Bonzai Aphrodite » garden

A Recipe For Spring: Nasturtium Pesto

Sayward — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 05:21:04 +0000

The inspiration for this recipe came to me rather unexpectedly — from Waits’s teacher! A few Mondays back I was dropping him off at school, and I asked her about her weekend. She told me that she’s made a delicious nasturtium pesto, and I was like “Wait, WHAT??”

I love nasturtium flowers and I eat them every spring: sprinkled in salads and wrapped up in rice paper rolls and even frozen in popsicles. I love eating the flowers, but it never really occurred to me to eat the leaves!

In past years I’ve always foraged for my nasturtiums, because they grow with great gusto around these parts, filling hillsides and creek sides and side yards and pretty much anywhere else they can think to creep.

But this year, sort of on a whim, I actually grew my own. They’re early bloomers and I appreciate a colorful entry into spring. Plus we put up that big beautiful lattice last summer, and it was just begging for some creepy crawly climbing annuals.

So anyway, when I heard “nasturtium pesto” my eyes just it up and I knew I had to veganize it!

This Alaskan dwarf variety has gorgeous variegated leaves, and stays quite small. Perfect for all you small-space gardeners out there.

When selecting nasturtium leaves for eating, choose the smallest, most tender ones you can find. Nasturtium is quite peppery, like arugula, so taking only the youngest shoots will ensure you don’t get a pesto that tastes “mustardy” or bitter.

If you’re foraging your nasturtium (it’s easy to do so you might as well), always make sure you wash it thoroughly before preparing — especially if it’s growing near a road.

Ingredients:

2 cups nasturtium leaves
1/2 cup avocado (or other neutral) oil
1/3 cup raw green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
juice from 1/2 a lime
1-4 cloves garlic, to preference
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, to taste

Instructions:

Add all of the ingredients to a food processor or blender. Process the ingredients, stopping every so often to scrape down the sides, until thoroughly combined. You want just a little bit of texture — not too clumpy, but not a paste either.

When the pesto is done, transfer it from the food processor. You can store it in a glass jar in the fridge, where it will last about a week.

Or, you know, devour it immediately.

Enjoy!

♥ ♥ ♥

Gifts From The Garden In Winter (AKA — I Heart California)

Sayward — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 07:53:17 +0000

I don’t mean to brag, but man I love our California winter growing season. Southern California in December, January, and February, is a lot like many other parts of the country in early to mid autumn, I think. Temperatures reach the high 50s and into the 60s during the days, and drop to the low 40s, even the high 30s, but *rarely* hitting freezing, through the night. And it stays like that until things begin warming up in spring. We have intermittent showers, rarer in recent years with the drought, but pretty dang consistently so far this year, which is AWESOME. We’ve had weekly, even bi-weekly, downpours for over a month. And my garden is loving it!

So needless to say, the growing season is year-round here, and gardening in winter is a special kind of fun. It’s the time of year we get to grow all the yummy cool-weather crops that would otherwise wilt or bolt in the warm, waterless weather we experience for the entire rest of the year. Crucifers! Root veggies! Broccolis and cauliflowers and cabbages, oh my!

I love it, and even though the last quarter of grad school had me completely 100% neglecting my entire yard (hello, weed overgrowth from hell!), I did manage to get a good crop into the ground before the end of summer, and somehow this rain has kept things growing with my absolutely minimal involvement. It’s actually kind of amazing. I ignored it for 10 weeks, and now suddenly all these delicious foods are popping up every other day. Wahoo!

Here’s what’s been going on:

This was actually my last big haul from summer/fall, at the very end of August. I loved those crimson sunflowers so much. ♥

I’m growing three types of kale this year: purple curly, lacinato (dino), and green curly. It’s kind of hard to tell but this is my basket piled high with kale (and a wee piece of purple cauliflower). I can harvest one of these kale mountains every 3-4 days.

And these beautiful, fat fennel bulbs, now that I’ve finally had success growing fennel this year. We roast the bulbs and juice the tops. Waits is a fiend for fennel juice!

The bestest broccoli I ever did grow, with gorgeous, full heads that stayed super tight right up until harvest. *sigh* So dreamy.

