Talking Garlic at Burt's Greenhouses

Well another weekend...and another event about GARLIC!

This time I traveled to Wilton, ON to Burt's Greenhouses

to see Mr Brian Burt talk all about how they grow garlic.

Brian and Ruth have been growing garlic for sale for 5 years now.

Held in the greenhouse itself, it was a super informative talk.

It was interesting to learn from the growers perspective.

Why they grow what they grow and how.

Brian is a very animated speaker...

so it wasn't until I went to get out of my chair that I realized how long I'd been sitting.

He kept the small group hanging on his every word.

Brian spoke about some of the issues in growing garlic...

such as bulb and root nematodes.

They use french marigolds (as shown behind Brian in the above picture)

to help the garlic fight off the bad nematodes.

He also spoke about leek moths and 

how they spray the garlic in May with beneficial nematodes in the evening to combat this issue.

He grows Cutlass oriental mustard to fight off the pathological nematodes.

He overwinters the garlic in his greenhouses in order to 

maintain a consistent level of moisture and temperature.

He also top dresses the garlic rounds with chipped deciduous wood due to the high tannin content.

Brian mentioned that they specifically grow garlic rounds rather 

than bulbs to help keep the stock safe from pests that prefer a more developed bulb.

All in all it was a great talk that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in growing their own garlic.

It stores well (when properly harvested) and can be enjoyed in almost any dish!

I hope that Brian felt the event was a success and will repeat the event next September.

Verona Garlic Festival 2015

Saturday was the annual Verona Garlic Festival.

It has become quite an event for this community!

Thanks to BearRoot Gardens for this beautiful braid!!!

I just love stocking up on garlic.

Although we tried to grow garlic for the first time this year...

It wasn't a huge success.

Thank goodness for events like this!

Its a place where you can stock up,

Meet the grower and 

Learn something new!

 

There were many many vendors.

They came from all over Ontario!

The vendors were mainly garlic producers...

but they offered so much more!

All kinds of garlic...garlic pesto, garlic dips, marinades, sauces.

But not just garlic!

There was a honey vendor, a hot sauce guy from St Lucia, 

a booth offering wine samples...

The Tai Chi Society was out too.

Small farms trying to get the word out.

Garlic is great!

And shopping locally feels good.

(it tastes even better)

If its within reach, you should definitely make a plan to attend next year's event!

PS.  There were so many vendors offering free samples...

my mouth was certainly burning by the time I left!!!

Baked Flying Saucers - Mexican Style!

Its been a while since I did a recipe post...

In case you are wondering, I have been posting those all to my facebook page and group.

(It just seemed to happen like that this summer)

But I promise to stop that and even things out a bit!

We raided my mother in law's garden recently,

grabbing stuff that was just finishing up.

Like more flying saucer squash!

Ideally you want to pick those squashes when they are fist sized,

but like zucchinis, if you blink, they will grow to enormous proportions!

What you see above is ONE paddypan squash!

We halved it and scooped out the seeds and inner flesh.

What you get left over looks kinda like when you scoop out a pumpkin!

You can dry these seeds and roast them in butter and salt just like pumpkin seeds,

but we rinsed the seeds and dried them off for planting next year.

In a frying pan, we added cooked brown/wild rice, black beans drained and rinsed, roma tomatoes chopped and seeded, yellow tomatoes chopped and seeded, pressed garlic, 1 chopped white onion and spices.  The spices include cumin, cayenne powder, S & P to taste.

Cook off the mixture until the moisture is all but gone.

Fill the squashes, top with shredded cheese and bake at 350 degrees C for 30-40 mins.

Each half served one.

AMAZING!

Super healthy and filling for these cool fall evenings.

This dish also qualifies for Meat-Free Monday!

This dish is easily a meal in itself but you can serve it with a small green salad or cucumber/tomato salad.

I was STUFFED with just the squash...(pun intended)

Anyway, check out my facebook group or page (link beside this post)

for more tips, tricks, recipes and photos from other readers and their garden creations!

Enjoy this wonderful fall!

