Corn!

Now that we are deciding that while the real estate market on Vancouver Island is hot, hot, hot, on our tiny Gulf Island, it's not, not, not, I'm becoming resigned to the strong possibility that we will be staying here for the near future.  And that's not a bad thing!  We love the peace, security and quiet of our little island and have a lot going for us here.

And with this in mind, my enthusiasm for gardening - which had cooled somewhat lately - has returned full force.  It was time to start the corn!  I start my corn in the potting shed.  This allows me to start it earlier than I would outside which is a help when growing the sweeter varieties which take longer to mature.

I purchased extra deep potting trays from Lee Valley some years ago, and they work really well for corn which sets long roots and doesn't particularly like them disturbed.  Each tray has 36 sections, which is enough to give us a few good feeds of corn - that's all we ask for!

I fill the corn tray with a good potting soil, shake it to settle the mix and then add a bit more on top to fill the sections.  Then I place one seed in each section and press down with my index finger to just past the first knuckle.  More soil goes on top to cover the seeds.

The tray get a good watering.

Finally a plastic lid goes on top to keep the heat in for germination.  I will wedge pots at each side just in case a mouse decides to check out my seeds.  One year I had to give up on starting corn in the potting shed as mice came in and ate every seed!

The seeds will sprout quickly and just as I'm starting to see roots popping out the bottom, I'll plant them in their new home.  A covering of Remay cloth will keep them warm until summer is firmly in place.

Corn planting done, it was time to water the rest of the garden and do a few chores.  I like the early mornings for garden work.  Watering - which I prefer to do by hand - gets plenty of time for the moisture to seep down into the soil.  I take this time to thoroughly inspect each crop and adjust care as necessary.

I planted the beans a week ago.  This year I didn't move the bean structure as we weren't sure what our status would be.  It doesn't really matter with beans as they're happy to continue building up nutrition in the soil.  We'll move it next year.  I planted the beans at the base of the structure, 5 beans to a structure wall, protected them with water bottle collars and supplied each seed with a bamboo pole to help it reach the structure walls.  And yes, I haven't removed all of last year's dead bean vines.  They will eventually break up and fall down all on their own.  I am "The Messy Gardener" after all!

This morning I could see that the bean seeds have germinated with a lively green sprout showing in nearly every collar.

Finally I potted up the 2 remaining tomato plants which are destined to go to a friend who is still away on a trip.  The plants went into gallon pots and will now live outside with the rest of my tomatoes until the friend returns and can take them.

The only plants left in the potting shed are the peppers and a basil, all of which need hotter weather before they can go outside.

Confetti Cole Slaw and Garden Update

I make a mean cole slaw - even if I do say so myself!  I apply the "kitchen sink" method - I put in whatever I have on hand, and the more ingredients the better.  Tonight my husband is grilling a steak and baking a couple of our Pacific Russet Potatoes.  A cole slaw is a great addition to the menu.

Ingredients for Confetti Cole Slaw

Tonight's batch will have purchased red and green cabbage, Cripps Pink apple, kohl rabi from jollityFarms and from our garden onion, 3 kinds of kale and carrot.

Veggies prepared

All of the vegetable ingredients  are chopped into pieces except the carrots, which I grate.

Confetti Cole Slaw

The dressing is simple and the amounts vary with the size of the coleslaw.  To salad dressing I add a squirt of liquid honey and drizzle apple cider vinegar to thin the dressing down.  It's all tossed together and put in the fridge until dinner time.  A great addition would be toasted sunflower seeds, but today I didn't have any on hand.

While out in the garden gathering the ingredients, I snapped some pictures to show progress.

Corn, bean arbour, 2 pots of basil and leeks behind them

The corn is growing by leaps and bounds.  In hot weather, you can practically see it grow.  It's now taller than the bean arbor, which has vines snaking all over its top.

Corn silks

The tassels crown the plants now and silks are bursting from the stems where the cobs are forming.  It's hard to believe that the corn was just planted out 7 weeks ago!

Health Kick Tomatoes

We've already had a couple of Gold Nugget and the Health Kick tomatoes are just about big enough to start colouring up.

