Tag Archives: gardening

Frozen Foods

Posted on December 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

My way. Cooked from scratch out of the freezer. I made homemade bolognese sauce today, to be served with egg noodles for dinner tonight. The sauce makes the house smell wonderful, and most of the ingredients came out of the freezer this morning.

saturday shopping and cooking 173

Breezy Willow sausage. I used half of it yesterday in dinner, a layered egg based dish. Today I put the other half in a pot with an onion, garlic, and I grated some frozen carrot over it for natural sweetness. Look at how little fat there is in the bottom of the pan. Amazing when you buy fresh meat from the farmers. Not a lot of filler and grease.

breads pics and dinner with sausage 032

The carrot addition was something I learned this summer. Peel, blanch and freeze small carrots. Take one or two out of the freezer and grate them right into your sauce. When they are frozen they grate up nicely and it takes less time than dicing carrots. I also added my heirloom Amish paste tomatoes right out of the freezer.

breads pics and dinner with sausage 034

They provide the cooking liquid for the sauce. I added a little spice, and two tablespoons of tomato paste. Let it simmer for about 45 minutes, and perfume the house with the smell of oregano, garlic and onion.

breads pics and dinner with sausage 038

Tonight it will be simple to heat it up, boil some of the egg noodles I got out at England Acres, grate some Parmesan on top and toast a few pieces of bread. An arugula salad on the side. Another locavore meal, right out of my freezer. Loving all the tomatoes that I put away in the summer.

end of august 009

Back in August. Blanched, peeled, seeds removed and packed away for days like today.

hocofood@@@

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Tree and Garden Maintenance

Posted on December 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

Today was a clean up day. We had landscapers come out to do the final clean up of derecho damaged trees, before we put up the crank up tower in the yard. We don’t need trees coming down on the guy wires or the tower. Now that the leaves are gone, you could definitely pick out damaged trees that strong winds could bring down.

tree maintenance 017

While out there, I took advantage of the mild weather and finished the haircuts on the spirea. Cleaned out those flower beds.

tree maintenance 022

I really cut them way back. Not a bad idea. They come in more vigorous every summer and have created almost a hedge of sorts. This is what they looked like in the summer. The bunny is a bonus. Baby bunnies, birds, chipmunks, all love to hide in the spirea.

fair and anniversary and csa 025

I also made my first attempt to clean out the veggie garden. It is a real mess. Full of dead tomato plants and overtaken by morning glory vines. I pulled out many of the cages and cleaned them.

tree maintenance 014

I was careful to salvage my tomato ties and not throw away any sticks, ties or rope. The tomato plants will not go into compost. I don’t need them growing in the compost pile. The twisty ties were collected and brought in the house to put away for next year.

tree maintenance 002

This garden plot is going to become herbs, lettuces and cool weather plants only. There will be a new garden next year. I need to get out into the field where I get more sunshine. The trees have now grown to a point where they shade the current garden site. Morning sun doesn’t come in until after 7 am. The sun starts disappearing behind the maple after 3 pm. Next year it will be worse as the trees get even taller.

There will be a new plot dug in and fenced. 20 by 40 is my goal. My 30 by 10 garden will now have a very large neighbor. This is the year I will do pumpkins, watermelon and lots more squash. Off into the field we will go. Oasis, who did today’s tree maintenance will be tilling and creating my new one. Ron is a local business owner, just a few miles down the road on Triadelphia Mill Rd. He and his crew did a great job today.

The new home for the garden.

autumn in the meadow milkweed 091

The tall grasses are my neighbor’s property. We cut ours so we can put the radio towers there. Now, I just have to find a way to keep these visitors from jumping the fence.

fall plus csa week 3 2012 027

The deer think nothing about galloping through our meadow and racing across my other neighbor’s front yard. The day I caught this one with the camera there were four of them out there.

Well, winter will be here in two days. I think this year is the earliest for my plant pruning, and I have a head start on garden maintenance. Time to hibernate for the winter, and hope we don’t have ice storms. At least if we do, we have pruned the trees to keep them from breaking off.

