All About Lemon Cucumbers

In seed catalogs as early as 1894.  In a paper for the Horticulture Department at Cornell University, R.W. Robinson opines that that the lemon cucumber may be the oldest cucumber cultivar in existence today.

A Young Lemon Cucumber

A lovely bright yellow round cucumber with notes of lemon, this cucumber cultivar stands out from the crowd.  It is wart-free, and small enough to eat in a single sitting .  No need to peel this beauty, the skin is very thin, without that bitter taste.  A great slicing cuke for salads, crispy and potato chip sized.   You can cook and pickle the 'lemon' cucumber too.  Rarely seen in conventional grocery stores, you'll have to poke around your local farmers market to get a taste.

The best way to enjoy this fruit is make it a part of your homegrown garden.  But be forewarned, this plant can be delicate.  It is prone to disease and often has a low yield.  I've had troubles in the past.  Because it is late blooming, I've lost plants to powdery mildew before picking fruit.  Insects can wreck havoc on this plant too.  You'll need a keen eye to catch problems before they become a death knell.

Train your plants up netting, or a trellis to save room in the garden as long as you have plenty of pollinating insects visiting your plants.  I always trellis my cukes, I feel like I have a better eye on the pest and disease situation.  Since I live in San Diego, where we rarely get rain in the summer, I planted my cucumbers right next to an olla watering vessel (A terracotta vessel under mostly underground that I fill with water to keep surrounding soil moist- more info in a later post).

Pick your lemon cucumbers as soon as they are a couple inches in diameter but no more than a 4" diameter.  Not only will you run the risk of getting hard to eat seeds, but you'll be telling the plant to slow down fruit production-- So pick early and often.

Can you save the seeds from your lemon cucumbers? Short answer is, 'yes', with reservations.  The Lemon Cucumber is an open pollinated seed.  That means that it will cross with other cukes in the neighborhood.  If you want a pure lemon cuke seed, be sure that you don't grow any other kinds of cukes, or if you have a big garden, be sure that your cucumber varieties are at least 1/2 mile apart.  Or, if you are a seasoned savvy gardener, you can hand pollinate your plants (please do further research if you want to try).  That being said, crossing with other cukes may not be so bad after all.  It would be a gamble to cross pollinated seeds, but if you have the time, space, and desire- go for it.  Leave the lemon cukes on the vine until over ripe.  Then scoop out the seeds and slime, let the goo sit on the counter for a few days (think tomato seed saving process) to ferment.  Mold and other icky green stuff may start growing.  Stir the mixture frequently.  Once the seeds settle on the bottom, and the slime is broken up, rinse off your seeds, let them fully dry on a plate, label and store for next year.

The Stats
Sowing: Directly in the Ground, 1" deep
Days to Maturity: 65-68
Water: Moist
Dirt: Normal, Well Drained, Loamy
Sun: Full
Genus: Curcumis
Species: Sativus


My Sources
Origin and Characterization of the 'Lemon' Cucumber by R.W. Robinson
Heirloom Cucumber Varieties by  William Woys Weaver August 2013 for Mother Earth News

Buy the Seeds Here:
High Mowing- Organic and Non-GMO
Park Seed- Disease Resistant
Sustainable Seed Company- Certified Organic
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Our DIY A-frame Chicken Coop

I have six girls: Claudia, Heidi, Tyra, Marissa, Giselle, and Cindy.  They are teenagers at 14 weeks now, getting their big-girl voices and clucking and bocking here and there.  Sometimes they look skinny and scrawny and then next minute they seem big huge and giant breasted.  Yes, yes, I am talking about chickens-- not people.

My fiance and I have spent way too many hours building the girls a coop, and digging and driving around town looking for the best prices for organic chicken feed.  We bought both our chicks and feed from City Farmers Nursery in San Diego.  The feed is about 40 bucks for 50lbs.  For the cost of building the coop, and food so far, the first eggs are going to be like golden eggs.

The Coop before moving it down the hill and adding the "run" area.

The coop is constructed from fencing planks, 2 by 4s and plywood.  Hardware cloth is everywhere is is not cheap! The A-frame is about 30 square feet, and the total outside area is about 100 square feet.  The outdoor area has a bamboo roof (with a tarp for when it rains).  The whole coop is seated on a steepish hill, and is about 8 feet tall.  The floor of the hen house is covered in left over laminate flooring stickers (left over from our bathroom project but less than 5 bucks to buy) to better clean up in there.  The side of the A-frame is shingled with left over roofing shingles from our roofing projects (no good pictures of it shingled).  