Yellow onions curing in the sun

Today I pulled up the yellow onions and left them on the surface of the bed to start the curing process.

Butternut squash

In the compost bin, Butternut Squash vines are spilling over the edge.  I placed planks to help them to the ground, but they're ignoring them, choosing instead their own path.

Roasted Tomato Pasta Sauce

We're starting to be overrun with tomatoes!  The Health Kick and Classica tomatoes are heavy with fruit and they're ripening faster than I can deal with them.  Fortunately, they seem to not mind waiting!  I have a big basket of ripe plum tomatoes sitting on the counter and all are still in excellent condition in spite of the fact they've been there for several days now.

I decided to try making a roasted tomato pasta sauce and had all the ingredients for my first trial ready in the garden.  Roasting brings out sweetness and richness in the vegetables and roasting over time helps reduce the moisture content, resulting in a thick sauce.

I used about a dozen or so tomatoes in this first batch, 4 cloves of garlic, one onion and a few small carrots for sweetness to balance out the acid in the tomatoes.  A couple of sprigs of basil were added for the herb.

The tomatoes were quartered, onion peeled and quartered and the carrots added whole.  I smashed the garlic cloves with the flat of a knife to easily remove the dry skin, then roughly chopped them along with the basil.  The veggies and herbs were placed in a large ceramic lasagna pan - but any non-metal pan would do.  Finally I drizzled about 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil over them and tossed to combine.  Oven heated to 350F, the pan was popped in.

I stirred the veggies at 30 minute intervals and at 1 1/2 hours, judged that they were ready to process. At this point, I could have processed the sauce with my food mill, but decided to put the whole shebang in the food processor instead.  I hate to waste anything!

After a minute or so in the food processor, I added salt and pepper.  The resulting sauce is thick and delicious!  I can keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze it in meal-sized batches.

This is a very versatile sauce and is limited only by your imagination.  For the sweetness, you can add the traditional carrot, or instead try a plum or pear.  I didn't have any ripe peppers for this batch, but that would be an excellent addition for another time.  And herbs can be changed up - try thyme or oregano.  Plum tomatoes aren't vital, and if all you have are lots of beefsteak or cherry tomatoes, by all means use them.  If the sauce is a bit thin, just cook it down a bit after blending.  The end result is the same; a delicious homemade sauce with no preservatives or ingredients you can't pronounce!  And you did it yourself!

Seared Cherry Tomato Spaghettini

As mentioned in the previous post, today I had a surplus of cherry tomatoes.  A week ago, I saw an appealing recipe which used cherry tomatoes and here was an excellent opportunity to try it out.  I made a couple of changes - such as reducing the salt - but it was a definite winner and we'll be having it again.  It's certainly quick and easy - only takes about 15 minutes to make if you have all the ingredients prepared ahead of time.

Yum!  Quick and easy pasta dinner.

Seared Cherry Tomato Spaghettini

12 oz spaghettini
1/2 cup of reserved pasta water
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups cherry tomatoes halved
2 Tbsp dried bread crumbs
1/4 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic sliced
pinch of crushed hot pepper flakes
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp of oil over medium-high heat.  Saute tomatoes until lightly seared (about 1 minute).  Sprinkle with bread crumbs and salt, toss to coat.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add remaining 1 Tbsp of oil to the pan.  Cook the garlic and hot pepper flakes over medium high heat until fragrant and softened (about 2 minutes).  Add tomato mixture, pasta and reserved pasta water, stirring to combine.  Toss with parmesan cheese and basil.  Serves 4.

