Cooking from the Garden

I continue to really enjoy cooking from the garden. There is nothing more rewarding than picking your supplies from your yard. Tzatziki? No problem, just grab some cucumbers, and dill and mint from the herb spiral. Pesto? Great, time to harvest basil anyway. Salsa? Sure, pick some tomatoes and jalepenos. Need a side dish? Some pole beans will do nicely.

The corn will be ready soon, potatoes are not far from harvest, and the pumpkins are getting larger and starting to change color. The winter squash is growing like mad, and the apple tree is providing all we can eat. I'm noticing tiny tomatillos beginning to form.

Today was a pesto day, and the basil was starting to flower, so I harvested the last of it. Basil is so brightly and beautifully green.

I make it very simply, with pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, and olive oil. I usually make more than we need, and freeze it in mason jars, which works as long as you cover the surface of the pesto with olive oil before freezing.

I'm also grilling some chicken, so for a marinade, I went out to the spiral and picked oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, sage, and chives.

To this I added lemon juice from lemons grown in Mom's garden. Lemons in summer! Weird, but welcome.

All you need to add to this is olive oil, and the longer it sits marinating in the fridge, the better. Delicious.

I sent Kate out to pick tomatoes for a garnish, what a wonderful dinner this will be.

I have sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias, and sages blooming in the garden. The bees have been all over the Russian Sage, but I'm not sure what else they could possibly be foraging.

Today while walking Joe in a local park (sort of an open space kind of park), I came across two dogs, both collared and tagged, but they wouldn't let me come near. No owner in sight. After a bit, I heard a growling and yipping and commotion. The two dogs had cornered a coyote and were fighting it. It was a horrible noise and horrible to watch. The poor coyote finally got away, and snuck under fence into a neighboring yard, limping. I called animal control, but I never heard what happened. I feel bad for coyotes, I'm not sure why, they seem so shy and yet curious, they never bother me while I'm hiking, and they never bother Joe, though they seem lonely. Also so skinny and scruffy, and they aren't ever very large.

We've had hot hot hot weather with significant humidity, which just makes me wilt - I'm such a wimp. The shorter days make me long for Autumn and braised meats. And yet I don't want summer to ever end. All our camps and planned activities are done for the summer, and the kids and I are just starfishing all over the place, quite lazy, but we do manage to get out for a bit of every day and go exploring. It won't be long before we are shopping for school supplies.

Lizards

As I was giving some salvias supplemental water over the weekend, a creature leapt out and scurried across the front stoop:

I was so excited, I called everyone to come out and meet our resident alligator lizard. I've been trying to attract lizards to our yard for years. I've piled rocks, I've stacked wood. I certainly have enough bugs for them to eat, plus a water source. I've seen salamanders near the water feature. But this is the first lizard I have ever seen in our yard. This is a terrific sign of the health of my little ecosystem.

Lizards are certainly not in short supply in Northern California. It's a rare hike that I don't see at least one. Today, hiking in Acalanes open space in Lafayette, I saw swarms of lizard babies. They are the same color as the fallen oak leaves, but quite active, so I was able to see lots of them. They're so cute! I couldn't determine what kind I was seeing today, but there are lots of native lizards here.

Lizards are diurnal, meaning they are active during the day; also crepuscular, active at both dawn and dusk. They have babies in summer, which might be why I saw so many today. They are opportunistic eaters, not fussy at all, and eats scores of insects.

I wonder if they also feed on the dead and dying bees beneath the hive?

Speaking of the bees, we opened the hive this past weekend, and all is well. They still have plenty of empty bars, but no new comb is being built since there is little nectar coming in. There are two bars dedicated to only capped honey, and it looks as though they are converting a previously used brood comb to just honey. This makes me happy, as they will have lots to eat over the winter. I can't imagine what they might be collecting right now, although I have seen lots of bees in my cucumber blossoms. Did you know that bees collect from only one kind of flower on each trip? For instance, if they collect from a sunflower, than they will only collect from sunflowers on that foraging trip. This is why bee experts suggest planting swathes of flowers, rather than just one or two. I've been horrible at this all my life; I like having lots of different flowers and plants, so I often just plant one of something. I'm trying to correct this for the bees.

I put out the farm stand this morning, hawking surplus cucumbers, beans, peppers, and the first of the apples from the tree. I had very few takers. I won't be making a living off the garden any time soon. At least I can supplement our own grocery bill in a significant way.

I experimented making salsa this past weekend, it was delicious but too runny. Next time I'll make it chunkier. I like the 'hot' peppers from the garden, they have a very fresh taste, not hot at all. We'll have the mild peppers tonight with our grilled steak. They're delicious sautéed or grilled with olive oil and salt. (But pretty much any veg is delicious prepared this way.)

The corn is maturing and I have several ears getting quite large. Yay!

Vacation

We've been on holiday. We drove to Arizona to meet our son in Tucson (he was on tour with the San Francisco Boys Chorus), then drove north to camp in the Grand Canyon, with a side trip to Zion National Park in Utah. Most of our trip ended up being in the car, which was a shame, but we did manage to hike a little, listen to some ranger talks, and observe quite a bit of Southwestern scenery.

The Grand Canyon is, well, grand. The sheer size of it is mind-boggling. We spent a day taking the free shuttle to every corner of the South Rim, and hiked about a mile into the canyon. The elevation change was significant enough that we didn't go any further than that. We enjoyed a talk about trees, which was given under the stars, using power point. Nature and Technology converging! We learned a lot about the geology and the ecology of the place. Elk both visited our camp in the early morning, and called to each other around it. The whole experience was spectacular.

