This Just In – I’m Sick of Peas

I love em, but I can't eat anymore. You know you're finished for the year when everything is pea green, everything! Now it's time to take them and store them away for the dismal grey days that will desperately need some pea green colour

 

 

 

Colour

Sweet peas remind me of everything nice. I think of summer as a care-free kid and my mums loved garden. I will probably insist on having a substantial planting of sweet peas every year from now on, there’s no excuse not to. This year my planting was beset with many challenges, the most being the slugs that thwarted the early days and then the endless rain at the beginning of summer. But it all worked out.. a lesson I need to learn involving not worrying so much.

This year I only planted one variety, the classic Royal family mix. Next year I will branch out .. sophisticate my operation.

I hope to plant a cutting garden at the farm, something separate entirely from the food growing aspect, with ducks living in it.

Height of the season colour

A Banana Kale Almond Phenomenon

I really like kale, I do. I’ve eaten loads of it raw, steamed, stir fried, sautéed, in soup, in lasagna, the list goes on. Lately, however, my favorite use of kale is this;

Chocolate Almond Milk/Steamed Kale/Plain Yogurt/Banana Smoothie.

Combine

3/4 cup of unsweetened choc. almond milk

1 banana

3-5 leaves of lightly steamed/rinsed to cool kale

large dollop of plain balkan style yogurt

a few ice cubes for assured cool temperatures

Now, I have a vitamix, and I know this is a large part of the smoothie success equation (thanks Dad, best-most used gift ever) But even if you don’t the smoothie will turn out, I think. I don’t really know though.. since vitamix is the only blender I will use ever again!

The point of this post is that kale is amazing and you should eat it. If you don’t like the taste, you’re not alone. With this recipe, or a variation of it, you can’t even taste it and of course you get many of its benefits nonetheless. Fibre fibre fibre fibre fibre. It looks like a swamp but it tastes like a banana chocolate smoothie.

 

In other food-related news I’m interested in any interesting potato recipes anyone might impart (of all 2 of you who might read this!)

I made Gnocchi tonight.. it was interesting. I think I’ll make it again.

 

 

 

 

Health Food and Summer

The garden is in full production mode these days and R and I are coming up with all sorts of ways to avoid buying much of anything at the grocery store and focusing on vegetables. Ryan made a fantastic looking kimchi yesterday and today (I helped chop and encourage) The taste test will come in a few days, and we will probably eat it on top of rice.. and vegetables. We used homegrown daikon radish and napa cabbage, both which were a huge success this year. If the kimchi impresses, we will likely make another batch from kale and daikon.

Peas in particular and making a big impact this year. Our 50 foot row of sugar snaps need preserving – not to mention the constant deer style browsing we’ve been doing- and in the next week we will have plenty of  ”Aladdin” shelling peas to blanche and freeze. This is the first year we’ve had too many to eat on the spot

We dug up two rows of potatoes a few weeks ago and I’ve been trying to think up something different to make, since I’m incredibly bored with roast/baked/boiled potatoes. I know there’s hundreds of options, but I have to be in the right mindset to embark on any projects. Today, the project was perogies, and the outcome was fantastic! I have to work on shaping, but I got the dough made right the first time, and the filling was simply potatoes with caramelized onions and plain yogurt, all mashed together of course. I’m going to be making lots of these! We need a deep freeze…

So, not incredibly healthy, but reasonably so considering what perogies can consist of. Notice, no cheese and I used sunflower oil for the dough and grapeseed for the frying! No cheese is big for me.

 

Can We Stay?

We’ve been living on the most fabulous fertile piece of land we ever have for four months now, and it’s looking good for a few years at least! Our goals are sharpening and a focus is materializing out of all the many possibilities for our farms future. We are planing to start an experimental CSA, (or community supported agriculture) next season, to gage whats possible in that respect. Also the seed company is still alive and well, along with our newly encouraged aspirations to continue an educational initiative here on Quadra, teaching and learning human scale farming techniques. Along with a soil building course this Fall we will promote a course a month on the farm, newly christened ”Valdez Farm” to coincide with “Valdez Seeds”. For better or for worse!