the garlic. Heat the oil in a small skillet, and cook the shallots until lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for a minute longer, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and let cool.

When the water boils, blanch the tomatoes for 1 minutes. Cool them under cold water, and peel them. Chop them finely.

Put the tomatoes into a pot with 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the miso in the remaining 1/2 cup water until smooth.

Add the shallots and garlic to the tomatoes. Add the miso, and bring back up to a simmer. Serve at once.

FOODSTOCK

2011-10-17T21:05:00.002-04:00

We arrived at Foodstock at about a quarter after eleven, just after it officially started. This is where we got a parking spot. You can see more-or-less where the entrance is, off to the right of the porta-potties in the distance. We took this for a good sign.

Foodstock, in case anyone has missed hearing about it, was an event put on by the Canadian Chef's Congress and the Stop the Quarry group, to raise funds to fight the proposed 2300 acre quarry in Melancthon township. They had asked for a $10 donation from attenders, and I would say they did well. I saw people passing in multiple envelopes - I think quite a few people gathered up donations from friends who couldn't come, and I heard someone comment that a number of people had come up to drop off donations without coming in.

The event itself was held in and about a large maple bush. Some straw had been put down to fight the mud - not enough, as it turned out, but it did help.

We started lining up to sample the offerings of the chefs. I'm a bad reporter; I didn't get the name of this restaurant (actually, I'm pretty sure it was a golf club) but the dish was rabbit and chicken stewed with chocolate, with cherry preserves and a profiterole. It was very rich, and very good.

On the other hand we knew these folks! They're from Simplicity Bistro in Thornbury, close to home. They made a lovely browned butter and Jerusalem artichoke soup.

The place was not too crowded yet, and so we could see that the woods was full of rather rustic and organic sculptures.

Oysters, from Oyster Boys, in Toronto.

A smoked fish paté on a kale leaf, with chips. A number of the chefs had made chips, as the threatened farmland is known for producing most of Ontario's potatoes.

Smoked fish on raw daikon, with raw garlic - much better than it sounds - from Sakura, in Toronto.

This was a welcome dish - a chopped salad from, I think, Bruce Wine Bar in Thornbury.

Janice Suarez, a pastry chef from Niagara on the Lake, served this deceptively plain looking apple-pumpkin loaf, which I thought was one of the best things I ate.

By now the place was filling up. It was a very large space, but there were plainly a lot of people there.

A display of some of the potatoes grown in the area.

A map shows the outline of the proposed quarry superimposed over a map of Toronto. Yes, it's truly huge. Worse, it's at the headwaters of 5 major southern Ontario rivers. As one of the people I chatted with in line said, this is all about the groundwater.

When we first arrived line-ups were not more than a minute or two long, but they soon got to be quite long! Fortunately most of them moved fairly briskly.

Haisai Restaurant and Bakery in Singhampton made what I thought was pizza, until I got right up to it. It turned out to be a grilled apple tart that was lovely, not too sweet and swimming in cinnamon.

Eiginsinn Farm had the next spot (they are both Michael Stadlander projects) and they were serving a vegetable soup with pickled squash on a raw cabbage leaf. I admit that so many chefs were serving rich meaty things on white bready things that I greeted that cabbage leaf with great enthusiasm. Soup wasn't half bad either.

And I believe that's chef Stadtlander there, hacking cabbage with the best of them. I also believe that Foodstock was originally his idea.

The folks from Lennox farm were there too, giving away bags of Brussels sprouts.

Another familiar face - Ruth Klahsen from Monforte Dairy.

Poutini's, serving poutine, naturally. I admit I didn't have any. I had pretty much reached the point of not being able to eat anything more at least half an hour previously.

Oh, and another familiar face! Chef Robin Pradhan from Rocky Raccoon in Owen Sound with a lovely vegetable curry that was a welcome change of pace from all the rich food.

No longer sure who this was or what they had, but the display was interesting... love the necklace.

Last call at Buca (Toronto). Like a lot of the chefs, they had brought thousands of portions, but still ran out in the face of the huge numbers of people attending.

Click on the above picture to see some of the cars parked at the sides of the roads all around, even though the space allotted to parking was huge.

Chefs and their tables filled the paths through the woods, and all around the outsides on three sides too.

There were a few people there with coffee - and on a cool, windy afternoon (with a few showers as time went on) it was gratefully received. Was this Alternative Grounds, from Toronto? I think so.

As the afternoon went on, music started up at the stage. I have to admit I didn't stay for the music or the speeches to follow - never my favourite part of political events. Yeah, I'm bad.

There were a number of artists and musicians who had spots throughout the site as well as the chefs.

But by 2:30, we were pretty pooped. We decided to head home. A number of other people were leaving, but more were still coming in. I asked on the way out, and they told me that the last count as of 2:00 pm was that 18,000 people had been there, so I'm sure they made the expected 20,000 easily before the day was done.

I haven't seen anything about this on the CBC site, or the Globe and Mail. There were a few photos (kind of hard to find) at the Star. NOTE: and an article too, but also hard to find. On the other hand, I hope and believe that this event raised a lot of money for the fight against the mega-quarry. And it's not too late to donate. This will be a long and protracted fight, so please consider what you can do to support it. There will be more info at Stop the Quarry.

(And if I've made any errors in identifying people in this post, I'm sorry - and happy to get corrections.) EDITED TO ADD: Final count apparently a bit over 28,000 people! WOW!

Vegan Stuffed Peppers

2011-10-17T07:41:00.001-04:00

Although this is a little time-consuming to make, it is very easy. Yes, I know; more stuffed peppers. Hey! I like stuffed peppers and there are so many different ways to stuff them, and so many different peppers that there is no need to get bored by repetition.

For this recipe, I used a mixture of Alma Paprika peppers and Doe Hill peppers. Alma Paprika was my big pepper find last summer, and Doe Hill was this years' favourite new pepper. They are both what are called tomato or apple peppers; a description based on the general size and shape of a number of different varieties. These are often mild peppers, although I have found the Alma Paprika can occasionally be quite hot in spots! And while they are both mild, they are in no way lacking in flavour.

I didn't have quite as many peppers as the stuffing would have filled, so I just formed the last of it into balls and set them amongst the peppers to bake. The serving estimate is so variable as these would make a nice appetizer as a single pepper, or 2 or 3 peppers could be served as the main part of a meal, with a green vegetable and some bread being sufficient to round it out.

Makes 8 to 12 small stuffed peppers (4 to 12 servings)
2 hours (50 minutes prep time)

Cook the Grains:
1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 cup red lentils
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cup water or broth

Rinse and drain the quinoa and lentils. Put them in a pot with the salt and water or broth, and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. They can also be cooked in a rice cooker.

Make the Filling:
1/2 cup green pumpkin seeds
1 or 2 small stalks of celery
1 medium carrot
1 or 2 shallots
2 teaspoons mild vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dill seed
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
1/2 teaspoon coriander seed
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
2/3 cup dried cranberries

While the quinoa and lentils cook, toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned. Turn them out onto a plate to cool.

Wash, trim and chop the celery finely. Peel and grate the carrot finely. Peel and chop the shallots finely. Heat the oil in a skillet, and cook the celery, carrot and shallots until soft. Set aside to cool.

Grind the spices.

Mix the cooked quinoa and lentils with the cooked vegetables, the spices, the pumpkin seeds and the cranberries.

Stuff & Bake the Peppers:
8 to 12 medium "apple" or "tomato" peppers
1/2 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Wash the peppers, and cut the cores out, leaving a fairly large opening at the top of each pepper. Use a thin-edged spoon to scoop out any seeds or membrane remaining inside them. Stuff the peppers with the filling, and arrange them in a snug baking dish. Pour the water around them, and bake them for 1 hour.

Last year at this time I made Parsnips with Leeks and Traditional Pickled Beets.

We Dig Potatoes! And a Few Other Things

2011-10-12T08:30:00.002-04:00

The long-awaited day arrived yesterday, when we pulled the first half of the potatoes we planted in a large box, back at the end of May. We would have let them sit a little longer, to let both sides die down, but it was clear that some mice or voles had taken up residence in the bed. Hope I don't have the same problem that we had last time we evicted mice! The half we dug up were the Russet Burbanks; the German Butterballs seem to still be growing, and to be mouse-free, as far as we can tell.

As Mr. Ferdzy unscrewed the boards that formed one side of the box, I pulled them out and took them away. You can see how deep the bed of potatoes was; probably about 16".

Then we started digging. It was quickly clear that we needed to dig by hand as of course the first thing we did was slice a couple potatoes in half. Most of the potatoes were very large. Real lunkers.

We found a few that had been much eaten by the mice or voles, but fortunately most of them were still fine. I think it was good we dug them up when we did though, or there would no doubt have been much more damage.

Here we are about three-quarters of the way through the digging process. All extra soil was hauled away and is sitting in a pile again. We will have a grass-free area over 2/3 of what will become a blueberry bed next spring. That's a nice head start!

We got 96 pounds of Russet Burbanks which filled 2 bushel boxes. Taking into account the mouse damage, I'm sure there was just over 100 pounds of potatoes. I'm trying to remember what we originally planted... was it 4 pounds? It might have been, but we didn't keep good records. We planted the same amount, whatever it was, in one of our regular beds and that yielded 40 pounds of Russet Burbanks. Which was one of our best harvests of potatoes in the regular beds yet.

Last week we dug up the sweet potatoes. I'm afraid they were a very disappointing harvest. We got 9 pounds of Frazier White and 11 pounds of Georgia Jet. I would say that growing them through tomato cages was a good plan, and we will do that again. It definitely prevented them from rooting all over the place, which is what they will do if allowed to sprawl. And if they do that you will get a lot of sweeet potatoes, but very tiny.

The problem, I believe, was that they basically did nothing for the entire month of June. June was perfectly grim, as far as the heat-loving vegetables like peppers, tomatoes, peanuts, melons and lima beans were concerned. It was cold and rainy, and the poor little slips just sat there and sulked. Essentially, they were a month behind when we dug them up, and since most of the root formation takes place at the end of the season, that was a month that really, really counted.

We also pulled our peanuts yesterday. Again, there were a lot of partially formed ones, and if they had done better in June I think our harvest would have doubled. On the other hand, this was still our best peanut harvest in the three years we have been growing them. We are developing peanuts suited to our soil and climate by selecting the best each year to be replanted. I also think our first planting did so poorly because the seeds were sold with the shells off, and I suspect many of them had had their growing tips damaged.

From a 5' by 5' area, we got 4 litres of shell-on peanuts. For the first time, we are going to actually eat some. (But yes, we have already sorted out about 80 of the best, largest peanuts for next years seed, including making a point to take many of them from the plants that produced the most peanuts.)