Then we drove east and enjoyed views of the Little Colorado River, before heading west on the North Rim. The South Rim was all Juniper, Pinon, and Ponderosa Pine. The North Rim was all meadows with abundant wildflowers, most of which we see in early spring here in California. Monsoon season is upon the Canyon, and you can see the beautiful results on the North Rim.

From there we drove into Utah and on into Zion. I have no words to describe the scenery in this park. It was the most tremendous thing I've ever seen. I really wanted to stay in Zion longer, but we only had enough time to take the shuttle up the canyon and take a short hike to a spring which was weeping through rock. We also dipped our toes into the Virgin River.

We drove through Las Vegas on the way home, and showed the kids the Strip. That was enough of that town! Then we drove through the Mojave desert, where it was 114 degrees. We enjoyed driving through all kinds of different plant communities, but I must admit it was nice to finally make it into the Central Valley, where it's dry, but full of huge farms. As we drove through the windmill farms in the Altamont Pass, we all breathed a sigh - Mt. Diablo was in sight, and we could 'smell the barn' - we were eager to be home.

We returned to a dry but bountiful garden. First we watered, then picked pole beans - the variety is Rattlesnake. They were delicious roasted with oil and salt.

After dinner, I inspected more of the garden. I think it's time to make pickles. And salsa.

Thank goodness my mom, and a few neighbors, were able to harvest some produce while I was gone. There are so many tomatoes to pick tomorrow. There is deer poop everywhere, and numerous gopher (or mole) tunnels. The apple tree is full of fruit.

We were hoping for cooler temperatures at home, but it was 104 here today. The bees respond by drinking mint juleps on their porch.

It's good to be home.

Interesting Finds

I took Joe the dog up in the foothills of Mt Diablo yesterday, to a short trail we've often been on. This trail ends at a lovely view, with two valley oak trees standing guard. We probably hadn't been there in a year.

As I approached the trees, I noticed something different.

Someone had put a swing in one of the oaks, for the express pleasure of a hiker coming upon it unexpectedly.

As I got closer, I realized the swing seat was painted.

I love this scripture, and looking out at the expansive view, it was easy to picture a love that big.

As I was swinging, I realized that the roots of the trees were slightly exposed, making it a perfect place for a cache of some kind, or letterbox. So I explored the roots of the first tree; nothing. Then I went to the roots of the second tree and saw a flash. I knelt down. Firmly stuck into the ground was a silver arching wire, with a capital letter 'B' charm, and a butterfly. Behind it, underneath the tree, was a card.

I read the card. Out of respect for the people who put it there, I did not take a picture of the contents, but there were two short notes inside, one signed "Love, Mom" and one signed "Love, Dad" - and those notes were to a baby - either stillborn or miscarried. The notes were incredibly personal and they affected me very much. I left that place feeling full of emotion, both for the wonderful surprise of a swing and a scripture, and the tenderness of the memorial. You never know what you're going to find hiking.

I stopped on the way home to buy a few bee plants for the garden, salvia and cosmos. As I was planting them in the yard, I picked up a piece of trash. Turns out it wasn't trash, it was a long orange mushroom. I damaged it while picking it, but here's a picture nonetheless. I think it's way cool. I need to take a local mushroom class, so I can name all the pretty and strange fungi I find in my yard.

A few weeks ago, I found a recipe for chocolate pudding on one of my favorite cooking websites, The Kitchn. I liked that it used two kinds of chocolate, both powdered and bar, and it is truly delicious. I use unsweetened chocolate instead of bittersweet, and the pudding has a deep and rich chocolate flavor, with very little sugar. I made it again today for Tom's birthday dinner, tomorrow night. It's hard to wait that long to eat it.

Lately I've discovered that chocolate is a very serious trigger for my migraines, which I thought I had under control. So I don't eat it very often. I will, however, eat this. It's a birthday, after all.

Harvesting

I am now harvesting almost every morning. The greens are starting to bolt, so I am pulling out a bunch every day. I've decided that Red Russian Kale is my favorite green - it's so leafy and pretty and quite tender when eaten young. It resists water so it doesn't get soggy, and also seems to resist dirt. I'll be planting quite a lot of this come late fall.

Washing greens is a pain. I don't mind a little dirt in my produce - in fact, small amounts of dirt have extremely beneficial bacteria, and it's probably important that we eat a little. I've been reading so much about gut health and how folks used to always have a garden in their backyards, and hence always ate a little dirt; but now, so few folks do, our gut health is really declining. So - I don't mind dirt. Especially when I know it's good organic compost. But I really don't want to eat a spider or a cucumber beetle inadvertently, and I found both on my greens this morning.

I usually fill the sink with water, put the greens in to soak, and then wash each leaf, afterwards putting it in the salad spinner.

I spin the greens, but that doesn't really get them dry, so I lay them out on a double thickness of paper towels and let them air dry for an hour or so. Then I roll them up in the damp paper towels and put them in the crisper.

I eat them every morning in my scramble. This was an Asian Braising Mix from Renee's Garden, which was good, but I think I will go for just plain kale, spinach, and chard from now on.

The collards are quite good when picked young and added to anything, and they can take the heat, so that's a good summer alternative.

The pole beans are starting to fruit, and I find suspicious piles of deer poop all over the yard near that bed, each morning. The deer left me a few. They are a purple and green variety from Renee, they are quite tasty.

Cherry tomatoes are prolific every day, I've only picked one slicer and one paste tomato, but those'll be ready soon. The peach tree is nearing the end of its season. The apples are starting to look really good. They are bigger this year than they've ever been - I think it's because I gave them a special fruit amendment in February, and cut back the flannel bush to give them more sunlight. They're beautiful - pictures soon.

All potatoes are looking good, cucumbers growing like mad, tomatillos getting big, watermelons slowly growing, winter squashes sprouting, and pumpkins forming fruit. All is well in the garden.