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Guilt Free Corn Chowder

Posted on December 12, 2012 by AnnieRie

Compliments of learning new techniques from other CSA bloggers. When you get a huge amount of root veggies, you have the option of making soups and stocks out of them. Roasting them first gives them even more flavor.

soup base and catoctin 041

Roasting the veggies is fairly simple. Rutabaga, turnips, onions, leeks. I cut them large if I am going to make a soup base. Sprinkle them with whatever looks good in the spice rack. Today I used Emeril’s Essence, thyme, parsley, paprika, garlic powder and sage. I also found that with the mild weather, my herbs are still hanging in there. I brought in some oregano, rosemary and thyme to add to the pan. They will be discarded at the end.

soup base and catoctin 036

The herbs add that extra level of taste to the veggies and they smell so good while roasting. I roasted the veggies at 350 degrees, after drizzling with a neutral oil. I used grapeseed. I added the secret ingredient too. Almond milk. I put a splash in the pan. The rest of the quart will be added to the soup while it is cooking on the stove top. This is how I get a creamy soup base with no cream. One hour in the oven.

soup base and catoctin 049

Dump everything into the pot. Add the rest of the almond milk. Let it simmer for at least an hour, and blend in a blender to the consistency you want. I added garam masala to the pot too. This is what it looks like when you are finished.

corn soup 001

I then added the last of the England Acres chicken, and corn from the freezer. The last of the TLV corn that I blanched and froze in October.

chicken corn chowder, no cream

chicken corn chowder, no cream

I put it all in the pot and just turned it on as low as it will go. The flavors should blend nicely and in a few hours we will have corn chowder for dinner. Served with some bread from a local bakery, bread I found at England Acres Saturday, it will be a satisfying locally sourced dinner. Except for the almond milk and the spices.

The bread:

Spring Mill Bread

Spring Mill Bread

Dense, chewy, really good. Now I have a new source for breads. Easy to pick up, they even sell frozen loaves at England Acres on weekends when the farm store is open. Fresh or frozen. Another good locally baked bread to add to my list.

Besides dinner tonight, I got a pint and a quart of the soup base. Already in the freezer, to be used when my CSA runs out in two weeks. I still need to use up these carrots and the rest of the root veggies in the crisper.

overflowing with purple carrots, leeks and turnips

overflowing with purple carrots, leeks and turnips

I know that having a full share in a CSA gives much more than two people can eat in a week, but using this freezer has made it work, and for the ten weeks we don’t get veggies, I won’t be using the grocery stores much as a source. I will be using what came all summer and fall.

hocofood@@@

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Transformation

Posted on December 7, 2012 by AnnieRie

In one year. From a freezer full of grocery store items, and a pantry full of processed foods. It was one of my biggest resolutions last year. Start cooking real food. Use up the CSA. Support our local farmers and markets and small businesses as much as possible.

Now, the pantry has more staples and less packaged items. Most of it organic. The two freezers are full, with very few packaged items in them. Today I finally reached the point where the only meat in the freezer is locally sourced. All of it. From the local farms, and from grass fed and/or free range animals. It may cost a bit more, but we have learned to eat smaller portions and make the veggies on the plate more than half the plate.

birthday dinner 011

Dinners like my husband’s birthday meal featured small filets, lots of green and red veggies, and it was truly filling and good for us, as well. Portioning out the meat and fish is the way I do it now.

Yesterday I added this to the freezer. Took us a while to inventory and it definitely filled the freezer in the kitchen.

soup CSA and venison 107

Thirty seven pounds of venison. From the farm across the road. Our neighbor hunts over there, getting meat for us. We have the large garden, and supply them with tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, etc. from our garden in the summer. He bow hunts to keep the doe population under control around here, for us and the other neighbors who farm and garden.

Today the crock pot has a lovely venison chili bubbling away in it. The only non local items in the pot are the organic black beans, the olive oil, spices and herbs. The tomatoes came from my garden. The onions, sweet peppers and jalapeno, all from the CSA.

venison black bean chili

venison black bean chili

I have two weeks left in the CSA, then a break for two and a half months. I will be using my foods from the freezer and hitting the Saturday and Sunday markets at the farms, and in Olney. I still need to get seafood and occasionally I will buy from Boarmans for cuts that I can’t get from the farmers, but I finally have decided to minimize my exposure to meats from animals given hormones and/or antibiotics.