We also got some trees planted in the afternoon, most notably a couple of paw-paw trees we grew from seed this year. They join two that we bought as young plants last spring. I've never had a paw-paw. I hope we like them. We won't know for some years!

Foodstock

2011-10-11T09:34:00.004-04:00

Just in case you haven't heard about it yet - although it seems to be quite well publicized - there is going to be an event called Foodstock next Sunday, October 16th from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, in Honeywood, Ontario. This is an event in support of the movement to stop the proposed mega-quarry in Melancthon township. I've written about this before; it's a cause well worth supporting.

The CBC had an interesting interview with the principals of the proposed quarry yesterday; and a right pair of whinging 1%ers they sound too. They are sooo misunderstood. Aw, diddums.

If you can't get out there to help kick this egregious plan to the curb, please consider making a donation. And give deeper consideration to the evils of NAFTA, which works hard to destroy local community control over the activities of multi-national corporations. The Stop the Quarry movement is getting a lot of attention and momentum, but I really hope it can connect to the big picture and get a movement going to repeal NAFTA.

Pear, Cranberry & Nut Salad with Blue Cheese

2011-10-10T08:15:00.003-04:00

I was surprised and pleased to find some Devil's Rock blue cheese from Thornloe Dairy last week, at Zehrs of all places. Since it's also pear season, I immediately thought of the classic combination of pears and blue cheese. Since you can maybe still find some romaine lettuce if you are lucky, I put them in a salad.

I was out of walnuts, which is what I think of when I think of pears and blue cheese, but I had some pumpkin seeds and they did very well instead. But really, any nuts will be fine. Use your judgement as to whether they need toasting or not.

The 2 of us ate this as our lunch, but it would probably serve 6 as a side salad.

2 to 6 servings
20 minutes prep time

Make the Dressing:
1 tablespoon apple butter
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons walnut or almond oil
3 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Whisk or shake the ingredients together in a small bowl or jam jar.

Make the Salad:
1/2 cup walnuts or pumpkin seeds
1/2 of a large head of romaine lettuce
2 medium pears
1/3 cup dried cranberries
50 to 75 grams (2 or 3 ounces) crumbled blue cheese

Toast the nuts or seeds in a dry skillet until lightly browned, then turn them onto a plate to cool.

Wash, trim and tear up the lettuce into bite-sized pieces, and arrange it over serving plates. Peel, core and chop the pears and divide them over the plates of lettuce. Sprinkle over the cranberries and nuts or seeds, and top with the crumbled blue cheese.

Drizzle over the dressing and serve at once.

Gingerbread Pear Pie with Dried Cranberries

2011-10-07T07:56:00.001-04:00

Last week my mother-in-law gave me a big bag of pears she had gotten from a friend at church. Since we are still working on eating melon from our garden, and plums that we went out and picked, they sat around until they were very ripe. In order to prevent them all ending up in the compost, I made this. And I have to say it was very good! I really liked the gingerbread crust.

It was good enough that you could make it and use it for cookies. You might want to add a bit more sugar in that case; I would think 2/3 of a cup would be plenty. I had enough leftover dough just to make 2 cookies, and I just dropped them in a little sugar to coat them before baking and thought that was fine.

Also I am calling for firm-ripe pears. Mine were on the soft side and they were okay, but I think it would have been better if they had not been quite so ripe. Next time I know what to do and I won't let them sit so long!

8 servings
2 hours - 30 minutes prep time

Make the Crust:
2 1/2 cups soft whole wheat flour
1/3 cup Sucanat or dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 of a freshly grated medium nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons fancy molasses
2 tablespoons water

Put the flour, Sucanat, salt and spices in a food processor, and pulse to blend. Cut the butter into chunks and drop it in. Process until the butter is evenly distributed throughout the flour in pieces about the size of a small pea.

Mix the molasses and water, and heat just sufficiently to dissolve the molasses - in the microwave for a few seconds works well.

Process the molasses and water into the flour mixture, until it comes together. Turn it out onto a sheet of parchment paper, and wrap it up. It may be a bit moister than pastry usually is, but it is okay. Set it aside to rest for about 15 minutes.

Prepare the Fruit:
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup finely chopped preserved ginger
6 tablespoons arrowroot or cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
8 to 10 medium-large ripe but firm pears

Mix the cranberries, chopped preserved ginger, arrowroot and sugar in a large bowl.

Peel and core the pears, and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Toss them with the cranberry mixture until well blended.

Finish the Pie:
a little more flour for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Divide the dough into 2 portions, one about 60% of the dough and the other, therefore, about 40% of the dough.

Roll the larger piece of dough out on the parchment paper, sprinkling it with flour as needed to keep it from sticking to either the paper or the roller. When it is of a size to fit a 10" pie pan, invert the pan over dough then flip it all over so that the dough is in the pan. Peel off the paper, and adjust the crust so that it fills the pan from edge to edge nicely.

Scrape the filling into the pie pan and spread it out evenly.

Roll out the remaining dough, again dusting it with flour as needed, until it will cover the pie. Either roll it around the rolling pin and unroll it on the pie, or quickly invert the paper with the crust over the pie. Peel off the paper, and adjust the position of the top crust.

Pinch the edges together all around the pie, and cut air-holes for the steam to escape as the pie bakes. Bake the pie for 1 hour, until browned around the edges. Let cool before serving.

If there is any leftover pastry, it can be rolled into a ball, flattened, then dipped in sugar. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes depending on thickness, and voilà: a few bonus, extra cookies.

Last year at this time it was Braised Turkey.

Chires Baby Corn

2011-10-05T08:39:00.003-04:00

I really like baby corn, either in stir-fries, or pickled. It's extremely hard to find though, so I thought I would try growing some this year. The general concensus is that Chires Baby is the variety to grow for this purpose. It was brought from Asia by Jere Gettle of Baker Creek Seeds a few years back, and has become quite popular since then.

Baker Creek (and everyone else who sells it) claims it makes up to 20 ears per plant, with the plants producing multiple stalks. I did not experience that. One or two sent up two stalks, and each stalk produced about 6 cobs of corn. Still, this is much better than just about every other corn out there, which by and large produce 2 cobs at most. I also forgot that the seed catalogues say to start picking it as soon as it tassels so it will produce more; I harvested mine all at once.

It's supposed to be ready in 75 to 85 days. I'd say that's right; mine was a little closer to the later of those dates, but I could have started - and probably should have started - picking it earlier. Like all corn, it should not be planted until about June 1st, once the soil is warm. Corn is also what they call a "gross feeder" and will need lots of nitrogen-heavy fertilizer.

That's a shoe-box sized container in the picture above, and that's the complete harvest from a 5' by 6' planting of corn (about 30 plants). This stuff is a real luxury. Not only do you get very little for the amount of space required, but it then has to be hulled, and it's not a lot easier or faster to hull a baby corn cob than a full-sized one.

And there's the final, naked, harvest. I froze 2 packets and pickled the rest. Not what you would call a bumper harvest. I think I will likely try this again next year, and see if I do a bit better picking the cobs as they form. On the other hand, cleaning them is so much work that I wouldn't actually want to grow too much. They say that if the cobs are left to mature on the plant, it makes good popcorn. That would certainly be a lot less work, and probably a more respectable harvest for the space.

Lasagne alla Chiles Rellenos

2011-10-04T10:51:00.004-04:00

Last month (yeah, I know) I found some Anaheim and poblano chiles at my local grocery and was SOOOO excited. I hope they are still out there; I don't see why not. Anyway, I bought a bunch and stuffed them, and they were so good I ran out and bought a bunch more. I was still in a chile 'n' cheese mood, but I thought I should do something a little different this time so I made them into lasagne. And then I didn't actually eat the lasagne, but put them into the freezer for future peppery goodness.

Prepare the Vegetables:
4 Anaheim and 4 poblano chiles
1 large or 2 medium eggplants
2 or 3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil

Wash the chiles. Roast them over a stove element. This is best with a gas stove, but it can be done on an electric stove too. Alternatively, they can be roasted under the broiler. In either case, watch them carefully and turn them every 5 minutes or so in order to get them done everywhere. The skins should get quite charred all over. Once they are done, put them in a container that has a cover, cover them and leave them to cool. This may not take as much as an hour, but it is slower than you would expect so allow yourself lots of time.

When you are ready to proceed, peel off the skins. They should come right off fairly easily, and can be helped along by holding the chiles under cold running water as you peel. The peeled chiles should be softened, but not enough to be particularly fragile. You may wish to simply blanch the tomatoes, rather than charring them, but the charring will add a little depth to the flavour.

Trim and slice the eggplants fairly thinly. Fry them in the oil until lightly browned on both sides, and remove them to a plate to cool

Cut the cores from the chiles, removing the seeds and any tough inner membranes. Rinse them in cold water and drain well.

Assemble the Lasagne:
12 standard lasagne noodles
3 cups tomato sauce
500 grams ricotta cheese
250 grams mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons rubbed oregano

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Cook the lasagne noodles for HALF of the recommended time, and rinse in cold water and drain. Don't leave them sitting next to each other or they will stick together - spread them out.

Line a 9" x 13" lasagne pan with a little tomato sauce. Lay 4 of the lasagne noodles over the bottom of the pan to cover it, and cover them with a little more sauce. Break up and spread 1/3 of the ricotta cheese over the noodles. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of the oregano. Cut the peppers and eggplant into thin strips and spread 1/3 of them evenly over the cheese.

Repeat twice more, adding about 1/3 of the mozzarella to the middle layer. Finish with a final layer of noodles, and top with the last of the tomato sauce. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella over the top.

I haven't baked mine yet, so I'm not sure how long. Bake at 350°F. I'm guessing anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour and a half, depending on how cold it was when it went in. If you freeze it, be sure to thaw it thoroughly and get it up towards room temperature before you bake it, especially if you are using a glass pan.

Last year at this time I made Smoky Paprika Tomato Soup and Pumpkin Bread Pudding.

A Visit to Bruce-Huron Produce Auctions

2011-09-26T08:07:00.002-04:00

I mentioned in my post about travelling around with Robert Foreman to collect produce for his 100 Mile Produce farmers' market stand that we attended the Bruce-Huron Produce Auction. This is a new Mennonite-run produce auction held at 733 Kairshea Avenue (R.R.#3, Holyrood, ON) which is 2 kilometres east of Bruce Road 1, north of Lucknow.

The building is a new, purpose-built warehouse in a reclaimed gravel pit. It is surprisingly elegant, with natural stained board-and-batten sides and fibreglass (I think) skylights. At any rate, it's very rare to see something utilitarian and obviously built on a budget that's also attractive, and I commend the designers and builders.

