Roasted Squash, Pecans, and Maple Syrup, oh my!

I made a delicious roasted squash dish for dinner the other night. It was a roasted squash and nut dish. I started with two squash.

I grew the butternut myself, and I got the sweet dumpling squash from the farmer's market. I think the dumpling squash was from California - where most of the produce we get that is still from the states is from this time of year.

I cut both in half, and then removed the skins using a vegetable peeler. 15 minutes later I had this part done, and I cut it in small pieces (1 inch cubes - roughly). I put it in a baking dish (9x13), drizzled it with about two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and one or two tablespoons of sugar free maple syrup (Roasted Pecan flavor). I tossed in some pecans (local from the market) and some walnuts. I baked it for 40 minutes (covered in foil) at 375 F. Then, after it cooled a little bit, we enjoyed it with a spinach pie from Trader Joes. It was a delicious and very filling meal.

The maple syrup came from Meinhardt Vineyards near Savannah, Georgia that we picked up when we went on a short vacation to the south part of the state and Florida a while back. This was the last bit of the syrup that was left. We have enjoyed it for quite a while and I hope to call and order some more in the next week.

A few weeks ago, I had made a squash dish using another butternut squash I had grown. I saved the seeds from that squash. However, I am slightly worried about if those seeds are viable, as we found out that the squash wasn't quite ripe when we ate it. So, I sorted out the squash seeds from the butternut squash this time as well (and hey- we'll know if they are viable soon!), and placed them on a paper plate to save. Here's to another harvest!

Snow Peas!

This morning, my wife and I picked up more seeds from a local store that I couldn't find online and picked up the following. I was so excited to see on the back that they could be planted now!

I went outside and cleaned up one of the beds. I raked, pulled out some dead weeds and plants, and tilled up two rows to plant. It was chilly outside, but this is the weather that they love - AND the ground wasn't frozen like when I harvested a few onions a couple weeks ago.

Grow peas, grow!

Seed Planting is Just Around the Corner!

I am getting ready for the big planting. I have seeds on the way: tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, beans, squash, and tomatillas. One website I wanted to use was this one, but they are unable to fill any orders until next month! And they will probably be sold out of some of the seeds I wanted. I found another site, which is actually cheaper!

In preparation for starting seeds under the grow light in the basement, I have constructed newspaper pots, at the suggestion of the neighbor. I made probably 150 or so. I'll also get some peat pellets for some planters/mini greenhouses I got last year. I'll probably plant around 300-400 plants in the garden. Some, like onions will produce 1 vegetable. Others, like tomatoes could produce up to two dozen vegetables per plant. Likely, I will start too many seeds.

Anyways, if you are starting some seeds and want to make some paper pots, here's what I did. Take a large section of newspaper, with at least 2 or 3 sheets (to make it thick enough to be sturdy), and cut into thirds or fourths, depending on how tall you want them.

Find a small can or jar. I made the taller ones wrapped around a can of green chilies (I'm growing some this year). For some shorter ones, I used a small can of tomato paste. It got some newspaper ink on it. Oops.

After you wrap it around the can, tape it once or twice on the end, and then close one end like a wrapped gift. The closed end becomes the bottom (obviously).

The end product looks like this:

Fill with dirt, plant, and water seeds, and watch them grow. Newspaper is biodegradable and compostable, so if you want, you can put it straight in the ground! That's it for now. I'll let you know when I plant the seeds

Sweet Potato Fries! - the encore version.

My wife reminded me after I made my last post that we had some left, and she was taking them for her lunch today. Here's a picture of them prepared, in the ever-fancy GLADware container.

Also, here's a picture of the new sweet potatoes from our wonderful neighbors:

Sweet Potato Fries!

Wow, dinner was deliciously good tonight. We went to the Dekalb Farmer's Market after work, before coming home. We decided to have a sandwich and sweet potato fries for dinner tonight. When we got back to the sweet potatoes, we were faced with 3 options: Normal sized (from Mississippi), Jumbo sized (also from Mississippi), or Jumbo sized (from Georgia). We actively chose the Georgia jumbo sized sweet potatoes, but the smaller ones weighing only ~3/4 of a pound each.

To make these delicious "fries" (kinda more like chips), you will need the following for each serving (I had a serving and a half).

1/2 pound sweet potatoes, cut into 1/4" thick strips
1/2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne
pinch of black pepper

Directions are:

Preheat oven to 450 F

In a medium bowl, toss the potatoes, olive oil, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne, salt, and black pepper.

Place the potatoes in a single layer on a medium nonstick baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Flip the potatoes and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and browned in spots. Serve immediately, with ketchup, if desired.

Oh, and just to make it a little more local - the cayenne pepper was grown in my garden, dehydrated, and then ground up here at my house. It doesn't get much more local than that!

These are diet friendly too! I am trying to lose weight and the site I use had this recipe. They are delicious, cheap, and healthy. Then, I went to the neighbor's to talk about what heirloom seeds we were going to order, and he gave me two more sweet potatoes that are the same size. Maybe next time I'll remember to take a picture.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 1
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 173.0

• Total Fat: 4.1 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 17.4 mg
• Total Carbs: 32.5 g
• Dietary Fiber: 4.3 g
• Protein: 2.4 g

Onions and a "heat wave"

This is more like a typical Atlanta winter right now. It was almost 60F today. Gorgeous, clear skies, and it looks like the overnight lows will not drop below freezing for a few days. We're expecting rain, so with the beautiful day I decided to try to harvest a few of the onions that didn't look as great in the garden.