Local farms that will have markets this winter.

Breezy Willow on Saturdays
TLV Tree Farm on Saturdays
Clarks Farm on Saturdays
England Acres on Saturday and Sunday

Olney will have an indoor market at the Sandy Spring Museum, beginning in January. Add them to the current year round markets, in Silver Spring, Tacoma Park and Dupont Circle. All of those are a drive from here, but an occasional visit to DC for Sunday brunch and some goodies is worth it.

I am keeping my local resources page up to date, as much as I can. We are so lucky here in Howard County to have fresh food, eggs, dairy, cheese, ice cream, meats, honey, and lots of local canned and frozen specialties, made by local farmers and local companies. Just because the markets have ended in Howard County doesn’t mean we can’t find sources for the winter.

hocofood@@@

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Round Up Those Resolutions

Posted on December 3, 2012 by AnnieRie

Having a blog means getting to see what you said you were going to do in your New Year’s Resolutions. And then, when you revisit them, see if you made any progress, or just forgot about them. I did revisit in April.

Then, I did forget to see if I did anything. It’s been almost eight months, and I think before I make any resolutions for 2013, I should see if I accomplished any of the 2012 ones. Why make resolutions just to ignore them, or shelve them?

I did get that freezer. It is full. I am using it. Garlic scape pesto, chicken and turkey broth, chunky tomato sauce, all being used. CSA veggies being preserved in it and nothing going to waste. I think I can call this one a win.

pesto, fruit, veggies, broth ready for winter

pesto, fruit, veggies, broth ready for winter

We didn’t bid on a 4H animal this year, but I am getting venison tomorrow. Changing into almost 100% locally supplied beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb and now, venison. Not buying from grocery stores. That is a huge change in our consumption. I think that is another win. I even started buying bones from the Mt. Airy butcher to make my own stocks.

beef bones for stock

beef bones for stock

I did lose weight, even with the set back of surgery. Not very much, but down from a year ago. That will be another major goal next year. Make it a double digit loss, though, instead of a cumulative single digit loss. Still, six pounds down from a year ago isn’t bad.

Didn’t do chickens, or a cold frame. We think we will pass on the chickens, until we find a better place for my garden and get the radio towers positioned. Still want to do the cold frame.

As for baking and cooking. Didn’t bake that much, but did get cookies done for the Holiday Mart. Decided baking and losing weight are a problem, unless you bake to give away.

Cooking, on the other hand. Doing lots more and getting creative. Pumpkin hummus. Ajvar, now a staple in my recipe file. More cinnamon, garlic and other Mediterranean flavors. The venison will become many stews and chilis. I want to use tomatillos in it. I have branched out to new items.

ajvar and hummus

ajvar and hummus

All in all, I am pleased with this year’s changes. And, yes, we did a bit of decluttering. The boxes in our garage from my husband’s office are gone. The shed has been cleaned to remove all leftovers from the roof, gutter and siding replacement jobs. Now, to get the tractor out of the garage so my car can go back in it. Before we get SNOW! That is one of my final big goals. But, at the moment tower parts, cable, rotors, antenna parts, all are still in the shed and the tractor needs just a bit more floor space than we have there. Hope that getting this crank up done this week will get me back in the garage. Keeping my fingers crossed.

making progress on the first tower

making progress on the first tower

I guess I will make public resolutions for 2013. I seem to have done OK this year. Still loving the CSA and knowing I can eat locally year round in Howard County was a very pleasant surprise and motivates me to keep doing it. I need to update the local resources page to keep it current and show where things can be bought in the winter.

Oh, almost forgot. Still volunteering and loving it. In 2013, I will be helping with programs at the Conservancy to showcase local farmers and artisans. Can’t give up that precious gift of time.

hocofood@@@

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A Windowsill Full of Sunshine

Posted on November 28, 2012 by AnnieRie

It may be cold and blustery out, but it is so satisfying to pull out the last of the bag ripened tomatoes from the laundry room, where they have been ripening for a month, and line them up on the windowsill. Evoking memories of summer.

