Use the Food : Borlotti Bean and Zucchini Dip

Ahh, yes we are back to dip again.

I have to say I looked at this recipe after I lucked on someone selling fresh Borlotti Beans (yes, my life is wonderful) and loved it immediately. Any recipe, at this time of year that uses 250g of zucchini is to be commended. That is before I even realised it was going to also use a bit, of the rather awesome amount, of sumac in my cupboard.

Personally I am not sure if the person who originally wrote the recipe was a bit more generous with the oil than the recipe suggests or just processed an awful lot longer than I was willing to but the taste was a lot more dip than hummus to me.. and well both family and guests thought it was perfect just the way it was.

As always there were adjustments, although in this case they were extremely minor.

Borlotti Bean and Zucchini Dip
approx 500g

150 g fresh Borlotti Beans
4 sage leaves
285g fresh zucchini
1 sm red salad onion, chopped
1 tbsp unhulled tahini
10ml olive oil
1tsp sumac
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook the Borlotti Beans with the sage leaves until soft. Add a small amount of salt and leave the beans to sit for 5 min or so.

Drain Beans, removing sage leaves, and wait until cool.

In the mean time slice up the zucchini evenly. Saute in a splash of oil over a high heat until tender without being mushy. By this point you should see nice browning on a couple of the sides.

Put together all the ingredients, including salt and pepper for seasoning, into the food processor and process until it is the consistency you prefer, in my case chunky with a bit of texture.

Spoon into a serving bowl and garnish with olive oil and an extra 1/4 tsp of sumac if you wish.

Growing Challenge - Joined Again

Well I took a year off the growing challenge out at One Green Generation last year. I decided because my focus was on growing community rather growing the garden that I didn't want to give myself extra pressure. Needless to say when the veggie garden takes a mental back seat so very often does it's level of productivity.

This year I have decided I need to refocus and reporting back to the growing challenge fortnightly should be just what I need to remember to actually make entries into my garden activities calendar. I have been doing a reasonable amount of planning and planting but without actively recording I find it extremely difficult to remember if I have anything to talk about.. so activities calendar here I come.

Honestly the Evangelist side of this challenge isn't a problem for me. Working as part of a group trying to pull a community garden out of nowhere should count for something.. Oh, that and the fact I am not sure anyone who expresses any type of mild interest in growing walks away from my place empty handed. In some ways I may not have pushed people to grow that weren't already thinking about it.. but I sure have been a motivating enabler on many, many occasions so that they ended up with something in the ground.

The Extreme part is a little more challenging, not because I don't save seed, I do but because I am actually not too sure I am growing much this season I haven't in the past. I tend to be a bit of a seed hoarder. No really, thus I made a pact with myself that for the next 6 months I won't buy any new seed.

How I have decided to tackle this is to save seed from varieties I haven't saved before. Although it's a bit against the spirit of this part of the challenge, rather than a learning exercise in regard to how to save certain types of seed I am using it as motivation to build my seedbank so I can distribute it out to unsuspecting people at the local mid winter Lantern Pde.

At this point the seed I am looking at saving is

1. Crimson Flowered Snow Pea
2. Burdock (all new to me, currently in flower)
3. Sugar Loaf Cabbage
   
4. Violet Sicilian Cauliflower (just cause every winter Lantern Pde should have cauliflower)
   

In case anyone else is interested in joining I have copied the details of the challenge. Just click on the graphic at the top of the page and sign up.

The Rules

In a nutshell: Grow 3 crops from seed, and plant the seeds in 3 new people.

1. Grow 3 Crops from Seed this Year. I leave the details up to you, but I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone – even seasoned gardeners. If you are still learning, feel free to grow the easy stuff, or seeds you might have grown before. If this is old hat for you, you might try to grow something new – challenge yourself!

2. Plant the Seeds in 3 New People. In other words, inspire 3 new people to grow crops from seed this year. I know for some of you this means really stepping out of your comfort zone. But you can do it. We’ll all support each other – this is how we change the world, one bit at a time! It’s easy. Let your enthusiasm shine through what you do. Be an inspiration and resource to others!

This could be your neighbors, your friends or family, people in your community garden, people in your book group or parents at school… You can wait until someone asks you, or you can strike up a conversation with them. And you don’t have to do it in person! You can write an article in your local newspaper or community newsletter (I’m writing an article in my local garden newsletter), if you have a blog you can write a blog post about how easy and fun and cheap seed starting is, you can volunteer at a local senior center garden, you can inspire your kids to grow with you….

If you’re more experienced, think about teaching a class at your community center, or a community college – you might make a bit of money at the same time! Or you could teach gardening at your kid’s school (maybe help them grow a garden?), teach someone in your community garden, or participate in an online forum – so many easy ways to spread the word.

