Letting Nature Take Over
Posted on November 29, 2010 · 2 Comments
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| Squash from one volunteer plant |
This past year we had a lot of volunteer plants. The major difference between them and the ones we planted purposely is that the volunteers were a lot more prolific and produced much larger fruit. While I’ve had great luck with using the Moon Phases to plant them – better than just using frost dates alone – I’m thinking that planting seeds early and allowing them to come up when they’re ready might be a better way to go. It will require more planning (and probably more seed), but in the end it might be more productive. Since we do rotate our beds through the summer, this may work in our favor since we don’t have to worry about every spot in the garden producing all year round.
Carrot seeds I had planted at the beginning of the season never really came up, but they did start popping up at the end of summer all on their own – a full 5 months later.
Of course, not all seeds will benefit from this idea. Considering the issues we had last year with seedcorn maggots, seeds such as corn and beans can’t be planted too early and will most likely have to be started in flats.
I’ll make sure to keep you updated on how this works out for us.
Celery Root
Posted on November 28, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Celery root. Not one of the more glamorous characters on the produce aisle, surely. I mean – this is the part you DON’T eat when you grow celery for the stalks, right? Strange stringy-looking bulbs with little head-sprouts of greenery…they kind of look like those awful screaming mandrake-babies from the Harry Potter movies.
But oh MAN are they tasty.
This is one of those “how could I have gone so long without these?!” kind of vegetables. Somehow I made it nearly 3 decades without once picking up one of these alien-brain-lookin’ things, and now I feel like I have to make up for lost time.
A few weeks ago Rick and I headed out to Sacramento for a night of duck-dining. Hank Shaw (Hunter-Angler-Gardener-Cook) and Michael Tuohy (of Grange Restaurant) were battling Iron Chef-style. The secret ingredient? Duck. Hank’s got a great write-up of the evening on his blog, and I won’t go into too much detail other than to say it was a massively inspiring evening, and an honor to get to eat foodstuffs cooked by such talented chefs.
Also SO COOL to meet Hank (and Holly of Nor Cal Cazadora, who is not only a great blogger in her own right, but an amazing photographer and hunter) in person. I got all tongue-tied and fan-girlish. Yeesh.
I will say that it was the first time I’d had celery root, and was quite impressed that it could stand up so well both on its own, and as an accompaniment to an *amazing* duck breast roulade.
So as Thanksgiving was coming up, I thought I would bring a little something interesting to the table by replacing the standard mashed potatoes with a puree of celery root with butter and cream. Simple, uncomplicated flavors. But so creamy and elegant and delicious that everyone in my family (even my picky-eater brother) were impressed!
Celery Root Puree
1-2 lbs celery root, peeled and cut into pieces
1 large stock pot of water, salted (should taste like sea water)
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 c heavy whipping cream
salt and white pepper to taste
Peel and chop the celery root into manageable pieces (mine were about 1-2 inch cubes or thereabouts). You want the pieces to be mostly the same size so they will boil and become soft at the same rate. When they are very soft (fork-tender all the way to their centers), strain them out of the water and toss them into a food processor with the butter.
Whip ‘em around in the food processor until they are very smooth without any chunks. Add the heavy cream and process again until they are light and creamy. If necessary, add a bit more salt and some pepper (mine didn’t need anything other than a tiny shake of ground white pepper – the salt in the boiling water was enough).
Serve warm.
(interesting discovery: served cold, this is a lovely crostini topping!)
Getting Caught Off Guard
Posted on November 27, 2010 · 3 Comments
Our first average frost date is November 27th but generally the frosts don’t hit hard until late December and don’t really get serious until January.
Well, this year has so far been far from normal, so I’m not quite sure why we thought the status quo would continue in term of average frost dates. While spending a week freezing in Wyoming at home our citrus trees were freezing unexpectedly.
I’m really bummed out. This is the first year we’ve been able to get our orange tree – the only tree we didn’t cut down when we moved in – to fruit and it is loaded with fruit. I’m really hoping the fruit isn’t ruined. And I really hope our younger citrus trees made it through the freeze.
Max is Going Home
Posted on November 26, 2010 · 2 Comments
Max is going home. We just need to make the trip back up to Lake County and return him to his owner. He has definitely overstayed his welcome. My irritation with keeping a buck has finally peaked. I’m pretty sure Bella is pregnant since it’s been well over a month since her last heat. Since a goat’s heat cycles about ever 21 days or so, it’s pretty safe to say she’s been bred. Daisy did go back into heat a few weeks ago after her first breeding, but at this point I just don’t want to keep him longer to make sure she’s pregnant. If she’s not that’s OK. Chances are though, that she is bred this time.
I’d be more apt to keep him if he didn’t waste so much feed. He doesn’t smell all that bad. Don’t get me wrong, he does smell and I definitely don’t want to touch him without gloves, but it’s not as bad as I had been led to believe. The feed though… Before he came we were going through a flake of hay every 2 or 3 days. With him we’re going through 2 flakes every 3 days. And he’s not eating it! He’s made it a habit of pulling the bars out of the feeder with his horns and then pulls all the hay onto the ground. For those that don’t have goats, goats will not eat anything that’s touched the ground. So all of that hay goes wasted.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted on November 25, 2010 · 2 Comments
We would like to say “thank you” to all of our readers for all of your comments, advice and support. It is really starting to feel like a community and a source for reliable information! So thank you for all of your contributions. Enjoy the holiday!
