Is That A Cucumber In Your Garden, Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

Still getting four or five tomatoes a day out of the garden. The carrots are ready to harvest, I’ve picked a few okra pods and have a few more developing. The sunflowers are probably never going to develop into any seed producing heads, and if they do I think the stems will be too weak to support them. But this morning they were open and full of tiny little bees. The marigolds, sunflowers and nasturnum have all been good pollenator draws, and I’ve seen lots of bees and butterflies and bugs digging around the blossoms, and also going to the vegetable blossoms.

The squash bugs seem to be gone, but the vine borers are here in their place. They have just about killed the zucchini plant without me getting a single zuch off of it. It still has blooms, so I’m going to let it continue to struggle, but there isn’t much I can do with it. I don’t see evidence that they have hit the yellow squash yet, and I have a second crop of squash growing on them. Keeping an eye on them.

The collards have never prospered and I think it is just too hot. Collards tend to grow better in cooler weather, the explosive collard growth at the farm not withstanding. The basil has finally strengthened and flourished. I have been religiously pinching the buds off and the bushes are getting quite full. Not enough for a pint of pesto yet, but I expect to be able to start trimming them and keeping them active and producing well into the fall. I have two watermelons on the vines, each about the size of an orange. Now is the time to make sure they get plenty of water, and do it consistantly to allow for good, even growth without splitting or getting mushy inside. For this, the rain barrel is ideal.

I put up teepee shaped trelisses for the cucumber vines and tried to curtail their wandering through the garden. They don’t seem to like the bamboo and won’t curl their tendrils around it, opting to weave around each other or other plants. It takes some daily rearranging to try and train them to go up the treliss. I’ve gotten a couple of large cucs of the vines so far, and the promising little buds of many more, but like with everything in my garden it seems to be slow growing. My garden next year is going to pay more attention to the placement and set up of trelisses. Trelisses block sunlight to other plants, so I keep them in the back. But I’ve learned that companion plants that don’t like it too hot or sunny can use the shade from a treliss to prosper.

I won’t be getting enough out of the garden to fill a pantry this year, but I’m learning quite a bit and think things will be much improved for next season.

Brining a Chicken Demo

There is a wide variety of brining techniques, but the fundamentals are very simple:

1 4-5lb whole chicken
1 gallon of water
10 oz Kosher salt
6 oz white sugar
2 oz cracked black pepper
1 large red onion, sliced
4 stalks of celery, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
½ cup white wine or chicken broth
A clean, food-safe container large enough to completely submerge the chicken in the brine

Watch a demonstration video!

In a pan, bring about 1 quart of water to a boil. Add the salt and sugar and stir to dissolve (This is easier than trying to dissolve it into a gallon of cool water). Pour the liquid back into the remaining gallon of water. The water may be too warm to brine the chicken right away, so put it in the fridge until it cools (it needs to be around 40°F).

After it cools, stir in the pepper. Wash the chicken inside and out under cold running water. Place the chicken in the container and pour in the brine liquid in, making sure to fill the body cavity. Pour in enough brine liquid to completely cover the chicken. The brine is going to need 4 to 6 hours to season and soften the chicken. Cover it with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

Remove the chicken from the brine and rinse it again under cold water. Pat the skin as dry as you can with paper towels and place in a pan or on a plate and put in the refrigerator, uncovered, for 12-18 hours. This will allow the skin to dry out and result in a crispy exterior when roasting.

Preheat an oven to 325°F. Prepare a bed of shredded vegetables in a roasting pan, including onions, carrots, celery, and any other herbs or vegetables you want to give flavor to the roasting chicken. These vegetables are not for eating, so select ones that will hold up to hours of cooking. Place the air-dried chicken atop the vegetables and place in the oven, uncovered, for 2 – 2 ½ hours, or until the meat is cooked through. If using a thermometer, take a reading from the thigh close to the body.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to rest at least 20 minutes on the counter. Don’t worry, it will stay plenty hot. The resting allows the juices to settle in the meat. After 20 minutes, carve that chicken up and enjoy!

