Spring Rain & the Doldrums

Well, I learned how to spell a new word today, even if I've been using it for years!

"Doldrums" - what caught my eye about this word is down towards the bottom of the Wikipedia page: The doldrums gave rise to a place called The Doldrums in the Phantom Tollbooth inhabited by the Lethargarians who do nothing all day, a place where "nothing ever happens and nothing ever changes", to depict the area in life where you become stagnant. The time when you stop questioning things and believe everything with no rebuttal.

eek! Well, I'm not that far gone with these rainy, gray days that have me locked up inside the house, unable to do much in the gardens. My greenhouse isn't build properly for me to start seeds in it at this time of year (it's too cold & draughty) and I don't have the proper grow lights in the house to start more than a few pots of things a time.

So I'm left with becoming dirty in the kitchen. Well, creative should be the term, but I do tend to make quite a mess!

Yesterday's successful recipe came from Saveur - a great on-line site for food & all articles relating to food. Right now they keep showing me a red velvet layer cake...I will have to whip that one up in the near future as it's been too long since we've had one!
 

-Salmon Croquettes with Green Goddess Dressing

 Salmon Croquettes
1/2 cup white wine
3 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning
1 Tbsp+ kosher salt
1 lb salmon fillet
1 1/2 cup dried bread crumbs
3 Tbsp melted butter
4 scallions - finely chopped
1 small onion - finely chopped
2 eggs, beaten
juice of 1 lemon
oil for frying




1) combine 4 cups of water, 2 Tbsp Old Bay, 1 Tbsp salt & wine in a 10" skillet. Bring to a boil, add salmon (skin side down) & turn off heat. Cover & let salmon gently poach in hot liquid for 10 minutes. Transfer salmon to a plate (skin side up) & let cool. Salmon should still be rare in the middle.
      * my note: I drank the wine the night before & didn't add the seasoning or salt to the water.

2) Peel off & discard the salmon skin. Break into small piece & place in a large bowl. Add remaining Old Bay seasoning & salt, along with bread crumbs, butter, scallions, onions, eggs & lemon juice. Stir to combine & refrigerate for 1/2 hour.
       * my note: I'm notorious for not following recipes exactly. I think the Old Bay seasoning is a great flavour - just don't add a full tablespoon as it is salty & can over power the croquettes. I use panko bread crumbs, which are wonderfully light. Who has scallions in their fridge at this time of year (or any time for that matter?)! I went out to the garden & harvested some fresh wandering Egyptian onion tops - lots actually, as they are reproducing at an alarming rate & taking over the gardens. I didn't have lemon juice (!! I ALWAYS have lemon juice!!) so I harvested some fresh sorrell, which has a great lemon flavour. I also harvested some fresh thyme. At the end of all this, the patties were flecked with lots of fresh green. And I forgot to add the butter...

3) Spoon some of the salmon mix into  1/3-cup measuring cup & pack it with your hands. Unmold & put patty on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Repeat to make 12 patties. Refrigerate patties for at least 1 hour or overnight.
        * my note: getting the patties out of the measuring cup is tricky. I have a pastry/icing knife (like a rounded, flexible putty knife) that worked like a charm. I made the patties thick & dense, so I ended up with only 7 or 8. As I started cooking late, I popped them into the freezer for half an hour & then into the fridge while the oil was heating up.

4) Add oil to a 12" cast-iron skillet til it reaches a depth of 1/2". Heat over medium-high heat til hot. Gently transfer half the patties to the skillet & cook - flipping once with spatula, til golden brown - about 5 minutes. Transfer croquettes to a paper towel-lined plate & repeat with remaining patties.
      * my note: I hate deep frying food - I will never own a deep fryer & cringe each time I come across a recipe that calls for '1/2" of oil' in a pan! I use considerably less & I also use my herbal olive oils. I bake with olive oil & have yet to notice the difference. If I want a lighter oil, I'll use safflower or even peanut. But have your hood vent going on high the minute you turn the oil on, put a lid on the skillet & have a timer on hand to do sets of 2 or 3 minutes so that you aren't standing over top a spitting oily skillet the entire time.
 
SERVES 6
Unless you are serving these as appies, this recipe will really only feed 3 or 4 people. As you can see in my photo above, we ate them with a spinach salad (spinach & a wheat berry salad) & all covered with Green Goddess Dressing. I'll have to share those 2 recipes at a later time - but the flavour of the Green Goddess is tarragon white wine vinegar.

This would also be great served chilled so that you aren't cooking with scary oil while dinner guests are watching.

