Dill Pickles (Photo credit: sleepyneko)
Duskin Jaspers and I taught a ‘how to’ canning class this morning at Milagro community gardens for Home Grown New Mexico. He showed how to make and can salsa using a water bath method. I showed how to make raw tomato sauce and we both talked about making dill pickles. For those of you who didn’t make the class, here are the handouts we gave out on canning.
Selecting tomatoes and tomato recipes
Duskin’s Favorite Pickle Recipes
Here is some veggies I got yesterday! Chard, zucchini, french fingerling potatoes, carrots and beets. Yummy!
So if you still have tomato plants after the curly top virus hit many of our plants, congratulations! I had 84 tomato plants and am down to 48. Thankfully I planted more this year or I wouldn’t be at the Farmer’s Market. I’ve gotten many questions on why we don’t have many ripe tomatoes now. Lots of green ones, but few ripe ones and normally we would have LOTS of ripe tomatoes now. The reason is we had an unusually hot July with day temperatures over 90°F almost every day and the blossoms dropped back then, failing to set fruit. The number one reason for blossom drop is high temperatures over 90°F during the time blossoms would normally set in July (the number two reason is cold temperatures under 55°F). Once the temperatures dropped below 90°F in August they resumed setting tomatoes again hence the green tomatoes we are seeing now. So basically we are a month behind but should start seeing most of the tomatoes ripening. Ahh, the challenges of growing vegetables in the high deserts!
Look what I found promoting this movie! Way FUN!!
I just got a Univent automatic opener that opens and close a cold frame lid. I’ve wanted one for a long time. This will save me time running out and opening it on a warm fall day (so my veggies don’t cook) and then running back and closing it when it gets cold later in the day (so they don’t freeze). It is a temperature sensitive opener designed to open windows in greenhouses or lids on cold frames. It can be adjusted to start opening between 60-75°F. It fully opens at 86-90°F up to 18″ and fully closes at 55°F.
Here is a little info from ACF Greenhouses on them- “How do automatic vent openers work? Vent openers do not require electricity. The opener has a metal cylinder containing a mineral which expands when heated. This pushes a piston that opens the vent. As the temperature cools, the mineral shrinks and a spring closes the vent and resets the piston. The opening and closing of the vent is gradual allowing just the right amount of air flow for cooling.”
You can get them from ACF Greenhouses or I got mine from Peaceful Valley. Now all I got to do is get my fall greens in!
Today was a good day! First day back as The Tomato Lady’ at the Santa Fe Farmers market sold out. A great big thank you to all my patrons who waited for my tomatoes to ripen! Many thanks! Only a handful of tomatoes and 1 zucchini left. Behind my table are some other vendors at their tables. See you next week!
Tomorrow, Saturday, August 25, I am returning to the Santa Fe Farmers Market as ‘The Tomato Lady’. At this time I have over 15 varieties of organically grown heirloom tomatoes from luscious black tomatoes like Purple Cherokee, supersweet yellow Virginia Sweets to Italian Red Costoluto Genevese and many, many more . I have over 50 plants and 25 varieties that will ripen as we go through the season. They are beautiful. They are gorgeous! And they taste wonderful! Magnifico!
I also have Shishito peppers, Costata Romanesco zucchini and Fairy eggplants that I will sell as well. Next week I will add some sunflowers out of my sunflower forest and Emerite French filet beans. I’ll be inside the building-look for ‘The Tomato Lady’ sign above my booth. Hours are 7am-noon. Hope to see you there!
This year we have a bumber crop of apples. I mean the apple trees are so heavy with apples that some branches have broken. So I decided to make some applesauce. This is what was left in 35 gallon container after I gave most of them away and I have lots more. If you have a food mill it’s easy but you must cook the apples first.
Cut the apples into quarters. No need to peel them or seed them. Put them in a pot of water and bring it to a boil and cook them about 10-15 minutes till tender when poked with a fork. Drain hot water off and cool them with some cold water. Then using a slotted spoon, put some in the food mill.
