winter wonderland

contemplating whether i owe an apology to the lack of late fall posts. i don't know, if you live in the pacific northwest, you may be able to forgive me. you see, we've been hit by a cold blast, or as our lovely local newscasters like to call it, "winter storm 2008!" it's rather funny how we in the seattle area respond to snow.

but really, our home got hit with at least 14 inches at the height of the storm. it's just now beginning to melt away. just a few days before this began, i spent a couple hours in the yard, cleaning up old beds, checking in on some budding rainbow chard, and the garlic was just starting to push through the soil. we were also just about to finally pick the brussel sprouts. and then, the snowfall.

lesson learned: consider listening to the weather forecast when it could potentially have disastrous affects on the garden.

brussel sprouts just before the snow. we'll be sure to pick them sooner next year so we don't miss out. so good when parboiled and sauteed with shallots and a touch of butter.


ok, back to this big storm. now that i have a few days off, i'm finally able to share some photos and thoughts. the garden is completely covered, and i'm a bit worried about whether anything will survive...given that we didn't cover anything. we're thinking the strawberries and rosemary will pull through. there was some lettuce still going, but there's certainly no hope for that. crossing our fingers that the chard might be ok.


i took this photo before the really massive snow fall. at one point, gus' little red had was just about entirely covered. it provided a nice gauge. and yes, that is our dilapidated fence in the back. the snow really points out its flaws.

anyway. garden time is a bit dormant now, but we built five new beds to fill next planting season and are plotting out what might go where. we're also still searching for free wood chips to fill the spaces between the beds and to create some perennial planting beds in the front yard. we're a bit anti-grass, or maybe a better way to put it is pro-best use of space.

fall plantings, apple cake, and a lovely dahlia

with the weather getting much brisker and the sun not shining on us quite as often as during the summer, we've been spending a little less time in the garden. but, we managed to muster up the motivation to get out and plant some garlic and rainbow chard.
back in july, we bought several heads of garlic at the farmers market on lopez island, knowing that we'd be able to plant it in sept/oct. considering october is quickly passing, we decided it was about time to get these guys planted.

we also inherited some garlic from brian's late uncle bob's
farm in montana. it was really a special feeling to plant these in our garden - i really hope they mature and we can keep saving cloves to grow year after year. all in all, we planted 4 long rows of garlic.

on sunday, we also planted a couple rows of rainbow chard. we've been really pleased with the swiss chard we planted months ago that is still coming up after we cut it. had some yesterday with some chicken sausage, white beans, and fresh rosemary - a really delightful autumn meal.

the rainbow chard (assuming it germinates!) will provide some much needed brightness in the garden as winter approaches. we're hoping it's not too late in the season to start. with our relatively mild winters, kale, chard, and other hardy greens tend to do really well here (though this is our first time ever really testing out that theory).


all this talk about vegetables...after planting the garlic and chard, i headed back inside to make use of some apples we'd had sitting around from last week's farmers market and a friend's yard. several week's ago i saw a recipe for a raw apple cake that sounded delicious. by the way, the blog where i spotted it is just great - mixed greens.

anyway. apple cake. i love apples and they are in abundance this time of year. but one of the secret reasons i decided to test this recipe out was to further convince my dear husband that we really should purchase a couple of apple trees. i also wanted to test out our new bundt pan - something i've always been intimidated by, for some reason. perhaps because "bundt" is a funny word that is strangely difficult to pronounce.

regardless, the apple cake turned out quite well - very much like a carrot cake. i tweaked the recipe just slightly by using whole wheat pastry flour, and i made up my own cream cheese frosting by whipping it with a little powdered sugar, cinnamon, and chopped walnuts.


to round out this piecemeal post, i photographed a lovely dahlia - my favorite flower. we planted a handful of bulbs late this spring - some of which my mom gave to us from her massive stock and others we purchased at...costco. i believe this stunner is actually from the aforementioned big box. dahlias remind me of pike place and northwest summers. we'll be planting many more next year.

green tomatoes

so we put together an assembly line for fried green tomatoes. step 1: slice tomatoes, salt and pepper them, let sit for 10 minutes. then proceed to dip in the following items in the following order: milk, flour, eggs, and cornmeal. be prepared for the mess and have patience to wash your hands once you get these guys into the fry pan.

