Hot August Gardens

The begining of August is always hard for me as a gardener.

I don't wake up easily. I'm a bit of a night owl but you can't garden in the dark, so I find myself trying to pull weeds in the heat of the day. August is also the month when my garden looks a bit raggedy. The beans arn't mature yet, nor have the zuchinii or tomatoes started to come into thier own, but what lettuce, spinich, and choi is left has bolted. The peas just look scortched and sad (except the snow peas.. hmm? Something to remember for next year?) Everything seems to be holding it's breath for the big growth spurt that is about to happen and the final, large harvest.

I'm going to be a fertilizing fool this month. Get out the poop! My big goal is to wake up early enough to have a few cool hours in the garden to really work without passing out from heat stroke. This goes against my nature. Wish me luck.

Here is a good recipe for pesto base for those people trying to process thier basil before it goes to seed...

2 cups packed basil leaves
salt to taste
1/2 cup myzithera cheese (or parm is my second choice)
2 cloves garlic

Blend above ingrediants in a blender with olive oil until a nice paste forms. Put in muffin tins sprayed with oil and freeze. Remove the next day and put in a sealed container. To use: defrost one "muffin" and blend with 2 tablespoons of pinenuts. Mix with hot pasta.

A Can of Worms...

Lawmakers in Oregon opened up a can of worms recently by deciding that home-brewed beer (or homemade wine) needs to be consumed in the home it was brewed in. (Check out this article to learn more) Therefore, home brewing competitions, events, tastings, and even sharing your beer with friends is apparently against the law. This also puts a bit of a damper on our church's yearly Oktoberfest - always flowing with homemade beer! After brewing gallons of beer for this event, it looks like we will have to find another way to share it!

If anyone approaches  you with a petition to sign that will retract these regulations - please sign it! We love sharing our beer!!

Kris with his yeast starter

Brewing for Oktoberfest Part II

After we returned the grain to the mash-tun we started to sparge. Whenever another home-brewer asks me how Kris and I sparge I would tell them it's a personal question. The word "sparge" sounds like a bad rash or an illicit activity to me. Really it involves draining as much liquid from the mash-tun while using the soaked grain as a natural filter. We use a "fly sparge" which looks like an inverted lawn sprinkler over the grain bed.

At this point the kids came home from the movie they were at and I was informed by all three of them that dinner must be made, so I missed the rest of the activity.

Kris finished the batch by boiling the beer in the kettle, chilling it down, dry hopping, and putting it in the conical fermenter in our shop.

We should end up with 20+ gallons of German ale style beer. YUM!

Brewing for Oktoberfest

My husband is an avid home-brewer - not me. He has had this "little" hobby for years now. He'd disappear into our large, barn like shop and weeks - sometimes months - later we'd be happily drinking the results of his labor. My main part in this process was to watch the kids and try not to complain too bitterly if my good pots and pans are kidnapped in the process of making a yeast starter.

Recently he has been talking about starting a small production brewery in Prineville, OR. I decided if he's really serious, and I think he is, I should learn a bit about the process.

Being as self-sustaining as possible is a interest of mine. I became much more enthusiastic when I realized that my husband has the attitude about beer that I have around my garden and kitchen... It's lovely to go out to a grocery store and buy stuff, but isn't it better still to know how to create it? Just as I can make homemade bread, can produce and make my own yogurt - he can make his own beer.

So here are my impressions of my first complete brewing experience - from beginning to end.

We started with cleaning all the equipment involved. Cleanliness is very important in good beer, which amazes me because the shop is not what I'd consider "clean". To be honest, the shop houses a collection of spiders and mice. There is no such thing as a dust bunny here - they're all dust rhinos.

After cleaning the kegs we started compiling the main elements of beer: water, grain - in this case barley, yeast and hops. The grain was previously milled at the brew shop and the yeast was started last night. To save money we take a small package of yeast and "grow it" much like a sourdough starter by heating it up and then letting it multiply overnight.

Then we heated water in an old steel keg and poured some off into an ice chest that had been fitted with copper tubing that's drilled with holes and hooked to a spigot to allow water to run out but not grain. Kris poured the grain into this mash-tun while I stirred it until it was the consistency of runny oat meal.