Inside view with heater.

It probably cost around 250 dollars at the end of the day.  But the total hours of building and getting it situated on a hill was huge.  Easily 40 hours each.  Not to mention my mom and dad helped a lot too. Had we had level ground, and no predators about, it would have been a much faster and cheaper build.

The coop is not only on a hill, but right next to open spaces land in San Diego.  So there is no doubt, coyotes, raccoons, opposums, snakes, and most definately ferral cats (lots of pet cats too).  So, we had to build a sturdy coop and bury in the hardware cloth for any burrowing creatures.  The land is mostly clay, and full of giant stones too.  I burned some calories working on the girls house!

Almost a "tiny house." Mom helping out.
Notice the vinyl tile flooring.

We took the girls home when they were 3 weeks old.  Little cuties. Peeping and scurrying about. I didn't use a brooder, rather the A-frame coop house worked great for the little ones.  We just didn't lower the ramp, they were forced to stay in the house for the first four weeks.  A heat lamp kept them warm.  The fiance and I set up chairs next to the coop to sit and watch "chick TV."  We were instantly smitten and demanded that all of our friends come by and see our little bundles of joy.

Officially cat-proofed.

The Leghorns sleeping.

Did you figure out that they are named after supermodels?  It was only natural, seeing as they strut around all the time!

Growing Pink Banana Squash

Pink Banana Squash- 9 weeks old

Nothing cheers me up more than a garden nursery.  What cheers me up even more is when said nursery has a basket of Botanical Interests seeds on sale because they expired two weeks earlier. Well, I'm one for a deal! True true that they say old seeds don't germinate at a great rate... I say so what.  I only grow one or two plants, and the seed packets have so many more than two plants. So doing the math, I'd say I'm likely to succeed!
Enter the Pink Banana Squash. If you are reading this page, you have probably done an internet search already.  That means that you have seen the many pictures of people struggling to hold up a giant pink oblong blimps.  I hope the 14-year old inside you giggled as much as I did.  Let's just say the squash looks like something out of a tacky romance novel.

Naturally, I cannot wait for this plant to grow.  It is tucked in the corner of a raised bed on a south on an east facing hill.  It took about a week to sprout.  March 16, 2015 was the day it peeped up from the ground.  Every year I struggle with squash because of the ubiquitous powdery mildew.  This year I am trying something new.  Equipped with a three dollar spray bottle from Home Depot, and a solution of 25% milk to 75% water I am planning on spraying the plant every two weeks (more likely once a month).

UPDATE June 3, 2015:
I picked this first squash on June 3, about 12 weeks after it sprouted.  I was really worried that the plant was not setting additional fruit, so I picked this massive squash early.
UPDATE June 5, 2015:
The first signs of powdery mildew are showing.  I'm going to spray the leaves with the mild milk solution this evening.  Cross your fingers it does the job.  Though there are clearly signs of some leaf burrowing bugs too.  I'm going to focus on the mildew first, then attack the bugs.

Crimson Sweets, Sugar Baby Watermelons & Ollas- Southern California

Its that time of year again! Whoo-hoo! Watermelon season.  Last year I grew Crimson Sweet melons in my back yard--er-- I mean, canyon/very steep hilly area with a few mostly flatish areas.   It was an insane spreader and covered a serious amount of area.  I grew it in a raised bed, and let the vines fall over the corner so as not to take of the entire box.  Read about it here.  At the end of the season I ended up with four 25-30 lb melons, so about 100 pounds of watermelon.  Oh yea!  Being a watermelon freak, I want more.  

Saving watermelon seeds is a breeze.  Eat the watermelon, spit out the seed, rinse and let air dry.  Wrap up the dried seeds and keep in a dry place with moderate temperature.  Plant again next spring.  And that is just what I did.  Let me tell you, you can plant a watermelon farm with all the seeds you could save.  BUT, make sure your variety is open pollinated and that you only grew one variety of watermelon that year.  Otherwise you may get a watermelon vine with no fruit, or a wacko watermelon that may or may not taste any good.  Seems like a fun experiment to grow a mystery fruit, but if you don't have the space to waste, then you may want to just compost those mystery seeds.

