Swiss Chard

 

Have you ever grown Swiss Chard?  It is a variety of beet that I grow.  You don't eat the root.  You eat the leaves.  They are very similar to spinach in flavor, and the nice thing is that they do not "bolt" when the weather warms up.  You can eat them all season and into the fall.  With some protection, they can even stand through the winter and you can eat them next year!  Of course, next year they will go to seed, but if you don't want that to happen, just keep cutting off the seed stalks. Like spinach, they have oxalates, so you don't want to eat these greens in large amounts every day.  Here is an excellent article all about them: Swiss Chard: Nutrition, Health Benefits, and How to Cook It (healthline.com) 

In the picture above you, can see our row of Swiss chard.  It will get much bigger than this, too, as the summer advances. To the right you see turnip greens, which are wonderful, also.

My favorite way to cook Swiss chard, other than just putting it in soup, chop it up with some sliced green onion, a few sliced mushrooms and some cubed tofu.  I sauté all of this in a little fat-free vegetable broth and then serve it on it's own next to some sort of starch... rice, lentil loaf, potatoes, whatever I have.  I put Bragg's Liquid Aminos on mine.  

Garlic Havest 2023

 

I harvested the garlic today. In this condition, it all weighs 20 pounds! I was particularly pleased because in October I planted 60 cloves and today I dug up exactly 60 bulbs.  In case you are not familiar with growing garlic, here is how I do it.  I plant individual cloves a few inches apart sometime in October, cover them with soil and a light mulch.  Then, the following year, when the bottom two leaves are brown, I dig it all up, let it dry on a covered porch, then I will cut off the leaves and keep the garlic bulbs in a bowl or basket in the kitchen.  Some of it I will ferment, so it will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator.

Nice vegan biscuits, at last!

 As I revealed a while ago, for the last 3 years, my husband and I have been eating a Whole Food Plant Based diet, and it has done wonders for our health. One thing that it has been, until now, nearly "impossible" to make has been good biscuits. (In the UK, that would be "scones")

Today I found a recipe online that instead of using butter or other shortening, the cook just used heavy cream and I thought maybe I could recreate them by using "cashew cream."  It worked. Now, these are not "whole food."  I used white unbleached flour and added a small amount of sugar.  It's not something I would make often, but once in a while, it's just very nice to have some decent biscuits!

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 F.

2. Cover 1 cup of raw cashews with boiling water and let them soak for 15 minutes.  Drain them and put them in a high-speed blender. Fill the blender with water up to the 1.5 cup line.  Blend until smooth on high.

3. Mix together: 2 cups unbleached white flour, 1 Tablespoon of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

4. Pour the cashew cream over the dry ingredients. Mix gently with a fork, until the ingredients are all damp. Do not handle the dough any more than necessary, so the biscuits won't be tough. Pour the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead just 2 or 3 times to get it all together. 

5. Press dough out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the biscuits with a 2-inch biscuit cutter, or a drinking glass. Use a little flour so things don't stick.

6. Place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Place them right next to each other.

7. Bake for about 14 minutes. These would be worthy of Strawberry Shortcake too!

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

     I hope you and your loved ones have a safe, happy, and sweetly memorable Holiday!

Tiny tip - parchment paper battles...

 

If you use parchment paper for baking, you know it is very simple to line flat pans with it, but if, as in this case, you wish to line a bowl or something like that, it's nearly impossible.  I've found that if I crumble up the paper first, then flatten it, the job is doable.  Another thing you can do if you don't mind the paper being a bit wet, is to crumple it up, get it wet, squeeze out the extra water, and use it that way.  I wouldn't want to do that for the bread in the picture, but for some things, it would work very well, for instance lining a square baking pan to put some wet batter into. 

What I do with BIG thread spools - tiny tip

 

I have been working on some projects for Christmas, and in the course of that, I needed some 100% cotton thread.  The only kind I could find came in a large spool.  That won't work on the spool pin on a normal sewing machine, so you can see what I did here.  I put a rigid (in this case aluminum) drinking straw onto the spool pin, and then am able to put the large spool of thread on there and use it normally.  I realize there are special thread stands you can buy for this, but at least in this instance, it wasn't necessary. 

(Pay no attention to my messy desk, please.)

Last harvest of 2022

     It's been a good garden year.  I had to be gone all of August, which threw a bit of a wrench in things, but even so, I was able to can corn, green beans, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, green beans with potatoes and sweet pickle relish.  We got to eat a lot of wonderful sweet corn, and dug 140 pounds of Irish potatoes and about a bushel and a half of sweet potatoes. I froze lots of sliced okra, which I enjoy using in soups and stir-fry with rice. My Garden Fairy planted 5 rows of dry beans, and it seems, as she's finishing up shelling them that she'll have about 4 gallons of the beans which are a combination of Navy, Pinto, and Black beans. So, overall, it's been a great year!

Today was my last harvest, as it will definitely frost tonight.  Here it is!