Tag Archives: weather

Fall Sneaking Up on Us

Posted on September 3, 2013 by AnnieRie

Signs that we are heading towards that change of season.

My first Thelma Sanders squash, hidden under the leaves in a corner of the garden.

Berries on the crab apples. A bumper crop of berries. Here’s hoping we get the cedar waxwings who love to feast on the berries.

Rhododendron buds are really plentiful this year as well. Last year there was lots of growth but not that many blooms. This year, all the rain was good to them and they put out huge amounts of buds, which means lots of flowers next May.

Morning glories completely out of control. I didn’t prune them back this year. A friend who grows grapes told us in rainy seasons to let the flowers and weeds get close to your garden. In the case of a very wet summer, their competition for the moisture will be beneficial to keeping your veggies and fruit from diseases caused by too much water.

A basil plant that decided to rise from the ruins of the bunny devastation of last spring. I have no idea how it came back from its puny little nub left after the rabbits got to it.

Newly mowed meadow. Ready to be baled. Driving my sinuses nuts, but it really looks forlorn, where once there was all this tall lovely grass.

Lots of green tomatoes still out there, hiding and in plain sight. I figure we have about four or five more weeks before the weather changes for good, and I have to bring them in if they don’t ripen. Right now I am still getting lots of slicing tomatoes, but all the paste tomatoes are about finished for the year.

Weather is lovely, isn’t it? Temps in the low eighties and high seventies. Cool nights.

The blue basil is going to seed. Time to do the last big harvest and make another boatload of pesto.

Enjoy this weather while we can!

hocofood@@@

3 Comments

Posted in Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, Howard County, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Garden Update

Posted on August 30, 2013 by AnnieRie

The garden is hanging in there but the stink bugs are out in force, so I have resorted to picking the tomatoes just before they get ripe and sweet. Cuts down on the damage.

The one on the top left is an Amana orange heirloom. It will turn orange on the windowsill. The other larger heirloom is a mortgage lifter. This year they are not getting huge. The weather hasn’t been hot enough. A couple of orange romas, one Polish linguisa, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and one lonely sun sugar.

The supersweet 100s are done. I have yet to get a ripe pineapple tomato, even though right now there are dozens of green ones on the vines. Got what looks to be the last Paul Robeson yesterday. The hillbillies and the boxcar willie plants also have dozens of green tomatoes on them. Hope we continue to have nice days, in order to ripen them.

I am glad I put in 48 plants, as many of them are underachieving this year.

I have gotten my share of weird plants too. Like this one.

I could have put it in the fair for strange looking plants.

The CSA has also given us some winners. Like this eggplant with a “nose”.

Garden and CSA veggies played well tonight for dinner, where I made my ratatouille pie. Using Breezy Willow bacon and feta, England Acres eggs, Trickling Springs milk, and a combination of CSA squash, eggplant and onion, and my tomatoes for the ratatouille base. I really love this pie. Like a quiche.

I used store bought pie crust this time. Being lazy. Bake the pie crust until almost done. I used two crusts for this. One on the base, and one hand torn and placed around the top of the deep dish.

Mix two cups of ratatouille with 1/4 cup grated cheese and about 6 strips of crisp bacon, torn into pieces. Dump on top the crust. Mix together four large eggs with 2 tablespoons of milk and 2 tablespoons of flour. Dump on top the ratatouille. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

Great with a Cabernet. Enough left for lunch this weekend.

hocofood@@@

Mezze

Posted on August 24, 2013 by AnnieRie

Inspiration.

If there was ever a moment that defined how my cooking changed, and how our view of dining also changed, it was a trip to Greece and the Islands in 2004. Third time lucky, I would say. We planned this trip three times. First, 9/11 canceled my 50th birthday present cruise scheduled for late fall 2002. The cruise lines pulled their ships from the Med. Our next attempt, on Windstar, was canceled due to the fact the ship caught on fire and sunk six months before our scheduled cruise.

Finally in 2004, we made it there. Right after the Olympics. There, in the islands, we learned to enjoy small plates of fresh food, simply prepared and eaten at leisure, with wine, a view and good friends.

Doesn’t this view beat that of a parking lot, or a storm water management pond?

This trip, and our trip to Provence, greatly influenced how I cook, and how we dine. We love putting together a mezze assortment. Mezze being the Greek equivalent of tapas.

And, we love dining out back watching the birds, squirrels, bunnies and butterflies.

