Birthday Extravaganza

 Sunny Peppers!

Yes, the peppers continue to ripen and survive despite cold nights.  It's amazing what a sheet of remay row cover can do to preserve and protect.  I'm not sure about this week with lows forecast in the mid 20's it could be the end, but it's been a great run.  We have loads of peppers now that I need to cut up for the freezer because I don't think we will be able to eat them all up.

I've had a wonderful birthday week with multiple celebrations in honor of turning, as someone said "double nickles".  There have been cards and calls, gifts and dinners and a general festive air all around.

I baked this gorgeous snapper from the local fishmonger on my birthday eve. Along side crispy roasted potatoes, the last of the garden beans and a salad of just picked red bibb lettuce, a nice french white Bordeaux, that was some living brother.  And we polished the night off with a flour-less chocolate torte that I baked for myself as I'd been having a hankering.

On my actual birthday Nov 8th, David went out to Prairie Ridge with me to help band birds. It was another cool sunny day and we had a big time capturing kinglets and many sparrows in the nets and putting the bands on their tiny legs before measuring, weighing and releasing them to fly on about their day.

That night we enjoyed a super dinner at Mateo Tapas Bar in Durham where we sampled 9 different plates and a fair amount of wine.

Yesterday I spent the day at the NC Community Garden Partners Annual meeting.  I am on the education committee and so was on the planning committee for this event.  I think it was a big success, we had over 100 people from across the state taking part in workshops and presentations.  People seemed to be learning lots and networking too, always good.  Our theme this year was sustainability of gardens, not on the ecological level but on the management, business, funding, longevity level. It is great to see the community garden movement growing in North Carolina and so many people interested in getting gardens started and in keeping them going strong.

Best of all- I won the raffle of this gorgeous community garden quilt!  It represents raised beds, pathways and veggies growing, and has a few chickens clucking through it as well.  Colorful and fun.  I couldn't believe it.

And so, I enter my 55th year feeling very celebrated, loved and lucky indeed.

Pepper Palooza

 Half of the pepper patch

Peppers are a crop that require a lot of patience.  Especially if you start your own plants from seed.  Around the 1st of March I prep my planting trays and sow the seeds of peppers, eggplants and tomatoes and put them on a heat mat to sprout, then under grow lights where they grow along for about 6 weeks.  At that point, I step them up into larger pots and start to harden them off by putting them outside during the day and bringing them in at night, exposing them to more and more sun each day.  Around the 1st of May I set them into the garden beds and put the cages around them.  Then it's a waiting game until the first fruits begin to show color and fully ripen up, usually around mid August.  Six months before the first fruit, that is a long wait.  From that point on, its pepper city up to and often beyond frost.

They are actually pretty easy to grow, I just keep them watered and usually give them some extra fertilizer in the form of fish emulsion in mid-summer as they are starting to set fruits.  There are few pests that attack the plants, sometimes caterpillars can get into the fruits and cause them to rot, but generally they are free of problems.

Bowl of sweet, colorful, crisp goodness

I have no interest in green peppers unless they are the hot varieties.  I grow 1 plant of serranos every season which produces enough peppers for an army.  I also grow at least one of the medium hot chiles such as anaheims, poblanos or pasillas each year.  But my true faves are the sweet and colorful bell peppers; red, orange and yellow as well as the Italian stuffing peppers.  I have Carmen this year and sometimes I plant Corno di toros which are nice as they also have yellow and orange fruits in addition to the red.  This year I have a Marconi Gold which is a bright yellow stuffing pepper the same size as the Carmen.  And finally the pimentos which are so meaty and rich roasted and either dressed in olive oil for salads or appetizers or chopped for good old pimento cheese.  

All of the peppers freeze really well too and so I roast and freeze them or chop and freeze the colored bells to use in soups, stirs fries and other dishes through the winter.  Small hot peppers can be frozen whole and the chopped peppers need no prep or cooking, just core and seed, chop and toss in freezer bags, so easy.

We are eating lots of these now raw in salads, dipped in hummus, sauteed in pasta dishes.  The only down side is that there isn't a lot of other stuff coming out of the garden at the moment, the tomatoes are finished, the eggplants are making a few, the beans are winding down, and now I am waiting eagerly for the fall greens to start up but it will be a while.

Just yesterday I sowed seed for lettuce, spinach, radishes and turnips.  I put in another batch of carrots as the first planting from a month ago came up sparsely.  The beets look good and are already about 3 inches tall, so they will be the first greens we get to eat this fall.  I also need to pull out the tomato plants dead or dying to make room for the brassicas.  Little broccoli, cabbage and collard plants are sitting in pots and really want to be in the ground.  I do have quite a few frozen greens from the spring so I guess I'll eat those  while I wait for the new ones to come on,

Truthfully, there is never a shortage of food around here, I'm only complaining because, well, I don't know why I'm complaining, it's foolish!