Asparagus is back!

In honour of springtime and the return of the mighty asparagus...

Here's a fun recipe to try!

It's by far one of the cheapest dishes I've ever made...I already had everything in the pantry with the exception of the shrimp....a whole $6.99 at the store.

My mainstays:

Brown & wild rice

Cashews

Garlic

Onions

Chili Powder

Red pepper flakes

ground coriander

S & P

Lime Juice (cuz we ran out of lemon)

The shrimp was on sale and I only used about a handful from the bag, leaving tons left for another day.

The asparagus just started to emerge from their winter's slumber.

Poking their purple heads up from the dry garden soil.

Asparagus are a part of the Lily family (Liliaceae). Various species of asparagus were cultivated by Egyptian cultures beginning as early as 3000 B.C., and by Europeans including early Greek and Roman cultures.

Although it does take 3 years from planting to picking, if you have the patience and the time, it is certainly worth the wait!  (especially when you see what they sell for in the stores!!!)

Asparagus Care Guide:

Asparagus' very high respiration rate makes it more perishable than its fellow vegetables, and also much more likely to lose water, wrinkle, and harden. By wrapping the ends of the asparagus in a damp paper or cloth towel, you can help offset asparagus' very high respiration rate during refrigerator storage. Along with this helpful step, you will want to consume asparagus within approximately 48 hours of purchase or picking.

Chop to nice lengths and rinse.

I already had cooked rice in the fridge.

Pressed garlic and slivered onions into a frying pan with a bit of veg oil.

Simmer and add the chopped asparagus, rice and shrimp.

Add the spices and nuts.  Simmer until warmed thoroughly.

I like my fresh asparagus crunchy, so I just threw in the raw veggies and warmed them up...if you like a softer asparagus...then nuke for a min or steam them (about 30sec).

Asparagus Nutrition Guide:

Asparagus contains anti-inflammatory nutrients such as saponins, including asparanin A, sarsasapogenin, protodioscin, and diosgenin. Other anti-inflammatory nutrients in asparagus include the flavonoids quercetin, rutin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin.

Like chicory root and Jerusalem artichoke, asparagus contains significant amounts of the nutrient inulin. Inulin is a unique type of carbohydrate called a polyfructan, and in practical terms, healthcare practitioners often refer to it as a "prebiotic." Unlike most other carbs, inulin doesn't get broken down in the first segments of our digestive tract. It passes undigested all the way to our large intestine. Once it arrives at our large intestine, it becomes an ideal food source for certain types of bacteria (like Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli) that are associated with better nutrient absorption, lower risk of allergy, and lower risk of colon cancer.

Alongside of its unusual inulin content, asparagus is rich in fiber (about 3 grams per cup, including about 2 grams of insoluble fiber and 1 gram of soluble fiber) and also contains a noteworthy amount of protein (about 4-5 grams per cup). Both fiber and protein help stabilize our digestion and keep food moving through us at the desirable rate. (By contrast, too much fat can slow down our digestion rate more than desired, and too much sugar or simple starch can speed it up more than desired. We're not surprised to see species of asparagus like Asparagus racemosus (commonly known as Shatavari) having a long history of use in treatment of digestive problems in certain healthcare traditions (like ayurvedic medicine), and it makes sense to us that asparagus be considered as a great food for improving digestive support in most diets.

In short: 

Loads of fibre, high in vitamin K, anti-inflammatory.  Good for digestive tract, great for diabetics!

They also make your pee smell funny.  Its not dangerous, just one of those funny human things (like corn in your poop).

Yummy meaty pasta dish...

Looking for something fresh and hearty for dinner?

Well have I got a dish for you!

This dish was inpired by the Pasta Fasta recipe I make in the summer time using fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden.  I was wistful one day and decided to try something like it mid-winter.

Ingredients List:

ground beef - browned on a skillet

chopped tomatoes

thyme

red pepper flakes

olive oil

short pasta - cooked (any shape will do)

2 (or more) garlic cloves (from Cam & Michelle Mather)

grated cheese (ours was from Wilton Cheese in Wilton, ON)

Cook pasta as per the directions...you'll want a couple of couples worth of cooked pasta to fill a baking dish.