And this cauliflower. My goodness this purple cauliflower, it was taller than Waits!

Perfection

This year I also had my first major success with ginger root! I planted starts from my most trusted and beloved Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and they did not disappoint. When I harvested these and saw how well they’d grown, I was almost in tears I was so happy. (yes, I am a garden geek!)

Side view:

Alien food.

Every year I grow legumes. More and more every year, because I see protein — and the localization of it — as an inherent flaw in many vegan diets. I dream of the day when I can grow all my own super-local protein! Until then, little bit by little bit. ♥ This is a mix of Pintos and Borlottis.

Blue Speckled Tepiary beans — a rare heirloom variety.

A recent harvest, with broccoli, rainbow chard, dill, two loofahs, white radish, ginger, and calendula.

And that’s about it for my garden these days. But, now is the fun part of plotting and planning for springtime! I’ve been poring over the Rare Seed Catalogue from Baker Creek, and I can hardly help myself from ordering one of everything!

Tell me friends, what have you been growing? Or if it’s too cold where you are right nw, what are you planning for spring?

Happy gardening!

♥

♥ PS – One of the very best things about gardening — meeting teeny tiny new friends! ♥

My Happy Place: Pics From My 2016 Garden Adventure!

Sayward — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 05:58:45 +0000

Every morning I wake up, make my way to the kitchen, and pour myself coffee while gazing out the window at my garden. And every morning I have to make a concerted effort, sometimes physically prevent myself, from wandering out there to putter amongst my plants. It is my absolute happiest place and if I could, I would spend every day there. Most days I do allow myself a little walk-through on my way off to work. I like to do a daily inventory, note the little things that have changed — and so much does change every day! — and allow my mind to plan out the next few days and weeks of garden work.

I was born in the wrong century, man. I’m a farm girl at heart!

Anyway, here’s what’s been going on this summer. It’s all a work in progress this first year, still learning the layout and strengthening the soil, dealing with pests and diseases left by the previous tenants (powdery mildew is the bane of my existence!), and settling into this beautiful new space.

I have two main garden areas this year, and the first is this, along the side of the house. This is where I planted my first seeds of the season — corn and sunflowers along the fence. Then filled in the bottom with beets, calendula, chamomile, mustard greens, and a few volunteers showed up: tomatoes and squash.

Taken from the other direction. So much green! Happy happy tomatoes.

Around the back I’m still growing in wine boxes — I just can’t help myself. Mostly peppers (tabasco) and herbs. Oh, and a potato tower, of course.

And one volunteer cherry tomato plant that I just couldn’t bear to let go. Instead, I let it grow, and strung up some twine for it to trellis on.

Back to the side yard . . .

Volunteer squash.

And corn, with the most incredible scarlet-colored silk.

Around the front of the house is the main garden . . .

Ginormous Chinese Cabbage! I’ve been cooking up homemade ramen that features this stuff at least once a week. It’s completely amazing!

Not a weed. Just . . . wild.

Teeny tiny loofah.

And itsy bitsy cucumbers.

And I grow my Zinnias every. single. year.

This little strip along the front of the house is maybe my very favorite. Strawberries, basil, bee balm, shallots, zinnias, mint, and bachelor’s buttons. It’s just bursting over with life!

But these guys. These guys always have my heart!

I have been gardening, in one way or another, for pretty much all of my adult life. But for some reason this space, this land I’m on right now, is the land I feel the most connected to, of any place I’ve ever lived. This little rental duplex in the middle of the city, on the “wrong side of town”, where I have no real roots or ties or anything to bind me — this is where I’m doing the most intimate gardening of my life. More than the home I owned in Portland. More than the house up in the foothills where I lived and learned to garden for 5 years during college.

Why here? Why now? I don’t know, but I’m loving it. In this difficult year, working this land has been my very best medicine.

♥

Welcome To My 2016 Garden Adventure!

Sayward — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 07:01:02 +0000

Lemon blossoms.

Anyone who’s followed my blog for more than a little while knows that I love my gardening season. LOVE. Nothing else in my life gives me quite the same feeling: anchors and elevates me all at the same time. Gardening is my soul food.