Almost all the vendors arrive in horse-drawn wagons, which have their own entrance lane that runs around to the back of the building.

Behind the building there is a "truck" bay specifically designed for the wagons. The farmers quickly unload their produce and bring it into the building.

The auction is set up on carts and skids in rows, determined by marks on the floor. We arrived fairly early, and the first vendors were just getting set up.

The vendors fill out consignor tickets that get put with each lot of produce to be sold. These tickets will trace the vendor through to the purchaser, and determine what each purchasers is to pay, and what the vendors are to be paid.

There is a section walled off from the main area, which is full of packaging materials. Vendors take what packaging they need, and write the amount taken down in a notebook. Once a month, they are billed for the packaging materials they have taken. This keeps the produce in consistently sized lots from one vendor to another, and allows purchasers to get a similar product no matter who the vendor was, in quantity at least.

These beautiful Turban squash gave me a big smile. They were really lovely, but sadly, they sold for 5 cents each. Yes, I said 5 cents! As Robert succinctly said, "Won't see those here again." There's that problem with anything that isn't absolutely standard. People, when you see something unusual at the market, even if you don't know what to do with it - buy it! Figure it out! It's the only way to get new and interesting produce to show up.

Not surprisingly, that's way below cost for the farmer - Robert said that in general, regardless of size, if the farmers can sell squash for about 25 cents each, they will break even, and at 50 cents a piece they are making a reasonable return. He likes to bid up the prices towards the reasonable-return end of the scale, even if he doesn't intend to buy them. It's a dangerous game to play though - he ended up with a couple of bins of squash he didn't really need yet! Still, it's squash and it will keep, and he will sell it eventually.

The auction itself is surprisingly low-key, but very brisk. The auctioneer and three helpers start at the beginning of the first row of produce. The fellow to the auctioneer's left describes the produce. The auctioneer then begins his patter, and in under a minute the produce is sold. The two helpers to the right of him then get the successful bidder's bidder number, make sure it is added to the consignor ticket on the produce, and that a copy goes to the office where they are sorted by the bidders' numbers.

The auction moved along quickly, from one spot to another, with purchasers milling around. From my point of view, it was hard to tell who was bidding and who was scratching their nose, but the auctioneer always seemed to know.

And finally, after all these years, I figured out what the auctioneer is actually saying in that speed-talking patter that they do, and the answer is - nothing! Most of it is just filler sounds to keep up a sense of something happening. I told this marvellous insight to Mr. Ferdzy, and he stared at me in amazement for the fool that I am. Duh. Oh well. Some of us are just slow.

The Turban squash were probably the cheapest thing sold at the auction, but these giant pumpkins were probably the most expensive, at about $10 each.

There were a lot of different squash at the market - squash season has definitely begun, along with beets, potatoes, onions and carrots. There were huge numbers of pumpkins, and I was surprised to see that they all sold, and for much better prices than any of the other squash. Who knew?

Fortunately, for those of us still clinging to the end of summer, there were still some tomatoes, corn, melons, and green beans.

Once everything is sold the successful bidders go to the office to pay for their purchases.

While the purchasers are paying, the produce gets loaded into their vehicles. There were a number of teen aged boys there, who knew who the regulars were and who were happy to get them loaded up for a small consideration. The produce left the building as rapidly as it arrived, and an hour and half after we got there, we were driving out again.

This is the Huron-Bruce Produce Auction's first year in business, and I'd say it showed in that there is not yet a really high volume of goods going through yet. However, word is getting out about it and I expect that next year will be better for both sellers and buyers. Right now, for anyone who is able to do the driving to get there, it's likely that bargains can be found. There was certainly a pretty comprehensive selection of produce there.

There is a similar produce auction in Elmira that has been going on for a few years now. The lots there tend to be a fair bit larger. At the Bruce-Huron auction lots are still small enough that a family looking to fill their cold cellar and freezer could buy things here.

I was chatting to a man (as we both hung over a bin of delicious-smelling melons taking up the scent for free) who told me that these auctions are becoming very popular with Mennonite farmers, and that there are somewhere around 100 such auctions in the United States now. They are an effective way for Mennonite farmers, who are restricted in how far they can reasonably travel by buggy or wagon, and who often don't have large quantities, to get their produce to distributors. It's more practical for the distributors too, than travelling from farm to farm, often for fairly small quantities.

As a final note, you may have realized that there were no pictures of farmers in the first post about this trip. That's because Mennonite and Amish people have a strong preference not to be photographed. I did explain to the manager of the auction what I was doing, and asked for permission to take photos here, as it would have been otherwise impossible to give any sense of what was going on.

A Day In the Life of a Farmers' Market Vendor - 100 Mile Produce

2011-09-23T08:08:00.002-04:00

One of the big questions whenever a farmers' market is set up, is "what sort of vendors will be allowed?" Many people who want to shop at farmers' markets immediately think, "Farmers only! No re-sellers!" The trouble is that finding people who farm all week and then are willing to spend the 1 to 3 days a week at the market, working from (say for example) 5 o'clock in the morning until 2 pm, not including the commute, is pretty much impossible for a number of reasons; not the least of which is that if you are spending 2 or 3 days a week at a farmers' market selling, you are not farming those days. And if you are not farming for those days, then you don't have enough to sell at a farmers' market 2 or 3 days a week, and if you are not selling at a farmers market 2 or 3 days a week, you are not making a living - especially when you are talking about vegetables.

Consequently, most farmers' markets of any size have re-sellers at many of the booths. Of course, there are re-sellers and there are re-sellers. If you are trying to eat local food and want to deal with farmers, should you avoid them? Not necessarily, although there are some unscupulous vendors out there, of course. There are also some very good and interesting ones that are an important part of the distribution system for local produce. I'm probably going to talk more and more about distribution on this blog, because it's a big difficulty for a lot of local farmers and producers.

Many of us recognize on sight the folks who have piles of out-of-season imported produce on their tables, and know that they have bought it at the Food Terminal and are re-selling it. Some of us avoid them, but they do stay in business, so obviously a lot of people don't mind! It's much easier to recognize that someone with a narrow selection of goods, in season, is probably a grower. And yet, these are not always the easiest vendors to buy from. There's something more appealing about stopping at a vendor with a good selection of different items to choose from.

Consequently, there are also a number of farmers' market vendors who fill a middle niche - they often grow some of the produce that they sell, and they also sell produce they acquire in other ways. I spent a day travelling around with Robert Foreman, who sells at Keady market on Tuesdays (where I got to know him) and also at St. Jacobs market (Thursdays and Saturdays), and who is one such vendor. His company name is 100 Mile Produce.

Since he is at market on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are spent acquiring and preparing produce for the next day. Yes, that's a 6 day week. He used to go to a Sunday market too, where he would sell whatever was left over from the week. He's been doing well enough this year though, that he has little left over and can skip working Sunday. He's been doing this for 10 years.

I arrived at Robert's 24 acre farm just south of Wingham at 10:30 on Monday morning, as he prepared to go around and gather the produce he would need to take to Keady the next morning. He had already been on the road for several hours at that point, having just returned from dropping off 500 pounds of rutabagas in St. Clements.

We started off with a tour of his warehouse, really a large shed behind his house. It's a large, clean cement-floored space with two walk-in coolers, and this odd-looking piece of equipment. I couldn't have guessed what it was, but it's a cucumber grader. You dump the cukes in at one end, and they fall through progressively larger gaps as they travel along it, sorting themselves from smallest to largest. Robert says it saves him hours of work each week when cucumbers are in season.

A few years back, he spent $20,000 to enlarge his warehouse and add a loading dock, another improvement that has saved him hours, not to mention his back. Cases of vegetables can now be wheeled on and off the truck easily instead of the constant bending and lifting required before.

Behind his truck lie some of his fields on one side, and his barn on the other side. He is using neither of them at the moment. His barn is used by a neighbour for beef cattle. In exchange Robert gets the manure for his vegetable fields, and the neighbour cultivates his fields. The neighbour gets to use the field on the left every second year as part of this deal, so it's in soybeans this year as it's his year to use it. That's half of his land; the other half was planted with 9 acres of sweet corn (3 remaining to be harvested) and 3 acres of pumpkins. In addition, Robert rents a tractor for $700 a year. "I'm not a mechanic!" he says. (I've mentioned before how so many farmers need to be.)

This was a theme that came up again throughout the day - none of the farmers and gardeners we spoke to could do this on their own, in isolation. Farming is not for rugged individualists; it is a communal activity. It's really impossible to talk about "a farmer" doing anything all by themselves, let alone selling at market. It's almost always a bunch of farmers doing something.

This was the first of Robert's coolers, which he got second hand from a fast-food restaurant. Right now it's actually being used to keep vegetables such as tomatoes and potatoes warm. The season for tomatoes is coming to an end as cooler nights begin to damage them. Soon they will be killed by frost, but right now there are still plenty, and his are being kept sheltered from chill damage in the (turned off) cooler, and also ripening a bit more.

The other cooler is also a second hand one, from a butcher shop this time. This one is being used as a cooler. Right now, it's low tide in the warehouse, and it contains only bags of beets and a few odds and ends. Our goal for the day is to fill this cooler in preparation for the market at Keady tomorrow.

Our first stop was Gorrie Line Produce, 44106 Howick-Turnberry Rd, RR#1, 3 lines north of Gorrie and just off to the east side of Gorrie Line. This Mennonite-run business is a combination retail shop and wholesale vegetable and fruit warehouse.

The shop wasn't open yet and looked a bit empty as baking and other products had yet to arrive. There was a good stock of preserves and honey though.

We pulled up behind the shop, between it and the warehouse.

Inside the warehouse, bins and cases of vegetables stood ready. We loaded up some carrots and onions, and Robert asked about getting some garlic. This was not actually for his market sales; he wanted to get some to a young couple who were moving north in the spring, but who wanted to get garlic planted at their new farm soon as now is the time to be planting it.

Robert deals exclusively with Amish and Mennonite farmers, and as someone who travels around with a truck he is often able to transport items for them that they would not easily be able to move around using horses and wagons. Sometimes this is done as a sale, sometimes this is part of the web of mutual favours that help make up a community. In this case, he was selling the young farmers the garlic, although at a considerably lower price than he could have sold it at the markets.

The garlic in question wasn't actually here; it was still at the farm where it had been grown, being cleaned.

Nothing to say about this; it's the yard at Gorrie Line Produce and I just liked the picture. Next we are off to the farm to pick up the garlic.