You can also be browing the ground beef while you're boiling the pasta.

Once the pasta is cooked and the meat is browned, you can drain the meat and use the same skillet for the rest of this recipe.

Add meat and a tbsp of olive oil to the skillet.  Warm the skillet and add 2 (or so) cloves of garlic, crushed.  Once the dish gets aromatic you can add the tomatoes, thyme, pepper flakes and pasta.  Turn over the whole mess a couple of times until heated thoroughly.

Add all ingredients to a baking dish and top with as much shredded cheese as you like! 

Bake in oven at 425 degrees F until mixture is bubbly...about 10-15 mins, then broil (500 degrees F) for about 5mins (watch it closely!  you want the cheese to be crispy and brown, not charred and black!) 

Finished product!  Its warm, gooey and yummy!  You can change this dish up if you like, by using tofu, tuna or ground turkey instead of the ground beef.  You can also change the whole flavour of this dish by switching up the cheese type too!  I personally loved that lack of sauce in this dish.  It wasn't too heavy and had a freshness that reminded me of summer.

While this isn't necessarily a dish made entirely out of my garden...it is a yummy, healthy and filling dish that didn't cost a fortune to make.  Beats hamburger helper that's for sure!  No artifical anything...

Plus the kids LOVED it!  (And that's always a winning combination)

A Stir Fry for the Family!

This recipe started off with a question...

"What am I gonna do with this leftover steak???"

I sliced it up thin and then it hit me....STIR FRY!

The above picture shows the sliced steak thrown on top of thin sliced orange and yellow peppers, thin sliced onion rings, several pressed garlic cloves, S & P to taste, a handful of raw, whole almonds (could have used sliced almonds...but this was all I had to work with) and red pepper flakes.

Basically you want to quickly cook the veggies and then heat up the steak (so as not to over cook it).

When everything smells good, you'll want to add in a handful of spinach so it can wilt properly but not melt away.

I served everything on top of brown and wild rice

(which I had made several days prior and needed to eat up)

alongwith my trusty chop sticks for full effect!

I'm pretty sure I didn't add any additional flavours or spices to this dish, attempting to let the flavours of the foods stand on their own.  It was a wonderfully colourful and flavourful meal!  If you find it a bit bland for your tastes, you can try adding in some white wine vinegar for an extra zip.

Owen wasn't a fan of the stir fry...but he did like the chop sticks!  He spent the dinner time trying to manipulate the chop sticks like mum was doing...and in the end just liked stabbing his noodles.

Try making something out of the ordinary...from another culture, another flavour...you'll never know how your kids will interpret the event.  It may just open up a whole new world for your kids!

What weird and wonderful things have you been making in your kitchen?

Shepards Pie

Shepard's pie is one of the first things I made from scratch.  I've made it so often that I almost forgot to mention it on this blog.  I really does encorporate evrything I believe in...if a meal could represent ones beliefs...

Wikipedia says... 

Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.  The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor.

Wikipedia goes on to say that you can use any kind of leftover meat in this dish.  One of our favorites is venison.  My mom and her fella left for Arizona and left us with their meat!  What a score!

Hubbie browned the ground off a few days ago.

That was pefect!  

All I had to do was saute the veggies, add the meat and make the juice. 

I used a full carrot from our garden (stored in moist peat moss), 3 cloves of verona garlic festival garlic, pressed, saute both until soft.  Add meat and a liberal dash of worchestershire sauce.  Prepare 2 packets of beef boullion and add to the mixture.  Heat until flavours mix and the juice gets thicker.  Add a turn of steak spice of your choice and simmer.  When the mixture gets to smelling great...add the peas and corn (or beans) all of which we had frozen while they were in season and stored in ziploc bags in the freezer.

I have to admit to a certain amount of sneakiness here...I hide parsnips in with the mashed potatoes! 

