Garden Fresh Living

Recipes For A Seed Party!

My friend Jayme Jenkins over at aHa! Modern Living is having a seed party! What is that you ask? Well, apparently it is a little shindig where everyone gets together to have a drink, eat a little food and learn about seeds.  Sounds like fun to me! If I didn't live in a whole other state, I would be there for sure.

Jayme asked if I had any quick and easy "garden-inspired" appetizer recipes - and YES I do! So here is one she might try for the seed party. Veggies, seeds, wine, beer...This is my kind of party!

Garden Salsa

This recipe is from a kitchen calendar I wrote way back in 2005. It can be thrown together in a jiffy and tastes great! It is a chunky "salsa" made with colorful veggies and a little cilantro. It is delicious. I usually double the recipe so that I use the entire bell pepper. Serve it will corn chips!

2 tsp. red wine vinegar

Juice of 1 lime

Dash of hot sauce (optional)

One 15-oz can of black beans, drained

One 15-oz can of corn, drained

1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1 avocado, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces

1/4 cup chopped scallions

2 tbsp. freshly chopped cilantro

Salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, combine vinegar, lime juice and hot sauce.Set aside. In a medium-sized bowl, combine remaining ingredients except salt and pepper. Gently stir in lime juice mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Can Jam - This month...CARROTS!

I am participating in Can Jam 2010, where each month, a group of bloggers can/preserve a specific food and write about it. The purpose of this project is to get more people excited about canning and to share recipes, tips and ideas. (Last month was citrus.)

This month is all about CARROTS!

I had big plans to try something unusual and different. I wanted to try something I had never canned before. Then the reality of a busy life knocked me on the side of the head and said, "NOT!"

The month got away from me. So, I had to revert to an old recipe from my archives.  But that is okay. I just grabbed one of my favorite fast and easy "quick pickle" recipes for Basil Carrots! YUM!

What I like about this recipe is how simple it is. See, most standard carrot recipes call for pressure canning because carrots are a low acid food. You cannot safely process carrots in a water-bath unless you acidify it (usually with vinegar). The can jam is all about water bath processing, so...I opted for a quick pickle.

Quick pickles are non-fermented fruits or veggies that are canned in a flavorful vinegar. They need to sit for a week or more before eating so that they absorb the flavorings. The longer they steep, the stronger the flavor. The best part...they are quick! Unlike marmalade or even jam recipes, there is no long cooking involved. Just heat everything up, pop it in a jar and process. What could be simpler than that!

Before I get to the recipe, I have a question for all you canners and want-to-be canners out there:

What canning & preserving recipes should be included on our new PBS show?

I am in the process of developing the recipes I will be demonstrating on the new Growing A Greener World television series and I would love your input. The canning segments will be on a few of the episodes and also as "bonus material" on the website.

We decided that Growing A Greener World couldn't just talk about how to grow all those wonderful, organic vegetables without teaching the viewers how to preserve the flavor!

So, please take a moment and leave any and all suggestions in the comments below. I will be focusing on water bath canning for this first season. I will cover the basics, but I also have a few fun and unusual recipes up my sleeve to keep the experienced preservers engaged. So let me know your thoughts!

What things do you think we should teach our viewers about canning/preserving?

Now for the recipe...

Basil Carrots

This quick and easy recipe makes a crisp pickled carrot with a spicy basil flavor. I live in Los Angeles and actually have fresh basil growing in my garden at the moment. But if you don't have fresh basil, buy some at the store. Dried basil does not provide the same punch of flavor. Serve these quick pickles as appetizers with cheese and crackers...and a little wine wouldn't hurt either!

Ingredients:

6-7 half-pint sized canning jars

Approximately 2 lbs. fresh carrots

4 cups white wine vinegar or rice wine vinegar

1 cup sugar

Fresh basil

Prepare jars and lids for water bath canning. Start heating the water in your canner. Wash and peel the carrots and cut them to fit inside the jars. Be sure to leave a 1/2 inch of head-space (the space from the top of the ingredients to the top of the jar). In a small saucepan, over medium heat, combine vinegar and sugar. (I used white wine vinegar this time) Let this mixture come to a boil. Meanwhile, thinly slice the basil leaves in groups of three and add to each jar. Then pack in as many carrots as will comfortably fit into each jar.

