It Won’t Be Long Now

I’ll bet you think I’ve lost my mind. Well maybe I have but I was so excited this morning when I checked my Russian Heirloom cherry tomato to see that there are tiny tomatoes on it, that I couldn’t wait to shout it to the world. I have tomatoes! Well, I almost have some. It won’t be long now.

This year, I am trying a new variety called Koralik. I bought the plant in Sebastopol on a day my sis and I spent antiquing and nursery hopping. Definitely a great way to spend a Spring day. Anyway, I usually buy the cherry varieties since I grow them in a container. I did learn one thing after I had purchased and planted it that I wish I had known before. The little plastic tag that has the information on it said “Organic Russian Heirloom red cherry – Determinate plant: bears loads of cherry-sized fruit with great flavor. Wonderful for all locations. Only 60 days!” The thing I learned is what “determinate plant” means. Determinate are varieties that grow to a compact height. Determinates stop growing when fruit sets on the top bud. All the tomatoes from the plant ripen at approximately the same time (usually over period of 1- 2 weeks). They require a limited amount of staking for support and are perfectly suited for container planting.

So the good news is that the tomato won’t require staking and it is perfectly suited for container planting. The not so good news is that it sounds like all the fruit will ripen at about the same time so I’ll be overwhelmed with cherry tomatoes for a couple of weeks then I won’t have any. That wasn’t what I had planned on, but looks like what I’ve got. Such is life. Live and learn.

This is the vegetable container part of my little garden. The Koralik tomato is in the pot at the back, an Ichiban Japanese eggplant (Abundance, July 2010) is on the right and a container zucchini, Astia, planted from seeds from Renee’s Garden is in front. The zucchini is also a new selection I am trying this year.  An upgrade to my garden this year is the addition of the wheeled pot stands. They are fantastic. I can move the pots easily to change their location or just to rotate them so they grow more evenly. They even have little brakes you can set so the wheels can’t move. Definitely a luxury I should have given myself long ago.

Now that I have gotten that off my chest I think I’ll get back out there and check on what the snail population is munching on. And that is a whole other story.

(note: the sprinkler that is sticking up in the front pot is not how I’m watering the pots. They are on an automatic system that works off my in ground sprinkler system. I think I stuck that one in there so I wouldn’t misplace it. Good thing I took this picture cuz now I’ll remember where it is next time I go looking for it.)

Hungry Hollow Asparagus

Undoubtedly, asparagus is my favorite spring vegetable. At this time of year I always look for it at the Farmers’ Market. There was fresh asparagus at the market on Sunday but I didn’t buy it. Instead, I stopped at my neighborhood grocery store and  bought some. I didn’t buy it there because the price was better. It was actually about the same. I bought it because it was from Durst Organic Growers, local fourth generation farmers from the “Hungry Hollow” area at the mouth of the Capay Valley.

Capay Valley, about 45 miles from where I now live, is where I lived during my last two years of High School. We had a 40-acre Almond ranch there and the elementary and high School, in Esparto is where all the kids from up-the-valley and all the areas surrounding Esparto went. Some kids spent an hour on the bus getting to school and another getting home. The buses carried both elementary and high school (there was no middle or Jr. High) kids, so if you were from a large family like me, you rode to school on the same bus as your brothers and sisters.  The schools were very small by today’s standards, about a couple hundred of us at the high school and that’s probably being generous. My senior class had thirty-two. It was a wonderful place to live in those days, a little like Mayberry RFD. The Durst kids went to school with my younger sisters. Some of their cousins were in my class. In small towns everybody is somebody’s cousin, unless like me, you moved there.  So maybe it was nostalgia that brought me to buy their asparagus. But really, I don’t think nostalgia was the reason. Durst Organic Growers bring beautiful products to market so while nostalgia may have played some small part in my choice I was really just looking for the very best asparagus available. The only asparagus I’ve had that beat theirs was some wild asparagus I found growing in a meadow along a trail where I was walking. It was so beautiful, some of the spears had leafed out into their fern-like foliage and tucked below it were perfectly shaped spears, some  about 7 inches tall and no bigger around than a pencil. The temptation was too great. I had to to taste this perfection.  I broke off the spears and ate them, slowly, one by one, relishing their taste and texture. They were sheer heaven.  I don’t know what there is about foraging food but to me it always tastes much better than anything I can buy.

To celebrate my asparagus bounty I grilled some and added it to a penne pasta recipe I came across on one of my recent digs (through recipe clippings of which I have more than I probably need). This is not heavy, although with all that cream one would think it would be. I didn’t feel it over whelmed the vegetables. I could still taste their bright spring flavors.

