Garden Update!

Last fall, we put in a few herbs in a single bed (dill, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme).  After some trial and error, we added some mint and chives.  As you can see, the herbs have really taken advantage of the early spring rain and cool weather of the last few months!

Emboldened by the success of the herb garden, we upgraded to some vegetables. Our crook-neck squash plants are growing like crazy, and we're hoping the newly planted beans (bushy italian long beans and wax beans, no trellis required) will do the same.

We rounded out the garden beds on that side of the yard with some basil, oregano, and epazote. Between the four beds and the potato bucket, we now have a pretty respectable victory garden taking up half of our front yard.

As of this posting, Ariana is on her way back into town with a some marjoram, tarragon, and carrot starts to finish the last bed.  Once those are planted, our little vegetable garden will be complete. With a little luck (and regular watering in the evening) we will be enjoying a nice little crop of potatoes, beans, squash, and carrots later this year.

But with all these hearty vegetables, we got to thinking.  What about fruit?  To remedy this terrible problem, Sarah and I planted an dwarf naval orange tree this afternoon.  It will be awhile yet before we see any fruit, but the orange blossoms should attract plenty of bees and other pollinating insects to keep everything happy.

Vegetable Stock Becomes Hummus

Making vegetable stock is easy and can form the flavor base for other cooking projects.  I like to save vegetable cuttings (potato skins, onion parts, carrot greens and the like) in a bin in the freezer, then make vegetable stock every week or two. You can use most vegetable remains, so long as you don't add any brassicas (think cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, etc).  A good rule of thumb is that if it tastes bitter when eaten raw, keep it out of your stock.

Just dump the frozen vegetable bits into a crock pot and cover with water. Throw in a bay leaf, maybe a clove or garlic or some black pepper if you want.  Cook overnight or even for 24 hours.

The stock makes a great cooking liquid.  I like to use it for beans, because I can just strain out the vegetable pieces and add dried beans and use the crock pot again without having to clean it.  This time I cooked chickpeas.

But once you make a bunch of chickpeas, it's only a matter of time before someone turns them into humus!