I used several brown potatoes from our garden (stored in buckets in the basement in dry peat).  But I also slipped in 3 hunks of frozen parsnip too.  I boil them right along with the taters and mashed them with milk, a dash of cream and a big helping of butter.  S & P to taste.

I scooped all the venison mixture in a large dish...then smooth out the surface with the spatula. 

I add large dollops of mashed potatoes to the top...and smooth it out too.

I always add a dash of salt to the top of the mashed potatoes and a tsp of butter on top (to make the mashed topping get a bit crispy!)

I love that eating shepard's pie feels like you are eating a bit of history.

What you're really doing is using almost everything out of a garden and adding in someone's free meat

You also have one heck of a great recession-busting, not-made-of-turkey, beat-the-winter-chills celebration dish!  Here's to the home made goodness of gardening all year round!!!

Steak and Veggie Pie...on the Wild Side

We had a big venison steak feed a few days ago...sadly we cooked waaay too much steak and had a ton of leftovers.  We also had leftover pie crust in the freezer too.

To me, that means just one thing...time for meat pie!

I scrubbed, peeled and chopped some of our garden potatoes and cooked in the microwave for 4 min.  Sliced some onions too, also from the garden.  The wonky carrot in the picture below was also from our garden and here is where I digress...

This wonky carrot was tasty and delicious!  You'll never see its equal in any store.  Going into stores now creeps me out, as everything is so damned uniform.  Each and every thing looks identical from the next.  Like you are actually shopping in the clone aisle instead of the produce aisle.  Aberration in produce stores is akin to disease! 

Ok...I feel better now after that rant.

Back to the recipe!

I also grabbed some garlic which I bought at the Verona Garlic Festival from my friends Cam & Michelle Mather.  I pulled out the leftover venison steak (supplied by my step dad Rob Cory) and chopped it coarsely.  The dough came out of the freezer, thawed, and left until the stew was well under way.

The onions get fried with veg oil, followed shortly by the chopped carrot and nuked potatoes.  Simmer for a bit until it starts to smell good.  Then dump in the chopped venison.

On the side, you'll be boiling a kettle of water to add to the beef broth...

not too much though, we're not making soup here. 

We've since run out of the peas from our garden (they do go fast),

so these are store bought sweet baby peas. 

Once the beef broth powder has completely dissolved in the boiling water, you can go ahead and add it to the pot.  The potatoes add a thickness to the broth after a while so there is no need for flour for thickening.  I don't know what it is about wild game that makes me always want to add beer, but here I've done it again. 

This time it was a large splash of a nice dark lager, Steelback's Tiverton Bear.  Dark beer and wild game combine in the most unexpected way.  I was going to add some worchestershire sauce, but the beer was sweet enough that I didn't have to add anything else.  S & P was about it.

Once the whole mix has simmered together for a bit...you can divide it between a couple of small ramekins (or other small, oven-safe dish).  Try not to eat some while you're dividing it!!!  (unless you made extras, in which case good for you!  You were thinking ahead!)

Next step is to roll out the dough and cut out two circles, slightly larger than the ramekin.

Arrange dough circles on the ramekin dish and pierce the top. 

I just used scissors like my mom did on apple pie crusts. 

I whipped up one egg and brushed it over the crust.

Place in an oven at 400 degrees C and bake for 30 min.  Check on them after 20 min though.

A helpful tip I would suggest...place a baking sheet under these suckers whilst baking them.  If you fill the ramekins too full of stew, they will overflow while bubbling.

I couldn't have been prouder with my first attempt at pot pies.

I was even prouder to take a look at my costs:  Beer from father-in-law, venison from step dad, carrots, onions and potatoes from our garden, garlic from a local provider, and one hellvua home made crusty topper!  Seems like the peas and beef broth were the only thing we had to get from a store. 

The Verona Garlic Festival

Each year on Labour Day Weekend, Verona hosts a Garlic Festival.  I've always wanted to go.  It's hard to convince the kids that this will be more fun than sitting at home.  They aren't completely sold on the idea.  Just wait til you get there, I try to convince them.

