latest posts – Page 6 – Planet B Gardens

roasted cauliflower soup

This roasted cauliflower soup is a tasty, relatively low-calorie, winter meal option. Planet B Gardens Roasted Cauliflower Lemon Truffle Soup Ingredients: 1 large head fresh cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets Peeled garlic cloves from 1 small head (8-10 cloves) 2 small lemons 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon 1 tablespoon olive oil 1.5-2 quarts organic stock (I used chicken stock; vegetable or seafood stock will work as well) 0.5-1 teaspoon truffle salt Plain salt and pepper to taste Optional: Chopped fresh Swiss chard (or kale, spinach, other greens you like) Optional: 2 tablespoons heavy cream (if you prefer a richer soup) Optional: Seafood or poultry of your choice, cut into large, bite-sized

December 18, 2016

winter morning

Never tire of this morning sunrise view…

best thanksgiving turkey

Traditional Thanksgiving birds are cooked and served in their bird-shaped form. It’s what us Americans are used to. Based on my experience, however, there is a better way. I learned this technique a few years ago from the Serious Eats website. Unlike so many other websites with recipes, Serious Eats takes the time to do close to scientific, comparative method tests to come up with their conclusions about the best way to cook anything. Thanksgiving turkey is no exception. This is the Serious Eats Thanksgiving turkey recipe I based my recipe on. It really does make an amazing turkey if you can let go of serving up a whole bird at the table. Our

November 23, 2016

felted clogs

Crochet is more fun than knitting in my book. However, I couldn’t find a crochet pattern I liked for felted clog slippers so I went with knitted pattern. The pattern looked wonky before I felted it, no doubt due to my novice knitting skills. To felt, I put the knit slippers into a mesh bag with a clean tennis ball. The bag and ball help the fibers rub together and tangle into felt. I put the mesh bag into my front-loading washer set to hot, and added a little Woolite. The Woolite helps the fibers slip past one another, for more uniform felting. At least that’s what I think it does.

November 21, 2016

yarn swift & ball winder

If you’re spinning your own wool or purchasing yarn in hanks—a hank is a large coil of yarn, rather than a ball or skein—investing in a yarn swift and ball winder is worthwhile. Winding balls of yarn by hand takes forever, and you don’t get that easy pull-from-the-center strand a skein offers. I got my swift and winder some time ago when I was crocheting a large winter white afghan that ended up taking 45 hanks of wool. Forty-five hanks would have been beyond tedious to wind by hand. Clamp the swift to a table or counter, place the hank coils around the swift, and raise the center knob to expand the width of the

November 19, 2016

remote hive monitor

Now that the outdoor garden is done for the season, time for more indoor projects. I decided to try my hand at building a remote beehive monitoring system from (almost) scratch. My goal is to build a system that monitors hive weight, temperature and sound levels inside the hive, bee comings and goings (via external camera), ambient temperature, and motion (in case the hive gets knocked over or otherwise disturbed). If all goes as planned, that data will get fed wirelessly to an online dashboard that keeps track of trends over time. I can also set up email or text alerts to let me know if the hive gets tipped or if something else out of

November 17, 2016

chili verde with hominy

Snow is falling here on the Montana homestead. Time for a warm, hearty meal. I had some ground, lean pork shoulder from a local farm in the freezer, plus hominy I’d made a couple weeks back. Just the ingredients to start a spicy chili verde. Chili Verde with Hominy 1.5 cups chopped onions 4-6 fermented garlic cloves, smashed and chopped (you can also use fresh garlic cloves) 1 lb. ground pork shoulder ¼ cup canola oil (if needed; if your pork has enough fat on its own, omit the oil) 4 large green jalapeños, sliced into rings (keep the seeds if you like it spicy, remove them if you prefer a

November 16, 2016

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

dark rye bread

A hearty, dark deli rye is hard to find in our neck of the woods, unless you bake it yourself. To do it right is an all-day job. Most of the time is hands-off — you just need to be around to manage the transitions. I highly recommend purchasing buckwheat honey for this recipe instead of substituting another variety. It adds an authentic malty flavor you’ll find in traditional dark deli rye bread. Dark Deli Rye Bread Recipe (PDF) Note that this bread is “dark” because the recipe uses dark rye flour. Some dark deli ryes add coloring and flavoring ingredients like instant coffee, unsweetened cocoa powder, or molasses to make the

October 24, 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