I planted some sweet onions and some purple onions last year. They outlined the entire growing area, as many garden pests hate the smell of onion so much they will run the other way (and except for a few pesky chipmunks, that seemed to work pretty well). A few of the red onions came back after they were harvested, and I dug those up today. If you've ever wondered what exactly is meant by the ground being frozen, I think I can sum it up...

Those are little ice crystals on the onion and in the dirt. The fall onions I planted in October haven't grown much, so I put some fertilizer on them and I'm hoping for a bit more growth before the major planting season coming up in about 2 months.

I think I'll freeze the onions I did pick, maybe use them in a cup of soup next week. We'll see.

If you want to know how to freeze onions, it is simple. Cut them into small chunks, place on tray. Put tray in the freezer. Wait a while. Put onions in freezer bags and use as needed. They are typically good for about 6 months. And hey - I might as well freeze them, they are frozen already!

I placed the order from "Garden's Alive" that I was thinking about last post. I just got it today! I received a pack of insect repellent. It looks like it will be enough for several applications. This is good because I had such a problem last year with bugs eating my squash plants. I also have packets of seeds for scallions and German Tomatoes. We'll see how I do with the scallions. I haven't had much luck with onions yet. I am looking forward to a new variety of tomatoes this year.

I think that is about all I have to say for now. Cheers!

A bit of humor, this week's goals, and a delicious dinner

I came home from Washington, DC to find this on the fridge for me...

It is so true... starting and keeping a garden is no small commitment. You invest time and money into making the garden, and then you need to upkeep in order to continue to enjoy it. In the case of herbs, you can enjoy both the looks and tastes of the garden.

So, it's January. It is officially time to put together the list of things to grow this year. I received a catalog from "Gardens Alive" last week. They have a $25 coupon for any order, so I plan on trying some of their products for free and ordering this week.

The neighbors and I are going to most likely order some heirloom vegetable seeds next week. Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Beans, Peppers, Eggplant, and a side of deliciousness.

On a side note, we made homemade tacos. Correction, my beautiful bride made tacos tonight. Featured in them were peppers either from our garden or the neighbor's that we froze a month or two ago. The soy we cooked up as the main protein with about a half pint of tomatoes that I canned last summer. Also, I put some peach salsa on them. I made and preserved this last summer... I went and picked the peaches, and then made the salsa with peaches, tomatoes, and peppers from our garden. YUMMO!

Snow and Rosemary...

It snowed in Atlanta! That statement doesn't get said enough. Granted, it was about a half inch of snow, and because of the lack of snow handling equipment, the city is essentially shut down today. (I had been out of town, so I am happy I made it back right as the snow was starting, and not after all the ice.)

Anyways, my wife is making bread with a breadmaker a lot now (her new years resolution) and made a delicious rosemary loaf last week. The cool weather onions and rosemary are all that are alive right now, and the bread is so good, we may eat all of the rosemary plant before it is able to grow larger and recover.

The point of the matter is that even now when it is below freezing and there is snow covering everything, I am happy that I can go outside, pick rosemary, and about 3 hours later, there is a wonderful, delicious loaf of rosemary bread for us to enjoy a local grown fresh spice.

Rosemary Loaf

Those poor onions... we'll see how they do.

New Year's Resolutions

It is that time of year. Everyone tries to think of something they can do to better themselves or the world. One of mine is to keep up this blog and show how I am working on minimizing the distance that my food travels between being grown and my mouth...

Planet Green had a post this morning about "green New Year's resolutions." They usually have good ideas on how to reduce, reuse, recycle, etc. Of their 25 resolutions, these are my favorites:

17. Go vegetarian one day a week. The livestock industry is a huge greenhouse gas emitter.

18. Eat organic -- it may not be nutritionally superior, but it's a lot better for the planet.

21. Grow your own fruits, veggies, and herbs.

#17 - I've been a vegetarian for 7 or 8 years now. Each year saves about the amount of emissions as one cross country flight... which offsets the large amount of travel I have to do for my graduate career.

#18 - I like growing my own food because I KNOW what was used. I had some serious issues last year with bugs eating my squash, so I may use some pesticides there this year, but I love my garden food because it is so much more natural than what I can get at the store.

#21 - I'm doing that again, and this time, I'll keep a blog about it.

A few resources I'll be using in the next month or two:

Heirloom Tomato seeds

Heirloom vegetable seeds
Pick your own veggies and fruit

This is the time of year to plan what to grow in the spring. Tomatoes, peppers, green beans, and squash are all in the list. More herbs this year. Maybe some house plants and herbs... The last link is more for planning right now. What do I want to do a pick my own of?

I have a grow light I bought from a friend moving to Chile, a bunch of pots and planters to get stuff started... it will be planting time next month... at least for starting seeds indoors. CAN'T WAIT!