Harvesting Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes - Sweet Baby Girl, Gold Nugget and Honey Bee

After our usual dry summer we've had a nice spell of rain.  Nothing waters the ground like rain.  I've been keeping the tomatoes well hydrated, but when I went up to pick tomatoes today, there were lots of cherry tomatoes with cracks.  It happens every time!  Since these tomatoes need to be dealt with immediately, I decided to make tomato sauce with them.  Cherry tomatoes make delicious sauces.  The ingredients were all immediately to hand - tomatoes, onions, garlic and basil.  You can vary it with peppers, thyme and add other ingredients such as carrots, zucchini - whatever takes your fancy.  Here's how I made it today:

Simple Tomato Sauce

3 quarts of cherry tomatoes
1 large onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 quarts of cherry tomatoes, stems removed, of course!
handful of basil leaves - chiffonaded*
Salt & pepper to taste and you can add a little sugar as well

Saute the onions in olive oil until they are partly softened.  Then add the garlic and continue sauteing until softened.  Add the cherry tomatoes.  I didn't chop them, just squashed them a little to hasten the breakdown.  Simmer until the mixture has thickened somewhat.  Cool slightly and blend in a food processor.  Put back in the pan and add the basil.  Reheat until the basil is limp and season with salt and pepper.  A little sugar will balance the acidity although cherry tomatoes already have sweetness.  Cool, package and freeze.

I place two-soup ladle scoop amounts in ziplock bags which yields sufficient sauce for two-person spaghetti meals.

* How to chiffonade:  roll the leaves up into a bundle and slice thinly with a sharp knife.  You wind up with thin ribbons of basil which will provide flavour, texture and colour to your sauce.

Tomatoes!

Harvest time is exciting because it provides the makings for dishes you create the rest of the year.  Tomatoes are one of the more important crops we grow.  Of course they're great fresh, but when cooked up with other vegetables and herbs from the garden, they're indispensable components of some of our favourite meals.

Today the garden yielded up ingredients for cooking sauces - tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and basil - which will top pasta or simmer with meat and vegetables to make a delicious stew. Everything except the olive oil, salt and pepper came from our backyard.

The components of a cooking sauce

I am a messy cook, just as I'm a messy gardener, and a professional chef, I'm sure, would cringe at how I put together my cooking sauces, but they're quick, easy and always turn out great.

I start by sautéing the onions until they're transparent, then add the garlic.  Then I roughly chop in the tomatoes, just taking off the stem ends.  Then the pepper (in this case a Hungarian Wax Pepper for a bit of heat) is added with the stem end and seeds removed.  The whole shebang is brought to a simmer and then slowly bubbles away until it's nice and thick.  Near the end, I'll add the basil, salt and pepper to taste.  A purist would shudder, I'm sure, but I leave the skins and seeds on the tomatoes.  When the sauce is done to my liking, I blend it up in my food processor until it's smooth.  I'm a firm believer in skins being a healthy part of the vegetable.  The finished sauce will be bagged in meal-size portions and frozen for use during the winter.

A variety of ingredients make a delicious sauce

Now a word about the tomatoes.  This year I grew Stiletz, Sasha's Altai, Gold Dust, Principe Borghese, Gold Nugget and Sweet Baby Girl.  I've tried to grow plum tomatoes in the past - I know they'd make the best sauces - but have never had much success with them, so I rely on my regular tomatoes to do the job.

This year we had a very cold, wet spring which got things off to a slow start.  When the first Stiletz tomatoes started to bulk up, I was quite startled to see unusual growth.  Several tomatoes were sporting tomatoes on tomatoes on tomatoes out through the blossom end!  I've never seen that before, but then this was the first year I'd grown Stiletz.

Cat-faced tomatoes - meow!

I snapped a picture and sent it to Helen Chesnut who writes a column in the Victoria Times-Colonist.  She kindly replied to my query and also put it in her column.  Apparently the strange tomatoes were the result of our unusual spring weather and sure enough, all the successive tomatoes were just fine.  It's called "cat-facing" although I've never seen cat faces like that!  And I might add, that after cutting off the odd protuberances, these ones tasted great.

The whole house is filled with the fragrant aroma of onions and garlic.  I'm grateful to be able to provide some of the food that will nourish us come winter.  In these days of skyrocketing fuel prices which push up the cost of everything we purchase, it's more important than ever to be as self-sufficient as possible.  Before long, the basic necessities of life will become impossibly expensive.  We need to grow what we can and purchase as much as we can locally, supporting farmers nearby so that they can continue to maintain their operations.

Enough lecturing!  It's time to check the sauce.