Category Archives: Gardening

A Tub Full of Basil

Posted on October 6, 2014 by AnnieRie

Plus, lots of other goodness from my gardens.

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This is just the basil from my garden here at home. There is at least that much more out at the Conservancy in my community garden. That basil, I may be giving away to anyone who wants it. This basil, along with some of my arugula

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will become pest cubes for the winter. The arugula and leaf lettuces are coming along nicely. I thin them out every few days. It may be fall but the plants keep on producing.

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This is my “sunshine” tray. It sits by my French doors. I am still getting tomatoes and peppers to ripen. Today I also did a steam cook of peppers and onions, which went into the freezer to save for the dead of winter.

It is close to garlic planting time. And, for those of you lucky enough to have walnut trees

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this seems to be a bumper crop year.

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My Favorite Pizza

Posted on October 2, 2014 by AnnieRie

Inspired by a visit to Napa and Sonoma. Made even better using the arugula from my garden.

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My prosciutto, goat cheese, fig, scallion and arugula pizza.

Made last night after a very lovely blogger happy hour at Seasons 52, on the new “Main St-like” outdoor area at the Columbia Mall.

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Outdoor dining there has absolutely fun views. No storm water management ponds or cars parked three feet from your table.

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Their flatbreads reminded me that I had the ingredients to make an awesome rectangular pizza. I had an “under the weather” husband at home. Dinner out wasn’t an option. I enjoyed the company of my fellow bloggers. And, will return to have some of their seasonal foods.

I came home, and very easily stretched out some fresh pizza dough from Harris Teeter. Added figs, goat cheese, scallions, prosciutto, olive oil, salt and pepper. Baked at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. After removing from the oven, I dropped some of my newly grown arugula on top.

Simple, quick, tasty dinner.

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So Good …

Posted on September 28, 2014 by AnnieRie

… I almost forgot to take pictures.

But, then I remembered.

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This is my green tomato pasta. Revved up a bit. The original, from here. I have strayed far from this recipe. Yet I love the concept.

This is what I did.

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Created my tomato base. A half dozen green “yellow plums”. A large handful of underripe cherry tomatoes. Those two just less than ripe zebras from the Friends and Farms basket. Put into a hot, olive oil slicked sauté pan. With some scallions. And a large helping of stuff from Harris Teeter’s olive bar. Artichokes. Hot peppers. Sun dried tomatoes. Garlic. Mushrooms. All heated up to make one very awesome sauce.

I added a couple of cubes of this.

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My mixed greens pesto. Made with radish greens. Arugula. Carrot tops. African blue basil. Parmesan. Almonds. I never measured to make it. Just put in what looked good. Sometimes I think we need to cook by the seat of our pants. And not get hung up on measurements.

The pasta.

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Of course, it was Pappardelle’s, bought at Secolari in the mall. Cracked pepper this time. With a good bite. And just barely done. For that slightly chewy texture.

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Served with a lovely 2012 Chardonnay from Linden. Just the right touch to cut through the richness of the dish. A local wine. A locally sold pasta. My tomatoes. My homemade pesto.

Easy to make.

Doesn’t get better, and not that hard to do. Even while watching the football games.

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Printing My Own Money

Posted on September 23, 2014 by AnnieRie

If you have the time, watch this video.

If you come away with a desire to start a garden, it is a WIN.

This year I put in a 500 square foot garden at the Howard County Conservancy. A community garden. The results are in. I must have harvested at least $500 worth of food. Already getting back my entrance fee and dwarfing my yearly $45 maintenance fee.

How did I do? Would you believe 139 POUNDS of tomatoes.

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The largest producer in terms of pounds were those yellow plum tomatoes. These three plants, the puniest I put in the ground, gave me 271 tomatoes, totaling 27 pounds. There’s quite a bit of oven roasted tomatoes in my freezer from this harvest. I did get 54 pounds of my heirlooms. The pineapple, hillbilly and German Johnson varieties.

What is astounding is the amount of tomatoes harvested from six plants. Over a 1000 supersweet 100’s and almost 900 sun gold, both varieties of cherry tomatoes. There were 31 pounds total from those plants.

As for zucchini, my four plants yielded 28 pounds of zucchini. Lots of fritters, bread, grilled or sautéed zucchinis on the table this year.

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Cucumbers. Thirty four of them from six plants. Not the best year for them, but not bad.

My winners, though. The onion, leek, shallot plantings. I will definitely do them again next year.

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Greens did well too. Lots of kale and chard. The chard is still producing.

I also planted arugula and Bibb lettuce for the fall. The garden is alive and well.

So much satisfaction in growing your own food.

Now, I do need to whack out all the basil and put the pesto away for the winter. My last task before planting next year’s garlic, and putting in a bit of ground cover.

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Advance Planning

Posted on September 20, 2014 by AnnieRie

One of the side benefits of getting the Friends and Farms basket is the advance notice which lets me meal plan. About one week in advance the notice is updated on the What’s in the Basket page.

With this information, I begin planning what to do for lunches and dinners. Like this past week.