I had to taste the barley before it was put into the mash-tun because I cannot resist trying new foods. It was delicious, but familiar. It took me a few minutes to realize the flavor I was experiencing was sweeter, but similar to a bowl full of Grape-Nuts.

Next we started a decotion process where we removed liquid from the mash-tun and brought it to a boil and put it back to raise the temperature in the mash-tun from 120 to 140 + degrees F.

Thats the point we're at now. As is obvious from my stout stature, I tend to look towards the edible. I heard that you can eat spent grain as a hot cereal and even make bread from it, which I'm eager to try because we usually have a lot of spent grain left over. As I cruised the web for more info I came upon the barley council website. I'm hoping that I can substitute spent grain for the barley in those recipes. I'll post any attempts...Look for part two of this Urban Farmers beer brewing education.

Recipe: Simple Roasted Fennel and Garlic

Ingredients:

4 Fennel Bulbs
1 head of garlic - peeled
1 sprig fresh rosemary -snipped
2 T olive oil
1/2 tea kosher or sea salt
pepper to taste

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Halve the fennel bulbs and place in a small baking pan with split garlic cloves. In a small dish mix rosemary, oil, salt and pepper. Drizzle over the fennel and garlic and bake for 30-40 minutes until the garlic browns and fennel is soft.

Enjoy

The Ultimate Urban Farmer Job

This summer I choose to explore the world of an "Urban Farmer" to the hilt. I planted a garden in what little space my tiny backyard offers, I got a part-time job at the garden department at Home Depot (no discount :( ), and finally I found other employment with Wintergreen Farms at the Bend Farmer's Market on Wednesdays.

One of the things that made the strongest impression on me while working at the Bend Farmer's Market is the sense of community. Each day, after the initial crowds have thinned and the different vendors start to take note of  what has sold, and what hasn't, we start visiting each other's booths. The true spirit of a "market-place" takes over and we began to trade products with each other. Our farm produce is exchanged for organic coffee, fresh bread and sometimes eggs and cheese. We even receive dinner consisting of fresh fish tacos and blackberry juice. During this time, friendships are made, babies coo'd over and recipes shared.

This gathering of people who subsist on each other's products and talents is an incredibly rare event in this day and age that once was taken for granted in our country when money was secondary to the practice of bartering. Human interaction during this hour of trading at the market is a mutually beneficial practice that drills into each of the participants what it is like to belong to a society of people who need each other to fully thrive.

Of course, it's also great to take home a bunch of organic produce, coffee and artisan bread that I couldn't otherwise afford on a daily basis!

Some of the wonderful vegetables and bread I took home: Village Baker bread, Kale, Fennel, Fava Beans, Carrots and Strawberries from Winter Green Farms. I also received a pound of coffee, lettuce and Swiss Chard this week on top of my paycheck!

My Kids Love Applesauce

A few weeks ago I went to Skip's birthday dinner. While there, I met a wonderful woman who offered us the use of her apple tree when it's ready to harvest. The adventure begins! I also found out that there are those out there wanting to learn to can just for the fun of it. This is one of the fun things about doing this little project. It provides interesting conversation for dinner parties.

Now we have two good leads for fruit trees. An apple harvest and plum harvest. They are both fall fruits and may be able to be canned on the same day! I'm going to put a notice out on free-cycle and see if anyone else offers up their trees to us.

Spring is Coming - Time to Find Community Fruit Trees!

As spring comes closer, now is the time to look through your neighborhood and find "fruitful" opportunities for our Urban Farm Association. Ask your neighbor if they would be interested in donating the fruit from their fruit trees. It's a wonderful opportunity to walk through your neighborhood with a new appreciation for the bounty that surrounds us and sometimes goes fallow!

Look for these flowers in mid to late spring as a sign of good things to come!

Resolutions

In the New Year I promise to... Grow my own produce, preserve what I grow, make good use of the natural foods that are wasted around me, and recruit ten people for our Urban Farmer Association! If you know of someone with a fruit tree going to waste - let me know!