Back in Portland I grew green feasts in my raised beds every year; I relished the yard work and fancied myself an “Urban Gardener Extraordinaire!” Then after the move to Santa Barbara, I continued my green ambitions, growing all my precious plants in clay pots and wooden wine boxes, along with various other creative upcycled containers. In Portland I kept a Meyer Lemon tree in my living room, because the citrus wouldn’t withstand the Pacific Northwest winter, but I just couldn’t bear to live without it. And in Santa Barbara I began a love affair with tropical exotics like passion fruit and dragon fruit. It’s all been a grand adventure and now, moving into this brand new house right on the eve of Gardening Season 2016, it’s been nothing but PURE PLEASURE just diving on in to this next great fertile landscape.

Another blank canvas for me to lay my green garden paint upon. And already, it’s taking on such a beautiful shape!

Yeah, okay so it was a rough start. Lots of potential to be sure, but the yard that I inherited was pretty dang neglected, and I spent the first few weeks and months just cleaning, weeding, mulching, and salvaging what few plants I could (there was a mighty aphid infestation — that towering brassica you see in the foreground sadly couldn’t be saved — and powdery mildew covered much of the foliage throughout the front yard). It’s been a lot of work, but ultimately I was able to prepare a lovely new space, and I even uncovered a few real treasures!

Here’s some progress pics of how my urban homestead has been coming along so far this year . . .

I started with the side yard, a simple strip of dirt all along the length of the house. But I saw the possibility it contained, and set about preparing the bed for planting. I’m so excited to finally be in a place where I can grow vegetables directly in the ground – sort of a first for me!

My favorite border trio: corn, sunflowers, and sugar snap peas. The snap peas use the corn and the sunnies as a trellis. ♥

Babies. I order all my seeds from Baker Creek.

Tomatoes and calendula, out of their starter pots and into the ground, with the corn-sunflower-snap peas visible in the background.

This year I’m growing a few varieties of tomatoes, and of course a few of each of my other favorite veggies. But, I still receive a local organic farm box each week, year round, so I often feel like I have enough fruits and veggies to keep us fed on the daily. Which is awesome, because it really frees me up! I can grow the stuff that I really love, like exotic fruits (passion and goji and pinapple, for example) and the stuff I like to have in abundance for preserving (tomatoes, strawberries, basil, etc), and the stuff I can’t get locally (like vegan protein – I grow a lot of beans for drying!). Plus this year I’m growing lots of flowers for cutting (fresh flowers around the house are just so joyful, don’t you think?), and I’m also really focused on herbs, both culinary and medicinal (like calendula, chamomile, echinacea, bee balm, mint, etc).

With a nice layer of straw for mulching.

Mint, dandelion, and rosemary. These were for a project I’ll be sharing soon!

I’m growing basil all over the yard, but this particular beast sprang back after overwintering — unbeknownst to me — ignored for months during and after our move. Resilient little guy! It’s already giving me lovely summer pesto. ♥

Little helpers

This is one of those treasures I was talking about! This is epazote, an herb that hails from Mexico and Central America, and that’s considered semi-native in southern California. It’s a wonderful culinary herb (cook it with beans to reduce gas!) and it’s also brewed medicinally as tea. One day I heard a quiet rapping on my door, and opened it to find a teeny tiny old Mexican woman who didn’t speak a word of English (not at all uncommon in my neighborhood). She was pointing at the giant epazote in my front yard, and pantomiming plucking, and it was pretty obvious she was asking if she could pick some. Of course I nodded, and she was so stoked!

When I first moved in here the epazote was huge, but completely covered in fungus which had shriveled the leaves and turned them black. It’s been such a pleasure to carefully prune this precious plant, and treat the infection, and slowly nurse it back to health. It’s so happy now!

Strawberries! Of course I had to plant a whole little strawberry patch for Waits, all along the front of the house. 3 dwarf varieties and 3 of the standard-sized ones. He picks a few every day when he comes home from summer camp. In the same little bed I’m growing marigolds and blue boys, plus lots of basil, a bee balm, and a lemon balm. Plus I’ve got some leeks and shallots ready to transplant. All of these plants (strawberries, basil, leeks/shallots) are considered “companions”, and the flowers are great for attracting beneficial insects and other pollinators.