Tonight I grilled some old pizza dough I found in the freezer. It looked ugly but tasted great. Put out an assortment of tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, and a jar of my ajvar. Nothing really fancy, just “flatbread” to dip and pile. Mix and match.

With a side arugula salad with balsamic.

No pictures of dinner tonight. Sometimes those messy plates of leftover goodies paired with bread or naan, are all we need to remember trips from the past. And, how good the fresh seafood, veggies and fruit tasted. Bought and enjoyed in exotic settings.

I don’t have to go to Greece to eat well. I can’t come up with a view that compares, but love my ajvar spread on charred warm pizza dough. Watching the crape myrtle in the sunlight. Not bad.

With a glass of old red wine. Loving the Saturday night. What’s your inspiration?

hocofood@@@

1 Comment

Posted in Food, Nature, Real Food, Remember When, Travel and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, grilling, nature, real food, travel, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Lucky 13, Week of the CSA

Posted on August 15, 2013 by AnnieRie

We scored a huge watermelon this week.

With nine other items.
1 bag Green Beans – Freedom Acres
1 bunch Dill – Kirkwood Herbs (I swapped for jalapenos)
1 bag San Marzano Roma Tomatoes – Maple Lawn Organics
6 ears Sweet Corn – Pine Hill Organics
1 bag Thumbalina Carrots – Farmdale Organics
1 bag Shallots – Shady Brook Organics
1 Red Seedless Watermelon – Misty Meadows
1 bag Yukon Gold Potatoes – Hillside Organics
1 pint Mixed Cherry Tomatoes – Farmdale Organics
1 bag Red Slicing Tomatoes – White Swan Acres

The whole picture here:

This week, just to show the difference, one of the 60% share members let me photograph their veggies before they divided them up. Two single friends share a 60% box. Besides getting a bit less than the full share, their amounts are smaller.

For a single vegetarian, or a couple, this is a perfect size for a CSA share. At less than $20 a week, most weeks they get 6-8 items. The baby eggplants were really cute. They get much more conventional veggies than the full share.

Right now, our pick up site is pretty full. A transferring member (from Silver Spring) was new this week. We had a nice visit and recipe swap between many of us today, as with perfect weather, we were out enjoying the sun without humidity.

As for value, I haven’t done a comparison lately, but today it was a really good easy one to do. Using prices for organic.

Corn $3 a half dozen
Cherry tomatoes $4
Slicing tomatoes @$3 a pound = $5
Watermelon $5
Green Beans $3
Heirloom Romas $4
Thumbelina Carrots $3
Shallots $2
Jalapenos $3
Potatoes, 4 pounds, $6

Total: $38 — Weekly Fee: $31

Some weeks it is even higher than this. Some weeks we get 12 or 13 items.

The CSA is such a bargain if you normally shop at organic stores, or farm stands.

Tonight for dinner, some of it made it onto our plates already. Like the corn.

Thanks to all the CSAs in the area, and the markets, fresh food is not far away.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Locavore, Weather and tagged CSA, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore, tomatoes, value of CSA, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

A Picture Perfect Day …

Posted on August 14, 2013 by AnnieRie

… for picking peaches. Oh, and Blackberries, too. At Larriland.

I dropped my husband off at his monthly Glenwood DX Association radio group’s luncheon at Town Grill in Lisbon, then headed off to pick blackberries.

An hour or so later, and five pounds of berries in the back of the car, I picked him up so he could help me pick peaches. Twenty seven pounds of peaches in less than 20 minutes.

Gorgeous peaches at $1.25 a pound if you pick more than 20 pounds. Tomorrow will be peach blanching, freezing and blending day.

The weather was perfect. There were lots of people at the peach picking sites, but I had most of the blackberry bush area to myself. My own row, as a matter of fact.

After a stop back at the red barn to get some canning supplies, an eggplant and a couple of red peppers to top off the ajvar, and home to process berries.

The best berries go into the freezer whole, are flash frozen, then packed in small bags. I got eight bags with about a cup of berries in each one. The ones on the top left are the less than perfect. I will drop them into boiling water briefly using a strainer, then put them in the blender with a little honey and just a touch of balsamic. They will be strained into syrup then put in an ice cube tray to freeze. The basis for vinaigrettes all winter. The top right are the “Eat Now” berries. For cereal. Yogurt. Salads. Snacks. They will be gone in two or three days probably, they are so good.

As for a few of the ripest peaches, they became part of dinner tonight.

