recipes pickles etc

already i'm starting to toy with what to do with all of my produce once it comes to harvest time as i would preferably like to enjoy the fruits of my labour for as long as possible.

a few weeks ago i had a surplus of rather green tomatoes that i didn't know what to do with, i just hate fruit that aren't left to ripen in the sun as most store bought produce is and so generally i just buy green and use them like that. this time i wanted not only to do something useful with the extra fruit, but also wanted to try my hand at preserving.

so i made green tomato and black pepper jam, it was de-licious! i had about a kilo of fruit and after removing all the seeds got 2 jars of jam from the pot. this wasn't made from a recipe but turned out to be one of those projects i love when common sense is turned into lovely food.

http://www.dvo.com/newsletter/monthly/2009/july/tabletalk3.html

i pretty much boiled the finely chopped tomato flesh (about 2 big cups) with 2 cups of sugar, around a table spoon of milled black pepper, a teaspoon of nutmeg, some salt and about 2 cups of water for roughly 2 hours (wasn't really keeping time as my hopes weren't that high then) until the syrup was the same consistency as syrup from the shops and then bottled the hot liquid in 2 honey jars (remember to fill the jar up right to the top as air = spoil and seal tightly). i promise that next time a strict recipe will be recorded
watch this space...



i really was surprised as to how easy jam-making was and started to then look around for other preservation recipes that i would like to try in the near future. here are some of them, enjoy!

http://www.ohpicklescompany.com/

pickles


Soak your cucumbers (sliced or whole picklers) overnight in the fridge in the following brine solution:
1/2 Gal. of water combined with 1/3 Cup of Salt.
Rinse well in the morning. Place the following in each quart jar:
2 cloves garlic
1 TBSP dill seed ( dill flowers also add beauty and great flavor)
1/2 TBSP Mustard seed.
Bring the following to a boil:
4 1/2 cups of vinegar
9 TBSP salt
3 TBSP sugar
9 cups of water.
Pack the brined cucumbers in the jars already containing the garlic cloves, dill and mustard .Pour the prepared hot liquid over the packed jars, leaving a 1/2 inch headspace. Seal with 2 piece lids.
Hot water bath for 20 minutes. Let cure for a least a couple weeks before eating.
from http://heirloomacresseeds.com/CatalogPrd.asp?prm=358

preserved lemons

250g coarse sea salt
12 lemons , unwaxed, 6 juiced, 6 quartered but still joined at the bottom
8 black peppercorns
3 star anise
3 bay leaves

Pack a little salt into each lemon and squash back into shape. Wedge them into a large sterilised jar, layering with salt, bay leaves, peppercorns and star anise as you go. (To sterilise, wash in hot soapy water, rinse and put in the oven at 140C/fan 120C/gas 1 for 15 minutes.) Pour over the lemon juice (if there's not enough liquid to fill, top with water) then seal. Give the jar a turn every few days to redistribute the salt and leave for 4-6 weeks.
from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3555/preserved-lemons 

reg's lemon cordial
makes approx. 3 litres

juice and finely grated rind of 8 medium–large lemons (approx 400mls of lemon juice/rind)
2kgs sugar
25g tartaric acid
50g citric acid
2L boiling water

put all dry ingredients and lemon juice into a saucepan, then add boiling water slowly.
bring to a gentle boil, mix to dissolve, then cool.
bottle, and store in the fridge.
serve diluted with water or soda-water according to taste.
from http://bri-eats.blogspot.com/2009/11/cookbook-challenge-week-1-lemon-cordial.html

preserved radishes

pink radishes
cider vinegar
a few onion slices
one or two lemon slices
a few black peppercorns
a saucepan
canning jars and lids

clean and dry the radishes, leaving just a bit of the stalk intact. In a saucepan, boil the cider vinegar for approximately one to two minutes to concentrate it.
let it cool, uncovered.
put the radishes in a canning jar, mixing in a few onion slices, one or two lemon slices, and a few black peppercorns.
pour in the cooled vinegar and close airtight.
allow the radishes to stand three months before using them.
the red pigment of the radishes blends with the vinegar, giving it a nice pinkish color. these radishes make an unusual but delicious condiment for cold meats, especially grilled or smoked ones, or for salads and rice (slice them first), for example.
from http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/homemade-holiday-gift-preserved-radishes/

pickled beetroot

about 1 kg of beetroot
4 cups vinegar (I used 2 cups white & 2 cups apple cider)
1 1/2 cups sugar (more or less may be used, depending on your preference)
1 tsp ground cinnamon (or 1 cinnamon stick)
about 8 cloves
10-12 peppercorns

place beets in a pot and cover with water and then boil gently for around 20 minutes until tender. leaving the tap roots and stalks uncut while cooking prevents loss of flavour occurring from excess bleeding.

