Ever eaten garlic scapes?

Garlic Scapes:

These are the curly Medusa like flower heads that form on garlic plants this time of year. 

Garlic growers like Mr. Hiebert cut these flowers off so that the plant puts all of its energy into the garlic bulb to form a larger bulb instead of into setting seed.   They are also a real treat for garlic lovers.   Many growers just throw them on the compost pile but for the next couple of weeks look for them at farmers’ markets.  

They have a milder flavour that the actual bulb and can be used in stir fry or I love to chop them up and stir into melted butter for garlic bread. 

You can chop them into salads or use them as a topping, like scallions. More mature scapes can be sauteed lightly and used over pasta, with eggs, mixed with cooking greens, pickled or pretty much in any dish that would be complemented by garlic.  Another way to use them is to make a garlic scape pesto.

Pickled Garlic Scapes are an easy way to keep garlic scapes around a little longer. These are easy "refrigerator pickles," which means they require no heat processing but must be kept in the fridge.

Prep Time: 20 minutes/Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 1 pint Pickled Garlic Scapes

Ingredients:

•About 15 garlic scapes

•1 dried chile (optional)

•1 cup cider vinegar

•4 tsp. kosher salt

•4 tsp. sugar

Preparation:

1. Trim garlic scapes, curl them up, and place them in a pint jar with a tight fitting lid.

 2. Work the chile, if you're using it, into the jar with the garlic scapes.

 3. In a small saucepan heat the vinegar, salt, and sugar with 1 cup of water until simmering and salt and sugar are dissolved.

 4. Pour warm vinegar mixture over the garlic scapes to cover them (you may not use all of the vinegar mixture).  Seal the jar. Let sit until cool, then store in the refrigerator for at least 6 weeks and up to six months.

Local Supper Inspiration.

I get a little thrill every time I fill my family's supper table with an all local meal.  Everything was purchased at the Millarville Farmers' market. 
Check it out:
Ribs from Spragg's meat shop.  http://www.spraggsmeatshop.com   They raise pastured pork near Rosemary and butcher it themselves to their own exacting standards.   Cut them apart and barbeque - brush with just a hint of your favourite sauce - not too much- they taste too good to cover up.

Then there were fresh potatoes from Mr. Hiebert.  Do you know that they are dug fresh every Thursday or Friday for Saturday's market?   Next we shelled some peas from Michelle's Market Garden in Brooks.  Boiled the potatoes in some lightly salted water until just tender then added the peas for 1 minute.  Drained off the water and added in the thick cream with dill and garlic from Ukrainian Fine Foods.

For salad some thinly sliced mini-cucumbers from Kel-lee's greenhouse and some radishes from Jake of Green Acres Colony just soaking in a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water with some salt and pepper.

Water from our spring to drink and we toasted as we do each night,

"To the cooks, and the growers, and the food!"

Eat Your Broccoli!!!

The Brassica Family

Broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi,  brussels sprouts, rapini, Broccoli Rabe, broccoflower, Broccoli Romanesco, also mustard and some Asian Vegetables. 

If you have never had any of these vegetables straight from the garden or the field they you are missing out!   I happen to love brassicas cooked all kinds of ways, but if you are on the fence about whether you like them or not,  or if you despair of ever getting your kids to “eat their broccoli”  then buy a head of broccoli right from the farmer.   It’s an entirely different experience.  Sweet, crunchy, so yummy. 

The brassica family is typically started from seed in greenhouses or hoop houses and then transplanted out into the field.   Some growers use plastic mulch to control weeds.  Each plant only grows one head of broccoli, cauliflower or cabbage.  That’s a lot of plants for a bin load of veggies!    Growers of brassicas fight off cutworms and cabbage moths too.     Cutworms- do just what it sounds like- they cut off the little plant stem right at the ground- dead plant.   Cabbage moths or butterflies are the pretty little yellow/white butterflies that start to come around in July.      

Not so pretty to a vegetable grower as these insects love to lay their eggs on brassica leaves and then the eggs hatch into hungry green caterpillars.  Some growers use floating row cover to physically protect the crop.  Others use methods such as dusting with organic compounds and other use an insecticide- so be sure to ask.    

Row covers

 When you get your veggies home give them a soak in the sink and any hitchhiking caterpillars will float to the surface and can be squished before they end up in the salad or stir fry.  

