Weary

Early October is just a frantic time of year, because every free minute is taken up with the total changeover of the garden. I’m nearly done, now. I’ve only got two beds left to plant - more garlic and more shallots. Then Tom and I will cover them with floating row cover, and we’ll call the winter garden complete.

The top of the piano is full of fruit waiting to ripen and/or eat and/or preserve. It actually felt good to chop out the tomato vines, haul bags of compost, and put fresh seeds and starts into the ground.

The greenhouse is empty once again, and the green bin full of compostable cups and popsicle stick labels. The last of the peppers have been sliced up and frozen. More sriracha has been made and is fermenting on my kitchen desk. Next to it are some seed potatoes on which I’m waiting for more sprouts. Next to that are seeds drying on paper towels - Delicata squash and Shishito peppers, bought at a roadside farmstand this past weekend (they were delicious and I want to grow them next year in my own garden). Next to that is the jar of beans I’m slowly adding to as the bean vines dry. My desk is full of non-desky things.

Some flowers are in their element - zinnias, tithonia, rudbeckias, cuphea. Others are starting to dry up and produce seeds, such as the native sunflowers I grow in my woodland garden.

I started a new herb bed near the blueberries and bought (and planted) some Eryngium planum, common name Sea Holly, which I recently found on a school field trip. I’ve been looking for this plant for ages. It looks like a blue thistle, but it isn’t quite as ouchy as thistle, and the bees adore it.

I’m pooped, but the winter garden is in, for the most part. Now the weather can change and we’ll be ready for it. Meanwhile the warm days and cool nights are perfect for all the greens and brassicas and root veg, which will get a good start now and then overwinter beautifully. As soon as the fall rains come, I’ll sow the spring wildflower seeds in the pollinator beds. I’ve already started planting sweet peas.

I haven’t even had time to make the October wreath - I’ll get to that as soon as I’m able - I think I’ll use trimmings from lemon verbena and culinary sage.

Freezing tomatoes for later canning

We grow mostly indeterminate tomatoes, which means that we get ripe fruit in dribs and drabs, not all at once like we would if we planted mostly determinate plants. This has its benefits, namely, we are not inundated all at once with a big harvest. But the drawback to that is that I rarely have enough tomatoes to do a big batch of canning. I’m always straddling the line between not-ripe-enough and too ripe.

So it was exciting when I learned that you could core tomatoes and freeze them whole, gradually adding to the pile, until you have enough to fulfill whatever canning project you have in mind. I started doing this a month ago. Whenever we had too many ripe tomatoes to eat fresh, I would core them and stick them in a ziploc in the freezer. Today I looked in the freezer and realized we had four huge bags of them, so I knew it was time to process them.

First I thawed the tomatoes slightly in the bags, then stuck ‘em in a pot. I had to use Tom’s big jam pot because they wouldn’t fit in anything else. Even then it was a struggle. I kept them on low heat for a while until they started to break down. In the future, I think I will cut them into quarters before freezing them, because I think this stage would go faster in that case. Once they were mushy I turned up the heat and let them simmer for a bit. And that brings me to my second discovery - I’m not sure I would use these frozen tomatoes for anything but sauce or paste. They tend to lose quite a bit of structure in the process of freezing and thawing, so even making crushed tomatoes might be a stretch.

Anyway, when they were the right consistency, I put ‘em through the food mill and went ahead and followed Ball canning book’s instruction for making sauce. It worked perfectly.

Some folks say you can just leave the tomatoes whole in the freezer over the course of the winter and take them out when you want to add them to soup or whatever. I think that would be an interesting experiment. But I can say with certainty that the resulting tomato sauce I’m making today looks and smells exactly the same way it would if I had made it from fresh tomatoes. So this is a nice option if, like me, you have trouble gathering enough tomatoes at once to make a large batch of sauce or paste for canning.

Have any of you ever tried this trick? What did you think of it?

