Eighth of an Acre Bounty

Late Wednesday night we got the call that the bees would be in early and available on Thursday after 11. The two day early arrival of the package was actually a case of very good timing as Thursday was apparently the last somewhat sunny day we are scheduled to have for a while. We drove out to pick up the package and despite a run-in with a russian speaking proslyetizer who pressed upon us a dvd that expounds upon the “Dangers of Evolution” we made it back safe and sound, bees in tow.

After suiting up and starting the smoker we installed the package. No pictures of that part as it was all hands on deck. The bees were very courteous and gentle. No stings or angry swarms. We never even used the smoker on them (to tell the truth, I couldn’t see the rationale on using it when they didn’t have honeycomb to flee to). They took a good part of the afternoon to make it into the hive, and several little clusters attempted to overnight on the fence. With our nighttime temperatures still in the low 40s, those that didn’t go in the super didn’t really make it. A bit of natural selection going on I suppose.

Yesterday it was rainy most of the day, but the minute the temperature popped up above 53 and the rain stopped, there was a flurry of activity. They currently seem to be very preoccupied with a few areas on the boxes. We can’t yet tell if they are trying to proplyze and seal up the cracks or if there is something else going on.

I have to say I am fabulously entertained by them. I could stand out there watching them for hours. We may need to rethink our current location but are going to wait a bit to see how they settle in. Right now the total number of bees just hanging about the vicinity of the box is likely to put a bit of fear into any guests of ours who aren’t as smitten as we are with the little critters, but I suspect when the pollen and nectar really start flowing they will be spending much less time worrying about the outside of thier house. We will see – here goes another experiment!

Whew, 7 whole days and not a peep! Sorry bout that, I don’t believe I’m alone though. We have had a spate of beautiful days here, starting on Friday and continuing clear through today. A large portion of the PNW blogs I have on my reader have been strangely silent as well. When we actually have weather we can work outside in in the early parts of April, you can bet we are only sitting in front of our computers for as long as it takes to pull a paycheck!

We got a lot done this past week and it eased the wet weather malaise that often hits me this time of year. I picked up a yard of hogfuel last Tuesday and managed to get it unloaded on Thursday mostly in between rainstorms. I believe everybody that is a part of this little household was happy about that. The slip-n-slide that once was the pathway and chicken pen has been abated and we are high and dry again on this hill. Hux was simply thrilled that he didn’t have to get his paws muddy while on patrol.

We also completed the new bed under the Rhododendron this weekend. It took close to 4 yards of compost/soil all hauled and unloaded on Saturday. May I just say once again how thankful I am to have Cedar Grove nearby? Three trips out there in the truck, innumerable trips from the truck to the backyard with the wheelbarrow and sooo much money saved. Gary completed the surrounding wall on the bed as well. It looks great and I am excited to start filling it up. Late last evening I put in the potatoes as a baptismal planting.

On Sunday morning, after hitting the West Seattle Farmers Market we headed just down the street to Mintners Earlington Greenhouse. I had noticed that they were having a 72nd year anniversary sale in which everything on stock was 30% off. We walked out with an espaliered apple tree grafted with three different varieties from Raintree (Chehalis, Jonagold and Spartan) and a Meyer Lemon Tree. I’d been mulling over both of these purchases for a while and with the discount offered – it made sense to get them in. After a brief delay and heroic rescue from our friend J. we were back at home digging holes for the apple tree. I’ll let Gary decide if he wants to elucidate the reasons for our extended stay at the nursery.

I direct seeded carrots, parsnips and beets into thier rows, transplanted broccoli and leeks also. I started seed for Aunt Mollys Ground Cherry, tomatillos and two varieties of squash as well. It doesn’t look like much right now but give it a month or two and we’ll be cookin! I rotated out compost from one of our in-ground compost bins and am hoping to get it spread and worked in to the worst bit of soil left in the main bed before the rain hits again.

It has been so warm (65 degrees) the past few days I’ve had to vent the coldframes to avoid killing or bolting the spinach and arugula. But they are coming along swimmingly now and I steal a leaf or two to snack on everytime I go out. They will both be due a thinning here soon and we may even get a salad out of our own backyard!