Between Rain Showers

I just dashed out between the rain showers to snap a few photos and cut some lilacs to bring in before they got all smashed and ruined in the rain.  I can't believe that it is already the 6th of May and 3 weeks since my last post.  Apologies faithful readers, it's been a busy patch.  This Gold Flame lonicera (honeysuckle) has been spectacular over the past week and continues to delight, especially nice that it can be seen from the kitchen window.  Last season it bloomed 4 times over the course of the season, a real winner.

What have I been up to since last I wrote?  Learning more about bird banding over at Prairie Ridge and taking a few bird walks around here in search of spring migrants, they seem a bit late due to the cool weather.  I've organized work days and planting at the community garden. I went to a two-day writing workshop on "Those who shape us - character portraits"  with my long time teacher Carol which was really good, now I need to put the learning into practice as I continue to work on a long piece about "my life in food" and my early days in Austin, Texas.

We've had two more meetings of the garden club mob, one at a new garden and one at Spanish for Fun Academy child care center.  This was our "community service" effort of the group as one of our members works at SFF and has no garden space at home.  I have been working with them for 2 years on their naturalized play space, adding more bit by bit. Click here for photos of the play space over time, I was just looking at them and its kind of amazing how it has changed, going from having nothing growing there to adding 16 trees, many shrubs, blueberries, apples, strawberries and a fig tree, veggie and flower beds- remarkable! 

Yesterday I  worked like a maniac all day trying to get the rest of our summer veggies planted before the next long rainy period which started just about the time I could no longer stand up straight last evening and is to continue through Wednesday!  I was a success, planted 16 assorted pepper plants that I started from seed back in March; red, yellow and orange bells, Carmen Italian stuffing, Hungarian round pimentos, one Serrano, one new Mex Joe Parker and one Marconi Gold yellow Italian.  I also prepped beds and sowed 3 kinds of cukes; Tasty Jade, Diva and Suyo Long, 3 kinds of squash; sunburst patty pan, romanesco costato zucchini, and yellow crook neck- the seed viability test of the year with seeds from 2000!  I sowed 3 kinds of beans, are we picking up a theme here?  Roc d'or yellow wax, Tavera haricot verts and Pension Italian flat. I also set out some basil and parsley plants.

I had managed to get most of the tomatoes in back around April 15th, but yesterday I added 4 cherry tomato plants to round out the tomato planting to a total of 28 plants.  This years goal was to have more plum tomatoes for sauce and canning and fewer slicers, but because we like so many kinds and want a variety, I still planted more than we probably need.  Seven Mariana hybrid romas and 7 Red Agate romas, and a couple of each; Cherokee purple, Georgia streak, Celebrity, Bolseno, Mosckvich and beef steak, and the four cherries; Sungold, Sundrop, Bi-color and Sweetie.  I think we won't see a shortage of mates this season!

I will leave you with a couple of photos of clematis that have started to bloom in the past couple of weeks, they're very happy with all the rain.  Here is Niobe, transplanted last year to this sunnier spot, it grew and grew but never flowered, this year it is covered with buds.

 This is Nelly Moser below, very happy on the fence between the veggie garden and the lawn.

and up close

I'm glad for all the rain, but am looking forward to warmer weather, it is May after all, seems weird to have the heater running.  I'll try to write more this month, there is certainly plenty to write about!

Finally

The thermometer read 24 this morning, a hard freeze at last.  I cut this vase of roses yesterday knowing what was to come, they bring great cheer to chores at the kitchen sink.  I cleaned out my neighbors chicken coop and brought a wheelbarrow brimming with poop down to add to the compost pile. Anticipating the freeze, I pulled out the last of the beans, zinnias, nasturtiums and peppers and layered them all into a big hoop of fence wire about four feet across and three feet high. Along with the garden refuse I layered the chicken poop and freshly raked leaves.  Greens, poop, browns, water.  Greens, poop, browns, water... until I had filled the entire bin. It should get nice and hot and cook up some excellent compost for next summers planting.

Jackson Wonder Lima Beans

We enjoyed a first freeze harvest dinner that included a pot of lima beans and the last of the green beans all simmered up together, roasted long island cheese squash with lots of chopped peppers and a little pork tenderloin cooked up with a mustard cream sauce.  mmmm, mmm. We've now got a bushel of mixed peppers in 4 paper grocery sacks ripening up in the kitchen!

