In a Pickle with Master Preserver Jennifer Davidson

It was a fine day yesterday at Terralicious as we watched and learned while Jennifer whipped up two different savory preserves and taught our class all we needed to know to make perfect savory preserves. Each class member went home with lots of new knowledge and complementary jars of Jennifers famous Green Tomato Pickally and Roasted Red Pepper Jelly. Photos of Jennifer at the stove and on the wall screen via our over-the-stove camera. Jennifer's next class at Terralicious, on October 21st, will be all about preserving falls sweet treasures. As for me, I'm hoping for a taste of those delectable Drunken Pears!!

Oh My, It must be Fall

Fall in Terralicious fields and that of our fellow community farmers at Haliburton Farm is glorious this fall with the sun shining brightly. Sandy Grayson took these beautiful photos, featuring Farmer Ray's eye-poppingly large turnips, fall grain, bird pecked sunflower heads and grapes coming to ripe.

Slow Food's Great Tomato Brunch

Terralicious was proud to host Slow Food's Great Tomato Brunch at the Haliburton Fam this past Saturday and what a yummy treat it was. Tomatoes of all shapes, colours, and sizes stood firm for squeezing and tasting by enthusiastic samplers after which we all sat down to a long table of good food and talk of food. We enjoyed salads and tarts and homemade bread, soups and crumbles and even a tomato (call that Andy Warhol) cake.

These beautiful photos, which refuse to line up for me, were taken by Slow Food member and valiant Hali volunteer Rhona McAdams. Thank you Rhona for making this event a bountiful success.

Pumpkin Cookies Recipe

So many have been asking for the Pumpkin Cookie Recipe we use in our Healthy Summer Fun Camps for Kids that I've decided to post it here.  I'll upload a photo when we make the cookies in one of our upcoming Wednesday's at Terralicious after school kids program - see Saanich Recreation for details. 

I've been making these cookies since our children were very young.  They still love them.  

1 c. shortening (if you use butter the cookies will be excellent but much flatter)

1 c. sugar

1 egg

1 c. pumpkin (garden grown, stewed pumpkin is best but I've used canned)

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 c. chopped pecans

Beat shortening with sugar.  Add egg and pumpkin. Combine and add dry ingredients then stir in vanilla, chocolate and pecans.  Drop by tablespoon on parchment lined sheets.   Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes.  Cool.  Yields 5 1/2 dozen moist and yummy cookies.  

Kids Club with Chef Cosmo Meens & Florist Marty Snow

We had so much fun with Marty Snow instructing us how to create beautiful floral bouquets to adorn our luncheon table.  Chef Cosmo entertained while creating a fantastic raw veggie roll.   Our formal lunch included homemade bread, an edible flower adorned small leaf salad, and a Siglanda potato frittata made with eggs we collected from our chickens.  Dessert shown here was a fresh rhubarb fool with yummy gingered whipped cream and Pauline's famous Ginger cookies.  I'll be posting a list of dishes we prepared this week.  Camp participants are encouraged to contact us by email for recipes @ info@terralicious.ca.  

Good Food and Fun at the Farm

One of the lunch time meals at our Healthy Summer Fun Camps for Kids included Zucchini Pancakes done without oil on a griddle.  Zucchini is fun and easy to grow and the kids loved the pancakes so we've decided to share the recipe.   This recipe makes about 7 small pancakes.   Combine 2 cups of shredded zucchini with 1/4 cup finely diced sweet onion, 3/4 cup Panko breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese (we used Natural Pastures Parmadamer Cheese) and 2 eggs (ours were double yokers collected from our Terralicious chickens).  Form each cake on the griddle using two large tablespoons of mixture.  Flatten, and cook on medium-high heat, flipping when a nice crust has formed on the bottom (too soon and the cake will fall apart).  Top the finished pancake with a dollop of delicious organic yogurt (we love Olympia-plain) with diced cucumber, radish and/or tomato.   Season with finely chopped herbs (kids like basil) and sea salt.   This recipe is an adapted version of Kate Lavin's Savory Summer Squash Cakes as published by Carolyn Herriot of The Garden Path.  Thank you Kate and Carolyn.

Certified Organic Chicken Eggs

Our seven Isa Brown hens are all grown up and started laying about 10 days ago.  The hoopla surrounding their first eggs started with a cacophony of clucking and squawking from the little cedar house.  Then came the proud grins and congradulatory hugs all around.  Way to go girls! Celebrations ended with a ceremonial cracking and the production of this lovely fingerling and fresh herb frittata accompanied by farm fresh bread.  

