This Week in the Garden and a New Recipe

This week I was gone a couple of days on a camping trip with my classroom.  I came back to find out just over two inches of rain has fallen and the plants are in a flourishing stage.  I am going to add more soil to all of my potato bags. The basil is starting to take off.  I can't wait to make the first batch of pesto.  Last night we used some of the spinach and the sage from our garden to make a wonderful sage, butter, spinach pasta dish.  This is a great dish and Naomi and I love to make it around this time of the year when the spinach is fresh.

Pasta with Sage Butter Sauce

Pasta (any Kind)

1 bunch of Spinach

2 dozen large sage leaves, coarsely chopped

1 stick of butter

1/4 cup of pine nuts

Parmesan Cheese

1. Start boiling water for the pasta once at a boil rolling or otherwise put pasta in for specified time.

2. Start boiling another pot of water and place washed spinach in a colander.  Then proceed to steam the spinach.

3.  Toast the pine nuts in a toaster oven or in the oven  at 350 until toasted

4. Melt the stick of butter in a pan and then saute the sage in the butter.

5. Combine the butter sage sauce, the steamed spinach, and the toasted pine nuts over the pasta.  

6. Lastly add the amount of Parmesan that you desire (I always desire quite a bit) and enjoy.

Pictures of the Garden Beds

Well the garden is all planted as I have previously mentioned.  Here are some pictures so you can see the garden and what has been planted.

Here are the peas, tomatoes, peppers, and basil.  The tomatoes are in the cages.  The basil is in the foreground of the picture with the peas in the very back. 

Here are two heirloom melons from Monticello.  There are six of these planted on mounds

 about eight inches high and about a foot in diameter.  We have given these bad boys the run of one of our largest raised beds.  Plenty of room for them to stretch out and grow.   

Here are the cucumbers (in the near right corner), popcorn (far right corner), broccoli (far left corner), then carrots, and spinach.  This past weekend I thinned out some of the carrots.  When carrots grow to close together they will start to fork and never develop any real bulk.  

Farmers Market Delight

Well this Saturday Naomi, my parents (who are in from Ohio for a visit), and myself ventured to the Grayslake Farmers Market.  This is a weekly event for Naomi and myself, but it was a first for my parents.  My mom remarked on the scope and size of the event and the variety of items for sale.  While there we picked up a few loafs of bread from Wild Flour Bakery and some buffalo steaks from Lester's Buffalo.  However I think the find of the week was a jar of heirloom tomato salsa made by River Valley Kitchens from a recipe made by Rick Bayless.  This salsa had a wonderful flavor and just a hint of spice that caught your taste buds in the backside of the flavor. The salsa however did not make it through the weekend as it was finished promptly the next day during lunch.  This was by far and away an exquisite find.  I will be looking for another jar next Saturday.

Later that night we  grilled the buffalo steaks and some asparagus we received in our CSA from Sandhill Organics.  With the steaks we had some sauteed mushrooms and a salad made with lettuce and turnips from the CSA and radishes from our garden.  To top off the feast we had some of the bread that we had bought from the farmers market with some garlic olive oil from the Olive Tap. 

We used a wood burning grill to grill up this tasty meal which may take a while but I do love the flavor of the wood with the meat.  It leaves a better taste than gas or charcoal grills.  However it does take the fire a bit longer to get to cooking readiness.  Of course that is just time for snaking and sitting around the fire.      

Plants in the Ground

This past Sunday Naomi and I planted all of our vegetables in our raised beds.  At this point we have 15 corn (popcorn variety), 3 cucumbers, 12 spinach, 10 broccoli, 4 pac choi, 15 onion, 15 garlic of two varieties, 6 peppers of mixed variety, 20 basil for the pesto extravaganza, 14 tomato plants, about 50 seed potatoes, 9 radishes, and 6 melons.  If this all pans out it will make for quite the harvest. 

I am excited to try some of our new plants or varieties.  Potatoes, pac choi, onions, and garlic are completely new veggies for us.  I am hoping that they pan out seeing how much work, time, and money has gone into them.  As for new varieties we have a new type of tomato which is an heirloom variety that Naomi received from her aunt.  We have these growing in an earthbox on our back porch.  We also have an heirloom variety of melons that came from Monticello and they are of the same variety that Jefferson planted in his garden.  Lastly for new varieties we have popcorn.  In the past we have grown Indian corn in order to make decorations for our home.  However this year we decided to grow a corn we could eat.  Albeit for pure fun and enjoyment.  We usually pick up our sweet corn at the farmers market later in the year.  

Well pictures to come soon and more updates.

Frost

Well NOAA issued a frost advisory for last night.  As I wake up this morning I notice that the advisory has been canceled.  However last night when I got home at 11:30 pm that was not the case, so I spent a little time moving the plantees inside.  Let that be the last cold night so I can begin putting them into the ground. 

The CSA, Pac Choi, and Egg Rolls

Well two Thursdays ago was the second week of the CSA pick up (for more about CSA's in the Chicago area and Sandhill Organics see this news article).  Last week we recieved some potatoes, green garlic, spinach, radishes and a few mixed greens.  This prompted Naomi and I to cook potatoes over our wood fire grill and lounge on the deck last Friday night. We made some garlic, chive butter for the potatoes that was quite exquisite.  This Thursday we recieved pac choi, stone ground flour, mixed greens, and a few other items.  Last night the pac choi led to the making of 25 egg rolls.  The production of these egg rolls took about an hour and the feast took another full hour.  We had to take a short break in order to catch our second wind.  (I am not as young as I used to be)  Naomi tells me that I am quite the egg roll chef, but it all seems pretty simple and when your frying something how can it not taste good.

Egg Roll Recipe

This recipe is adapted from the Smith & Hawken Gardeners' Community Cookbook which was compiled and written by Victoria Wise.

1/2 cup of Sweet and Sour

3/4 pounds of pac choi finely chopped washed and spun dry

3 Green onions finely chopped

2 large garlic cloves minced

2 tablespoons of minced fresh cilantro leaves

1/2 tablespoon of ground ginger

6 tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce

One package of Egg Roll wrappers

Vegetable Oil for deep Frying

Combine the pac choi, green onions, garlic, cilantro and ginger in a bowl then toss and mix

Add 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce to the bowl and then toss again.  Set aside

Take out the egg roll wrappers and place one on a plate in front of you.  Put one to two tablespoons of the filling in the middle of the wrapper.  Roll up the wrapper envelope style or by following the directions on the package.  Seal up the wrapper with some of the left over soy sauce to keep the wrapper from springing open.

Continue this process until all of the filling has been used or you run out of wrappers

Then in a frying pan or a wok pour oil until it is about 1 1/2 -2 inches deep

Fry egg rolls until they are golden in color.  You will have to turn them as they are cooking.  Frying of egg rolls will of course cause splattering so be careful.

When all done eat when they are hot and enjoy them

Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Plants

Last nights thunderstorms brought 1.2 inches to our area.  Soaking all of our new plants veggies and natives alike.  The gully between our house and the neighbors is once again filled with water.  The marsh marigolds must be happy.  Also, the rain overflowed our rain barrels who probably met their capacity fairly quickly.  I will have a good deal of water to use for those times when the rains just don't want to fall.  Although it is a small drop compared to the total amount of rain that fell and was then transported by the sewer system to the river.  I feel good to know that this water will make its way back into the ground and help to save us some money on our water bill.  Hmmm...think I am going to have to get one more barrel.

For a good film on how to make rain barrels your self check out this video.