The Sunday Supper

  

     This weeks feature for the Sunday Supper is a garlic scape pesto.  While we made this a few weeks back, we never got the opportunity to share it with you.  This variation on the classic pesto has a such a wonderful unique garlic flavor it it has become one of our favorites over the past couple years for pesto pastas, pizza bases, and marinades.

     There are seven ingredients to this pesto and we've always done it to taste rather than with exact quantities.  The seven ingredients are:

        1. Garlic Scapes

        2.  Basil

        3. Olive Oil

        4.  Fresh Ground Pepper

        5. Sea Salt

        6. Red Pepper Flakes

        7. Pine Nuts

     We usually use equal amounts garlic scapes and basil.  If your using approximately one pound of each then a good place to start is with 1.5 cups olive oil, 3 tbsp salt and pepper, 1 tbsp red pepper flakes and 1 cup pine nuts.

     Add garlic scapes to food processor and blend.  Next, add basil and blend adding olive oil as necessary to puree basil and scapes.  Once basil and scapes are pureed add the pine nuts, red pepper, salt, and pepper mixing together well.  Taste and adjust as necessary.

     This freezes really well and can be stored and used throughout the winter.  For those not growing their own garlic, scapes sometimes can be found at farmers markets and co-ops.  It's also a great reason to start growing your own garlic!

  

The Wednesday Weigh-In : Week #34

   

We're at 777.2 Pounds!

    

     This was by far our biggest week! In total we produced 131.1 lbs of food from our urban lot!  A little crazy huh?!?  The primary ingredient in every meal over the past seven days was from our garden (except Saturday evening when we went out with friends).  Additionally, we were able to blanch and freeze kale, collards, and chard for the winter.  We put potatoes in storage and made a big batch of pesto.  From the total, 3.8 lbs were from the 31 eggs our chickens laid.  The remaining 127.3 pounds was all produce.  Here is a list of the top ten items this week:

     29.5 lbs of tomatoes

     16.8 lbs of potatoes

     12.6 lbs of cucumbers

       9.0 lbs of kale

       8.9 lbs of summer squash

       6.0 lbs of onions

       5.9 lbs of watermelon

       5.3 lbs of green beans

       3.4 lbs of kale

       3.3 lbs of basil

    

 Only 1222.8 Pounds To Go 

The Sunday Supper

  

     This weeks Sunday Supper features a Potato Kale Soup.  We harvested a bunch more potatoes this week so it seemed like a fitting meal to make. This simple soup is incredibly tasty and nutritious while taking less than 30 minutes to make!  It also easily feeds a whole family with leftovers for later in the week.

     Ingredients:

     1.5 lbs kale

     3 lbs potatoes

     1.5 oz chives finely chopped

     2-3 sprigs thyme

     2-3 sprigs rosemary

     2-3 sprigs parsley

     2-3 sprigs oregano

     4 tbsp fresh ground white pepper

     3 tbsp kosher salt

     Preparation:

     Chop potatoes into small chunks and place in a large pot.  Fill with warm water until potatoes are covered.  On high heat, bring to a boil. Immediately reduce to a simmer.  Tie the thyme, rosemary, parsley, and oregano together with butchers twine and add to potatoes.  Simmer until potatoes are soft, then discard herbs.

     While potatoes are cooking chop the kale into small pieces and steam for 2-3 minutes.  After steaming the kale immediately soak it in cold water then drain. 

     Once the potatoes are soft add the chives, salt, and pepper.  Adjust salt & pepper to taste.  At this point the kale could be added to the potatoes, and the soup could be served. Our preference however is to puree the soup. Adding 1/4 of the kale to the potatoes in small batches puree the mixture in a food processor or blender.  Add the remaining 3/4 of the kale to the pureed soup and stir.  Serve hot or cold.

 

Black From Tula Tomato

 

     For the last month we've been harvesting over 20 lbs of tomatoes each week.  While it has become commonplace to pull beautiful tomatoes off the vine every day occasionally one tomato is so stunning it simply stops us in our tracks.  This is that tomato!  Weighing in at a little over a pound with it's dark purple color and black striping Black from Tula tomatoes can be simply gorgeous!

     It was so pretty we had a hard time eating it.  It sat on display for days before finally becoming a  tasty tomato, cucumber, and bacon sandwich. While this variety is not as productive as some of the others we grow, we would highly recommend trying it out if your not already growing it. Between it's wonderful flavor and simply stunning fruit it surely wont disappoint. 

The Wednesday Weigh-In : Week #33

     

We're at 646.1 Pounds!