We finally had a bit of a sunny day yesterday, allowing me to tromp around and get pictures of all the promise out there. The ground is still completely soggy, so not a lot of cultivating I can do until we get a few sunny days in a row to dry things out a bit.

I’ve been meaning to post an update on how the gutter pea experiment is going. I briefly mentioned it in this earlier post, and transplanted them outside the other week along with the pac choi and cabbage. The picture above is of the peas sown in plastic gutter and started in the coldframe. The picture below is of peas sown directly outside in the ground at the same time (February 21st). The gutter peas did get quite a jump comparatively, and it was a cinch to put them in the ground.

The daffodils have opened up, giving a spot of color to the generally gray color motif we have lately.

The raspberry canes are moving past the bud stage and starting to put out a few leaves. I pruned and tied them in early March so now all we have to do is wait for the little red rubies to arrive.

Even the lilacs are getting in the mix. We have three lilacs total, but one of them has got to be of a much different variety than the other two. It has differently shaped leaves and puts out it’s flower buds at the same time as the leaf buds. Below you can see the tiny purple lilac bloom to be.

The other lilacs put out leaf buds like normal. Any promise of a flower is still wrapped tightly inside.

The pac choi took transplant quite well. I have both it and the cabbage covered in remay for the time being out in the bed. I had quite a time with cabbage butterfly last year and wanted to try and prevent as much as I could this year, but something is still munching on the cabbage seedlings pretty heavily. It apparently prefers cabbage to pac choi as these are in rows right next to each other and the pac choi shows minimal damage.

Rhubarb is peeking out too, the knarled leaves in thier tight covering always remind me of brains when they first start to pop out of the ground. A sickly little medical experiment in the backyard.

And the blueberries are showing signs of life too. We have 4 plants now in the bed out front. I am hoping to get more than a 5 berry harvest this year, but between the crows, squirrels and marauding middleschoolers that frequent our front walkway each day – I am keeping my anticipation in check. I’ll just be happy that the kids are eating something edible instead of daring each other to eat the berries off the ornamental bush we previously had out front (true story).

So this is the post where I expose my ignorance. My plant identification skills suck for the most part. This little green thing above showed up last year in what was originally to be our strawberry bed (poor siting and the strawberries, erm… failed to thrive?). I have no idea what this is and am reluctant to make a command decision on whether it stays or goes until I do know. So the question goes to you, dear readers. Anybody have a clue here? It is a low growing plant that dies back in the winter, puts out these tiny little purple flowers through spring and summer, and generally taunts me for my ignorance every time I look at it. Help!

Novella, over at Ghost Town Farm, posted the other week offering up seeds she had saved from her largest Triamble winter squash. I excitedly took her up on her offer and received an envelope in the mail not too long after with several beautiful seeds. I’m thrilled to have a new variety to try this summer and it got me thinking about the seeds I’ve saved. I posted at the end of last week that we had finally done in the last Sugar Hubbard from our garden. It was a 26 pound squash which is a miracle in itself given the short and cold growing season of 2008 (scroll down to the Dark Days post for a picture).

This kept incredibly well, with no signs of rot and has a great flavor. The Sugar Hubbard is a bonafide Pacific Northwest heirloom. A cross between the Sweet Meat and Hubbard squashes developed by the Gill Brothers in Portland, OR. I saved seed from this last and largest one and would like to pass on the good juju that Novella extended me (in other words pay it forward) by offering some of this seed to any of you who may want it. Drop me an email with your address and I will send some along (maya at gonesouth dot com).

Note the georgous little bowl those seeds are sitting in is courtesy of Annie over at Edifice Rex, making beautiful pottery is but one of her multitudinous skills.

Happy first day of spring! I sit here this morning silently hoping that the rain doesn’t start up again so I can celebrate by putting my Pac Choi, leek and Cabbage seedlings in the ground. I can already feel the warmth converging a bit. We haven’t had a 30 some degree day in over a week! It will be shorts weather in no time, eh?

It appears the White House is getting in the mood too! It has been 66 years since the White House last had a food producing garden*. That changes today…

*Jimmy Carter had an herb garden, but Eleanor Roosevelt was the last to grow her own substantial food.