cook on each side for just a couple of minutes in a few tablespoons of oil (we used olive oil). put them on a plate with a paper towel and salt immediately. we had some sour cream and sweet chili sauce on hand (an odd combo that worked quite well). i imagine some fresh squeezed lime on top would be pretty good too.














in round two of the green tomato experiment, i ventured into the sweeter side and tested a recipe for green tomato bread (recipe below). it turned out very much like zucchini bread. don't know that you can actually taste the tomatoes, but my coworkers seemed to enjoy it.

in non-green tomato news, we went to the last MI farmers market of the inaugural season yesterday, and i got greenhouse tomato envy (i could make a really bad joke here about being green with envy, but i'll spare you...kind of):


green tomato bread
3 c flour (i used "white whole wheat" whatever that means)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c white sugar (preferably organic evaporated cane juice)
1 c brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 c veg oil (i used a light olive oil)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c finely chopped green tomatoes
1 1/2 c chopped pecans or walnuts

preheat oven to 350 degrees. grease and flour 2 loaf pans. in mixing bowl fitted with paddle attachment, sift together first 6 ingredients. add eggs, oil, and vanilla until just incorporated, then add tomatoes and nuts. (i found the batter to be a little dry at this point, so i added a little bit of milk - 1-2 T - to bring it together). pour into loaf pans. bake about 50-60 min - test w/toothpick. cool on wire rack.

tomatoes y tomatillos

finally, a new post. much to share, so let me get started!

first off, tomato production is nearly in full swing. a bit late in the season, but we'll take what we can get. shades of green, gold, orange, and red dot the bed, as evidenced by this photo.

we've been eating them right off the vine; picking bowlfuls at a time; dropping them into salads; noshing on them with fresh mozzarella and basil. mmm.
if i recall, we got about 7 different varieties of seeds, with 8 total plants making it into the bed (we planted 2 "peacevine" cherry tomatoes - already becoming a fast favorite).

"black krim" is the biggest, but we've found that there's something not quite right about it. we've had to cut around a lot of odd looking stuff (i'll have to look more into tomato diseases...). anyway, as an heirloom, it's flavor is wonderful - deep, sweet - and the flesh is a really pretty striated red/purple. this photo is a bit fuzzy, but you can see what i mean about it's rustic visual traits. another variety, "tigerella," has yet to ripen. with the weather cooling down quite a bit, i foresee some fried green tomatoes in the near future.

alongside our tomatoes are 2 tomatillo plants - yes, planted on a whim. i purchased them at the seattle tilth spring plant sale. when they started flowering, i was amazed and pleasantly happy with myself (as if i personally enabled their growth). nevertheless, they have proceeded to form their paper lantern-like skin. but, after reading up on tomatillos on wikipedia, i'm still nervous that they'll actually set fruit...only time will tell. i won't take it as a huge loss if they don't, i mean, at least they're pretty to look at. but yes, i will be very (secretly) happy if they pull through. hello salsa verde.

blackberries

luckily (or not so luckily) we consider blackberries an invasive species here in the northwest. we can't get enough of them at our house, and often freeze extras. the season is winding down, so get them while you can, in their best state - wild and free. we made some tasty ice cream with a bunch of berries we picked just a few blocks down the road.
recipe below:

1.5 pints fresh picked berries
2 cups cream
1 cup half & half
1 cup evaporated cane juice
extra blackberries to top ice cream (optional)

combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth. refrigerate for at least 1 hr. turn your ice cream maker on - let it go for 30 minutes, transfer to a freezable container. freeze overnight. eat!!

as summer slows down, it's nice to prolong it just a bit with the taste of ripe, sweet berries.

all in the family (cucurbitaceae)

technically, cucumbers are in the same family as squash, cucurbitaceae (and are therefore fruits, though i don't know that i'll be turning them into dessert anytime soon). last night, as the zucchini bread baked, i decided it was time to make pickles. yeah, it was an odd mesh of aromas in the kitchen.

like their counterparts in the garden, our cucumbers are taking off and are quite large. the recipe i found called for about two pounds and made a few jars of crunchy bread and butter pickles - my favorite. i was happy to find a recipe that used cider vinegar, because we prefer it over white vinegar - so much more flavor.

an onion or two, some sugar, salt, turmeric, and mustard seeds and then, with just a little time - pickles.