I had a bunch of cilantro volunteers, which was fun. They were early to bolt but that’s fine — I look forward to harvesting the coriander for my spice rack.

Another most incredible discovery that came with the house — this is native American sacred tobacco. It’s different from the European tobacco they use in cigarettes, and it’s considered to be one of the four sacred medicines by local indigenous peoples. I’ve been reading about how to properly use sacred tobacco, or Semah, because it’s important to me to respect the spirit of this plant. Honestly, I feel honored to be able to tend it in my garden — it feels like a gift. Semah is a powerful plant, full of magick and medicine, and I intend to do right by it.

~~~

And that, my friends, is just about that . . . for now. Actually, my garden already looks completely different than it did in these pictures (taken a few weeks ago), and I’ll be updating again soon. But for now, YOU tell ME — what are you growing?? I want to see pics! Please leave a comment down below and if you can, post a link to your blog or a picture of your awesome 2016 garden, so that we can all share in your joy!

As gardeners, we all know the bliss of feeling our hands buried in cool soil; of plucking sun-warmed vegetables from the vine; of carefully tending our seedlings and watching them flourish. So please, share your bliss! We’re all dying to see it!

♥ ♥ ♥

How To Make Dandelion Oil (And Also, Why You Should Want To)

Sayward — Tue, 31 May 2016 18:36:58 +0000

I may be an experienced gardener, but I am very much a fledgling herbalist. An enthusiastic fledgling, but a fledgling nonetheless. For example, this is the first year that I’ve worked with elder. My first year making nutritive vinegars, and my first year growing a medicinal garden. I’ve been making Meadow Tea infusions for ages, but it was only two years ago that I infused my inaugural healing oil — that Oil Of Oregano that kicked off this whole herbalism love affair.

And now? This year? Well now I’m in deep with Dandelion, and I think I’ve met my herbal soul mate!

Dandelion is so unassuming — ubiquitous yet misunderstood. It’s everywhere, but it’s completely overlooked. Powerful, but easily passed over. Resilient to its core (and to many people’s chagrin), Dandelion is brimming with magic and mystery and wisdom and warmth. And yet, to most who know it, it’s written off as a weed — nothing more.

I must say, I very much relate to Dandelion. I think it is my spirit plant.

And for herbalists, Dandelion is used in every possible way, from root to tip, from food to tincture, and every possible piece or preparation in between. This oil, for example, uses the young flower heads. Dandelions flower in early spring, and dandelion oil is a great skin conditioner to help transition from dry winter into warmer, more humid summer months.

Dandelion Oil is sold commercially of course, in health food stores and herb shoppes (and also online), but it just seems silly to me to buy something that’s made from weeds that are literally growing everywhere. And it’s so simple to make at home!

So here’s how you can make your own — practically free and powerfully potent:

Dandelions grow wild in every sidewalk crack, alleyway, city park, creekside, abandoned field, and anywhere else that an industrious, persevering plant might find a patch of dirt in which to grow.

To make your own Dandelion Oil, first you’ll need to procure some Dandelion flowers. This shouldn’t be too hard, as Dandelion blooms from early spring through midsummer, depending on where you live. But no matter where you are, it’s certain that you’re not far away from Dandelion. They’re everywhere.

You’ll need to collect quite a bit. They shrink down as they dry, so you’ll need more than you think. I collected a full pint to fill a small (8 oz) mason jar.

Gently rinse the dandelion flowers to remove any excess dirt or bugs. You don’t want to bruise them or rough them up, so be gentle!

Then, spread the flowers out on a cloth or piece of cardboard. Dandelion retains a lot of water, so you want to give the flowers some time to dry out. Otherwise you’ll end up with too much moisture in your oil.

Allow the flowers to sit out for ~24 hours. They will shrink up quite a bit, which is fine.

Pre-shrinking.

Now, add your dry-ish flowers to a clean glass jar, and cover them with organic oil (I used extra virgin olive oil). Place the jar in a sunny window (the warm sun will help your infusion along) and let it sit for, eh, 4-6 weeks or so. I like to turn mine over every few days, or give it a good shake now and again. Really keep things moving and mixing and breaking down. Releasing all that medicine!

