All posts by whatthymeisit

How To Succeed at Your First Food Swap

December 18, 2013 whatthymeisit 1 Comment

Have you ever wanted to attend a food swap?

Want to know what to do at your first one?

Traded fresh rosemary and baked breads for the bounty above – 12/17/2013

The Snarky Gardener and the Snarky Girlfriend have been fortunate to have attended three Countryside Conservancy food swaps this year. A food swap is a gathering where people bring food they have grown and/or made with some local ingredients. Items are “bid on” through a silent sign up sheet per unique item. If you want something, you write your name down along with what you have to swap. Then, when the bidding is over, everybody swaps who wants to swap.

Here are some general rules to help your first food swap a success:

1. Read the rules first so you have an idea of what you are getting yourself in to.

2. Bring surplus from your garden and/or make something you’ve made before.

3. Google and Pinterest are your friends.

4. Label your produce with your name, contact information, ingredients, and storage instructions.

5. Know that you may be bringing some of your produce back home, so be willing to eat your own dog food (so to speak).

6. Speaking of which, you can make pet treats as well as people food.

7. Be ready to use your people skills as mingling and talking about yourself and your stuff will be expected.

8. Be open to what other people have. Trades are between 2 parties so if you are more accepting, you’ll get more trades.

9. Have a variety of products, though not too many. 3 unique offerings is probably a good number.

10. Packaging does matter. If it looks professional, people are more likely to want it.

Good luck and happy trading!

Gardening

Kent Ohio Food Not Lawns

December 15, 2013 whatthymeisit Leave a comment

Gardening may seem like just a hobby to many people, but in fact growing food is one of the most radical things you can do: Those who control our food control our lives, and when we take that control back into our own hands, we empower ourselves toward autonomy, self-reliance, and true freedom.

Flores, Heather (2011-10-19). Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community (p. 2). Chelsea Green Publishing. Kindle Edition.

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The Snarky Gardener’s entry into gardening came about accidentally with a previous landlord tilling a 10′ by 50′ swath in the goldenrod infested, brick clay hard, no-mans land behind my duplex. Having little idea what I was doing, I filled the freshly tilled ground with plants I saw my parents grow when I was young – tomatoes, beans, peas, corn, onions, carrots, turnips, eggplants, and others. Some did great (beans, onions, and peas), others mediocre (tomatoes, turnips), and others not at all (carrots didn’t even come up, corn was stunted, etc). But I had enough success to ask myself “Could I grow all my own food?” And for me, that question changed everything, though I’m still far from that goal.

I first heard about “Food Not Lawns” when I attended my first Food Not Lawns Cleveland meeting in January 2013. With my food gardening background, it resonated with me instantly, though I didn’t (and still don’t) consider food gardening “radical”. I wanted to find a group of like minded people to bond with, but organizations like gardening clubs didn’t seem to fit me. The idea of growing plants and flowers just for their looks seemed superficial to me. This group felt like my kind of people.

After recent discussions with Mari Keating, the fearless leader of Food Not Lawns Cleveland and rereading the book, I’ve decided to take the next step by starting “Kent Food Not Lawns“. The FNL movement is “hyper-local” meaning each group should have a limited mile radius influence. Since I’m 35 miles or so from the Cleveland group, creating a new one near me made sense (and keeps me from driving so much). My hope is to find other local gardeners who want to grow food and help others do the same.

Gardening

A Setback for the Great Indoor Tomato Experiment

December 12, 2013 whatthymeisit

Just when I thought things were going along peachy for my indoor tomatoes, this is what I found yesterday morning.

When I saw my plants in distress, I gave them more water and AeroGarden fertilizer. Later on during the day, I jumped on the “Internets” to see what might be the problem and found an article about overfertilization. If plants have too much, they cannot absorb water, which is what the saggy leaves reminded me of. So it looks like I caused the droopiness by using some homemade “Comfrey/Turnip plant juice” a few days ago. Either this liquid mixture was too strong or maybe the pH was too extreme (should probably check, huh?). And of course by adding even more fertilizer, I made everything worse (my overenthusiastic self did it again). So last night I replaced all the water in the AeroGarden with distilled only. I think this did the trick as they look a little better this morning, though we did lose some lower branches. I’ll post more pictures this weekend.

Cooking

Baked Kale Chips

December 10, 2013 whatthymeisit Leave a comment

With winter around the corner on 11/18/2013, I decided to bring in some of my Red Russian kale.

I received a baked kale chip recipe from a work-related health event this month. Being that I’m a better gardener than a cook, I usually go with easy recipes (the simpler the better). This one would only get easier if the instructions were “Just eat the kale raw.” The only issue I had with this was overcooking (also known as burning). Start checking at 6 minutes in 30 second increments.