it was amazingly simple, and they tasted so much better than store-bought. we've got two strong cucumber plants going in the garden. a third is quite a bit smaller, but may still produce. i imagine we'll be eating and making more pickles in the near future, adding fresh cucumbers into salads, force-feeding ourselves, and giving some away.

courgettes continued

courgette is another name for zucchini. sounds like corvette, which makes me think of the zucchini 500 races they sometimes have for kids at local farmers markets and fairs.

another night of zucchini usage. alright, i'm not going to lie...it's been two nights in a row of experimenting with the sweeter side of squash. on tuesday, we plucked a yellow zucchini about the length of my fingertips to my elbow (though, significantly more girthy). it has since yielded nearly 8 cups of grated zucchini. so what better than to make zucchini bread, right? let me just add that wikipedia backs this up:

"...botanically speaking, the zucchini is an immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower." hmm. that was potentially too much information, but it lends credence to my baking endeavors.

made a few minor adjustments to a recipe i found online - namely, my trademark substitution of some whole wheat pastry flour for regular white flour (i know, as if it's not bad of me for already trying to jam squash into a dessert). i thought about adding in some ground flaxseeds, but withheld the urge, and instead added cocoa, chocolate chips, and dried figs to one batch; dried cherries and walnuts to another.

since we still had some of the same squash leftover, i went for it again tonight. made the chocolaty batch in the form of muffins, and topped them with a simple glaze (powdered sugar, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla).

all in all, the sweet experimentation has been positive. with a couple loaves in the freezer, we'll be able to enjoy this later in the season when the zucchini in the garden is long gone. then we might even miss it. maybe.

zucchini, again?!

that's the edited exclamatory remark i've been getting from my other half when it comes to meal times. i can't help it - the drive to utilize the remarkably large zucchini in the garden - it's like a personal challenge for how creative one can get with squash.

to date, we've grilled it in sandwiches a couple of times. tossed it and other grilled veggies in quinoa. turned it into dessert through the magic of zucchini-chocolate chip cookies. last night we experimented once again. a dinner of pasta w/homemade pesto (herbs courtesy of the lopez farmers market) and what i'm calling a cross between lasagna and eggplant parm.

inspired by another jamie oliver recipe, i layered grilled zucchini slices (uniformly made with help from a newly purchased mandolin - i can see myself using this tool quite a bit!) with some quickly homemade sauce, ricotta and pecorino romano. then topped it off with a generous amount of fresh breadcrumbs and a little more cheese.

after a few minutes under the broiler, we determined it to be an excellent use of this excessive vegetable. the end product was a nice partner to the pesto pasta. is this the last you'll see of squash? unlikely. we may test out a zucchini bread recipe tonight...stay tuned.

the lopez wave

over the weekend we spent some quality time on lopez island up in the san juans with a handful of friends. enjoyed some really beautiful sunrises and sunsets, delicious local foods, and the warm and inviting atmosphere that is lopez. we love the fact that drivers wave while going past another vehicle.

a few photos of the natural beauty and the farmers market scene:

view from the ferry, headed toward lopez
sunrise w/mt. baker
heirloom tomatoes, some the size of pumpkins!
garlic (we bought several heads to plant next month)
wood-fired pizza vendor - everything looked so fresh

hope to make our way back up to the islands in the near future. thanks, laura, for the great time!

savoring squash, part one

so we've been eating loads of squash. so much so that brian nearly requested i stop sneaking it into things. as evidenced by this photo, some of the zucchini is growing at an explosive rate. this lovely image of gus and company is from friday evening. we've since managed to eat about half of this zucchini - over the course of at least 4 meals.

but it's been fun trying to figure out what to do with the abundance. we've grilled it and made sandwiches with onions, radishes, goat cheese and rosemary. grilled some more of it to go with some fresh pasta and lamb meatballs.

and tonight, i managed to incorporate it into dinner and dessert. (no, i did not make zucchini ice cream). i'll share more in part two of this squash story.

it's getting late, and i'm getting terrible at uploading photos as i take them, so forgive me. we've been so distracted by the olympics, notably the michael phelps phenomenon...

in other news (and on a food-related note), we're headed to one of our favorite restaurants tomorrow, osteria la spiga, to celebrate our second year of married life. we're secretly hoping we don't run into any squash on the menu. (squash blossoms...maybe).

canada photos

this has nothing to do with the garden, but i did say i'd post some. a few of my photos below. see some of brian's on his website...