Finally, your infusion will be ready. All you need to do is strain it through cheesecloth to separate the oil from the flower bits. Easy peasy.

Look at that lovely golden color! It’s so gorgeous.

Strain it into a new jar, cap it, and keep it safe. That’s precious magic!

Dandelion Oil is an ancient traditional remedy used for achy joints and arthritis, sore muscles, and rough dry/chapped skin. I made this oil specifically for my housemate, who has chronic inflammation and joint pain, and for Jeremy, who is constantly sore in one way or another. I’ve got them both using it now, so I’ll report back to you and let you know how it works for them.

♥ ♥ ♥

Do you have a spirit plant? Some herb that you adore and love to work with? What’s your favorite way to use it?

I’m pretty much obsessed with herbalism right now, and quickly building my own little home apothecary. And I know that so many of you out there share my passion, so I’d love to hear your wisdom, insight, and experience!

Cheers!

♥

Are You Ready To Garden?? Let’s Do This Thing, Twenty-Sixteen!

Sayward — Wed, 11 May 2016 07:14:52 +0000

These beautiful heirloom radishes — volunteers from who-knows-where — popped up in my new yard early this spring!

Are you guys ready? I AM!!! Oh my goodness, I am ready to garden. And with warm weather just barely around the corner, it’s time for all of us aspiring urban farmers to get outside and get our hands dirty. The best feeling!

Okay, so truth be told, I’ve already been playing out in the dirt for a few weeks now. I have a whole new yard to work with this year, so I could hardly contain my excitement. My hardier seedlings were sown outside in late March — my broccoli and mustard greens, cilantro and red lettuce, and of course my very most precious medicinal herbs: chamomile and calendula and echinacea. But I know that California is pretty much an anomaly, and I’m lucky to be able to begin so early. And now, the rest of the country is gearing up for garden season! Huzzah!

So I thought I’d share some of the gardening wisdom we’ve accumulated here on this site, over the years. Because man, I feel like we’ve done it all! From propagating strawberries into a proper patch, to saving our seeds (like sunflower and coriander and dill), and so many harvest projects in between.

Here’s a list of intro-gardening links that we’ve amassed, over 7 (!!!) years of micro-homesteading experimentation:

So are you guys as excited as I am??

In the past few weeks I’ve sown a fence border of sunflowers + snap peas + sweet corn. I’ve also started a few more seedlings outdoors, like basil and marigold and blue boys. And indoors I’ve managed to start a whole incredible collection of babies (despite two very curious kitties trying to thwart my plans), now ready to move outside: watermelon and loofah and tomatoes and bee balm and dill and peppers and pinto beans. Oh yeah! And purple cauliflower and fennel and onions and leeks. Whew!

So what are you growing, my friends? What are your big beautiful plans for our upcoming gardening season?

♥

Welcome To My 2015 Urban Garden! Plus, Some Real Life Real Talk.

Sayward — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 00:19:24 +0000

It’s already July. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?! It’s already July and my garden is in full-swing, so I figured it’s about time do a little walk-through, no?

But also, I wanted to give y’all a little life update. In my last Pictures Of Things + Le Love List, I mentioned that I was experiencing a lot of change right now. Which is true – there is so much change happening that sometimes it feels like my head is spinning round and round! And one of the biggest things, one of the best and saddest and most exciting and also sort of heartbreaking things, is that I’m moving . . .

. . . next door.

Beautiful brussels sprouts over-summering in the shade.

Regular readers may remember that for the past year and a half, Jeremy and I have been living side-by-side in a “Frida & Diego”-style double-house-compound, which we call Los Nidos. And side-by-side living is the best kind of living, if you ask me. It’s been such a blessing.