Right on the grill with lemon olive oil and balsamic glaze.

Served with some Breezy Willow kielbasa, a local wine from Big Cork, and some pesto pasta salad.

Head on out to Larriland. The peaches and blackberries are down the road from the farm entrance (stay on Rte. 94 south) and a right turn into the picking areas.

hocofood@@@

3 Comments

Posted in Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather, West HoCo, Wine and tagged cooking, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, grilling, hobbies, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, weather, West HoCo, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Day Trippin’ Again

Posted on August 4, 2013 by AnnieRie

Almost a ritual now. Hamfest followed by winery. Today in Clarke County.

Berryville VA. One of our favorite “hamfests” to attend. Small town. Ruritan BBQ. Lots of radio tailgaters, selling everything and anything.

We pair the visits. He gets to wander around the antique equipment aisles and I get to visit a winery later, for lunch.

Today it was Doukenie, a new one for me.

After all, you can’t beat the view. Doukenie is just east of Charles Town WV and south of Lovettsville, across the Potomac from Brunswick.

We did a tasting, bought some sopressatta, smoked cheddar, a baguette and a couple of glasses of red wine, and watched the geese on the pond.

Took home a few bottles of their sauvignon blanc, which is nice, and some riesling and chardonnay. They have nice clean wines, and a beautiful site for picnics.

Yes, it was 75 degrees, no humidity, perfect weather. Are you sure it is still summer?

The First Tomatoes

Posted on July 23, 2013 by AnnieRie

Real tomatoes. Not the little cherry ones. The ones we wait for months to grow, blossom, set and ripen.

The ones on the left are some type of yellow roma. Umm, I didn’t plant yellow roma. Seems my yellow plum seedlings weren’t. No matter. These will get used for some interesting tomato sauces. I have four of these plants growing.

As for the one on the right, another mystery. Out of my ten Amish paste plants, this one came up right in the middle of the row. I don’t know what it is. Still researching. I took it off yesterday before the storm hit as it was starting to split. There is a variety out there called Large Yellow Amish that looks similar to this. I need to get a few more of them ripe to see if this is what came up.

The mortgage lifter and box car willie are about two or three days away from my first harvest. Then, taste testing to decide which variety works best for the county fair.

As for those hillbillies, they really are slow. And the pineapples haven’t given me anything but blossoms. I might have two or three Paul Robesons by the fair, but I am not holding my breath on those. Bad year, with all this rain.

As for the cherry tomatoes, they are coming in strong now.

There are large red cherry tomatoes. Sun sugar and supersweet 100s coming in. Interestingly enough, the supersweet 100s are the ones that have really been low producing. Hoping they get back on track and put out many tomatoes.

There is one lone Amish paste tomato on the tray. A small one. The rest of the Amish paste and Polish Linguisa tomato plants are full of green tomatoes. Nothing else ripening, but they are getting close. Hopefully, I will get enough to do sauces. I did see that the CSA will be offering 25 pound boxes of heirloom paste tomatoes again this year. I will be buying some if my plants continue to droop and turn yellow from all this rain.

Hoping to have lots of tomatoes for the Buy Local Challenge picnic Sunday at the Conservancy. Got a lovely ball of mozzarella at Breezy Willow last week, and my basil plants recovered from the bunny mauling. Sounds like a Caprese to me.

My favorite fresh mozzarella, nest to the feta I used in that watermelon salad.

African blue basil.

Last summer’s caprese. Can’t wait for this year’s, coming soon.

hocofood@@@

Five O’Clock Somewhere

Posted on July 17, 2013 by AnnieRie

Thanks to Jimmy Buffett again for a post title.

A refreshing use of local watermelon, frozen watermelon margarita.

It was definitely too hot to cook much, if at all, today. I actually had to water the tomatoes this morning. First time since early last month.

We blended up a nice, frosty couple of glasses of somewhat weak margaritas. I wanted the refreshing aspect and not a ton of alcohol, so this worked out nicely.

Another one of those Buy Local easy recipes. I filled the blender about halfway with watermelon. Added about three ounces of tequila, and an ounce of Cointreau Noir (all I had in the orange liqueur department). Squeezed the juice of two limes, and added a cup of crushed ice before blending.

Nothing like something fun to sip while getting dinner ready. I made a very easy dinner tonight. A cup of the potato salad I made yesterday morning. A cup of the gazpacho from the other day. A simple flatbread, made with pita bread. I did turn the oven on for ten minutes to make this.