On a side note, I learned during a work road trip that kale chips in a plastic baggy look like something else to the untrained eye. To this day people are still putting air quotes around the word “kale” as in “Don’t you get the munchies after you eat your ‘kale’?”

Baked Kale Chips

Kale Chips Recipe

Makes: 4 servings, about 2 cups each

Active Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
– 1 large bunch kale, tough stems removed, leaves torn into pieces (about 16 cups)
– 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
– 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Position racks in upper third and center of oven; preheat to 400°F.
If kale is wet, very thoroughly pat dry with a clean kitchen towel; transfer to a large bowl. Drizzle the kale with oil and sprinkle with salt. Using your hands, massage the oil and salt onto the kale leaves to evenly coat. Fill 2 large rimmed baking sheets with a layer of kale, making sure the leaves don’t overlap. (If the kale won’t all fit, make the chips in batches.)
Bake until most leaves are crisp, switching the pans back to front and top to bottom halfway through, 8 to 12 minutes total. (If baking a batch on just one sheet, start checking after 8 minutes to prevent burning.)

TIPS & NOTES

Make Ahead Tip: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Note: Choose organic kale when possible. Nonorganic can have high pesticide residue.

Gardening

Safe Seed Pledge

December 7, 2013 whatthymeisit 2 Comments

Because of my seed saving efforts, the Snarky Gardener has signed the Safe Seed Pledge, which states:

“Agriculture and seeds provide the basis upon which our lives depend. We must protect this foundation as a safe and genetically stable source for future generations. For the benefit of all farmers, gardeners and consumers who want an alternative,

We pledge that we do not knowingly buy, sell or trade genetically engineered seeds or plants.

The mechanical transfer of genetic material outside of natural reproductive methods and between genera, families or kingdoms, poses great biological risks as well as economic, political, and cultural threats. We feel that genetically engineered varieties have been insufficiently tested prior to public release. More research and testing is necessary to further assess the potential risks of genetically engineered seeds. Further, we wish to support agricultural progress that leads to healthier soils, genetically diverse agricultural ecosystems and ultimately healthy people and communities.”

This does mean I’ve stopped my evil experiments to create plants that are actually snarky (with snide remarks and sarcastic attitudes), but I think we’re all better off this way.

Gardening

The Snarky Gardener is on Facebook!

December 6, 2013 whatthymeisit Leave a comment

Come check out the Snarky Gardener’s Facebook account (and Like him) at https://facebook.com/thesnarkygardener

Gardening

Let It Snow (twice)!

December 5, 2013 whatthymeisit Leave a comment

This fall we’ve had serious snow twice so far (several inches each time) here in Northeastern Ohio. While most people have not even thought about their gardens since the first freeze back in October, the early snow had me worried. Many of my fall duties were incomplete, including digging up and bringing in my rosemary herbs (they died out there last winter – sniff). Also, the fall leaves I gathered into big honking piles did not get as distributed as I would have liked. I found out this summer that some plants (lettuce, spinach, kale, turnips, peas, corn salad) could be covered with mulch 5 or 6 inches deep in the fall to “overwinter” them. Then in mid-March, you just pull off the leaves and viola, they will start growing again. Nifty trick having food producing plants when other unsnarky gardeners are still planning for the summer. Anyways, I was finally able to finish these tasks on 12/4/2013 with most of my fall babies no worse for wear.

If you look at the pictures below, you will notice some of my plants didn’t do as well by December (especially the sad Swiss chard in the middle foreground). In the back left, my mustard is going to seed, which is good because I needed more for cooking and next year’s crop. But you will also see that there’s quite a bit of green considering it’s December in Ohio. On the right foreground, my purple top turnips are looking great. I will thin these out (yum) and mulch the rest in the next week or so. Also, near the Swiss chard, you should be able to make out bright green areas near the ground. That’s my corn salad and onions, all ready to eat. We used them plus mustard greens, carrots, and kale to make a wonderfully fresh salad (again, in December in Ohio).

P.S. I don’t think “unsnarky” is a word, but with use it will soon become one.

Featured Plant, Gardening

All (Sun)choked Up

November 30, 2013 whatthymeisit 1 Comment

Sunchokes are great if you can stomach them.

Sunchokes, Jerusalem artichokes, sunroots, fartichokes – all names for a North American native related to the sunflower. This is a perennial plant that produces edible knobby tubers. And by perennial, I mean they could be invasive if not properly managed. I obtained several at the Foods Not Lawns seed swap this last January. Planting them in the back of my garden in March, I just let them go without much assistance. I did have to fence them in inside my fence as one groundhog acquired a taste for them, but once the sunchokes got tall enough (4 feet or so), the critters couldn’t get to them. The sunchokes ended up getting 10 feet or so tall with pretty sunflower-like flowers on them. On 11/17/2013, I dug them up, bringing in several buckets full – way more than I would have imagined. Also, it seems like they don’t store all that well (some shriveling up within a week), but was able to keep them in the buckets with some dirt on top through the spring.

