Using-up Greens: Israeli Couscous With Chicken and Greens

For those of you who live in New England and have gardens or subscribe to a Farm Share, this time of the year is all about greens. MOUNDS and MOUNDS of greens.  Salad greens, bitter greens, kale, swiss chard, and so on.  It comes fast and it comes in plentiful.  I usually plant three 4-packs of lettuce seedlings each year and they all mature at once and threaten to bolt to flower.  Truth be told, I usually end-up giving half away to friends.  However, I'm always looking for recipes for the other half.

This recipe is a good one for those hardier greens that can stand-up to a little cooking like swiss chard, spinach, or kale.  I happened to make it with escarole, a slightly bitter green leaf lettuce in the endive family.  As I've mentioned in the past, it's really popular in soup around here.  However, some nice mature spinach or swiss chard would stand-in nicely.

The bulk of this dish is Israeli Couscous, sometimes called Pearl Couscous.  It's very different from the regular couscous that you're probably used to.  It's basically small toasted pearls of pasta, a little larger than tapioca pearls, and it cooks-up smaller than a baby pea.  Most grocery stores stock it, but if you have trouble finding it, you might try Orzo or Ancini de Pepe.

Israeli Couscous With Chicken and Escarole (or Greens)

Note: I'm going to cross a line here and say that it's okay to use powdered chicken bouillon here.  *GASP*  I know...  This is one of those rare occasions where the salty yellow-colored stuff actually does your dish justice.  However, I've made it with homemade stock and it works just as nicely, if not a little stickier from the natural gelatin.

2-3 large handfuls of greens, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups Israeli Couscous
2 1/4 cups chicken stock
1/2 onion, finely minced
2 medium carrots, sliced thinly
1 medium boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


1) In a large saute pan that has a lid, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat.  Add cubed chicken and saute until the chicken begins to brown a bit.

2) Add more oil if needed along with the carrots, onions, and a small pinch of salt.  Saute until the vegetables begin to soften.

3) Add the couscous and a more oil if needed.  Stir constantly, sauteing until the couscous is lightly toasted.  It can begin to brown a little, but do not burn it.

4) Quickly add all of the chicken stock.  Bring to a boil, reduce to low, cover, and let simmer about 10-12 minutes.

5) In the last 2-3 minutes of cooking when the liquid is almost gone, add all the greens and cover the pan so they will wilt.  Once they've wilted a bit, stir them into the couscous.  If things start sticking, add a little water to loosen it up.

6) Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Serve immediately.  A good sprinkle of good Parmesan cheese on top of each dish wouldn't hurt.

We Grew Popcorn!!!

Hey folks!  I know I've been away from the blog awhile and to be honest with you, I have no good excuse except: Because Toddler.  That's an excuse, right?  If The Bloggess can use "Because Wine" as an answer to anything and everything, then certainly I can use "Because Toddler."  Anyway, on to cool stuff...

My first order of business now that I've returned to The Interwebs is to show you something cool we did in the workplace garden this year.  You remember the workplace garden from last year, right?  Well, this year, we doubled the size, got ourselves a small budget from the boss, and put some really interesting things in there like brussells sprouts, hot peppers, eggplant, and at least 4 varieties of tomatoes.  But that's not the coolest thing we grew.  The coolest thing we grew was...

Popcorn!!!

Yes, I realize that looks like Indian Corn (the decorative stuff people buy to put on their front doors and porches), but really and truly...it's popcorn.  See?  We popped it!

By the way, if you're gong to pop a whole ear of corn on the cob in the microwave, you should probably put it in a paper bag first.  Don't ask me how I know that...  And no, it wasn't me.

We actually planted only two varieties:  A "strawberry" red variety and a plain old yellow variety.  However, corn cross-pollinates as it grows and the two varieties planted in such close proximity produced all the colors you see in the photo above.  Pretty cool, huh?  Of course, it all pops-up into white fluffy stuff that's much tastier than commercially available popcorn.

Pepper

The first hot pepper from our workplace garden!  This is a "hot Portugal"

Holy Green Beans!

