An Cooking

Serves 4
Ingredients:

2 cups orange lentils (washed and drained)

This has been the most difficult of the 4 years we have been gardening, by far. I am hearing lots of lamenting from other gardeners too. One person said it was the worst year in the 34 years he has been gardening. Ouch.


Mind you, we are still persevering. Above, we planted our leeks in the "wet" bed in the usual way. Note how dry it looks. Yeah, thats right. We have had about 80ml of rain since APRIL 1st. We should have had northwards of 400ml by now.



Mr. Ferdzy whacks those holes in the ground to drop in the leeks.


And I water them in. Cant tell you how many hours we have spent watering this year. Up over a hundred by now, I would say.


Were getting better (and by we, lets face it, I mean Mr. Ferdzy) at getting those trellises up. They do help keep the veggies neat and organized, which is more important than you might think when it comes to harvesting. Especially since we grow a lot of indeterminate heirlooms, which tend to be long and rangy plants compared to most modern varieties, which tend to be more compact.


One of the advantages to the larger heirloom plants is showing up in the tomatoes. We  have septoria spot again this year, and the compact little Bellestar are again in a race to produce anything before they lose all their leaves and die. I think next year we cant grow them, even though in theory they produce so much in such a small spot. Above, Mr. Ferdzy attempts to stem the tide of septoria spot by removing the most badly affected leaves. This was a week ago; I cant tell if it helped. New leaves are turning yellow and spotted daily. Ho hum.


My own pile of yellow spotted leaves waiting removal to the garbage - I do do a few things around the garden besides take pictures. When we remove diseased plant materials we throw them away, rather than put them into the compost. The compost should be hot enough to kill them, but it isnt guaranteed by any means. Better safe than sorry.

We had septoria spot last year, as well as bean yellow mosaic. Bean yellow mosaic looks like its back too, along with squash yellow mosaic. All these things are transmitted by insects. I read an article in the spring about how many butterflies are around this year - 10 times as many as usual of one variety - and wasnt that lovely? Yeah, thats lovely. Not so lovely is the fact that we have about 10 times as many of a whole lot of other things. Im seeing insects Ive never seen before in my life this year, a lot. Its practically a daily occurance.


Melons, in the foreground, are way behind where we expected them to be with all this heat. They have been swarmed by cucumber beetles and squash bugs since the day we planted them out. We have been picking them (bugs not plants) and dropping them into the "jar of death"  (water with a little soap, so they drown quickly). We probably had about 50% mortality in our early melon and cucumber transplants, and have had to reseed most of them.

Weve given up on trying to pick the cucumber beetles. We probably picked several thousand of them before we conceeded that there was no way we were keeping  up. The squash bugs have been more successfully controlled. We water the plants thoroughly, wait for them to climb up on the leaves to get dry, then pick them off. Their numbers are more in the dozens than in the hundreds. However, there are certainly still enough to kill plants. Where do they keep coming from?


Zucchini are particularly hard hit by the cucumber beetles and squash bugs. Weve yanked out a couple that were the first to show signs of the yellow squash mosaic virus.


Didnt do any good though; the rest are starting to show signs of it too. Goodbye zucchini. We might get a few before they are too badly affected to eat.


Peas and squash in the "wet" bed look fairly good from a distance. We are watering these just as much as any of the other beds, which is annoying. They are inconvenient to water - the whole point was that they were in a low, wet spot and wouldnt NEED watering. Maybe next year.

The peas are dying down, which is fine. They are an early summer veg, and we left 2 varieties to produce seed rather than picking them.


Cucumbers show how badly off they are - half of these died and the other half are pretty stunted. Havent had time to get them up on tomato cages yet, but it hardly matters.


Another pretty view of the garden, looking very structural. Mr. Ferdzy added some more yesterday, these ones for electric fencing to go around the corn.


The corn has been attacked by the cucumber beetles, and is a bit spotty but mostly outgrew them. However, something has been knocking them over and chewing the stems.


More chewing damage. The electric fence has not kept whatever critter it is out. We thought rabbits or raccoons, but maybe it was squirrels or rats. I did see a rat when I was weeding yesterday - first one Ive seen in 4 years. It was big and fat and sleek - cute as a button, really. Like a lot of cute as a button critters I was nevertheless not entirely pleased to see it. Rat-traps, ahoy.

The animals have been relentless this year. A mild winter, followed by the dreadful lack of water, has meant there are a lot of them and they are all desperate for anything moist and juicy; otherwise known as our garden. Also, the next door neighbour used to feed all the local stray cats. He moved out this month and stopped feeding them last month, and they have dispersed. All the things they used to keep away are coming back. I think thats why we have the rat, actually.

Overall, we are very discouraged. We are doing twice as much work as usual and will probably get half to two-thirds the usual harvest. Maybe. Dont know what else to say; we are not the only ones. The apple harvest around  here will fall somewhere between dismal and non-existant, and Niagara isnt doing much better that I can tell. Local grain fields look okay; but hearing that the U.S. is going to have a noticeably diminished crop.

Hows it going where you are?