After all the jars are packed, fill each jar with the boiling hot vinegar mixture. Leave a 1/2 inch head-space at the top of each jar. Run a spatula or wooden skewer around the sides of each jar to loosen any air bubbles. If necessary, add more vinegar mixture to maintain the 1/2 inch head-space.

Wipe off the tops of the jars with a hot, wet dish towel. Then add the prepared lids and jar rings to each jar. Tighten the lids to just finger tight. Do not crank down on the lid too tightly.

At this point, you have the option of not processing the jars and storing them in the refrigerator. But they must be eaten within two weeks. For long term storage, the jars must be processed by the water bath canning method for 10 minutes.

Once the jars are processed, check the seals. Store unsealed jars in the refrigerator and use within two weeks. Store the sealed jars in the pantry. Wait at least one week before eating so that they carrots will be well flavored.

Our Interview on the Nest in Style Podcast

While at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show a few weeks ago, Joe Lamp'l and I were interviewed by Nest In Style, Jayme Jenkins.

Jayme wanted to know what the Growing A Greener World television series was all about and how we were going to draw in younger viewers with social media.

It was a very fun interview!

She and Teresa O'Conner have posted our interview within their regular Nest in Style Podcast which includes a great discussion with Steve Aitken, the editor of Fine Gardening magazine. You can listen to the entire show, or if you are in a hurry, you can scroll down and listen to just our portion (which is only about 10 minutes -- Totally do-able within your busy day).

While at the show, I also did several video interviews for Garden World Report. I will let you know when they are up and running. And just wait until I start posting some of those gorgeous garden photos! WOW. Can't wait to share those!

But in the meantime, come give a listen to us over at Nest in Style...

I Want To Make A Succulent Orb

I found this succulent orb kit on Etsy.

The idea is to design and build your own tiny succulent garden and either set it on a sunny windowsill (it has a flat bottom) or hang it in a window. What a fun idea. It reminds me of the miniature terrariums I posted about HERE.

Have You Ever Done This?

Today I noticed two forlorn looking six packs of lettuce sitting in my garden. I bought them months ago with the intention of filling in some empty spots in my front yard. (I use edibles all throughout my landscape.) But alas, I totally forgot about them...probably because I always grow my lettuce from seed. I never buy it in six-packs.

Do you do this? Forget about plants until they either die or root right through the pot?

I catch myself doing this sometimes. I buy on impulse, set the plants where they will get some water and forget about them. I find them later, rooted through the pot, struggling to survive. Ugh!

This lettuce will not go to waste. It is well established in its little corner of the garden, so I am just going to harvest it from six pack -- tacky as that may be.

More on Growing A Greener World PBS show

Okay guys!

We have been filming all week for Growing A Greener World!

Chef Nathan Lyon has been cooking up a storm in Joe Lamp'l's kitchen and we have filmed 20 cooking segments so far this week. Six more to go!

 

Yes, Nathan rocks!

He has made everything from Ribolita (Tuscan vegetable and bread soup) to chocolate lava cake.

Yes! I am serious!

All the recipes will be on the Growing A Greener World website when it is up and running.

How do we do this so fast? Focus, baby focus (and the fact that Nathan is a seasoned professional). We just put our nose to the grindstone and stay focused!!

I have been watching the action via Skype and all I can say is DANG! It is frustrating to not be able to taste this stuff all the way across the country here in Los Angeles!! (Especially the chocolate lava cake!)

You guys are going to LOVE this show!

Thank you to Mandee Tilley for the photo from the set.

Finding a Local Harvest Near You

If you can't grow it yourself, it is always nice (and more flavorful) to keep it local. But what if you don't know where to go to find local, fresh food?

Local Harvest: is a website that helps connect the best organic food to the consumers near by. 

If that doesn't work for you, try the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.

It compiles local food sources so that consumers can connect with the farmers in their area. 