Penne with Asparagus, Peas, Mushrooms & Cream

8 – 10 servings

1 lb thin asparagus

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for grilling

Salt and freshly ground pepper

3 medium shallots, minced

¾ pound shitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps thinly sliced

2 ¼ cups heavy cream

1 ½ lbs penne rigate

1 ½ cups fresh or frozen baby peas (if frozen thaw them before using)

¾ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Preheat a cast-iron grill pan. Brush the asparagus with olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Grill the asparagus over high heat, turning until it is lightly charred and very tender, about 6 minutes. Cut the asparagus to 1-inch lengths. (I used my BBQ instead of the cast-iron grill pan)

2. In a very large, deep skillet, heat the 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the shallots and cook, stirring once or twice until the mushrooms are golden and tender, about 8 minutes. Add the cream and bring to a boil. Simmer until slightly reduced, about 4 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving ¾ cup of the cooking water.

4. Add the pasta to the skillet along with the asparagus, peas and grated cheese and toss well. Add the reserved pasta water and simmer, tossing, until the pasta is nicely coated. Season the pasta with salt and pepper and stir in the parsley. Serve right away.

More asparagus ideas from Annie:

Grill’n Between Storms

Early Egyptians, Greeks and Romans Prized Asparagus. Me too.

Slow Post for a Quick Stir-Fry

Morning Musings

Some of my morning time, especially when it’s still dark outside and wandering through the garden isn’t an option, I spend time catching up on some of the interesting and entertaining blogs I follow. This morning, while browsing, I opened up one from Smitten Kitchen that had an interesting sounding recipe for Buttery Herb Gruyere Toasts that were served with soft-boiled eggs. This sounded pretty tasty so I made a note to come back to it.

After reading for a while I decided to take another look at the Gruyere Toasts recipe and check to see if I had the ingredients on hand. I did, so I mixed together the ingredients and popped the Buttery Toasts into the oven. As the incredible smell of the toasts filled the kitchen I carefully cooked up a couple of perfect soft-boiled eggs. Now the moment of truth. Would the toasts taste as good as they smelled? Would the eggs be soft, silky and delicious?

I sat down with a cup of coffee and a smile on my face to enjoy my creation. Just as I had hoped the combination of the toasts and eggs lived up to my expectations.

As I enjoyed the perfect combination of eggs and toast  my mind wandered back my freshman year of high school at Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, CA. Not because I remembered fixing eggs and toast for breakfast then but because this is when I raised laying hens for my Ag class project.

I remember my hens fondly. They were Plymouth Rocks and would come running whenever they got a glimpse of me. I’d like to say it was because they liked me and where happy to see me but the truth be told, they thought I was bringing them something to eat and they were anxious to see what it was. Sometimes I was just bringing mash we bought at the feed store but other times it was scraps from the kitchen. They never discriminated they were just as excited with one as the other. Those girls just loved food.  I have never forgotten those silly hens and how much I enjoyed them even though some parts of their care wasn’t that much fun. Cleaning their coop comes to mind.  Sometimes I think about getting a few hens to keep but my yard is very small and I know the girls and I would not see eye to eye on what was OK to eat from my garden and what was not. Not to mention what was scratched from the earth in their search for tasty morsels.

Thinking on the hens reminded me of the Farmarettes (yes that was really the name), a club girls attending Ag classes could join during those days.  My yearbook  states we were; “a very active organization that held sno-cone sales early in the fall and took many field trips to various places where we viewed many different phases of agriculture and farming”. It also states that the highlight of the year, “something that the girls will long remember, was the Farmerettes initiation”. Really? I don’t remember anything about an initiation or selling sno-cones. Not saying I have a perfect memory but you’d think I’d remember something that was supposed to be so much fun.  I do, however, remember learning how to judge and show pigs, sheep and pigs. I used to remember the names of the breeds we studied but as the years have passed most of them have faded away. I only took the Ag class that year but I remember more from it than from many of the other electives I had during my high school years.

This picture (scanned from my yearbook) was taken of our Farmerette group learning about showing and judging beef cattle. Yes, we still wore dresses in those days, even when we were judging cattle. The girl with very short hair standing to the left of the instructor is me.

Times may have changed but my love of soft-boiled eggs with a crisp piece of toast to dunk in the warm runny yolks hasn’t. That brings me back to the post from Smitten Kitchen that I want to share with you all. These toasts are easy to put together, versatile and delicious. If you love savory, crispy bread, give them a try and while you’re over on Smitten Kitchen’s site browse some of her other posts. I’m sure you’ll agree there’s lots of delicious ideas there.