    

     Despite being gone for much of the week we had another seven days of huge harvests.  In total we produced 75.8 lbs of food from our urban lot!  Of the total, 5.0 lbs were from the 40 eggs our chickens laid.  They've really been picking up the pace lately.

     The other 70.8 lbs was produce.  Here is a list of the top five items this week:

     39.3 lbs of tomatoes

     11.5 lbs of cucumbers

       6.4 lbs of watermelon

       5.4 lbs of green beans

       2.0 lbs of chard

     We used about 25 lbs of tomatoes to make sauce that we canned for the winter.  Otherwise we ate most everything fresh.

 Only 1353.9 Pounds To Go 

The Sunday Supper

     The feature for this week's sunday supper is a loaded veggie pizza.  This is a seasonal pizza that we miss in the middle of winter.  You can make the pizza with any variation of veggies from the garden and for this one we used:

     Brandywine Tomatoes

     Midnight Lightning Zucchini

     Candlelight Peppers

     Genovese Basil

     Red Grain Garlic

     Stems from Beet Greens

     The crust recipe is the same as from the Sunday Supper back on June 27th.  Once we had the crust made we spread a few cloves of minced garlic atop the crust then layered on the basil covering theentire surface.  Next we added 12 oz of shredded cheese.  Atop the cheese the tomatoes, zucchini and peppers were added.  Unlike most pizzas with less toppings that will bake in around 7 minutes at 500 deg this one took closer to 15 minutes.  In the end this provided each of us three fantastic meals!

 

Vermicompost Harvesting

 

     We've been vermicomposting with worms for a while now and have beautiful worm castings made from our produce scraps, used coffee, and paper towels.

     Because the worm castings are full of worms, and we don't want to loose any of these compost workers we bulk harvest the finished vermicompost every couple months separating the worms from the castings.  To do this we simply make a pile twice the size of the amount of castings we want and shine a light on half of it.  Within 8-12 hours almost all of the worms move from the side with the light to the side without the light.  Then all we do is just take the lit side of the pile for our plants and soil, while returning the other half, with all the worms, to the composting tubs.

The Wednesday Weigh-In : Week #32

  
We're at 570.3 Pounds!

    

     This was another incredible week for us, we produced 111.3 lbs of food from our urban lot!  Another new record!  It's definitely peak time here in Minnesota.  Of the 111.3 lbs, 3.9 lbs were from the 31 eggs our chickens laid.  

     The other 107.4 lbs was produce.  25 lbs of that was from the garlic that had finished curing in the garage.  We trimmed off the roots and stalk then weighed it and moved it to the basement where we will store it until we eat it tall.  We made a couple batches of pickles with cucumbers, canned some beans froze some tomatoes and generally ate like kings this week!  Here is a list of the top five items this week:

     35 lbs of tomatoes

     25 lbs of garlic

     17 lbs of cucumbers

       9 lbs of summer squash

       3 lbs of green beans

 Only 1429.7 Pounds To Go 
   

Summer Seed Sowing

  

     After harvesting the garlic back in July, and the first of the potatoes last week we were left with some empty space in the garden.  This gave us an opportunity to plant some new crops for the fall, and with the warm summer temperatures they've germinated quick.

     We started some more beets, chard, carrots, radishes, pac choi and other cabbages.  By the end of the month we should have some more space opened up and we'll add to that fall crops of spinach, lettuce, and a few asian greens.  

  

The Sunday Supper

   

     The Sunday Supper this weak features pitas stuffed with tomato-cucumber salad, lamb, and tzatziki.  This greek style dish was so fresh and tasty we'll surely make it again and again.

     Ingredients:

     1/2 lb lamb kebob meat

     1 package whole wheat pitas

     2 lb tomato

     1.5 lb cucumber

     1 bunch chives

     2 sprigs mint

     1 lemon

     1/2 head garlic

     24 oz greek yogurt

     1 tsp salt

     1 tsp pepper

     1 tsp olive oil

     To make tzatziki sauce:

     Quarter and finely chop 1/2 lb of the cucumbers.  Mince the garlic and mint and combine with the cucumbers and the juice of the lemon.  Take this mixture and combine it with the yogurt salting and peppering to taste.  Let marinate for at least 30 minutes prior to use.  Keeps in the refrigerator for several weeks.

     To make tomato cucumber salad:

     Chop into small bite sized pieces the remaining cucumber and all the tomato.  Mince the chives.  Combine chives, tomato, and cucumber with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper.  Adjust salt and pepper as needed.  Let marinate at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.  Store at room temperature as tomatoes  undergo a chemical reaction below 50 deg that diminishes their flavor.