First I oiled the pan and placed them on it. Added a covering of fresh sheep’s milk cheese from Breezy Willow, a coating of my carrot top & arugula pesto, and sprinkled some shredded zucchini on it. A little fresh thyme, salt, pepper and a drizzle of good Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Baked at 350 degrees for about 7-8 minutes until the cheese was bubbling.

Served with the soup and the potato salad.

hocofood@@@

3 Comments

Posted in Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Weather and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Watermelon. Feta. Mint. Heavenly!

Posted on July 14, 2013 by AnnieRie

Finally, summertime! Don’t know what is better, the salad or the gazpacho.

I suppose you could call this my “Buy Local Challenge” practice meal. There are at least ten locally sourced items in the dinner. For the challenge, you need to eat at least one a day for nine days. No requirement that the nine be different, but in the spirit of the challenge, finding nine locally sourced items and using them during the nine days would certainly be successful as a participant.

The watermelon, feta, mint salad is a summertime staple in our house. Simple. The watermelon is from a farm stand on the way home from our visit to Linden Vineyards. Feta is Bowling Green Farms from right up the road here in Howard County. Mint from my garden, bought years ago from Greenway Farms. Add some olive oil, salt, pepper and at the last minute squeeze the lime over it. An amazingly flavorful salad that just screams Summertime!

The gazpacho. My first of the season. CSA tomatoes, onion, and cucumber. Basil from my garden. A green pepper from that farm stand. A cup of Bloody Mary mix bought in St. Michael’s and sourced from Virginia. Some red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and a couple of garlic cloves left over from my Breezy Willow CSA in May. Blended together. No measuring. Just four tomatoes, one red onion, one green pepper, half a huge cucumber, and all the seasonings to taste. We like our gazpacho garlicky so I did toss in a teaspoon of garlic powder since I am waiting for my garlic to cure and I have none left otherwise.

The rest of the dinner?

A small filet of ahi, sesame crusted. A CSA potato, baked in the microwave and served with Trickling Springs butter. The little vat of garam masala spiced butter is for the corn on the cob that finished the meal.

Oh, and the wine?

Summertime in a glass. Linden Rosé.

And to round out a lovely Sunday dinner, my table arrangement from the garden. I can’t believe how the gladiolus are going absolutely nuts from the rain.

Oh, I almost forgot. We harvested our first six sun sugar tomatoes this morning. Whoo Hoo! Summer really is here.

Here’s to many more lazy flavorful local dinners!

hocofood@@@

2 Comments

Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Linden Vineyards, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, weather, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Simplest Summer Pleasures in the Garden

Posted on July 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

In a rare sun sighting, I was out checking on the state of the flowers, herbs, veggies and of course, the bunnies and the butterflies.

The butterfly bush finally bloomed and an Eastern tiger swallowtail was having a great time feasting on the flowers.

While out there I noticed that the yellow gladiolus are now coming into bloom. I am bringing in 5-6 new stalks every day. All this rain has created an explosion of them.

As for the herbs, the rosemary and thyme are so thick and getting so large, I am cutting them every few days. Rosemary is drying in the garage. I want this plant to remain short and bushy. As for the thyme, it is heading across the garden and creeping around other bushes.

On the tomato front, finally, the large cherry tomatoes and the sun sugar tomatoes are starting to turn color. I may finally have cherry tomatoes for salads by the middle of the coming week (three weeks later than last year).

As for the bunnies, they are overrunning the yard. At least they seem to be leaving my herbs and veggies alone for the moment. Half the time they don’t even run when I am out there.

Looks like if it stops raining, I need to do weeding again. They are rampant from all the rain. And, I have no idea where these volunteer plants came from, right in the middle of the herbs.

All in all, a good day out in the garden. Now, let’s bring on some sunshine and get the tomatoes ready for canning, eating and the fair. I did indulge in one of my favorite summer breakfasts. This was a CSA tomato, but I do it all the time with mine once they start producing.

Cut the tomato into thick slices, sprinkle with salt, eat it standing over the sink to catch the juices. Yum!

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Locavore, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore, nature, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

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Tag Archives: weather

Fall Sneaking Up on Us

Garden Update

Mezze

Lucky 13, Week of the CSA

A Picture Perfect Day …

Day Trippin’ Again

The First Tomatoes

Five O’Clock Somewhere

Watermelon. Feta. Mint. Heavenly!

Simplest Summer Pleasures in the Garden

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