Crimson Sweet Seedling & Terracotta Olla Waterer

Did anyone tell you there is a drought in California? No?  Well there is.  In San Diego, we are only allowed to water on certain days of the week and for limited time.  Buzz kill if you are a really into your home garden; needless to say I've had to get creative this year.  I'm doing the olla-thing.  The Olla thing involves burying a water permeable vessel next to your crops and watering your plants by filling the vessel up with water.  The vessel will leach water into the soil  thus ensuring the roots to your plants are nice and well watered.  You don't add water to the surface where it can run off and evaporate.  Ollas are made of earthen clay that hasn't been glazed.  BUT ollas are like 30 bucks a pop!  By the way 'Olla' just means pot in Spanish, so peeps might be really confused if you just start taking about ollas in garden!  

Sugar Baby Watermelon & Strawbs

I went cheapo and bought terracotta pots, glued them together until totally sealed, but for a hole in the top for filling with water.  I "planted" the terracotta olla next to my crimson sweet seeds with the top above ground and filled the vessel with water regularly.  Since I am mostly filling it with water I collect inside the house while waiting for faucets to spit out hot water, I am thinking it doesn't count as "watering."  Low and behold, my seeds sprouted and I've got a baby crimson sweet starting to grow.  I am worried that I didn't amend my soil enough to take into account the extreme clay content in the ground.  But I've mulched it already and am gearing up to add more mulch in hopes of combating this nasty water  deficit.  

Sugar Baby Melons- I picked up some Sugar Baby Melon seedlings at Walter Anderson's Nursery (my favorite SD nursery).  I tucked a plant into a raised bed and am still trying to figure out where I can put another plant or two.  I hope to be knee deep in melons this summer.  Smitty, my 8 year old corgi, loves chomping on watermelon and watermelon rind and I anticipate my chickens be all over watermelon too.  I just can't get enough.  

Header Image Courtesy of irum of freeimages.com

Padron Peppers - A Year Later & Padron Chicken Slow Cooker Recipe

Padron Peppers, Fresno Chiles, and Cubanelle Peppers from Year Old Plants

I wrote about my foray into growing Padron peppers last year (read about it here).  It was all so trendy.  Shisito peppers are at Trader Joe's now, and for some reason, restaurants charge a pretty penny to get these peppers as an appetizer.  Just grow them yourself.

I'd read about people overwintering pepper plants to get several years harvest out of one plant by digging them up and bringing them inside for the cold winter months.  I guess I did that.  I didn't have the intention of overwintering my plants, but, well--- don't get mad at me-- but..er... San Diego just didn't have a winter this past year.  So, thus, I overwintered my plants by doing nothing more than not digging them up at the end of the season.

The plants just didn't do much growing between November and February, but they are back, leggy, but back.  Around November 2014, I pruned the heck out of the plants, but that was it.  So, I am here to say that if you happen to live in a San Diego-type climate and want to keep your pepper plants, just prune them and let them be.

That being said, I've cooked up a couple batches of padrons so far this year.  I did the basic cast iron pan saute with olive oil and salt.  But, Oh Lordy, I couldn't eat them.  Way too spicy for me.  Last year, you'd get a spicy one every 6 or so peppers.  This time it was two spicys to one mild.  Being a sissy la-la when it comes to heat, I'm not amused.   Time for creativity to use up all the spicy peppers.

Spicy Padron Slow Cooker Chicken:
 Now, I don't eat chicken, so don't ask me what it tasted like, but I have on good measure that the recipe was a hit.   Basically, chop up (food processor, knife, or mortar and pestle) an onion, a bunch (15ish) of padrons, and a few garlic cloves. Saute with olive oil, add cumin, salt, pepper, oregano for 10 mins or so.  I wanted to thicken it up so I mashed up some pinto beans and added to the pan.  Dump in crock pot.  Add a few cups of broth.  Add chicken (I used parts of a whole chicken I cut up).  Cook on low until chicken is falling off the bone.  Take chicken out of the crock.  Discard bones, and cartilage.  Shred.  Put back into crock pot with all the juices.  Add more or less stock to taste.  Add whole beans if you want to.  Add cilantro, green onions, avocado, chopped up fresh padrons, squeeze of fresh lime juice, cheese--- you get it to make a chili.  Or just pull out the shredded chicken for tacos.
If your Padrons are not so spicy, consider adding some jalapeno, fresno chili, or other medium heat peppers to liven it up.

Watermelons Growing in San Diego- Crimson Sweet Variety

Crimson Sweet just  3 days apart!