Here is the food mill. Notice the bowl on the left where the applesauce will come out. The bowl behind it will collect the apple seeds and skins. Just push the soft apples through with the plunger while you turn the handle. The mill separates the apple sauce from the seeds and skins.
Then I added sugar and cinnamon to taste. Voila! Done!
Here are the skins and apple seeds that came out in the other bowl. These are going to the worm composting area. Nothing wasted and super easy!
I grow shallots instead of onions. Why? Because shallots are $4.99/pound and onions are cheap. Besides they taste wonderful sautéed in any dish. This season I grew Dutch shallot bulbs that I got from Payne’s nurseries here in Santa Fe. I like them a lot as they are not tiny like some other shallots are. So this weekend I picked all the shallots that I started last October-November. I got a ton! Well not quite, but a lot! Here is a picture of them ‘curing’. Curing shallots is about properly drying them so they last longer in storage for winter. After you pick them you need to let them dry out completely before cutting off the stems which takes about 3 weeks. Then cut off the stems when they are dry, put them in a mesh bag and put in a cool dark place. Where do I get mesh bags? Trader Joes puts their lemons and onions in mesh bags and I save them to use for my shallots and garlic that I grow.
Woo Hoo! FINALLY we got some decent rain here. Haven’t had ANY rain since early July and the soil is so parched. Now if we only get another 30 days of this we might get rid of our terrible drought. Tomorrow I’m gonna turn off the drip system to the vegetable patch!
Here is the first caprese salad of 2012! Fantastic! Yellow, orange and black tomatoes with mozzarella, basil and olives drizzled with an 18 yr old balsamic vinaigrette! Been waiting for this since last November! Need I say more?
Excerpt taken from HomeGrownNewMexico.org:
We look forward to seeing you on our Second Annual Kitchen Garden & Coop Tour on Sunday, July 29th from 9am-2pm. This event is presented by Home Grown New Mexico and Edible Santa Fe.
The tour is self-paced. Guests will go to the homes in any order that they select with a wrist band to identify them. The homeowners will be the main tour guides, but also have help from the Master Gardeners and volunteers from each location to review edible gardens, chickens, bees and any other self-sustaining items such as solar, water catchment and more. Cold drinks will be available at each location sponsored by Whole Foods. Revolution Bakery and Joe’s Dining have also sponsored the event.
For questions contact homegrownnewmexico@gmail.com or 473-1403.
Click Here to Download Map for Tour– Note Exit 62 is closed on 599
Lately I’ve been into making fruit tarts with our fruit harvest. The latest are these little strawberry-rhubarb tarts. The strawberries are over so I had to buy them but the rhubarb is kicking it and I’m looking for different ways to use it. A fiend of mine, Kathleen, asked for the tart recipe so here is the basic recipe for making tarts (from Julia Childs and Jacques Pepin) I like the tart pastry from Jacques Pepin better as I thought it was flakier than Julia’s so I put it in for the pastry. Get a tart pan if you don’t have one. I have both a big tart pan and little tart pans for individual servings.
TART PASTRY (Jacques Pepin)
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
1 1/3 sticks unsalted butter (5 1/3 oz)
3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1 egg yolk
1-2 tablespoons water
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, butter and sugar and mix till butter is crumbly like the size of peas using a pastry blender or food processor. Don’t overblend. You don’t want it completely smooth as the butter pieces gives it it’s flakiness. In a small bowl, mix together egg yolk and water and add to flour mixture. Knead lightly until dough is smooth-do not over knead or dough will be tough. Form it into a ball and put in plastic wrap and refrigerate it if not ready to make. Then when ready, put it between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and roll out till about 14 inches round. Peel off one side of the wrap and put in tart pan and then peel off the other side of the plastic wrap. Then I roll my rolling pin over the edges to cut off the dough. Prick bottom and sides with a fork and put in oven. Cook from 15-20+ minutes till lightly brown. Your oven may be different so check it a lot. The recipe originally said 30 minutes but that is way too long at this altitude. If the edges get browner before the center, put some foil over the edges to keep from burning. This can be done up to 12 hours ahead. Leave out-no need to refrigerate.