moraine lake sunrise, banff national park

lake o'hara cabins, yoho national park

takkakaw falls, yoho national park

peyto lake, banff national park















(below) somewhere beautiful in the lake o'hara region of yoho np (near obabin plateau)

oh canada

just back from nearly a week of camping in the beautiful canadian rockies. spent several days in banff, jasper, and yoho national parks (will try and post a photo soon!).

did not get the best nutritional intake at our campsites. meals consisted of dehydrated and processed foods. but, at nearby campsites, we were surrounded by european and canadian families cooking out of their campers and rvs. our last night in yoho, the german family next to us cooked a whole salmon over a fire, made a cold pasta salad with a bunch of fresh veggies, and roasted peaches over the fire, then served them with ice cream. we were quite jealous.

granted, brian pointed out, that you can do a lot more with a full kitchen (we were camping in a teeny tent, and our little stove broke mid-week, until we picked a new one up in banff). still, the contrast reminded me of what seems to be a major difference in the way people around the world view food and mealtimes. seeing the families really savor not just the act of eating the food, but also the preparation, was a nice gentle reminder that we should do the same.

and so, as we return to our garden and kitchen at home, we look forward to really creating meals, and spending time doing so. we're also quite excited to participate in the first ever mercer island farmers market this sunday!!

meals from the garden

the past couple weeks have inspired some culinary creativity. with only the occasional trip to the grocery store, we've primarily been using what we have in the cupboards and garden. perhaps economic downturn isn't such a bad thing...but that's another discussion. wait a sec, though, while i have you reading.

back in the day, during world wars 1 and 2, nearly 20 million americans grew their own food in what were called victory gardens - i suppose in today's rhetoric, we might call them "freedom fields" or enlist some other form of patriotic poetry. but enough with the semi-unwarranted sarcasm. i just wanted to integrate some historical context into present day political and economic discussions.

moving on to the heart of this post - cooking meals from the garden. chard, carrots, summer squash, fresh herbs, onions, and radishes have been finding their way into dinner time at the schwartzes.

last week we made a hearty vegetable soup. we had some help from the pantry on the soup - chicken stock, canned tomatoes and beans, and a potato. from the garden, we added carrots and tons of chard. one of our kitties, jackson, seemed to enjoy:
another dinner found us enjoying some roasted summer squash, carrots, and salmon alongside chard sauteed with butter and parm (they seem to make everything taste good). rounded out the meal with a bottle of washington riesling. yes, the whole bottle.
we jammed yet more chard, green and gold zucchini, italian parsley, rosemary, basil, and red onions into a frittata made with local eggs, topped with tillamook sharp cheddar and some parm. i love eggs for dinner - so easy. with all the veggies it turned into a surprisingly filling meal - with bread, of course. and the spicy crunch of some french breakfast radishes.

lastly, dessert. while none of the items in a fruit crisp we put together last night were from the garden, the peaches and nectarines were from central wa. the raspberries were from grandma doris' yard in beacon hill - she blessed us with two yogurt tubs full of them. sitting in our freezer now, we'll likely put the remainder to use in some homemade ice cream later this summer.

anyway, we love crisps. easier than pies and tarts (at least in our view), the buttery, crumbly topping is so good, they're kind of a stand by. we're growing some rhubarb and huckleberries that will probably find their way into a baking dish once they mature. we enjoyed the peach/nectarine/raspberry crisp with some vanilla ice cream in the company of our family. nephew luca managed to come up to each of us asking for more.

when it rains, it's sure to pour

thank goodness for the rain. granted, it's not so much fun to walk through in the middle of summer, but you have to admit, it's pretty darn refreshing. it clears the air, feeds the plants, and most importantly, it fills our rain barrels. (well, alright, maybe not "most importantly.")

a couple months back, we decided to invest in a pair of 55-gallon rain barrels. i'd done some research online, and the whole process seemed easy enough. you cut short your downspout, place a connector in, and guide it to rest on the rain barrel. the rain hits your roof, goes through the downspout and into the rain barrel, creating a storage place for rainwater. we bought our barrels through seattle rain barrels - essentially a guy living in madrona converting old olive barrels from greece into rain water barrels. we picked up our barrels and had a good chat with tom, an eclectic guy whom i'm sure we'll see again, as we've thought about purchasing more barrels for a couple other downspouts.

