A Weekend (mostly) in the Kitchen

Tom and I spent most of the weekend working through the produce available in the garden. We eat something fresh every day (often more than once), but we have more than we can eat and we don't want it to go to waste. Frankly I wish we had more tomatoes to preserve, but meanwhile I'm preserving all the extras I have. Today I made a couple of quarts of crushed tomatoes. This is a messy job, and rather than just showing you the beautiful result, I wanted you to see the spattered counters, the many pots on the stove, in short not just the product but the process.

most of my drought-starved tomatoes are tiny,
which makes for a lot of fiddly cutting. Note that I
have to use a pasta fork as a slotted spoon, because
I broke my slotted spoon.

blanched tomatoes, waiting in ice to be peeled
a juice-splattered counter; one bowl of peelings and seeds
for the chickens, one bowl of tomato 'meat'

canning uses a lot of pots and a lot of water; we save it all
and take it out to the yard and water potted plants
The end product is indeed beautiful
I also took down the hot peppers that the kids and I strung about a month ago. They've been hanging on the canning shelf ever since; some of the serranos turned red, some of the padrons turned orange, and everything is drier - however not everything is dry enough, and when I put it in the blender, I don't want to make a paste, I want to make pepper flakes. So I spread it all out to dry on a towel outside, and that should take care of any lingering moisture.



Pretty, aren't they?

Tom worked on making homemade cultured butter. Last night he warmed cream on the stove, added mesophilic culture, then let it sit on the counter overnight. This morning it was the consistency of yogurt and he put it in the fridge.

At night after it was in the fridge all day

Tonight he churned the cream in our food processor. It was fun to watch it go from thick cream to butter + buttermilk.





This buttermilk will be used for pancakes tomorrow morning.

Tom also pickled jalepenos....



... a process which made us sneeze and cough, no matter where we were in the house, for a couple of hours.

I picked yet another huge batch of basil, put some in the chicken's nesting boxes, and made the rest into pesto. We have more pesto than we'll ever eat (I think) in the freezer.



There's still plenty of basil in the garden, which I think I will now let bloom for the bees. We have basil in several places so there's enough for random tomato dishes (we use a lot of fresh basil in tomato salads and sauce).

Speaking of flowering, the buckwheat cover crop I put in a few weeks ago is starting to bud.


And we're starting to get mini-pumpkins forming!


Although remember when I sprayed a vinegar solution on the leaves to kill the powdery mildew? Well, I killed the mildew. I also killed the leaves.

oops.
The cantaloupes look closer to harvest...


And some of the sunflowers are finally opening.

Chocolate Cherry Sunflower
Since we've got the day free tomorrow, I've got lots of projects lined up. I need to rake the chicken coop, turn the compost, cut the water sprouts off the apple tree, pull out the watermelon vines and sow buckwheat in that bed, and harvest green beans (an every-other-day chore). Oh yes and look for cucumbers hiding under leaves. And maybe trim up some unwieldy plants. Glorious!

Late August means Orb Weaver Season, Back to Routine, and Plans for the Winter Garden

Forgive my lack of writing this week; the kids and I are moving back in to a school year routine, and it takes some getting used to. It's great to have the summer off, but it makes the end of August difficult. Adam's in 8th grade now, Kate in 7th, and I'm working more and different hours at the school for differently-abled kids. It makes mornings hurried; I'm up before the chickens, trying to get chores done and lunches packed and breakfasts eaten and dog walked before we all have to leave shortly before 8. I know millions of people do this every day, but in the past I've been lucky to have jobs that allowed me to take the kids to school, then get my chores done, before I rolled in at work around 9:30-10. So this is new for me, and it just means that more needs to get done after work rather than before.

And, as always, just as school begins, the weather heats up again. It's been over 100 here at Poppy Corners for several days now. I think you can safely say that we are trying our hand at dry gardening whether we meant to or not. Everything looks spent and wilted, but the plants just keep producing, and everything they produce has extra flavor. Tomatoes are smaller than usual, as are peppers, but the improved taste makes up for it. Every extra ounce of water from the house goes out somewhere in the garden. The drips are running twice a day at the moment, but it's still not nearly enough water. I had a neighbor/horticulture expert come look at my sad-leaved tomatoes - his diagnosis was they were just plain old too dry. But I suppose those roots are 10 feet down, sucking out every drop of moisture they can, because the tomatoes just keep coming.