Strangely I haven’t been able to come up with a single thing to write about this week. Not that there aren’t things going on – I just lack inspiration. Here is hoping the weekend brings some new projects or ideas to blather on about.

In the interim, consider this

Turn off the television, radio, lights, ipod, microwave and even our much loved computers. Light a candle or hurricane lamp and have a finger puppet contest with those you love. Play hide and seek. If you are lucky enough to see stars, stare at them for a while. Talk to each other for a whole hour, uninterrupted.

This week brings us to the end of the Dark Days challenge. Time to look ahead to the crisp greens of spring and the tang of a summer tomato dribbling down your chin. Participating in the weekly write up this year has been a good exercise for me. We prepared well last summer and didn’t run into any lean times when it came to local food. Knowing I had to write-up our meals also added another filter for my thoughts to pass through before I just randomly picked something up at the grocery store. In all honesty, despite the higher prices in many cases on both local produce and meat – I belive we have spent less this winter on food than in previous years. It is a bit ironic.

Our final featured meals for this week are essentially a continuation of the Pig Parts post below. I detailed the grand experiments with the pork liver, but had yet to address the heart and kidneys. This past week we consumed both with surprising results. The hearts I cleaned, sliced thin and pounded. I dredged them in a bit of seasoned flour and fried them in the cast iron skillet.

They were served with a Hubbard squash gratin (we finally broke open our 26 lb Sugar Hubbard from the summer garden). I never had eaten heart before, and I was very pleasantly surprised at the full flavor and tenderness.

And the last meal from our soon to be delivered pig was the kidneys. I prepared these two ways (having never eaten kidneys before either). On the advice of Hank, I soaked two kidneys overnight in milk. One of the kidneys I chopped up and deviled with the addition of a Pasco Onion and some sliced shitake mushrooms. The other I seasoned simply with salt and pepper and threw on my cast iron grill. Both were good! Neither lived up to the horror stories or tales of extreme distaste I’ve heard many people express and I’d definitely eat either again rather than see it go to waste.

Despite the snow/rain/snow/hail/freezing temperature merry-go-round we’ve been on lateley there are still signs of life in the garden. The cold frames I built last month are serving the little seedlings well, protecting them from the below freezing temperatures we’ve had. The pic above is one of the cold frames that I planted first. This box contains radish, spinach, mache, green onions and arugula. All of which are peeking thier little green heads above the earth at this point.

I’m looking forward to some fresh spinach…

And been doing some more reading of my “Preserving Food Without Canning or Freezing” book, which offers several ways of preserving radishes. I think I may try all of them as our radish crops tend to be excessive.

The lone broccoli plant made it through this last deep freeze as well and it looks like we will be having some very early spring broccoli here in about a month, it already has a small head on it.

And there are other, more general signs that the sun is indeed coming – if still a few months off.

AKA the great offal experiment.

As I’ve mentioned before, we ordered half a pig from a local farm a mere 15 minutes from our house this year. In the course of making the cut arrangements with the farm I inquired about the offal. You see, I am a bit preoccupied with using everything. Especially when an animal is being killed to feed me. I was alternately vegetarian or vegan for approximately 14 years. Now that I have started eating meat again I’ve focused on procuring as much as possible from local sources who treat their animals and their land with the respect they both deserve.

Our half pig is scheduled to be processed within the next week or two. We are behind the regular boat since I wanted to get a pig that had been scalded and scraped, preserving all of that pig skin on the cuts of meat for various curing and food preservation projects I have planned.  However, the butcher date for the remaining batch of pigs (which were being skinned on-farm instead of scraped at the butcher) was scheduled for this past Thursday out at the farm. Shelley at Whistling Train said I was welcome to come out when they butchered and take whatever we would like of the offal and other items that don’t make it to the butchers table.

So Thursday around noon we headed out in the rainstorm to the farm nestled between the railroad tracks in Kent. We were the only customers there for the actual slaughter and apparently the only ones who had requested any of the offal. We got there before the slaughter truck and waited a while before they arrived and set to work. The mastery of these guys and the speed with which they worked was pretty incredible. The pigs were dispatched quickly with a single shot and rapidly were broken down into sides of pork that were packed into the refrigerated truck for transport to the butcher for further processing.