The past two years, I've planted a small patch of green beans in my little picket fence garden near the house.  I intended to expand it this year, planting several rows in the larger garden, but that garden never quite made it to getting prepped and planted.  You know...baby and all.

About a week ago, I knew I had a bunch of full-sized beans ready to pick and I wanted a serving or two for dinner.  I put on my gardening shoes, grabbed a cereal bowl, and headed-out to the garden.  Within a minute or so of picking, I had to go back inside for a bigger bowl.

Apparently, all the lack of attention on my part and the soggy weather on Mother Nature's part had turned my small patch of green bean plants into crazy producers.  I ended-up picking 1 pound 11 ounces of beans that night and I'm pretty sure there are more there for me to pick tonight.

I know it's just beans and they're one of the easiest things on the planet to grow, but I'm pretty proud of myself.  I haven't been able to spend as much time in the garden as I would have liked to this year and this is a pretty amazing output for so very little input.

We ended-up eating a few with dinner and the rest went into jars as Dilly Beans.  You can never have enough homemade dill pickles stashed away for the winter in our household.  That was exactly why I planted the beans.

Oh, and they're kid approved...

Starting A Workplace Garden

I'm very lucky that I work for a smaller company that's supportive of nearly all employee-based "extra-curricular" initiatives, especially when they have a health or wellness component to them.  A group of people want to install a gym in the warehouse using donated equipment?  Done.  Another group of people wants to pitch-in and recycle bottles and cans from the lunch room?  No problem.  We'll provide the container.  You want to grab some burgers and dogs and light the grill in the back parking lot?  Help yourself...grill and fuel are supplied.  The company has even been known to throw generous financial support behind the efforts from time to time.

This year, a few of us got together with the crazy idea of having an office garden.  We'd recently had the parking lot and sidewalks redone and the few garden beds near the building hadn't been replanted with either grass or ornamentals yet.  I think the CEO probably thought we were a little nuts, but he gave us his blessing and off we went.

This year's garden started-out small.  We hand-dug some of the old, possibly polluted soil out of a roughly 4-foot section between the building and the sidewalk and had a yard of fresh soil brought in (compliments of The Boss).  We each pitched-in some items from our own stash like seeds, compost, potted plants, trellising, irrigation equipment, and hand tools.  It was a real "grassroots" effort in every sense of the word.

We planted a few sunflower seeds by the chain link fence.  We planted a small Rose of Sharon sapling near the employee entrance.  And into the vegetable garden, we planted seeds for cucumbers, peas, watermelon, string beans, and a few tomato plants.  Periodically, a couple of us head out there for a half-hour break to weed and water and generally tend to things.

So far, I'd consider the effort a success.  We have two good-sized watermelons growing.  What crazy, HUGE plants those are!  I've never planted them before, myself.

We've harvested 4 cucumbers and there are 4 or 5 more growing as we speak.

The tomato plants have flowers on them and may actually fruit before the summer is done (we planted them late).  And the sunflowers look like they could bud out and bloom for us any day.

What a great way it's been for us to take time out of our day for some exercise and non-work-related fun.  We hope to be able to expand it next year.

DIY Leaf Transporter

We have a pretty large yard...over an acre of cleared land that grows something that's enough like grass that it needs to be raked and mowed.  We also have some very nice neighbors across the street who have some very nice, shady old oak trees.  And guess what?  Our neighbor's trees like to share their leaves with us.  Like almost all of them.  How generous...

If you've ever tried to keep-up with oak leaves, as opposed to maple or other varieties, you know what a chore they can be.  They're big, brown, heavy when wet, and they take ages to break-down and compost.  To make matters worse, our property is long and skinny--sort of boomerang-shaped, and most of the leaves collect in the driveway and front yard while the place where I wish to move them to for composting is at the very opposite end of the boomerang (closer to the wooded areas).  This makes simply blowing them into the woods with a leaf blower not practical.

And so comes the dilemma...how do you move a massive quantity of leaves across almost an acre without making 900 trips with a wheelbarrow?

