How Does Your Garden Grow?

A backyard harvest

In a large field? Or your apartment balcony? Or maybe grocery store shelves?

When I was little, my family had a little garden plot behind our garage. I'm sure none of my friends even saw it. We had some tomato plants and peppers, but the thing I remember most was the massive rosemary bush. I remember convincing my mom to get me a little 2'X8" garden box once. I was going to plant carrots. That never happened, and I sort of lost interest in any sort of gardening, but for the last month, I have had the song "Oats, Green Beans, and Barley Grow" stuck in my head. It poses an important question: Do you or I or anyone know, how oats, green beans, and barley grow? Nope. Not in any sort of detail at least. I don't think it has much to do with stamping and clapping, as the song suggests, but I thought I would do something about it.

I picked up from the library (and quickly finished- it's not a difficult read) City Farmer, by Lorraine Johnson. It is an interesting book exploring different aspects of farming in the least expected place: anywhere there is land. Usually we feel edible plants must be found outside of the city boundaries. Picture pumpkins growing in New York. It just does not seem to jive well with our concepts of urbanization. However, Johnson argues that cities are some of the best places to grow your food.

First of all, it's where the people are. Sure, those people can go to grocery stores, and there will always be some need for that, but home grown food is so much tastier, healthier, and gives us a connection to our health.

Second, there is a community. Gardening is a lot of work, and goes by much more quickly if you are doing it with friends. Schools are major part of urban development, and gardens on school land provide educational opportunities.

Possibly the most important argument for urban agriculture is the amount of land available. At first it may seem disguised, but the stats reveal a lot. About one third of Detroit is abandoned land. My favorite passage from this book is one that describes the amount of land available in Vancouver, BC. A man named Michael Levenston calculated out how much of its own food Vancouver could grow. He took the amount of land available, adjusted it (for example, not everyone is going to want a garden in their backyard, and some land is too shady), and approximated yield. What he found is that Vancouver can produce a surplus of vegetables for their population. Crazy.

Johnston suggests just plant something. Anything. It doesn't have to take up your whole yard, or even part. It could be as simple as a few potted herbs or a tomato plant. It is weird to be thinking of gardening this time of year in Nova Scotia. There is no green in sight, except for stop lights and green painted houses. Everything is a gloomy white, but soon spring will be here. It's worth a thought, though.

Picture by Lynn Szwalkiewicz. Creative Commons Copyright license, some rights reserved.

Statistics taken from City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing by Lorraine Johnson, 2010.

The Vegan Experiment

This semester I am taking a nutrition course, which has been really interesting. In the western world, we place meat on the pedestal of our meal, and accompany it with sides of vegetables and starches. One thing I have discovered is I eat way too much protein. How much, you ask?

About twice as much as I need.

Imagine what I'd look like if I ate twice as much fat as I needed. *Gulp*. Our professor is a dietitian who treats people daily in the "real world", and she stresses balance and habit. You don't become overweight over night. You have to make eating properly a habit. Likewise, eating all the iron you'll need for the week in one day is a bad idea.

For our current assignment, we are supposed to "test drive" a diet. In this sense, diet means what you eat, like "the diet of a lion," not "drop 10 pounds". The options were Mediterranean Diet, Celiac Diet, Vegan, Hypertension Diet, and Local Diet. The point is to see what sort of limitations other people face, and see the financial impact of these diets. Ideally, with careful planning, they should not cost more than you usually spend. Our trial diet is supposed to last 2 weeks.

I am now on day six of my Vegan experience. Vegetarianism and Veganism isn't something that I would support because of moral grounds- I think eating animals is a perfectly moral option, so long as they are treated ethically. The diet was tempting, however, because of the amount of meat I eat. I wanted to see what sort of alternative dishes I could prepare, and what tofu tastes like, again.

So far, it's been a good experience, even though I made some bloopers on a couple days. My "family" (boarding hosts) is joining me on this adventure, and we have had Squash and Lentil Curry; Beans and Rice; and I made myself a stir fry (featuring tofu) one night. Tonight, I am making Peppery Red Wine Capellini... it looks so yummy! Another one I want to try is Stuffed Red Peppers.

One surprising thing is the things you can eat, as a vegan. I was scanning PETA's "Accidentally Vegan" list, and found Oreos. Who would have thought...

Eventually, when I get in the position where I am cooking all the meals, I would like to try to incorporate some vegan or vegetarian dishes. They are full of vitamins and minerals because of the diversity in fruits and vegetables, and cost about the same as featuring a meat dish. They also offer some diversity in the weekly routine of cooking.

Pies + Jars = Cuteness + Yumm!

I found this cute cute party favor idea on Etsy and thought to myself, "Self, I bet you can do that!"

