Results of Grow Bag Experiment

We had what can only be described as a strange growing season. 

Early summer fires brought overcast skies along for the ride.  Seems like none of my farmer friends had very good crops.  

By comparison with last summer, I'd say the ground had given up.  The tomatoes got blossom end rot...something I will head off this next season.

Many vines just sort of wilted away.  My current belief is that I need to let the soil rest next year, so I'm going to be either growing all things in grow bags, OR I'm going to shell out for some earth boxes, OR I'm going to get crafty and create my own earth boxes.

This all being said, I got enough good veg. to dehydrate, freeze, or cook into sauces or can for the winter.  

As to the grow bag experiment, here are my findings:

Most of the tomatoes did not produce as expected.  The one exception to this is the tomato which STILL continue onward and upward at the side of the yard.  This is the one plant which was planted in a ten gallon bag.  Moral?  Next year, larger bags.

That one plant still has about twenty pieces of fruit on it which I'm hoping will ripen up.  It's been pretty cold here in Northern California, so I'm rather amazed that this one little twerp is hanging in there, when all his brothers and sisters have keeled over.

The other veggies planted in bags produced very little.  This could be because I didn't fertilize enough, or because of location in the yard.  

Oddly, the upside down guys produced fruit from vines of two years ago right up until I yanked their spindly selves from the hanging planters yesterday!  I cut them back, and am hoping for year three of growth.

Beet Ravioli Step FOUR: Sauce

The simpler the sauce, the better on this one.   I browned about three tablespoons of butter, a bit of sage and rosemary, and some pine nuts.  When the pasta had cooked, I plated it up, drizzled the pasta with the butter mix, and topped with the pine nuts, some fresh rosemary, and mizithra, although any hard Italian cheese would be groovy, I'm sure.

The results of this were wonderful!   Great with wine, and home made flat bread....which is another recipe to post at some point!  Mangia!

Beet Ravioli Step THREE

Next, you'll want to stir one egg together. You'll use this as a binding for your ravioli shells.
I have gone through much angst and drama in the past, laboriously creating my own pasta for these critters. These days, given my schedule and time factor, I use the wonton wrappers from the grocery store. This recipe will make enough beet mix for one entire package of wonton wrappers, or for one 2 cup size of pasta dough from scratch.

I set up about eight to ten wrappers, then brush all edges with the egg mixture using my handy pastry brush. I like the silicone brushes for this process since they don't leave behind the really nasty bits of brush that natural bristles will. I find myself picking sable hairs out of my paintings, which is pain in the neck enough for me, I don't want to pick them out of my cooking as well.

Onward....

Use one level teaspoon of filling for the ravioli. If you put too much in, it'll squoosh out the sides and won't hold when you boil them.

Carefully fold over the ravioli and pinch the edges. Some folks can do this on the sink, I'm a clutz and must do this by picking each one up, and pressing all edges pretty hard. If their is any leaking of filling, I find it easier to fix if I'm holding the individual ravioli.

When finished with all the ravioli, I toss them onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet with a bit of flour. I can stack three layers of ravioli, so long as I place wax paper and flour between each layer.

At this point, the whole works goes into the freezer, less the amount I want to keep out for dinner.

To cook, boil salted (teaspoon of sea salt) water to a low boil. Too rapid and it'll break up the puppies.

Drop them in gently, one at a time. If they are fresh, you'll only have to cook them about 40 seconds. If they are frozen, a little over a minute will do. They are done when the pop to the surface.

Beet Ravioli Step TWO

Beet Ravioli Step Two

Once beets have cooled, chop them into tiny pieces, and set aside.

Next: wash and finely chop the beet greens.
Chop the onion.
Smoosh the garlic.

Add onion to 2tbs. of good olive oil, and saute until just transparent.
Add chopped beet greens and saute until they wilt. The whole affair will shrink down to about
a cup of this mix.
Lastly, add the garlic. You could add it sooner, but me, I like more of a happy garlic moment in my cooking, and if you add it too soon, it takes the edge off too much for this cook.
Let this mix COOL down.

Get a clean small pan, and toss your almonds in. Toast them until they are brown. When they cool, whirl them in a blender---I'm fortunate to have a shmancy-Blendtec blender which makes the process a snap.
Set these aside.


Next:
Combine the goat cheese, ricotta, and gorgonzola in a separate bowl.
Stir to mix completely.
When this is done, incorporate the beets, and the beet green saute.
Stir again.
You can add more cheese at this juncture, or not. I did.
It's a pretty, pink bunch of goop at this point!

Beet Ravioli

Beet Ravioli

So I started trying to make odd recipes with the insane numbers of beets coming from the garden right now, and came up with this variation on ravioli. It's a tad labor intensive, but the yield is enormous and it was massively tasty.

Ingredients:
5 large beets
Beet greens from the beets.
Six *yes, six* cloves of garlic, crushed/diced/smooshed.
One onion, diced.
1/2 cup olive oil.
One package round won-ton wrappers...I'm lazy..what are you gonna do?
One egg.
2 cups of non fat ricotta, whose non-fatness will get balanced by
1/2 cup of crumbled gorgonzola and
1/3 cup of chevre.
Sea salt
Pepper
1/2 stick of butter
1 cup almonds
2 tbsp. pine nuts, or other nut like walnut. I just had these on hand.
diced fresh basil or other herb...rosemary is also pretty lush.


How you will be doing this:
Place beets into a roasting pan.
Drizzle with four tablespoons of olive oil.
Sprinke with sea salt and black pepper.
Roast for an hour, or until a knife goes in easily.
Peel them under running water---skin will come right off.

Stuffed Squash Blossoms.

I had been wanting to make some of these tasty treats for the longest of times. So, when the squash blossoms began to outnumber the actual squash, I picked off the male blossoms and followed my instincts about a recipe. I'm not much one to follow recipes, and had a vague memory of the how to on this one...so here's what I came up with.

Fried Squash Blossoms With Chevre, Chives, and basil.

Six to ten freshly picked and massively washed squash blossoms. (ants. Ick.)

Let the blossoms drain for a long while before stuffing.

Prepare a mixture of about a cup of soft chevre cheese, 2-3 tbs. of chopped basil. A half cut of chopped chives, and salt/pepper to taste. Mush it about in a bowl. Then transfer to a small zip-loc baggie.

Cut the tip off the baggie and carefully use it to pipe the chevre into the blossoms. 'Bout a tablespoon each, depending on the size of your blossoms.

Next, beat one egg and dredge the stuffed blossoms through the egg, then through a cup of mixed Italian bread crumbs, and flour.

Heat about 6 tbs. of olive oil in a non stick skillet and carefully lay the blossoms into the oil when it's hot. Let them cook till brown, then flip them...cook again 'till brown.

I can almost guarantee that you will not be able to stop eating these.

Grow bag tomato experiment

Last year I took on the upside down tomato challenge.  And those tomatoes grew most wonderfully.  Indeed, two of them survived winter, and are again producing tomatoes.

This year, I decided to try grow bags in order to cram more produce into a small spot.  The results?  Wonderful.....  Next year, I intend to let the soil in my yard rest for the year...and grow bags will replace the ground planted tommies.  Each tomato grow bag can be totally monitored in terms of soil ph or levels of magnesium.  So simple.  The hardest work I've done on these was the painful filling of the bags.  I'm just really not that coordinated.