Designing Gardens on a Teeny-Tiny Scale

Here is a miniature garden I created in a small enamel pan.

I have made several of these and they always turn out charming. This one has a tiny patio I created out of cement powder and little stones.

It looks difficult, but it is amazingly easy. I found a kit from Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center. They have everything you need to make patios, walkways...any kind of hard surface.

Here are some photos from the website:

Aren't they fun?

I love miniature gardens because you really feel as if you can just step right into the garden. That is one of the reasons I created a G-Scale train garden in the middle of my herb garden. Kids and adults get such a kick out of tiny landscapes!

You can find more information about creating miniature gardens at Two Green Thumbs. They even have a newsletter.

Can Jam: Citrus

I mentioned before that I am participating in Can Jam 2010, where each month, a group of bloggers can/preserve a specific food and write about it. The purpose of this project is to get more people excited about canning and to share recipes, tips and ideas.

 This month's assignment was CITRUS. 

I decided to make a marmalade. But rather than make orange marmalade (which is wonderful in its own right), I decided to make lemon and blood orange marmalade.

Now, for the record, I don't usually make marmalades because they tend to be more work than regular jelly, jam, quick pickle making. But boy, do they ever taste good! So I am willing to put in the time for this project. Just know, that most canning is much less time consuming than this.

Also, I should note that I like to use the small 4 oz jars for marmalade. It is so much work to make, I want to share it with as many people as possible.

When I make marmalade, I don't typically use it on toast or scones (although you certainly can). I like to use it in cooking. For example, I use it as:

a glaze over roasted chicken

a flavoring on steamed vegetables

or a secret ingredient in my salad dressing.

There are numerous ways to utilize this tangy - sweet condiment. And by adding just a little blood orange to my lemon recipe, I thought it would make a pretty color as well as add more sweetness to the mix.

Most citrus marmalade recipes do not use added pectin because there is pectin in the white portion of the peel. But you must cook the marmalade to the "jelling point" in order to get a good thick consistency.

An Attack on School Gardens

The Attack:

Sunday, I got all fired up about a post on GardenRant on school gardens. Apparently, a journalist had written a scathing article in Atlantic magazine spouting that educational gardens are a waste of money, are taking time away from core lessons in the classrooms and are forcing children to grow up to be poor farm laborers.

The woman who wrote this article believes that when teaching at-risk kids, you "should strip away every program and resource that is not essential to the mission of schooling."

She also believes that if these kids want veggies, we only need to keep their grocery stores well stocked. She states:

"This seems to me a more sensible approach to getting produce to children than asking the unfortunate tykes to spend precious school hours growing it themselves."

Obviously she doesn't "get it" when it comes to educational gardens and has no intention of investigating enough to understand. She does not understand the way the brain makes connections with real life experiences allowing for better cataloging and retrieval of that information.  She obviously has not studied or even read about Multiple Intelligences and how not every child can learn by drills. And she does not have a real grasp of what it means to be poor.

The Truth:

Most of the people I spoke to were unable to read the entire article. They said it was too hard to stomach the inaccuracies and leaps of logic. I agree with the assessment, but I did read it to the end. I found it very amusing that someone with such a high opinion of themselves, could

Living Homegrown Fresh EGGS!

I just had to share these beautiful eggs with you today.

My girls are working overtime! Yum!

We Be Jammin'

I have been thinking about why so many of us enjoy canning/preserving the food we grow. There are many reasons, but for me, canning is what we as gardeners can do to continue the story of our garden. It is a way for us to capture the flavors and essence of the food we grow in a little "time capsule" called a canning jar. Later, we can open that time capsule and again experience the deliciousness of our garden and share it with family and friends.

Since we seem to be on the subject of canning all the wonderfulness of the garden lately, I thought you might be interested in this. The media is catching on and is starting to talk about the hot, hot, hotness of canning and preserving. Here they are a few articles for your perusal.

The Globe had an article about how younger generations are jumping on the can train. They are especially interested in pickles, chutneys and unusual recipes. Oh yeah, baby!

