Harvest time begins

This is my favorite time as the produce begins to roll in but still before the plants start dying. Nothing like a big pile of vegies to make all the work seem worth it.

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Wow!

Wow!


Originally uploaded by chris brandow

This tomato is just shy of one pound - hardly a record setter - but it

makes my kitchen knife look like a paring knife!



Blogged from iPhone

Summer's looking good

Summer's looking good


Originally uploaded by chris brandow

This was last week. Brandywines even! The Cadillac of tomatoes whose

flavor is as good as they say, but can be finicky to grow. Even more

have set and they are getting big! Lots of caprese salad to be eaten

this summer.



Blogged from iPhone

housekeeping note

I am posting a lot less on my own garden than I would like.  This is because, in part, we have a new baby on the way, which means that I have lots of projects to complete, such as painting a three-colored striped nursery, before said offspring arrives.  The consequence is that I have not finished building the second set of beds and "dug into" planting everything yet.  Anyway, that's all coming soon, I hope.  I think that over Christmas break while waiting for the youngin' to arrive, I may have some time to move these projects forward.

Organic at all Scales

 

One of the challenges that I think will ultimately face the organic movement as it continues to grow is what to do with large-scale commodity crops.  Many would challenge the fundamental notion that there even should be such a thing, but given that cheap commodity crops are an integral part of our food system, organic does need an effective approach.  I am not implying that it doesn't.  It's just that most of the organic efforts that I am familiar with, focus on higher value vegetable crops, and to a lesser degree, milk & meat.

This article raises this question in many ways, taking it even further with the issue of Genetic Engineering to make sugar beets.  Sugar beets is a clever crop, because unlike most GE crops to date, there is no residual DNA in the final product, sugar, that can be pointed to as the immediate threat, as was the case with GE corn and wheat.  Additionally, using GE beets will result in a 40-50% decrease in use of pesticides, at least in the short term.

I would love input.  Are there organic sugar beet farmers out there?  How do they deal with weeds?  Can they intercrop, or cover crop to deal with it?

Organic at all Scales

 

One of the challenges that I think will ultimately face the organic movement as it continues to grow is what to do with large-scale commodity crops.  Many would challenge the fundamental notion that there even should be such a thing, but given that cheap commodity crops are an integral part of our food system, organic does need an effective approach.  I am not implying that it doesn't.  It's just that most of the organic efforts that I am familiar with, focus on higher value vegetable crops, and to a lesser degree, milk & meat.

This article raises this question in many ways, taking it even further with the issue of Genetic Engineering to make sugar beets.  Sugar beets is a clever crop, because unlike most GE crops to date, there is no residual DNA in the final product, sugar, that can be pointed to as the immediate threat, as was the case with GE corn and wheat.  Additionally, using GE beets will result in a 40-50% decrease in use of pesticides, at least in the short term.

I would love input.  Are there organic sugar beet farmers out there?  How do they deal with weeds?  Can they intercrop, or cover crop to deal with it?

uncomfortable

nothing to do with gardening, but I am a non-confrontational kind of guy and this picture just makes me go nuts internally.  Political leanings aside, this wasn't fun for anyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is a string of drying peppers that I picked out of the garden last week as I was cleaning up. I didn't have an immediate need for them, so I hung them on a string.

A few days later, I remembered that I am bringing ceviche to my family's Thanksgiving party. This is the appetizer that I am forever required to bring to family holidays. Success breeds not just success but demand for repeat performances! I cut three peppers off the string and used them. I will also be putting sungold cherry tomatoes that just ripened into the mix. I have some baby cilantro that did not quite make the cut.

As for drying the peppers, this is a pretty cool way to go. We have it hanging in our kitchen and it looks nice. As soon as I got them strung up, they began changing colors to red. I took a turkey "pin", straightened out the loop for stringing, used it as an oversized needle and strung up the chilies.

Toaster Oven No-Knead Bread!

If you read any food blogs, and if you are reading this blog, then you almost certainly do, then you have heard endlessly about the famous "No-Knead" bread. Heck, you have probably made a few batches yourself. I have made this bread quite a lot as well. One type of comment that seems to come up a lot, particularly on bread-focused blogs/websites is, "Why do people like this recipe so much, I've been making wet dough types of bread for years..." I have thought about this because prior to this recipe, and I can't say that I made a lot of bread.

I think that the answer is that this recipe is in the tradition of "pure" bread recipes (i.e. those consisting of water, flour, yeast & salt), yet is nearly effortless and is VERY FORGIVING. When I realized this, I thought, "Well, how forgiving is it?" So, I thought, let's try it in the Toaster oven. Because, frankly if you can make a credible rustic loaf of bread with a crackly crust and moist interior in the toaster oven, well, you have something there!

So, I found a casserole dish that could hold a recipe based on 2 cups of flour. I made a 4 cup recipe (I work approximately from this variation, which I think has even more of a nutty, bready flavor), split it in half and ran the other half as a control in the oven.  I should note that my toaster oven is the $49.99 special at Target.  No fancy convections or ceramics here!

So, here is my toaster oven running at ~400º with tin foil as a top:



and here after 30 minutes covered & 10 minutes uncovered is the loaf:



I will report this so far as a partial success. Unfortunately, I did not have instant yeast and I hadn't noticed that until my control loaf was also a little dense and "not quite right", so I will try again. But given that, this is a very auspicious sign. Smeared with butter and hot, this was bread that 90% of most people would find "fantastic".

A TOASTER OVEN!

Originally uploaded by chris brandow