What are You Eating from the Garden?

[SPedigrees]

Yesterday I discovered one last tomato in the pocket of my vest. It must have been there, forgotten, for a week after I plucked it from the vine. A final homegrown gift from the garden in my salad, along with garlic pickled green beans from the last farmers market.

Now it will be grocery store fare for the rest of fall, winter, and spring.

(note for British gardeners: by "vest" I mean the American version, aka a sleeveless winter jacket, as opposed to the British term meaning a men's undershirt!)

 

[Branching Out]

Yesterday I tried my hand at making Banh Mi sandwiches for the first time. I made it with a large gherkin-type cucumber as well as lettuce from the garden, pickled onions, avacado, and some leftover chicken. Not exactly the traditional version of this Vietnamese street food but a good start just the same. Next time I might try it with pork, chilis, and cilantro as it should be. They also recommend adding a dash of a salty sauce and that definitely would have been a good idea. The price of fresh buns from the bakery are getting kind of expensive and I like to bake, so I might just try baking the buns myself. That would be a good winter project.

How To Make Bánh Mì (Vietnamese Baguette)

Make your own Vietnamese baguettes! These bánh mì have a light and cottony crumb with a super crispy crust! An authentic recipe!

fullofplants.com

Bánh Mì Recipe - Vietnamese Sandwiches w/ Pork Belly - Hungry Huy

This traditional bánh mì recipe has savory pork belly, fatty & salty spreads, crunchy pickles and fresh veggies for a delicious Vietnamese sandwich.

www.hungryhuy.com

 

[Branching Out]

Not sure what got into me, but it would appear I made Bahn Mi baguettes. I followed the recipe that's linked above, but doubled it and added extra yeast (1 1/2 tsp for 500g flour); it made six nice sized little hoagie-type rolls. As this bread is new to me I was unsure how to score them before baking, so I watched a video that used two short slashes across each bread. I tried that as well as one lengthwise slash, and I must say I prefer the single slash. The final product turned out great, far exceeding my expectation. I filled a couple of them with tuna and egg salad for our lunch, adding fresh lettuce and dill from the garden. Delicious!

 

[flowerbug]

they came out very well. congrats!

 

[Branching Out]

Figured it was time to cut into one of the Winter King and Queen watermelons. The flesh was kind of spongy which was less than ideal; the taste was mild and pleasant. Not too bad considering the wet conditions that they have been growing in. I saved a few seeds on the off chance that they will be able to sprout and grow next summer.

Then this morning I tried a new recipe for Red Pepper Confit. You chop up the red peppers really small, and then simmer them for about an hour in olive oil with a pinch of sea salt. We had some of the confit on artisan bread with butter this evening, and it was fantastic. This confit was made with a mixture of Red Hot Cherry, Alpine Poblano, and Basque Hot peppers. As I prepped the peppers I saved lots and lots of beautiful cream coloured seeds for sharing. Now I'm interested in sourcing the specific seeds for the peppers that the author refers to in this recipe. They are called Doux des Landes, and they grow in Normandy. https://onruetatin.com/2018/08/10/pepper-confit/

 

[digitS']

Yesterday lunch, vegetable beef soup.

Potatoes from the basement cellar room, celery root, carrots and sweet peppers from fridge. Garlic.

Mustard greens from a final harvest were with dinner. We have a dozen Scotch kale plants in the garden which will provide a little outdoor, Winter harvest. Some receive a little too much shade but that many plants would provide baskets of harvest if we allowed them to grow untouched through the growing season. That's not the case, however. Young leaves are regularly harvested.

The 2 collard plants were too crowded in 2024. They were nearly pushed out of the ground and didn't do well so they were pulled. Last Winter, what collards we had didn't survive the unusual, sub-zero F, with no snow cover, days. We have missed out there but it is quite surprising that the southern favorite had so much hardiness other Winters.

Steve

 

[Branching Out]

Finally tried cooking up a small batch of shelly beans. The pods were pretty yucky and blackened on the outside, but the shell beans inside were pristine. Friends popped over for a glass of wine on short notice, and before they arrived I was able to simmer the beans for half an hour with a bay leaf, some rosemary, and a pinch of salt. Then I added olive oil and some more salt at the end, and let them cool in the the broth. Everyone thought they were very tasty served with bread and cheese. https://www.thebutterlab.com/blog/freshshellbeans

 

[SPedigrees]

The past two days were spent turning many bags of frozen tomatoes into spaghetti sauce. First was the ordeal of coring and peeling the endless supply of tomatoes with frozen fingers. (I should have cored them before freezing.) Then boiling/simmering/stirring the pot over the course of 2 days until it reduced to tomato sauce.

Finally cooked a bit of the ground bison in a skillet and added this into a small container of the sauce - for Mabel the dog. Then cooked the rest of the bison together with garlic, onions, bell peppers, some diced hot peppers, and mushrooms, and combined this with the sauce. I added in a small can of tomato paste.
I now have 3 large containers of spaghetti sauce in the freezers, and another in the fridge along with Mabel's portion.

As much as I love spaghetti, I will never ever do this again! Next spring I will not grow so many tomatoes, nor will I spend this many hours cooking tomato sauce that could have been easier bought. I wonder if I didn't reduce the life of my stove burner from all those hours (days) of use reducing the sauce. At least the containers of sauce are using much less freezer space than the bags of tomatoes. And the spaghetti sauce came out good, and the tomatoes didn't go to waste. But at what cost, adding in electricity for the hours of cooking. While this sauce is good, it's no better than what I could have done using store bought organic tomato sauce, and Arctic Plenty tomatoes are pretty bland in the taste department.

 

[SPedigrees]

Finally tried cooking up a small batch of shelly beans. The pods were pretty yucky and blackened on the outside, but the shell beans inside were pristine. Friends popped over for a glass of wine on short notice, and before they arrived I was able to simmer the beans for half an hour with a bay leaf, some rosemary, and a pinch of salt. Then I added olive oil and some more salt at the end, and let them cool in the the broth. Everyone thought they were very tasty served with bread and cheese. https://www.thebutterlab.com/blog/freshshellbeans

Those pink speckled beans are so cool looking!

 

[Dahlia]

The past two days were spent turning many bags of frozen tomatoes into spaghetti sauce. First was the ordeal of coring and peeling the endless supply of tomatoes with frozen fingers. (I should have cored them before freezing.) Then boiling/simmering/stirring the pot over the course of 2 days until it reduced to tomato sauce.
View attachment 70368

Finally cooked a bit of the ground bison in a skillet and added this into a small container of the sauce - for Mabel the dog. Then cooked the rest of the bison together with garlic, onions, bell peppers, some diced hot peppers, and mushrooms, and combined this with the sauce. I added in a small can of tomato paste.
I now have 3 large containers of spaghetti sauce in the freezers, and another in the fridge along with Mabel's portion.

As much as I love spaghetti, I will never ever do this again! Next spring I will not grow so many tomatoes, nor will I spend this many hours cooking tomato sauce that could have been easier bought. I wonder if I didn't reduce the life of my stove burner from all those hours (days) of use. At least the containers of sauce are using much less freezer space than the bags of tomatoes. And the spaghetti sauce came out good, and the tomatoes didn't go to waste. But at what cost, adding in electricity for the hours of cooking. While this sauce is good, it's no better than what I could have done using store bought organic tomato sauce, and Arctic Plenty tomatoes are pretty bland in the taste department.

Homemade food is almost always better. It's healthier and the ingredients are clearly more fresh. Plus it's satisfying to grow and bottle your own food.