Category — Jan’s Thoughts

Photo by Hester Jane. Used with permission

One of the things I love about gardening is that the activity provides an outlet for discovering new ways to recycle and re-purpose the materials that flow through our lives. In our garden, we have used empty bottles to make cloches and yogurt containers for starting seeds. We used old windows to make cold frames. Small branches can become bramble for the peas to grow on, and twine has been re-used for squash and pumpkins to grow on. The compost is a constant reminder of our success at keeping yard and kitchen waste out of the garbage system and instead making a rich nutritious “food” to feed our plants.

Last week a friend sent me a link that made my inner gardening recycler both giddy and inspired. The post on a “Cool thumb-controlled watering pot made with recycled materials” from the Fun in the Making blog is a nifty new idea inspired by pottery “thumb pots” in 17th and 18th century English gardens. It’s just the right tool for watering seedlings and delicate plants. This is the sort of simple and manageable project that would be great fun to do with kids. I will be making one as soon as I can.

The thumb pot is a lesson for children and adults alike on fluids and pressure and the power of the thumb!

Thanks to Cathy for the link!

According to the BBC, a woman in Sweden recently found the wedding ring that she lost 16 years ago on a carrot growing in her garden. The ring, which she designed herself, went missing from her kitchen in 1995, when she removed it to do Christmas baking.

She’d long given up hope of finding it again. She was pulling up carrots when she noticed the gold band wrapped around a small one. How fabulous is that?

My discoveries haven’t been momentous but are still exciting to me. In 1982, the first year we gardened in Ann Arbor, I found a small Yoda figurine when double-digging the vegetable bed. We continue to find interesting objects in our garden. Even now, we find interesting bits and pieces — mostly broken glass– every season. We cannot count on finding things in garden, but the discoveries keep things interesting.

What’s the best thing you’ve found in the garden?

It’s too cold to be outside in the garden, but it’s the perfect weather to gather inside and talk about gardening.

To promote gardening education and discussion, the Master Gardener Alumni Association of Washtenaw County kicks off the New Year with a new Master Gardener Talk Series at Nicola’s Books (2513 Jackson Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48103).

The series premieres on Monday, January 9 at 6 p.m. with a talk on Growing Orchids.

Future talks are scheduled for the second Monday of each month. Planned topics include:

Feb. 13 – Raised Bed Construction and Gardening

March 12 – Starting Plants from Seed

April 9 – The “Dirt” on Soils and Fertilizers

May 14 – Shade Gardens and Spring Ephemerals

Master Gardeners are enthusiastic gardeners/volunteers trained by the Extension Service in horticultural information and research-based gardening methods. For more information about the local MSU Extension program, see their website.

Join in a lively and informative discussion to help cultivate the gardener’s mind and spirit.

As usual, we got a little carried away with planting hot peppers last summer. We like hot peppers and use them liberally in cooking. We also like to grow them because they are attractive, well-behaved plants that stay where they are planted, are not particularly prone to insect problems, and generally are pretty prolific in Michigan summers even. I’d be tempted to grow pepper plants even if we didn’t like them!

We have had success with saving and preserving peppers lots of different ways, including pickling, drying and freezing. To dry hot peppers like chiles, we have previously pulled all the peppers off of a plant and then used a needle and thread to string them up to dry. Although this creates a festive chile hanging for kitchen decoration, it’s also a lot of work.

As the end of the season came around, Jim suggested that we try something new– drying the Thai peppers by pulling up the whole plant and hanging it in the basement. We weren’t sure how this process would result in suitably dried peppers, but it did work and amazingly well.

This whole plant method will work best with small peppers of the drying varieties. I cannot imagine that it would work with the fleshier peppers. Again, I’ve had no problem with freezing peppers — whole or chopped– that I intend to use later in sauces and chili.

Here’s the simple steps for Lazy Jim’s Hot Pepper Drying Method.

1. When the weather has been dry with no rain for a couple of days, pull up the peppers plant, root and all.

2. Gently knock the stem to free the dirt as much as possible from around roots.

3. Remove any damaged, mushy or questionable peppers or branches at this point.

4. Hang the plant upside down, from the root, in a well-ventilated area. We put ours in the basement.

5. When the peppers are completely dry, snap them off and store in clean mason jars or grind them up and use them as pepper flakes.

The latter will be the choice method of storage at our house. Red pepper flakes are handy for spicing up a meal or adding a bit of local heat to individual servings. Properly dried, the peppers will keep almost indefinitely and provide heat for many meals to come.

One neat thing about holidays being fixed days on the calendar is that they provide markers for keeping track of other events. For example, it always snows in Michigan after our son’s birthday, which is April 4 (if “always” is the last 25 years that we’ve been paying attention). The first time we were able to eat something fresh from our garden in December was a magical moment for me as a gardener and a cook. Sure, gardening truly is a warm weather sport, but we had fresh horseradish sauce with our roast beef!

The challenge then becomes how many garden-grown foodstuffs can we have on our Christmas table? The exact number remains to be seen but here are a few dishes and condiments we have lined up for this year.

Horseradish
People are not ambivalent about horseradish; they generally either love it or not. We have enough horseradish lovers at our house to justify making good-sized servings of at least two kinds of horseradish sauce, the vinegar-based sauce and the creamy horseradish sauce.

Preparing horseradish from the yard is simple but requires effort. Carefully dig up a horseradish root. They are deep; I was told by a reliable source that the roots go as deep as the foliage is high. I like to use a large garden fork for digging in the horseradish bed.

Horseradish does not appear tasty when plucked from the ground. Multiple washings are necessary to clean the root. I do a few outside and then bring it to the kitchen sink for a bit more scrubbing.

If you purchase a horseradish root at the market — and sometimes you can– join in here.

Trim up the ends and then peel off the dark skin with a vegetable peeler or paring knife. Right about now, the pungent odor of horseradish should start clearing your sinuses.

We shred our horseradish root using a microplane shredder. Again, the scent will waft through the air, causing house mates to inquire. Nab them to help with the process if you can.

We mix the shredded horseradish root with enough vinegar to moisten and then store in clean mason jars in the refrigerator.

For a creamy sauce, mix 1/2 cup of sour cream and 1/2 cup of plain yogurt. To that, add a tablespoon of vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar. Then add prepared horseradish to taste.

Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing
This is my latest discovery. I’m rather astonished that raspberries, which are completely wonderful just plain, could be transformed into such a delicious, elegant and beautiful dressing. And it’s easy too.

Using fresh raspberries in season, of any color, would be extraordinary; we’ve found, however, that our home-frozen black raspberries will also result in a fantastic vinaigrette.

This version is adapted from a recipe in Simply in Season by Lind and Wockman-Wert (Herald Press: 2005), a wonderful cookbook by the Mennonite Central Committee, in the spirit of The More with Less Cookbook by Helen Janzen Longacre, also on Herald Press.

In my recipe, I’ve cut the oil. That small change lowers the calorie and fat content without any loss of flavor or texture. I’ve also decreased the amount of poppy seeds; for me, this measurement adds just the right amount of texture and crunch, but they could also be omitted, if desired.

Ingredients
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup raspberries
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon red onion, sliced thin
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Method
1. Place maple syrup, oil, lemon juice, raspberries, dry mustard, salt and pepper in blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Add red onion and poppy seeds to blender or food processor and pulse.

We may have fresh kale for our dinner and there’s at least one acorn squash to bake. All in all, an impressive Michigan garden contribution to a Christmas dinner.