Homemade Potting Soil
I had a productive day in the garden yesterday. I moved one of my compost bin and harvested and sifted a bunch of compost to use in my homemade potting mix. I have so many potted plants that I would spend a fortune if I bought potting mix for all of my pots. I also like that I can mix up my own organic mix with no chemicals, unlike much of what you buy.
So what recipe do I use for my own homemade potting mix?
1 part peat moss (or coconut coir if you don’t like using peat)
1 part compost
1 part soil
1 part vermiculite or perlite (I prefer vermiculite)
I’m usually making a big batch so I measure with wheelbarrow loads, but you may find it easier to measure in 2 gallons because you can mix a batch in the wheel barrow.
I usually add some of my homemade rock/mineral fertilizer to give it some goodness for the plants. If you don’t have your own mixed up you can use an organic fertilizer in each pot depending on what you’re planting in each pot and the size of the pot (I like Dr Earth Fertilizers). If you use the 2 gallon method for measuring to each batch you can add: 1/2 cup of each: lime, greensand, rock phosphate, kelp meal, soybean meal (I usually use blood meal & bone meal in place of soybean & kelp meal).
What kind of potting soil do you use? store bought or do you mix your own?
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Breakfast of Champions
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, at least that’s what they say. I must admit, I do love a good breakfast. We don’t do the usual cereal and milk like most people, we like a heartier breakfast of oatmeal & nuts. Since Nourishing Gourmet was having a breakfast carnival today, I thought I’d join and share what a typical breakfast at Chiot’s Run is like.
We don’t eat the normal oat flakes, we prefer oat groats, which are whole oat berries. I soak them overnight with a bit of apple cider vinegar to soften them up, then I cook them the next morning. Usually I cook up a big batch on Sunday night and we warm up enough for breakfast each morning, this makes for a quick healthy hearty breakfast each day.
We like to top our oatmeal with various toppings each morning including: crystalized ginger, pecans, walnuts, ground flax seeds, raisins, cranberries, dried pears, and cinnamon.
We finish it off with a drizzle of maple syrup and then we enjoy our healthy breakfast. Hopefully I can find a source for local oats and then our morning meals will be local. (I am planting a few raisin grape vines to make our own raisins and I’m trying to grow some ginger of my own).
What’s your breakfast of champions?
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Enjoying the Fruits of our Labor
If you were around and reading my blog this past summer you’ll remember that we foraged for bunches of blackberries and we picked blueberries at a local farm. We’ve really been enjoying the fruits of our labor this winter. There’s nothing like berry syrup over lemon pancakes, blackberry or blueberry muffins or our favorite, triple berry cobbler. We eat this often for breakfast, it sure makes all the hard work of picking blackberries, black raspberries and blueberries worth it.
TRIPLE BERRY COBBLER
1 cup of all-purpose flour (I use whole wheat)
2 Tablespoon of sugar (I skip this and sprinkle some on top before baking)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (if desired)
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger (if desired)
1/4 cup cold butter
1 egg
1/4 cup of milk
6 cups frozen berries (I use a mix of blueberries, blackberries & wild black raspberries, sometimes I use 8 cups)
1/4-2/3 cup of sugar (I usually use 1/4 cup of honey and omit the remaining sugar)
1 Tablespoon of cornstarch
For filling: in a saucepan combine the berries, sugar (or honey) and cornstarch and 1/4 cup of water. Let stand for 10 minutes (20 minutes for frozen fruit). Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly, keep warm.
For topping: in a medium bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and if desired cinnamon (ginger is added later). Cut in butter till mixture resembles coarse crumbs, stir in crystallized ginger, set aside.
In a small bowl stir together egg and milk. Add to flour mixture, stirring just to moisten. Transfer filling to a 2 quart baking dish, or large cast iron skillet. Using spoon, drop topping onto small mounds atop filling (sprinkle with sugar if desired).
Bake cobbler in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted into topping comes out clean. Serve warm.
What’s your favorite way to eat berries?
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Eating Seasonally = Winter Squash
When you’re trying to eat seasonally you start to wonder what you’re going to be eating for veggies in the winter. I do have mache and spinach still growing in the garden for greens, as well as canned green beans, beets, and zucchini pickles in the pantry. All of these are wonderful, but one of the best winter vegetables is butternut squash. They’re super easy to store, mine are just sitting on top of the side table in my dining room. They will last for up to 6 months if stored properly. Now that’s amazing, no canning, freezing or preparing, just pile in a corner and check them every week or so, could it get any easier than that?
