Sunday Evening

Photo by Dan

It was another beautiful evening. While Dan was grilling food for our dinner, I made very chunky salsa with ever-bearing strawberries that Dave brings to the downtown farmer's market and a pineapple tomato that I just picked from our garden. The salsa was lovely.

• Very coarsely chopped strawberries, about one cup
• One medium sized pineapple tomato, coarsely chopped
• about 1/2 TBS finely chopped onions
• 1 ts of fresh cilantro
• 1 ts of fresh marjoram
  
• Left over vinaigrette from the night before (1 part balsamic vinegar, 3 part olive oil, finely chopped garlic, fresh oregano, fresh basil)
  

Photo by Yeon

With another cup of fresh strawberries, I made strawberry muffins. I used a blueberry muffin recipe from Cooks Illustrated. I substituted diced fresh strawberries for fresh blueberries. The recipe also calls for cooking a cup of fresh blueberries into a syrupy mixture. I used left-over strawberry-rhubarb from making Chef's Christine's strawberry-rhubarb crumble. Dan and I loved these muffins - we have been eating one a day for breakfast. I love the touch of lemon sugar on top of the muffin.

Photo by Yeon

Our simple dinner was ready. Dan marinated the lamb kebabs we got from the Whitmore Farm stand at the farmer's market. I don't know what he did but it was just fabulous. He mixed his own spices and it involved grinding black cardamom and coriander seeds. It had red wine in the marinade. I will have to ask him to write down the recipe for me. Corn was from Jim at the Saturday farmer's market. It was so sweet. Last minute cucumber salad included plain yogurt, minced mint, scallion, salt and pepper.

Compared to last year, I have not put much harvest away yet. I am getting ready to pickle cucumbers, squashes; and preserve peaches and raspberries; and make tomato sauces. Next two weekends are going to be "preserving" weekends.

Yeon

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Following Chef Christine's Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

I so wanted to make this strawberry-rhubarb crumble that chef Christine posted, but when I was ready to make this, we just got out of strawberry season. I don't remember why but I had to make cupcakes and used up last batch of fresh local strawberries. I thought I was out of luck till next year. Then last thursday, I was given a second chance.

Dave of Blue Mountain Farms brought ever-bearing strawberries at downtown farmer's market. They looked a little firm but still smelled wonderful. My rhubarb plant is still going strong, we always have lemon at hands, so with strawberries, rhubarb and lemon, I was ready to make this fabulous cake.
Please follow chef Christine's recipe word by word. I made this cake on Monday night after work, after dinner, while fighting my allergies. Hopefully that explains why I used 9 by 9 pan instead of 9 by 13 and the cake looks much thick rather than nice thin as chef Christine had.
Yeon pointing at her 9 by 13 pan: "Dan, is this pan 9 by 13? It looks awfully big." (Please remember I grew up with meters and centimeters and sometimes I still get confused).
Dan: That's not 9 by 13. It is bigger than that. (He has no excuse. He was probably not paying attention).
Yeon: "Okay. I guess I will use a smaller pan then."

I had minor modification as far as ingredients go:

• I had only 1 1/2 cups of fresh strawberries, and my rhubarb stalks are mostly green with red hue, which meant strawberry-rhubarb mixture was going to lack strawberry flavor and color. I added 3 tablespoon of home-made strawberry-balsamic jam to enhance color and flavor.
• When I combined wet ingredients together for cake batter, I added fresh lemon peels from one lemon. I cut down sugar to 3/4 cup in dry ingredient for the cake.

I placed a parchment paper and buttered it so that I can take the cake pieces out easily. I am not sure if it was necessary step or not, but they do come out very easily.

It is a wonderful recipe. Since it requires cooking strawberries and rhubarb briefly, I could try making it with frozen strawberries. And yes, I have a good amount strawberries that I froze this spring. Did I mention my rhubarb plant is still going strong?

Yeon

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Strawberry and Chocolate

These little cupcakes came out pretty good. I followed the recipe for One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes to make the cupcakes and made Strawberry Buttercream for the icing (only half the recipe).
Aren't strawberries so versatile? They taste awesome when they are fresh, they can be cooked into sauce and jam, you can make yummy baked goods, and they freeze so well. I need more strawberries to make Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble posted by Chef Christine. I am crossing my fingers that Gwen would bring strawberries this Thursday to the Everedy Square market. I've heard that they stopped pick-your-own for strawberries last Sunday so we might not have fresh strawberries any more.
On an upbeat note, we had cherries at the market last Saturday and I hear blueberries are getting ready. You know cherries and blueberries are also versatile. We can eat them fresh, cook them into sauce and jam, make baked goods, freeze...... you get the idea.

Yeon

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Spring Harvest: May 24, 09

Spinach was getting ready to bloom so I harvested most of them. Same with the daikon- I never had a good luck growing a big daikon root. I should try sowing in last summer and growing in the fall. My mesclun is growing wild and you see big leaves of red mustard, kale, etc. Lettuce is finally ready for picking and munching. They are so tender and delicate. Dill and cilantro are growing crazy too (not shown in the photo). I harvested big bunches and gave some to my neighbors. I should find some good recipes that call for a large quantity of dill and cilantro. If you know one, please let me know!