Chef Cosmo Meens - Chefs in the Garden Grand Finale

We closed our Chefs in the Garden Summer Series today with Chef Cosmo Meens cooking up a "ridiculously" (young speak for fantastically) delectable array of visual and taste sensation beauty.   My swiftly flicked photos don't do it  justice...here was the 7 course menu:

1. Kombucha Raspberry Lavendar Spritzer

2. Purslane Salad with Venture-Schulze Balsamic and Strawberries

3. Heirloom Tomato draped with Sauteed Crookneck & Pattipan Summer Squash dressed in Basil and Crispy Lavendar Brown Butter Sage (I snapped too soon and missed the sage topping which was beautiful and delicious)

4. Almond, Pumpkin Curried Carrot Pate with Collard Green Wrap and Nasturtium 

5. Butter lettuce, Spiralina Hemp, Grape Tomato & Queen Charlotte Seaweed Salad

or Russian Blue & Fingerling Potato Salad with Cilantro and Moonstruck Beddis Blue Cheese (shown here adorned with Calendula flowers of exquisite color)

6. Garlic Smoked Spot Prawns on New Zealand Spinach with Curried Coconut Cream

7. Triple Berry Cup with Raspberry Cashew Cream and Johnny Jump Ups

I can't remember a meal more delicious, imaginative and sensitive.  It was a delight beyond words and a perfect note upon which to end our July 2009 Summer Series.  

We will be featuring one Chef in the Garden each month beginning October 2009.  Check our calendar for details.  Next week we start our Healthy Summer Fun Camps for Kids where we'll serve up a trilogy of gardening, cooking, and ecology complete with healthy lunches and lots of fun.

 

Our Terralicious demonstration kitchen is well equipped to provide students a clear view of the stove top (over-stove camera linked to the flat screen) and the demonstration counter (overhead mirror).   The open concept ensures you get to see what's going on it the background of the kitchen as well.    We use the TV screen to air Powerpoints we've assembled on the various stages of food plant seeding, growing, harvesting, and seed collection.

Here is our version of no knead bread.  Sometime after dinner, mix together 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp quick rise yeast, and 1 5/8 cups water in a stainless steel bowl. You can add dried fruit and/or a mixture of seeds, nuts, and herbs to the mixture.  Cover tightly.  In the morning, dump the gooey mixture onto a tea towel that has been dusted with flour, cornmeal or other non-stick medium.  Let raise two hours.  Put a cast iron pot (like the red one pictured here) into the oven and heat the oven to 475 degrees.  When ready remove lid and plop bread into the hot pot.  Don't worry if it's sloppy.  The bread actually looks more artisanly beautiful when it has lumps and ridges.  Put into oven and bake with lid on for 30 minutes.  Remove lid and bake for an additional 10 minutes to brown.  So easy and so good.

A couple of photos of our BC Greenhouse which is currently bursting with Heirloom tomatoes, bull horn peppers, and Thai basil growing in the ground.  Cherry trees in the background - left. Our lovely little greenhouse grows food all year long beginning with radishes and arugula in late winter.   The herb and berry garden on the left is the permaculture bed you see us preparing in other photos on our site.  It's come a long way, baby...

Chefs in the Garden - Chef Heidi Fink

After gathering fresh ingredients from the garden with our own Tina Baynes, Heidi cooked up a luscious Salad Nicoise for our Chef's in the Garden luncheon this week. Always entertaining and filled with helpful cooking tips, Heidi's demonstration included method and technique for the Nicoise plus a glorious Indian spiced veggie stir fry and delectable Strawberry Shortcake. The meal was enjoyed with a glass of wine on a long country table dressed in fresh white linen.   Under tent in the garden of course.

Chef Bradford Boisvert– Amuse French Bistro 

Our Chefs in the Garden series started off with a delicious burst of flavour last Monday when Chef Boisvert presented us with a deliriously delicious lunch of Grilled Qualicum Bay Scallops; Garden Vegetable Ragout; Rosti Potatoes; Arugula Pistou Vinaigrette finishing with a plumply textured Hazelnut Savarin, Blue Cheese Ice Cream with Raspberries peaked with Thyme and Lemon Balm Foam.

Featured in Forbes, Newsweek, USA Today and Epicure Magazine, classically trained chef Bradford Boisvert has won many prestigious culinary awards including the Bocuse d’Or USA Concours award. Bradord and his wife Leah are proud proprietors of Amuse French Bistro in Shawnigan Lake where they grow their own produce and herbs.  James Barber of Eat Magazine declared Amuse the “Best restaurant in the Cowichan Valley”.  The restaurant currently enjoys the rank of 2nd best Restuarant on Vancouver Island by Vancouver Magazine.   www.amusebistro.com

PEEPERS ON DECK !!

From fluffy yellow balls, falling asleep on the weight scale to neck stretching fleglings,  our sweet Isa Browns are growing strong and healthy thanks to our great sitters Hanna and Laura!!

