The Cracked Pot’s been quiet
It’s official: we’ve finally entered full-fledged winter weather here in Vancouver. It’s pitch black by 5 pm and the rain is coming down in sheets. It’s the end of gardening for ‘08.
I still have a few things to clean up in the patch yet, but it’s damn sloppy, and I can’t even get out there without my mascara and eyeliner running. Tsk tsk.
So what’s a gardening blogger supposed to write about at this time of year? Well, the next few months will be all about eating the food we’ve grown this year. So there will be some recipes and a few ideas here and there to share. But fear not- January is a new year and time to start thinking about rockin’ the garden for 2009.
I’m also taking off on a trip to southeast asia for the month of december so I will be absent for a while. My mind has been somewhat consumed with reading books about the history, art, culture and language as a result.
I’m a dreamy sort of person, deep down inside, and I have this romanticized vision of myself witnessing and helping a Thai family with the rice harvest. Traditional Thai life revolves around the grain, and the harvest season should be starting just as we arrive. No lush photos of watery green rice paddies to share once I’m back, but maybe a few war stories of how it’s done.
Also, there’s a town just north of Bangkok called Saraburi that’s surrounded by fields of sunflowers, which ought to be in bloom at the time we’ll be there. Should make for some lovely photos. Chiang Mai is also known for its flower industry.
I hope to bring back some rock n’ roll gardening tales from across the pacific so stay tuned.
Thanksgiving recipes: Pumpkin Pie with Cinnamon Whipped Cream
Let’s be honest now, there’s no getting away from the Thanksgiving table without a piece of pumpkin pie, no matter how tight your pants are.
If you’ve got a garden and have the space, I recommend growing one little sugar pumpkin vine each year. Even if you’re tight on space, you can train the pumpkin vine to crawl around on a sidewalk out outside the boundaries of your patch so you still have some space.
Of course, most people just reach for a tin can of pumpkin puree this time of year, but if you can either grow or purchase a sugar pumpkin it is that much better.
Sugar pumpkins are small and almost entirely flesh, unlike your typical hollow jack-o-lantern type. The flesh is a pale yellowy-peach colour and very light and sweet tasting.
You can reduce the sugar content in your pumpkin pie recipe by about half if you’re working with a sugar pumpkin, which is exactly what I’ve done here:
Keep reading for the full recipe and pumpkin roasting instructions. This makes TWO pies.
Thanksgiving Recipes: Pear and Onion Stuffing
Here’s a classic you just can’t fuck up, no matter what you do.
I stole this recipe from the old school version of the Joy of Cooking and adapted it to match the other flavours in my Thanksgiving recipes. If you’re broke-ass and think ahead, you can save all of your bread bums in a plastic bag in the freezer for a couple of months for this recipe.
Stove Top stuffing… kiss my ass.
Keep reading for the full recipe.
Thanksgiving Recipes: Cranberry Pear Chutney
Cranberry sauce is so… 20th Century, man.
You crack open a can of No Name red “cranberry sauce” and… shhhluppp! A perfect tin-can-shaped jello object slaps into your bowl, ready for you to artfully fork apart to hide your shame.
We all do it every year and it’s damn convenient, but there are many more inspired things you can do.
This recipe is just the ticket, and a perfect offering if you’re showing up to scavenge someone else’s scraps for Thanksgiving.
I stole this from a Real Simple magazine I rescued from the recycling bin behind my old apartment back in 2001. Holy Shit. I’ve had someone else’s garbage stored in my house for seven years?!
This recipe is a nice new take on the crappy cranberry sauce you avoid at the table every year. Tried, tested and true- perfect for beginners. Mom would be so proud.
Keep reading for the full recipe.
Thanksgiving Recipes: Cider-roasted Vegetables
We are truly lucky to have such a diversity of people, cultures, traditions and, most of all, food, here in Vancouver. From the town that brought you Gung Haggis Fat Choy, I bring you an Asian twist on Thanksgiving dinner.
Thanksgiving turkey is about as North American-WASP as you can get, so this recipe is a nice way to feng shui your meal without getting too crazy. Similar to brown sugar glazed carrots, this one picks up some Asian flavour along the way with the addition of Apple Cider vinegar and some shiitake or portabello mushrooms. This feeds about 8 people.
Keep reading for the full recipe.
Thanksgiving Recipes: Turkey and Gravy
(Not a turkey, but close enough?)
Here it is: the main event.
Cooking your first turkey can be an intimidating prospect. Mom makes it look soooo hard, doesn’t she? But it couldn’t be easier- I think it’s all just a ploy to get out of doing the dishes.