Even the Wall Street Journal is getting in on the story talking about how the worst recession in decades has caused trends toward eating healthier, growing our own food and CANNING.

The New York Times did an article last year on the popularity of canning. Writer Julia Moskin says, "Like baking bread or making a slow-cooked tomato sauce, preserving offers primal satisfactions and practical results." Don't you love that?

And good old NPR has several canning stories including Canning Makes A Comeback and Freezer Jam-The Baby Step to Canning.

There are many more great articles out there, but that should keep you busy for awhile...

Can Jam & Canning Across America

I have mentioned Canning Across America before HERE. It is a group of cooks, gardeners and food lovers committed to the revival of the lost art of "putting up" food. They have a great website with great information.

Last month, on Canning Across America, Tigress in a Jam guest-posted about organizing a Can Jam Challenge for the 12 months of 2010. Each month, participants receive a designated food to "put up". They then blog about it on their websites, participate in discussions, share recipes, etc.

The purpose of the Can Jam is to raise awareness about the joys of canning and to share recipes, inspiration and preservation information. Well...being that I am a certified Master Food Preserver, I just HAD to sign up!

January 1st was the kick off day and all 137 participants were assigned citrus as our designated food to can this month. Watch for my post with recipe in the near future. 

Tigress makes a great point about the virtues of canning which ties in nicely with the same philosophies of this blog.

Tigress sums it up here by saying canning is:

Local – I think many of us became interested in canning as an outgrowth of the Locavore movement. Preserving fresh produce grown in your area is the logical progression. And when you grow your own, and a glut is on, it can become a necessity!

Organic – In an effort to control what we eat, be it produce, sweeteners, flavors, etc., when we make it ourselves we know what went into it, and we know how we like it. It’s having a real choice about what we consume.

In Season - Canning produce in season keeps it in season all year (in a certain way). Ergo a much tastier interpretation of eating seasonally than abstaining from certain foods except for once a year!

Humane – I heard tell that veggies get a kick out of being pickled, and fruit, well, who among us canners has not witnessed that barely audible exclamation of fruit about to be jammed, "Sweet!"

So true! The deadline has passed for signing up, but you can still participate by posting in the comments of my recipe posts or on any of the participant websites. You can see a full list of Can Jam participants HERE. But one participant I already know is Willi at Diggin Food. She is a fellow garden writer who has an excellent garden/food blog full of great information. Be sure to check in on her and tell her I said "Hi!"

And remember, we will be including canning and preserving information on Growing A Greener World as well. After you grow it all, you want to know what to do with it.

Photo by: Tigress

Behind The Scenes of New Garden Show

As you know, I am the Associate Producer of the new garden show, "Growing A Greener World" that will air nationally on PBS this spring. (You can read my previous post about the show here.) We did some filming this week and it was FUN, FUN, FUN.

Here is the BEHIND THE SCENES scoop! You guys are getting it FIRST!

The main mission of GGW is to tell the story of how people, places and companies are using gardening and eco-friendly practices to promote environmental stewardship and how viewers can apply these same principles in their own little corner of the world. Great stuff!

Joe Lamp'l, the Producer and host of the series, and I have been working hard to create a wonderful lineup of episodes for you. We have some wonderful gardens, incredible gardeners and intriguing projects to show and we can't wait to get started telling these compelling stories to all of you! I will be posting about some of the upcoming episodes later.

We also recently hired Chef Nathan Lyon for the show and had our first shoot with Nathan this week. What a find!

How did we find Nathan? I posted in an entertainment bulletin looking for a professional chef with TV savvy. Each applicant had to send me their resume, head-shot and video reel. I received hundreds of entries. Yes...HUNDREDS! My job, was to screen all the applicants and send Joe the ones with potential. We had an incredible talent pool to choose from. We had top chefs from around the country trying out for this position. It was a tough choice from the beginning. I sent Joe the best of the best and then together, we narrowed it down to just FOUR. After interviewing all four finalist, we still loved them all. They were all so incredibly talented and each brought unique skills to the table.