Next year I'll have plenty of soiled chicken bedding to use as a thick mulch, and that should help things mightily. Meanwhile maybe we'll actually get the El Nino event we're all hoping for and winter will be very wet.

The rise and hold in higher temperatures means it's Orb Weaver season, and I've started to see their webs everywhere. Once in a while I'll catch the actual spider, if I'm out late deadheading or picking produce.


The webs are truly beautiful, and I hear that they consume them every night, then rest for an hour, and make an entirely new one before morning. Completely different from the other spider webs I see most often in our yard, that of the Black Widow. Their webs are messy and dirty and thoroughly un-enchanting.

Some flowers are finally giving up the ghost and going to seed, such as this variety of Nicotiana  Four O'Clocks - I've collected quite a few to save for spring, meanwhile leaving some to re-seed where they stand.

the black things are the seeds

Other flowers are just pumping out blossom after blossom, and the bees and butterflies continue to feed and collect, which is a joy to watch.

I harvested the last of the watermelon.

yummy, but seedy

We've had an abundant crop, and the plant is putting out more blossoms, but I think I want to pull up the vines this weekend and get a cover crop in. This variety, Moon and Stars, was not our favorite, so I didn't save any of the abundant seed from our harvest. I'll try a different variety next year.

Peppers have been ripening fast, and we tried a new recipe which we all just loved. I had to use frozen corn because our corn harvest is over, but if you still have corn and peppers in the garden, you must try it.

Broil about 1/2 pound of peppers. I used both green and red Jimmy Nardello (sweet), plus a couple of Sweet Sunrise, plus some Red Marconi that were still green. Take off the stems and seed them, and arrange them on an oiled baking sheet. Broil them about 2 inches from the heating element until softened. Cut into strips and add kernels of corn (I used about a cup and a half), uncooked. Toss. Add 3T balsamic vinegar, 3T olive oil, 2T chopped fresh basil, and salt and pepper to taste. Let the salad stand at room temp for at least an hour. This was unbelievably delicious. (Thank you, Full Belly Farm, for the recipe idea!) The leftovers were even better the next day.

peppers ready for roasting
We've discovered that our favorite potato recipe, using our homegrown Yukon Golds, is hash browns. (Kate had never even heard of hash browns before this, but now she is a total convert.) I grate the potatoes using a box grater into a colander. Then I rinse the potatoes off and press out the excess water. I then drain them on to several thicknesses of paper towels (if you get plain white paper towels, these can go in to the compost after, and you don't have to feel quite so wasteful) and press out any extra water. Then I fry them like one big potato pancake with plenty of butter, olive oil, salt, and pepper, until crispy. Flip in sections (or whole if you're a better flipper than I) so both sides get well done.

We have all decided that the flavor of our potatoes is superior, thank you very much, to anything we could buy in the store. It's just a whole different taste. Usually potatoes are just a vehicle for the fat or seasonings, but these have a distinct flavor that is totally delicious. I'm definitely going to plant potatoes over the winter, too.

hello, lovelies

ready to fry

world's smallest potato
I've been working on my winter garden plan, and I think I've got it all figured out. Here's my design:




No room for hard red winter wheat this year.

Tom and I have talked a lot about the last, lone patch of dead grass near the South Garden. I think we've decided to make it a combination orchard and herb garden. First, instead of sheet mulching, we'll build a small chicken 'playpen' - something to keep them in just during the day. We'll have the chickens work for us at ripping up the last of that grass and turning the soil and eating the bugs. And adding manure! And then we'll move them to another section and let them keep going, all through the  autumn. Then, come winter rains, we'll plant some citrus - a couple kinds of small lemons, a lime or two, and maybe a mandarin or clementine - and make them fruit tree guilds, somewhat like a permaculture idea, with all kinds of herbs surrounding the trees, and lots of mulch because there must be mulch. Paths will wend gently through, oh yes, birds will sing - in my imagination it's a wonderful little copse of trees. We'll see how that actually goes and share all the details with you.

It always seems strange to plan winter veg while still harvesting summer veg, but that's the way it rolls if you want fresh produce all winter long. I must say I'm starting to have a hankering again for fresh spinach, and along about May I thought I'd never say that again. :)

Just Chores, but So Much Fun!!!!