3. Tell the Stories About Your Seed Planting Here. We all want to hear your stories! So in the periodic updates here, come and tell us how you’re doing, ask questions, talk about your experiences teaching others, your frustrations or thoughts or ideas or whatever. We want to hear them, and take advantage of this awesome community!

Need More? Go Extreme!

For the Optional Advanced or Extreme Edition, add this step as well:

4. Make it Seed to Seed! Grow 3 crops from seed, and save the seed from each of those 3 crops to grow them next year. That means you do have to buy open pollinated seeds (not hybrids), and learn a bit about the crops so that you save the seed well enough that they’ll produce a good quality crop next year. I’ll be continuing to write about saving seeds in the coming months to help out.

Can you swing it? I’m thinking about ways to reward those who participate in the bonus edition. Maybe a special prize*…

Mudbrick Palace Back to Basics - Week 10, Yr 2

Sowing seed or Planting -
Sowing

• Cauliflower Violet Sicilian x 22
• Cauliflower Early Snow x 14
• Cauliflower Green Macerata x 8
• Cauliflower Self Blanche
• Broccoli Green Sprouting x 8
• Broccoli Purple Sprouting x 8
• Broccoli Romanesque x 14
• Broccoli Di Cisilio x 14
• Brussel Sprout x 8
• Rainbow Chard x 22
• Cabbage Sugar Loaf x 28
• Cabbage Jessy Wave
• Summer Savory x 14
• Chamomile x 7
• Chives Lg Leaf x 7
• Kale Red Russian
  

Harvesting

• 500g zucchini
  
• 50g Rattlesnake Beans
• 25g Basil Leaf
  
• 5g Sage Leaf
  

Observing

• Tomato Ripening is still slow but is starting to accelerate
• Much of the Basil has gone to seed
• One of the second round tomatoes has set it's first fruit
• The large amount of rain we have experienced seems to have caused a fungal problem on one of the zucchini, it doesn't seem to be affecting the plant's production at this point.
• Lots of White Cabbage Butterfly around
• The Golden Nugget Pumpkin had definitely set at least a couple of fruit at this point.
• Second Round Middle East Zucchini has harvested it's first fruit
  

Maintenance

• Put up tomato cages for the second round tomato planting
  
• Weeding
• Picking out the bird and caterpillar damaged green tomatoes
• Covered the new seedlings with shade cloth to slow down White Cabbage Butterfly
  

Planning for The Future -

• Menu Plan
• Weekly work plan

Working for the Future -

• Feeding Ginger Beer Plant
  
• Feeding Sourdough Starter

Building Community -

• Took notes and in the process of writeup for the community section of BEC's Vision Statement
  
• Shared a meal with some friends
• Attended Community Harvest Shared Dinner
  

Learn a new Skill -

• N/A

Is This the Best Choice I Can Make For Myself?

Like everyone I have a whole host of habits. Some of them are unequivocally good for me, others support me emotionally but damage me physically. Then there are the ones that without a doubt my life would be better without.

Last year in many ways was challenging. There were many times where I was a lot closer to just surviving than truly living. On various occasions I lost my sense of partnership, of achievement and joy. Through my own choices I found myself in a place where my sense of self worth was being pushed to the limit. I have to say by the end I was hanging on with two fingers furiously trying to find some space where I could find some peace.

I was lucky, I was handed some space so now I need to find a way to do things better next time. Life is good at finding our weak points so there will always be a next time. The challenge of course is once something is a habit it tends not to be something you make a conscious decision about. The behaviour just comes from the pattern not from a process of thought. The problem of course is the acting of the behaviour no matter how unconscious still impacts our being exactly the same way as it would if we had deliberated over the decision.

I had to find a way to make the unconscious, conscious. Luckily I know my behaviour patterns pretty well so I set myself the task of watching for the first few steps of a couple of the good ones and a couple of the bad ones. In effect those steps are what I use to identify that particular habit.

For the good ones, noticing the fact I am making good decisions for myself makes me happy. Feeling happy is rewarding, strengthening and encourages me to keep trying.

The bad ones, well they now have an extra step. I consciously as myself the question "Is this the best choice I can make for myself?" depending on the situation the answer will be either yes or no. If I am backed into a corner and don't have the emotional wherewithal to use any other coping mechanism the answer is yes. Any other situation the answer is no and I go looking for a better option.

Is it working? Well, when I don't give myself a free pass for an amount of days it certainly has. I think rather than choosing for it not to matter for those days I just need to keep up the asking habit and get a bit more comfortable that it is ok, for good reason, for the answer to be NO.

Do you give yourself credit for your good habits?
How do you tackle change if you find one you don't want any more?

Farmers and Shoppers World-Wide say No ! Monsanto !

Farmers and Shoppers World-Wide say No ! Monsanto !

