Early season gardening

So far we have done a decent job getting an early start to the garden this year. We got a huge delivery of "super soil" (a soil/compost blend) to the garden the last week in March. The boys were really excited about that. What could be better on a Saturday morning than watching a dump truck drive through your yard to dump some dirt piles? Oh yeah, playing in those dirt piles that afternoon...


The dirt has been shoveled around the garden to make two large beds with one long path for flowers down the center. Hopefully the added depth will give us a little help with the horrible rock and clay conditions found here in New Hampshire. With the dirt in we were able to start on our spring seeds: Wando Shelling Peas (3/30 and 4/9), Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce (3/30), Salad Bowl Mix (3/30 and 4/9) and Arugula (4/7).

Though the morning started out cloudy and rainy we lucked out and enjoyed a sunny afternoon at a maple sugar house in Lyndeborough. Maple weekend is always a fun little activity celebrating the beginning of spring around here. Last year we checked out Ben's Sugar Shack, but this year we headed to the Maple Guys Sugar Shack, which was a bit closer to us, and I kind of liked their syrup better. It had a nice smoky flavor to it that I never noticed in other syrups before. Both places offer mail order syrup, so check either out if you are in need of some real syrup!

Opening Day

Today was our first day out working and planting in the garden. We worked on getting a few rocks out of the garden, but mostly, accomplished our two goals of getting some old seafood and egg shells out of the kitchen, and seeds into the garden. We put the shells into an old heavy duty plastic bag and crushed them up with a sledgehammer, then sprinkled it over the area of the garden where we are planning to plant our tomatoes. I am hoping to use eggshells for the tomatoes, and I read that seashells can act as lime, so I think the tomatoes could (hopefully)benefit from that as well. We marked out a small row to plant some broccoli raab seed. Last year we had no luck with the raab at all. It didn't grow very well, and whatever plants we got bolted since it was planted too late. We're about 5 or 6 weeks from our last frost date, so this time I'm hoping our timing is right on. This is one of my favorite vegetables and I have never found it at any of the farmers' markets, so we really need to grow our own. The last job was adding some compost to the seeds. This was a first for me. We started our compost pile last summer and this is the first time I stuck my hands into the stuff. Worms, dirt, some leftover bits of scraps and all...I dug right in. After getting over my initial squeamishness of it, it was a somewhat satisfying way of starting off our 2009 gardening season. Aside from the purchase of the seeds, this crop will be all our own.




(Picture from the BI website, seeds purchased from Ponemah Farms last year)

Botanical Interests
Ponemah Farms

Strawberry Brown Betty

One of our favorite ways of spending a summer morning is to head to one of the local strawberry farms. Everything is still quiet, and the sun has yet to heat everything up again. I admit, the whole process is easier said than done. I have one boy who can do most of the picking on his own and does a good job of it, that is until he picks about 10 berries and claims he is done. I much prefer that, however, over the chasing down of his little brother, running up and down the rows, picking unripe strawberries and eating them before anyone can catch him. We have yet to head home from picking without that little guy covered in strawberry juice. But really, having 2 kids who love fresh fruit and are willing to work to gather some? How could I complain?


This simple and delicious recipe came from 2 sources of inspiration. One was the leftover cider donuts in the fridge, the other, a quart of strawberries picked at a local farm, just on the verge of spoilage. This dessert was really made way back in August, but I chose to bring it out now because someone out there must have a bag of frozen local fruit in the freezer just waiting to be brought out and baked into something. In fact, I am hoping to try our peaches in this very soon.


Strawberry Brown Betty
(Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: Apple Brown Betty)

4 to 6 servings

4 cups day-old donuts (or bread, cake or biscuits) cut or broken into small cubes
4 cups strawberries (or any other fruit, peeling if necessary) sliced
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

Optional (from the original apple recipe):
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
Pinch ground allspice


Preheat the oven to 300 F. Place the donuts on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake until very lightly browned, about 10 minutes, shaking the pan once or twice during baking. Prepare the fruit and toss with the lemon juice. Melt the butter over low heat.