I've tried everything...and I mean everything.  I've tried raking them into a blue tarp.  I end-up dropping half of them.  I've tried chewing and sucking them up with the lawnmower bagger.  Takes forever, as well as 900 trips and leaves chopped leaves all over the lawn.  I've tried a yard wagon.  Too small.  Then, came the miracle device...

Folks, that right there is a state-of-THE-art Leaf Transportation System(tm)!

...Okay, so it's a kiddie pool with a rope tied to it.  And I can't take credit for it either.  This gem of an idea came from my father-in-law and you know what?  It works.

Directions:

1) Acquire one large-sized plastic children's swimming pool.  If you have the option for a sturdier model, shell-out the extra bucks for it.  You'll thank yourself later.

2) Scrounge-up the following: A length of rope (nylon is best, as it doesn't stretch and spring back like cotton would), an 8-inch piece of scrap 1-by board, and a length of 1/2-inch PVC or PEX pipe (optional).

3) Drill two holes at least one inch in from the ends of the board.  Using the board as a template, drill the same hole spacing through the wall of the pool.

4) Using the board as a brace to prevent tearing of the pool wall, run the rope through the holes in the board and the pool.  Optionally, run the rope through the plastic tubing on the outside of the pool to create a handle that's easier on the hands (not shown in photo).  Tie it off and position the handle correctly.

5) Using a snow shovel with cupped sides (another multi-tasker!), fill your new transporter with leaves and drag to your compost pile.  Upend the pool to dump.  That's it!

I haven't tried dragging it with the tractor yet like a trailer but the thought did cross my mind.  I'm a tad afraid I'll tear the thin plastic.

Note: The reason I'm sharing this now instead of in October is because it's surprisingly hard to obtain a pool after the summer months are up.  You'll want to make your purchases now while they're in stock and stash it away for leaf season.

Stumpy Little Carrots

Sorry I've not been posting frequently, folks.  Been busy with a project at work and been spending my weekends trying to get ready for the winter and the baby.  I've also been trying to work my way through the produce that I've been buying and that's been coming my way from friends and family.  We'll chat about some of that in upcoming posts...

In the mean time, let's talk about carrots!

They're a little short (about than 3-4 inches each), but aren't they gorgeous otherwise?  This is my first carrot harvest ever and I'm happy that I managed to get enough for a full meal (well, a side-dish).  The yellow and orange ones are pretty normal varieties, but the purple ones are unique and cool.  They're purple on the outside, with orange on the inside.

I'm working on the assumption that they're so stumpy and bent on the end because of the soil I grew them in.  It's the new larger garden in the back, which is still quite compact and clay-like.  I just didn't have enough time and money to amend it much this spring (short of two large bags of peat moss).  The plan is to fold-in some mostly finished compost this fall and let that finish-off over the winter.  Hopefully, it'll leave me with richer, softer soil in the spring.  I've considered a cover crop, but I'm leaning towards no for this year just because of the work and money involved, both of which are in short supply.

Anyway, we haven't eaten these yet but I'm planning to simply scrub them clean, cut them into chunks, and oven-roast them.  Delicious!

Cherry Tomatoes A-Plenty

To put it bluntly, this year's gardening season sucked.  Between the really wet weather early-on followed by the summer heat immediately after, I just coudn't keep some of the crops alive long enough to produce a single lonely fruit.

No Cucumbers...
No Butternut Squash...
No Zucchini.... (Even with close to 20 plants)
No Popcorn or Sweet Corn...
Very few large tomatoes

But there were two items that were my saving grace.  Beans and cherry tomatoes.  I don't know what made the cherry tomatoes so prolific, but I'm sure not complaining.  They're sweet, delicious, and amazingly plentiful.

And pretty too...

Purple Beans?

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I've been growing Tongue of Fire beans this year in one of the gardens.  I thought they were kind of neat looking and I wanted to experiment with "shelling" or dried beans as opposed to snappy green string beans.

As it turns out, you can pick them young and eat the whole pod as you would a string bean.  They won't get quite as purple if you do that, but they're mighty tasty.  I also used them in a jar of refrigerator pickled "dilly beans" and they came out pretty good.