Gosh, it's been a fun weekend. The highlight was spending an afternoon with a very good friend, and we had a lively exchange of garden ideas, garden gifts, and love. On top of that we had an impromptu invitation for dinner at a neighbor's house last night - more exchanges of gardening tips and delicious produce! I tasted my first prickly pear fruit (delicious, but lots of seeds!) grown in their garden, and ate some amazing grilled fresh catfish they had caught in Oregon the week before. We brought an heirloom tomato salad with Tom's good Farmer Cheese and basil from the garden on top. Plus some of Tom's garlic dill pickles. Kate made cookies to share, the kids all made a huge bonfire, it was just a great time! A perfect official end to summer vacation, as we get back into the school and work routine this week.

I also had a lot of time to spend in the garden and kitchen, and I got a lot done (I'm headed out again after this post, in fact - potatoes to harvest for dinner!). Mainly just chores, but still, it's such a pleasure to spend time outdoors, then come in for a glass of hibiscus iced tea and make something interesting in the kitchen, then back outdoors for more sunshine and sweat.

Here's the roundup:

Bees and other bugs:
Tom and I opened the hive and there continues to be NO EVIDENCE of wax moths - looks like we caught them just in time. Hallelujah! The ants are also staying away, and the bees are making a LOT of honey. We saw very little pollen, a small amount of brood (consistent with the fact that winter is coming), and a ton of nectar and capped honey. The bees are definitely preparing for cold weather stores. I see them all over my flowers, and I am patting myself on the back that there is plenty of forage for them right now, my early planning is paying off.

In the spirit of continuing that trend, I just scattered many more packets of seed everywhere, mixed in with good compost - more sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and lots of herbs - oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram. I hope to continue blossoms all the way through October.

I watched a tiger swallowtail butterfly feeding on some salvia, two cabbage white butterflies (nuisances, but cute ones) chasing each other through the watermelon patch, and scads of monarchs and Gulf Fritillaries feeding on the tithonia. The bees are over everything, especially a very interesting salvia I planted last spring. I can't remember what it's called, darn it.

cosmos

cosmos

guara

Agastache sunset

No idea what this is but I like it!

a bee working in salvia

an old-fashioned rose, left over from the previous owners.
I don't keep many roses as the deer just eat them, but this
one seems to stay safe, somehow

bees working in the chive blossoms

California fuchsia next to a tiny zinnia

nasturtium

an interesting seed pod, I can't remember what this is

another interesting seed pod, this is from Nigella (Love in a Mist)

another cosmos, the varieties are endless

more beautiful cosmos

some sort of native milkweed, I think, from our watershed

native California columbine

California asters

bees working in the native CA gum plant. The buds are very interesting, too

This is that salvia that the bees are going crazy for

Something about to bloom! Don't remember what it is, but I'm still excited!


Chickens:
We're continuing to get five beautiful eggs every day, and the chooks are in good health. Now that I've fed them the last of the collards and romaine from the garden, I'm trying hard to find other sources of greens for them. Sometimes I'll pick the pole bean leaves for them, they love those. Lately I've been chopping down huge swathes of borage and taking it in to them, and they fiddle with that all day. I just planted some special grass in pots that both cats and birds can eat; as soon as it grows, I'll put a pot in there for them to enjoy, and then switch it out as it gets mowed down. I also give them any tomato that has blossom end rot, cucumbers that have gotten too big and bitter for us, and assorted nasturtium leaves, along with scratch, sunflower seeds, and stale yogurt or milk from the fridge.

That one on the top right is bigger than normal. ouch.


Cooking:
I tried two new experiments in the kitchen this weekend. The first was a roasted tomato sauce for the freezer. I mixed together about four cups of chopped tomatoes (all kinds), five chopped shallots, five cloves of chopped garlic, a few tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper, and a handful of chopped basil. I put it all on a cookie sheet, and put it in the oven for two hours at 300 degrees, stirring it once after an hour. It made the most delicious smell in the house, and all of that reduced down to about a pint for the freezer. Not a huge yield, but what's nice about this is I can make a pint or so every weekend with what's available, and soon we'll have a nice hoard of roasted tomato sauce in the freezer.