But in the end, Nathan Lyon got the job. He is all about eating local, fresh food and he has an incredible background that combines culinary arts with health and local farming. He has his own cooking show on Fit TV and Discovery Health called "Lyon in the Kitchen" and he also cooks on the TLC show "Home Made Simple". Nathan packs tons of great information and take away tips into his cooking segments. He is high energy with a down-to-earth personality. You guys are going to love him.

Nathan's job on GGW is to take the food from the gardens we visit and show viewers how to cook it up into something wonderful! Isn't that just what we as gardeners want? We grow it, but can run out of ideas on how to use it. Well, I can tell you after watching Nathan on the first shoot...he is our answer. He "gets" gardening and he "gets" what we are looking for in recipes: simple, quick AND delicious.

This week's filming took place in North Carolina, but I was able to participate (via Skype) from here in Los Angeles. How cool is that?

That is me (in the middle) between Joe Lamp'l and Nathan Lyon.

As it turned out, I had the best seat in the house as Joe placed my computer screen directly across from the set, next to the main camera. (Poor Joe had to set over on the sidelines to watch. Ha!) I sat all day from the comfort of my chair at home and yet, I was part of the action every step of the way. It was actually good that I was home because I am fighting a cold. But, the guys took care of me! They even sat a bowl of the butternut squash soup Nathan made in front of the computer for me. Now that was nice. Ahhhhh.

I will post about future shoots as they happen. We will be taping around the country and will be doing some segments in my own garden as well.

And for those of you interested in canning and preserving, fear not! As the resident certified Master Food Preserver, I will be featured on some segments to teach all about preserving your harvest. Great stuff!

You guys are getting the "behind the scenes" information before any of the shows air. Stay tuned...

Photo Credits: All GGW Photos by Jordan Crossingham

That Movie Garden Is NOT Real!

This past week, I received one phone call and two emails from several different friends across the country who were drooling over a "California garden" they saw in a movie. They wanted to let me know how envious they were that we had such incredible, luscious, picture-perfect vegetable gardens out here.

Huh?

Apparently, they just saw the movie, "It's Complicated" and they fell in love the kitchen garden of Meryl Streep's character. It is an incredible vegetable garden that is supposed be in sunny California. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I did see photos of the garden in question.

Now folks, I live in Los Angeles and yes, we can garden all year round. And yes, we can have lovely gardens here.

We are lucky...but not lucky enough to have a garden like the one in the movie! That garden is a Hollywood set!

The picture perfect plants? They were greenhouse grown and set in the ground hours before shooting. The lovely tomatoes? Wired on!

It is just like how the picture-perfect, photo-shopped models on the magazine covers make us all feel inadequate and fat -- Movie gardens like the one in "It's Complicated" made gardeners around the world wonder why THEIR garden never looks that good. Fear not people....it is an illusion! Don't feel inadequate! Know that the movie garden is beautiful and even inspiring...but a garden that perfect it is only attainable if you have a slew of set designers working in your backyard...or a whole lot of time on your hands.

Don't believe me? Read this account in the LA Times.

Please know that our California gardens do get bugs, disease, brown leaves and even frost (although rarely). Just like you, there are times when our gardens look incredible and times when they look, well...REAL. Bug bites and all.

I hope that makes everyone feel better.

Patrick Blanc & The Vertical Garden

There has been a buzz in the gardening world for the last few years about Patrick Blanc, a man with a green wall vision. Many of you have heard of him or at least seen his work in magazines or on television. But for those of you who have not, you are in for a treat.

It is hard to describe the magnitude of what he creates, so it is best to just show you. This British video from the Chelsea Flower Show of 2008 explains Patrick Blanc's concept and includes an interview and footage of several of his living wall creations.

Give That Bulb A Drink!

I have been getting many questions lately about last year's post on using alcohol on forced bulbs. Since many of you need this information now, I am re-posting it here for all your reading pleasure...

Remember: One drink for the bulbs, one drink for you, one drink for the bulbs...

----------------------------

If you want to learn the basics for forcing paperwhite bulbs, go to my other post HERE. But for many, the most common problem with forcing paperwhites is that they grow too quickly and flop over.

