Tag: seeds

Pigs in a blanket

This little piggy went to the party. This little piggy went to school. This little piggy was an afternoon snack at home. This little piggy went to gymnastics practice. And this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way in my tummy.

It’s the middle of winter and these piggies are cold! Make them blankets from scratch! Sure, you can buy prepackaged dough that pops out of a cardboard can, but then you’d be setting yourself up for all kinds of chemical additives and subpar ingredients. Besides, making the dough from scratch is easy and fun. My 11 year-old daughter can do it by herself. Kneading it is the best part. She gets all kung fu about it. You can, too.

Ingredients:
2 cups organic all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup organic safflower oil
1/2 cup hot water
30 mini beef franks
1 egg, beaten
sesame seeds
flax seeds

Preheat oven 375 degrees F. Mix together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Add oil and water. Whisk together until fully incorporated and you see no powdered lumps left. Knead the dough well on a floured surface. Divide the dough in half and roll out the first lump until it’s thin and semi-rectangular. Using a knife or a pizza roller, cut out 15 triangles. Position a mini frank on the wider end of each triangle and roll the dough around the little piggy. Brush with egg and lay on a greased baking sheet. Repeat until there are 30 little piggies in a row. Sprinkle sesame seeds and flax seeds. Bake for 25 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

January 21, 2016
Sprouts Plus Vietnamese Noodle Bowl Recipe

I sprout. Do you sprout?

I just felt like it one morning. I got out a couple of quart mason jars and put in a tablespoon each of alfalfa and mung beans. Poured it full of water, a teaspoon each of food-grade hydrogen peroxide and let it sit for 15 minutes.

I trapped a mesh net (I save the mesh net packaging my lemons come in) between the mouth of the jar and the band – see my blog entry on alfalfa sprouts. Pour the water out, fill it back up again and let it soak in water for 8 to 12 hours in a dark place.

Pour the water out, rinse, pour the water out, let it sit. Repeat everyday. Once the sprouts are a good size they are ready to sit in a sunny place to grow some greens.

Eat!

Vietnamese Shrimp Noodle Bowl

This is my version of the Vietnamese Shrimp Noodle Bowl. The traditional way to do it involves fish sauce which I don’t have, and pickled carrots, which is not well-liked by my family. So here goes.

Ingredients:
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 package (8oz) vermicelli (I have the Explore Asian Jasmine Brown Rice Vermicelli)
1 tablespoon organic virgin coconut oil
1 tablespoon Bragg’s amino acid (I may skip this next time. It tends to overpower all flavor.)
1 teaspoon organic coconut palm sugar (I bought this thinking it would be a good sweetener but found out it was harvested using unsustainable practices.)

From our local organic farmstand:
leafy greens
cut carrots
cut cucumber

mint from our backyard
mung bean sprouts grown right in our kitchen

Directions:
Heat coconut oil in a large skillet over medium. Add the shrimp and cook until pink. Flavor with Braggs and sugar. Cook until sauce is almost cooked off.

Boil water in a medium saucepan. Add vermicelli and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and wash with cold water.

Arrange leafy greens, carrots, cucumber, mint, mung bean sprouts and cooked vermicelli on the plate. Top the vermicelli with shrimp. We skipped the syrupy sauce. The shrimp is plenty flavorful on the noodles.

This is one way we sprout. How do you sprout?

September 10, 2014
Lettuce Mesclun

I pinched my first harvest today, and it was the Lettuce Mesclun I received as a gift along with the rest of my order from Botanical Interests.

I planted the whole package of Lettuce Mesclun on February 17 and started pinching individual leaves about 4 inches long today. Anything smaller is left on the ground so they can grow more. Information on the inside of the seed packet suggested cutting off 2 inches above ground level if I want to harvest whole heads. Whatever is left will grow more from the center.

Seeds can be sown from as early as 6 weeks before last frost of winter till 2 weeks before first frost in fall. In USDA zone 8 or warmer (which is where I am) I can even sow seeds in fall for a winter harvest. Lettuce can survive in temperatures as low as 20F, though 70F is ideal for seed germination. I have mine planted on the north side of our house, and next to peas, for adequate shade that will protect the leaves from harsh sunlight. Summers are brutal here.

For now, these early harvests are so tender and sweet. I will be planting some more of these before it gets too hot.

March 29, 2013
Alfalfa Sprouts

Alfalfa sprouts are so good! We used to buy them at the grocery store. We’d take this little plastic box home, open it and find alfalfa sprouts that were overpacked and soggy. So during my shopping splurge at Botanical Interests I bought Alfalfa Seeds for sprouting.