My understanding is that it’s hard to get rid of sunchokes once they are planted. The roots are very long and grow everywhere. If you miss any while digging, you will have more sunchokes next year. Also, the flowers produce seeds, which will produce even more sunchokes. I believe I’m in trouble next year as I had both roots and seeds I’m sure I missed. The only saving grace is that the leaves and stems make good mulch (read that in a permaculture book recently), so I’ll just be cutting any unwanted stalks down. I’m definitely a mulch believer – the more the better.

Sunchoke from my garden before cleaning 11/17/2013

The reason for people calling them fartichokes is that some people can’t digest sunchokes, much like lactose intolerance. I didn’t have that issue at first as we only had a small amount. I pushed it the next day and apparently ate too many (oh, my aching stomach). The Turnip, Apple, and Sunchoke soup I made next was much better and didn’t affect me at all. I think the secret is moderation (which is not my strong suit).

Cooking

Turnip, Apple, and Sunchoke Soup

November 27, 2013 whatthymeisit Leave a comment

In case you have Jerusalem artichokes (aka sunchokes) and don’t know what to do with them, here’s what I decided to make with my own turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, onions, and garlic. I made a few modifications, including adding turnip greens and not peeling anything (I’m lazy if not anything). I would make this again so, but alas, I’m out of turnips for now. Could always buy some at the local farmer’s market.

Turnip, Apple, and Sunchoke Soup

YIELD: 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients
1 leek, trimmed
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Fine sea salt
2 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 pounds turnips diced plus greens
1 1/4 pounds sunchokes, diced
2 tart apples, cored, and diced
Coarsely ground black pepper or Aleppo pepper
Medium-coarse sea salt

Instructions:
1. Cut leek lengthwise in half and rinse well. Finely chop leek together with onion and garlic.

2. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium heat. Add leek mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a gentle simmer, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until water is almost completely evaporated, about 15 minutes.

3. Add turnips, artichokes, apples, and remaining 2 cups of water. Cover and simmer until apple is soft and flavors have blended, about 30 minutes more.

4. Puree soup using an immersion blender until smooth. Add salt to taste. Serve drizzled with oil and sprinkled with a grinding of pepper and with salt, if desired.

Gardening

The Snarky Swapper

November 21, 2013 whatthymeisit 3 Comments

On 11/19/2013, the Snarky Gardener attended the Countryside Conservancy Food Swap held at The Grape and Granary (915 Home Ave, Akron OH). Advertised as a monthly event to “trade homegrown and homemade items with other DIY-ers”, it did not disappoint. The Snarky Girlfriend (aka SGF) talked the SG into attending the swap two months ago with encouraging results, trading our organic herbs and greens for other things (including beer!). This time was better as we were much more prepared.

First, we needed to decide what to bring. Thanksgiving herbs (rosemary, thyme, and sage) seemed a natural and straight forward decision. The next idea we came up with was baking dog treats. These used up our organic wheat (which the SGF is intolerant of) plus we added our mint and parsley. My terrier River was a willing taste tester. I was concerned she wouldn’t like them, though that was sort of silly as she’ll eat pretty much anything. Our third idea was to put some “adult” herb infused vodka marshmallows into little jars. We made this with our basil, thyme, and rosemary a few months ago after seeing it on Pinterest. The SGF used her crafting skills to make our offerings appear more professional though I would love to get some sealable plastic bags with the Snarky Gardener logo. Of course, I need to get an official logo first. Any suggestions?

Our Snarky offerings - Thanksgiving herbs , herb infused vodka marshmallows, and mint/parsley dog treatsOur Snarky offerings - Thanksgiving herbs (rosemary/thyme/sage), herb infused vodka marshmallows, and mint/parsley dog treats — Our Snarky offerings – Thanksgiving herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage), herb infused vodka marshmallows, and mint/parsley dog treats

The event went well as we traded 2 jars of adult marshmallows, 3 bags of doggy treats, and all 3 bags of herbs. In return, we received bags of wheat and corn flour from Breakneck Acres, the same place we purchased the whole wheat that was used in the dog treats (ah, the circle of life). Also, we got lip balm, chocolate covered pretzels, cookies, bars, and canned goods (all homemade). All in all, not a bad haul. So now we have to come up with what we will bring to the swap next month, though I’m sure they will all have a Christmas theme.

Have you ever wanted to attend a food swap?

Want to know what to do at your first one?

TIPS & NOTES

Sunchokes are great if you can stomach them.

Northeastern Ohio Food Gardening