 I love watermelon.  LOVE.  So this year, now that I started garden boxes in a central neighborhood of San Diego, on a canyon with a whole lot of sun, I thought I'd try my hand at growing some.  I forget where I bought the seedling, but it was only 2 bucks.  I tucked it into the corner of one of my raised beds and thought it could grow over the side on onto the grown surrounding the box.  I figured it would be a sprawling plant, but didn't think it would take over the yard... which it did.  I took a few pictures below of the evolution of the watermelon vines.  I didn't take any snaps of them fully growing, but imagine double the size of the larger picture.
Crimson Sweet is the type of watermelon.  20-30 lbs when ripe.  So far, I've picked 4 big watermelons.  Two of them have been super sweet and amazing, the other two were amazing but not as sweet.  All good.  It is a trip having a watermelon with seeds.  Its like I had forgotten that they existed.  I can't remember a supermarket in recent history selling watermelons with seeds. Nutty.  You bet I am saving these seeds for next year.  It is late in August now and I still have several small watermelons growing on the vines, though I don't have high hopes that these will be as good as the first 4.  All in all, I've got about 100lbs of fruit off the one plant. Crazy.  It is possible, by the end of the season, I'll have harvested 200lbs from the one plant.

Crimson Sweet about a month old

Crimson Sweet 2.5 months old

 I'm pretty sure I'll grow these again, but they do go crazy with the vines. Any tips on pruning back watermelon vines?

First melon of the harvest.  (Please ignore the fanny pack and weird hat hair do)

Growing and Eating Padron Peppers in San Diego

Padron Close Up. 

Oh Padrons... it is as if you didn't exist until four years ago. Certainly, I'd never heard of the pepper and that no one else that I knew had a clue these babies existed until this decade.  Maybe I'm wrong.
It wasn't until Suzies Farm, here in SD started putting these guys in their CSA box that I got a first taste.  Admittedly, I wasn't sure what to make of these.  Then all the rage broke loose.  Even my bougiest hippster-esq San Francisco couple featured these guys at their wedding meal.  (Which is also funny when a guest would get one of the hot ones and start squirming and making silly faces.)  So basically this is the pepper to have if you were a foodie in California just three years ago! It is true.
Fast forward to now, and I think the peppers have lost their hip edge and have made it to the masses.  Let's just say that in Santa Rosa, I purchased a big bag of them at the 99 Cents Only store (yes, I'll get a CSA and buy produce at the dollar store).  These peppers made it to the dollar store.  Sure the dollar store was located in the famed Sonoma Valley, but nonetheless it was there.

How To Eat Them:
Best eaten young and under ripe, you can eat them raw for a crunch, or, the best way-- saute them in olive oil until just before blistery but taking on color, and then serve with a generous sprinkle of sea salt.  To eat them, grasp them by the stem and pop it in your mouth whole.  Most are totally mild.  But... beware, you will find a hot one.  Have a cold beer close at hand-- for real.  The hot ones are hot.  As the season gets later, the hot ones will be much more prevalent.

Growing Padrons:
Cruising Walter Anderson's Nursery here in San Diego (everyone cruises garden centers, right?) I couldn't resist the siren call of the Spanish Padron peppers.  Buying two 6-packs was a bit much, but turns out it was just fine.  I put the starts in the garden in April and was getting handfuls of peppers by June.  In fact, they are still giving peppers now, the production has slowed down a bit and the peppers are nearly hot peppers rather than the mild early season fruits.  They really impress guests when sauteed as talked about earlier and they are so stupidly easy to do AND you only need salt and olive oil.  Awesome for a last minute soiree.

By the way, the plant gets fairly tall, about 2-3 three feet tall. All the more pepper to love.  I've had zero bug issues and am so satisfied with these plants I'm going to do some seed saving to enjoy them again next year without spending the cash on starts.  Yippee.

Blackberry Syrup and Blackberry Black Tea Recipe

Making Blackberry Syrup.     January 2014

It is blackberry season here in Southern California.  Every supermarket is selling them for fairly inexpensive.  I even found them at the 99 Cent Only store in 6oz containers for only a buck (well, 99.99 cents).  (Ideally, they'd be organic, but sometimes the deal is just too good for food that is hard to find organic-- don't judge).  Having groovy teeth (yes, that is a thing), I tend to steer clear of berries with bigger seeds.  The seeds get stuck in my molars and not only is it gross to be sticking my fingers deep in my mouth to dislodge them, but they feel very unpleasant.  I've learned to eat the berries whole by very softly chewing, but I digress.  

