Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

BC & AC... I am talking about chickens!

I I often hear newbies say:"I can't grow a garden because I have clay soil". To a seasoned gardener the problem really is that the soil is not properly "fed". Years of growing my own vegetable garden made me realize how important it is to add organic matters to the garden. So year after year I've bought compost from supply companies, fertilizers, and composted my own kitchen and garden scraps.
Longing for fresh eggs, we bought our own chickens this spring, and then it all hit me: I've got a gold mine for fertilizer! After just eight month of having the chickens, I realize that I will NOT need to buy any more compost or 16-16-16s for my garden! And the chickens practically compost everything for me, fast!
Here are some of the ins and outs that I found out about raising your own chickens...
The chicken coop:You will need some initial investment for raising chickens. You will need raccoon-proof chicken coop. My husband built a shed (12x9) for the chickens. He put a cyclone wire dog run in front of the door so the chickens have their "yard" during the day. I let them out to my garden around 3pm and they go back on their own by dark. I've seen someone re-purposed a plastic toddler playhouse for a chicken coop.
Selecting the right breed: A website I found has very good information on chicken breed (http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html). Check the reference carefully before deciding what you'd like to buy. Each breed has it's own unique characters. Go to a reputable feed store to purchase your chicks, or you may end up with more males than you have planned...not a good thing.
Roosters: Roosters are not a must in a flock, however they do keep things interesting. Our flock consists of 19 regular sized hens and 2 bantie roosters and a guinea hen. The banties are smaller chickens, about half the size of the hens. One of them is obviously a manager, he likes to keep the hens together and call them when there's food brought to the coop etc. etc... I like the bantie roosters, as they are not as rough on the hens as the big ones.
Input:Straws and chicken feeds, including oyster shells and chicken grits, kitchen and garden scraps
Out put: eggs (usually after 6 month) and mountains of fertilizer, not to mention the joy of watching your own chicken channel.
Egg production: Our 19 hens produce anywhere from 13-17 eggs per day. Plan your flock accordingly if you do not want so many eggs. Rhode Island Red (brown eggs) and White Leghorns (white eggs) are known for their egg laying abilities.
Culinary delights: Eggs make such a good cooking material. If you are concerned about the cholesterol, you can remove the yolks. But egg yolks contain lecithin, which is beneficial to reduce bad cholesterol from your body. Fresh scrambled eggs is the best! Since I have the abundance of eggs, I have the luxury of learning to make meringue cookies, lemon meringue pie, creme brulee, flan cake....and there are still more to explore!

Chickens are an integral part of gardening, not only do they produce fresh eggs for you, they make the circle of growing, eating and feeding the soil complete. It is such a life changing event that I commemorate the event as BC (Before Chickens) and AC (After Chickens).

Savoring the winter

I've got 3 giant winter squashes from the garden, each weighs approximately 25 lb. As the winter approaches, I brought them inside from the garden, kept them in a dry airy place. Now that most of the fresh veggies are gone, I am working on these giant squashes. For thanksgiving dinner this year I made a baked winter squash dish with maple syrup, sage and prosciutto. It was unusually good with both savory and sweet flavors, and a lot less calorie compared to my usual candied yam...
Here's how I made it: precook the squash in the oven (or in a microwave, you will need to cut it up)until it is just soft enough to cut into. Make squash balls using an ice cream scoop, and arrange them in a 12"x8" baking dish. Place a pan on medium heat, melt 2 table spoons of butter, add a pinch of salt, 1/2 cup of real maple syrup, 1/4 C. finely chopped prosciutto, a few finely chopped sage leaves. Pour it over the squash balls, and finish cooking in a 350F oven. (cooking time will depends on how much your squash was precooked). I am elevating this one to my Thanksgiving tradition status...

Winter vegetables

Now that the gardening season is coming to an end, gardensare looking a little spent. Nontheless, I can still find enough beets,leeks, swiss chard, carrots, kohlrabi and not to metion lush parsley in the garden. I planted giant radishes at the end of August, Radiant Giantand Red Cloak daikon radishes, they are the size of softballs now.These add tremendous flavors to our winter table.

Today I harvested some Radiant Giant Radish, Red Cloak Radish and Kohlrabi. The vegetables is juicy and sweet. I made an orange dressing to go with the salad. It was delicious! The radishes were planted in late August, after clearing out the bush beans I planted in the spring. Now they are about 5" across. I would try to plant them earlier next season, so they will be larger by now. The kohlrabi were planted in the spring. I will make an orange dressing to go with the salad. If you haven't planted a fall garden before, I hope this is enough of a reason for you to start doing so...