We walked away with 3 whole livers, 3 hearts and several kidneys. There was more for the taking, a total of 6 pigs were slaughtered. But a pig liver is a very large thing, and I need several more kitchen hands to accomplish the translation of raw organs to edible and storable food products. Next year I will be much more on my game (hopefully with kitchen recruits) now that I know of the volume available for the taking (that would otherwise go to waste). I drove home slowly, taking corners at 5 miles per hour with a large pot of organs in the back seat.

I’d never had pig liver before. Truth be told I wasn’t exposed to much in the way of offal growing up. We had liver and onions, and aside from the occasional bowl of menudo or tacos de lengua when eating out, that about sums my experience. I had researched quite a bit in anticipation and decided upon 3 recipes to use the pig liver. I came upon the thought of making pate in half-pint jars and was curious whether I’d be able to can it. I decided to use the jars, but freeze the pate after cooking. Several sources stated that the pate survived freezing quite well. I was concerned about the high heat of the pressure cooker breaking the pate emulsion and turning it into a chunky greasy mess. I know there must be a way to do this as most commercially produced pate is offered in shelf stable glass jars or cans – but I will need to do some small scale experimenting before subjecting such a large amount of food to an untested process. I decided upon two different pate recipes, the first was Pate Campagne from Bourdain’s ‘Les Halles’ cookbook, and the second was Pate Grandmere from ‘Charcuterie’ (Polcyn and Ruhlman). The last recipe I used was for an italian liver sausage called Mazzafegati, found on Hunter Angler Gardner Cook ( I omitted the pine nuts).

After soaking the organs in cold water for several hours on Thursday it was too late in the day to get started so I packed the them into the fridge for the night. Friday morning I prepped the marinades for the pates and set them to rest overnight in the fridge. Then I started on the sausage  and by Friday evening we had a large pile of links chilling in the fridge as well. Our friend J. stopped by just as we were starting to stuff the ground mixture into the sausage casings and his extra set of hands were most welcome. It is a messy job, but the results are well worth it. You can be assured that there was no shortage of crude jokes as these two gents helped to stuff the sausage.

After sectioning off the sausage into links I let them sit overnight in the fridge to tighten up. We sent J home with a string as well for all of his able-bodied assistance. The next morning I packed up the pan of sausages and put most in the freezer – saving one to cook (gotta test your product, ya know).

The pates were finally finished late Saturday night, when I pulled the last batch out of the makeshift bain-marie. Most of them I put in the freezer, reserving a small jar of each type for the fridge and snacking/taste testing. Overall, we are both very pleased with the way they all turned out. The sausages will provide numerous meals, and the pate’s are excellent to have around for our snacking purposes, for dinner parties and guests.

I have to admit I was a bit anxious about going out to the farm for the slaughter. I’m really a big softy at heart. I had the opportunity when I was much younger to help some family friends on slaughter day. We killed and processed the chickens they had raised and watched while the mobile slaughter guys killed and broke down the cows. I think I was maybe 10 at the time. I handled the chickens fine, but the cows for some reason really shook me. I think it is important to have a full understanding of where our food comes from, so I wanted to be there for the slaughter. The preceding week was full of all kinds of mental preparation. I was kind of surprised at my reaction this time. For me I think there will always be some emotion involved in seeing an animal killed. But knowing where it came from, how it was treated and processed from beginning to end of life and doing what I could to not waste any of it brings some sort of solace. All in all I feel ok about it, I feel ok eating it, and I feel closer to the understanding of how food arrives on my table. Somehow there is something therapeutic in witnessing and doing the processing work yourself. In many ways, for those of us that eat meat- this is the logical extension of gardening. Gaining a greater understanding of what goes into the dinner put in front of you every night makes you appreciate every morsel and think twice before you blithely pick something up at the supermarket.

And now I need to focus on the heart and kidneys, which are still in the fridge. If any of you have recipe suggestions or advice, I’d welcome it! Also – if there are any local like-minded readers out there who might be interested in a kitchen work-party next year, please drop me a line. This is a case where there can’t be too many cooks in the kitchen!