Blackberry syrup was top on my list of ways to use up all the berries I bought.  After trolling the internet I decided to use the no added water method with the no press strain.  Here it goes:

1. Wash berries and weigh (or eyeball).

2. Add sugar.  As you can see from the scales in the photos, I halved the weight of the berries for the amount of sugar I wanted to use.  Feel free to use more sugar or a bit less.  My syrup is sweet and tart.

3.  Place berries and sugar in a good solid pan (do avoid scorching) and gently heat.

4.  Let the berries release their juices and gently stir occasionally.  Don't mash, gentleness is key.

5.  After about 30 minutes, you should have a beautiful soup of berries floating in a wine colored syrup.

6.  Strain.  Let gravity do the work, no mashing down.

Done, you have blackberry syrup.  You also have a bunch of super sweet blackberries left over.  You can mash them up and use them like jam for a few days, or make blackberry yogurt by mixing a scoop of berries into plain yogurt.

The syrup is uses are endless.  My favorite this week is putting a dollup in my black tea-- Blackberry Black Tea is the best!  Try it on ice cream and in your morning mimosa.  Or a dash to some sparkling water is so fancy.  

The syrup lasts about two weeks, freeze in ice cube trays if you don't finish it within that time.

Blackberry Black Tea

Homemade Crock Pot Corn Stock---So Very Simple

Making Homemade Corn Stock

Summertime is the time to make corn stock.  Use it to make risotto, corn chowder, summer soup, rice, and anything you'd otherwise use broth.  Corn stock is so much easier than making a veggie broth because you really don't need a whole lot of veggies to get good flavor.  At the minimum you only need corn cobs, husks, peppercorns, and salt.  I think adding a bit more to the stock enhances the flavor, but if you are making stone soup, you can do just corn cobs.

Here is what you do-- get a hold of corn.  Discard the outer husks (the funky dirty ones), but save all the rest.  Save the silk, inner husk, cobs, and of course, the kernels.  I don't use any kernels when I make broth. I save the kernels and eat them, but you can include the corn kernels as well if you'd like.  When you have about 8 cobs, you are ready to make stock.  If you don't have enough cobs, then bag up your goodies and throw them in the freezer until you have enough corn goodies (you can see my freezer bag of corn cobs and other kitchen scraps in the first picture).  When you have all your corn goods, then get your stock pot ready.

In to the pot or slow cooker goes the following:

- about 8-12 corn cobs

- the husks and silks of one or two corns (you can use more, but these start adding a lot of bulk)

- 5-10 peppercorns

-salt

-Other aromatics:  carrots, peppers (I save all the ribs and seeds from bell peppers and put them into my freezer bag stock stuff), celery, onions, garlic, bay leaves, herbs, squash, etc.

Cover it all with water (use enough to cover the ingredients but no more than an inch more, otherwise your stock will be weak) and simmer for an hour (or if using a crock pot, for much longer).  Strain out the solids, then do yourself a favor and taste it.  If it weaker than you prefer, put it back in the pot and boil it down (harder to do in a crockpot-- you will have to remove the lid).  Taste it again and add salt as needed.  I wanted my broth to be concentrated, so I plopped it into a pot on the stove and boiled it down until it looked just right.

You are done!  I'm going to make some corn chowda.

Watermelon Italian Soda Syrup & Watermelon Infused Water

Announcement:  I have recently moved my blog to www.notaprettygarden.com.  Please click here to get to this post on my new site!! Thank you!!

Watermelon Syrup (from an actual watermelon)

This syrup is so easy to make.  I had a small roundish watermelon that was just a bit to mushy to enjoy eating fresh, so I thought I'd try my hand at watermelon syrup. It turned out delicious splashed in sparkling water and also excellent splashed into sparkling wine-- YES a Watermelon Mimosa! Don't mind if I do!

Here is what I did:

1. Scoop out all the watermelon flesh and blend it all up in your blender.   Mine had lots of little seeds.  No big deal.  

2. After it is liquidized, dump it in a stainer.  I had to use a spoon to stir up the watermelon in the strainer to get as much juice as possible out.  I really wanted to use my muslin bag to get the juice strained, but, alas, I couldn't locate my bag.  (Don't throw that pulp away-- make infused water-- see below)

3.  Pour the strained juice into an appropriately sized pot and turn it on medium.  (I ended up with a quart of juice.)  You are looking to heat the liquid gently.  The key is to gently simmer.  DO NOT BOIL. 

