Hazelnut Pollen Season Has Begun

Last night the hazelnut trees behind my house gifted us with their first large pollen-fall of the season.  Can you see the yellow dusting of pollen on my car's hood? 

That's the pollen that remained after the morning dew had dried off on the way to the grocery store and back.  And that orchard in the background, those are the culprits.

Butternut Squash Enchiladas

Butternut Squash Enchiladas

Tomatoes (frozen, canned, or chopped)
Onion, minced
Garlic, minced
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp chili pepper
salt and pepper

Beans (garbanzo, black, pinto, etc.)
Veggies (finely chopped carrot, squash, or cauliflower)

Butternut squash, cooked with rind removed
Cheese, grated


Preheat oven to 350.  Create enchilada sauce on the stove top using tomatoes, onions, and spices.  Dip tortillas in enchilada sauce and then fill with beans and veggies.  Roll tortillas and place in casserole dish, seam-side down.  Mix remaining sauce with butternut squash.  Top enchildas with the sauce mixture and cheese. Bake for 45 minutes or until cheese is browned.

Spaghetti Squash with Artichoke and Kale

Spaghetti Squash with Artichoke and Kale

Spaghetti squash (baked and rind removed)
Artichoke, chopped
Kale, chopped
Parmesan (or other hard cheese), grated
1 cup mayo

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients and place in casserole dish.  Bake 45 minutes or until top is browned

Citrus Sunshine on a Gray Day

The fog is hanging low and heavy in Oregon.  Spirits are feeling just as blah.  How about an end-of-January Pick-me-up thanks to seasonal citrus.  Citrus is in season and simmering it on the stove-top fills the house with an uplifting aroma.  By straining the peels and adding sugar, a sophisticated, bitter-citrus syrup is made.  This can then be added to tea, soda, or alcohol for an uplifting beverage. 

Spaghetti Squash Gratin

Spaghetti Squash Gratin


Butter
Onion, minced
Salt and pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk

Spaghetti squash (cooked, and removed from rind)
1 cup breadcrumbs (optional coating in butter)

Preheat oven to 350 and grease casserole dish.  Saute onion in butter until soft and translucent.  Add garlic and warm until fragrant.  Add flour and mix.  Add milk slowly while stirring.  Mix with squash until incorporated.  Place in casserole dish and top with breadcrumbs.  Bake for 20 - 30 minutes.

Using Frozen Squash

Remember those squash you baked and froze in the Fall?  Well, guess what.  If you don't have a chest freezer, those squash are starting to look a little frost-bitten by now and need to be used up.

But, what do you do with them?  Here are some recipes I've blogged about:

Squash-topped Shepard's Pie

Acorn squash Fondue (sans shell) 

Spaghetti Squash Gratin 

Spaghetti Squash with Artichoke and Kale

Butternut Squash Enchiladas 

Carmel Pumpkin Pie

You can also use any kind of squash to make a lovely squash soup or chili.  (Which I have yet to blog about)

But mainly what I have been doing is baked goods with squash.  And easy place to start is by doing a search for pumpkin.  I have a GREAT pumpkin loaf recipe.  Butternut and acorn (probably the ones you froze) substitute very well for pumpkin.

You can also be brave and use the squash mush as a substitute in your baking for butter, shortening, or oil (similarly to how you can use applesauce).  The consistency is the same, you save calories, and it does not come off tasting "squashy."  Although I have yet to try cookies in this manner, I have tried it in several loafs, bars, and baked oatmeal. 

Kitchen Scrap Stock

 

Save your carrot ends, your onion ends, your celery leaves, and your cauliflower leaves! Anything that is clean and free of mold should go into a freezer bag.  When the bag is full, throw it into a stock pot and simmer. 

After your veggies have gotten soft to mushy, dump the pot contents into a metal colander with a metal bowl underneath (to catch the liquid).  Allow it to sit and drain, but don't stir.

This is what my stock looked like after straining.  I used chicken bones with my veggie scraps, so there is some fat component to my stock.  Depending on how the bones look and how healthy my compost pile is, I might compost all the remaining scraps.  If, however, the bones retain fat or meat, or if the compost is stinky or overly wet or dry, I would trash the remains.

I'm not into pushing products or having a gizmo-filled kitchen.  But, go to the canning section of your store, and buy one of these funnels!  You will use it all the time and it will make your life easier.  It will fill wide-mouth or regular-mouth jars and keep the lid clean!