We Discover Quince

Since we moved to this property fourteen years ago, we’ve wondered what to do with the quince tree that was stubbornly holding up a corner of the landscape, not to mention the rock-hard fruit that ripens on it each fall. The tree itself is more of a bush; multi-trunked and messy, and the spiders seem to love it. The only recipe we ever found for the fruit was jelly - and it required so much sugar to make it palatable - and we so infrequently ate jelly - that we never experimented with it.

image credit: tumblr_lzyuuuaF2C

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate our quince tree for things that have nothing to do with its fruit. For one thing, it requires no irrigation. I suspect that the roots are spread out far enough that it gets the water it needs from nearby flower beds. It’s super nice to have drought-tolerant trees that produce food in the landscape. The chickens use this bushy tree as a shady place on hot summer days, and it offers them protection from hawks flying overhead. Its looks are nothing to speak of, but once a year the tree blooms, and it has the most beautiful blossoms. And no matter how often I hack it back, it regrows, flowers, and fruits the next year.

So the tree has earned its place in our landscape.

But every year, we see this fruit hanging there, and wonder what we could do with it besides throw it in the compost pile. It never gets soft. Quince requires cooking to make it palatable. And I guess we just always preferred fruit that we could pop into our mouths right after picking. But we’ve also become big fans of jam. Tom makes between 5-10 batches of jam every year from our own fruit trees and vines and farmers’ market fruit. We use it on toast and sandwiches of course, but we also stir it into homemade yogurt, or mix it with granola. So this year, we began to look at the quince a little differently.

Quince used to be very much in favor as a fruit used for cooking. The tree requires few chill hours (between 200-300), handy for our mild California winters, is self-fertile (meaning you only need one tree), and bees love the blossoms. The fruit has had a bit of a resurgence in popularity due to the permaculture movement and it’s flexibility in both sweet and savory applications. But it takes a different mindset to work with quince.

First of all, it’s very hard to prep. The fruit remains extremely hard, even when ripe, and Tom cut up about 3 pounds of the stuff yesterday and had a very sore hand afterward. So use care when preparing! Then, the fruit needs to be cooked down for hours, with equal parts sugar, which leads to a golden wafting haze of deliciousness coming from the kitchen. At one point I asked Tom, ‘Are you making cookies?’ Quince, while cooking, smells divine, like maybe the edge of clouds. The flesh also turns color from a pale yellow/white, to a golden orange, to a pink orange, and apparently eventually to red. This is because the tannins and pectins (both extremely high in quince) are breaking down and becoming palatable.

About halfway through the process, Tom ladled off a jar to use as ‘quince butter,’ and we put that in the fridge. It tastes amazing. I can’t compare it to anything I’ve ever had before. The texture is a little different, a little gritty, but not off-putting. And the flavor more than makes up for it. And isn’t it gorgeous to look at?

Tom continued cooking the rest of the pulp down to make membrillo, a sort of jellied paste. After cooking it for hours, you put it in your dehydrator for another hour, and it comes out like this.

It has the texture of a gummy bear. It’s used in Spanish tapas, sliced thinly and eaten with charcuterie and manchego cheese.

Wouldn’t it be funny if the fruit we have been ignoring for all these years turns out to be our favorite? I’m now interested in researching how to use quince in more savory applications.

For more interesting information on quince, please check out this article in Heirloom Gardener magazine, and this one in the online magazine Render. And, if you’ve been enjoying quince and have recipes, please share.

P/S I forgot to mention that you need to puree the pulp sometime in the middle of your cooking process.

P/P/S I just cleaned the kitchen. Cleaning up dried splattered quince pulp is a drawback to this project. I recommend cleaning oven surface and cabinets above DIRECTLY AFTER cooking.

Summer Winners

Even though we still have more than a month yet to go with full summer production, I'm rounding up the winners of this year's garden and making lists of things I want to plant again next year.