4.  Squeeze in juice from a lime, and add 1/2 sugar (or none at all, the sugar is merely a personal preference.).  The lime and sugar will help the syrup to last a bit longer in the fridge, but this syrup is basically like a fruit juice and should be treated the same way.  

5.  Allow the juice to simmer down and decrease in volume by at least 25%.  Taste the juice as you go along and decide what you like.   (I ended up with about 3 cups of syrup).

6.  Decant into a jar, pitcher, etc.  Allow to cool and splash in a tablespoon of vanilla extract.  Refrigerate.

Now, for the fun part.  Add a 1/4 cup per cup of sparkling water for a sweeter soda or just a splash for a flavored water.  Or add syrup to shaved ice for a fresh snow cone, or a splash in sparkling water for a yummy mimosa.  

 Watermelon Infused Water

Making Watermelon Infused Water

BUT hold on!  That watermelon pulp still has flavor.  Make some watermelon infused water.  Pop that pulp into a pitcher of filtered water.  Let it infuse for at least 20 minutes.  Again, strain out the watermelon pulp and you will be left with a lightly infused watermelon water.  Refreshing, no added sugar, and that little bit of flavor for a perfect refreshing drink.

Small Batch Apricot Pineapple Jam

Simple Pineapple Apricot Jam-- Very Small Batch

Is it even appropriate to use the word "batch," even if prefaced with the adjective "small," when the result is but a single jar of jam?  Who cares about semantics if it tastes so good?

I bought a little tub of organic apricots at TJs and in the heat of my kitchen, they were already getting soft after just two days.  Coincidentally,  I was down to my very last jar of homemade jam from summers past-- the last of the Hopland grape and apple jam.  Seeing as there was no way that I'd stoop to supermarket jam after so many years of homemade freshness, I geared up to turn these quickly ripening fruits to jam.  Though a consequence of making jam is knowing exactly how much sugar it takes to make jam---it still pains me to pour in so much sugar (I try not to think about it).  

My mom left town in a last minute sort of thing and piled me high with a whole refrigerator of food that was either about to spoil, or starting to spoil. (thanks mom... I think?).  In a random yogurt container I found chunks of very ripe pineapple and honeydew.  So, obviously the next step was to make jam: Pineapple + Apricots + Sugar= jam!

I'm a new fan of the blog Food in Jars (where I got my pickle recipe), and followed her guidance to make this small batch.  

First, I removed the apricot pits (I didn't throw them out-- Nooo way.  I am saving them to make almond extract.  Read about it on my friend Samin's blog, Ciao Samin.  She is a fantastic food writer and teacher!), then I chopped up the apricots.  I weighed the apricots and pineapple and then added half as much sugar (it ended up being about 400g of fruit and I added 200g sugar).  

I plopped it all into a lidded Pyrex bowl and let it marinate in the fridge for a few hours until the sugar was dissolved.

Next, I poured the macerated fruit into a ceramic pan and cooked it for about 15 minutes start to finish, stirring often.  I cooked it until it was thickened and I could pull my spoon through the mix and it wouldn't immediately come back together.  I put a bit on a chilled plate when I thought it was done and looked to see if it resembled jam.  

Last, I turned off the heat, and plopped it all into a clean jar (disinfected jar and new lid if you want to make it shelf stable-- I actually just microwaved a damp jar for a minute.  I'm not certain if that is a good way to disinfect but because I was refrigerating the mix I wasn't worried).  I applied the lid, let it cool and then it went into the fridge.  It made a pint (this pic looks like a half pint jar, but the picture is deceiving).  

Bring on the fresh scones!

(Really) Small Batch Pickles

Pickling Cucumbers to Pickles

Every year I attempt to grow something new.  This year I bought Pickling Cucumbers and planted the seeds into my newly created long and skinny planter made from redwood.  The trellis is some kind of string that my neighbor contributed to the project.  I've been training the cucumbers up the trellis with strategic use of twist ties and unused orchid clips.  The plant is newly giving fruit and the bees are a'buzzing around all the blossoms.   

I picked the first two short and fatty cukes and two much smaller ones to encourage the two plants to fruit more.  With only 4 cukes, I figured why not just do a small jar of refrigerator pickles?  First I submerged the pickles in icy water for a couple hours (as the Internet recommends) and then I used the back of a knife to scrape of all the prickly spines (seriously, the cukes are borderline cacti-- Who knew?).  Then the pickles were ready!