But, well, times is tough ’round here. And Harley’s recent hospitalization was a final straw in a pile of straws that was very, very over-final. And I know I don’t talk about my financial situation much here on the blog, but as I’m sure you can guess — I’m not like, rolling in the dough. You’re shocked, I know! But seriously, I’m a graduate student living primarily on grants and TA stipends, and Jeremy built (and continues to build) a small business entirely out of credit. So yeah, things are tight. I’m not complaining, of course — just trying to keep it real here. Authenticity, always.

I think it’s so important for bloggers, especially “lifestyle bloggers,” which I guess is what you’d call me, to be honest about their lives. Their real lives, behind the pretty facade. Because I work really, really hard to create a beautiful life, a happy life, a life that is uniquely mine. And the truth is that I don’t always have a lot to work with . . . but that’s okay by me. I am happy with all I have. It feels like a whole lot.

But with that said, we’ve decided to downsize. To consolidate. I’ll be subletting my wee little cottage, and Waits and I will be moving in with Jeremy. So far it’s been really fun combing our households! And Waits has been such a sweetheart about the whole thing. He’s all smiles.

This old man, feeling much better these days, and out for a garden walk.

So Jeremy and I spent this past weekend moving all the outdoors stuff. Luckily I always garden in pots and planters (I don’t trust the soil around these 100-year-old houses), so it was relatively easy to move my entire garden — in all it’s full-swing glory — from my yard over to his. And it all fit in quite nicely, I think. Nicer than I worried it would.

Aahhh, my little garden. All repurposed pots and up-cycled wine box planters. With scavenged trellis and baking twine, it’s got hand-me-down charm and broken china beauty. I hate buying anything new at the garden supply center, and much prefer to piece together my garden from other people’s discarded treasures (I once used an old mattress frame to trellis my snow peas), so my garden tends to take on a certain “adventure playground” aesthetic.

I dig it.

Here’s what’s cooking, July 2015:

Waits’s little play house fit nicely in Jeremy’s side yard, essentially just exactly on the other side of the fence from where it sat in my yard. Our compost bins are behind the play house, along with the garden tools and extra potting supplies. You can see my old orange tree overhanging the beautiful blooming bougainvillea vines along the fence.

Grapes! A little worse for wear after their move, but overall doing okay alongside the back porch. And I’ve got edible and medicinal herbs all around the base, for easy access near the back door.

Mint! Mucho mucho mint.

And on the other side of the porch steps — watermelon! I’ve had the most miserable luck with watermelon over the years, but this time my plant is HAPPY. Cross your fingers for me, ’cause it would be soooo amazing to get a homegrown melon!

My luffas are finally starting to take off. I saved seeds after last year’s success and was so excited to plant them again. But this spring they popped up . . . and then stopped. For months they’ve stayed the same size, no matter what I do to try and coax them into growth. Finally this pair took off . . . hopefully the rest will follow suit soon!

My tomatoes, on the other hand, are happy little campers.

Stinging nettles for my mineral-rich infusions.

Around the other side, more plants, plus Waits’s new “dig hole”.

After a very rough start (the birds kept digging up and stealing my seeds and sprouts), my cucumbers are finally flourishing.

Baby cuke!

And big cuke!

CHOMP! (these are the most amazing cucumbers! sooo sweet and tender)

This is the beginning of a passion fruit vine! I have two of these, and even though they won’t give me fruit until next year, I’m still so excited by them. Homegrown passion fruit!!

And my goji berry bush is OFF THE HOOK this year. Apparently goji like to be hacked to hell. I pruned it back so far last year, I was sure I’d killed it. But then in spring it came roaring back, bigger and healthier than ever. So okay! –> Prune your goji!

And finally, my beans! I’ve really spent the past few years exploring the idea of growing my own vegan protein. I’m still in the experimental phase, but I do hope that someday I’ll be able to produce a goodly portion of my own local, plant-based proteins. This year I’m growing pinto beans and a speckled pink Mexican pinto-style bean. They haven’t trellised as well as I expected, but it’s better than last year!

The beans when they’re fresh.

And when they’re drying on the vine.