Garlic has been a bit difficult this year. It's selling very well. He had 3,500 pounds but it has all sold. In addition, one of the farmers growing garlic for Robert had nematodes in his, and it's mostly unsaleable and completely unplantable. Fortunately, one of Roberts' friendly competitors has only needed about 60% of some garlic he contracted for with Gorrie Line, and Robert has his permission to buy the rest of it. That will get him through the rest of the season.

At the farm where we are to pick up the garlic, we find the farming couple in their plastic covered greenhouse. I loved this greenhouse! It was still packed full of heirloom tomatoes, and was a slightly warm and pleasant place to be on a cool rainy day. We had a lively discussion about different tomato varieties, and they gave me a Pineapple tomato for the seeds. Hopefully, it will be in the garden next year.

I was very impressed by their cherry tomato plants. Even outside, they do get big, but these must have been 9' high as they had reached the ceiling. The tomatoes are obviously winding down, but they were still large and impressive.

The greenhouse is heated in the spring with a wood-burning furnace.

There's an upper room above the furnace where seedlings are started, mostly empty now.

From there, you can look out and see the vegetable gardens and fields behind it.

They had spent the morning picking beans before the rain got started. These beautifully sorted beans were for another purchaser, who supplies to the restaurant trade. They were perfectly sized and arranged with all the stem ends together, and the farmers sold them for 4 times as much as Robert pays for his beans, in unsorted sizes and higglety-pigglety. I imagine they were four times the work to pick, though.

Robert (and most other buyers) won't buy beans or greens picked in wet weather, because it will deteriorate too fast. The farmers don't want to pick them then anyway, as it isn't good for the plants either. Consequently, Robert ended the day a little short of beans and greens.

We had found the farming couple cleaning and sorting garlic when we arrived. They were happy to sell it, and when they heard it was to be planted to stop cleaning it too, in exchange for a slightly lower price.

Outside, some of the gardens were planted with buckwheat as a cover crop.

Traditionally, gardens have been mostly womens' work in the Mennonite and Amish communities, but as it becomes clear that there is money to be made in market gardening the men are getting involved as well.

We continued to travel from farm to farm, although we did stop back at Roberts' farm at one point to drop off the collection so far, and there were some other chores, such as stopping to gas up the truck and replace a defective windshield wiper. In all, I believe we visited 7 farms, although I lost track after a while. The one above was fairly typical; large tidy farmhouses with large tidy gardens, often with a shed turned into a small shop for their produce, or at least a sign out front advertising farm and garden produce for sale.

The social aspect of the farm visiting was an important componant of the day. These are people with whom he has been working for over 10 years now, and with whom he hopes to work for years to come. People who don't have much to sell him today may have something he needs in the future. There was a little haggling about price that I saw; it might seem odd that in all the cases the guy who was buying (not always Robert) was offering to pay more, and the guy who was selling was requesting less. But everybody is aware that the deal has to work for all concerned, not just today but in the future. As is usual with haggling, they generally met in the middle. It was just amusing to see the usual process reversed.

We also spent an hour and a half at the Bruce-Huron Produce Auction; I'm going to post about that separately later.

I tend to moan a little about how standard all the produce is at farmers' markets, but here's one reason why. Robert saw some seeds for white cucumbers at William Dam, thought they looked interesting and got them for one of his farmers to try. They haven't sold at all; no-one wants them. Good thing the farmer didn't plant very many.

That, by the way, is how Robert's agreements with his farmers work. He buys the seeds, and any sprays (generally fungicides) required. Sometimes he buys some of the equipment needed. The farmers supply the land, the labour, and some of the equipment. In general, Robert gets about 50% of the final selling price of the produce, and the farmers get 50%. It does vary a bit by vegetable. For more labour intensive crops, the farmers get a bigger cut. That would be things like beans, green onions and asparagus. For some things, he gets a bigger cut, for example beets. They are easy to grow and harvest, and he bears the cost of storing them.

Robert decides how much he is likely to sell of the various vegetables, and that's the amount he requests from his growers. He's on the hook for that amount; if they grow it for him he is obligated to buy it. If the crops fails, as crops sometimes do even for the most experienced growers, it's up to him to find a replacement source.

Out of his approximately 50% cut of the final selling price, he has other costs. He spends about $3,000 per year on seeds, a little less than $9,000 a year to rent space at the farmers' markets, and about $1,000 a year on liability insurance. Then there's the cost of running his vehicles - he does as much as he can out of a modified mini-van to save fuel and reduce his carbon footprint, but he also has a small cube van. There's the hydro for his coolers. He does hire help; he has university students help with growing and harvesting his own produce and selling at the markets in the summer, as well as some younger students hired on a more casual basis. When all is said and done, he hopes to keep 30 cents of every dollar's worth of produce he sells.

The gardens are winding down. Once Labour day is past, sales at Keady slow down considerably. After Christmas, Robert has no more market sales until asparagus season starts. He works at the local Co-op for a couple of months in the spring, organizing seed sales and mixing fertilizers. The pay isn't great, but it keeps him in touch with the local non-Amish and Mennonite community, and gets him through a slow time of year.

Corn Soufflé

2011-09-22T08:11:00.001-04:00

The basil in my garden is looking ratty, but it's still there, and there's still some sweet corn available out there too. Serve this with some of the last of the slicing tomatoes, and try to pretend that summer isn't nearly over.

I served this as the main dish of the meal, but it could be used as a side dish instead.

4 to 8 servings
1 hour 30 minutes - 30 minutes prep time

4 cobs of corn
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
3 or 4 good sprigs of basil
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup butter
3 extra-large eggs

Husk the corn, and cut the corn from the cobs. If you like, run half of it through the food processor until fairly finely chopped, but don't purée it. You can also proceed as-is.

Put the corn, milk, salt, sugar and basil in a large pot, and bring to a boil. Simmer for several minutes, stirring constantly, then add the cornmeal. Pour it in a steady stream, stirring as it goes in. Continue cooking the mixture, still stirring, until it thickens; approximately 5 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the butter until it melts. Set the pot aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly oil a 2 1/2 quart (3 litre) baking dish. Separate the eggs, putting the whites in mixing bowl as they are to be beaten stiff.

Beat the yolks into the slightly cooled corn mixture. Fish out and discard the basil.

Beat the egg whites until stiff, and fold them gently into the corn mixture. Scrape it into the prepared pan, and smooth it out. Bake for 10 minutes at 400°F.

Reduce the heat to 375°F, and continue baking for another 50 minutes. Serve at once.

Corn & Edamame Salad

2011-09-21T08:47:00.005-04:00

We've pulled up our edamame, and most of them are now residing in the freezer. I did save a few out to eat fresh, and this is what I did with them.

Edamame (fresh soy beans) are a bit hard to find, but hopefully if you have a good farmers' market you can find some. Corn should still be around for a week or two, but we are definitely heading into fall vegetables. I'm rushing to get in the last of the tomatoes. Speaking of which, a chopped up tomato would have been nice in this.

4 servings
30 minutes advance prep - 10 minutes to assemble

Pre-Cook the Corn and Edamame:
1 1/2 cups shelled edamame (1 quart in shells)
2 cobs of corn

Boil the edamame in their shells for 4 or 5 minutes, then rinse in cold water. Shell them, discarding the shells.

Husk the corn, and boil it for 4 or 5 minutes, then rinse in cold water. Cut the corn from the cobs.

Both of these should be cooled quickly, and cool when you proceed with the salad. They can be prepared in advance.

Make the Dressing:
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sunflower seed oil

Whisk together in a small bowl, or shake in a jar.

Finish the Salad:
1/4 of a small red pepper
1 slice sweet onion (or 1 green onion, or handful of chives)
1 stalk celery

Wash, de-seed and chop the red pepper. Peel or clean and mince the onion or chives. Wash, trim and chop the celery finely.

Mix the pepper, onion and celery with the edamame and corn. Toss with the dressing.

Sweet Siberian Watermelon

2011-09-20T08:01:00.004-04:00

Whoooo! Watermelon success at last!

Actually, we have managed to produce a watermelon or two in the last couple of years, but this is the first year we have had melons in any quantity. Unfortunately, we've struggled to get this melon bounty ripe, as they got off to a very slow start in our cold, wet June. However, we picked short-season melons for a reason and they have at least partially paid off. We'll be trying this one again next year, for sure.

We grew 4 Sweet Siberian watermelon plants, and got 5 large melons, plus a couple which did not ripen. In a better year, I don't believe 3 or 4 melons per vine would be too much to ask for. This doesn't sound spectacular, but these are nice compact vines. The four of them did not take up much more space than a 5 foot by 6 foot square. When vines grew out of their alloted space, we just turned them around and redirected them back in.

As you may suppose by the name Sweet Siberians originated in Russia. They were grown as early as 1901 at the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station. After that, their history in North America is somewhat obscure, although they were offered by the Oscar H. Will Seed Company of North Dakota for a number of years. According to Heritage Harvest Seeds, where we got the seeds, they are still grown for market by Hutterites in Manitoba. They were recently re-introduced to the general public by Glenn Drowns of the Seed Savers Exchange after he acquired seeds from the USDA, and have been gaining wider notice since then. They are a quick-growing melon, ready in 80 to 85 days from planting out.

That was one reason we decided to try them. The other was that in a comparison of 17 different watermelons done in Santa Clara County (San Francisco bay area) they were selected as being tops for flavour. While Santa Clara County has a far longer growing season than we do, like us they don't always have the hot weather that watermelons love. We certainly thought these had excellent flavour, not just sweet but distinctly watermelony. The colour is pretty too, being a rich warm apricot yellow when ripe. The seeds seem to remain an oaky brown.

Like most melons, these like rich soil with plenty of compost, plentiful water and lots of heat. If we have another early start as bad as last years, we will not hesitate to cover them with the hoop-house. We grew them on the ground, but one started up our trellis and I think could have managed there quite well, although it was the last to start forming and never reached full size. The recommendation is to support watermelons with old pantyhose if you are going to trellis them. At 6 to 10 pounds each expected weight, these are fairly small for a watermelon.

It's also recommended to grow melons through dark plastic, which keeps weeds down and traps heat. We just mulched them with lawn clippings. That early heat is very helpful though. Watermelons do ultimately originate in Africa, and they have never lost their taste for sunbathing, even if we have acquired certain types via Siberia.

One problem with all watermelons is telling when they are ripe. The signs to look for: the tendril opposite the stem of the fruit turns brown and shrivels (but this may happen a week or so in advance of ripeness), weight increases and the melon sounds more hollow when tapped, the bottom of the melon turns from pale white to bright yellow (this is the most reliable indicator in my somewhat limited experience) and finally, the melon skin loses its shine and appears more dull overall. And finally, the test which really decides it: you cut them open and eat them. Yum? Yum! Ah, sweet success.