     To make lamb:

     In a cast iron skillet slowly saute lamb on med-low heat with 1 tsp olive oil.  Brown lamb on each side. After lamb is browned add several tbsp tzatziki sauce, stire well, and cook for another 5-10 minutes until desired wellness.

     Finally for the stuffed pitas:

     Spread a couple tbsp tzatziki sauce into each pita. Add a few small pieces of lamb and stuff the remaining volume with as much tomato cucumber salad as will fit.  As an variation feta can be added to tomato cucumber salad.  We enjoyed this with some homemade hummus and crackers, but the tomato-cucumber salad makes a great side dish too.  For this meal the tomatoes, cucumbers, chives, mint, and garlic were all from the garden.

 

The Wednesday Weigh-In : Week #31

  

We're at 459 Pounds!

    

     This was an incredible week for us, we produced 108 lbs of food from our urban lot!  A new record!  If we could have weeks like this all the time we would blow the urban ton goal out of the water.  Of the 108 lbs, 3.6 lbs were from the 29 eggs our chickens laid.  Ruby, our Cukoo Marans who has been raising 4 baby chicks laid her first egg in several months this week.

     The other 104.4 lbs was produce.  We did not eat all of it this week, so we were able to preserve some of it for the winter.  We are storing the 30 lbs of potatoes.  We blanched and froze around 10 lbs of kale, and we still have 3.5 lbs of tomatoes that we have harvested but not yet eaten.  Here is a recap of the top producers this week:

     30.0 lbs of potatoes

     27.8 lbs of tomatoes

     13.4 lbs of kale

       5.2 lbs of watermelon

       4.3 lbs of celery

       4.0 lbs of cucumbers

       3.4 lbs of zucchini

  

 Only 1541 Pounds To Go 

  

Potato Harvesting

  

     We harvested the first of our potatoes today.  We are growing five different variates of potatoes in four different areas around our city lot.  The all red variety is an early one, and with most of the leaves yellowed, we knew it was about harvest time. 

     Planted in the bed with the all red potatoes were all blue and rose du var fingerling variates.  These two variates could have stated in the ground and grew a little more but we opted to harvest them as well.  The smaller potatoes are really nice roasted and that allowed us to clear out the entire bed for replanting.

     In total we harvested just over 30 lbs of potatoes.  This accounts for about half of the potato plants we're growing.  Stored in brown paper bags in our basement these should last well into the winter.  

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!

    

 

     As we mentioned yesterday, in the Sunday Supper, tomato season for us is in full swing.  Over the weekend we harvested 10 lbs of tomatoes!  With such a wonderful bounty the weekly pounds will surely start climbing quick!    

     We're not sure if we'll make it to the Urban Ton this year but one thing is for sure, we're really enjoying our daily harvests.  The deep connection we have with our food and where it comes from has added significant meaning to our meals.  The healthy and nutritious food we have been eating not only tastes amazing but leaves us feeling satisfied and energized.  

  

The Sunday Supper

  

     Tomato season is in full swing now and we've been happily harvesting tomatoes on a regular basis for a couple weeks.  Big summer classics like Brandywine and Black Krim are so missed in the dead of winter that come summer these rank among the most anticipated crops.  Checking them every day as they near ripeness, just waiting for the first one, becomes an obsession.

     And when that first one comes, despite all the anticipation, expectations are still exceeded.  For us, that first brandywine always also becomes the first BLT of the year.  

     Tonight's Sunday Supper features Brandywine BLT sandwiches.  We happily enjoyed this one earlier in the week, and this will become a fairly regular lunchtime meal for the next couple months. 

      Here's how we make our BLT's:

     A.     One 14-18 ounce tomato

     B.     A couple leaves lettuce

     C.     2 slices bacon

     D.     2/3 tbsp  mayonnaise

     E.     2 slices toast

     F.     salt and pepper

     The most important part of the BLT is without a doubt a large fresh vine ripened tomato.  We don't ever skimp on this, one 14-18 ounce tomato per sandwich -- sliced thick.  Each tomato slice (usually 4 slices) is individually salted and peppered to taste.  The bacon is thick cut, never microwaved, but pan fried on a cast iron skillet.  The bread should be whole wheat and toasted.  Mayonnaise is not something we use often but it is a must in a good BLT.  We had the Brandywine BLT pictured above served with a side of salt and peppered sliced Black Krim tomatoes.  Yummy!

     Just typing this makes us think of going out to the garden and picking another ripe Brandywine for a late night BLT feast!  In fact, thats what we're going to do right now...