The chicks have arrived and are growing bigger every day.  I've uploaded a little video so you can see how adorable they are.

Last Beets from the Garden

We harvested our last "Winterkeeper" beets from the garden this week.  It seems timely as the Spring Equinox is upon us and we are hoping to say goodbye to old man winter.   The beets were sliced into dials and baked in the oven, covered and with a little orange juice, until tender.  While they were baking we made a reduction of the beet trimmings by covering with one cup of water and simmering for 30 minutes.  Drain the beets and send to the compost.  Add to your liquid 1 Tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar and render down further until you have 1/4 cup.  Add maple syrup to taste leaving on the heat for another 5 minutes until you have your beet syrup or reduction.  Serve over baked beets with a seasonal side salad.  The colour is intense crimson and the flavour divine.  

Upcoming April Workshops

   Extend your season by using COLD FRAMES, TUNNELS and HOOP HOUSES.   We'll build a light, easy-to-set up cloche which is effective in hardening off seedlings and provides heat to get some crops off to an early start.  Todays harvest and samplings will be RADISHES and AURGULA.  Wednesday April 1st or Saturday April 4.

   Planning and installing your IRRIGATION  can be challenging.  We'll demonstrate layout and different types of  systems available

for easy care, talk about the watering needs of different plants and ways you can conserve water.  PEAS will be our feature vegetable.

We'll pass on some cultural tips and favorite varieties.  Wednesday April 8th or Saturday April 11th.

   In this class we will take a trip to our woods and explore a little FOREST ECOLOGY.    Our guest speaker will acquaint us with

his passion-MUSHROOMS.  Wednesday April 15th or Saturday 18th.

   Pack more food into your landscape by installing an EDIBLE BORDER.  Learn about the many plants that not only look good,

but have the dual purpose of being edible, handsome Lacinato kale for example.  We'll try some traditional and new RHUBARB

recipes in this workshop.  Wednesday April 22nd or Saturday April 25th.

  All of the April workshops are held at our demonstration site at Haliburton Farm.  

            Wednesday class times are 5-7PM and Saturdays 2-4PM.

  

Great Little Greenhouse to Harden Off Seedlings

The short-lived snow storm that passed through the farm yesterday reminded us that winter is still with us.  We are so fortunate to have our little 10 x 8 foot glass B. C. Greenhouse in which to

complete the seedling cycle-plants such as radishes and onions, seeded into 2 inch soil blocks and

pacs are hardening-off with a little help from a propane heater which keeps the temperature well above freezing.  Our "Royce Royce" germination bench is chock-a-block full with artichoke

seedlings, Swiss chard and lettuces all sitting so green under the lights.  We are gearing up for

our Giant Plant Sale that will take place on Saturday, May 2. 11-5 pm at Haliburton Farm.  Late seed orders came to the door yesterday from Wm. Dam and Two Wings Farm (a favorite for their great quality tomato seeds) so we will have a large variety of heirloom tomato plants for sale as well as a large variety of vegetable and herb seedlings.

 

Ahoy Cabbage Lovers

So I was conversing with the photographer who will be taking photos at our first class of the year (Soil Testing/All About Winter Cabbage) this Friday, February 20, from 11:00am to 1:00pm at Haliburton Communiy Organic Farm (www.haliburtonfarm.org) and thought the latter part of the conversation deserved wider distribution.  So here it is:

So after having completed the general gardening topic of Soil Testing we will enter the All About Cabbage protion of the class where we'll demonstrate seeding cabbage and have a look at the (full to brimming) germination cabinet and the (cool and empty) outdoor greenhouse and raised bed area where the cabbages along with other seedlings will be transferred to harden off and then planted once things warm up a bit.

There isn't much growing in our new raised beds but Ray's garden has an area of winter veggies enclosed to protect them from the brassica loving and always entertaining waddlers.  He has very kindly saved some winter cabbages for us to harvest and cook with our students.  We'll be preparing and serving a curried cabbage salad, an earthy cabbage soup, and a contemporary version of the ubiquitous cabbage roll using local bison in a range of yummy somethings for veggies, locovores, and flexitarians alike.  Fresh herb infused bread will come steaming hot straight from our oven to complete the hearty lunch.  

Seedlings in the Cupboard

Wasn't it wonderful to see the sunshine today?  On Wednesday Tina and I soil blocked a few 40-block wooden trays and seeded our artichokes, swiss chard, and radishes into them.  We put one seed per two inch block for the artichoke and swiss chard but put the radishes four to a block, one seed in each corner.  Once done, into the germination cabinet they went and they are now basking in a warm bath of light to a rhymic schedule of 16 hours on, 8 hours off.  The resting time allows them to do just that, resulting in a slower growing but stronger and healthier plant.   I can close my eyes and taste the buttery artichokes we'll be harvesting this summer.  Yum!