since we bought these red beauties, it's rained maybe 2 or 3 times. the first time was a thunderstorm. it took about 5 minutes for the 2 barrels to fill completely. we've gotten so much use out of that rainfall that we have barely needed to tap into the city line to water the garden. it's been great!

but then we ran into several weeks of 80 degree weather...until now, that is. yesterday's rain replenished the barrels a good amount. it's funny how you think of rain in a different light. we'd normally be praying for sunshine, but in the context of gardening, you see rain as a necessity; a nice rest from nightly watering; and a source of life.

welcome, gus!

after many months of searching, we finally found him. please welcome gus to the garden! a weekend in leavenworth led us to this little guy.

pictured here, he's standing guard over the strawberry patch. i'm sure we'll periodically move him to watch over other crops, but he looks quite content in this shot.

said to be industrious nature-lovers, gnomes believe they are responsible for the earth, therefore, they care and nurture all living things with dedicated fervor. rosy-cheeked, smartly dressed and standing at attention, gus, the original garden gnome is the standard to which all gnomes aspire.

i found the above passage on a gardening website and thought it was hilarious. but in all seriousness, we're quite happy to welcome gus.

what's for dinner? (hint, it's not beef)

what's for dinner? a question that most of us attempt to tackle every day. last night, i headed straight to the garden for some inspiration. carrots and chard were looking mighty good, so i plucked away at the two until satisfied.

the chard is really something beautiful. golden stalks and bright green leaves - it would be a nice garden accompaniment even if left uneaten. but let's be real, we're going to eat it, and we're going to like it. fun fact: apparently, chard is in the same family as beets. the more you know...

the carrots took much longer than the chard to grow into what they are today. planted back in april, we've needed much patience to get to this point. when i first put the seeds in the ground, i had this idea that they'd be up in no time. then i read the back of the seed pack. 70 days until maturity. literacy - it's a good thing. little did the seed pack know that we'd have an unusually chilly spring here in the pnw.

we've planted another bunch that are growing much quicker than the first thanks to some steady sunshine. and i'm getting better at thinning them out so each sprout has enough room to grow (really important, i'm learning).

regardless, the carrots are ready now. crisp and sweet, i decided to roast them to maximize their sweetness and caramelize them. gave them a quick boil and stuck them under the broiler with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of brown sugar. we ate them alongside some homemade cheese ravioli that we'd been storing in the freezing for a couple months.

mixed with some sauteed chard, we topped the ravioli with butter, raisins, and goat cheese. the slight bitterness of the greens, the sweetness of the raisins (and carrots) and the tanginess of the goat cheese worked well together. it was a nice way to meld what we had in the fridge with what we found in the garden.

the garden grows

since the sun has been shining everyday for the past couple of weeks, there's been an explosion of growth. the golden swiss chard was about 2 inches high before all of this sunshine. it's now ready to harvest. looking forward to sauteing it up with some butter and garlic. speaking of which, we're experimenting with garlic - just planted a short row of bulbs that had begun to grow in our kitchen. so far, so good! green stems are shooting up. broccoli raab, red kale, french radishes, and gold beets are also on their way up - slowly, but surely. cucumbers, squashes, and tomatoes are nearing production stage!

in other news, the corn is doing extremely well, despite its prior victimization by a yet-to-be-identified garden intruder. (apparently, the corn got over this violation, but i did not. i suppose whatever animal did this was just trying to survive.) back to the corn, though, brian's family has this saying that it should be - "knee high by the fourth of july." well, we didn't think we'd get there a few weeks back, but the corn is definitely up to our waists and climbing. hopefully ears will start to develop soon.

corn is one of my favorite vegetables. i'm looking forward to picking fresh ears and eating it straight off the cob, raw. i also love it in macaroni and cheese. that's right. highly recommended with a side of ketchup. and, over the past several holidays, we've been sauteing it with shallots, butter and a few swigs of half & half or cream. a fresher take on creamed corn. and then there's corn bread, best eaten with honey butter alongside a hearty bowl of chili. alright, this paragraph is quickly turning into something out of forrest gump. enough already - you get it - we like corn.

as i was out in the garden taking pictures yesterday, i was really struck by the transformational beauty that's been taking place in each bed, with each plant. something that really caught my eye were the blossoms on the small red onions. they look like little presents opening up and stretching. we should probably eat those soon.