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I knew we were getting Coho salmon. I planned tonight’s dinner to use it. I will be doing crock pot short ribs Tuesday night, since I will be out most of the day. Crock pot meals work well around here. Eggs, already there was a frittata last night. Why?

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Because of this lovely rainbow chard I am still getting from my garden.

The other protein item pictured above came from the available items listed at our pick up site. The office in Columbia. I wanted to try the hot dogs for an upcoming picnic. They are from the main meat supplier to Friends and Farms. Wayne Nell and Sons. They sell Sechrist Brothers all beef hot dogs.

As for the rest of my basket, here is most of it.

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Everything is there but the arugula, Which was off to the side and I forgot about it. Found it later. Thankfully hydroponic arugula can be revived easily. Just add water.

The broccoli is destined to be steamed for dinner tonight. The mushrooms, with CSA bok choy and chicken will be stir fried. The potatoes already became potato salad to use with the hot dogs. The eggplant, with the red bell peppers I got from the CSA will become my ajvar, to use for those quick dinners where I spread it on flatbread and grill it.

The tomatoes, sliced to be the salad with dinner tonight. And, the zucchini will become fritters tomorrow night. To serve with the chicken I made the other day.

I bake all the chicken breasts I get and plan meals around them. Maybe a chicken Caesar salad. Or the upcoming stir fry. I get three or four dinners a week from my basket.

I also get dinner to the table quickly by doing that bulk cooking in advance. Like Thursday when we got home late. A quick bake of a frozen flatbread. A slather of ajvar and a sprinkling of goat cheese. A green salad on the side. Voila. Dinner.

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Tidbit Tuesday Again

Posted on September 16, 2014 by AnnieRie

Lots of random small talk today.

How about housekeeping? As in cleaning out the garden, getting ready for fall, and cleaning up my web pages.

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The Malabar spinach is going to seed. The big question is whether I will save seeds and replant in the spring. I didn’t use much of it. It did act as a very strong pollinator attracter though. Well, so did the basil.

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I imagine that the Conservancy bees got lots of pollen from the basil in the garden. Some days it was covered in honey bees.

Sometime this weekend I will be harvesting all the basil and there will be a pesto making marathon in my kitchen. I hit Whole Foods Sunday morning to get almonds and Parmigiano Reggiano for my pesto. Go early before the breakfast crowd shows up.

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It is almost time to plant the garlic. I have about two dozen cloves ready to go into my back yard garden. Once the trees start dropping leaves, they will get enough sun all winter and spring to grow and be harvested in early summer.

We are completely reconfiguring the Conservancy community garden plot. There will be four large squares instead of four rows. One for herbs. One for tomatoes. One for peppers, leeks, shallots and onions. And, one for everything else. I did plant some arugula and lettuce for fall. We learned quite a bit this year.

Keep the onions away from the corner where the hoses are. The excess water rotted a few of my onions.

Put paths around the outside. It keeps down on weed infiltration.

More on gardening in the near future. Let’s now turn to the other trivial things I have done. I updated a few items on my pages. Adding a couple of blogs I read. Making sure the farm page is up to date. Checking that I didn’t forget anything on my food preservation page. I still need to update my local resources, and to add my new page, still in draft, on HOCOBIZ. This will be my page that highlights small businesses in the area where I find really good service. These businesses are mostly family owned, but aren’t my food sources. Places like Kendalls, Clarks Hardware, British American. Oh, and restaurants. I will be putting a restaurant category on that page.

Yep, it’s time to do that fall cleaning. Like leaf raking. And weed removal. And, putting those wintery things in the cars. Where are those stupid ice scrapers anyway? Just hoping not to find too many days like this.

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Synergy

Posted on September 11, 2014 by AnnieRie

When the whole is so much greater than the parts. Or, how we can feed ourselves wonderfully using two regional sources that add up to a week’s worth of outstanding meals.

A different take this week. Grouping.

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Protein. Both of our food sources, Lancaster Farm Fresh, and Friends&Farms. It was a chicken heavy week. F&F is trying out a new supplier. Bell and Evans. This week it was boneless skinless chicken breasts. Which have already become dinner. Pics at the end of the blog post.

My LFFC chicken share (that reminds me, check fall sign up) had three packages this week. Thighs, breasts and drumsticks. I should have done a throwdown between the two suppliers.

As for the rest of the Friends and Farms protein. It was an egg week. And, smoked bacon. A half pound of Nell and Sons ground pork. I am thinking frittata with the pork and eggs. Making the bacon to use with some greens. And, with a really good potato salad.

Let’s move over to fruit.

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Stanley plums and apples. From F&F. I am thinking of one huge gorgeous plum cake to take to the pot luck for Conservancy volunteers. As for LFFC. Three huge peaches. Destined to become peach pepper jelly. More on that later.

KIWIBERRIES! Check out the site to see where these lovely little gems originate. One of the real benefits of belonging to LFFC. Exotic fruits and vegetables.

There were two packages in our fruit share this week.

Vegetables. First, the LFFC half share.