I'm actually not quite sure if they can be dried as I originally intended.  Johnny's has conflicting info on that topic between the catalog, the seed packet, and the website description.  I've let some mature (i.e. grow full-sized beans within the pods) and they're shelled and drying as we speak.  I guess we'll see if they dry okay or if they're best eaten shelled and cooked fresh.

I love that we have a big enough garden now that I can start experimenting with new and unique crops.

One Lonely Tomato

Due to the weather extremes, the gardens have been slow around here this year.  I'm happy to say that I got home from work on Friday night and discovered my first ripe cherry tomato!

The variety is Sun Gold and it's very special to me for three reasons.  First, it's the first tomato plant I've ever successfully started from seed.  Second, it's a variety that we picked last year at a Pick-Your-Own cherry tomato farm near our house and it may or may not be from a seed I saved (I'm not sure because I ordered a packet from Johnny's and mixed-up which plants were which).  Third, it's the first tomato variety that I actually enjoy raw.  They're super sweet and more like eating fruit than tomatoes (yes, I know it's botanically a fruit).

So what did I do with it?  Being the nice husband that I am, I sliced it in half and shared it with my wife.  :-)

My First Peach

Just this week, I took one of my regular walks out to The Orchard to see how the new trees are doing.  When I started inspecting the peach tree, I noticed that one of the 3 peaches was soft and ripe.  I wasn't expecting this, so you can imagine how excited I was.  I picked it, testing the others (they needed some more time), and headed back to the house.

Now don't go getting too excited.  Since a) I wasn't even supposed to let fruit set in the first year; and b) I'm doing nothing with regards to pest control, there was a hefty insect blemish on the top and the fruit was only about the size of a kiwi.  I ended-up having to cut half of the flesh off to discard the insect damage, but man was the rest of the fruit tasty!

Best and sweetest peach I've ever had.  I hope it produces lots for years to come.

And the Mystery Flower is....

Last year when we purchased the house, I did my best to try to determine what was a flowering plant and what was a weed and an transplanted as much as I could to places where it could grow without being disturbed by my vegetable gardening efforts.  One such plant was a wimpy green one with slightly fuzzy leaves and no flowers.  The leaves looked an awful lot like the leaves of a lemon geranium that I once had but didn't have any smell.  So, I assumed it was some sort of flowering geranium and stuck it in front of the picket fence garden.

The geranium limped along through the summer, growing some nice foliage but no flowers.  When it came back again this year and grew twice as large, I left it alone saying to my wife, "I'm going to give it this season.  If it doesn't flower, it's outta here."  Shortly after, it started blooming...

As we've grown accustomed to, they're purple (the previous owner seems to have loved purple in a very big way).

I don't usually like geraniums but these are quite unique.  I think they're quite pretty.  A co-worker of mine's girlfriend is a plant scientist and she reports back that they're of a variety known as "Roxanne".

I will say that they don't hold-up very well as cut flowers.  Within a day of placing a jar of them on the dining room table, the petals had all fallen like confetti.  Guess these are best enjoyed outdoors.

It's wonderful to see that the house still has plenty of beautiful surprises for us.

Three Little Peaches

Many of you remember that I planed a Mini Orchard earlier this year.  I'm happy to report that all five fruit trees leafed-out beautifully and seem to be doing well.  In particular, the peach tree has three tiny fuzzy peaches growing on it.

According to the planting instructions, I'm supposed to have pulled off all of the flowers to prevent them from fruiting this year so they can develop a strong root system and really get established.  However, the flowers were so beautiful, I let them go.  Once I saw the fruit, I was so excited that I just let that go too.  How much damage can three tiny fruits do anyway?  They're too cute...  :-)

One of the cherry trees also has two small cherries on it.  I think I'll leave those as well.

Spring is FINALLY Here

Spring seems to have FINALLY hit Southern New England.  It's about time.  That's all I'm going to say...

The bleeding hearts that came with the house made it through the winter and all the hacking I did cleaning up the flower beds.  Not only that, but they have a runner that I should be able to dig-up and relocate somewhere else.  I'm pretty excited about that.