When the donuts are done, turn the oven up to 375 F. Toss the donuts with the sugars and half the butter. On the bottom of an 8- or 9-inch square baking pan, place one-third of the donuts. Top with half the strawberries. Repeat, then finish with the last of the donuts. Drizzle the rest of the butter over all.

Bake for at least 30 minutes, or until the liquid is bubbly and the top is browned. Serve warm with whipped cream (preferably local and fresh) or ice cream. This can be made ahead and reheated at 300 F for 15 minutes.

Note: Aside from picking the fruit, the kids did a great job breaking up the donuts, cleaning the berries and stirring ingredients together.

Dessert or side dish?

Tonight's dinner was roast chicken.  The thing I love about such a simple main dish, is getting to play around with more flavorful side dishes.  In the fall I can't get enough of the winter squashes available.  One of my favorites, a new variety to me, is the delicata squash.  Usually with the delicata or acorn squash I love cutting it into rings, drizzling with olive oil and maple syrup and sprinkling with Mexican spices like cumin and chipotle powder.  Oh, salt and pepper of course.  They get baked in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes (I also love the toaster oven for this if I am not using the oven already).  After reading this post, I knew I had to try something a little different.  I was also hoping that making them a bit more sweet would entice my oldest to try some squash tonight (it did not).  They were delicious though, and I couldn't help but spice mine up a bit with some chipotle spice and sage leaves - fantastic.

Now, tonight's dinner wasn't something I did with the kids.  Handling raw chicken and cutting open squash doesn't give them much to do.  (I suppose they could help with the drizzling and sprinkling though.)  They did help in the gathering of ingredients.  This afternoon was a pleasant surprise, and much warmer than I had expecting.  We took a late stroll down to the farm to grab some ingredients for tonight and the week.  My oldest picked out a cabbage, so I will be doing some research on what exactly to do with that, aside from adding it to a New England Boiled Dinner.  In any case, more importantly, our afternoon stroll gave us a neat surprise.  The farm stand is locating across from a small (200 cows) dairy farm.  The calves are kept outside, and we usually visit them on our way home.  Today, one of the farmers was out feeding the calves (milk), and I asked if we could get a tour of the dairy since my son is always asking to see the big cows.  He was happy to oblige.  I was happy to get a peek inside to see how things are really done.  This is a dairy farm close to our home, and their milk is used in many regional products.  The bonus at the end was finding out that we could by raw milk from them.  How great!  Fresh milk, from the farm down the street, at half the price of organic milk that comes from who knows where!  While I would hope to see the cows they keep out in pasture a bit more, it wasn't too bleak of a picture.  There aren't too many cows for the space, the farmers take good care of them, and they are fed locally grown hay and corn, as well as leftover grains from a nearby brewery.  Not too bad.

I have to thank my curious little preschooler for finding us this great local source today!

The beginning...

My first post on this blog! I have finally sat down and made an actual post to this blog. Not the posts that I have started many times, for months now, that I would like to make, but a real typed out post. I figured today was a great day to start for two reasons. For one, it is the first of November, marking day 1 of NaBloPoMo, and what better motivation to start a new blog, than to start it in the month where you are supposed to post everyday to your blog?! The other, is that finally our garden has been dug-up and tilled, ready to be planted come spring, as soon as the ground is warm enough. I am so looking forward to that fresh start in a few months, our biggest step towards living more sustainably. I am also ready to take on some work that will take me out of the house a bit more, and even better, with all of us working together. We have set out for our garden a rather large plot of land (15' x 30'), and it won't easily be a one-person garden next season.




Until the next gardening season though, I'm hoping to take more time to prepare our own foods, using sustainable ingredients, as a family. I'm looking forward to sharing our ideas, recipes, and resources with you.

Kristin