both paste and slicers

basil, garlic, and shallot from the garden




I also decided to try to make fermented whole pickles, like the kind you get at real deli counters. This is also a recipe I can make with whatever is on hand, and add more cucumbers as I harvest them. It works best for smaller fresh pickles, apparently, and if I wait until I have a ton of cucumbers, half of them are too big and bitter, so this recipe appeals to me. I made a brine of 6 tablespoons kosher (or pickling) salt to one quart of water and heated it till the salt dissolved. Meanwhile I added, to a large mason jar, one grape leaf from our neighbor's grapevines, two bay leaves, two smashed garlic cloves, a 1/4 teaspoon of pickle crisp, 2 heaping teaspoons of dill, and 2 teaspoons of other pickling spices (allspice, coriander, mustard seed, etc). If I had any fresh dill left in the garden, I would have added that too. Then I washed the cucumbers and cut a thin slice off the blossom end (apparently you don't want the blossom part in the brine, it makes it taste funky). I put the pickles in with the spices and poured the hot brine over them. I weighted it down with another half-pint mason jar, then put the lid on. You are supposed to let it sit out for two weeks, at least, at room temperature (between 70-80 degrees). The brine will get cloudy. You can add an airlock, like with beer or sauerkraut, or you can 'burp' the pickles about once a week until they are the way you want 'em. You can let them sit up to six weeks on your counter if you want maximum fermentation, or you can put them in your fridge after two. I guess tasting will tell us when they are just right. They'll then keep in the fridge for six months. I'll add more cucumbers, maybe two more, as they ripen.





I also mixed up a new batch of Thieves Vinegar. I do this every two weeks. I pick lavender or mint from the garden, stuff it into a mason jar, and cover the whole thing with apple cider vinegar. I let it sit out in the sun, lidded, for two weeks. Then I decant into another clean jar and use it in the laundry room as a natural fabric softener. We love the spicy smell, and we like that it doesn't have any chemicals.



Produce from the garden:
We're harvesting tomatoes (all kinds), both sweet and hot peppers, green beans, delicata squash, watermelons, cucumbers, basil, and potatoes. We're a hairsbreadth away from butternut squash and cantaloupe. We're a little further out from pumpkins and sweet potatoes. The buckwheat cover crop is doing well, and we've had some new growth (surprisingly!) in many areas - the asparagus patch (a spring crop, for heaven's sake), the alpine strawberry patch, and the apple tree seems to be putting out another crop for us! That summer pruning must have made the apple tree feel extremely refreshed. We aren't complaining!

watermelon blossom

Bloody Butcher tomatoes

Alpine strawberry blossom

pumpkin blossom

Jimmy Nardello sweet peppers

Panache fig

buckwheat cover crop

asparagus patch

apple blossom

second crop of apples


Jobs looming on the horizon:
As crops put out their last fruits, I'll pull them, and put in a quick cover crop of buckwheat. After a month of the cover crop, I'll turn it in and let it rot, then cover each bed with a layer of compost from the chicken coop (heavy mulch made up of hay, sawdust, lots and lots of manure, and whatever vegetable or fruit bits didn't get eaten). Around the first of November, I'll start moving aside that mulch and plant our winter crops in. We'll need to make hoop tunnels for the North Garden and make sure the ones in the South Garden are secure, and order new floating row cover. I'll need to order garlic and shallot starts soon, as well as winter seed (kale, spinach, chard, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, turnips, more romaine, braising greens, possibly even red winter wheat). We'll need to watch the beehive vigilantly as varroa mite season is coming up, and we don't want a repeat of last year. There's still a lot of preserving in our near future as we continue to can and freeze the harvest - we've got the two hottest months of summer coming up in September and October, here! I need to sheet mulch the little bit of grass we have left and decide what the heck to do with that area - a huge herb garden, with paths winding around so you brush against the plants and smell them? Or a native California meadow, with summer-dormant grasses and lots of spring bulbs? What do you think? I'd like to sheet mulch it in the next month, and plant it once there is a hope of winter rain.

I hope, wherever you are, you are enjoying some time outside and enjoying nature!







A Gift of Seeds, and a Recipe

You might remember that back in March, a neighbor posted on Nextdoor about some free seeds to give away. I jumped at the chance, and came home with maybe three dozen seed packs. I was thrilled. Those seed packs have become the pollinator garden that my bees visit every day, all the cosmos, nictotiana, and forget-me-nots, a bunch of other stuff. It was such a gift.