I followed this recipe from Food in Jars and cut it in half, because my batch was even smaller.  I didn't include the onions, from sheer laziness, but next time I'd like to try the onions.  I filled the jar with the hot vinegar mixture, tightened the lid, and flipped it upside down for 15 minutes.  Then I let it cool and plopped it in the fridge.  I used dried dill and I kicking myself for failing to go fresh dill.  I otherwise don't prefer dill, but in a pickle I sing a whole different song.  I'll have to go to the farmers market to find some good looking dill.

The jar ended up sealing, but since I didn't properly prepare the jar, and I'm certain I used an already used sealing ring, these pickles are staying in the fridge. 

The pickles lost their bright green skin by the morning, but that is normal.  I'm going to let them sit for at least another day before digging in!

Finally I'm Keeping One Of My Tea Pots

Tea pots are thrown in several parts: the body, the lid, and spout. Then trimmed and put together. Lastly a handle and lid handle. Needless to say it takes a bit of time to get it all right. These two personal sized pots are glazed in Rutile blue and ohata khaki glaze.  I'm keeping the blue but will gift the other! 

Clove Oil & Cucumbers-- Bad Match

I recently blogged about my foiled plans to use water and clove essential oils to attack a terrible powdery mildew issue with my snow peas and how I could have killed my neighbors koi fish. I decided to try a different method to administer the clove oil to the mildew. This time I added a few clove oil drops along with wintergreen and rosemary essential oils to a couple cups of water. I soaked a rag and administered the concoction to each leave. But my cukes were growing along side my peas so inevitably the cukes got a bit of the potion too. Well, the next day the cukes had white splotches where the potion had splashed. Some leaves turned brown and shriveled. Lesson learned! Stop using essential oils on my plants! In other news, the koi are still alive. 

Powdery Mildew and How I Could Have Killed My Neighbor's Koi

Snap peas are in full effect (actually snow peas: I bought seeds from a small seed business in Old Town asking for sugar snap peas and apparently they thought it was find to give me snow peas instead.  Bummed out a bit about it.  Sadly I doubt I'll ever buy seeds there again.).   My dad and I constructed my first excellent trellis from nails, old wood and string.  Awesome.  Planted my peas.  It is lovely.  Then.... attack of the powdery mildew.
Being the quasi-hippie that I am, I googled how to kill powdery mildew with essential oils.  My search led me to believe that misting the leaves with clove oil diluted in water was my solution.  I had clove oil in my stash, so i was ready to go!
As I'm happily spraying away and enjoying the smell of cloves in the evening and thinking to myself how clever I was, my neighbor arrives home.  Now, I live in an apartment and my garden is only 6 feet from  my neighbor's very cool koi pond.  It is in one of those barrels that frats use to keep their natty ice cold on a hot day, so not a very large koi pond.  But it is very nice to look at and adds a lovely fountain sound just outside my bedroom window.
I was promptly informed by my neighbor that clove oil kills fish! Great.  I was in the process of misting clove oil only feet away from innocent fish that could easily be euthanized.   Seriously, who knew?  I'd have been less likely to kill the fish from round-up pesticides.
Luckily I hadn't used all that much and after all I wasn't actually administering the concoction to the fish water.  However, had I used the spray every day, there is a good chance I could have damaged his fish.
Lesson Learned: no playing with essential oils when there are fish nearby!
So, I still have powdery mildew taking over my peas.  sad.

Handmade Custom Pottery for Nespresso

So, people who own the Nespresso maker are obsessed with their machines.  All those commercials with Salma trying to sell the machine using her mass sex appeal are no joke.  For folks who like this stuff, it is probably on the same level for them.  Case in point would be by BF who lives for his Nespresso.  His milk frother just malfunctioned and stopped working, and he is bummed out big time!  I really wonder how many of these drinks he makes on a daily basis.   

He got his machine as a gift, it is the one that doesn't have the extra little latch that pulls out to place the cup on to catch the espresso as it drips, it is the one with the built in non moveable little shelf.  Unfortunately the little shelf was too small to fit any of his mugs, so for the last year or so, he just uses those cute little hard plastic disposable cups that he gets every time he restocks his pods at Bloomingdales.  Though I am glad those single use cups are getting so much use, there really had to be a better option.  These little cups are my answer to the problem.  I brought the plastic cup to my pottery class and threw a set of mugs to mimic the look of the little plastic cups and to fit perfectly in the Nespresso. 

Dehydrated Pineapple & Tomatoes

Just one pineapple will fill up my Excalibur dehydrator. Dehydrated pineapple is basically candy it is so sweet and delicious. My self control is nothing standing up to these treats. The tomatoes were getting so ripe, I dried them too. I intend to grind them up to a nice powder for seasoning, but they are just so pretty I thought I'd admire them for a bit first.