bring pickling brine ingredients (everything else) to a boil in another pot, stirring occasionally to allow sugar to dissolve and spices to infuse.

chop beetroot into edible pieces, chunks or slices or even grated and place in a sterilised jar. cover the beets with the pickling mixture leaving about 1cm space at the top of the jar. seal and store.
adapted from http://slowlivingessentials.blogspot.com/2010/12/homegrown-pickled-beetroot.html

melon and ginger jam (my favourite!)

1 kg jam melon (prepared weight),
such as honeydew or casaba
250 g preserved ginger, diced
1 kg sugar
juice of 6 lemons
1⁄4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. peel the melon and remove the seeds. cut the flesh into tiny cubes. mix the melon, ginger and sugar in a non-reactive bowl and leave overnight.
2. transfer the melon, ginger and sugar to a pan and boil until the melon is transparent. Add the lemon juice and cayenne pepper and continue to boil until setting point is reached.
variation: use 100 g peeled, diced fresh ginger instead of the preserved ginger.
3. bottle in jamjars ensuring that as little air as possible stays inside the bottle.
from http://www.readersdigest.co.za/melon-ginger-jam-recipe/


these recipes are good basics to start from so go ahead and try different combinations or fruit. pretty much any fruit can be turned into jam although some might require the addition of extra pectin and almost any vegetable can be pickled from cucumbers traditionally to chillies and cauliflower.

let me know what happens please! :)

wednesday... play with your food!!

So inevitably while searching for images of giant vegetables, i came across so many excellent pieces of food sculpture that i had to share some with you...

so just for fun, here we go!

http://creoflick.net/img/Amazingly-Creative-Food-Art-4445

http://www.lostateminor.com/2010/08/31/eating-art-or-eatable-art-that-is-the-question/

love LOVE these!! more on: http://villageofjoy.com/fruit-and-vegetable-art/

http://weirdspy.com/food-art/

http://www.oppapers.com/blog/9-crazy-creative-pumpkin-carvings/

excellent! http://egyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/03/creative-vegetable-art.html

http://picsphotosimages.blogspot.com/2008/10/funny-fruits-vegetables.html

amazing bento! http://www.annathered.com/2009/01/27/bento30-raving-rabbid-bento-2/

http://terriblefunny.blogspot.com/p/funny-fruits-vegetables.html

http://curiousphotos.blogspot.com/2009/11/creative-fruit-vegetable-art-17-pics.html

that's my boy!

expectations are always high when starting a new project, especially a garden. we all start out at the beginning with grand ideas about how beautiful and lush our foliage will become, how easy it will be to walk out to the back yard and harvest your dinner, how no weed will ever invade and of course that every single fruit of your labour will receive a spot in the guinness book of records. ah to dream...

the truth is that growing anything takes dedication, time and a huge amount of hard work, so as a little encouragement to all of you amateur gardeners out there, here are a few of the world's biggest vegetables... just to get you motivated! :)

All captions are taken from the source websites.

Joe Atherton from Mansfield Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire, has been growing prize vegetables for over 15 years and World Record success finally came in 2007 for the longest carrot in the world, a staggering length of over 19 feet!.

16lb 8³/₈oz - The world's largest onion was grown using humates. It was exhibited at the Harrogate Autumn Show, UK in 2005.

 LOS ANGELES, CA -- The Segee family in Leimert Park (daughters Jai'Neil, Dee'Anna, Jai'Lynn, mom Tiffany and dad Vernon) has cultivated a 28-pound cucumber-setting the world record for the Largest organic cucumber.

Gerald Treweek, a retired coal miner, raises his world-beating onions by hydroponics - nutrient solution. They don't grow in soil but on an artificial medium in tanks. Every so often they're flooded with nutrient-enriched water, then allowed to dry out before the next dousing.

Bernard Lavery is pictured here cradling his record 108.2 lb marrow. This is a vegetable commonly grown in Britain and is considered part of the autumn squash family. Bernard is known for growing hugely oversized plants and vegetables and has held the largest marrow record since 1990.