The packet states that alfalfa seeds have the possibility of carrying E. coli and other foodborne bacteria, so the alfalfa seeds must be disinfected with a 2% bleach solution (1 teaspoon bleach to a cup of hot water). I’m not a big fan of bleach, especially when it comes to my food. Last I checked, bleach is toxic. So here’s what I did:

I put 1 tablespoon alfalfa seeds in a quart mason jar, filled the jar with tap water and then put a 1/4 teaspoon of food-grade Hydrogen Peroxide (I brush my teeth with it too, but don’t try it unless you have absolutely no metal dentistry in your mouth). Let the alfalfa seeds sit disinfecting for 15 minutes. See the bubbles in the picture below? That’s the hydrogen peroxide doing its thing.

Then I trapped a mesh net on the mouth of the jar with the band. I used the mesh net that my grocery-bought ginger was packaged in.

When I poured the hydrogen peroxide water out, the mesh net trapped the alfalfa seeds in the jar. I refilled the jar with tap water poured in through the mesh lid. I let it sit overnight in a dark place.

First thing the next morning, I poured out the water through the mesh lid, shook the seeds around so that they’re kind of stuck on the inside wall of the jar. I let the jar sit in the dark on its side so the seeds are all spread out instead of stuck together at the bottom of the jar.

Rinse and repeat. About 3 times a day, I filled the jar with tap water, shook it around, poured the water out and let the alfalfa seeds sit in the dark spread out over the inner wall of the jar.

After 2 days the alfalfa seeds were sprouting. I put the jar out to get some sun, still doing the rinse-pour thing 3 times a day. With chlorophyll and the sun the sprouts got little baby green leaves on them. Time to eat!

Why go to all this trouble? Here’s 9 Health Benefits of Alfalfa Sprouts.

March 22, 2013
Garden Update

My Shade Garden is coming along nicely. Most of it, at least. I planted early spring plants such as peas, sugar snap peas, broccoli, lettuce, radishes and beets on February 16 and 17.

Remember those Sugar Snap Peas I got from Botanical Interests that I planted a while back? Here they are now!

Aren’t they happy?

The radishes are perking up adorably as well. Here’s one. I love its red stems and heart-shaped leaves.

I can’t wait to see these underground beauties.

The lettuce, broccoli, spinach and beets have also sprouted, but I’ll wait a little bit until they’re bigger before I take pictures.

Someone has been messing around in my garden. I don’t know if it’s a bird or a little mammal, but I really need to figure out a way to keep my plants from getting eaten. I have both a cat and a dog, and the neighbors’ cats come over to play too. You’d think we’d keep the rodents and birds in check, but I still see a lot of gopher holes throughout the lawn.

I was thinking of maybe building some kind of Arduino-powered robot-scarecrow to create a motion-detecting alarm to scare off little creatures. Still tossing around some ideas. Maybe something as simple as solar-powered or wind-powered kinetic sculptures would be sufficient.

As for the Little Marvel Shelling Peas I had leftover from last year, I wrote about refrigerating them before putting them in the ground. I think I read about it somewhere in an old copy of The Old Farmers Almanac. Well, my peas took a very long time to emerge. The Sugar Snaps were way further along before I saw even just a peep of the peas. I finally saw some of them this weekend.

What else have I got to report? Remember the rose bushes I pruned and fed banana peels? They are growing so big and beautiful. Here’s Security, the Rose Bush with the killer thorns by my daughter’s window.

The Olive tree is sprouting shoots at its base.

I think I may take cuttings this summer and see if we can grow more of this Olive tree that is so rich in symbolism.

March 10, 2013
Soaking and Sowing Sugar Snap Peas

Some of the earliest crops to arrive at the Farmers Markets are peas: Snow Peas, English Shelling Peas, Sugar Snap Peas. We love them. In our family we just shake some kosher salt with Sugar Snap Peas and snack on them when they’re fresh in the spring. I can’t wait to taste them just-picked from our backyard garden.

I still have Shelling Peas to plant from last year, so this winter when I shopped for seeds at Botanical Interests, I bought Sugar Snap Peas.

Botanical Interests has only non-GMO and untreated seeds. They have a great selection of organic and heirloom seeds. They pack so much information on their seed packets. Nothing is wasted. There’s more to read on the inside of the seed packet.

We’ve been tilling and weeding our Shade Garden for the past few days now. As soon as the seeds are ready they are going in the ground. The Shelling Peas are in the refrigerator. Peas love cold. Sugar Snap Peas have to be soaked in water for 12 to 24 hours before sowing in the ground.

I took a piece of paper towel and folded it in two, cut it to fit in this DIY HDPE tray. Watch my husband make these HDPE trays from empty Arrowhead Water jugs.

They look so space age, don’t they? Very versatile, easy to store because they stack. We can use them for pretty much anything. If I’m soaking seeds, I can slip the seed packet between the two nested trays, so I don’t forget what I’ve soaked.