Lovely Red Globes

Right now I’m unable to keep a year-round supply of homegrown tomatoes (got to work on that greenhouse). But the first yeild out of the garden is coming in and they are big, red and delicious. So far no losses to blossom rot or bugs, and the way they are growing I should have at least 4 weeks of tomatoes. The flavor is unbeatable, right off the vine and onto the plate. For a while there will also be local ripe tomatoes available as well.

If I can restrain myself from eating them as soon as they come off the vine, I have a recipe I want to try:






Smoked Tomato Chutney
2# Tomatoes (I think cherry tomatoes would be best, but I guess plum or romas would be okay too. Nothing as juicy as a beefsteak)
1 tablespoon chili-infused grapeseed oil (another recipe down the line)
1 cup red onions, diced
1/2 cup red peppers, diced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, cilantro and oregano, minced and mixed
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup orange juice
1/8 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fresh garlic, minced
2 tablespoon ground ancho chili powder
1 tablespoon roughly ground cumin (mortar and pestle if possible)
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
Salt to taste

Using a stovetop smoker, smoke tomatoes over low heat for 20-30 minutes (For my own smoker, I’m going to use a blend of applewood and hickory woods)

In a pot over medium high heat, add the chili oil and sautee the onions, red peppers, garlic and cumin powder until softened. Stir in sugar, orange juice, lime juice, vinegar, chili powder, and black pepper. Let the mixture simmer and reduce by half, until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Remove the skins and seeds from the tomatoes once they have smoked and cooled. In a bowl combine the tomatoes, the liquid mixture, and the fresh herbs and stir to completely combine. Salt to taste, but it should be a balance of sweet, spicy, sour and smokey.

Serve alongside BBQ chicken, or polenta or braised lamb shanks or grilled steaks or roasted corn or whatever you damned well please…

Lilburn Farmer's Market Season Opener

I am kicking off a new season of entries with a visit to my own hometown market in Lilburn. It is set up on a vacant parking lot in the middle of downtown, which was very quaint forty years ago but just looks behind the times now in comparison to downtowns like Marietta or Roswell. But the market is in a new place now, and is the only one within 5 minutes of driving. Previously, although I had not been there, the market was on a stretch of street which allowed people to basically walk up and down, then leave. The new layout on the parking lot is basically a square of vendors within a square of vendors, giving people plenty of room to walk around. The only disadvantage is they moved out from under the trees onto a blacktop. It was 95 degrees this afternoon and it was pretty grueling after an hour. I kinda pity the vendors, even under their tents. I cannot imagine it in July.

There was a diversity of value-added products, from jelly and breads to soaps, teas, cakes, and pickles. There was a guy selling grass fed beef, someone brewing boiled peanuts, and three vendors selling shaved ice. There was a kid about 10 years old with a lemonade stand. There was not a lot of fresh produce, maybe six vendors. I talked broccoli with a woman who had harvested out the last of her farm’s broccoli. Her table was stacked with all things green; onions, kale, broccoli and lettuce. Next to her was a vendor selling tomatoes, watermelons, sweet potatoes and blueberries. She wondered outloud how a “local and organic” farm managed to get watermelons and sweet potatoes this time of the year. This is not the first time I’ve seen this kind of quietly vicious competativeness amongst farmers. Most of the other “local” vendors had tables stacked with zucchinis and squash, although all the yellow squash was very pale, except for the “questionable” vendor who had squash the color of lemons.

After stopping and talking with a few farmers and bakers and a woman who blends tea and a guy who blends spices, I ended up buying a smoked Tuscan herb blend packet of spice, a blend of organic tea called “Summer Sweet”, a pecan-butter bundt with tequila-sugar glaze, some local Snellville honey, and half a dozen South Georgia peaches that were absolutely delicious. Keep those California baseballs you find in the grocery store, whose only relation to real peaches is that they are fuzzy. These market peaches were sweet, rich with flavor, picked at ripeness, soft without being mushy, and running down your chin with juice. Wherever this guy goes with peaches, I will be there!