Let's start with tomatoes. I had some real troubles in one particular section of the garden. Several plants underneath and near our peach tree did very badly, and I'm not sure if it's due to all the years of copper spray we put on the peach tree (which does kill soil life even though it's an 'organic' treatment), or the fact that those tomatoes got more shade. However several varieties did not produce even one fruit. These were Kolb, Black Beauty, Carbon, Cour di Bue, Pineapple, Vorlon, Black from Tula, and Sheboygan. Black Beauty did produce fruits but all were immature and never grew to size nor ripened. The Sungold cherry was near this section and also did not do well, only producing a couple of fruiting clusters, not the usual riot of fruit that we get from this variety. Other varieties produced just one or two tomatoes (Kellogg's Breakfast, which we've had great luck with before, Ukrainian Purple, another that has done well for us before). Since I only planted 32 plants in total, not getting any fruit from eight varieties, plus slight fruit from another three was a real problem. I have only canned 12 jars of tomatoes, three cans of salsa, and frozen six jars of garlic/basil/tomato sauce. I did manage to dehydrate another quart. But this is nothing compared to what I put up last year, so quite a disappointment. 

Winners/Will be planting next year along with some new varieties: 

Paste: Gezahnte, Italian Heirloom, Hungarian Heart, Opalka, and Amish Paste. 

Slicers: Dester, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, Dr. Wyche's yellow, Kellogg's Breakfast, and Martha Washington.

Cherry: Beam's Yellow Pear, Austin's Red Pear, Black Vernissage (extremely prolific and large fruits), Black Cherry (we missed having this one this year), and Sungold.

I'm hoping to plant 40 tomato plants next year and will add some new varieties to trial.

Next up is peppers, our second most important summer crop. For sweet peppers, we've had a good year. I use sweet peppers for fresh eating, for roasting and freezing for winter, and in things like romesco sauce that go in the freezer. Bell peppers are just now starting to ripen and will be ready to go in September, while the corno di toro style are good in July and August. Next year, I hope to plant twice as many sweet peppers.

Hot peppers are also important, both the mild ones and the super spicy ones. We use fresh jalapenos in salsa which is canned for the winter. It's also nice to have some for fresh eating or roasting; Adam likes them on grilled cheese sandwiches, in chowder, in guacamole, and alongside Mexican dishes. Many peppers get dehydrated for spices or spice mixtures: paprika, smoked paprika, red chili flakes, cayenne powder, chili powder, chipotle powder (just smoked jalapenos). Many get made into fermented hot sauce or sriracha. Hot peppers were great for us this year and next year I want to plant double the amount. 

I will plant some of the same varieties and trial some new ones. The ones I won't plant again: Tolli's Italian, Gilboa Yardenne, CA Wonder, Jupiter, Etuida, Escamillo.

Winners/Will plant again next year: 

Sweet: Lipstick, Carmen, Corno di Toro, Glow, Bull Nose Bell, Chocolate Bell, maybe Italian Sunset.

Hot: Calabrese Piccante, True Thai, Jalapeno, Magyer Paprika, Alma Paprika, Leutschauer Paprika, Maule's Red Hot.

I've tried lots of different beans, and the winner (over several seasons now) is clear: Pole beans, not bush; the variety is Rattlesnake, an heirloom. Picked when young and tender, they taste wonderful. And they're pretty, too! We eat them fresh and also blanch and freeze them for winter.

We've tried lots of different cucumbers, and the one that always performs best for us is Boston Pickling. Next year I might try another long thin cucumber, but none have ever performed like this pickling cucumber. Tom has made countless jars of pickles and relish, and we've eaten them in every fresh form we can think of. A real winner. The bees love it too. The only downside is that they are prickly and we have found that wearing gloves to harvest is less painful.

Butternut squash always does well here. I usually plant Waltham, but this year I tried a different variety and did not write it down. (I know, I know.) Whatever it is, it's beautiful and prolific, and we'll have plenty to eat fresh and some to eat over the winter if I can manage to store it properly. This photo is of an unripe squash, but we are eating our first fully ripe one tonight.