Last fall, we planted a huge batch of daffodils and tulips in the beds in front of the house in hopes of giving the front yard some color.  This week, the whole thing spilled-forth with color.  It looks absolutely gorgeous and we're quite happy with it.

Even the brand-new orchard saplings seem to be joining in the fun.  The tiny blossom above was on the peach tree.

Kiwi in New England?

While I was shopping online at Peaceful Valley Farm Supply for my new mini-orchard, I happened across a listing for a type of kiwi that is supposedly hardy in New England climates.  That's right...  A tropical fruit that will survive two feet of snow.  I didn't believe it at first either.  The listing is here (alas, they are out of stock now but Burpee has them).

According to the description, they have smooth skin instead of hairy that you can actually eat and the green flesh is a tad bit sweeter than regular kiwi.  Needless to say, I bought one.  Because I don't have a location ready for it yet and I was concerned about keeping it alive indoors for another few weeks, I went ahead and potted it.  In less than a week, the darned thing was leafing out and is growing like a weed.

That's it there on the far right.  In case you didn't know this (I sure didn't), kiwi's grow on a vine like grapes.  I'm thinking I'll rig some sort of trellis on the big black privacy fence in the back and put all my vine plants on there.  At least it'll add some screening without large investments in evergreen hedges that I don't really like anyway.

I also picked-out a Concord Grape vine while I was at it (oh yeah...Peaceful Valley left my wallet much lighter by the time I was done shopping).  Concords actually grow wild here in Northern Rhode Island but wouldn't you know that I don't have a single one on my property.

I love concord grapes in the late summer and early fall, just as they're about to ripen.  You walk by the vine and you could swear you had a glass of grape juice sitting in front of your nose.  It's an absolutely delicious smell.

Planting the Mini Orchard

When we purchased our new home last year (it's been almost a year already!), I took one look at the huge back field, nearly a half-acre of cleared land minus space occupied by the barn, and said, "I want a fruit tree."  Since then, that thought has been rolling around in my head every time we go to a nursery or garden shop.  I find myself beelining to the back where the specimen trees are, looking for something tasty and unique.

This winter, I finally took things seriously and did a little research to see where one would buy such a thing and how I should go about choosing a location for it and how to grow it.  When I happened upon Peaceful Valley Farm, it became a matter of which to choose.  Since their prices are pretty reasonable and they have multi-tree shipping discounts, I ended-up with 5 trees...my own mini orchard:

• An apple tree called "Pink Lady"
• A Sour Cherry Tree
• A Sweet Cherry Tee
• A Peach Tree
• An Apricot Tree

With the exception of the apricot tree, which was a bit of an oops on my part, all are hardy for our area (Zone 6) and all are self-fruitful, meaning that they don't need a "mate" to cross-pollinate with in order to bear fruit.

During the process of researching the trees, I learned a lot of things and I thought I'd share some with you:

• Zones - Gardeners and Farmers divide the country into Hardiness Zones.  Using a zone map, you can figure out what zone your garden is in and then plants are sold by listing the zone range they can survive in.  This is probably the most handy way of choosing any plant--particularly larger investments like trees that you want to last through many many seasons.  It's also a great way to make sure you're getting what you expect as, in today's trucking-based economy, many plants in your garden center came from far far away and they're not always careful to order stuff that's location-appropriate.
• Chill Hours - Many fruit trees list the number of "chill hours" that are needed in order for it to set fruit.  The chill hours for your area are the average number of hours the temperature drops between a certain range over a given winter season.  Since we don't all stand out there with clipboards, counting the chill hours, you would need to contact your local Cooperative Extension office to find out what the average is for your area.  To be honest, I didn't bother.  I found the zone map to be more useful and it should serve roughly the same purpose.
• Self-Fruitful vs. Cross-Pollination - The majority of fruit trees cannot produce fruit without cross-pollinating with another tree of similar, but not the same type.  Often, when you read a listing for a fruit tree, it'll tell you what other trees will successfully cross-pollinate with the one you're looking at.  To get fruit, you'll need to buy at least two trees and plan to plant them only so far apart--a big investment.  Some trees have the ability to produce fruit without a mate.  I don't know the biology behind it but these are the trees I chose for my orchard to keep costs down and variety high.
• Root Stock - Commercial fruit trees are grown from a cutting taken from the branch of a mature fruit tree that has been grafted onto the root system of another tree.  This is done for two reasons.  First of all, if they were grown from seed, the seed would have been pollinated by some other unknown tree.  Thus, you wouldn't get the same exact fruit from it, if any fruit at all.  By propagating (essentially, cloning) an existing tree, you're guaranteed to get what you expect.  Secondly, root stocks are specifically chosen by the nursery that will support the tree better than its native root stock.  By doing this, you'll get much better fruit yield.
• Bare Root vs. Potted - There seem to be differences of opinion as to whether bare-root or potted trees work better.  In the end, it came down to shipping and packaging for me.  Bare root trees can be pulled out of the dirt, their roots wrapped in a little moist medium and plastic, and then shipped via UPS for a somewhat reasonable price.  Trees of this size (about 5 feet tall) shipped in a pot with the added weight of wet soil would have required freight shipping, which is not only expensive but a hassle for delivery (like waiting for the cable guy to show-up between the hours of 9 and 5).
• When to Plant - Since I bought bare-root trees, they are currently dormant.  From what I could tell from the accompanying literature, the idea is to get them in the ground as quickly as possible and they can be planted as long as the ground isn't so hard that you can't dig the hole.  There are ways to trick them into staying dormant, but none were really realistic for my situation.  So out I trudged into the very early spring mud and much and dug 5 holes.  Hopefully, the roots will take hold well and we'll get nice leaves this year.

 I'm really looking forward to how these trees will turn out.  According to the paperwork that came with them, I shouldn't expect fruit for at least the first two years.  However, I'll certainly keep you posted as to their progress!

And the Seed Starting Begins

We've had a rough winter here in Southern New England...certainly one of the most continuously snowiest in my lifetime.  So it should be of no surprise that I'm ready for spring and the gardening work that will come with it.

This is going to be the first spring and full summer in our new house and I'm hoping to be able to open-up land for a full row garden this year.  I'm also hoping that the more stable temperatures inside the house will allow me to have better luck with starting veggies from seed.

This year, I chose seeds from a couple of sources.  Many are coming from Burpee and the other commercial seed houses because of some gift certificates to local stores that I received for Christmas.  For variety and uniqueness, I ordered quite a few seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine.  I'm also happy to report that I was able to do some seed saving last year and those seeds are sprouting and doing well.  I'm hoping that this year I'll be able to continue that practice.

In addition to having difficulty with the growing conditions in our old home (too cold, too hot, not enough sun), I've also battled various containers and growing mediums.  This year, I'm using a combination of store-bought "Soil-less Seed Starting Mix" and some home-made Soil-less mix following the 30/30/30 recipe described by Susy at Chiot's run.  For containers, I'm trying:

• Home-made Newspaper Pots - I've had good luck with these in the past, though they take-up quite a bit of space and are time-consuming to make.  I saved these mostly for larger items or for transplanting items that need a bit more growing space before they can go into the ground.
• Peat Pellets - Of all the methods I've tried, these perform the most reliably for me.  Unfortunately, they're pretty expensive if you plan to start a lot of seeds.  This year, I plunked-down $10 for a tray that holds (and comes with) 72 pellets.  I'm glad I made the investment for the reliability.  Next year, I'll be able to just replace the pellets.
• Biodegradable Cell Trays - These trays, made of paper, supposedly can be cut apart and planted directly into the ground.  I've never used them before but so far, they appear to be working well.  Also, I got a much better deal on them at my local discount store than the prices from Johnny's in the link.
• Plastic Cell Trays - I've tried these nearly every year and have had little luck with them.  I think it's mostly because I used heavy soil and kept it way too wet.  I'm hoping the better soil mix and better air conditions will help this year and I'll have better success.