A Favorite Spot

It being the week of Thanksgiving, I gotta say I've got loads to be thankful for, not the least of which is plenty to eat and a roof over my head that's paid for.  I've enjoyed being home the past week, not working at the outside job, just focusing on the home place.  I cleaned the house and did tons of laundry, worked in the yard for many hours, took lots of long walks through the cold sunshiny woods and down along the creek.  It's been a very pleasant week.  Tomorrow- back to the real world, well, as real as my world gets anymore.

Still

Still there are flowers blooming.  Still only the slightest frost the other night and no real freeze yet.  Everything is lingering, long and slow going down.  Still leaves hang on trees, red, gold, even green.  Still peppers are ripening on the plants, covered on the coldest nights with a little blanket of remay, hanging only half way down the 5 foot tall plants.  But its been enough to keep them going.  Still several dozen peppers out there. 

In earlier years we would rush and pick all the peppers at the first sign of frost, no matter how small, no matter how green.  Then we learned that wasn't necessary.  Pick the ripest ones and wait, they will keep going, often to November or later.  And if you grow peppers and you don't know this you should.  Put the under ripe ones in a brown paper bag with the top folded over and leave them at room temperature and they will ripen up over the course of the next few weeks, just don't forget to check them now and then and put the ripe ones in the fridge.  I really don't like green peppers at all, so I want all my peppers to ripen fully to red, yellow, or orange.

How swell to continue to have roses in November.  Still a few flowers here and there, adding color.  The mums are finally withering and I've begun to cut them back and weed beneath them, they harbor all sorts of little weed seedlings hiding under the fallen stems. The forever job of weeding and mulching, never ending. 

Ginger lilies, I have been cutting them and bringing them in, they give off a light gingery scent and continue to open.  The torpedo like buds hang down on a spindly thread, somehow they have the strength to lift up and another flower opens into miraculous bloom.

Still I am waiting for the leaves to come on down so that I can start raking and cleaning up in earnest.  Still there is wood to cut and split.  Still there are gutters to clean.  I took a coil of our local hot Italian pork sausage from the freezer today, tonight- stuffed peppers for supper with a fresh green salad. Still happy to be alive, lucky to be in this place, grateful for the bounty, despite the chores that still remain.

2012 Is Off To A Good Start

This handsome red-shouldered hawk showed up the other day, landed just outside the kitchen window scoping out the yard for a smaller bird or rodent to eat for breakfast.  I was amazed I got such a clear picture as I had to zoom in to get this close and shoot through the window glass to boot.  A little later as I walked out to hang the laundry s/he swooped right in front of me squawking and flapped across the yard to land at the top of the gateway down into the woods.

Later the same day as I was working in the garden I heard the unmistakable call of a red-tailed hawk, you know the one- the long lonely scree they dub into movies and TV at a critical moment in the plot. I looked up and spied the hawk, high in the air flying away to the north, then it circled back and soared right over me and the yard and house, circled over the farm and then flapped its way back across our yard and off to the north again and out of sight.

I take these hawk sitings as good omens for the new year.

It's been unseasonably warm and as a result the prunus mume is blooming about two months earlier than normal.  Apparently they can bloom anytime in the winter.  I'm not complaining, the pink cloud of blossoms outside my desk window has been very cheery over the past few weeks.  The delicate cupped flowers are to me the epitome of Asian floral splendor.

I've been cooking loads of soups, cleaning out all the leftovers from the fridge, tonight I made a curried butternut squash soup using the last of the peppers, yes, fresh peppers from our garden picked back around Thanksgiving  These were the last handful that had been green when picked and failed to ripen up in the paper bag with the others so got tossed into the fridge. It was time for them to go into the pot with lots of onions, carrots, garlic, celery, butternut, tomatoes, red lentils, coriander, cumin, cardamon, curry powder, cayenne, a little saffron and a bay leaf.  All cooked together and pureed, quite tasty garnished with some fresh yogurt and toasted pumpkin seeds for supper tonight.

Yesterday we took apart the holiday tree, packed all the treasures carefully away and put the boxes back up in the attic along with the now empty cookie tins, cleaned the whole house and put the furniture back to normal.  I was a bit sad to see the beauty go, but it was time to move on into the new year and leave the holiday season behind.  2011 was a good year and the holidays memorable, but I'm ready to embark now on 2012.