Yesterday I noticed the neighbor had posted again! this time with even more seed packets. I was volunteering at the middle school, I couldn't go check it out, and today was busy too - but I made a moment to stop by this afternoon when he posted there were some left. I wasn't hopeful because folks are fast here, damn they are fast!

Well, I pulled up to his house and on his front porch was a Rubbermaid bin FULL of packets. I came home with hundreds of dollars worth of seeds, all from Renee's, my favorite seed house.

I dumped my booty on the table and went straight to the canning shelf, pulled out our last 4 ounce jar of homegrown honey, and went back and rang the neighbor's doorbell. I thanked him profusely and told him that the honey (which we harvested by accident back in July) had come from the flowers that came from the seeds he gave me back in March, and I was so grateful. He was glad to have the honey and promised to let me know when the next batch of seeds arrives. Apparently his mom runs a public garden in Southern CA, and always has too many seeds to use, and brings a batch a couple times a year. Oh, my. I hope I can score some next time as well!!!

Here's some of the haul.


It's mostly flower seeds, but there are some winter vegetables as well as some herbs. I could not be more delighted!!!! Some of the flowers seeds will get planted right away, like the zinnias, but others will wait until late winter, early spring. Winter seeds will go in in November. The herbs will wait until spring as well. So my storage box in the fridge is nice and fat. I separated out about a third of the seeds to share with friends and family, but if they don't want 'em, my box'll be even fatter.



Charlie Brown never said it, but I do believe happiness is a full seed box.

I also wanted to share with you a recipe I made tonight that could not be simpler. I don't know why I haven't tried this before, because as you know everything tastes better roasted with olive oil and salt, but thank goodness inspiration struck, because this recipe will be in regular rotation here from now on.

I harvested a couple of delicata squash early this morning (along with a good ten pounds of tomatoes, a good pound of ancho poblano (or pasilla) peppers, six cucumbers of which only 3 are still edible). I just learned that some folks call delicata "sweet potato squash' because it tastes, well, like sweet potatoes. It never has to me, but tonight it definitely did. In fact my kids liked it better than sweet potatoes, which they don't particularly enjoy. But they both ate and liked this squash recipe.

Ok, so wash the squash well, because you're gonna eat the skin. Preheat oven to 425. Slice off the ends, slice the squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds (and feed them to your chickens :) or plant them!), then slice the halves into half-moons. Place on a cookie sheet, brush liberally with oil and salt lavishly, then roast for 15 minutes. Turn them over, roast another 15. Or so. You'll know when they're done because they are golden and crispy.


They tasted like sweet potato fries! oh my goodness. delicious.

So, a happy day, also my first day back at work, a sort of meet-your-teachers-and-see-your-classroom thing. One of the kids from last year saw me in the crowd, walked straight to me, and threw himself into my arms. !!! He held me for a solid minute. I must say, that made it worth going back, for sure!

This means WAR.

Yesterday, I noticed that one of the wires had come off our new deer fence - in the corner - behind a compost bin - not a convenient place for deer to leap, so I didn't put it at the top of my priorities. We were out until late last night at a band concert and I completely forgot about it.

This morning I went out into the garden and found fresh scat at the scene of a horrible crime: the corn has all been snipped, neatly, as if it had been given a haircut. It was a similar story at the bean patch and in the butternut squash patch.

the break-in

DNA evidence

corn

butternut squash

pole beans
This is the last straw.

How deer-proof do we have to make this place, anyway???

Our gates are still not done, so we've taken to leaning boards up against each one - I'm about ready to sharpen them into pikes. The poor UPS people and the meter readers are wondering why we've banned them from our yard.

deters delivery guys, but not deer
I'm discouraged, maybe even a little depressed. But I'm not beaten!!!!! Priority one this weekend: gates and reinforcement. Meanwhile, I might have to cowboy camp in the garden.

Today has been very nice; I was unexpectedly released from work, as the kids went on a field trip and they had enough parents attending! The first thing I did was take a nice long walk with Joe, in the lower woodland elevations of Las Trampas Regional Wilderness. I almost never get to ramble with the dog anymore, and it was really lovely - extraordinarily peaceful and idyllic.

wild plums

wild blackberries

a trickle of water in the creek

wild grapevines growing up a tree

native honeysuckle, about to bloom

native mallow

shelf fungus
Then I came home and started on my list of chores. Always first up, weeds. The bermuda grass and bindweed are coming up all over the place in the North Garden. "Tenacious" is an understatement.