I had picked the last of the green tomatoes on October 20th, and put them away to ripen. The little ones ripened first and were used, but these were the last to turn. They sat in a dark cool corner of the laundry room for a month. Closed in a paper bag.

They mostly survived. I had to toss a few of them. They obviously don’t have that fresh from the vine taste, but are much nicer than store bought tomatoes. I will make a pasta dish with these, sauteed and adding some of my pesto I will pull out of the freezer. Back from when I was overloaded with basil and put up containers in the freezer.

Here’s to memories of summer and my garden.

hocofood@@@

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Shirt Sleeve Weather

Posted on November 12, 2012 by AnnieRie

aka Indian Summer

This weekend and today certainly have been those types of days. The high today is supposed to hit 70 degrees. It was a beautiful morning. The maple finally peaked, and I had to record it before the rains come tomorrow and bring down most of the leaves. It is amazing how it turns from green to yellow to red within the span of a week.

the maple today

This morning it was just spectacular, as seen from the driveway coming into the property. And below, this is the closer look from last Tuesday, as it was just really beginning to change.

the maple beginning to turn

We finally got the garage doors cleaned. We were out there in jeans and T shirts. Can not believe how nice it has been.

no more dirt and grime left from Sandy

With how nice it was, we considered lunch outdoors. After all, the patio was sunny and we were repositioning the furniture back where it belongs and returning the place to its pre-storm condition. We could not believe how much trash and junk was blown under and around all the plant beds, but now it is cleaned up. Finally. The bird feeders are all hung. The branches and most of the leaves cleaned up. The only thing left is cutting back the spirea and the spice bush, once we have a few more freeze warnings and they all lose their leaves.

I made us salads using CSA veggies, and we wandered outside to enjoy the warmth of the sun. The salads include one of my favorite ways to serve chicken and swiss. Getting one thick slice of each at Boarman’s. This time I got some honey BBQ chicken breast. Cut it in cubes and serve on top of greens with an apple diced on top.

chef’s salad, my way

Loving the Hakurei turnips and the French breakfast radishes on this salad. Can’t wait to see what goodies the CSA brings this week.

hocofood@@@

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Milkweed in the Meadow

Posted on November 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

It doesn’t take much to make me happy some days. Like wandering out to take pictures and finding this in the newly mowed edge of the meadow out back.

dried split milkweed seed pod

Milkweed. That wonderful host plant for monarch butterflies. The butterflies we rarely see, but they are in our area because I have seen them twice in our meadow. Never when I had my camera though. I did once find one that lost a fight with some predator and was in pieces off the edge of our patio last year.

But, now that I know where we have milkweed, we can watch and look for the larva and the chrysalis. We have rescued, watched, then released many monarchs at the Conservancy. If I get proficient at it, and can safely move the chrysalis to an area where they can be protected, they have a much better chance of making it to adulthood.

Once I found the seed pod in our area, I did a little looking around and found a few dozen pods in an area about 200 square feet.

I harvested the pods to use at the Conservancy for a project. I decided to spread the seeds around even though they weren’t optimum for drying and transplanting. The pods had all been split and the seeds were past their prime.

I did find quite a few milkweed beetles too.

While out looking to see if there were other areas of milkweed, I did have to be careful to avoid the many many piles of deer scat. It looks like the deer have been chowing down on our part of the meadow. My husband gave the meadow the last cutting of the year, so it could regenerate those varieties of ground plants that the deer enjoy. Obviously, they were grazing for a long time.

deer scat all over the meadow

They also like one place in our front yard. We try to watch the ground when walking across the grass to the mailbox. All in all, it was a pleasant day today. The meadow is in its glory, and I love to walk back there, even if I hadn’t found milkweed, it was still a beautiful sight in the fall.

As a bonus, I have a bag of milkweed seed pods to use at the crafts fair in December for the children’s critter craft area.

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The View from the Yard

Posted on November 8, 2012 by AnnieRie

No, not Camden. Dayton. Our yard. Where we have spent countless hours the past week, cleaning up and getting ready for winter. We spent lots of time outside, since our house was so cold. I was going to title this post, Heat, Glorious Heat.