Last week four of us ate an entire head of broccoli,  grown by Jake of Green Acres, for supper.   Cut up the broccoli – slice the stems into chunks and then separate out the florets.   Chop up one clove garlic and a 1”section of fresh ginger.   Add a dollop of oil to a frying pan or wok and quickly fry the garlic, ginger and broccoli stems.   When they just start to turn bright green, add the florets and stir.  Add about 1/8 cup water and a sprinkle of sesame oil and pop the lid on for the florets to steam.  Just a minute or two- they should still be crisp.    This is also a perfect way to cook broccoli before you add it to an omelet or a quiche.   I also cut up broccoli and use it a pizza topping-  broccoli and cheese go together very well. 

Cauliflower-  My kids love cauliflower raw with dip and I love to roast it in the oven.   Cut up the cauliflower into bite size pieces trying to keep the florets intact.   Toss with a tiny bit of olive oil and salt and pepper and roast on a pan in the oven at 400 F for 10-15 minutes.  A squeeze of lemon juice on top and it’s a brand new vegetable with no need for gooey cheese sauce that hides the flavour and adds hundreds of calories. 

Broccoli Romanesco looks like an alien.   If you happen to see one buy it just for the fun shapes and textures.   It is more on the cauliflower side of the spectrum than the broccoli side for texture and flavour.  

Kohlrabi is another delicious freaky looking vegetable.   It forms on the stem of the plant and grows kind of like a lump in the middle.   Green or purple varieties.   Peel it and slice it and eat it raw or maybe with a little sprinkle of salt.  

The smell of haying time!

I saw the hay just down the road from the Millarville Racetrack getting cut on Saturday.  Yay!  It’s hot, it’s windy, it will dry fast maybe get baled without rain.  

  

Haying season is a big deal in rural communities.  It’s part of why farmers are obsessed with the weather.  Around here it starts in early July and can go into September.     I grew up in a haying family and it was all about the bloom on the alfalfa or the timothy, you don’t want it too mature because the leaves and blooms fall off and the nutritional content drops.   But you don’t want to cut too early as there isn’t enough bloom yet.  But is it going to rain?   So do we cut?  What’s the weather forecast?   So you cut with a hay bine- a machine that cuts and then sends the hay through a crimper so it squishes the stems and it dries faster.   

  

Those rows of cut hay in the fields in that fabulous round and round pattern are called swaths.   Once the top half is dry it gets raked.   Sometimes gets raked two swaths into one,  if the crop wasn’t very thick.   Really great hay that was cut at the perfect time and baled without rain often goes into square bales.   These are prime feed for cattle or horses.  Hay that isn’t as good, maybe has a bit of rain, gets rolled up into the big round bales- those big cinnamon buns out in the fields.   Big round bales are great for speed of baling and for feeding cows out in the fields in the winter, but you need machinery to handle them.    My dad and grandpa used to square bale and round bale depending on the quality.   Some farmers round bale great hay because that's the way they like to do it.  There have been a lot of innovations in haying over the last century from loose hay stacked with pitchforks on hay wagons and loaded into the lofts of barns, to square bales that get stooked (stacked in a pyramid on a sled and then dumped off) as the square bales come out.   In this video they are picking the bales up off the field after they’ve been baled.   My dad had a hay hook like this (maybe farmers are part pirate?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNE-845YhQ4

Now there are bale wagons that get driven around the field and pick up the bales, form them into a stack and can unload them into the hayshed.  Then they get picked up again in a stack to deliver.  

 My dad would not have the Popeye arms that he has today with that kind of equipment!  He used to have the hay wagon but then had to unload them out of the hay shed onto trucks or flat decks for delivery.   Sometime he used a hay elevator-  a ramp with a conveyor belt that would carry the bale up to the top.  

It’s still great fun to climb, run and jump from round bale to round bale or to lay on your back on the top of a stack of square bales and stare up at the clouds on a hot summer day.    But only if it’s cool with the farmer or rancher because good hay is like gold.   I see hay as solar power storage.  It’s an amazing process that has humble grasses, and alfalfa turn sun, rain and soil into winter food for cattle, sheep, goats, horses and other herbivores.   Even though humans can’t eat hay these animals have evolved their digestive systems to turn that hay in to meat, milk, fibre and horse love.  

I invite you to take a closer look at the green fields of “just grass”  and the patterns of swaths in the fields.  Take a look at the sky and worry about the haying weather for a minute.   Open the windows wide and breathe in the aroma of drying (curing) hay and give the farmer on the baler a wave.   Thanks for the solar conversion!