WHEN : 7 am on Thursday 18th February
WHERE : Hilton on the Park, 192 Wellington Parade East Melbourne (near Fitzroy Gardens)

**********************************************************************************


Monsanto spokesperson Peter O’Keeffe will address the Rural Press Club at the “Hilton on the Park” promoting farmers’ “choice” to grow GM canola and Monsanto’s role in the future of agriculture.

In solidarity with majority world farmers who are fighting for sovereignty against multinational control of their land and patented seed monopoly, we will rally outside the Hilton to say “No! Monsanto !”

Profits, seed monopoly and patenting are Monsanto’s real agenda.

From the cotton fields of Indonesia, where the company was fined $US1.5 million for bribery while trying to influence a GM cotton approval, to India, where over 100,000 people fasted in January against seed monopoly and GM eggplant introduction, world-wide awareness of the threat of GM crops is building. Corporate spin will not convince us that Monsanto’s patented seeds will “feed the world”.

We don’t want unstable, untested GM food products on our plates while GM canola spreads and contaminates our paddocks, in the name of a farcical “choice” which destroys our choice to farm and eat GM free.

Join us for a GM free breakfast rally with speakers and debate.

Rally sponsors : MADGE info@madge.org.au
LASNET lasnet@latinlasnet.org
Friends of the Earth Australia realfood@melbourne.foe.org.au

Inspiration for The Cook

Even though I love cooking I actually don't own that many cook books. I guess I recognised early that I wasn't totally wedded to a specific type of food so buying cookbooks just ensured that I maybe made one or two recipes then put it down never to be used again.

Being an eclectic and seasonal cook means that I don't actually care what the traditional background of a recipe is. I want recipes that use stuff I have a glut of preferably in large amounts. Let's just be honest here the Internet is often my saviour in this regard. Be it Indian, Greek, Tuscan, Aussie or well anything else as long as it doesn't try and put things like english spinach, chard is fine, with ripe tomatoes my world is probably ok.

The thing that has amazed me that of any other restriction I have put on my diet seasonal when you happen to want to eat vegetarian seems to be a challenge. I am sure this will change but at least when it comes to the cookbooks I have access to here in my local library the word seasonal really hasn't penetrated the vegetarian cookbook market.

Luckily even though they are not exclusively vegetarian many books on traditional cooking in many different cultures have a good smattering of veg, or veg adaptable, recipes. I am not sure why this part of these cuisines has stayed the same, probably because really you can't do these wonderfully simple meals with substandard produce and still have them shine. Thankfully though, the seasonality part of their traditions have mostly stayed intact.

The thing about these recipes that I absolutely love is they assume you have access to fresh basic ingredients. They give you recipes on how to make egg pasta, pastry, jams and assume you are cooking your beans from scratch. Although I have many of these skills teaching people how to make familiar foods from basic ingredients is always a plus in my book.

Most importantly I find that the actual hands on work time for most recipes tends to be minimal. Depending on what is being cooked there may be a long cook time but the amount of time actually required to pull the meal together and set it in motion tends to be minimal.

The books I have been quite impressed that I have found in my local library are :-

"The Greek Mamma's Kitchen" Rosemary Barron
"Twelve - A Tuscan Cookbook" Tessa Kiros
"My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen" Magda Mehdawy
"River Cafe Cookbook - Green" Rose Gray
"Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian" Madhur Jaffrey


What are your favourite seasonal veg or veg friendly cookbooks and resources?

Thinking Winter

Yep, it's around 30C here today and I am thinking winter.

Unusually not because I want the hot weather gone, winter here is long and cold enough. I am thinking winter because last winters seasonal rotation was a rather big FAIL. I harvested a couple of kg of pototoes which of course lasted no time at all, a few turnip and swede, lots and lots of leaf mustard and 2-3 cauliflower , Romanesque and Violet Sicilian, over the entire 3-5 months of winter and early spring. Lets be honest here, if we were relying on the block for food last year we would have starved.

The bright side of that equation is that the reason we did so badly is that I failed to plan ahead. Although in theory that seems easy to fix, in some ways it is actually quite challenging to remember to do that up here. We don't even start to get ripe tomatoes until February. Yep, even my early varieties have only started colouring up this week. Before I even get my first real taste of summer I need to be sowing in seed for winter. For me it seems that is quite a mental hurdle to jump.

Even now I haven't actually got it right. I should have been really concentrating on this from the beginning of January. Instead my first round of seed went in last Friday almost the first week of Feb. To A's delight that probably means that the Brussel Sprout seed I have put in will amount to nothing but chicken food. Luckily most of the other brassicas don't need quite so long so they will probably be fine.

Next year I am going to try to create myself a tradition of New Year Seed Planting. Maybe if I make it a ritual to focus myself back down into the earth after the heady days of celebration I will get more seed into trays earlier. That and actually getting my planting calendar before the new year just might help me improve my winter harvest.

When do you need to start your winter planting?