Other egg breakfast recipes from Annie:

Crab omelette

Martha’s Mom’s Crustless Quiche

Eggs Side by Side

California Rice

Snow geese over harvested rice field

When I drive to work in the morning I cross a three-mile bridge over a floodway. This floodway, or bypass, was created early in California’s history to carry water away from the Sacramento River during high flows and prevent the city of Sacramento from flooding and so far it has done its job. Within this floodway a wildlife area was created in 1997, the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. It provides habitat to hundreds of thousands of waterfowl that visit each winter as they travel the Pacific Flyway from Alaska and Canada down into California’s central valley. There are also rice fields alongside the wetland habitats within the bypass. They also provide food and shelter for scores of wildlife species. In fact, California ricelands provide habitat to 230 wildlife species, including more than 30 that have been designated as special status. Ricelands provide more than half of the food needed by wintering waterfowl in the Sacramento Valley.

Rice production also benefits Californians in a big way, it puts more than a billion dollars into our economy, it supports local communities and premium California rice is found in every piece of sushi made in America. So if you eat sushi, you’re eating rice grown right here in my back yard. So, how did rice get to be such an important crop? It certainly isn’t native to our area.

Like so many things in California you could say it all started when Sutter found gold in “them thar hills”. The California gold rush brought thousands of fortune hunters to California. Immigrants from all over the world came, the largest group were Chinese workers hired by the mines and the railroad. Rice was an important part of the Chinese diet and it had to be imported from China or Japan. European and Asian miners who didn’t fair well in their search for gold turned to their previous profession, farming. Some saw rice as a potential crop.

But early attempts to cultivate long grain rice failed time and time again. It wasn’t until 1908 that a USDA soil specialist discovered that a Japanese medium grain variety, Kiushu, was better suited to northern California’s climate and soil. The first successful crop was grown at the Belfour-Guthrie Ranch in the community of Biggs just after the discovery and by 1912 the rice industry was established. Today California’s rice industry flourishes in the Sacramento Valley and a small portion of the San Joaquin Valley. About half of the rice produced in California stays in the US, the rest is exported to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Middle East. Rice is also produced in two other principal areas of the United States: the Grand Prairie and Mississippi River Delta of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri and the Gulf Coast of Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

One of the things I like to make with California short grain rice is risotto. I’ve been using it for years now and prefer it to the more traditional Arborio rice from Italy. To me Risotto is a comfort food, much like mac-n-cheese.

Farmhand Risotto

Tonight I put together a risotto hearty enough to satisfy a hungry farmhand or just a very hungry gal looking for some comfort food. It combines short grain rice, chicken stock and vegetables fresh from this morning’s Farmers’ Market, fresh carrots, crimini mushrooms, onions and tender spring spinach. I also used celery and country sage sausage, a touch of fresh thyme from my garden, a pat of sweet butter, some baked garlic cloves I had on hand, and a sprinkling of grated Asiago cheese just before serving. Served with a simple mixed green salad and a glass of wine it was the perfect dinner on this rainy spring evening.

Additional information and recipes for California rice can be found at California Rice Commission.

3/10/11 – Annie’s article  for step by step information on how to make risotto.

Monday’s Two-fer

Ok, so it’s been forever since I’ve posted. I could sit here and give you a hundred reasons why I haven’t but I’m not going to. I’m only going to say that this winter has been very mild, in fact it is Spring here in California’s Central Valley and has been for over a month. I have Spring fever so bad that I can hardly get anything done that doesn’t have to do with fiddling around outside and since blogging and cooking are indoor activities they are both down the list of fun things to do, at least to my thinking lately. But as sometimes happens, guilt shows up and I start to rethink my priorities. A very nice email from a blogging friend in Texas, Jack Mathews of Sage to Meadow, recently arrived. It was Jack’s choices for his 2011 Prairie Sagebrush Awards for blogging. The award recognizes bloggers Jack follows for their excellence in writing, photography and art on the blog. He included Anniespickns. That heated up the guilt. An award for blogging should be given to those who blog and that hasn’t been me lately.  It was also a nice reminder to myself that I do miss the writing, the research and discovery and I miss interacting with you, my readers.

So as I started to think about dinner tonight a post was born.

