Welcome to my Blog

Hi, my name is Suanne and I am writing this blog to share some of the tips and recipes I have learned or created with our backyard garden. The garden itself is actually my husband John's but we have had a garden for over 25 years so I have picked up some garden knowledge along the way. We live in Austin, Texas so we are blessed with a year long growing season. We always have something to eat from the garden and this pretty much dictates what we eat. All of our meals are planned around what happens to be growing at the time. One of the biggest challenges is what I like to call crop maintenance. What to do with all of the vegetables? Beyond sharing with the neighbors and friends I am always trying creative approaches to preparing the bounty. So the blog seemed like a good way to both keep track of and share my recipes.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Travis County Planting Guide

It is now time to get that spring and summer garden planted. Peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, eggplant, okra, yellow squash Swiss Chard can all be planted now.

Here is a link to the Travis County Planting Guide which gives guidelines on what to plan when in Travis county.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/docs/VegetablePlantingCalendar2009.pdf

Swiss Chard


Swiss Chard is a versatile green which can be used in salads, sauteed it can be eaten alone or added to quiche or eggs Benedict. You can add it to soups and stews or pasta sauces. It is a colorful sturdy grower in Texas. We can harvest Swiss Chard year round - one of the very few plants that you can harvest year round.








Pasta with Pancetta, Tomatoes and Swiss Chard.

2 large sweet or white onions - cut Julienne style
1 1/2-1 inch slice of pancetta diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 cloves garlic sliced
1 large can organic fire roasted whole tomatoes
1 bunch of Swiss chard - chopped
1/2 box of spaghetti or linguine
Fresh Grated Parmesan, Asiago or Romano cheese.

Heat large pan of water to boil pasta. Add the pasta and cook per instructions on package.

Heat a large skillet and add two ladles full of the boiling pasta water. Add the sliced onions and cook until the water is evaporated. Add the olive oil to the onions and push to one side of the skillet to caramelize. Add the diced pancetta to the other side of the pan and render fat until browned. In another corner of the pan add the garlic and a little more olive oil to cook garlic. Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes in 4ths lengthwise. When onions are golden colored and pancetta is browned stir the garlic, onions and pancetta together and add the tomatoes. Let cook for a minute and add the Swiss chard. Stir together for a few minutes until the Swiss chard cooks down. Add the pasta and serve with grated Parmesan or Romano.

Green Corn Project Spring Dig in

John and I led a group of about 15 volunteers in the first dig in for the 2010 season this weekend for the Green Corn Project. We refurbushed and existing garden for an immigrant shelter in Austin called Casa Marienlla. This major benefit to the dig-ins beside helping to feed people that may be either physically or financially challendged is that it helps to educate people in how to garden and provides hands on experience in how to prepare a garden for planting.

Here is a link to the GCP Site: http://www.greencornproject.org/gc/
GCP is a all volunteer run organization so check out the site. There are many opportunities to help out.
Thanks to all of the volunteers that came out with us yesterday!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Food Inc

We just watched an interesting documentary call Food Inc. This one is definitely worth a watch. It focuses on the food industry and the large multinational corporations that are basically dictating what can be grown and cheap food sources that are ultimately destroying America's health. You need only to look at one major ingredient in most of America's food products to understand why America is too fat and health care is a crisis in America. Eliminate all foods from your diet that contain high fructose corn syrup and your weight will come off and farmers will no longer be subsidized to only growing corn and maybe a wider variety more natural foods can be produced closer to you home. Everyone will be healthier and health care costs will come down.

There are many things all people can do to lead a healthier life.

Plant a garden
Eat vegetables that are in season - much better for the planet, they are cheaper, they taste better and they probably aren't gassed and dyed.
Don't eat foods that contain MSG or High fructose corn syrup or any of their cleverly named equivalents- eliminate the need for corn subsidies (reduce government spending)
Eat locally produced food whenever possible - support local farmers and increase the quality of your food
Eat meatless meals several times per week
Don't eat ground beef unless you grind it yourself or buy organic - Ground meat from large commercial processing plants could come from a thousand different cows increasing the risk of e-coli or salmonella poisoning

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Garden change over



John harvested all of the red cabbage, carrots and parsnips in preparation of planing the peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and zucchini. What a haul. So I guess this week we are eating a ton of carrots and parsnips. We have had them stir-fried, grilled and tonight I am making carrot and parsnip soup. Tomorrow is St Patrick's Day so we are having corned beef and yes you guessed it red cabbage. Ok not quite traditional but we use what we have.

Now I just have to find room in the fridge for it all.

Carrot and Parsnip Soup

1 onion diced
2 tblspoons olive oil
2 tblspoons butter
6 medium carrots diced - 2 cups
6 medium parsnips dices - 2 cups
4 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
Salt and white pepper

Heat oil and butter in large soup pot. Saute onions over med high heat until golden.
Add carrots and and parsnips and saute about 3-5 minutes. Add broth, bring to boiling simmer and simmer for about 30-40 minutes until carrots are tender. Add ginger, salt and white pepper to taste.

Puree in batches in a blender or use immersion blender.

Serve

Monday, March 8, 2010

Time to plant tomatoes


Well it is early March so its time to get the tomatoes in the ground. BUT in Texas the average last frost is Mid March so be prepared to cover the plants if there is any type of frost warning. You still get a jump on the plant development by putting them in early since most of the temperatures this time of year are moderate. The earlier you can get the plants in the more fruit will set before the high temperatures get into the 90's. So you just balance it out by putting the plants in before the last average frost but taking care to cover if it does frost. Tomatoes will not set fruit if the temperatures stay at 90 or above for much of the day so if you wait too long the plants won't have enough time to set fruit. Of course if we end up with a mild summer you can extend the period where the fruit will set but it seems that in recent years that would be the exception and not the rule. Don't plant the peppers or eggplant yet though because they will not set fruit if they are exposed to night-time temperatures of less than 50 degrees. Well you will probably get some but not as much as if you waited for the night-time temps to warm up.

Ok once again the tomato cages may look a little strange lying on their sides like this. This is John's attempt of keeping the cats away form the plants. Trust me a in few weeks the tomatoes will be properly caged with the cages upright.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Arugula


Arugula is a spicy, peppery salad green. It works well by itself with a champagne vinaigrette and some blue cheese and pear. Or you can add to other lettuce greens. I have also stir fried it and added to soups.

You can plant arugula seeds in September and it will keep growing pretty much all winter if you cut it back frequently. I usually will snip off all of the leaves for an entire plant and then new leaves will grow back.

Steak and Arugula

1 New York Strip - seasoned with salt and pepper
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves crushed
Salt and pepper
a bunch of arugula enough for 2-3 people
Parmesan, Balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Grill the steak on high heat 3 minutes per side for med rare.
Mix together in shallow dish vinegar, oil, garlic and salt and pepper.
Add the cooked steak to the vinegar mixtures 1 minutes per side. Slide against grain and add sliced pieces of beef back to vinegar mixture to coat.

Dress arugula with a couple of tablespoon each of balsamic vinegar and oil. Divide greens on plates and add sliced beef on top. You can add some Parmesan shaving to the top as well as any leftover marinade from the meat.