~~~

And that’s not even everything — I also have two dragon fruit plants, three wonderberry bushes, a whole hot pepper garden, the basil of course, and many more herbs as well. Plus the potted lemon tree. Plus the kale and chard. And I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting!

Needless to say, I pack a lot of food inside my tiny urban homestead. It’s such a labor of love and I have so, so much fun with it. California is in a drought, so I’ve forgone all my flower-growing for the moment. But growing food at home is such an eco-friendly, water-saving practice. I do it because I love it, but it sure does feel good to know I’m making an environmental impact as well.

Okay! Now it’s your turn. I want to know what you’re growing this year, and if you’ve blogged about your garden or posted pictures somewhere, I’d LOVE to see it! So please please share in the comments below, so we can all revel in the summer glory together!

From garden to glass: cucumber mint mojito.

Cheers, and happy gardening!

♥ ♥ ♥

My Go-To Pesto Recipe! Big-Batch Vegan Pesto To Preserve The Basil Bounty

Sayward — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 06:00:40 +0000

In last week’s Pictures Of Things + Le Love List, I posted a photo of some freshly made pesto. Bonzai reader Katie asked me about the recipe, and that’s when I realized — I’ve never posted one!

I make pesto every year, when basil is in season, fresh and local (and cheap!). I make it in big batches, and I freeze it in ice cube trays. Then I pop the frozen pesto cubes out of the trays, transfer them to big glass jars, and store them in the freezer for easy, ready-to-go pesto, all year round.

The recipe I’m sharing here today is actually one I developed way back in Portland. Back then, there was this one farm at the Saturday Farmer’s Market, and for a few weeks each year, their basil would go on supersale blowout. I don’t remember the exact price, but it was the cheapest organic basil I’d ever seen, and it’s what first inspired me to figure out a way to preserve basil while it’s in season and oh-so-abundant.

These days, I grow my own my basil in my garden, and right about now, it’s overflowing. These plants actually overwintered from last year, hanging on through the cold months as scraggly little things. But come spring they exploded, and now between five healthy stems, I’ve got a basil bounty I can barely keep up with.

So okay, it’s pesto time!

Remember that this is a “big-batch” recipe. It’s meant to make a lot, so you’ll have plenty left over for freezing. Back in Portland I used to make 3 or 4 batches of this stuff in a single night. These days, I’ll make one batch every few weeks, as long as the plants provide. That will leave me with a nice stash of pesto to get me through fall.

Ingredients:

4 cups tightly-packed basil leaves (rinsed and spun dry)
1 1/4 cups walnuts
2/3 cups cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2-4 garlic cloves, to taste
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Put all the ingredients in a food processor (you may have to press down the basil to make it all fit). Process the ingredients, stopping every so often to scrape down the sides, until throughly combined. You want just a little bit of texture — not too clumpy, but not a paste either.

When the pesto is done, transfer it from the food processor. You can store it in a glass jar in the fridge, to use in upcoming recipes. It will last about a week (maybe 2) stored this way.

Or, you can do what I do, and fill an ice cube tray. This recipe fills a standard-sized ice cube tray, and once the cubes are frozen, you can pop them out and store them in a glass jar or plastic bag, in the freezer, for easy access. Freezing them as cubes allows you to take as much – or as little – as you want, whenever you need.

And that’s all there is to it! The whole thing, from start to freezer, takes about 15 minutes. Not so bad for preserving some seriously flavorful food, right?

This pesto is seriously my jam. It’s not too oily like many pesto recipes, but it’s also not too dry. Juuuust right. I like to use walnuts because I love the flavor, plus they have healthy omega-3 fatty acids. But I’ve made this with many variations over the years, like hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, etc. You can sub any nut or seed and you’ll get the same results, so feel free to play around.

Happy preserving!

♥ ♥ ♥

My Garden In Winter

Sayward — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 07:58:43 +0000

Well hello there! Hello from southern California, where “winter” is more of an abstract concept than an actual reality.

Oh I kid, I kid. Even here in SoCal we get to experience four distinct seasons. But our variation is much less variable, I guess you could say, and there’s never a time when the garden completely shuts down. So, I thought it might be fun to do a little guided tour of what’s going on, right now, during the “dead of winter” . . . and keeping in mind that it was 65 degrees yesterday. Brrrrr icy.

Right now California is in the middle of a horrible, multi-year drought. Last winter was abysmally dry, but this year has been a bit better. Better as in wetter. And this past weekend, we even had a little rain storm pass through (thank goodness!)

So on Sunday, during a break in the downpour, I scurried outside to capture a few photos from around my yard and garden. Here’s what it looks like, right now: a happy mix of fruit, flowers, fresh veggies, and in-progress preparation for the coming spring.