Sometimes its just time to gather the leftover this-n-thats from the fridge and either toss em or get creative. Tonight was one of those times. Luckily the this-n-thats were worth saving so I got creative. I sliced the handful of Brussels sprouts, about the same amount of crimini mushrooms; some pieces of fried bacon along with half an onion then added a few cloves from some baked garlic.  First I fried the mushrooms, next the onion, then the sliced Brussels sprouts. Chop the bacon and garlic and toss with the other ingredients and there you have it. I had a little brown rice that I warmed up and served with this. That’s what you call a two-fer, clean fridge and full tummy.

There was even enough natural light coming in the kitchen window to shoot a quick photo.

How I learned to Love Brussels Sprouts – Anniespickns

Oregon Spuds and Eagles

Lower Klamath Refuge

I had been watching the weather for the past couple of weeks hoping that this dry spell that the West is going through would last through the long Martin Luther King holiday weekend. If it did I would head up to Klamath Falls, Oregon to do a little bird watching, specifically to view the large number of

Bald eagle in willow tree

raptors including bald eagles that can be found at Tule Lake and Lower Klamath Refuges  just below the California/Oregon border. We have raptors here where I live but not the quantity and variety that can be found at these refuges during the winter months. (We saw thirty-eight bald eagles in two days and as many as 8 standing on the frozen lake awaiting an opportunity at a goose carcass.) Dry weather would be the key since I don’t have 4×4.

My luck held and so I packed various layers of warm clothes, my boots and heavy coat and left Friday morning just after dawn for Nevada where I would meet up with Sis #2 for a road trip. From Minden, NV we headed north on 395 past the sprawl of Reno, through the more sparsely habitated areas of California’s high desert to Alturas, then on to Klamath Falls, a five hour journey if you don’t stop, meaning it took us much longer. What’s a good road trip without some interesting stops?

I have many fond memories of the Klamath area, having visited it off and on over the past twenty-some-odd years. One of the things that has become tradition after spending several chilly early morning hours watching birds in this literally frozen environment is to head back across the California state line to Merrill, OR for a hearty breakfast at Pappy Gander & Company. It had been at least 8 years since we had been to Merrill and we had high hopes that our traditional breakfast spot would still be open. We were in luck. It was.

Oregon grown Russet potatoes

Merrill is a small rural community with a population of less than 1000. It’s claim to fame; it’s home to an annual potato festival, a celebration held in October at the end of harvest. Not surprising since Merrill is located in Klamath County one of Oregon’s premier potato growing regions.

I can’t think of anything better with morning eggs than some crispy country fried potatoes and Merrill serves up some of the best. This particular morning a Chicken Fried Steak covered with delicious country gravy accompanied the eggs and potatoes. I think the duck hunters at the table across from ours were surprised that a couple of gals could match them in appetite. It was the perfect breakfast; it warmed us up and took us well into the afternoon. It was late in the afternoon, when we decided to head back into Klamath Falls for a bite to eat.  We stopped in at a little Thai restaurant in downtown and I had their Yellow Thai Curry, chocked full of chunks of beautiful potatoes. It was a potato kind of day.

That night as we were looking through some photos that we had downloaded on our laptops I got to thinking about the potatoes grown around Merrill. I knew potatoes grew in Idaho. Who hasn’t heard of Idaho potatoes but I didn’t really know much about potatoes grown in Oregon. I switched from photo browsing to a little information-surfing. Not only are potatoes grown in Oregon, it has one of the highest yields per acre of potatoes in the world at 53,000 pounds per acre and they farm over 36,500 acres. In the area around Merrill they grow various varieties of Russet, Yukon Gold, Purple and some certified organic, well as potatoes specifically grown for potato chips and seed. Historically the first potatoes were planted in Oregon by the crew of the ship “Ruby” on an island in the Columbia River, near Cape Disappointment in 1795. Twelve potatoes were planted and they produced 190 potatoes the first season. And by 1835  1,300 bushels of potatoes were produced at Fort Vancouver.

I found the Oregon Potato Commission site to be really informative and fun. Their Potato Trivia page has lots of interesting facts; the potato did not become popular in America until Benjamin Franklin tasted the potato served 20 different ways when he was ambassador to France and came back to America singing its praises, French Fries were introduced to Americans when President Thomas Jefferson served them at the White House and that potato chips were invented by mistake in 1853. One of the facts I found particularly interesting since I love California history was; during the California gold rush surplus potatoes from Oregon were packed by mule train, and later by wagon train to the miners. In 1849, four bushels of Oregon potatoes were selling for $500 in San Francisco.  Sounds like the Oregon potato farmers were doing better than some of the hard working miners.

