Garlic fresh from the garden…now for the month-long cure. Fresh garlic is mild compared with its cured version, and tasty in its own right. Curing the garlic by hanging with stems and roots attached in a cool, dry space concentrates and intensifies its flavor. The cured garlic can be kept for many months, and cloves from the best heads can be planted in the fall for harvest the following summer.
garlic scapes
When rocambole or other hardneck garlic varieties start the flowering process, they shoot up a central stalk with a bud. If you want a good-sized bulb of garlic to form rather than the energy of the plant going into producing a flower, you need to harvest that stalk once it starts to curl around. The harvested part is called a “scape,” and it’s delicious. The scape has a mild green garlic flavor, and is great chopped fresh in salads, sauteed in butter, tossed into pasta and stir-fries. Some people like the buds fried in tempura batter like a squash blossom. You can also pickle the scapes if you’d like to
July 9, 2017
concord grape harvest
Feels good to be harvesting fresh grapes in early November. After a couple days of October snow, we’ve had mostly rain and not too cold with brief glimpses of sun in between allowing the grapes to ripen on the vine. These are from a friend’s orchard. Fresh off the vine they have that iconic “grapey” taste — delicious. I’m making Concord grape jelly. Concord Grape Jelly First I washed, de-stemmed, and ran the grapes though a juicer. My juicer left a lot of juicy-looking pulp, so I put the pulp through a manual food mill to ring out the rest of the juice. I poured the resulting juice through a cheesecloth-lined
November 4, 2016
montana chick pea stew
Last garden tomatoes of the year are going into my Montana Chick Pea Stew, inspired by the Indian classic, Chana Masala. Most of the ingredients either came from my garden or the farm of someone I know. First I sliced 10 cloves of the fermented garlic I started this summer. I warmed the fermented garlic in olive oil along with a chopped onion over low heat. To the fermented garlic/onion mix I added a tablespoon each of whole cumin seeds, crushed black pepper, sea salt, and ground cumin. Then I stirred in a minced tablespoon or so of fresh ginger and a half dozen dried cayenne chilies from last year’s garden. As those were sweating covered
October 17, 2016
good salsa from so-so tomatoes
With the early frost a couple weeks ago, I had to pick all my remaining tomatoes while they were still very green. The best way to ripen green tomatoes is keep them in a cardboard box in a cool area — basement, garage, or shop — that stays between 55F-60F degrees. Once the tomatoes just begin to turn color, bring them inside to ripen the rest of the way at room temperature — 70F-75F or so. While this will get you ripened tomatoes, they are nowhere near as good to eat sliced as those sun-ripened on the vine. They do, however, make good salsa. For this batch I peeled the ripe tomatoes and
September 29, 2016
stringing chili ristras
Seems my chili peppers are ripening late this year. Last year the chilies started turning red in late July/early August. Good news is chilies will ripen off the vine. A great way to save space while they’re ripening is to create a chili ristra. Creating a ristra is easy. Get a sewing needle and sturdy thread (some material other than cotton since cotton may weaken and break over time). You can also use a thin fishing line. Sort your chilies into small, medium, and large sizes. Thread the needle with a string of thread double the estimated length of the ristra you’d like to create, plus 6″ or so. Match the ends
August 27, 2016
fermented garlic cloves
Fermented garlic cloves are supposed to taste like a cross between roasted and raw garlic. I decided to give it a try. Beside adding flavor to dishes, fermented garlic contains all the benefits of raw garlic (antioxidants, phytonutrients, minerals, vitamins, allicin — which reportedly lowers “bad” cholesterol — among others) while also containing healthy probiotics from the fermentation process. I peeled dozens of cloves from whole garlic heads I got from one of our local organic farms. That was the hardest — or at least most time-consuming — part. The rest is easy. Sterilize 1.5 pint wide-mouth mason jars, and the same number of 1/2 pint 1/4 pint (4 oz.) mason
August 23, 2016
sauerkraut 2nd try
Last time I made sauerkraut in 2014 I covered the jar with a cloth to let it ferment. One of the dicey parts of this method is it can allow in wild spores from the air as it’s fermenting. Sometimes those create mold on top of the mix and add their own flavors. That might be a good thing, or it might make the kraut taste a little funky. It’s still fine to eat. I didn’t care for the flavor last time, though. This year I’m taking a more controlled approach. I’m starting with freshly harvested cabbage from my garden this round. I shredded the cabbage thinly like I did before, and
August 23, 2016
diy fermentation setup
Fermenting vegetables are a great way to preserve extra harvest through the winter, with lots of healthy probiotics, vitamins, and minerals. I don’t have huge quantities of any one vegetable right now, so want to be able to preserve small amounts. From what I’ve read, fermenting in mason jars using an airlock is a great small-batch option. When I checked into buying airlock mason jar fermentation lids, though, they averaged $10 per lid — which would quickly add up given the number of batches I’d like to ferment. I figured I could make them myself much less expensively. I started with six lids to see how it would go. I bought 6
August 22, 2016
preserving apricots
Apricots are in season! One of my favorite stone fruits both for eating fresh and preserving through the winter. Traditional Apricot Jam Apricot jam made the traditional way has so many uses. Chop fresh apricots into chunks. Add sugar and lemon juice to taste. You need enough sugar to create the jammy consistency, so err on the sweet side. Simmer until they’re a chunky jam consistency (don’t overcook or you’ll lose the fresh apricot essence). Put the cooked apricot mixture in mason jars, leaving 1/4″ headroom, put on the lids and rings Submerge in boiling water for 10 minutes. The resulting preserves are more runny than preserves made with added pectin. If you
August 17, 2016