Caponata-What to do when you have eggplant overload

This October I visited Seattle. Naturally, I headed to Pike Place Market. At the corner of the entrance is DeLaurenti's Specialty Food and Wine. I bought a couple of sandwiches some goodies headed out to the beach to have lunch with my husband. I bought some caponata from the deli, and it was delicious. Just so happen I over-planted my eggplant this year, so I have a ton at home. I have the round Opus Eggplants and long Asian Black Dragon Eggplants. As soon as I got back from Seattle, I made my own version of caponata with ingredients on hand. Here's how I did it:
Ingredients: diced eggplants, onions, celery, roasted red peppers, capers, raisins, green olives, pinenuts, garlic, fresh basil, fresh oregano, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sugar and home made tomato sauce. Place diced eggplant in a large sauce pan, add salt and weighing down with a heavy plate. Let stand for 30 minutes. Drain the liquid from the eggplant. Saute vegetables in olive oil until they turn soft. Add all other ingredients except fresh basil leaves. Cook until all blended. Add chopped fresh basil leaves. Serve with a loaf of nice crusty bread. Caponata will keep in the fridge for 2 weeks. It tastes good cold.



(My take on capanata is: it's kind of like a sweet and sour Italian eggplant dish).

Something else eggplant

My eggplant dish turned out to be a pleasant surprise! Here's how: Slice eggplants into 1/4" thin slices, dip the eggplant slices in egg and then herb flavored bread crumbs, then pan-fry the eggplant slices, pan-fry new potato slices, layer potato and eggplant slices in a baking dish, pour home caned tomato sauce on top, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and cover with mozzarella cheese. Baked at 350 for 30 minutes, voila!

Fall Garden Inventory

October is coming and almost gone. Time to clean up and gather all the veggies at the end of their live cycle and maintaining the fall/winter harvesting veggies. Here's the list of what I have done:

1.Garlic: Planted garlic in early October. Planted them in 3-feet rows, leaving 6 in. between each garlic clove;
2. Picked all the fresh eating beans before the chilling rain that would ruin them. Beans left for harvesting seeds can still remain on the vine.
3. Harvested all the soybeans, picked all the peppers, eggplants, preserve as much as I could, giving away what I can not use...
4. Harvested all the corns (this was the second planting, sowed in July. Strip the corns off of the cob, add to corn bread, delicious!
5. Harvested all the basil leaves and dried them all before the cold rain arrived. Leaves will turn black once frosted and are no good. Parsley, on the other hand, will be fine, they are cold hardy.

Currently harvesting and eating: (Fall/Winter harvesting veggies):
1. Veggies planted in August: Cylindrical beets, Fordhook Swiss Chard, Lucallus Swiss Chard are ready to harvest. They will keep in the ground for another month or so;
2. Red Cloak Radish, Radiant Giant Radish sowed in August are about the size of softballs. Thin the rows and eating the harvested radishes;
3. Carrots planted in spring are ready to harvest and put away; carrot planted in summer are still small, they will keep growing and will be wintered over.
4. Parsley is doing great, I picked some leaves when I dried my basil leaves. They are still growing new leaves. If protected they will be good all winter.

**Other business in the garden:
1. Grapes are turning color and ready to harvest. Made grape jellies with the Concord grapes
2. Asian pears are ready to be harvested and put away for the winter.
3. This year apples did not do well, except the Fuji, which always does well.

Tomato Sauce the Easy Way-My Secret

With the tomatoes maturing all at once it sometimes can be overwhelming, no worries, this is the perfect time to pack away the most delicious tomato sauce. I learned this trick from my friend Maegan and hope it helps you too...
15 lb. assorted tomatoes from the garden, cook in a large stock pot until tbhey turn soft. Run the tomatoes through a colander to remove the seeds and skin. Put the tomato sauce (at this stage very runny) in two oval shaped crock pots (5Q?), add garlic, herbs (I use oregano and basil from my garden) and salt. Let it cook overnight. The next morning, it should cook down significantly. Pack them in clean jars, put lids on and process in hot water bath for 15 minutes. This will be the best tomato sauce you will ever eat! Great marinara sauce...