Baked Chiles Rellenos

2011-09-19T07:48:00.003-04:00

I was very excited to go into my local grocery and find Ontario-grown ancho and Anaheim chiles for sale! Until recently, they have been practically unheard of here. However, the influx of Mexican Mennonites returning to Canada in the last few years has made available much more in the way of Mexican food and ingredients than used to be the case. Snatch them up if you can find them!

Anaheim chiles are long, straight and fairly narrow, in a light mid-green. They are quite mild. Poblanos are a very dark green, wider, and shorter, but they will hold more filling. Poblanos are more of a gamble, in terms of heat: they may be quite mild, or they may have a real bite, although most will be more in the middle. Either way, they have a rich and unique flavour.

North Americans tend to think of chiles rellenos (stuffed chiles) as containing cheese. That is certainly one traditional filling, and one I really love. However, Mexicans fill chiles with all kinds of things. Meat and rice, other vegetables, fish - there are lots of possibilities.

When planning to serve the chiles, keep in mind that most people will probably eat two if they are the main portion of the meal. They are generally served with rice.

When I have wanted to make them a little less rich, I have cut the filling with other ingredients such as lightly cooked fresh corn kernels, or cooked quinoa or cous-cous. A little minced fresh parsley, if you have it, is a good addition.

I hate to say this is a simplified version of Chiles Rellenos (because they are baked rather than fried) because they are still very time-consuming, and the roasting of the vegetables definitely requires some patience!

4 to 6 stuffed chiles
Allow 1 hour to roast chiles, and do it 1 hour in advance, at least
Then, 20 minutes prep time plus 1 hour cook time

Prepare the Vegetables
6 Anaheim or 4 poblano chiles
4 medium tomatoes

Wash the chiles and tomatoes. Roast them over a stove element. This is best with a gas stove, but it can be done on an electric stove too. Alternatively, they can be roasted under the broiler. In either case, watch them carefully and turn them every 5 minutes or so in order to get them done everywhere. The skins should get quite charred all over. Once they are done, put them in a container that has a cover, cover them and leave them to cool. This may not take as much as an hour, but it is slower than you would expect so allow yourself lots of time.

When you are ready to proceed, peel off the skins. They should come right off fairly easily, and can be helped along by holding the chiles under cold running water as you peel. The peeled chiles should be softened, but not enough to be particularly fragile. You may wish to simply blanch the tomatoes, rathe than charring them, but the charring will add a little depth to the flavour.

Cut the cores from the tomatoes, and chop them roughly. Put them in a pot with any juices they have accrued and bring them to a boil. Boil until they are quite soft - 5 minutes should be sufficient - then purée them. This is the sauce to be served hot with the finished chiles. It is supposed to be rather thin.

Cut the cores from the chiles, removing the seeds and any tough inner membranes. Rinse them in cold water and drain well.

Make the Filling:
100 grams (1/4 pound) old Cheddar cheese
300 grams (3/4 pound) ricotta, chevre or other soft, mild cheese
1 teaspoon rubbed oregano

Grate the Cheddar, and blend it with the ricotta and the oregano.

Divide the cheese into equal portions, one portion for each chile. Stuff the cheese into the chiles. using the broad end of a chopstick or a wooden spoon handle to poke it in all the way to the ends.

Make the Batter:
6 tablespoons soft whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 extra-large eggs
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
a bit more flour

Lightly oil a baking pan that will hold the chiles fairly snugly. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Measure the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and give them a stir. Break in the eggs and add the oil, and mix until well blended.

Dust each chile in a little flour, then dip them in the batter. Lay them in the prepared pan. Scrape any extra batter over the top of them once they are all in.

Bake the chiles for about 1 hour, until the batter is fairly brown and the cheese is bubbly. Heat the tomato sauce through, and pass it with the chiles.

Last year at this time I canned Tomatillo Salsa and cooked Edamame. I have just dealt with both of the same things for this year as well. I've added a photo for the salsa, which I didn't have last year.

Snow White Cherry Tomato and Great White Tomato

2011-09-13T08:01:00.001-04:00

Well white, like black, is a pretty relative term when it comes to tomatoes. I would describe these as a pale, buttery or lemon yellow. Very pretty, and nice as part of plate of mixed tomato colours.

Great White

While this is often sold as an heirloom tomato, it is a fairly recent open pollinated selection, first discovered by the Gleckler Seed Company in the late 1980's, in a batch of Orange Oxheart tomato seed sent to them by a customer. They began selling it in the mid 1990's. In spite of this documented history, a lot of people seem to think it dates back as far as the Civil War era, but they are mistaken. We got our seed from Tatiana.

Great White has rapidly become one of the more popular of the so-called white tomatoes. Many of them are dismissed as bland and uninteresting in flavour, but Great White generates some very positive reports. I have to say I was pleased with it. I'm not a big eater of raw tomatoes and I prefer a mild, sweet tomato to one with more traditional flavour. This one manages to do a good balancing act - not so sweet and mild as to be dull, but without the traditional strong acid flavour of dark red tomatoes. Of course, some people will like this more than others! It's dense and firm-fleshed, without a lot of seeds.

We found it a very good producer, and although it came to a premature end (like every single other non-cherry tomato in the garden this year) due to septoria spot, it produced very generously compared to many of the others. The tomatoes are a very large, quite dense beefsteak type tomato - ideal for sandwiches, pizza and the like. Some of them blushed pink on the bottom as they ripened. These are a large, rangy, indeterminate plant (which is why it survived the septoria spot fairly well - all those that survived did so by out-growing it) and it will need lots of room and staking. It's a bit of a late starter, at 85 days. It is said to be crack and drought resistant, and indeed I would say so. We had a very trying year for tomatoes, with a wet, cold June followed by a hot, dry July and and hot-mostly-dry-but-intermittently-quite-wet August. In other words, the exact weather to make tomatoes crack and many of them did. Not Great White. It may have some tendency to Blossom End Rot, but we had no problems with it.

Snow White Cherry

Unlike Great White, I can't find a lot of information about the history of Snow White. Tatiana briefly describes it as having been bred by Joe Bratka of New Jersey, who is a very well known amateur breeder of tomatoes, and who is also known for having introduced some heirloom tomatoes that had been in his family for a long time. So again, it's quite a recent tomato but as an unusual open-pollinated variety it tends to make the rounds with the heirlooms. It should be ready in 65 days, so a fair bit quicker than Great White (but that's usually the case with cherry tomatoes).

At any rate, we picked this to grow because like Great White, it's widely reckoned to be the best of the white cherry tomatoes. We certainly liked the flavour very much. Like Great White it's sweet and mild without being bland. Everyone who has tried it this summer has liked it very much. Most cherry tomato plants make up for their small fruit by growing huge, rangy vines and producing lots of tomatoes, and that was the pattern with Snow White as well. Good staking or trellising is vital! It had the septoria spot as badly as anything else, but like the rest of the cherry tomatoes it has continued to grow new leaves as fast as the septoria destroyed the old ones, and to produce plenty of fruit.

I've seen it described as crack-resistant, which is to laugh. I'd have to say that's the one flaw - it cracks like peanuts at an elephants' party. It was quite a lot of effort to find a handful of uncracked tomatoes for the photo. Like I said, we had the ideal weather for cracking tomatoes, but I also have to say that given the opportunity to crack, it took it. This has been a problem in general with the cherry tomatoes this year, but some have done much better. Ildi, for instance, and Black Cherry. Nevertheless, I'd be inclined to grow this again. We've been drying a lot of them. We'll see what we think of that.

Beans & Cabbage with Paneer

2011-09-12T08:43:00.000-04:00

When we dropped Mr. Ferdzy's Aunt off at the airport lat week, we took advantage of the fact that we were surrounded by what must be one of Canada's largest Sikh communities to do a little shopping for items not found in our sleepy little community. In short, we got some paneer!

The great thing about paneer is that it can be fried, and gets soft and melty but holds together. (Fried cheese! Two of my favourite things, together!) It was delicious with some beans and cabbage from the garden. We didn't put in too much paneer, as this was a side dish for us, but you could use more and it would make an excellent main dish.

2 to 4 servings
25 minutes - 10 minutes prep time

1 teaspoon fennel seed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon rubbed basil
pinch of cayenne

2 cups chopped green beans
3 cups chopped cabbage
1 or 2 teaspoons very finely minced fresh ginger
100 grams (1/4 pound) paneer
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil

Grind the fennel seed and mix the seasonings in a small bowl. Set them aside.

Wash, trim and chop the beans, and trim and chop the cabbage. Peel and mince the ginger. Cut the paneer into 1 cm or slightly larger dice.

Heat the oil in a medium sized skillet. Add the beans, along with several tablespoons of water - watch out, it is likely to spatter - and cook for two or three minutes, stirring frequently, until the water is evaporated. Add the cabbage and another tablespoon or so of water, and again cook, stirring frequently, until the water is evaporated. Add the ginger, paneer and seasonings, and continue to cook for 3 or 4 more minutes, until the vegetables are soft and browned in spots, and the much of the cheese is also browned.

Last year at this time I made Chile Garlic Sauce and Monster Zucchini Slaw. The Chile Garlic sauce, by the way, was hot but not as hot as I had expected, considering the quantity of cayenne chiles that went into it. Something about the canning process mellows them considerably. Also, I am working on the last jar of it - time to make some more!

Miso Broiled Vegetables Including a Giant Puffball!

2011-09-09T08:56:00.004-04:00

Oh, la LA! Mr. Ferdzy has the knack. Here's his latest - an enormous puffball, over a foot in diameter. Completely clean, fresh and edible too, which is rare at this size. It was found in the woods at the back of our property. Perspective makes it look smaller than it really was - in reality, the ends of the puffball protruded beyond the ruler on both sides.

So what to do with this fabulous find? The first thing we did was divide it up and give some away, as there was no way we could eat the whole thing. We kept one quarter of it, and then I thought to weigh it. The quarter weighed 750 grams so the whole thing must have been around 3 kilos! WOW!

So, what to do with it? We broiled a bit of it with other vegetables and smeared them with a miso paste. Some may go into spaghetti sauce. The guy who was here finishing the floor, and who had already expressed an interest in foraged foods, got a chunk of it too. He recommends garlic and butter, or cooking it with a little red wine, or even with a little mustard and maple syrup. Interesting ideas!

Anyway, the miso paste:

Makes enough for 8 to 16 large vegetables slices (1/3 cup)
5 minutes to make the paste; 15 to 20 minutes to broil the veg

Make the Miso Paste:

2 tablespoons miso
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Put all the ingredients into a small bowl, and mix well, until the miso in particular is thoroughly blended. It will still be a little lumpy, but that's fine.