Check out the World’s Biggest Pumpkin that grew from half tons of manure, it weighs 1457 lbs, a little bit more than a Mini Cooper.

world's biggest banana :)

This prize potato, grown by Peter Glazebrook, tips the scales at a whopping 8lbs 4oz (3.76kg), smashing the previous world record by 9oz.

268.8-pound watermelon grown by Lloyd Bright, Arkansas

Lebanese farmer Khalil Semhat, from the southern city of Tyre, couldn't believe his peeled eyes when he discovered he had grown a massive potato weighing 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds), setting a record for the world's largest potato.

Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklahoma, holds the honor of growing the world?s largest tomato, which he harvested from his backyard greenhouse back in 1986

Titan Arum, the so-called largest vegetable flower, came into blossom at the Guangzhou Vegetable Park on Wednesday. This edible purple flower has a diameter of one meter.

 

The couple Sergio and Ma. Socorro Bodiongan
holds the Guinness Book of World Records'
Biggest Mango in the World.

plants can't kill zombies!!?!

this article started formulating after once again playing one of my favorite games of all time, plants v/s zombies.

brains!

as i was once again planting virtually to defend my house's honor i got to thinking about all the amazing things i've seen people do with plants that transcend the normal boundaries of the westernised idea of agriculture. my motivation is this thought i've been walking around with for years planted in my mind by my aunt aka crisi creating that entails replacing traditional fences that apparently protect our properties with thorned hedges that will not only keep criminals out, but also scar them if they try anything at all! this concept will work with any kind of thorny shrubs such as climbing roses and can be doubled up as food if you use blackberries for instance. the other bonus to this concept is that we can use the existing structures of those horrible looking palisade fences as a strong existing growing frame for these hedges.

you must understand that johannesburg is a dangerous place just like any other city in the world but for some reason we have all gotten it into our minds that drawing little boxes around our stuff is the way forward. as you can probably infer by my tone, i don't like this at all and don't have a fence around my own house! i find it insulting that the only thing you see now driving down a suburban road in my city is a corridor of 10 foot walls and the occasional sidewalk flowerbed rather than appreciating the homes and gardens around you. on top of that aesthetic faux pas it's also not as safe as people think, keeping criminals inside your property as much as it keeps them out. we also suffer from isolation as very few people in this city still know their neighbors since they too share in this debilitating trend that has hit my country post apartheid. seriously!? is this what we really feel about ourselves and our country?

so here is my list of amazing things you can do with plants, partly because there are images in this world worth sharing and partly to sow the seed of change in the minds of some. :)

we CAN change this world if we choose to and in my opinion this will start only when you begin to embrace the beauty of your environment rather than perpetuating it's fears. down with the walls!!!

love this fence! stunning to look at and useful as most of the plants are edible or medicinal, you get the idea :)

this is so south african to me, reminds me of the farm... also, cacti are fast growing and some even have poisonous spines, kry vir jou burglars!!

another beautiful cactus fence, nobody is getting through that without a fight.

  

this is beautiful! and if these elephants were covered in thorns i think they might be as formidable as their mammalian counterparts, they already look like you wouldn't be able to get past :)

 

creative approach to high fencing. i must say that anyone who has ever attempted to get through a hedge of this size will know that it's impossible... this will take you a few years though

oh the french!

 

i had to add this for it's pure splendor! this is stunning!! not very practical i know, but if this doesn't get the creative juices flowing, i don't know what will

your house could even become a tourist attraction :)

  

and finally, here's one for the skeptics! 

  peace!

can't grow? buy from here..

let me start out by saying that my favorite way to garden is on a budget! growing food is not supposed to be a super expensive thing to do, it's hard work and if money will be an issue as well it might be better simply to buy your veggies from farmers or shops who in my opinion really need your support!

here are 5 of my favourite spots in and around johannesburg to buy veg that is grown in a sustainable way.

1. community garden on corner weltevreden and pendoring roads, blackheath

i can't give you contact details for this one unfortunately as this garden is managed by a group of local people who generally find themselves in tough financial situations to be extremely pc! they therefore need your support as much as you need their amazing products. they don't advertise either or have a sign on the gate, so if the gate is open, go in and say hi. their produce is extremely 'cost effective' and they stock only what is in season, so this is more of a hit and miss outlet that you need to grow a relationship with. the garden is clearly visible from the road behind an old scout hall (i think), check out the map above.