When we got there it looked almost like any other Saturday at the Farmer's Market.  Except it was BIGGER!  Holy cow it was bustling.  The summer weather makes it possible to have way more vendors showing off a lot more stuff.  The colder weather forces the vendors to brave snowy days and set up their booths indoors. 

We survey the layout...Ches and the boys decided to take a spin on the train they had set up for kids (pulled by a small tractor no less).  

The usual vendors were out and set up but there were a bunch of new stalls featuring all things garlic.

The Lion's Club hosted a roast beef luncheon.  Check out the beast they're carving!  Usually these meals proceeds go towards a local charity or special cause.  I'm always happy to support.

Here are some more shots of the usual vendors in fine form.  They even started adding furniture to the line up!  Tie-dyed clothing lady is there every week without fail.

This time of year makes my eye move towards the knits.  The warm soft wooly piles of crochet heaven.

The endless tables of fall colours and vegetables.  They are so artfully and tasefully arranged, evoking images of healthy, honest, "country living".

Mini golf is a great, no energy way for the kids to occupy themselves too.  I mean how much garlic can you look at when you're 10 yrs old? 



Betsey 'B' honey had a small display of the honey comb hideout.  Was it ever cool to look inside!!!

The special events held at the fairgrounds include the recycling and waste center...may not look like much...but its HUGE!  It means that all the waste generated by the show gets disposed of correctly!  Pretty cool thing to show the community.

Garlic displays ranged from small and simple, to big and elaborate!  I loved this dark stained cabinet with the tin punch out of a garlic shape on the door...I think this display was of garlic spreads and such...

Plates of kinds og garlic I've never heard of...samples of spreads, jams, preserves...all garlic based.

There were people dying to educate you about the wonderful world of garlic.

Some vendors had their vehicles logo'd with garlic...you could tell these people lived for GARLIC!

The shall's displays made me hungry and salivate for all the recipes I could think of that used garlic!

I also saw something that I never expected to see at a Garlic Festival....

A VAMPIRE!



My son Owen the Vampire...face painting by K's Klubhouse





Recipe Feature...3 meals in one post!

I've been away all week again...so I find the post ideas have been piling up...

I was about to make 3 posts with a lot of details about each meal.  Instead...I want my readers to get the most bang for their buck.  Here is a post that features 3 hit meals from the past week.  All were delicious.  Some were planned, some were accidental...some used recipes, some were made up on the spot.

Here are the delectible servings of seasonal, easy and CHEAP meals (they all required at least ONE ingredient that DIDN'T come from the backyard).



Dinner last Sunday, some for family and some for friends



Aubergine & Courgette Bake

1 large eggplant

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion (chopped)

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

2 lbs tomatoes (peeled and chopped)

a handful of fresh basil leaves (chopped)

1 Tbsp fresh parsley (chopped)

2 zucchinis (sliced lengthwise)

whole wheat flour for coating

shredded mozzarella

parmesan cheese

1.  Slice the eggplant, sprinkle with salt and set aside for 45-60  min.

2.  Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan.  Fry the onion and garlic for 3-4 minutes until softened.  Stir in the tomatoes, half the basil and the parsley.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and cook, stirring, for 25-35 minutes until sauce has thickened.  Mash the tomatoe to a pulp.

3.  Rinse and dry the eggplant.  Dust the eggplant and zucchinis with the flour.

4.  Heat more olive oil in another frying pan and fry the eggplant slices and zucchini slices until golden brown.  Set aside.

5.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter an overproof dish.  Put a layer of eggplant, the zucchini in the dish, pour a layer of sauce and scatter with some mozzarella.  Sprinkle over most of the remaining basil and parsley.  Repeat the layers, ending with mozzarella.  Sprinkle with the parmesan and remaining herbs on top and bake for 30-35 minutes.  Serve at once.