When I came home today from dropping off food, cleaning supplies and clothes at the hocorising household for Mrs. hocorising to take to Jersey, I came home finally to a warm house. The heat pump is fixed. All is right in my world. Some mornings the temps on our first floor were in the 50s, and we were wearing fleece sweaters and/or vests all day. Going outside to work was better than shivering in the kitchen or family room.

So, what did we get to see outside. Mostly, since the leaves are falling, we got to see what trees were down, or coming down, since the canopy is gone and you can see the bare branches. It looks like we still have a fair amount of work to clean up the large pieces, so we don’t lose the trees we want to keep on our property line. You see, we moved out here for the privacy and between last year’s hurricane, this June’s derecho, and Superstorm Sandy, we lost quite a bit of deciduous cover.

sheared off trees of heaven

Some of our better older trees were damaged too. The derecho sheared off trees, while the hurricane uprooted them. We now need to decide what to plant to maintain our property line.

What also is amazing is how many pine cones came down. I have been collecting them for the Conservancy to use at the Natural Crafts Fair for Christmas. The first weekend in December as part of the crafts fair, they set up an area for children to make really adorable gifts using pine cones, acorns, wood, sticks and other natural items. I have a boatload of pine cones. The description from the web site. Put it on your calendar.

HC Conservancy — DEC 1 – Saturday 9 am to 3 pm Natural Holiday Sale and Crafts. Enjoy a lovely Saturday. Browse tables of natural gift items, create critters from seed pods and natural gatherings. Enjoy beautiful music with a cup of tea. Our popular holiday sale with talented local craft vendors, delicious refreshments, and nature critter crafts for the children of all ages. FREE.

Now that the ground cover is gone, and you can see the property line, you can find the old fence posts and barbed wire that delineated the horse pasture from other parts of the original farm. Our house is in the middle of what was the horse pasture. That is why our soil is so good, all that lovely horse manure churned into the soil, turning clay into something lovely.

It is interesting living here. We have fruit trees, hickory trees, berry bushes, mulberry trees, all sorts of ground covers and grasses. I love the meadow every season.

Our crab apples got many of their berries knocked off, but my neighbor’s did OK. Hopefully, that means we will have our resident cedar waxwings hanging around gorging on berries. Like they did last year. They love it here, even if it gets a little windy.

Just another fall week in West County.

hocoblogs@@@

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A Snow Sky

Posted on November 7, 2012 by AnnieRie

After a lovely day yesterday, today we wake to a prediction of snow. Don’t know how much, but whatever we get, it won’t hang around long if the temperatures rise to the 50s and 60s like they are supposed to reach over the weekend.

I gave the ornamental grasses their fall pruning. I have one left to do. Otherwise, they blow all over the property. We also did a massive leaf cleanup during the lovely weather yesterday. The piles sit waiting for our rake and take compost partner to pick up in her truck sometime soon. She hauled away almost this much yesterday. At least our leaves are turning into compost for gardens. Some of it here. Some of it just down the road from us, at our partner’s home.

If you live out here in west county, and don’t get yard waste removal, like us, consider partnering with the county rake and take program to turn your leaves into compost. Our partner has lots of conifers, but not the deciduous trees needed for that brown component for compost. The yard is getting bare of leaves, with the exception of our maple, which is just turning now.

Besides the leaves and the sky, today I found new residents feasting on the suet. It has been a while since we have seen the red breasted nuthatches. Two of them have been here lately, and one was on the far side of the suet while I was taking leaf pictures. The other, in the tree above, was a little harder to photograph.

red breasted nuthatch

Did you know that the nuthatches are the only birds that can travel head first down the side of a tree? This picture is a little blurry, but you get the action.

Now that I have had a coffee break, and downloaded the morning pictures, it’s time to get back out there and cut back the last of the ornamental grasses. I left the largest one for last. But still, all in all, spending the day outdoors enjoying the fall foliage left on the property, is one of the simple pleasures of living out here.

Here’s to the weekend looking as lovely as yesterday. If you get the chance, head outside this weekend to an outdoor event, or to one of the markets. Here’s the Ellicott City calendar.

hocoblogs@@@

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