Here is the trick to preventing that: GIVE THEM ALCOHOL!

Now in humans, a little alcohol will make them flop over and say silly things, but for bulbs, it stunts their growth and they DON'T flop over. Who would have thought? (I suppose alcohol could stunt our growth too, but we grow too slowly to notice.)

Researches at Cornell University discovered that by using a dilute solution of alcohol in the bulb water, the bulbs bloom as usual, but do not grow as tall. So, if you want to prevent flop-overs, just get your paperwhites all liquored up! (If you want to read the actual research paper, go HERE.)

Last year, I used alcohol in half my pots of paperwhites. It worked wonderfully! As you can see from the photo, the bulbs on the right (with alcohol) stayed a nice short size and bloomed normally. The bulbs on the left (just water - no alcohol) got very tall (and eventually flopped over).

I also used vodka with some bulbs and rubbing alcohol with others. I found that the vodka bulbs did the best. A few of the rubbing alcohol bulbs, got spots of yellow on the tips of the leaves which may have been my miscalculations in mixing the solution or perhaps they did not like the chemicals in the rubbing alcohol. The vodka bulbs looked normal.

Would I use the rubbing alcohol again? Yes, because it worked. I just had a few yellow tips. Nothing horrible.

HERE IS HOW YOU DO IT YOURSELF: Plant your paperwhites as described in my other post. Then when the bulbs start to grow and you have at least two inches of green shoots showing, pour out the water in the container and replace it with a solution of water and alcohol.

The solution needs to be about 5 % alcohol. A higher concentrations (10-20%) will kill the plants, so be careful. Use this solution instead of plain water for any further watering of your container. You can use Isopropyl (rubbing alcohol) or distilled spirits such as gin, vodka or whiskey. (Yes, even the heavy duty stuff.)

How do you calculate 5%? For Isopropyl alcohol (70%) , make a solution of one part alcohol to 10-11 parts water. For an 80 proof distilled spirit (40% alcohol) such as gin, you would add one part gin to seven parts water. Cheers!

Other tips:

If you already have paperwhites going and they are beginning to flop over, you can tie the drooping stems up. Add 2-3 stakes to the container and wrap raffia or ribbon around all the stems. Tie a festive bow.

Another way to prevent flop over is to keep the emerging bulbs out of bright light until they are at least 4 inches tall. It slows the growth a bit. But once they hit light (and if your house is very warm) they usually take off.

A final solution is to use tall clear-glass cylinder containers (like vases). That way if the paperwhites get too tall, they can't flop over because they are held in place by the vase.

Have fun with your bulb forcing and leave comments on how this technique works for you. Come back and post pictures in the comments too! I want to see how this works for others. I had great success with it! Good luck!

Recycle AND Create a Window Farm

Two NYC artists, Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray created a vertical window garden out of recycled water bottles. All the plants are grown hydroponically and it demonstrates how to get the most from a small city space.

Check it out...

Welcome to "Living Homegrown Fresh"

This website, formerly known as Garden Fresh Living, is now

Living Homegrown Fresh!

(Do a refresh of this page to see the new name at the top)

Why the name change? Living Homegrown Fresh better reflects what this website is all about:

Utilizing homegrown and local produce, herbs and flowers to

enrich our lives and feed our souls.

It is all about fresh FLAVORS, fresh COLORS, and fresh FRAGRANCES.

This website will continue to provide blog posts and video podcasts on the latest garden news, cool ideas, new garden tips/techniques, and fresh-from-the-garden recipes. We are also going to feature more in depth interviews of garden writers, authors, farmers and intriguing gardeners like  you -- Because everyone loves a compelling story!

In other news:

I am now the Associate Producer of the new gardening program "Growing A Greener World" (scheduled to air nationally on PBS in the spring of 2010). As AP, I am scouring the country for compelling garden stories, many of which will be featured here on this website. 

There are many, many exciting stories and features coming this way. Stay tuned for more...

I've Got Something Brewing...

 

Bare with me my garden friends!

I have something brewing and have been unable to update my blog the last few weeks. 

I will post about it soon...