Wine box brassicas! In summer these boxes held my tomatoes and peppers – now they’re home to broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. ♥

Wee little orange cauliflower.

A budding broccoli.

And of course, curly kale!

My main flower bed is getting the over-winter treatment: buckwheat cover crop (sparse and gone to flower, by now) and a thick layer of hay. Not the prettiest, but it’ll make for some super duper soil, come spring.

My orange tree *finally* got pruned this fall, and it’s soooo much happier now!

They make the best juice.

I spotted this errant tray on my potting table, with this eager little seed already sprouting – left over from last season, I guess. Go seed go!

Harley would like to know what we’re doing outside, and why is it wet, and can haz cuddles now?

Aloe vera plants flower in winter, and they grow like weeds around here.

They’re so cool looking!

But the yellow ones – quite rare and just now beginning to bloom – are my favorite.

The other (new for this coming spring!) flower bed, over-wintering under organic vegan fertilizer and lots of hay. (okay, and some weeds)

My artichoke is loving the cooler weather and all the rain.

I’m also growing a number of potted herbs, like this rosemary which is currently flowering. Petite periwinkle rosemary flowers are the cutest!

And this silly basil, which was stunted all summer, and I basically totally forgot about it. Until recently, when out of curiosity I went to go check on it, and whattaya know? It’s taking off! Not enough for a batch of pesto like I’d hoped, but great for sauces, salad rolls, and herby dressings!

I’m growing lots of parsley, in various pots and wine boxes around the yard. I don’t like to eat parsley, but I LOVE to juice it.

And look what else I found! I’d been leaving my pepper garden alone, allowing it to die back naturally (okay, that’s a fancy way of saying school started back up and LA LA LA LA I was ignoring it), but I was poking around this weekend and found a teeny tiny Tabasco pepper.

Actually, upon further investigation, I found a number of straggler peppers: the Tabasco pepper, a Hungarian Purple Pepper, and a Poblano chili. None of these are very plump, and I probably won’t eat them. But I’ll dry them out and save the seeds to plant next season!

And that’s about it for me and my winter garden. So what about you? What’s growing right now, where you live? Anything at all? Under cloche or in greenhouse? Indoors only?

I’d love to hear from everyone out there – it’s so fun to compare the experiences of people across the country, as well as around the world. Icy cold in the northern hemisphere, sunny bright in the southern. Let’s share our gardens!

~~~

I’ll leave you with some of the absolutely beautiful bougainvillea, which basically blankets all of Santa Barbara (seriously, it’s everywhere). I remember growing up here and taking it all for granted, thinking that bougainvillea was so boring, so common. Like a magenta weed.

Of course, I was crazy! It’s an incredible plant, sprawling and vining with parchment paper buds perched in clusters like origami on the branches. And I love this stuff, now.

I’ll never take it for granted again.

♥ ♥ ♥

Eco-Friendly DIY: Homegrown Luffa

Sayward — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 06:26:07 +0000

Success! By far my favorite garden project of 2014, and a tutorial so easy it barely needs words. We planted sponges in our back yard and they totally grew. It worked! Amazing.

Like so:

A pair of seeds planted in a wine box under the jacaranda tree, with a hand-knotted twine trellis.

A little compost here and there.

Grow baby grow!

Luffa gourds look a bit like a cucumber, but they take a lot longer to mature. These guys sprouted in early spring but weren’t close to ready until early fall.

Un-trellised and moved to the back table to finish off. They like to dry out completely on the vine.

And when they’re totally dry, they’ll be light as a feather and shakey like a rattle.

Smash ‘em with a stick!

And peel off the shell.

And there you have it, a homegrown sponge to use for your shower, your housework, or your kitchen sink. Seriously, could it possibly get more natural, more eco-friendly, more sustainable than that?

Oh yeah wait, it could!

Don’t forget to save the seeds for next year!

Growing my own luffa sponges is definitely something I’ll be doing annually, forevermore. And I hope you’ll consider doing it too. If you want to order your own luffa seeds, I highly recommend the fine folks over at Baker Creek – keepers of heirloom seed strains. They’re good people and very much worth supporting.

♥ Cheers! ♥