Gastronomic Garden Goodies

My floating garden and containers produce things we eat fresh. The trick is, to get our garden goodies to come in when we need and can use them and right now we are getting a good combination of items to eat.

I pulled my onions in mid-July and cured them for storage. This year's crop was pretty puny, so they are already almost gone. Same goes for zucchini, but my bell peppers and tomatoes are producing well. What better way to combine these items than on skewers to go with BBQ beef ribs.

They are so easy to prepare. I use a little oil and rice wine vinegar mixed with Lawry's Lemon Pepper (I use this for just about everything) and my own dried herbs I call Margy's Mix. I cut the veggies into bite-size chunks and let them marinade for several hours. When the meat is about half done, the skewers go on the grill set on medium. We use the leftover marinade to baste them while cooking for extra flavour. About 10 minutes on each side gets them al dente, just the way we like them, a fresh gastronomic delight. -- Margy

Propping Up Pea Plants

I grow Snow Peas in half of a 55-gallon plastic barrel drilled for drainage. This is my second year and I've made some improvements. Last year, my homemade wood and string trellis couldn't handle the weight of the fully grown plants. This year, I found a metal trellis at Canadian Tire for $19.99 that would fit inside just fine. To that I added some extra wood stakes and twine for climbing and plant support.

Now the Snow Pea plants have grown all the way to the top of the trellis, and it's sturdy nature is holding them up just fine. Along the way, I've had to use twine to gently tie the tall stalks to the trellis to give them some additional support. They are very fragile, so I had to be very careful.

One good thing about peas in a barrel is I can walk all the way around for picking. The only difficult ones are at the top. I have to stand on my tippy-toes or call Wayne to reach them for me.

So far we've had two pickings. We like to wrap the pea pods in foil pouches and put them briefly on the BBQ grill. About 5 minutes on each side is plenty to steam them to a crisp doneness. And of course, they are great raw in salads and added to a stir fry.

Do you have any other Snow Pea recipes you like? -- Margy

Fresh Strawberry Pie

I have two small strawberry patches in my floating garden and they are producing like crazy. That's probably because I planted a new bed last year, and replenished the other bed with established runners in the spring. In another few years, I'll need to relocate the older bed as well. What tasty treat could I make with all those berries? Why not a fresh strawberry pie.

Fresh Strawberry Pie

8" One-Crust Pie Shell

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
2-3 tablespoons cold water

Mix flour and salt. Cut in shortening until it's crumbly. Stir in water slowly until the dough forms a ball. Wrap and chill before rolling out. Place in an 8" pie pan, trim to 3/4" then flute the edges. Prick the bottom and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Prick bottom again (if needed) and continue to cook until golden brown. Let cool.

Strawberry Filling

1 cup strawberries mashed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 cups whole strawberries

Mash 1 cup strawberries, add lemon juice, salt and sugar. Heat until the juices are released. Put water and cornstarch in a container and shake well. Put some of the hot mixture in the cornstarch mix before adding it to the rest of the mashed berries. Bring to a boil stirring constantly then cook for one minute. Let cool slightly before pouring over the whole strawberries. Mound coated berries in the pre-cooked pie crust and chill. Serve with whipping cream and enjoy.

What, no picture you say? It was so good we just dove in and gobbled it down. -- Margy

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Eating seasonally from my garden is fun. This month, the Powell River Living Magazine (a free publication available all over town and on the ferry) had a wonderful insert called Home Grown. It highlights local farms, markets and backyard gardens. The common theme is the bounty of produce available in our home town.


Right now my garden has a bumper crop of strawberries and my experiment of growing a rhubarb plant in a barrel is working out well. I decided to combine the two to make my first ever strawberry rhubarb pie.

8" Strawberry Rhubarb Pie


3 cups combined rhubarb and strawberries
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter


Cut rhubarb stalks into 1/4' pieces. Discard any leaves, they are POISONOUS. Hull strawberries, cut larger ones in half. Measure fruit after prepared into a bowl. Sprinkle with sugar, flour, salt and toss until coated.

Prepare dough for a two-crust 8" pie. I used the recipe from my Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup cold water

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Cut the shortening in with a wire whisk until it is crumbly. Stir in cold water a tablespoon at a time until the dough forms into a ball.


Work it as little as possible. Wrap and chill in the refrigerator. I tried Crisco for a change and was really pleased with the quality of my crusts. And an added benefit for cabin living, I don't need to refrigerate it. The stick variety will last even opened about 6 months on the shelf.


Roll out half the dough and place in an 8" pie pan. Trim the edges to 3/4". Fill the uncooked shell with strawberry-rhubarb mixture. Dot with bits of cold butter. Roll out the other half of dough and cut into 1" strips. Weave the strips of dough over the fruit filling into a lattice top. Crimp together, then flute the edges.