Making Marmalade

I love marmalade.

There, I've said it! I make a lot of jams & jellies from local wild berries (thimble berry, elderberry, blackberry, salal, huckleberry) as well from the berries I grow on my property (raspberry, loganberry, blueberry, soon-to-grow black currant, red currant, gooseberry) & I enjoy doing so.

I don't really eat much of it though. I might make the occasional batch of wine from them, or eat them unprocessed, but jam on toast? Nope - not my thing.

But marmalade... That's a different story!

That tart & tangy citrus flavour with loads of candied citrus rind... who needs bread? That just gets in the way (as the husband frequently says when sitting with his peanut butter & a spoon in hand).

The first time I ever tried to make my own, it was a disaster! Didn't set at all & was used as a topping on ice cream & yogurt. I remained leery of making another attempt for a long time (20 years?)

Until a neighbour gave me about 8 Seville oranges at the end of January. I HAD to figure out how to make marmalade! So the research started...

I've been using several websites for finding inspiration in the kitchen & the newest one I've recently been introduced to is: Saveur - a fabulous site that I've not yet fully explored (after all, spring is here & who has time to sit indoors all day looking through recipes??)

The recipe I decided to use for the marmalade is this one: Dundee Style Marmalade. It seemed really complicated at first, but the idea of using weight ratios instead of precise measurements really appeals to me. I had 8 oranges, not 6, so I just went ahead & threw myself into it. As you can see in the above picture, it worked & looks amazing! Rich citrus with a hint of caramel (almost an over-cooked flavour) & lots of lovely candied citrus peel. Technically, the jars are supposed to sit for 2 months, but honestly, who has the patience for that sort of thing?

I wanted to make more. But the Seville orange season is relatively short - unless you are prepared. January & February seem to be the months we can find them here on Vancouver Island & I found out that our closest grocery store (only 2 hours away) stocks them when in season! I've made note to hit them hard next winter for a large supply.

So what was I to do with no Seville oranges, but a desire to make more to tide me through the year (I only have 6 jars left of the first batch...)

This is my first time buying the Meyer lemon & we had a small chuckle over the packaging when we stumbled across them.

They look pretty & shiny & just scream 'cute'.

But as a cross between a lemon & a tangerine (depends on which site you read), the Meyer lemon can be used in a multitude of ways as this article indicates.

I wanted them for marmalade.

I've figured out that the ingredients aren't necessarily key when making marmalade - well, yes - they do have to be citrus in nature because you do need the pectin found in the pith & pits to aid in thickening it up - but Seville oranges aren't necessary, especially if you can't find them.

I used Meyer lemons, ruby red grapefruit & limes with fresh ginger. It took me a bit longer than previously because I had wanted a lighter coloured marmalade, so I cooked it slower. I also wasn't sure if the ginger would do what I had hoped it would - I wanted that spicy hot flavour that ginger imparts, but I didn't want it to over power the citrus or turn mushy during the cooking procedure.

The result at the end of the day are 10 jars of lovely lemon-ginger marmalade. The colour is a bit darker than I wanted, but it set up well & I managed to get a good proportion of peel into each jar.

I've used marmalade when cooking pork loin or pork chops & have also used it on top of a salmon fillet mixed with a bit of honey & grainy Dijon mustard. Quite lovely!

And I've been hearing rumblings from my neighbours that there are quite a few of us in town who are marmalade fanatics. I just might have to make another batch & bring them down to the store for others to enjoy!

Return to Winter?

I won't take any photos today - it's snowing... Well, sort of rain & snow combined, but it's pretty cold outside, so it might stay snow over night. What a sense of humour Mother Nature has!

Just yesterday I was out raking the neighbour's yard, gathering leaf mold to use as mulch around the newly transplanted berry bushes. A little bit of bone meal, blood meal, lime & wood ash to feed them & they should be good for another month.

I also cut down the only 2 cedar trees on the property to make way for the white mulberry tree - which was planted - and a future glass greenhouse. I got the 3 dwarf rhodos in the ground too!

I've had a great weekend & I'm sort of thinking Mother Nature decided to give me a day off.

So, I'm making marmalade instead!

Spindly Sprouts

 Last Friday I couldn't hold out any longer & planted up some lettuce seedlings. I chose 4 varieties & 4 small pots each. There is wild Arugula, garden Purslane, Super Gourmet salad mix & Oriental Saladini mix. I'm craving fresh greens & just might resort to harvesting some weeds to get me through the next few weeks!