Sure, you can always spend $10 to have a cute pie-in-a-jar made for you and shipped overnight, but isn't it sooo much more scrumptious to make it yourself? (Not to mention a little more budget friendly, especially considering the amount of jars my family has around)

In my quest for a recipe, I discovered that they can be frozen before baking, and then pulled out at a moment's notice! What a great idea for single people or empty nesters- no obligation to eat a whole pie. You just bake enough for one and don't finish off more than your share of sugars for the day. So I thought I'd try it out. Originally I was going to freeze it, but then I figured, what the heck. It's not every day I make apple pie. So yummy!

Then over the last week I made a trip over to Brooks, Alberta. My grandma had some of my aunt's famous pie crust in the freezer, and some of her famous cherry pie filling. Now, I am my grandmother's granddaughter, and acquired her sweet tooth, but my grandfather has diabetes. So I whipped up some jars to prevent them from trying to finish off a pie too. My grandmother was thrilled.

Perogies

I know it seems like I've done a lot of cooking recently, and that is for a couple reasons. First, the rest of my life has been frustrating. For instance, today I drove all the way downtown and then realized I forgot my wallet... which only reminded me that the reason my wallet was out of my purse was because I spent all morning talking to banks on the phone and trying to get my "American" bank network to communicate with my "Canadian" bank network... so I just went back home. Cooking calms me. Just follow the directions. Even if it goes wrong, it's not like the house is on fire (unless it's gone really wrong). Make a note on the recipe and try again another day.

Another reason is I found this adorable blog. I enjoy perusing it, and it in turn inspires me. Bet you didn't know I started a cooking blog once... my dream was something like that one. It never really took off- I just didn't cook enough last year.

And lastly, my mommy likes it. (Hi mom!) :)

Oh, and lastly lastly, I like taking pictures. And food pictures are awesome.

Yesterday, my buddy Rae was talking about the suppers she had made, and on the list was perogies. Not only have I been hoarding the ingredients around this house, wanting to make them, but it's on my 101 in 1001 list. This afternoon, after I drove home from downtown, I decided today was the day.

I used the Canadian Living recipe, which I have used before making it tried and true. By the way, all of you non-Canadians or non-Ukrainians, what are perogies, you ask? They're amazing mashed potatoes, cheese, and onion stuffed into pockets of dough. They resemble dumplings, sort of. You boil them, to cook, and saute them with onion, and serve with a dollop of sour cream. Yumm!

Seafood Linguini

From when I was little, my favorite meal of all time has been what my family calls "Seafood Linguini" (known to the ladies of Best of Bridge as Linguini with White Clam Sauce). It is so rich and the most unhealthy thing my mom would make, boasting a whole block of cream cheese. It is just so good! On our birthdays, we were able to request the meal, and this was always my pick.

I was planning on making it the other night, but I realized my family's conversion from white to red wine has left the selection of white wine downstairs lacking. Yesterday, I stopped by the store in the pouring rain to pick some up. I had debated making it without the wine, but it's an ingredient! And by that I mean, if I want to make it to taste the way my mom makes it, it needs wine. I would rather put it off for a day or two and make it the way I remember, than have it now in an unpure form. :)

Following the recipie

Yummy cream cheese

If you want the recipe, it's is available in The Best of the Best, page 157. Most libraries actually have a good selection of cook books.

Pecan Pie

Recently, being at my mom's and not at school, I have had ample opportunity to work on my culinary skills, which I LOVE! I have made sweet potato carrot soup, cream of broccoli soup, broiled tilapia parmesan, banana bread, peach and blueberry cobbler, southwest corn casserole, blueberry buttermilk pancakes, loads of cucumber salad, scalloped potatoes, chicken pesto drumsticks, and tuna stuffed tomatoes (surprisingly my favorite yet!). Tomorrow's plan is Samosas! (phyllo-wrapped potatoes, peas, and ground beef). But yesterday I was craving to cook in the early afternoon- too early to start supper. So I pulled out two pie shells, and after a bit of thought, took a stab at pecan pie.

Something I love about cooking is trying new recipes. I think I inherited this from my mom. Her favorite time to try something new is when she has invited guests over- something that some people find hilarious. I can relate though, in a way. I mean, I like to know it's going to work out, so I pick a recipe that looks reliable, but some of the best recipes (like the tuna stuffed tomatoes) are surprises. Out of all the meals I listed above, there are some I will probably try not to make again (the Canadian Living scalloped potato recipe I used leaves something to be desired, though it was healthier than most variations), but you would never know unless you try.

So, without further ado, here is the simple, yummy recipe I used to make two pecan pies yesterday (yes, I doubled it). Warning: reading the recipe may add an inch to your waist.

1 unbaked 9" single-crust pie shell

3 eggs

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup corn syrup

2 Tablesp. butter, melted

1 teasp. vanilla

1 1/2 c pecan halves

In bowl, stir together eggs, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and vanilla; stir in pecans. Pour into pie shell. Bake in bottom third of 375 degree oven for 40-45 minutes or until pastry is golden and filling is just firm to the touch, shielding edge with foil if browning too quickly (mine was in there more like 55 minutes).