Greek Salad

As the weather gets hotter lettuce and spinach and all those lovely greens start to bolt.  These are cool spring weather plants and they don't like heat.  The same thing happens with radishes.    Bolting is when they stop producing leaves and they just sent up stalk that blooms and goes to seed.  I think of it like they send a flag up the flag pole calling for a truce- "Our work here for the season is done- just leave us alone to set seed and reproduce."  Head lettuce such as butter head, romaine and iceberg are around this time of year, but aren't the stars of the market booths.   The real stars this time of year are coming out as cucumbers, peppers, onions, tomatoes, and herbs.   I made a fabulous simple salad last night that was so fresh and easy and yummy that I didn't even think to take a picture and then it was gone.   It was inspired by Greek Salad but was lighter somehow- maybe because it was so fresh.
Everything in it was from the farmers' market.
1 mini cucumber- cut in chunks
1 mini orange pepper- cut in chunks
1 handful of grape tomatoes- cut in half
(all from Kel-lee's greenhouse in Medicine Hat)
two stems of Italian parley and approx 6 rosemary leaves picked from my herb pots and originally purchased from Terra Farms.  - chopped up.
1 green onion- chopped -  Thanks to Mr. Hiebert
2" square chunk of sheep feta from Crystal Springs Cheese
Assorted whole olives from Angela's Olives
Small bit lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice, a splash of olive oil and a grind of black pepper (the only things from the regular grocery store) 
Mix and let sit until the steak is done and eat it up.

Terra Farms

We enjoyed it with a slab of a chuck steak from our side of beef Supper (you've heard me speak of him in hushed tones before)  and some baby potatoes (from Hiebert's)  on the grill.   The potatoes were about 2" across and 3" long - I cut them in half and put them in the microwave for 3 minutes then on the top shelf of the bbq for the same time as the steak.   A little sour cream on top and they melted in the mouth.    

I love, love love, Alberta Strawberries

I love Alberta Strawberries!   I love to pick them at a u-pick.   It’s like a treasure hunt walking or crawling along the row and finding the gorgeous red jewels of flavour.  Shiny red, tiny green seeds,  topped with a green leafy cap- so beautiful.  I buy them at the Farmers’ market from my friend Mr. Hiebert.     Last week he was sheepish because the strawberries were dirty from the rain splashing the soil on the fruit.  All it took was to soak them in the sink for a few minutes in cold water until the soil sank to the bottom and then eat them.   

 

Usually a basket of his strawberries last about one hour after they are in the house.  Later in the season I buy them by the 4L pail and get a chance to freeze some.   If they are dirty wash and dry completely before freezing.  I just cut the stem off and put them in zip lock bags and then they can be made into jam during the winter when I have time, or can be thawed for desserts.   I pulled a bag out of the freezer this spring to make a dessert for the launch of dee Hobsbawn-Smith’s new book Foodshed.   The dessert was a huge hit and no wonder- it has whipped cream as a major ingredient! 

 

It’s called Eton Mess and is super easy to make.   Make or buy meringues and crunch them into pieces.  Intersperse the pieces of meringues with dollops of whipped cream and then fruit- fresh or frozen.   Add layers until you run out of stuff.  If you have parfait glasses you can make individual messes that look so pretty.   Making your own meringues is easy too, but you need some sort of electric beater. 

Meringues

2 egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 250F. In a clean glass or stainless steel bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed until foamy and small peaks barely form; gradually beat in the sugar, a spoonful at a time, until all the sugar is incorporated and the mixture holds stiff peaks. It should have the consistency of whipped cream or shaving cream.

Spread onto a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, until dry. Cool, then crumble to use in Eton mess.

The other must do summer dessert is Strawberry Shortcake.   It can be as simple as scones or cupcakes cut in half- a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, sliced strawberries, add the top and garnish with more whipped cream or ice cream and more strawberries.   Super yummy!

One of my favourite food writers and bloggers is Julie VanRosendaal.  She has a passion for local, fresh, cook from scratch food.  Her blog is called Dinner With Julie and a great resource and fabulous inspiration.  

This is the link to another way to use strawberry and rhubarb - strawberry-rhubarb slab scones-  I haven't tried it yet, but I have big plans for Sunday breakfast.   Let me know if you like it.   http://dinnerwithjulie.com/2012/06/09/strawberry-rhubarb-slab-scones/

One of my best memories of strawberries was on a canoe trip in Northern Ontario where we had been out a long time and hadn’t had fresh food for a few weeks.  I  was carrying a canoe across a portage that was about 1 km long and kept seeing little wild strawberries (about ¼ inch across) peeking out at me from their homes next to the trail.   A person can’t just stop when she has a canoe on her shoulders so I half walked, half ran to the end, dropped the canoe and ate my way back to the beginning one little red jewel at a time.  Not many things can possibly taste that good.