2. kerk straat, johannesburg cbd

the best place to get a huge variety of f&v every day of the week! easy to find on foot, but not so simple if you drive a car.. try to find parking pretty much anywhere in marshalltown and go on foot to the market which is on the street roughly between eloff and simmonds streets. everything is extremely cheap and most things are good! there is unfortunately no way to tell at this market whether or not the produce is organic etc so use your eyes, irregular shapes and stalls with a smaller seasonal variety of goods usually point out the homegrown stuff!


3. the fordsburg saturday night market

photograph from www.fordsburg.com

love love love this market!!! the only night market left in johannesburg that caters to everyone, these guys sell everything, not just food. check out their website for more info on the town.
i do tours with jo buitendach and Past Experiences to this market from time to time, best place to check this out: past experiences





 
4. the Joburg Market

the largest fresh produce market in africa, it might be a little out of the way, but you will be able to get absolutely anything there!! make sure to ask the suppliers about growing methods etc before buying as a lot of these guys farm on a huge scale. the market is also planning on expanding in the near future to include meat and fish to their offerings.
another location to which we do tours, please contact Past Experiences here for more info please
visit past experiences

5. organic box schemes (deliveries)


here is another great way to get good food! why not subscribe to an organic small box scheme? so far there aren't so many in jozi, but follow the link above for a few options. this innovation brings your veg to you at your home or office and is great for people on the go with little or no time to investigate the markets.

this list is not intended to be a directory of all places that you can visit, but rather to show that not all vegetable shopping has to be expensive or a mission to do.

if you know of any other market spaces that you thin i should check out, please send me the details!?! i'm always up for exploring my city! :)

the radish spirit

like most people i did not like radishes one bit when i was a kid! that sharp peppery shot in the back of your throat that left tears in your eyes and a nasty aftertaste wasn't exactly my first choice as a standard addition to the salad. but those dishes were popular before the arrival of feta cheese in south africa and long before anyone knew that a radish could be used for anything else.

luckily i grew up!

i must admit that my new found admiration for this striking vegetable started while reading "Setting free the bears" by John Irving (one of my favorites!). in this book one of the main characters has a lovely habit of stealing salt shakers from every place he visits so that he can enjoy his daily lunch of radishes out of a paper bag. so being your average sucker romantic i found this to be one of the most original quirks ever assigned to a literary character and naturally had to try a radish again.. you know, to live the story and surprisingly they suited my prejudiced adult palate.

another equally enchanting reference is found in the film "Spirited Away" which shows a radish spirit helping out the main character chihiro. the radish features heavily in japanese food so one would expect to see it around at one point or another, but i was completely taken by how calm and wise the representation of this vegetable was illustrated showing a respect that is given only to the most basic of our staple foods.

today i eat them with everything from cheese sandwiches to stews and have found that i cannot live without them anymore. this craving also finally pushed me over the edge and i had to plant some for my personal use.
i must say that growing radishes must be one of the easiest things i have ever done! they sprout in 3 or 4 days and you can start picking about 3 weeks later, the perfect thing for entry level gardeners to try out.

1. grow from seed in well turned soil rather than trays and make sure to give them plenty of water.
2. i covered them with a raised wire mesh for the first week or so to keep the birds away, but i tend to do that with most plants grown from seed..
3. other than that the only issue with this plant will be that you will run out of them pretty quickly, be sure to plant a small square every week or two rather than sowing only one bed.
4. also, they are much sharper than store bought radishes, so test out different varieties until you find the ones you like the most.
5. radishes can be grown as easily in containers as in gardens so they're great for small spaces also.

finally getting started

the business of getting down and starting a garden is a long and arduous journey that starts the day you are born and never ever ends. it is, in my humble opinion a vocation rather than a hobby and no true gardener will ever be happy unless covered in dirt and creating a haven for plants of all kinds.

some of my earliest memories are of playing in my parents' flower beds and learning how to prepare the ground for new trees, experiences that now steer my own ambitions of growing everything in sight! needless to say that every spare minute of my time is occupied by pruning and composting, planting and weeding.

i'm going to show you what i'm growing, what problems i'm experiencing and how i go about fixing these.. hope you enjoy this as much as i do!

:)