Broil the Vegetables:

zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, squash, or peppers
mild vegetable oil

Wash the vegetables (not the mushrooms) and trim and slice them as appropriate into slices about 1 cm thick. Preheat the broiler.

Brush the vegetable slices with the vegetable oil on both sides, and lay them on a shallow baking tray. Broil for 4 to 7 minutes per side, until slightly browned and bubbly,

Brush the vegetables with the miso paste, and return them to the oven for another 4 minutes or so, until the miso paste is bubbly and slightly crisped in spots.

Last year at this time I made Vegetable Pie with Cornbread Topping, and CLT sandwiches.

Late Summer Garden

2011-09-08T07:32:00.004-04:00

Oh, hello.

Yes, I'm still here. Still not cooking much. The garden has taken up a lot of time, or rather, dealing with all the vegetables being pulled out of the garden has taken a lot of time. Vegetables to freeze, tomatoes to can, some meals made up and frozen. Dry beans to be shelled, pickles to make. Every day, we need to get at least one preservation project going.

The year is moving on - by late afternoon the shadows are getting long. No more working in the garden for several hours after dinner, unless you want to be eaten alive by mosquitos.

We spent a lot of August running around visiting people and having them visit us, not to mention working on other projects, and the garden got a bit out of hand. In particular, I have not kept up with keeping the grass cut, or the weeds pulled. Ugh.

The potatoes planted in the experimental bed have not really started dying down yet. They were planted a bit later than the others, also they did not really get to grow right away because we kept piling more soil on them. They are just starting to look a little less lush than they did, although they have made the paths around them pretty impassable given how much they have flopped.

Still, it hasn't all gone to rack and ruin. We have pulled the garlic (quite some time ago) and the carrots, and have planted radishes, beets and turnips in their place. A few of the potatoes have been dug, although most of the potatoes in the regular beds are still just dying down. We're starting to put in spinach and other greens for overwintering under hoophouses.

Tomatoes have been producing a reasonable, but not spectacular amount this year. That's because in spite of good growing conditions (mostly) they all have a bad case of septoria spot, a fungal disease. You can see all the dead and dying leaves working their way up this row of Black Cherry tomatoes.

Fortunately, the peppers seem very healthy this year - no sign of last years' virus - and are producing reasonably well. The melons, behind them, have produced a record (for us!) number of melons. Unfortunately, we are having some trouble with peppers, tomatoes and melons all being very late this year. July and August were excellent months for these plants, so the trouble must be traced back to June, which - wasn't. June was very cold and rainy, and they never completely caught up, I guess. That's a lesson. Next year, if June is cold, we must keep these plants covered with hoop-houses.

The cucumbers and summer squash are now coated in powdery mildew, another fungal disease but pretty much par for the course by this time of year. It seems particularly bad this year though. On the other hand, both the cukes and the zukes have produced enough that we don't mind them slowing down a bit too much.

Our new trellis design, about which I was expressing some doubts this spring, has turned out to work mostly pretty well. We need to adjust exactly where we plant the vegetables to be trellised, and get the trellises in early and the plants started up them right away for better results, but the basic idea is sound and worked.

Soy beans, almost ready to pick, in the foreground. They have some sort of caterpiller eating the leaves, as do all the beans pretty well. Fortunately, while the caterpillers are large, they are not terribly numerous and are more amusing than troublesome. I do wonder, if I allow them to stay, if I will be saying the same thing next year. But I do like to take a live and let live attitude if I can. I suppose I should look them up and see if I can find out what they are.

We planted a second set of peas and snow peas, and they are growing okay, in spite of weeds and encroaching uncut grass. It's really hard to get motivated to get the grass cut once it gets this long. I need to use a weed-whacker to get into the paths, and the batteries are getting old. I barely get around one bed with 2 batteries, and at that rate it seems hopeless to ever catch up. Still, if I want any peas this fall I need to find a little motivation.

Pole beans are still going strong, in spite of their problems with bean yellow mosaic virus. The Blue Lake, Purple Peacock, Trionfo Violetto and Grandma Nellie's beans have all done better than Fortex as time has gone on. Another reason not to grow Fortex next year.

We have probably picked at least 6 bushels of beans this year. Next year, we are going to grow far fewer beans. FAR fewer.

Still, the alley between the 2 beds of pole beans was one of my favourite places to spend time this summer. Good thing! I spent a lot of time there, picking beans, and it isn't over yet!

Gone Tomato Pickin'

2011-08-29T08:18:00.002-04:00

Not too much will get posted this week. Mr. Ferdzy's Aunt is here from San Francisco, which means I won't do much cooking because she didn't really come to visit us, she came to visit our fresh tomatoes, which need more heat to grow than San Francisco can provide, so she doesn't otherwise get them. Let's just say the timing of this visit was very carefully planned.

Tomatoes with cottage cheese, tomatoes with bread and mayonnaise, tomatoes with salt. Leftover tomato slices eaten over the kitchen sink. I think she's eaten a cob of corn, a few potatoes and some of the green beans. There was a little chard at dinner. She's crazy for wild blueberries, and raves about Ontario peaches. But these are just distractions until I can haul in another ripe tomato from the garden. I've tried to tempt her with some melon, but she got mesmerized by a tomato instead, so maybe tomorrow.

All I can say is this is a great week to not do much cooking, but to go off and eat great big piles of fresh raw or lightly cooked Ontario vegetables and fruit. I suggest you do it too. See you next week.

p.s. Tomatoes in the picture are Persimmon (top left), Djena Lee (toppish right), Banana Legs (long yellow, slightly lower right), Great White (the mid-sized yellow at middle left; a small specimen) and a handful of Jaune Flammé (scattered around the lower left).

Gnadenfeld Melons

2011-08-26T07:56:00.003-04:00

We've only been growing melons for a couple of years, but we've been finding them a challenge. Most of them take a long time to ripen, and our season is just not quite long enough. We are in a micro-climate that gives us plenty of frost-free days, but that's not enough. Melons need heat. That's why I was so excited to read this description in the Heritage Harvest website:

"I am very pleased to be able to offer this excellent variety to my customers! This melon has been grown in Gnadenfeld, Manitoba for generations and is named after its place of origin. One of the earliest, most productive and sweetest melons that I have ever tasted! I cannot say enough about this excellent find. The small melons have deep orange fragrant flesh and are produced in abundance. A must for short season areas. (60-65 days) RARE."

So we duly got some seed from Heritage Harvest*, and planted it, and Lo! It germinated! Which has been something of a problem for us with melon seed. It's often pretty iffy. We planted out our little seedlings in their peat pots (melons don't like to have their roots disturbed) into good compost-enriched soil when the weather warranted it. Weeded a bit; watered a bit. Mulched with grass clippings. And for the last couple weeks we've been eating MELONS! Lots of melons! Delicious, ripe, perfumey melons! It's amazing.

In addition to being trouble-free, fine-tasting melons, it's easy to tell when they are ripe, which is not always the case with melons either. The smooth skin under the bumpy melon veins turns from beige to light greeny-yellow. You can smell them, too.

Unfortunately we are not the only ones who can smell them. Our two plants produced 8 or 9 melons thus far (I don't think there will be many, if any, more) but 2 of them got eaten, probably by voles. We have had to set up a trapline by the sole remaining melon, and I check it daily. This is war! I'm not sharing my melons. Well, okay, I am, but I really don't want to.

Next year? We will plant more. I will probably start some a little earlier, under hoop houses. A lot of people plant melons through black plastic, although we've always been a bit more laissez-faire than that. These are so quick to ripen that I'm not sure that's really necessary, although it probably doesn't hurt either.

Next year we will probably also trellis the melons. They did fine just lying on the ground (protected a little by that grass-clipping mulch) but hopefully it will take the voles a little longer to find them if they are up in the air. These are small enough melons that I think they will trellis quite well. I'd say one melon is generally about 4 servings. I suspect their size is the trade-off from being so early and so sweet - something had to give. Size is fine with me; it's actually an excellent size for a two-person household.

*My impression is that no-one else has this melon. Sorry to be flogging something so obscure, but really, I've never had such success with melons and I just have to recommend them.

Balsamic Beans

2011-08-25T09:23:00.002-04:00

Oh dear, I feel so bad. Beans again. But the garden is still churning them out, and I still have to find something to do with them. Next year, much fewer beans! Still liked this though.

4 servings
20 minutes prep time - plus cooling time

500 grams (1 pound) green or wax beans
1 small shallot
1 clove of garlic
3 tablespoons sunflower seed oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
fresh black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons finely minced parsley

Wash, trim and slice the beans, and cook them in boiling water for 5 minutes.

While the beans cook, peel and mince the garlic and shallot. Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a small skillet, and sauté the shallot for just a minute, then add the garlic and sauté for a minute more. Add the vineger, sugar and salt, and let boil up.

Drain the beans and put them in a bowl. Pour the boiling mixture over them, and add the remainder of the oil. Mix well. Let cool to room temperature, then add the parsley, washed and finely minced.

Last year at this time I made Pear Jelly with Blueberries.

Scrambled Eggs with Tomatillos

2011-08-23T07:53:00.003-04:00

We tried to grow tomatillos last year but we failed. A shocking statement, I know. Tomatillos are essentially weeds. However, I am sure that the virus we had in our pepper bed right next to them affected them badly, even though they didn't show the characteristic twisted leaves of the peppers. They just completely failed to thrive.

It's a completely different story this year. We planted 4 tomatillo plants, and they are currently loaded with fruit and we are up to our eyeballs in tomatillos. Good thing they keep quite well, as I will need some time to figure out what to do with them all.

In the meantime, this was a quick, easy and tasty thing to make with them. I didn't actually cook the eggs and vegetables separately, but next time I will take the few moments needed to do that. The eggs come out much more attractive that way.

2 to 3 servings
20 minutes prep time

6 extra-large eggs
salt & pepper
1/4 red pepper
2 cups chopped tomatillos (8 to 16)
1 or 2 green onions
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil, or a bit more

Break the eggs into a bowl, and beat with a fork. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Wash, destem and deseed the pepper, and chop it into smallish pieces. Remove the husks from the tomatillos, and cut out the stem. Cut them into slices, then chop the slices slightly. Wash, trim and chop the green onion. Peel and mince the garlic.

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the tomatillos and red pepper, and sauté for 4 or minutes, until noticeably softened. Add the onion, and cook for a minute or so more. Add the garlic, and cook for just another minute. Remove the vegetables from the pan, making sure it is fairly clean.