Sprinkle the top with sugar for a sweet flourish.Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees then reduce to 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until the fruit filling is soft and the crust brown and crunchy. Let it cool and the juices thicken before serving with whipping cream.


Don't through those dough scraps away! Sprinkle them with sugar and cinnamon and cook them while your pie is baking. They are ready to eat hot out of the oven in about 15-20 minutes. -- Margy

Replanting

It's been a cool, wet spring. The plants in the floating garden and pots on the deck have had a hard time getting started. Today (before another rain), I did some replanting. I filled in with more carrot and beet seeds. Rather than replacing spinach and lettuce, I used Swiss chard. I also added more onions from sets. My dead cucumbers got replaced with another set (maybe three times is a charm), and some banana peppers in one of the pots for a change.

Because my garden is so small, I never use up my seeds. I now have quite a collection of old packages. The problem is, I don't know how old they are. Because it takes so long for things to sprout, I hate to waste time on seeds that may no longer be viable. Why didn't I think of this sooner - dating my packages. At least now I know which ones have a better chance of growing into productive plants. -- Margy

Dried Swiss Chard

The Swiss Chard I planted last summer finally bolted. I did some research and you can dry chard for later use. That sounded good to me. I picked and cleaned the chard at the cabin and saved only the leaves. The rest of the plants I chopped up to go in my compost pile.

I was heading to town to visit Mom, so I decided to use the condo's electric oven. It's easier to control at low temperatures than my propane oven in the cabin. So I packed up my chard and headed down the lake. First I gave the big leaves a course chop.

Next I needed to find something to use as a steamer. I found two metal pans from the pie shop that had holes in the bottom. I inverted one and filled a pot with 3/4" of water. I placed the other pie pan on top and voila, I had a steamer for free.

Before drying, it's recommended to blanch chard for 3 minutes. This helps stop enzyme activity and prepare it for drying. Some recommend water blanching, but with the delicate chard I chose the steam method. The key is to use small batches so that it blanches uniformly.

Next I used cookie sheets to spread the blanched chard into thin layers for drying in the oven, already preheated on the lowest setting, 150 degrees. I spread the cookie sheets out on the two oven shelves with lots of space for the warm air to circulate.

To allow moisture to escape, I propped the oven door slightly open with metal tongs. I checked the chard every half hour and turned the leaves. I also rotated the pans on the shelves. When I turned the heat off, I left the pans inside the cooling oven. For me, all three sheets were dry in four hours.

The last step before storing is conditioning. Some leaves may hold residual moisture. To ensure they were all dry, I used a brown bag and left the leaves inside for several days. A few shakes a day helped disperse any moisture. Finally, I stored my dried chard in tightly sealed plastic containers, ready to add as a taste of summer to my winter soups.

Do you dry fruits or vegetables? Now that I've had one success I am ready to try something new. -- Margy

Beans in a Barrel

Because I have limited room in my floating garden, I use containers on the cabin deck for larger plants. I started with potatoes, peppers, zucchini and tomatoes. Last year I included snow peas. That was so successful, this year I'm trying Scarlet Runner Beans.

Last year I learned that a trellis needs to be very sturdy. I tried 1x1 inch stakes connected with twine. It was fine when the pea plants were young, but by the end of the season the trellis couldn't hold all the weight. So this year, I looked for a sturdier alternative. At Canadian Tire I found a metal trellis for $19.99. It was 23" wide and 72" tall ( (58 X 183cm), a perfect fit for my planter made out of a 55 gallon plastic barrel cut in half.

First I filled my barrel planter with soil. Then I inserted the trellis. To make it sturdier, Wayne drilled the sides of the barrel and wired in the trellis to hold it upright. Then I used 1x1 inch stakes to form a pyramid shape and twine to give the climbing beans plenty of support.

I planted my Scarlet Runner Bean seeds directly in the soil. April was so warm, I thought I could get them in early. But May was so cold and rainy, sprouting was slow. I almost gave up, but finally a few started to emerge. To hedge my bets, I started a few more seeds in peat pellets using my new re-purposed planter stand.

As soon as the beans started to sprout, I removed the outer netting of the pellets and planted them in the barrel. I read at Canada Gardens that you need to wait until the soil reaches 10C before planting. Live and learn. But this time around they did much better. I now have lots of beans starting to climb their sturdy new trellis.

I'm looking forward to green beans for dinner and then some to dry at the end of the season for planting next year and winter soups. Have you ever grown beans in a barrel? I would love to hear how it worked out for you. - Margy

Creamed Swiss Chard for Two

At the recommendation of my friend Margaret (the author of Thistle Garden and owner of Magpie’s Diner) in Powell River, I grew Swiss chard for the first time last year. I planted it from seed in mid-July and had chard to harvest starting in mid-August. I kept picking leaves through the fall and didn’t have the heart to pull the plants when winter arrived.