(REF:  The Complete Encyclopedia of Vegetables and Vegetarian Cooking, by Roz Denny & Christine Ingram, 1997)



Saturday Lunch at Home



Swiss chard noodles with Pesto sauce

a dozen large leaves of Swiss chard, sliced in long lenths

walnuts

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion cut in lengths

2 cloves garlic crushed

handful of basil leaves

a tsp of parmesan

handful of cherry tomatoes as topping

whole wheat bagels toasted with butter & a dash of parmesan

S & P

Fry up the onions and walnuts in some of the oil.  Add garlic and chard and simmer.  Grind salt over the whole mess.  Add basil and some of the parmesan.  Heat and serve in bowls with cherry tomatoes and toasted bagels.  Top greens with more parmesan.  



Dinner on Saturday night



Squash and Tomatoes on noodles

1 Flying saucer squash

1 pit red and black cherry tomatoes

2 cloves garlic

1 1/2 cups chopped chicken breast

2 tbsp fresh oregano and parsley

2 tbsp olive oil

spaghetti noodles

shredded cheddar

S & P

Microwave the chopped flying saucers for 2 minutes.  Fry up the heated squashes in olive oil until browned.  Add garlic and chicken and simmer for 5 min.  Add sliced cherry tomatoes, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper.  Simmer a 5 more minutes.  Serve over noodles and top with shredded cheddar. 

REVIEW:

These meals were a hit each time.  Each dish hit a different flavour of the season.  The first recipe was wonderful but WAY too much oven and frying for a hot summer day.  I could see me making that dish and freezing it for a fresh taste of summer in the mid-winter season (not sure how these ingredients would stand up to freezing...but worth a shot!).  The second two recipes were completely made up from stuff we needed to eat up.  Both required a minimal amount of frying and served up hot and fresh.  

If you wonderful readers make this dish, let me know, post a pic of your creation on my facebook page!  Lets all share our accomplishments.  

That's me...saving the planet one low carbon footprint meal at a time... 

The Farmer's Market

This is the beginning of a series of posts...they will last all year...popping up along the way...
It was the first Saturday back at the Farmer's Market here in Verona since before the holidays.  Owen and I went to see which vendors had come out to share the inside space of the Lions Hall.  In the summer time, the farmer's market is outside and housed in outer buildings.  This is an enduring part of country living and I'm glad to share this with my kids. 


Owen checks out the home made bling




preserves of every kind

  The feeling of the farmer's market changes with the seasons.  Right now, in the winter months, the market has a feeling of old times.  Of perserves and baked goods.  Dried herbs and spices.  In the spring, I'll buy some of our garden seedlings there.  Summertime means we'll get some locally prepared entrees, some odd vegetables we aren't already growing, as well as gift cards with beautiful local photography.  In the fall its a great place to get fresh apples by the bushel and pumpkins...I'll never forget the first time Noah and Ches saw a white pumpkin or a pumpkin that took up the back of a pick up truck...only at the farmer's market. 



spices and rubs





locally grown garlic the size of my fist and kettle cooked popcorn


The variety of crafters seems richer in the colder weather...quilts and tapestries.  Various handmade items for sale, but each one is one of a kind....and every week it changes...

handbags aplenty



the vendor we get our tourtiere from, but the kids only know it as the one with the peanut butter balls

 Everyone has their own experiences with a farmer's market, and it really does depend on your population.  At the Verona Farmer's Market, you have a lady selling spanakopitas, one who makes and sells goat cheese (that melts in your mouth).  A family who sells meats for your freezer who's kids are often helping behind the table. 

You get to meet who is growing your food, not just knowing where in the province or country it came from.  I remember when Noah had a tiny crush on one of the beef farmer's daughters...thinking this is going to make one helluva country song! 

The kids will grow up with their own memories of these Saturdays "spent shopping" at the market.  The best times we had were just being there....not even shopping...because there always seems to be something different each week.  Something to learn...something to see....something to taste...as we always appreciate when vendors offer the free samples....and almost always they win me over and I end up buying.

But its shopping I can feel good about....I'm helping support my local economy....I'm buying food with a very small carbon footprint...I get to meet the people who are growing or raising my food.....I can teach my kids about where their food comes from....and I mostly I get to eat really great stuff!