If you’ve got the dough, invest in a non-medicated free range turkey. You can order these ahead of time from a local butcher. If you live in the Vancouver area, Famous Foods, Capers and Choices are all good locations if you don’t have a local butcher. By far, Famous Foods has the best prices. Most of the local turkeys will come from J.D. Farms in the Fraser Valley, which is a great operation run by a decent guy. Very good quality. They have a handy little search for a store near you tool too. Expect to pay around $40-$50, or $20-30 for a cheap 2-headed, 3-winged Butterball. Yech.
As far as size goes, you want to account for about 1 to 1.5 pounds of turkey per person, and don’t worry- you’ll still have plenty of left overs. Turkey soup, turkey pot pie, turkey sandwiches, turkey fajitas, turkey a la king, turkey…
Keep reading for the recipe and play by play.
Rock n’ Roll Gardening Hall of Fame: The Grim Reaper
Since it’s harvest time for most gardeners on the West Coast right now, I thought this week’s entrant to the hall of fame should be timely and topical. So while you’re out there digging and picking the last of your crops, keep this week’s winner of the Rock n’ Roll Gardening Hall of Fame in mind:
That’s right. The Grim Reaper. The original rock n’ roll gardener. Ok, so where do we begin?
- Skeleton? Check.
- Name that alludes to death? Check.
- Gruesome depiction of human hands, feet and heads being harvested with a giant scythe? Check.
- Looks like it was drawn by a stoned high school boy with a black ballpoint pen on the inside cover of a social studies 10 text book? Check.
- Calls upon an ancient power so primal it could only be mistaken for heavy metal? Check and check.
All hail the Grim Reaper, the original rock ‘n roll gardener. Beelzebub be damned, this guy was the original right hand man for Satan- some say Satan himself.
The Grim Reaper has been variously portrayed in Western culture as the personified cause of all human death, or sometimes just the personal escort service for people that kick the bucket.
From Tarot cards to Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure, this guy gets around. Personally, I like this image the best- note the pretty rose bush, setting sun and winding river. The Grim Reaper represents the end of the season, the end of the life cycle, but not necessarily the end, for with every end there comes a beginning. So don’t put those shovels and gloves away for too long.
In the slavic pagan tradition, death was portrayed as an old woman dressed in white holding an everlasting green seedling in her hand. One touch of her plant put a soul to sleep forever. Now if only I knew what she was carrying… I found my Hallowe’en costume.
Dying Flower
It’s that time of the year- everything is winding down now. It’s unusual to see time lapse vids of flowers dying- it always seems to be the bloom period that people care about, but I find this to be equally magical, if you’re patient enough to watch:
Choosing the right fertilizer
Does growing organic mean skipping fertilizers altogether? Not in my garden- you just gotta choose the right one.
While it may be tempting to buy the jug featuring the cool skull and crossbones on it, um… yikes. Reach for the fish fertilizer instead.
Just drop by your hardware or gardening shop and look for a jug of the liquid stuff. All you gotta do is mix a bit into your water jug and water your plants like you always do. You can pay a bit extra to get the kind that doesn’t stink, but I like the stinky stuff ’cause it brings the cats a-runnin’, so save your pennies.
You’ll see a series of three numbers on the label. Those numbers represent the amount of nutrients in the fertilizer.
Here’s what you really need to know: the first number is for developing leafy greens, the second number is for developing fruit and flowers, the third number is for developing roots. So if you’re looking for a fertilizer for your root crops, look for one that has a high third number. For lettuce, you want a high first number. For tomatoes, the first and second numbers are the most important, and so on.
Now here’s the crazy thing: all save-the-world-soapboxing aside, organic fertilizers actually work better.
Rock n’ Roll veg of the week: Russian Blue Potatoes
It’s not quite black, but it’s close enough. And anything this dark and disturbing must be metal to the core. So this week’s winner for the Rock n’ Roll Gardening Hall of Fame is the Russian Blue Potato.
Russian Blue potatoes live up to their name- they really are from Russia, although, like all potatoes, they originated in South America. They’re an heirloom variety which means they’re totally old school and not genetically modified.
If you can find them at the market or buy seed to grow you own, they make for some fucked-up looking mashed potatoes. This is a great prank to pull on your family at Thanksgiving: Your parents won’t say a thing because they’ll assume it’s just an acid flashback, and your kids will squeal with glee because Barney finally got nailed with a blender.
These potatoes are a late season variety and don’t produce particularly high yields, but they are tasty and versatile , great for mashing and roasting. They also do extremely well as a baked potato-pair it with sour cream for a striking side dish.
Rock on potato lovers. Rock on.
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