Get the paper towel wet and put the seeds between the folds. Set it aside in a cool dark cabinet.

The next day, the Sugar Snap Peas have absorbed the moisture from the paper towels. They are engorged and juicy.

I sow them 2 inches apart, like the packet instructs. I’m expecting these peas to sprout next week.

There’s still time to get your Sugar Snap Peas seeds from Botanical Interests. Peas are super-amazing plants because aside from being a delicious and nutritious raw snack, their roots also add nitrogen to the soil. Apparently peas stop producing once the weather gets hotter than 70F, so when it does, the soil is ready for the next crop. Such a giving vine!

February 22, 2013
Garden Plan

As soon as my seeds arrived from Botanical Interests, I sorted them out in order of when they need to be planted. I also included seeds I bought last year, and seeds we’ve been saving all year. I came up with a rough garden plan. It went through several revisions once we started working and sowing in the garden. It’s important to keep track of what was planted where so that next year we can mix it up and make sure each plant gets to know a whole new part of the garden. Keeps the soil healthy and happy.

Shade Garden

First in are all the seeds that love cold weather and would grow with at least 3 hours of sun a day. I picked a spot behind the house. It’s the only shady place on the whole property, and it’s close to a faucet and garden hose. While tilling the soil, we found old rusty nails and parts of rusty tools, an indication that at some point in the distant past, someone had a garden there too.

Advantages of growing these plants in the shade: I don’t have to water as much. The shade keeps the plant bed moist for a longer period of time. The leaves don’t get torched by the sun, especially important to leafy green vegetables such as spinach and lettuce.

What I planted in my Shade Garden: peas, sugar snap peas, spinach, lettuce, radish, beets and broccoli. We’re expecting harvest starting mid-March through the rest of spring.

Herb Garden

Next up are cool season herbs. These herbs like full sun to partial shade, so I’m planning on sowing them in front of the house, which faces south, but is given partial shade by large evergreens. We have raised beds surrounding the house and a couple of small ones in front.

Going in the Early Spring Herb Garden: parsley, cilantro, sage, chamomile, lavender, calendula.

Adding to the Herb Garden after Spring has sprung: thyme, oregano, basil.

Sun Garden

After last chance of Spring frost is over, we’ll be starting the Sun Garden: basil, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes (basil and tomatoes are best companion planting buddies), corn, carrots, cucumber, green beans, zucchini, summer squash, sweet peppers, red bell pepper, watermelon, cantaloupe, and sunflowers.

Pumpkin patch: My daughter is a Halloween baby, so we want our pumpkin patch to be a big celebration. Three different kinds of pumpkins: Jack O’Lantern pumpkins for carving, sugar pie pumpkins for yummy treats and Jack Be Little pumpkins for decorating.

Fruit Trees

I save all seeds from fruit we eat. I’m planning on sprouting these seeds and growing them in pots until they’re big enough to transplant into soil. It could take years, but I have to start sometime. Apricot, different kinds of apples, lemon, cherries, tangerine, plums, pear, pine.

We also have grown trees that are sprouting babies at their roots. Olive and various other evergreens. I wonder if I could grow them from cuttings.

I don’t know if I’ll get to everything. I certainly have a full plate. I’ll be updating these garden plans as we go along. This is going to be an amazing year!

February 21, 2013
Botanical Interests

I got my seeds from Botanical Interests! They came in this pretty box which fits nicely in my mailbox.

A while back I was thinking about seeds and the recent defeat of Proposition 37 here in California. Without mandatory labeling of GMO seeds and food, I will have to assume something is genetically modified, unless they voluntarily state otherwise. The Non-GMO Project is an awesome guide to finding non-GMO products. The Cornucopia Seeds I bought at my local OSH last fall were marked “Not treated or genetically modified” right on the packet. Mike at Urban Organic Gardener wrote about Sources for Buying Non-GMO seeds. The comments thread is really really interesting. One of the commenters posted a list of seed companies owned or supplied by Monsanto. They could be selling organic or non-gmo seeds and still be making money for the Evil Empire. Well, I was glad to know that the seeds I got last fall have nothing to do with Monsanto. And this winter I bought my seeds from Botanical Interests, which sells non-GMO organic and heirloom seeds. They are not on the list of seed villains. And they have these lovely illustrations on the packets. That goes a long way with me.

I bought so many seeds! I admit I got a little carried away. For less than the price of one trip to the grocery store, I just bought my family’s vegetables all year. I also received a complimentary packet of Lettuce.

With these non-gmo organic seeds, and our own gardens that we’ll tend using organic gardening practices, we will be eating better than we ever have. I imagine just-picked sugar snap peas crunching in my mouth, not having soggy or dried out vegetables in the refrigerator, everything eaten just after snipping it off the plant. Does that sound like heaven to you?

February 20, 2013