Salad Days

One of the challenges is always to cook with the lovely fresh produce that you grow. I get so busy it is hard to come up with good recipes, especially when you are tired after gardening. You want to use it while it is fresh.

Right now the only thing that is really ready to eat is lettuce & kale. My spinach didn't do anything for some reason which is a shame but you move on. Kale as I have said before I am still trying to like. I made a sauteed kale the other night with garlic and balsamic vinegar and yup, still don't care for it. I think the best thing for me to do is to continue to make kale chips and then blanch and freeze the rest if I can't use it right away. I don't mind it in spaghetti sauce because, yes I don't notice it!

Lettuce is a funny one. When it is at it's best there are no garden cucumbers or tomatoes to go with it. I had a wonderful salad at Whole Foods once that I have been recreating ever since and I love, love it! You have to be a fan of blue cheese though. I guess too it is an acquired taste because if you told me 20 years ago that I would love blue cheese this much I would have thought you were nuts. I especially love it in salads and I usually sneak it in caesar salad as well.

Here is the recipe:

Butter and assorted greens
Handful of dried cranberries
Candied Pecans (recipe to follow)
Blue Cheese

Basically the amounts are up to you depending on how much you love each of the ingredients. First I crumble the blue cheese in a salad bowl and crush it up. Then I add a handful of dried cranberries and a handful of candied pecans. Add your washed lettuce and toss with a basic salad dressing.

Again, I'm not much for amounts but I mix up a batch of the dressing and use it for a few days.

Dressing:
Crushed fresh garlic
A few dashes of worchestershire sauce
A good glob of dijon mustard
Freshly ground pepper
Balsamic vinegar and then twice the amount of olive oil and whisk or shake in a bottle.

Candied Pecans:
melt three tbsp olive oil with
three tbsp balsamic vinegar &
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of pecans

When melted add the pecans and stir to coat watching carefully and turning every few minutes.
After about 7 minutes pour onto a piece of foil to cool.

One of the best things I have eaten lately was a butternut squash ravioli at Cactus Club. OMG it was lovely. I am growing butternut squash this year (at least I hope it grows) and I would love to try to make my own ravioli. I still remember how good it was. It was complimented by cooked sage leaves. YUM. The prawn on top didn't hurt either!

Oh to dream!

Beautiful day

Another beautiful day out there. I headed to the garden early to plant a row of kale, radishes and mixed lettuces and also to water a bit. I took a bit more bee balm (hoping that isn't a mistake) and a miniature iris and some chives. We might be moving from our townhouse and I wanted to make sure I took some plants with me. At least this way I can transplant them slowly and then if we move somewhere that needs plants, I can move them. Some things I have had through a couple of moves so they go with me. Since we haven't officially sold yet they are still mine to move.

It was quite busy at the garden. There a lot of people working and then the second wave of people choosing gardens was happening. I could tell by the people with maps in hand looking at available plots. The same dazed look was in their eyes as was in mine a month ago. My little garden has evolved so much since then thanks to all the help I had. I love, love, love, my new raised beds!

I brought my new collapsible greenhouse and hope that it doesn't either get stolen or blown away. You attach it with pegs but a good gust of wind might just lift it up. I'm trying to warm the soil for next week when the tomatoes will hopefully get planted. This should do for them until they get big and then I will try and rig up something with stakes and plastic. I'm not too handy in the building department but just as long as they are semi covered with some air it should do.

I've been thinking to finish it off I would like to put up a simple chicken wire fence between my plot and the one next door. All the other sides are finished. This would stop critters or running dogs or children from running through.

I would love something like this, but you can't seem to find these old fashioned wire fences anymore, more is the pity.



Happy Gardening!

My love of gardening

I was never interested in gardening until I got my first community plot over 20 years ago in Burnaby. It was very definitely a learning experience. My first garden was 100 square feet and I had no idea what I was doing. It came complete with a lot of weeds, a tired old wood compost and a rather bedraggled scarecrow. I loved it. I think I managed to turn half the soil one weekend and then commenced to throw in seeds. The next weekend I tacked the other end and then when I came back I started in weeding again. It wasn't the neatest garden but considering my inexperience I did okay. I ended up giving away quite a bit and ended up with some really gigantic zucchini. No one told me that they could double their size in a day. The slugs... oh the slugs, they were something else. They loved my lettuce. To this day I can't look at a head of romaine lettuce without thinking of them. I would soak the lettuce and all these slugs would float to the top. Yuck!!

I took a head (washed) of romaine to my girlfriends place one night for dinner and she proceeded to make a caesar salad with .... shrimp. I was sure I had gotten those slugs out but I couldn't help thinking about them as I ate. It was good but....

I think some of our passions are passed down from our ancestors. My grandfather was a wonderful gardener and had a beautiful garden. I only wished that I was interested in it while he was alive. I would have loved to have learned from him. I wonder what he did with slugs.


My grandparent's backyard, Vancouver 1958.