Banana Muffins with Coconut Oil

Banana bread is no doubt one if my favorite sweets.  Sometimes I want that banana bread flavor but I don't want to wait an hour for a loaf to cook, and sometimes I want something between a cupcake and banana bread.  So I am in search for a go-to banana muffin recipe. 
I tried this one out this morning and think it is an approachable and respectable recipe. 

Preheat Oven: 350 degrees
Combine: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/3 cup coconut oil, 1/2 cup sugar, dash of nutmeg, 1 tablespoon coconut milk (milk, almond milk, water, would all work), 1 egg, and 3 mashed ripe bananas.  Mix wet ingredients and fold in the dry.  Mix until dry ingredients are moistened.  Fill your cupcake tin (use liners or do greasing of the dish) 3/4 full.  You will have a dozen muffins (or a dozen plus 1 as I did).
Bake: 20-25 minutes
 
Enjoy!

Sprouted Lentil Fritters

In the last six months I've learned how to sprout lentils. LOVE LOVE LOVE! They are a bit crunchy and at the same time taste like a lentil meets a plant.  Perfect with some olive oil and garlic.   Makes a great addition to salads and can take center stage in a dish.  LOVE.  As is always the case, I sprout way too many for me to eat in a week.  This last sprouting session gave me so many sprouts, I ate them for days and gave a bunch to my mom and froze a bunch of them (haven't defrosted them yet, so not sure how they will hold up).  Still as the week wore on, I needed to find a way to eat them in a different way because I was getting tired of the same lentil salad.
Thus the Sprouted Lentil Fritter/Burger

Ingredients:
1 cup sprouted lentils
1/2 cup cooked bulgur
1/2 egg
2 crackers, crushed, I used ak mak wheat crackers-- or bread crumbs or panko
salt/pepper/cayenne pepper
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
pan frying oil (I used grape seed)
herbs (optional)
1/4 shredded cheese (optional)

Directions:
Sautee onions and carrots until onions are translucent.  Let cool while you prepare the rest.  In a food processor, process the lentils, bulgur, 1/2 egg, crushed crackers, herbs (if using-- I used chives and sage), garlic cloves, a couple tablespoons olive oil, cheese, and cooled onion carrot mix.   Pulse a few times until mixture is still a bit chunky, but much of it is mushy. 
Line a baking sheet with a couple layers of paper towels or paper bags and paper towels.  Form the mush into patties (I did them smaller, like little fritters but I can do larger like veggie burgers) and set on the paper towels to soak up some moisture.  After all the patties are formed place another couple of layers of paper towels on top.  Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes to let the excess water come out. 
Heat oil in a frying pan to cook up your patties.  I used less oil, and added more as needed for the different batches I had to do in my small pan.  How much oil is up to you depending on how fritter-like you'd prefer your patties.  More oil, more fritter-like.
Now, when the oil is nice and hot, place as many patties as fit in your pan so they don't over lap.  Adjust the heat to medium high.  When you notice the sides of the patties starting to cook (like a pancake) flip your fritter.  Try to flip only once to lessen the chance it will break.  Place on a piece of paper bag to sop up any extra oil and serve immediately.

I like to eat this along side a salad to give a nice fullness to the meal, or also as a slider with normal veggie burger fixings.  I imagine this will be lovely made with sauteed mushrooms added, so I will put that on my list of things to try with this recipe.

Yogurt Based Key Lime Pie

Kinda Healthy (Key) Lime Pie Recipe with Yogurt

I love this recipe! It is a bit tangy from the yogurt, has probiotics, calcium, and protein.  So, all those good ingredients really cancel out the can of condensed milk, right?

Ingredients:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2-3 cups plain yogurt
2/3 cup key lime juice or you can use part lemon part lime (key limes are best but regular ones do great as well)
Zest from 2 limes
1 packet plain gelatin
1 bottom pie crust (graham cracker works well)

Directions:
Sprinkle gelatin over juice and let stand for a few minutes.  Meanwhile, in another bowl mix the yogurt, condensed milk, and zest.  Microwave the juice and gelatin mixture for about 45 seconds. Mix well until gelatin is dissolved.  Once dissolved, slowly pour the gelatin mixture into the yogurt mixture until well mixed. 
Pour into pie shell.  Chill for several hours, or until set.  Enjoy!