Garlic Planting Time

I finally got my garlic in the ground today, a couple of weeks later than I had planned but this was the first chance I've had.  Dug up a nice bed where some tomatoes had been and added compost and some fertilizer and broke apart 7 of my biggest best heads from the spring to plant about 70 cloves.  They'll snuggle down in the ground all winter and grow their green tops until they plump up into big heads that I can dig again in June.  I've still got a couple dozen bulbs left from last springs crop to get us through the winter soup and stew season.  Having a big braid of garlic in the kitchen is one of the things that makes me feel really rich.

October 23rd and we still have peppers ripening up!  I picked every single serrano about a month ago and when I looked at the plant today, I see it has about 100 new peppers on it, what will I ever do with them all?

Peppers on Parade

So I realize that I am on the verge of bragging about our peppers but I gotta say that this is one of the very best years we've ever had, I think between the five bell pepper plants and the two pimentos we've harvested about 30 so far. And there are at least 30 more out there.

I've been giving them to friends and piling them into everything we eat, dipped in baba ghanouj, roasted with beets, chopped into salads, sliced into stir fries, roasted and cut up into pimento cheese or marinated in olive oil. I've frozen them diced and roasted. They are such rich colors, the poblanos smell smokey and the others are crisp and sweet.

Another Gate Finished!

If you've been following the blog or know me, you know I've been trying to get these gates installed in the vegetable garden fence for months, I got the first one done in the spring, built a second one a few weeks ago and had been waiting for my honey to help me get it hung up, takes two people to do hinges. We did it this morning, it looks great, now we can easily walk straight through the garden to the garden shed instead of all the way around, which we were doing because the temporary gate was difficult to open and close due to the temporary wire latches. One more left, my goal- to complete it before the end of September. They are not really that hard to do, there is just some kind of major avoidance thing going on to getting them finished.

I have this feeling that when I finally get the gates done, it's like I'll be passing through them into some new life?

Now here are some other peppers that I meant to post yesterday, Round of Hungary - pimento, thick walled, incredibly sweet and spectacular when roasted and dipped in some good olive oil.

Yeah baby! Is this thing sexy or what?

Gluttony

Even with the garden overflowing and working everyday to decide what to do with it all, we went to dinner at a French restaurant last night and ate and drank ourselves silly. We were inspired by the the film Julie and Julia, which I thought was excellent. I had read Julie Powells' book about her efforts to cook every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. Having a catchy idea for a blog and getting discovered and turning it into a book and a movie- every bloggers dream. Nora Ephron did a great job of marrying the two stories, that of Julie Powell and Julia Child during her early days in France and the writing of MtAoFC. It was a love story as much as anything, an enchanting portrayal of the two couples, in love with one another and with food, and of husbands who support their wives in their pursuits, no matter how desperate or challenging.

As an aspiring young chef, MtAoFC was certainly my bible, the film made me want to dig it out and cook up something spectacular from the pages of this classic. Tonight we'll be eating a mountain of haricot verts with roasted red peppers and one of my favorite eggplant dishes- Imam Biyaldi.

Imam Biyaldi means "the priest fainted" and Marian Morash in the Victory Garden Cookbook says she isn't sure if that was because the dish was so delicious or because of the amount of expensive olive oil used in its preparation. But its a winner and Marian's book is one of the best in helping people with lots of vegetables on hand to use them up in many creative and delicious ways.

What's your favorite vegetable cookbook?

Peppers ripening, almost ready to roast.

Read my latest column in the Chapel Hill News for more on gluttony.

Transition Time

Here in zone 7 its time to start pulling out the summer crops and replacing them with things for fall. Yesterday the bedraggled squash went to the compost heap and I turned the soil and added compost and Plantone. This morning I seeded kale, more beets, bok choi and lettuce. I broadcast a mix of Asian greens; mizuna, radish greens, purple mustard and tatsoi, thinking I would harvest it small and use it as a braising mix in stir fries or as a side dish. Then I pulled out the bush beans and the last of the spring beets to make way for spinach and turnips to be sown this evening if I can get myself back out there...

The ocean of tomatoes seems to be smaller, maybe only a lake now, one section of the kitchen counter and one end of the kitchen table has been covered in red for many weeks. The freezer is full so I'm going to have to come up with a plan for the rest of these red beauties. And the peppers are coming on in earnest now, I picked these poblanos and will roast them today and squeeze them into the freezer some how. I've been fantasizing about real deal, honest to goodness chile rellenos and will have to try and make some while these pretty chiles are in their prime, stuffed with cheese, dipped in a coating of egg whites and flour and deep fried, they are spectacular, even if they aren't "on the diet" every now and then I gotta splurge.

And then there are these big bells, the Vidi now turning red and the Sunsation bright yellow, they will be filling salads and stir fries and getting dipped in hummus for several weeks to come.