This spring it revived nicely, but has already started bolting. I pull the plants as needed for eating. The stems can be cooked, but I kept only the leaves. Swiss chard is an excellent source of vitamins C, K, A and B, and minerals including calcium, potassium and iron. Another great thing chard, it's low in calories, about 7 for 1 cup raw.

You can use Chard like spinach. It has a bit stronger flavour, but goes well raw in salads or steamed. Last night for dinner I made creamed chard to go with the sirloin roast Wayne made in the barbecue.

Creamed Swiss Chard
for Two

2 pats of butter or margarine
2 thick slices of onion diced
1 wedge of green pepper diced
1 teaspoon fines herbs
1 tablespoon of flour
½ cup milk or cream
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups coarsely chopped chard

Melt two pats of butter in a frying pan. Add onion, pepper and herbs, and cook on low heat until soft. Stir in flour and cook for about two minutes, but don’t let it brown. Add milk and stir until it thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste (I like Lawry’s Lemon Pepper). If the sauce is too thick, just add a little milk. Add Swiss chard and stir. It looks like a lot, but will cook down to make two nice sized servings.

It’s so easy to make, I like to do it fresh each time. But if you like leftovers, you can increase the proportions and save some for another meal. It warms nicely with a little extra milk.

Thank you Margaret. Now I know that Swiss chard is an excellent vegetable to grow in my garden for nearly year-round fresh side dishes.

Do you have any favourite Swiss chard recipes? I’d love to hear them. -- Margy

Repurposed Watering Bottle

Yesterday you read about how I repurposed a BBQ to become a planter for my cabin porch. Last year I wrote about about repurposing other items in Use It, Don't Lose It. I told about how I used a plastic pancake syrup bottle as a "watering can" for my sprouting seeds. It works really well because you can really control the amount of water by how hard you squeeze.

But after I made my planter so spiffy, I thought my watering can needed a facelift. I have acrylic paints at the cabin for craft projects, so I used some to paint a new "face" on the bottle. First came a white base coat over the old labels, then a picture on the front. To keep it from getting damaged out in the weather, I sprayed it with several coats of clear polyurethane. Now it is a useful and decorative part of my new planter. -- Margy

Repurposed BBQ Planter

I found a great blog this week. It's called Renewables At Home and focuses on ways to "reduce the impact your lifestyle has on the environment." One article that caught my eye was Two More R's: Refuse and Repurpose. It talks about the importance of finding new purposes for items that are broken or worn out. I did just that with an old BBQ at the cabin.

I've been wanting a potting stand and planter to put under my kitchen window. I designed one to build from wood, but when our BBQ was damaged during a winter wind storm (see Flipping Burgers), it gave me a new idea. Rather than throw it away, I decided to clean it up to be my "new" planter.

To make it a look less like a BBQ, I removed the side shelf, burner, knobs and lid. The legs and sides were in pretty good shape, but the bottom self was very rusty. I used some leftover RustOleum paint we had to cover up the labels on the front panel and resurface the self.









The back panel proclaiming "Master Chef" became "Master Gardener" with a garden bunny mascot. I wanted plastic trays to fit on the shelf and inside the top to hold my seedlings and plants. I found litter boxes on sale at Canadian Tire for $4 on sale that were the perfect size. That made the total cost of my planter remodel $8.

The planter looks pretty good. Yes, I know, it still looks a bit like a BBQ, but it makes me feel good to know I gave a new purpose to something that would have otherwise taken up space for years to come in the dump.

Have you repurposed anything lately? I'd love to hear what you've done. -- Margy

Bunny's Back

In Spring 2003 when my floating garden was new, Wayne got me a garden mascot - an Easter Bunny. Since then, Bunny has faithfully guarded my flowers and veggies, and brightened my garden in all seasons. By 2008, he lost most of his colour. The sun can be pretty harsh you know. Then, this last winter during a windy storm, he cracked into several pieces. But Wayne and I didn't want to give up on Bunny. Together we brought him back to life.

Wayne found a cedar shingle in our wood pile. He outlined Bunny and used his new jigsaw to cut out the pattern. Then he used waterproof glue to piece Bunny back together on his new wood backing. You can see how cracked and faded he was.

Next I used acrylic paints to give Bunny back his colourful countenance. His "backside" is plain white with a puffy cotton tail. His front used the same outlines as before and I just coloured by the numbers so to speak.


When Bunny was restored front and back, I sealed him with four coats of clear polyurethane. Since he will be standing in the garden fall, winter, spring and summer, I felt he needed a "heavy coat." That will make Bunny ready for anything the weather can dish out.

Welcome back Bunny! We've missed your smiling face and faithful service. May you stand guard over my garden for many years to come. -- Margy