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We have four ears of bicolor sweet corn. Cauliflower. Hot mixed peppers. Pink radishes. Beets. Rainbow chard. Edamame and green beans in the colander. The French breakfast radishes came out of the swap box, as I gave up my green mizuna. I have enough greens in the house.

Moving over to F&F.

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They advertised this week as wrap week. Using that awesome hydroponic butter lettuce. Raw peanuts. Scallions. Cucumbers. Thai basil. Heirloom cherry tomatoes. Zucchini (can you say fritters).

For the next week, like all our other weeks, we will enjoy homemade goodness, like this.

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Tonight I baked, in the same large pan, the Bell and Evans chicken breasts. Two for dinner tonight. One for my husband to take for a dinner while radio contesting this weekend. Last week’s cauliflower. Covered with olive oil, white balsamic, garam masala and salt. Last week’s tomato. Split open and filled with Italian dressing. A side salad from hydroponic lettuce, cucumber and radish. That meant I used up the last of the veggies from a week ago, and I am ready to take on this week’s.

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So Far This Week

Posted on September 9, 2014 by AnnieRie

Not even halfway through, and already we’ve had our share of exciting times. Right here in the heart of Howard County.

Tonight, it was a blog party at Nottingham’s. When we lived in Columbia we used to enjoy going there and relaxing at their Tiki Bar.

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Even though they are located in an office complex, they hid the bar quite well so you don’t get the parking lot/storm water management pond views.

I like their pool tables, their Wii system, the laid back, kick you shoes off and enjoy yourself atmosphere. We were in the Event Room tonight. About 40-50 of us, talking, enjoying the Happy Hour and doing our networking thing that the local bloggers do.

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Thanks to Nottingham’s for the hospitality. It was a good “Hump Day-eve” event.

Earlier this week also saw me doing major time in the gardens, for the Conservancy auction basket collection, and the Food Bank harvesting. Still I had time to check out the bee interest in my garden.

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It does remind me however that I need to whack back the basil and get the pesto done for the winter. I spent time harvesting, cleaning and doing a little bit of planting. I put in arugula and lettuce. And pulled out the last of the peppers.

Next on my agenda is the removal of the spent tomato vines.

As for my other wanderings this week, I did food delivery to my better half who was ground crew for tower maintenance. He spent Monday at W3LPL’s helping him on one of the towers.

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For the record, he says he can see Dulles Airport from up there. We’ll take his word on it.

It’s only Tuesday and we’ve just scratched the surface of things going on around here. I still have naturalist training later this week at the Conservancy, and my husband has more antenna support work plus some tower procurement and a radio contest weekend.

Oh yeah, I’m helping my mom move in my “spare” time.

I need to go back to work. I could use the rest.

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Small Packages

Posted on September 4, 2014 by AnnieRie

As in good things come in small packages. If you were an individual, or a working couple who traveled or ate out more than twice a week, a CSA wasn’t always a good fit.

For us, having the option to pick a half share, or an individual basket at two local food sources here in Howard County, has been really enlightening. It gives us more freedom, while giving us affordable fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, bread and herbs.

We, being retired, do like having both options. An individual basket from Friends and Farms, and a half share CSA from the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative.

Here’s what we got and what we are doing with this week’s Friends and Farms share.

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This is the vegetable and bread portion. Two lovely large red peppers. Five peaches. Two ears of corn. Green beans. Garlic. An onion. Two heirloom tomatoes. A loaf of honey whole wheat bread.

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The green beans and corn were steamed for dinner tonight.

As for the protein.

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Yellowfin tuna. I did order an extra piece as the individual share only gives you one portion. A small tri tip steak. Scamorza cheese, a take on mozzarella.

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The tuna was slow cooked tonight with one of the tomatoes, and one of my heirloom pineapple tomatoes. Covered with lemon zest, olive oil, white wine vinegar and herbs.

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Definitely a good start to using the basket. Tomorrow night. Grilled tri tip, with leftover mushrooms from last week. Caprese salad using the other tomato and some of the scamorza.

The peppers, along with some eggplant from my other source, will become a dip this weekend.

I like the way my two sources complement one another. Easy, seasonal fresh food.

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T’storms

Posted on September 3, 2014 by AnnieRie

As in one of the more prolific storms that have hit us this summer. Almost half an inch of rain in ten minutes last night.

To me, thunderstorms and massively heavy rainfall impact my garden. To me, that garden is a luxury and not my life. I feel for all our local farmers dealing with these deluges.

At least I got most of my tomatoes off the vine yesterday morning, before the skies opened.

I did learn one very important lesson from my winery friend. When the weather is periods of heavy rain for much of the summer, leave your weeds around your vegetables. Some vegetables, like my tomatoes, don’t like more than an inch of rain a week. The weeds compete for all that moisture, and the tomatoes do better. In periods of drought, you need to weed aggressively.

This year, the weeds may look bad, but they are keeping my tomato plants from rotting.

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I have learned also to go out there and pick the tomatoes before they really split open, and are prone to rotting.

Every year poses new challenges. This year, cool rainy weather. Did you know we never hit 90 degrees here in August until the last day of the month?

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