I pressed the seeds into the soil mix (sterile seed starter & 'houseplant' soil)  after watering the soil first. I then put them down on the heated floor of the bathroom to germinate. The floor temperature varies from 18 to 28 degrees, so no wonder that they sprouted by Sunday the 19th!!

I quickly grabbed my 'grow lights' - very wimpy things & installed my spring growing shelves up in the living room sliding glass door window. The seedlings didn't actually get in place until Monday. As you can see, they are spindly little things...

#1) The seedlings should have been moved into the light & cooler temperatures on Sunday instead of Monday.

#2) The 'grow lights' I have are too weak - I'm not even sure what they put out or what kind they are. I've been doing a bit of research & need to do a whole lot more!

#3) The light tubes themselves are too short!! The seedling pots on either end of the tray do not have the light directly over top the seedlings, so the seedlings lean into the light & I need to move them around at least once a day in order for them to receive the proper amount of light.

So - I'm going to write up a list of things to pick up at the hardware store tomorrow when we journey into town. I don't need much as this part of gardening doesn't require months of work nor copious amounts of potted seedlings & trays. I always over plant - always. Until I can successfully maintain a good supply of plants in a healthy state in order to sell them to my neighbours, I am going to learn to keep things down to a dull roar... yeah right. I planted 16 pots of lettuce seedlings on February 17th...I'm off to a 'small' start!

Yarden Additions

I'm still struggling with my 'yarden' design - really, it's so much easier to work with something already established - even if you have to rip everything out - than to start with a bare slate. The property doesn't have any shrubs or trees on it - other than a birch at the end of the lane way & 2 small cedars that will shortly be removed.

I'm slowly investing in shrubs - hydrangeas, rhodos, wigelia, African fuchsia, forsythia & many other cuttings that I jam into the ground in the hopes that they will take. Most are munched on by the deer, so they are stunted. I know it will take many more years for them to develop into what I can see the place will become.

This year I stumbled onto some plum trees. Quite unexpectedly, I was forced (yeah, right - twist my rubber arm) to find 2 spots to plant these trees. I had wanted crab apple trees (dwarf ones), but didn't really search too hard for them, but I do know that plums do grow out here & I've made some of the best fruit wine from plums.

This is my 'peach' plum.

The research I've done on the internet can sometimes become very confusing. One site says that it's 'self-fertile', another site says it's not really - meaning it needs another same time flowering fruit tree to aid in fertilizing the flowers for proper fruit production.

One site says the flesh is golden-peachy in colour & another site says the skin is golden-peachy in colour. I'd be happy with either - I'd just like to know before-hand.

This is my 'Italian prune' plum.

My neighbour has one, so I'm very aware of what this tree can/should/will do. I've watched my neighbour 'prune' his tree for many years - with a skill-saw - so I know what NOT to do with this glorious fruit producer.

I'm a little (whole lot!) nervous about what the deer could possibly do to these things, especially once they start to leaf out, so I will need to come up with a creative way to protect them for the first few years.

These trees are grafted onto root stock & needed to be planted so that the graft was above the ground (or else the root stock would send up it's own sucker shoots). Since I have no idea what the root stock is - could be crab apple or something else entirely - I definitely want to make sure that I plant my trees properly.

Of course, planting on a hillside is a challenge. I'll have to amend & modify the area around the trees - possibly build better terracing so the soil & water doesn't run downhill too quickly. I also want to make sure that the tree roots aren't competing too much with other things, so I will have to mulch quite a bit more.

I have also pruned up - meaning, removed the lower branches of the trees to leave only about a 1/3rd of the branches. The peach plum is pretty short, so I will let the upper branches grow for a few years in order to see what it will do & what I need to do for pruning to keep it manageable. The Italian plum is much taller & has 2 tall leaders. I need to do some more research & come up with a proper plan as to how I want it to grow - I don't want it too tall, but I want to make sure that the cuts I make will produce branches that are strong & grow in the right direction. I think I'll let those branches grow for this year to see what happens.

I've very excited about plum trees. They are generally one of the first fruit trees to bloom out here, so I think there might be years where they are blooming before the pollinators have arrived. Then there is concern about late spring frosts or cold snaps that could cause fruit drop. All this is a process & I'm quite willing to give it a try. Maybe in a few years I can find some pear & crab apple trees to add to the mix...

Yarden Reorganization

Over the course of trying to design my landscape around the house these last 3 years, I've done lots - some successful & some not so successful. I've now come full circle - sort of - and have to do a bit of tweaking.

Hence: Yardening Reorganization!