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Kumquat
Posted on November 24, 2010 · 2 Comments
Meet Kumquat. She’s our new American Blue and Scooter’s sister and litter mate. She will be Lou’s mate. We still don’t have a mate for poor Scooter though. I have a sneaking suspicion that we’re going to have to increase our hutches since they are all filled now with rabbits and we don’t have any grow out pens for kits. We currently have 6 rabbits and only 5 hutches.
Share it with us!
Posted on November 22, 2010 · 2 Comments
Do you have expertise in something and want to share it with others? We are always looking for guest post submissions. We’re looking for all sort of info, from growing food in containers to your favorite canning recipe to raising urban livestock and everything in between.
Don’t have anything to write but still want to share? Tell us your story – your goals, how you got to where you are, what draws you to self sufficiency. We’ll feature you and your blog if you have one.
If you’re located in the San Francisco Bay Area or anywhere near there we’d also love to check out your set up. Not sure if you’re up to par? We would still love to see it! You will inspire others to continue their journey. We all have to start somewhere so we’d love to see where you are. We’ll then take lots of photos and feature your farm and any information you would like to share on our blog.
Still not sure if you have anything to share with us? Well, then ask us something! We LOVE answering your questions.
Email us what you’ve got at dogislandfarm (at) gmails (dot) com. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Pear-Ginger Buttermilk Scones
Posted on November 21, 2010 · 1 Comment
I love kitchen gadgets. LoveloveloveloveLOVE. The weirder and more obscure, the better. I have cabinets full of ricers, garlic slicers, mallets, weird whisks with funny bits for extra fluffy foams. I love my hand-crank pasta machine. I want an extruder.
My stand mixer? We have an understanding that makes room for the boyfriend, but otherwise are unwaveringly devoted to one-another.
(Yes, I am anthropomorphizing my appliances. Deal with it.)
So when the opportunity came up to make massive use of my roommate’s seemingly discarded apple peeler/corer/slicer, I jumped at it. I made SO MUCH FOOD. Apple butter. Pear butter. Dehydrated pear chips. Faux-membrillo (using apples and pears instead of the more traditional quince). All the peels and cores went into vats for home-made cider vinegars. But then I happened upon a few small, perfect pears I had plucked from a tiny tree at my boss’ house while we were gathering apples (which mostly went to a friend for cider-making…the rest got incorporated into the recipes above).
These pears needed a more delicate approach than just cooking them into oblivion or drying them into crispy snacks.
They were just so pretty and small and sweet – I wanted to show them off a little more. Unfortunately, my original plan (for pear-ricotta-rosemary galettes with a sourdough pate brisee crust) fell through (no sourdough starter prepped, no ricotta at the house, only 1 hour before work), and these scones happened instead.
But there are still many more pears. Galettes will have to wait for my next day off (and I will, of course, post the recipe once I have some pictures to go with it).
The scones came out fabulously – the perfect size to have one or two with tea. They were moist, with the sweet aroma of pears, but not so sweet that they wouldn’t stand up to a toasting and a slather of salted butter. Hearty and nutty from the whole wheat flour, and just a little bit tart from the buttermilk in the dough.
Pear-Ginger Buttermilk Scones
(makes 16 small squares or 8 one-serving wedges)
1 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 c unbleached white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp grated ginger (or 1/2 tsp powdered, if you don’t have fresh)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp baking powder
3 Tbsp sugar (plus more for sprinkling on top)
5 Tbsp butter, cold, cut into cubes
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
roughly 3/4 c buttermilk (plus more for brushing on top)
1/2-1 c raw pears, cut in 1/2″ cubes
Note: the secret to making delicious light, fluffy scones is to handle them as little as possible while still fully incorporating the ingredients. That said, I tend to like my scones a little more on the bready, dense, hearty side. If you like a lighter scone, cut down on the whole wheat flour and use white pastry or all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, and DON’T MOLEST YOUR DOUGH. Really. The more you manhandle it, the less delicate the resulting scones will be.
Peel and core the pears, and dice the fruit into small chunks. If you are not using the pears right away, leave them soaking in a nice bath of citrus juice and water so they do not oxidize and become unsightly. I used my handy-dandy apple peeler-corer-slicer for this bunch of pears, and then just cut the rings into bits – easy as pie. Mmmmm, pie.
Ahem.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, sift together the flours, salt, baking powder, and dry spices. Add the sugar and ginger, then the butter, using your hands (or a pastry cutter if you are squeamish) to rub the flour into the butter until the whole mass is consistently crumbly.
Toss in the pears and the vanilla, and then (gently) work in the buttermilk just until a shaggy dough forms. Depending on the moisture of the pears and what kind of flour you use, you may need a little more or less than 3/4 c to accomplish this. You can let the dough sit for a few minutes to soak up the buttermilk’s moisture for easier scone-formation in the next step, if it seems a little dry.
Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and shape it into either a rectangle, square, or circle (I like a square, as it is easy to divide into 16 pieces without too much math or planning). As you are shaping, press the dough into a solid form, but refrain from over-working. Cut the dough into individual pieces, and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet with enough space in-between that they will not touch when puffing up in the oven.
Brush your scones with more buttermilk, and sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar.
Bake at 350 degrees for about about 20 minutes, or until they are springy to the touch and just beginning to brown on top. Serve warm with a small dollop of whipped cream, a thin spreading of lemon curd or pear butter, or just eat them with no accoutrement at all.
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