Strawberries are in full swing. I am harvesting about a pint a day. Nothing is as sweet as the ripe strawberry you just picked seconds ago in the garden. I like them warm from the sun. Just like warm tomatoes off the vine, they carry extra quality in them.
My neighbor Ricardo told me that Glade-Link farm is now open for pick-your-own strawberries. Give them a call before you head out. Sometimes they have to skip a day so that berries can ripen for picking. Also, don't forget this Saturday (May 30) we have a strawberry festival at the West Frederick Farmer's Market! With music and raffle and strawberries everywhere, it is going to be a fun time at the market.

Yeon

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Welcome Spring Dinner

Dan got a rib rack on Friday and decided to smoke/grill ribs. He has some beautiful shots of the ribs before and after cooking and hopefully will post them soon. Here I present you with the photos of side dishes that we prepared for the dinner with our friends on Saturday.

Photo by Dan

Deviled Eggs: stuffed with smoked salmon, chives and chervil. I picked up a chervil plant from Nancy in the morning and used some in the afternoon! I used Rainbow eggs from Nancy and Dave.

Photo by Dan

Mixed green and arugula from Rieko and Erland. Radishes from Rick in pickling juice (not quite ready that night but were delicious the next day). Strawberry dressing is made from strawberries that we picked from Glade-Link farm last year. The small blue bowl is from Shuck Pottery.

Photo by Dan

Grilled spring onions from Jim (Tomatoes et al), and three different asparagus from Chris, Rich, and Rick.

Photo by Dan

Strawberry and rhubarb cobbler. Rhubarb is from my garden. The original recipe was for rhubarb only and I modified it to work with half strawberries and half rhubarbs. The original recipe is from the Herbal Kitchen by Jerry Traunfeld. I made deviled eggs above following his recipe from the same book.

• 1 pound of rhubarb stalks, cut into 1/2 pieces
  
• 1 pound of strawberries (frozen ones from last year, thawed and dried to remove access water)
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1/3 cup spearmint, chopped
  
• 2 TBS of unsalted butter, cut into small pieces)
  

Biscuits

• 1 cup all-purpose flower
• 2 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
  
• 5 TBS sugar
  
• 4 TBS unsalted butter
  
• 1/2 cup minus 1 TBS heavy cream
  

I introduced the strawberries since my green rhubarb doesn't stay pretty when cooked , and because strawberries and rhubarb go so well together. I cut down the content of sugar and spearmint.

1. Preheat the oven at 400F.
2. Mix rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, and mint in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Dot with butter. Bake for 20 minutes and the mixture is bubbly.
3. While rhubarb and strawberries are baking, make the biscuit dough. Mix flower, baking power, salt and sugar (only 4 TBS), and then cut into butter using your finger tips or pastry blender until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Pour the cream and briefly mix so that they come together. Roughly divide the dough into 8 discs.
4. When you take out the baking dish following the step 2, arrange the discs you made from the step 3 on top of the hot rhubarb/strawberry mix. Sprinkle the remaining 1 TBS sugar on top of the biscuit disks. Bake for another 20 minutes, or until the biscuit is dark golden brown.

This cobbler is sweet and tart at the same time. Our neighbor Mike asked if there was mint in the cobbler, while Jackie didn't know till he mentioned it. It is a fun and easy recipe and I would like to try with fresh strawberries again. If I can get a hold of red rhubarb stalks, I might try the original recipe too.

Yeon

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Strawberry Plants and Raised Beds.

I had to thin out my strawberry bed (3 foot by 6 foot) because Dan and I decided to move our original raised beds. I made those raised beds about 4 years ago (the first and last time I ever used an electric drill), and we moved the beds with us every time we moved. I am surprised that they are still holding up considering my poor nailing skill. This spring we were not moving to a new place,  but wanted to adjust where they were sitting, and then ended up moving all four original beds. When you move a raised bed, you need to move the frame, pack up the plants and set them aside, move the dirt, and put all the plants back (that is, if you can fit them back). It ain't a joke. I am just glad that we didn't have to move the newer raised beds (Dan made me four raised beds last spring. These are 4 by 6). I am a huge fan of raised beds. It is the easiest way to start your organic garden with a good soil and you don't need to worry about weeding. You can start your garden right on top of a lawn too! If you are interested, here is one way to do it:

• At a home improvement store, buy untreated, 12 by 2 inch lumber. We bough 10 feet long ones and asked the staff at the store to cut them into 6 feet and 4 feet pieces. You also need some brackets and wood screws.
• Or you can visit one of the gardening websites (such as Gardener's) and order assembly-ready raised beds. 
• Find a nice sunny spot in your garden if you are growing lots of vegetables and/or sun-loving flowers. Find partial shade or shade spot if you are planting partial shade or shade perennial garden. Make sure your garden hose can reach the spot in case you have to water in high summer.
• Assemble the beds and place them at the perfect spot.
• Here is the fun part. You would need some newspapers, compost, and top soil, preferably all organic kinds. You might need some peat moss and sand depending on what kind of compost/soil/manure you get. For example, I got a composted horse manure from Tara's family farm and it was very silty and dense. I added in lots of peat moss and sand to improve the texture. If you are building 6 by 4 by 1 beds like we did, you need 24 cubic feet of materials to fill it up. Trust me on this - you want to build the best yummy soil you can afford. Why do I describe a soil as 'yummy'? It's because your plants will need all the nutrients from the soil to grow. If you want to grow yummy vegetables, build yummy soil. And sorry - I don't think those chemically enriched soils are yummy.
• Line inside your raised bed frame with news papers. Patricia Lanza, the author of Lasagna Gardening for Small Spaces recommends that you wet the newspapers first so that they stay put. I find it as easy to use dry news papers. (Your choice, wet news papers  or dry news papers). Make sure there are plenty of overlap between the newspapers and that you completely cover inside of your raised bed frame with the news papers. The layer of news papers keep the weeds (or unwanted grass) out of the way and they gradually compost by the time all the weeds underneath are dead. 
• Carefully fill up the bed so that you don't disturb the layer of the news papers. Depending on what you got, you can layer each kind alternatively ending with top soil on the top (sooner or later earth worms will mix them all up) or just mix the ingredients as you add them in. I find that the raised beds are very forgiving as long as the soil inside has good texture and good nutrients as a whole. 
• Water the raised beds throughly before you transplant or sow. Watch your plants grow!

Strawberries from my garden. May 30, 2008

I wanted to talk about strawberries and then got carried away with raised beds. Ahem. Back to the strawberries. I started with a few strawberry plants about five years ago, and lost some and gave away some every time I moved, and  still had too many strawberry plants this spring!! They are taking up 3 raised beds now. I need to get rid of at least 24 plants. It's not that strawberries are not one of my favorites. I have too many favorites and they all need a space. 

Some of the strawberry plants are getting ready to bloom. I can see the flower buds forming at the center of plants. I will be very happy to give these plants away to the people who want to try out strawberries. They are super easy to grow! I hardly do anything with them other than cage them up when strawberries start to ripe, and eat them when they are saturated with flavors. Our neighbor Dr. Switzer can testify for the superb sweetness of the strawberry fruits that these plants produce. Please leave a comment if and how many you want the strawberry plants. First come, first served. 

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June is a time for blueberries

Hi, I'm Shannon, and I'll be posting here with Yeon.

Something delicious I made with findings from the Farmer's Market: Fresh strawberries and chevre on toasted ciabatta slices. Hello, easy! I took a few slices of ciabatta from the Cakes for Cause booth and toasted it (that place has the BEST scones and croissants). Then I added chevre from the Caprikorn Farms (new place, so I had to check it out), and fresh sliced strawberries (from the booth on the left in the first row- I forget the name, but I am sure Yeon remembers). I had this for dinner one night when it was 100 degrees out. It only seemed fair that I could have dessert for dinner since it was so hot.

I've also had some delicious raw longhorn cheddar from the South Mountain Creamery. I was amazed at the range of flavors in this cheese and highly recommend it. Other market favorites include Canadian bacon from Rohrer's (very lean). I also recently bought fresh garlic (from Summer Creek Farm) and scapes (from aforementioned unnamed place) and was wild about them. The scapes were great stir-fried and grilled, and I used the garlic in everything. Not only did I keep the vampires away, but also many undesired people. Garlic works!

June is the month of blueberries. I was reminded of this when I saw my neighbor's ripening fruit today. I would love to grow berries next year, but I'll let you in on a little secret: they grow wild in DROVES in the mountains around Frederick. The Appalachian Trail has some outstanding picking, but you'll find blueberries everywhere. Blueberries are a low bush with fruit that is partly hidden. After a while, you'll recognize the bushes for their foliage and take mental notes on locations for the following year. Don't pick the berries until they are soft and almost black; the purplish ones are tart and unpalatable. And of course, if you are picking wild berries, leave some for other people and animals. Pick berries during the day, as we have bears around here, they come out at night, and they love the fruit.

Blooming now in my yard: hydrangea, yarrow, monarda, hosta, lavender.

The horse manure that I got this year had the seeds of a spiny weed in it that I have to wear leather gloves to remove. While I was away for a week, it took over. Luckily, it's not that hard to pull. Somewhere behind this abomination I have tomato plants that are starting to bear fruit. I also have bok choy that has already started to bolt. Note to self: next year, grow the cruciferous vegetables in the shade. My Chesapeake Bay Fish peppers are hiding below some other pepper plants and will have to be moved, as they are slow growers. Everything is a jumble and I am trying to cage stuff now; compare this to Yeon's ordered and virtually weedless garden of earthly delights and you will appreciate the differences in our personalities!

Several of my neighbors and I, including Yeon, are trying out a vegetable sharing scheme. So far I shared some mushrooms that I grew from a kit (incredibly delicious shiitake and blue oyster mushrooms). I have herbs but so does everyone. I'll have lots of tomatoes but so will everyone. Soon I will probably have some kale to offer. It looks like we may do better with plant sharing than with vegetable sharing, but we'll see.

Shannon

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