I have basil growing in six different places in the garden right now, all at different stages - it's that important to our summer cooking. I use it nearly every day. I also dehydrate a substantial amount to use over the winter in pasta. It's an essential ingredient in our chunky frozen tomato sauce. Most of it goes to make pesto, which I then freeze, at least 12 jars of the stuff. This coming week is the one I've set aside to start this process. I use CA organic walnuts instead of pine nuts, plenty of garlic, and raw-milk parmesan. 

I tend to grow Genovese basil almost exclusively, though I do grow Thai basil for the bees.

I've tried all different kinds of pumpkins, and this year I've had the best luck of all. And that's funny, because I did not buy the seeds. Instead I just saved seeds from the pumpkins we bought to carve. I felt they were the perfect size and shape (round and on the smaller side, about a foot in diameter), so I thought I'd give them a try. We have about 8 beautiful pumpkins ready to go, and another 8 or so that are huge and green. The plant has been extraordinarily prolific and I've had to cut it back in several places because it was taking over the pollinator garden and was growing into the next-door neighbor's driveway. I wish I knew what variety it was, it's done such a great job.

I planted both sugar snap and shelling peas in late July, in a shadier spot, to see what would happen. Well, we're harvesting sugar snap peas now (Magnolia Blossom variety, they are beautiful and tasty) and the shelling peas (Sabre)  are also starting to fruit. So that was a good experiment! Tomorrow I will seed some more so that we continue to have them through the fall.

The last of the collards was just given to the chickens; I just re-seeded cilantro; we didn't have good luck with dill this year; our watermelons and cantaloupes are about five inches big right now and will likely not reach maturity by the time I do my October planting. Oh, and our rhubarb is going crazy, we didn't know we'd be able to harvest that all through the summer! And apples - oh my, our tree is loaded with crisp tart-sweet fruit. Delicious. The squirrels like it, too.

I'm getting ready to start the winter garden and will sow seeds in the greenhouse next weekend, more on those varieties then.

I'd love to know which summer vegetables/fruit did well for you this year, and what you would recommend. Please share your successes!

Romesco Sauce

We love making romesco sauce every summer and freezing some for winter. It uses up some of the harvest, and really tastes good with grilled steak. It's also good on fish, chicken, or pork. Or you could use it as a spread on a sandwich. Or with cheese and crackers. It's slightly spicy and full of flavor. 

I make a double batch; we have some with dinner and for lunch the next day, and the rest I put into mason jars. I cover the surface of the sauce with a film of olive oil (just like I would with pesto) to preserve the color, then I stash the labeled jars in the freezer. Taking this sauce out in dark, dreary January is a real treat. 

Here's the recipe:

“Romesco Sauce

This is the recipe for a single batch. If you want extra to freeze, it easily doubles. Every recipe I read calls for hazelnuts; I have trouble finding those, so I just double up the almonds and skip the hazelnuts.
Instead of thyme sprigs, sometimes I’ll use my own dried thyme and in that case, I never remove it from the tomato, just add it to the food processor.

1 tomato (about 6 oz), quartered
olive oil
fresh thyme sprigs
salt and pepper
1 slice (4x4 ish) of crusty white bread, cut into cubes (I use a good French loaf)
1 red bell pepper (or whatever kind of sweet pepper you have in the garden, just large)
1/2 cup almonds, toasted
1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skins rubbed off
4 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 400. Place tomato in small glass baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and scatter thyme over. Season with salt and pepper. Roast until tomato is soft, about 20-30 minutes. Scatter the bread cubes over the tomato and roast another 10 minutes. Let cool and discard thyme.

Meanwhile, char peppers directly over a gas flame or under broiler, until blackened all over. Transfer to a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand for 15 minutes. Then peel, stem, core, and chop.

Add almonds, garlic, vinegar, nuts (don’t forget to toast them!), pepper, and tomato mixture to the food processor. Blend until combined. Add olive oil in a drizzle as machine continues running. You may need as much as a cup, you may need far less (I usually use 1/2-2/3 cup). ”

— adapted from Bon Appetit

Enjoy!