It may be necessary to add a little more oil. Reduce the heat to medium and pour in the beaten eggs. Cook until just set, stirring to break them up and prevent them from browning. When they are almost done, add the vegetables back in, and mix gently. Serve as soon as the vegetables are heated through.

Last year at this time I made Cabbage & Cheese Curds with Tomato & Tamari and also a Bacon-Cilantro -Tomato Sandwich.

Strawberry - Banana Sorbet

2011-08-22T08:08:00.004-04:00

I've made versions of this simple, all-fruit sorbet before, with raspberries and peaches and with sour cherries and apricots. You can add a little sugar if you feel it needs it, but really just the fruit is usually sweet enough by itself.

Strawberries are not really in season right now, but maybe you froze some earlier, or if not, maybe you will be lucky and find some of the day-neutral strawberries that continue to produce through the summer at a farmers market.

6 to 8 servings
15 minutes prep time, plus time to freeze

1 quart (4 cups) strawberries
2 large bananas

Wash and hull the strawberries, and spread them on a tray to freeze. Freeze until solidly frozen.

The bananas should be nicely ripe. They can be frozen whole, with the peels on, or peeled and frozen.

Once the fruit is frozen, let it sit out of the freezer for 10 minutes (I know, I know) then put it into a food processor. Obviously, if you left the peel on the bananas they should be peeled first. Cut off the ends, and cut a slit from end to end. It should come off fairly easily. At any rate, cut the bananas into chunks before putting them in the food processor.

Process the fruit until very smoothly blended, probably about 5 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides regularly.

That's it! Serve at once, or put the sorbet into a container to return to the freezer. If it is left in the freezer for any length of time, it will likely need to be tempered in the fridge for 10 or 15 minutes before serving.

Last year at this time I made Pizza-Style Zucchini and Chocolate Icebox Cake with Raspberries and ranted about the quality of whipping cream nowadays.

Grandma Nellie's Yellow Mushroom Beans & Wood's Early (Prolific) Scallop Squash

2011-08-19T07:34:00.003-04:00

Here are two very unusual vegetables, and an advertisement for growing your own. You are very unlikely to find these for sale!

Grandma Nellie's Yellow Mushroom Beans:

Grandma Nellie's Yellow Mushroom Beans (hereinafter refered to as "Grandma Nellie's") were brought to Saskatchewan from Russia in the early 20th century. In 1952, seeds were given to Nellie Chernoff, who grew them until 1988, when her granddaughter took over growing them. (information is from Heritage Harvest). I've been seeing them listed around a few places in the last couple of years and they sounded intriguing enough to try.

These are a pole bean, and like all our other pole beans they have grown long and tall, and produced like billy-o. They are the only pole bean where we are NOT crying, "Hold! Enough!", but that is only because we didn't get a lot of seeds to plant. They are just as prolific as any of our pole beans. They are also very popular around here, and why wouldn't they be? They remain tender until they are quite large, they are an attractive shade of yellow with green spots glowing through, even more so when cooked, and finally they really and truly have a flavour reminiscent of both beans and mushrooms! They're delicious!

Like all pole beans, Grandma Nellie's must be planted once the soil warms up towards the end of May or early June and they need good support. They begin to produce in about 75 days. After that you just pick, and pick and pick... until frost, probably, although they do seem to produce beans in waves every few days.

They've been pretty tolerant of the yellow bean mosaic virus we've had in the garden this year, although they are starting to show a few signs of being stressed by it. They aren't the best for resistance to it, but they are not the worst either. We can't complain. They've produced a lot of truly unique and wonderful beans. We will grow them again next year for sure.

Wood's Early (Prolific) Pattypan or Scallop Squash:

There are a fair number of pattypan squash around, but many of the ones for sale now are hybrids. I don't know why; none have been quite as good as this one, in my opinion. Wood's Early, or Prolific, as I've also seen it listed, was introduced in 1899 by T. W. Woods & Sons of Richmond, Virginia.

This has been a great squash for us. I've seen this one listed as both Wood's Early and Wood's Prolific, but whatever you want to call it, it's as easy and trouble-free as any other summer squash and starts producing in about 50 days.

These squash are best fairly young and tender, but we've been letting them get up to 4" or 5" across, and they've still been delicate and not seedy. They have a lovely mild flavour, and excellent texture. They are very attractive, with their space-ship shape and light greeny-white colour. Keep them picked, and they should keep going until frost.

They do need to be cut with scissors. The bushes are a little prickly, and the shape makes them not too easy to get at. Mind you, the same can be said about zucchini in general.

Cocoa Zucchini Loaf

2011-08-17T07:47:00.001-04:00

Yes, it's zucchini season. Yes, we are getting more than we can eat. Yes, we are trying our best to use them up. So yes, I guess this was inevitable. It's a classic thing to do with too many zucchini after all.

Most recipes for Zucchini Loaf call for too much sugar and not enough zucchini. I have attempted to fix that little problem. Actually, I think the loaf could take even more zucchini than I used. I will have to try it again to see... such a pity.

2 loaves
1 hour 20 minutes - 20 minutes prep time

2/3 cup mild vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups grated zucchini

3 cups soft whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa

Butter 2 standard loaf pans, or line them with parchment paper, and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a good-sized mixing bowl, mix together the oil and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla extract. Grate the zucchini and set it aside.

Measure the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa, and sift them into the bowl with the sugar and eggs. Add the zucchini, and mix just until well blended.

Divide the batter evenly between the 2 prepared loaf pans. Bake for about 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaves comes out clean.

Last year at this time I made Gazpacho... with zucchini.

Envol Potatoes

2011-08-16T07:43:00.000-04:00

When we visited Pinehaven Farm last fall, we didn't take much notice of this potato. John Wood didn't mention them and we didn't ask about them. It wasn't until we were making up a list of potatoes to grow this year that we thought we ought to have an early one. This was the earliest on his list, so we asked for it.

Envol is a recent potato, bred by Les Buissons Research Centre in Quebec in 1987, and registered in 1999. I'm looking at the local white potatoes available in the grocery store right now though, and I'm pretty sure they're Envol. They appeared right around the time we dug ours. It seems to have become very popular very quickly.

This is an absolutely typical, even archtypical potato; the tubers varied in size but many of them were a nice large size, with very white flesh with a light brown skin, a dry, floury texture and classic potato flavour when cooked. Eyes are shallow, making them smooth and easy to peel, although the skins are thin and unobtrusive. I've been leaving them on.

You're going to see this potato around a lot because of its agricultural qualities as much as its culinary qualities. It's one of the earliest potatoes I've seen, ready in 70 days from planting. We planted about 2 pounds and harvested 18 pounds; not bad at all given how early it was. Envol is supposed to store very well. It's unlikely we'll have any to store though, because we are enjoying them very much.

It sounds like Envol is The Almost Perfect Potato, but alas, it seems that its disease-resistance is average to poor. However, it's worth noting that we have a few Colorado potato beetles in the garden this year, but they didn't get near Envol because they were harvested before the beetles even showed up. That's one way to beat them! By planting Envol early you can avoid many of the problems with disease which don't really tend to pile up until later in the summer.

We actually dug our Envol on day 69 from planting. For about a week it was clear that the plants were dying down, and once they started to go they went fairly quickly. We could have left them for another week or two, I suppose. One thing to note about Envol is that it was bred in a fairly cool northern climate. That has its advantages for us Canadians, but it is also not too tolerant to extreme heat and drought. We kept ours well watered and they did fine, but it is undoubtedly important to do that during periods of drought, otherwise they may die down prematurely leaving a smaller crop.

Eggplant, Potato, Bean & Pepper Stir-Fry

2011-08-15T08:00:00.003-04:00

Okay, the green beans are slowing down; really, they are. And other things are producing too. Our first eggplants, for instance!

This was inspired by some of the dishes a Malaysian-Chinese room-mate of mine used to make. He used potatoes more as a vegetable, while I had always used them as a starch. He would have served something like this with rice for sure, although I served it as-is with some pan-fried fish on the side. Every single veggie is from our garden, which is always a thrill when that happens.

This isn't exactly a stir-fry since it doesn't happen very quickly, but I don't know what you would call it. Close enough for me.

4 servings
40 minutes prep time

Prepare the Veggies:
450 grams (1 pound) potatoes
250 grams ( 1/2 pound) green beans
250 grams (1/2 pound or 2 large) long Chinese eggplants
1 large onion
1 large red pepper

Wash the potatoes and cut them into chunks. Put them in a pot with water to cover, and bring them to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile wash, trim and chop the beans. Wash and trim the eggplants, and cut them into 1 cm wide slices. Cut the slices in half if they are large. Peel and chop the onion coarsely. Wash, trim, deseed and chop the red pepper into bite-sized pieces.

When the potatoes have boiled for 10 minutes, put the green beans in a colander, and drain the water from the potatoes over them to blanch them, but keep the potatoes in the pot so they are separate from each other. Rinse them both in cold water, and drain again.

Make the Sauce:
1 tablespoon peeled, minced ginger
4-5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

2 teaspoons arrowroot or corn starch
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablepsoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Sucanat or dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

The ginger and garlic don't exactly go into the sauce; peel them and mince them and set them aside.

Mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl.

Finish the Dish:
3 to 4 tablespoons mild vegetable oil

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a very large skillet. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minute until they are lightly browned.

Add another tablespoon of oil, and the eggplants. Cook, stirring frequently, for another 5 minutes.

Add the onions, pepper, and green beans and a little more oil if needed, and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the ginger and garlic, stir in well then add the sauce ingredients, still stirring. As soon as the sauce thickens - in moments - remove from the heat and serve.

Last year at this time I made Peach Jelly with Mint.

Bean Soup

2011-08-12T07:53:00.003-04:00

Mr Ferdzy: "Waiter, what is this?"
Waiter: "It's Bean Soup, sir."
Mr. Ferdzy: "I don't care what it's been, what is it now?"

A thigh-slapper from the Pleistocene

So, anyway, we had all these beans. (You may have noticed.) Fortunately, it has gotten a little cooler and they seem to be slowing down some. Meanwhile, I made soup, and lots of it. Feel free to cut this in half if you are not quite so awash in beans, and don't need to feed an army.

At this time of year you could use fresh herbs - savory would be good, but nothing wrong with the basil if you had it. I did not use green onions, as such, but the large green top from a fresh garden onion. If you like, you could chop and sauté a little garlic to be added to the soup when it is puréed.

8 to 12 servings
1 hour prep time

8 cups chicken stock
2 medium-large potatoes
8 cups chopped green beans
2 large patty pan squash (or medium zucchini)
4 green onions
2 teaspoons rubbed basil
salt & pepper to taste

Put the chicken stock into a large soup pot. Scrub the potatoes, and cut them in chunks, and add them to the broth. Turn it on to cook.