Here’s a nice way to use potatoes in a soup. This recipe is one I’ve used for many years. It’s the perfect recipe for a cold wintry day. This recipe makes a lot so I usually end up freezing some for later use.

ready to cook

Portugese Bean Soup

Tom Bombadil’s Restaurant, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

Bon Appetite 1980

2 ham hocks (I prefer shanks over hocks)

1 12oz Portugese sausage (linguica), diced

3 medium potatoes

2 medium onions, diced

3 celery stalks, including leaves, chopped

ready to eat

2 medium carrots (4 oz), diced

1 medium-sized bell pepper, seeded, divined and chopped

1medium bunch parsley leaves, chopped

2 15oz cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained (I use Cannellini beans)

1 15oz tomato sauce (I use 1 15oz can chopped tomatoes and 1 8 oz can tomato sauce)

1 t salt

1 t freshly ground pepper

1 t hot pepper sauce (if the linguica is pretty hot you may not need or want to add this)

1 bay leaf

Combine ham hocks, and sausage in heavy size saucepan over medium-high heat and sauté 4 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and enough water to cover. Bring to boil, skimming foam from surface. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer about 2 hours. Remove ham hocks from soup; discard bones. Cut meat into bite-sized pieces. Blend into soup. Enjoy!

Fabulous Fuyus

This morning I took a bike ride down the River Road, a paved two-lane road sitting atop the levee adjacent to the Sacramento River that doesn’t get much traffic, especially on weekdays. As I rode I could see the river lazily wandering on its journey to the San Francisco bay and beyond to the ocean off to one side and off to the other farmland, most of which is fallow now, dotted with a few houses and out buildings. This is one of my favorite rides and I don’t seem to tire of the scenery even when I have ridden the road for consecutive days. I usually see something memorable or unusual on these rides that cover 10 to 15 miles. And today was no exception.

As I was riding I was looking down towards one of the small farm houses admiring a beautiful persimmon tree heavily laden with fruit that was growing not far from the house when I noticed a couple of the low hanging fruits seemed to be moving. This was odd since there was no wind to speak of, so I slowed down, stopped and took a more focused look. What I saw was wild turkeys gathered beneath the branches pecking the fruit. I’ve seen turkeys many times on my rides but I’ve never seen them foraging fruit. The turkeys must have known that they didn’t have to worry about being chased off from their bountiful find since this farmhouse doesn’t currently have a dog in residence  and they were taking full advantage of the situation.

Turkeys aren’t the only ones who love fresh persimmons. A year ago I wrote about persimmons and what the term “true berries” meant and how I have grown to love these deliciously, crispy fruits. I have been buying them at the Farmers Market for weeks now and so far I haven’t tired of them. Sometimes I  chop them into small pieces add some chopped walnuts and a sprinkling of cinnamon and add it all to my morning bowl of oatmeal, but last night I used them in another favorite way, in a salad with baby spinach leaves and toasted pumpkin seeds all topped with a tasty little vinaigrette I had made using some Prickly Pear Cactus Syrup I picked up when I was in New Mexico in November. If you don’t happen to have any Prickly Pear Cactus Syrup vinaigrette available you could use vinaigrette made with pomegranate syrup or your favorite raspberry vinaigrette. You could also add any of the following to the salad; sliced red onion, pomegranate seeds, chopped Hazelnuts or candied pecans, sliced roasted beets or some goat cheese. They’re all delicious additions.

Poking around on the Internet I found the following recipes and uses for persimmons. They sounded too good not to share:

From KQED – Bay Area Bites

Fuyu Persimmon, Pear and Walnut Rolled Tart

Persimmon, Fennel and Almond Couscous

Fuyu Persimmon, Pear and Pine Nut Salad

From Destination Food

Pulled chicken salad with persimmon, witlof (endive) and avocado

and

WikiHow – How to Eat a Persimmon

Since finding a loaded tree that I can forage from hasn’t happened it looks like I’ll be picking up my fresh Fuyu this Sunday at the Farmers Market.

From Wikipedia – Persimmon

A persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus Diospyros in the ebony wood family (Ebenacae). The word Diospyros means “the fire of Zeus” in ancient Greek. As a tree, it is a perennial plant. The word persimmon is derived from putchamin, pasiminan, or pessamin, from Powhatan, an Algonquian language of the eastern Untied States meaning “a dry fruit”. Persimmons are generally ligh yellow-orange to dark red-orange in color, and depending on the species, vary in size from 1.5 to 9 cm (0.5 to 4 in) in diameter, and may be spherical, acorn-, or pumpkin-shaped. The calyx often remains attached to the fruit after harvesting, but becomes easier to remove as it ripens. They are high in glucose, with a balanced protein profile, and possess various medicinal and chemical uses.