the garden so far

The garden looks very green (weeds are green too) and, on close inspection, our spinach and carrots did germinate after all. They will, however, need a fair bit of hand weeding by the bendier members of the family. Right now the seedlings are competing with a lot of weeds – stinging nettles among them, as I discovered. Ouch. Even my numb fingers felt that.

I managed to pick myself a handful of swiss chard, some young shallots and a few leaves of basil to add into the rigatoni for dinner tonight. This will be our first meal this year with vegetables fresh from our garden. Maybe I’m easily pleased, but I find that exciting.

kohlrabi slaw – or, maybe my brother will like this

This was our first year growing kohlrabi. I can’t say that I love it yet, but I have no experience with it before now. Maybe I’m too old to try new things? But garden guilt won out again, and since I grew it, we had to try it. It tastes something similar to brocolli stems, cabbage hearts and turnip all rolled into one vegetable. Which, in my opinion, would make it great in soups and stews, so I will cut the remaining ones into chunks, blanch them for a couple of minutes, and freeze them for the days when I feel like making soups and stews.

And reading through a few recipes, I found some interesting ones, but this one stuck out as easy and something that I could make right away. And she waxed so lyrical about it, that I needed to try it. Then I made my own changes, so I doubt I even had the same experience that she did, but mine was good nonetheless. And reading another woman’s suggestion that kohlrabi reminds her of the song Volare has the endless voice of Dean Martin singing Kohlraaaaaaabi, o-o-o-o in my head. And now in yours.

My sister-in-law to be (the wedding is this weekend) left a comment last night that my brother wouldn’t try the kohlrabi that she bought – so maybe he will eat this.

A few changes that I made – my husband said that he wouldn’t eat it if I added fish sauce (he should never be around when I am reading recipes, because what he doesn’t know, in the end, never hurts him), but I humoured him because when I took the fish sauce out of the cupboard, I decided that maybe it was past it’s prime. I also substituted olive oil for the sesame oil, because mine had also gone off. Next on my list of things to do – clean out the spice cabinet. And, instead of bird eye chilli, I used some of the hot pepper jelly that we just made (it seemed like a reasonable substitution), but I also think Srirachi sauce would be a good substitution (mine was at work). I also used half as much oil – I don’t like oily dressings. You might like a pinch or two of sugar, if you prefer some sweet in the dressing – I added in some raisins (after the picture was taken). And as always, I don’t really measure salad dressings, I just pour, taste and repour until it seems right. So take these measurement with a grain of salt (pun intended).

Kohlrabi Slaw – serves 2

• 1 kohlrabi (mine were small – I used 2)
• 1 carrot
• 1 apple
• 2 tbsp vinegar of your choice (or try lemon juice)
• 1 tbsp oil of your choice
• 1 tbsp hot pepper jelly (or srirachi sauce – just use less)
• a pinch of cumin
• raisins (half a handful, or so)
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Cut the sputnik arms off of the kohlrabi and peel the hard woody outer peel off. Cut the kohlrabi, apple and carrot into matchsticks (or shred them in the food processor, like I did).

Toss the kohlrabi and the apple with the remaining ingredients and chill before eating. Add any other ingredients that you think would taste good. It’s slaw – anything goes.

Linked to Frugally Sustainable, Gastronomical Sovereignty, GNOWFGLINS, Mind Body and Soul

braiding and storing onions for the winter

Another gardening job done for the year – we pulled the onions a couple of weeks ago and left them  on the floor of the garage to dry. I’ve managed to braid the ones with long enough tails to braid into plaits, and now we can hang them in the cool, dark basement to last through most of the winter.

It’s a messy job, but it looks nice and is relatively easy to do – it’s just like french braiding hair. I highly recommend doing this outside or in the garage where the sweeping up is easy. I’ve made about 10 braids in total, and the little onions with the small tails will just be trimmed and kept in my bin under our chopping block.

My family is going to think I’ve gone all Laura Ingalls Wilder.

And just in case it doesn’t seem obvious how to do it, here is a video I found:

I didn’t do mine exactly the same way, but close enough and mine seem to be holding up just fine.

Linking to Frugally Sustainable, White Wolf Summit Farmgirl, Mind Body and Sole, Foy Update, A Delightful Home, Simple Lives Thursdays, Like a Mustard Seed, An Oregon Cottage