After you fill your jars, you may now keep your stock in the refrigerator for a few weeks (toss if it seems slimy or tastes extra pungent).  Or in the freezer for a few months.  Be sure to leave extra space at the top of the jar if you plan on freezing them.  Also, if I am thinking of freezing, I like to cover my jars with foil instead of a lid because foil is easier to remove once frozen and microwave defrosting becomes an option.

These Are The Hands...

These are the hands.  These are the hands of a gardener.  These are the hands of a gardener, who hasn't been out in her garden! Aaahh, I'm almost too mortified to post this.  Look at those nails- clean, long, no dirt, no knicks... it's shameful.

Most Januarys I'm chomping at the bit.  Doing little projects to get my fresh air and dirt - fix.  This January I'm hibernating, and for the most part, I'm content!  What is happening to me?  I can't blame the weather.  It has been extra cold at times, but also extra warm.  The rain has not been oppressive.  Yet, the mud has been a deterrent.  Cleaning up globs of mud stuck to boots, pants, rugs, steps.  blah!  I'm just not into it this year.

I also blame my "householding life."  The canning and food preservation really took on new scope this year and I have derived pleasure from using my stores. Garlic, squashes, and potatoes cured; and tomatoes, cucumbers, and kale frozen and canned... delightful.

So, perhaps that is what it is.  I won't feel shame from my lack of mud-crusted boots.  I have been deriving new satisfaction from utilizing the fruits of my labor. 

What's Growing: January

Garden update for January.

After three or four hard frosts, the garden has slowed to a crawl but is still growing.
One thing that hasn't slowed are the slugs.  They seem to thrive in this cold, wetness.  If I would do a better job controlling them, then my garden greens would look more lush.

Still growing are: spinach, thyme, oregano, kale, arugula, onions, and garlic.
The peas and celery did not survive the multiple rounds of frost.

End of January... Mold Is In The Air

It's the end of January and the love-filled month of February is right around the corner.  Yet, it's not love that is saturating our life around this mini-farm; it's mold. Though properly cured and stored, the winter squash have already been through several freeze-thaw cycles (thanks to Oregon's classic mild- with- spikes- of- freeze winters).  So, I am on the lookout for squash that have succumbed to the fungus. 

We have black spots, white spots, pinkish spots, and brownish spots.  If the rind is still firm, I try to bring them inside and cook them up.  If the rind is mushy (especially around the stem), then it's off the compost bin to provide nutrients for future crops.

Do your neighborhood cats think your beds are great... for potty purposes?

In 2014, I had cats pooping, coyotes pooping, and deer standing in and grazing in my raised beds. I had some problems!  Fortunately, two of the three critters were easy to dissuade.

Now coyotes, are a secretive bunch.  I'm not sure what discouraged them, but shortly after the cats started pooping everywhere, the coyote poop disappeared. Maybe one discourages the other.  If you don't have cats then... get a dog.

The deer were effectively discouraged by pinwheels.  The erratic spinning spooked them.  They also hate putting their heads down into things.  So if you have a favorite plant you're looking to protect, try a tight fence of some kind or strings that surround the plant about 2 feet high off the ground.

I have cats for rodent-control purposes (I had mice eating my tomatoes in 2013!).  And the neighbors have cats.  And since cats love to dig in loose soil to poop, I have cat problems! Not only is the poop gross, but they dig up my plants and bulbs with their cat hole digging and burying! aaarrrggg!

I read a lot of solutions for discouraging cats.  Some were great, some were worthless.

- Citrus- oil, spray, and peels.  Nope, didn't work at all and looked terrible

- Coffee Grounds- Also a "no"

- Human Hair-  Discourages feral cats, but not your own

- Yelling like a maniac and waving your arms- nope; they just get more sneaky

- Physical Barrier- YES!  Cats hate digging around or through certain things.  The best: fencing or chicken wire prostrate on the ground.  Thorns clipped from blackberry or rose bushes.  Woody clippings from rosemary or lavender.   Poky sticks too heavy to be easily moved.

- Pepper - YES!  Cats like to do a little gentle digging before they squat.  They do NOT like to get that scent of pepper.  Black pepper, chili pepper, and red pepper work!

- Water spraying - YES!  This works well with your own cats.  When you're out watering your beds.  Just squirt at them anytime they lay a paw on the raised bed and they will quickly get the picture.

If all else fails....    Human Urine


I'm just throwing it out there.  No one likes to talk about it, but it's free, it's easily accessible, it speaks to the animals on their level, and it almost always works.  The problem is; you gotta keep it fresh daily.  And... how do you get it outside... ?   I'll let you figure that one out.