That means a lot of transplanting...

Project One was to find the rhubarb in the front yard & if it wasn't drowned, find new homes for it. I won't show you pictures of the root ball - I did a nasty job of digging it up, mainly because it wasn't budding yet & I wasn't 100% sure where in the ground it was. I feel bad that I butchered it so badly, but after a few days in the rain (yes, I didn't plant them immediately!) they started to bud!

The first one I planted on the south side of my greenhouse. The soil here is great!! I did have to dig out a few large pieces of woody debris & roots, but I can't believe how black & lush the soil is. Worms every where!

Now, it looks like it's going to be growing in the shade, but later this week the cedar tree that is about 15 feet away is going to be cut down & the roots dug out. I have high hopes for a glass greenhouse at some time in the future...

I put a shovelful of half-matured compost in the hole, along with some bone meal, carefully put in the root ball & filled in the hole. I wonder if I planted them too deep previously... Well, I've got glass over this one & will put some fresh compost on it later in the week.

The second plant I put on the south end of one of my veggie beds. The bed in the upper left of the photo has the other 2 rhubarb plants along it's south side as well. They warm up nicely in the spring.

The soil here too was quite nice & I amended it with another shovelful of compost & bone meal. The plastic sheet probably won't last too long, if we get any spring storms, but a bit of protection is a good idea in case we get any more spring frosts.

These are my 2 oldest plants - living quite happily with a load of fresh compost & under the plastic shelter. I put this compost on well over a week & a half ago - thank you Mother Nature for keeping the critters away. (It's mostly crows that find goodies like this which is why I use the plastic sheeting so much).

I think in another week or 2 I'll find my black buckets & put them on top to encourage stalk growth & I might be harvesting fresh rhubarb in another month or so!

blueberries with raspberries

Project Two was to remove the very large black currant bush that lived much too close to the raspberries. You can see what this area used to look like back at the beginning of the month on this post at the bottom. Very crowded...

I had forgotten that currant shrubs put down very long tap roots, so I was digging much more than expected & probably did a bit more damage than necessary, trying to reef that shrub out.

Now there is much more room around the raspberries & I don't have to fight my way in around the plants to pick the berries.

I've redone the deer fencing & have just used rebar with fishing line. I know the fishing line won't last much more than 2 years, which is fine by me - I'm using the old stuff off our fishing poles... This year I've added an extra bar to create a 'gate' so that I can pull out a rebar and get in to pick berries or mow.

The blueberries need to be pruned still, but I just feel so bad for them - the deer munched on them heavily this winter (well, one at least) & they are still in 'recovery mode' from the munching they received the year before - that was before I installed fencing.

Project Three was to relocate all the berry shrubs - except the blueberries. The large one is that blackcurrant I hauled out from the raspberry patch. I have 2 black currants, 3 small red currants & 4 very small gooseberries.

I realized one thing I haven't been doing very well & that is feeding these shrubs. They need much more mulch during the year too.

It's rather difficult to see the shrubs - they will look better once they have leafed out. But they are nicely spaced out & will have some of my simple rebar-fishing line fencing installed very shortly.

The wooden pallet behind is my loganberry patch - I pruned it severely this year & will make some amendments to the fence to get them growing more vertical as I lost many berries last year because the canes were flopped on the ground.

This is the start of Project Four was the placement of some new raised boxes in a very dead part of our front yard. We have sown grass, put down new soil, altered the drainage & it still remains dead.

The cedar boxes need to be attached to each other with some rebar - the same way the long one at the bottom of the photo was done. I'm hoping that this will be done by the weekend so that I can start to fill it.

I do not foresee having these in use until next year - possibly next fall. I'm going to be filling them with pruning & cutting debris for this year which should start to break down & provide a base within the box.

I am looking at the placement & think I might move the one on the right a little more to the right...

So, it's been a busy couple of weeks for February. But once this is finished, I can focus on planning the veggie beds & working on a dirt pile that needs to disappear & rocks that need to be raked. I'm so glad that our February's are like this - it feels good to be outside getting the hands dirty!

Return of the Pollinators

February 13, 2012

 

I find that I am taking my camera with me everywhere these days. The spring weather is bringing out so much change in things that are sprouting & the light can change quicker than you can grab your camera from that 'safe' spot on the deck or even in the house!

I'm so relieved to see the return of the pollinators. Not just the bees, but other insects too. There are so many different varieties of flies - I'm sure they are beneficial in their own way too.

So, Happy Valentine's Day - may your blooming flowers be made love to by the pollinators!