CRÈME PATISSIERE (Julia Child) This filling makes a lot so you may want to cut it in half or even into fourths because you want a thin amount of filling to put the fruit on. I had a ton left over making the full recipe.
6 egg yolks
heavy saucepan
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon brandy
Separate egg yolks and blend with a wire whip in a heavy saucepan (cooks more evenly). Gradually beat in sugar until it is smooth. Add flour and whip in. GRADUALLY add hot milk stirring with the wire whip until smooth. Continue stirring CONSTANTLY with the whip till mixture is thick. As it turns lumpy whip harder till lumps are out. Lower heat and cook a few more minutes till thickened stirring CONSTANTLY. Have I said that word enough-‘constantly’? Remove from heat and stir in butter and flavoring. Put plastic wrap right on top to keep it from getting thicker at the top and refrigerate. Leftover mixture can also be frozen for later use.
ASSEMBLING THE TARTS
Several hours before serving, put a thin layer of filling on bottom of pastry. The fruit is the main star in this recipe not the filling. Put fresh fruit like apricots, berries, kiwi or strawberries neatly on top of filling. Make a glaze using apricot or currant jam. Heat up the jam and add a few drops of warm water till it is the consistency of a glaze-spoon warm glaze over fruit).
In this picture I cooked the rhubarb with lots of sugar (to taste) in saucepan and then added some cornstarch as a thickening agent. Mix about 1 tablespoon cornstarch first with a little cold water so it won’t lump up and stir in and heat till thick. You could do this with any fruit (take some of the fruit, add sugar then cook down and add cornstarch) if you want to make a glaze instead of buying jam.
Ya, ya I know this is a vegetable blog mainly focused on how to grow and harvest vegetables, giant pumpkins and some fruits. But I like to cook with the stuff I grow. Makes it interesting you know? It’s another creative outlet for me. As a child I really didn’t like vegetables but now when I cook them up in new and interesting recipes, I love them. Why else are we growing this stuff if not to eat some delicious food? I like to share the whole experience from growing, making, preserving and eating foods. I like a beautiful garden and I like beautiful food!
Nicoise Salad
Now I’m not a lover of green beans, so I keep trying out different recipes with them in it. (I use to not like beets either but I love them now. All it takes is find a recipe you like with whatever vegetable you may not be fond of). I know if I wait too long to pick beans, they will be tough and blasé so now that they are just starting to come in, I’ve picked them when they are really young and tender and I finally found a recipe with green beans in them that I like – Nicoise salad. I’ve had Nicoise salads before but I really liked the dressing on this one. And much of the ingredients came from the garden-eggs from the chickens, shallots, garlic, fresh thyme and basil for the dressing, thin vericot green beans, tomatoes, tuna from the pond (just kidding) and olives from the olive tree (yea right)! YUM! Here is the recipe (from Epicurious (from my app on the iphone!):
NICOISE SALAD
Dressing
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 ½ tablespoons minced shallots
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp anchovy paste
1 ½ teaspoons minced fresh thyme
1 ½ tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
1 cup olive oil
Wisk all of the above ingredients together then add the olive oil and wisk till emulsified.
For the salad:
Green beans cooked ‘al dente’
Small red potatoes-cooked and halved
Hard boiled eggs- peeled and quartered
Tuna steaks
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Black olives (Nicoise or Kalamata)
Beans and potatoes can be cooked ahead of time and kept at room temperature. Hard boil the eggs.
Grill the tuna steaks with just a little olive oil and sea salt and ground pepper. Sear till rare or med rare.
Cooked potatoes should be halved and tossed in a couple of tablespoons of the dressing and sit for a few minutes. Meanwhile put on the edges of a bed of lettuce, some quartered tomatoes, black olives, quartered hard boiled eggs, the dressed potatoes and just before serving, dress some cooked green beans and add them. Put the tuna steak in the middle of the salad drizzling the salad dressing sparingly or break up into pieces and put on top in the middle. Put a few capers on the tuna. Delicious.
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