Here is my sons birthday cake. It is from Nigellas Feast and is a Chocolate Guinness Cake, mega amounts of butter and sugar, plus cream cheese, double cream & icing sugar in the icing. This is the third time Ive made it for him, it was a special request.

 

Rainbow cake

Ingredients:

1.  
   Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Do this before you get started making the batter.
   
2.  
   Mix the dry ingredients. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small mixing bowl. Use a whisk to stir the ingredients and make sure they are well mixed.
   
3.  
   Combine the wet ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar using a hand or stand mixer, or by vigorously mixing the ingredients with a spoon or spatula. Keep beating or stirring the ingredients while you slowly add the egg whites to the mixture. Add the vanilla and milk and continue mixing until all of the wet ingredients are combined.
   
4.  
   Stir in the flour mixture. Add about half of the dry mixture to the wet ingredient and stir. Then add the rest in and mix until well incorporated.
   
5.  
   Divide and dye the batter. Pour equal amounts of batter into six different bowls. Dye each bowl of batter a different color of the rainbow by pouring in a few drops of the six different food colorings. Stir each bowl of batter well, continuing to add more food coloring until the batter reaches the color you like.
   * If you use gel food coloring, you only need a drop or two to achieve a rich hue. If youre using liquid food coloring, you may need to use several drops.
    If you have a standard set of food coloring that comes with red, yellow, blue and green, create the extra colors by combining the colors you have. Orange= red +yellow
   Purple = blue + red
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Scoop the batter into two greased cake pans. Use a small measuring cup to scoop some red batter into a a cake pan. Use a different cup to scoop some yellow batter into the same pan. The two colors can touch, but dont pour one directly on top of another. Continue scooping different-colored batters into the cake pan until youve used half the batter from all of the bowls. Repeat with the second cake pan and the remaining batter.
7.  
   Bake the cake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick  comes out clean. Dont over bake the layers, as this could affect the rainbow colors; avoid letting the tops get brown.
   When the layers are ready, remove them from the oven and let them cool.

I am so excited to share a "discovery" I found on the Utah State University web site. Maybe you already knew about this one, but I sure didnt.

It is a recipe for a simple dry mix that can be used in place of any "cream of ... soup"  in most recipes. 

How many times have you wanted to make a quick inexpensive casserole for your family, but the recipe takes $3+ worth of cream of chicken soup ?!? Problem solved!!

BASIC SOUP or SAUCE MIX
2 cups powdered non-fat milk
3/4 cups cornstarch
1/4 cup instant chicken bullion
2 tablespoons dry onion flakes
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (optional)

Mix ingredients and store in an airtight container.  The above jar is equal to NINE (10½ ounce) cans of "cream of .... soup"!! No need to refrigerate the dry mix.

For any recipe that calls for a creamed soup, mix 1¼ cups of water with 1/3 cup of the above dry mix. Whisk together until smooth and cook (or microwave) until thick.  Thats it!!   Add it to any casserole like you would a can of soup!!

The USU web site has a lot of recipes using this mix (they call it the Soup or Sauce mix). Here is the web address: SOUP OR SAUCE MIX

Im thinking I will make another batch using beef bullion and some dehydrated mushrooms for mushroom soup!!  With the holidays coming up, I usually buy mass amounts of creamed soups, but not this year!!

The USU recipe link posted this cream of tomato soup recipe:
1/3 cup soup or sauce mix
1¼ cups cold water
Cook until thick, then stir in:
2 cups tomato sauce
Heat back up...serves 3

What could be easier? I threw in a pinch of red pepper flakes  for a little zip and a pinch of sugar.  The possibilities are endless!!

WBB is on its 4th Fortnight. I shall be travelling from 30th August and Pavani from Cooks Hideout has very kindly volunteered to take over hosting for WBB # 4.

Please send her your entries by 31st August at cookshideout@gmail.com with the title WBB# 4. The entries that I have already received, shall be forwarded to her. I request you to please spread the word in your post, that this time, its Pavani who is doing the hosting.

Ive also got this feedback, that the fortnightly event is getting a bit confusing for people to time their entries. Im thinking about making it a monthly event.

Probably next time onwards, we shall have themes to work on breakfast For eg: Baked goodies, Cooking with fruit, From other cultures and so on. I can already think of so many! More on this after the WBB # 4 round up, when Im back from my trip...

The rules are the same:

• The entry must be a dish that can be served at breakfast.
• It must be posted on your blog before 31st August.
• Send an email to Pavani at cookshideout@gmail.com with the following:

Title and permalink of post, name and url of your blog, your name and location. Images sent can be resized to 75px X 75px for the convenience of the host.

See you all at the round up then!

Although labor intensive, you’ll be reaping rewards many times over each and every time you open a jar and partake of your pickled sockeye deliciousness…

water, soap and Clorox)- Important!
-Disposable gloves (or very clean hands you’ll be washing often)


prepared onion and lemons in separate bowls close by as well; plus the brine and a ladle, and butter knife.
out as an expiration date. Important! – Place tightly secured jars initially ‘upside down’ to cure for 7 days (to allow the spices to be evenly distributed) before eating, and then turn ‘right-side-up’ until expiration date. The pickled sockeye will keep up to 6 months from jarring date. ~ Enjoy!