Green Bean Southern Style

Years ago my family and I visited Philadelphia. By the time we got to the city it was already dark, we decided for dinner we would order something and take it back to our hotel. My husband is a big rib lover, so we found a southern soul rib joint, a typical "hole in a wall" place. The food, was incredible! We ordered smoked ribs and chicken. For side dish I ordered some kind of bean stew with corns, tomatoes, peppers and a whole bunch other stuff. The meats were good, but what stuck to my ribs was that side dish. Now I've got abundance of green beans, corns and other veggies from the garden, I attempted to recreate the side dish I've been craving for all these years. I know it was not the same as what I had, nonetheless delicious! It's especially good serving with corn bread.
6 C. garden fresh beans, wash, trim and break into pieces;
1 large tomato, cubed;
1/2 onion, cubed;
1 small zucchini, cubed;
1 ear of corn, striped;
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic;
1/4 C. vegetable oil;
1 t. onion powder;
Ms. Dash, salt and pepper to taste.
Place beans in a pot, add enough water to cover. Bring it to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Add all other ingredients, cook until beans are tender (5-10 minutes). Serve with corn bread.

Heirloom Tomatoes: Make it easier by selecting the right varieties

To say gardening is hard work is an understatement, but there are things you can do to minimize the efforts and maximize the return.
First and foremost is the variety selection. After years of testing vegetable verities in my own garden, I know that all tomatoes, cucumbers and beans are not created equal.
Select the varieties that matures early in your area; select the varieties that are more productive for the size of the plant; next, select the varieties taste good to you. Keep in mind no matter how tasty it may be, if it doesn't mature in time, you will not taste it. If you insisting on growing these varieties, be prepared to start them early and baby sit them longer. This year, I grew an assorted heirloom tomatoes. Some I really liked and will grow again.

The winners are:
1. PICK RED:An early, determinant plant, produces large slicing tomatoes with great taste.
2. PERON:An early, indeterminant plant,produces large slicing tomatoes with great taste. Very productive.
3. SUN GOLD: An early golden cherry tomato. Indeterminate, thick foliage. Produces golden cherry tomatoes with exceptional taste, sweet and tangy. Plant tend to get big.
4. PINEAPPLE: An mid maturing large yellow tomato that is very tasty. indeterminant,lots of foliage.
5. JET STAR: A hybridized early maturing variety. Produce LARGE sized tomatoes with great taste. Indeterminant.
6. SUPER MARZANO: A great Roma type tomato,indeterminant, very productive.
7. OLD GERMAN: An mid maturing yellow-orange tomato with red stripes. Great flavor.

The ones came in second include:
1. EARLY GIRL: Very early, hard fruit. The taste resembles super market tomatoes (the best kind)
2. OREGON SPRING: Very early, determinant. Hugs the ground. Produce one wave of tomatoes and then quits. Taste is good.
3. CHEROKEE PURPLE: Mid maturing. Good flavor, soft fruit.

Ones I didn't like:
1. RED PEAR: Late, indeterminant, lots of foliage for the amount of fruit you get. Taste blend.
2. ISIS CANDY: I had high hope for this one, but it was mid mature. Somewhat soft fruit and taste plain to me. Update: 9-5-09: Isis tomato finally ripened up. It was quite sweet with very little acidity. I guess they were not ripe when I tasted them back in August. It sure takes a long time to mature, but it was worth it.

Trim away the foliage at the bottom of the tomatoes, remove suckers. This will reduce the moisture, nutrient consumption by the plant and allow air to flow through and reduce the chance of rotting.

Champoeg State Park_Oregon

I visited Champoeg State Park last week. The Pioneer kitchen garden there was fantastic. It demonstrated how gardening was done 150 years ago. It is filled with heirloom vegetables and they plant the garden in wide rows, leaving grass in between the rows. There are tomatoes, beans (both bush and pole), turnips, beets, melons, tobacco, squashes, old fashioned concord grapes and various types of flowers. It is indeed a very interesting place to visit. And, the camping facilities there is one of the best!

Almost Ratatouille-Sooo Delicious!

Today's finds from the garden: eggplants, Speedy Silver Zucchini, Yukon Gold potatoes, small onions, fresh garlic and fresh basil. Using the veggies from the garden and a few ingredients on hand, I made this delicious ratatouille.

Here's how: (Note: I replace the peppers with potatoes, as my peppers have not yet arrived;)
Slice the eggplant, zucchinis lengthwise to 1/4 slices;
Slice potatoes in thin slices;
Finely chop the onions and garlic cloves;
Cut basil leaves in thin shreds;
Heat a large skillet with olive oil on the bottom, pan fry eggplant, zucchini and potato slices until they take on some brown coloring. Remove vegetable slices from the skillet. Heat a little olive oil in the skillet, saute onion and garlic until they turn translucent. Add the basil and homemade tomato sauce (from last year, will explain how in future blog). Add the veggies previous removed from the skillet. Cook until sauce thickens a little. Add salt and pepper to taste, Stir. Garnish with freshly shredded Parmesan cheese.... enjoy!