Evil #1: Bermuda Grass

Evil #2: Bindweed
As I was weeding and giving supplemental water (and moaning to myself about deer), I noticed that the huckleberry was full of ripe fruit! So I stopped for a snack. These berries are delicious - smaller than blueberries, but quite similar. 




The tomatoes are already reaching jungle proportions. A combination of good starts and good soil, I guess. We haven't had very hot weather, so I can't imagine what they'll do once it gets truly warm.



The peaches are ripening, and getting large. Soon it will be time for frozen peach smoothies again!


We got a new rain barrel, so I set it up. Tom will have to get the downspout adjusted over to the screened opening.


Dad brought over five bags of fresh sawdust and I spread the contents of three of them in the coop. The chickens have gotten noisy lately. They aren't annoying like a barking dog, and they aren't terribly loud, but there is a constant clucking and hooting which I didn't expect. Several of them have gotten their combs and wattles, and I'm expecting to see some egg laying starting next month. They love to dig down through fresh sawdust and take baths in it. They have gotten braver about coming close to me, and I often feel them peck the rivets on my jeans or the ends of my shoelaces, while I'm kneeling and working in their coop. And they come close when they see me heading over with fresh kale from the garden. But when I clean the coop or change the water, you'd think I was a terrorist. They just can't seem to calm down at those times, or maybe they just forget that I'm the person who gave them greens earlier in the morning. I understand now why people think chickens are dumb. It's because they ARE. However, they are cute and funny, and a nice addition to the garden (despite all the hooting and quarreling!).

Molly, checking me out. She's the bravest one.

Minerva and Hermione, with Luna looking on. 
Next on the list, weeding the flower beds. Things are looking quite nice, I must say, and I hope the flowers stay abundant for the Urban Farm Tour (June 6!). 

Gilia tricolor, or Bird's Eye Gilia

Guara

Bush Anemone
Flowering pomegranate
California poppies with Elegant Brodiaea 
penstemon 

The potatoes are growing beautifully, as are the carrots and peas. It appears that the collards and lettuces have also had a recent trimming by those four-footed devils. The shallots are starting to look drier and may be close to harvest. The strawberry wall is recovering from a recent deer attack, and the blueberries are producing a few each day.

Yukon Gold
Our potato crop was eaten by deer last year, so it would be very depressing to have that happen again. I don't mean they ate the actual potatoes; as far as I know, deer don't dig (though I wouldn't put it past them). They just completely decimated the leaves. Twice. Are you noticing a recurring theme? 

Next chore: pulling out the kale, adding a few wheelbarrows of dirt to the bed, and planting basil seeds. Red Russian Kale is a star in my garden, producing well for six months out of the year. The chickens love it, we love it, it's a nutritional powerhouse - an all-around great plant. But I'm dying for fresh basil, and I have to get it in the ground now if I want a crop. And the kale was starting to flower and get quite leggy, despite my daily pickings. So with a sad heart I fed most of the kale to the chickens (and gave some to my neighbor for her chickens too!) and composted the rest. 

Unbeknownst to me until I began this project, the lower reaches of the kale was full of aphids, which can certainly happen once the plant is stressed. What an ABSOLUTE pleasure to feed the aphid-ridden bits of kale to the chickens, to whom Christmas had come early! Chickens dearly love bugs, of all kinds.

I hope I didn't feed any on-the-prowl ladybugs to the chickens while I was at it
The worst part about aphids is that after you get rid of them, you feel all crawly.

I noticed a bunch of bees hovering around the hive today. My best guess about this is that they are the first flights of the new bees. I'm anxious to take a look in the hive this weekend and see how much the colony has grown.

I'm finishing up the day with a fancy dinner, because when you have the time to cook something special, you have to take advantage! I'm roasting a beef tenderloin, which is a splurge - but we will eat leftovers from it for days. I've made a compound butter to go with it. This sounds complicated, but it's not; just soften a stick of butter, then whip it with garlic and herbs. I used thyme and sage from the herb garden, as well as our newly hung garlic, which is really fun to use - it's not dry, like grocery store garlic. It's quite moist and easy to peel, and has a wonderful flavor. With the tenderloin, I'm going to roast some beets, and make some parmesan polenta. It'll be a great end to a great, full-of-accomplisments day!