Wash, trim and chop the beans. Add them to the stock when the potatoes are half cooked, and cook for another 15 minutes or so. At about the 10 minute mark, add the squash or zucchini, washed and cut in large slices. Wash and chop the green onions, and add them at about the 5 minute mark.

When all the vegetables are tender, purée the soup in blender or food processor until fairly smooth. Season with the basil, and salt and pepper to taste.

If the soup has cooled, reheat to serve.

Fruit Streusel Cake

2011-08-11T08:00:00.004-04:00

I have made this cake a couple of times this month and it has been a big hit. It's a little understated, yet somehow very luxurious. Beautiful fresh summer fruit helps!

I've made it with peaches, as shown, but I think it's even better with blueberries. It would work with apricots, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, pears, plums, or apples. Cranberries? I might toss them with a little sugar first, as I would rhubarb, but they would work too, I'm sure. Very versatile! Very yummy!

If you want to use soft whole wheat flour in this, you can. I used approximately half whole wheat flour and half unbleached flour. If you use whole wheat flour, you should add an extra tablespoon of it; level if you use half and rounded if you use all whole wheat.

8 to 10 servings
1 hour 45 minutes - 45 minutes prep time

Make the Streusel & Get Set Up:
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup Sucanat or dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 cups diced peaches, blueberries or other fruit

Mix the flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Work in the softened butter until it forms coarse crumbs, and all the mixture looks moistened. I find it easiest to use my fingers to do this.

Line the bottom of an 8" springform pan with parchment paper, and butter the sides. Your fruit should be peeled and chopped, or washed and set to drain, or otherwise appropriately prepared before proceeding further. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Make the Cake:
1 3/4 cups soft unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Measure the flour and add the baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter in a medium mixing bowl, and work in the sugar. Beat in (by hand) the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Mix the flour into the butter mixture to form a stiff dough. Spoon the dough into the prepared pan, and scrape out the bowl with a spatula. Spread the dough, using the spatula, evenly over the bottom of the pan right to the sides.

Spread the prepared fruit evenly over the dough. It will seem like there is as much fruit as dough; that is correct. The dough will expand and the fruit will shrink, and all will be well in the cake world. Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the top of the cake.

Bake the cake for 50 to 60 minutes, until it testes done when poked with a toothpick, i.e. said toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before springing it from the pan and serving.

Last year at this time I made Summer Succotash.

Bean & Potato Skillet

2011-08-10T07:57:00.001-04:00

This is sort of a gloopy vegetable hash, which I have made a couple of times this week already, as we have dug up our first potatoes and the beans are still churning them out to the point that we are at a loss as to what to do with them all. Next year, I think we will plant one-third as many. The pole beans are crazy compared to the bush beans.

Normally my go-to bean dish is this one, but our tomatoes are just starting to ripen, and I don't have gobs of them to throw around so I had to come up with something tomato-less. But with potatoes, which we now have in abundance.

2 to 4 servings
1 hour prep time

500 grams (1 pound) potatoes
500 grams (1 pound) green beans
1 teaspoon salt
1 large onion
2 to 3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
1 teaspoon fennel seed, ground
1 teaspoon sweet or smoked paprika
2 to 3 cloves of garlic

Wash and cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Put them in a pot with the salt, and water to cover generously. Bring to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes.

Wash and trim the beans, and cut them in bite-sized pieces. Add them to the potatoes when they have cooked for about 5 minutes, and continue cooking for a further 5 minutes (i.e. until the potatoes have boiled for 10 minutes.)

While the beans cook, peel and chop the onion fairly coarsely.

Heat the oil in a large skillet and begin gently sautéing the onion. Drain the beans and potatoes and add them to the skillet. Season with the fennel seed and paprika. Cook for about 20 minutes over medium-high heat, turning and mixing regularly, until everything is well amalgamated and slightly browned in spots. Meanwhile, peel and mince the garlic. Mix in the garlic about 5 minutes before the dish is done, then have at it.

Lemon Bread Pudding with Blueberries

2011-08-09T07:46:00.003-04:00

This past weekend Mr. Ferdzy's clan gathered for our annual "Christmas in July" - a birthday party for everyone! Mr. Ferdzy is practically the only member of his extended family who wasn't born in July or August. Too bad, he has to get his presents in the summer like everyone else.

What I'm getting at though, is that this is going to be another fairly dessert-heavy week on this blog. This is one I've posted before, but it's good enough to post again. It looks pretty different this time, doesn't it? But it's really the same thing, with a couple of key ingredients swapped out.

6 to 8 servings
1 hour 20 minutes - 20 minutes prep time

4 cups day-old bread, cut in cubes
the finely grated zest of 2 lemons

1 cup sugar
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups blueberries
the juice of 2 lemons (about 1/2 cup)
4 extra-large eggs

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Put the bread cubes in a large mixing bowl.

Put the sugar, lemon zest, milk, butter and salt in a pot and heat, stirring regularly, until the butter and sugar melt and the mixture is steaming. Pour it over the bread, and mix well. Set aside to cool.

Wash and pick over the blueberries, and drain them well. Mix into the bread and milk.

Beat the eggs, one at a time, into the pudding mixture. Spread the mixture evenly in a lightly buttered, shallow 2 quart or litre casserole dish.

Bake the pudding for 1 hour at 325°F. Serve warm or cold.

Last year at this time I made Maple-Vanilla Canned Peaches. Time to make more!

Roasted Bean & Beet Salad with Blue Cheese

2011-08-08T08:03:00.003-04:00

6 servings
1 hour 15 minutes - including 1 hour advance prep, but not cooling time

Roast the Beans and Beets
4 medium-large beets
450 grams (1 pound) green beans
1/4 cup mild vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Peel the beets and cut them into wedges. Toss them with half the oil and salt in a shallow baking tray.

Wash and trim the beans and toss them with the remainder of the oil and salt in another shallow baking tray.

Roast both beets and beans for 40 minutes to an hour, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes, until cooked and showing signs of browning. Let cool until you are about to make the salad.

Make the Dressing:
1/4 cup sunflower seed oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Whisk or shake together in a small bowl or jar.

Assemble the Salad:
1 small sweet onion (about 1 cup when chopped)
100 grams (1/4 pound) blue cheese, crumbled

Peel and chop the onion, and toss with the cooked, cooled beans and beets. Toss with the dressing and mix in the crumbled blue cheese.

Last year at this time I made Cauliflower with Tomatoes & Cilantro.

Fortex & Blue Lake Beans

2011-08-05T07:50:00.003-04:00

Here are two of the beans we grew this year. Both are new to our garden, although I have heard of Blue Lake beans for years. I remember when we got canned beans as a kid, Mom would look for Blue Lake beans as being the best. They are one of the very few vegetables ever sold by their variety name on a large scale. It's not uncommon in fruits, especially apples, but it's unusual in vegetables although potatoes sometimes get sold by variety.

These are both pole beans, and we agree with the common wisdom that they are better than bush beans. Pole beans are indeterminate (they will keep producing until frost, if not done in by drought) and the flavour is generally better. I think it's because there is a lot more plant to support the beans; they don't just rush to churn them out then die. Of course, you have to build a support of some kind for pole beans, but the trouble will be more than paid back when you go to pick them - so much easier on the knees and the back. And I have to say, one of this summers' pleasures has been standing between the two beds of pole beans, with big green leaves waving gently on either side. They are very beautiful plants. I can't say I noticed the Fortex flowers, but the Blue Lake flowers are a pretty butter yellow. We will still grow a few bush beans next year I think, but just enough to get an early crop before the later pole beans start.

Blue Lake S-7

Blue Lake is more of a set of similar varieties of bean rather than just one bean, and they have changed over the years. The first Blue Lake beans were grown in the Blue Lake region near Ukiah, California for the canning industry. As they spread out throughout the country, especially up into Oregon, they were refined to be more stringless and tender, and to have uniformly white seeds. (Earlier strains had seeds in a variety of colours.) The Ferry-Morse Seed Company did a lot of work with them, as did the Asgrow Company.

They are still available as a number of strains. You can get pole Blue Lake beans, or bush Blue Lake beans. We got the pole beans, a strain called Blue Lake S-7 from William Dam. They describe it as a vigourous, early strain for northern gardens. It produces about a week earlier than some other strains at 60 days, and tolerates cool weather as well as hot weather, although no bean will take really cold weather. They must not be planted until the soil reaches 20°C, like any other bean. They need good sturdy trellising. We have 7' trellises, and ours have reached the top, milled around for a while, and are now starting to hang back down. Don't grow them any taller though, or you won't be able to pick them!

Ours have probably produced about a bushel and a half of beans so far. We planted 400 seeds, I guess. They slowed down a lot during the end of July when it was so hot and dry. However, now that it has rained and gotten a little cooler (still hot though!) they are flowering and covered in little beans again. I won't be surprised if we get another bushel from them before they are done.

The beans themselves are thin, straight 5" or 6" beans, dark green and with a slighlty velvety texture to the skin. We have found them very flavourful, and of course they are famous for their ability to withstand canning and freezing. We have frozen quite a few of them.

We have had what I believe is bean yellow mosaic virus in the bean patch since the beans first came up this year. This causes yellow spots on the leaves, which will then turn brown and die with time. Naturally, this is not good for your bean crop. We were happy to see that the Blue Lake beans have been minimally affected, with a few dead and dying leaves near the bottom of some of the plants, but no discernable other effect.

Fortex

Fortex is a bean that came to my attention much more recently. I read a number of glowing reviews of it, so I decided it was a bean we needed to try. We got our seed from Hawthorn Farm, I believe.

In spite of the odd, industrial fabric sound of the name, it is a French variety. It sometimes gets described as an heirloom, but I believe it is a fairly recent introduction. Like Blue Lake S-7, it's a pole bean and grew to a very similar size. It's supposed to produce in 70 days, a bit later than the Blue Lake but my impression is that they both started producing at very similar times. It is, if anything, even more productive than the Blue Lake, and on top of that the beans are longer, often reaching close to a foot. They do tend to twist or curl as they grow though, and some of them have been trapped by the growing vines - the beans are that long. Like the Blue Lake, it only showed minor damage from the bean yellow mosaic virus. It also kept producing through the heat-wave better than Blue Lake did. It is said to freeze well.

So it's a better bean than Blue Lake, right? Nope.

Or at least, a modified nope. Three members of our household thought they were excellent beans. Mr. Ferdzy and I thought they were just okay. Pleasant enough, but mild verging on bland. This is actually consistent with the reviews I had read: two-thirds of the reviewers raved ecstatically, and one-third said, "Meh." You will have to try this one for yourself.