In any event, it's been about a week and I'm seeing sprouts on just about everything I've planted except for the peppers, which take a bit longer and like it a tad warmer.  Even the saved seeds from supermarket veggies are doing awesome.

Piccalilli / Green Tomato Hot Dog Relish

Now that we've had our first few frosts, my tomatoes have stopped ripening and I'm faced with that big basket full of green ones.  Of course, there's the veritable "fried green tomatoes," which I've never had by the way.  But that only gets rid of a handful.  My father suggested piccalilli, something my grandmother used to make.  I wasn't so sure I'd like it myself but I was happy to make him a few jars just so the tomatoes wouldn't go to waste.

Unfortunately, neither of us could find the recipe and I didn't have time to call my Grandmother and have her locate it.  I needed to get some of the tomatoes cooked and processed immediately.  When I started digging through my various canning books, I soon found that this is just one of those recipes that means something very different to each family--like meatloaf.  Piccalilli is everything from a chow-chow (mix of pickled "end of garden" veggies) to a green tomato relish, and everything in between.  The spices and flavors vary quite widely.

Between my Dad's recollection of the spices and flavor and my recollection of it in general, I ended-up settling on a recipe that I found for "Green Tomato Hot Dog Relish" from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  It's quite less chunky than my Grandmother's recipe, but seemed to have the same blend of spices, sugar, and vinegar.

Here's how it turned-out...

Not too bad.  The result is sweet and tangy like you'd expect a good hot dog relish to be but it has a little extra sour punch from the tomatoes that's not unwelcome.  I don't generally like sweet relish or sweet pickles but I may just give this a try on my next hot dog.

Incidentally, if you aren't into canning, this will keep quite well in a jar or other glass container in the fridge for several months.  If you take the time to boil/sterilize the jars and lids beforehand and don't open each till you're ready to eat, it'll last in the fridge even longer.

Gardening - The (Mostly) Final Report

My garden has wound-down to just a few tomato plants slowly producing green or pale-pink tomatoes.  Given that, I thought it was time to add-up the totals and see just how many pounds of food I was able to grow for my first year.  Here's a brief summary of the items that did well:

• San Marzano Tomatoes - 94 tomatoes weighing in at 34.77 pounds
• Early Girl Tomatoes - 53 tomatoes weighing in at 12.33 pounds
• Brandywine Tomatoes - 13 tomatoes weighing in at 1.88 pounds
• Armenian Cukes - 5 cukes weighing in at 5.71 pounds
• Acorn Squash - 6 squash weighing in at 6.92 pounds
• Various peppers, green beans, peas, etc. in negligible amounts
• Several pounds of green tomatoes still coming off the vines

As of today, my total production is: 76.5 pounds!

For my first year doing "real gardening," I'm pretty happy with these numbers.  I was able to see what works and what doesn't, where my thumb is green and where it is brown, where to best put the garden next year, and overall, I had a lot of fun and satisfaction doing it.

I've also managed to take 76.5 pounds of food out of my grocery bill, even though it may not feel like it and even though there were a lot of startup costs that probably put me at a negative financial savings.  Nonetheless, there's something satisfying about producing your own food and knowing all the hard work that went into it.

I'm also happy that I was able to preserve a lot of this food and much of the food I've purchased from local farms.  I have a small bookshelf nearly full of canning jars that will get us through the winter months and make for some great holiday cooking.  I've been counting those too and I'll let you know what the output is soon.

One Lonely Eggplant

I've mentioned before that I haven't had much luck growing from seeds. I still attribute much of this failure to the hot-cold-hot cycle and lack of sun in our one bedroom condominium.  Since moving to the house, I've had much better luck.

This year, I had a couple of things that I started in the condo actually make it into the garden here at the house, albeit planted kind of late.  One such plant was a single eggplant plant that sort of limped along all summer (and truthfully, I hadn't labeled it, so I thought it was a beet).  A couple of weeks ago, it started flowering and produced...

Yep.  A Japanese-style eggplant--one of those long skinny light purple ones that are mild tasting and sweet.  There's only one fruit on it and I'm pretty sure that's all we'll get, but there you are.  :-)