There’s just something about roasted squash that is warm and cozy. They’re also super healthy. Butternut squash is an excellent source of magnesium, potassium, vitamins C and A, and a good source of calcium.
So how do you go about eating a butternut squash? They can be cooked in a variety of ways: baked, pureed (like mashed potatoes), in muffins, in pies, in ravioli or lasagna, and in soups. We prefer ours in soup or roasted, although butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter occasionally graces our winter table. You can also eat the seeds if you’d like. I sometimes roast them in the oven, but most of the time I save them and throw them out by the bird feeder for the birds.
Most of the butternut squashes that grew in my garden this summer were small ones, but I did have a volunteer that grow out of my compost pile that produced a 3 pound squash. I bought 6-7 at the farmer’s market along with a few pumpkins and other kinds of squash.
Here’s my favorite Butternut Squash recipe.
Butternut Squash and Chipotle Soup
from Fresh & Light (Williams-Sonoma)
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, 2.5 lbs
1 tablespoon of butter
2 slices of coarse country bread, each about 1/2 inch thick cut into 1/2 inch cubes (for croutons)
1 teaspoon of dried sage
1/2 yellow onion chopped
2 small chipotle peppers (I’d start with 1 without seeds and then taste) I use canned ones
3 1/2 cups of chicken broth
salt to taste
fresh sage leaves (optional)
Preheat oven to 350. Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Using spoon, scrape out the seeds and any fibers and discard. Place the squash halves, cut side down, on a baking sheet and bake until just tender, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh into a bowl.
In a large saucepan over medium high heat, warm the butter. Add the bread and dried sage and saute, stirring often, until the bread cubes are browned on all side, about 4 minutes. Using a spoon, transfer croutons to a plate and set aside. Add the onion to the pan and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the squash chiles, and broth. Simmer over medium heat and cook, uncovered, until the squash is very soft, about 30 minutes.
Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth (or with immersion blender), be very carefully blending hot soup as it has a tendency to explode the top off the blender. It’s best to start with bursts of power then to full blend. Its also wise to keep a kitchen towel draped over the blender. I have found an immersion blender to be indispensable since we make many pureed soups.
Return soup to the pan and reheat gently. If desired add some whole milk and butter. Taste and add salt and freshly ground pepper as needed. Ladle into warmed bowls. Divide the croutons among the servings and garnish with sage leaves. Serve hot.
What’s you’re favorite way to eat butternut squash?
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Elderberry Syrup
Em from Dance of the Small Things asked for my Elderberry Syrup recipe back when I posted about the items I had canned as part of the Harvest Keepers Challenge. I make syrup every year and we use it for pancakes and we also stir it into tea as a sweetener. Elderberries are super healthy and great for you. Handmaiden’s Kitchen has a few posts on the benefits and how to make an elderberry tincture.
Elderberry is used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, to improve vision, to boost the immune system, to improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsilitis. Bioflavonoids and other proteins in the juice destroy the ability of cold and flu viruses to infect a cell. People with the flu who took elderberry juice reported less severe symptoms and felt better much faster than those who did not.
This is my recipe for syrup. You can just make it using sugar, elderberry syrup and lemon juice if you don’t mind a runny syrup. I prefer mine to be a little thicker so I use pectin, I find it works much better on pancakes this way (doesn’t make the pancake soggy). If you plan on using this only for health benefits in tea, you probably don’t need to add pectin. I use no-sugar pectin so I can make a reduced sugar syrup, I also use organic evaporated cane juice to sweeten my syrups & jellies.
First you want to pick very ripe elderberries (I always pick as many as I can, I think this is about 10 quarts) and remove all stems (stems are poisonous so make sure to get as many as possible). Next, you’ll cook the berries down with a little water to prevent sticking. I usually barely boil mine for 30-35 minutes in a big stock pot with the lid on, every so often I crush them with a potato masher. Next let them cool a bit and press them through a sieve if desired (you can leave in the seeds if you’d like, I strain mine out). You’ll end up with elderberry juice.
I ended up with about a gallon of elderberry juice from my stock pot full of berries. At this point you can refrigerate the juice if you’d like for a day or two before you make the syrup, or you can proceed and make the syrup right away.
ELDERBERRY SYRUP
1. Bring boiling water canner, half-full of water, to simmer.
2. Prepare jars, lids and rims for canning.
3. Measure 10 cups of prepared juice into pan and add in 1/2 cup of lemon juice.
4. Measure 8 cups of sugar into bowl, set aside.
5. Mix 1/4 cups of sugar (from bowl that you set aside) and mix with pectin in a small bowl.
6. Stir pectin/sugar mix into fruit juice, add 1/2 teaspoon of butter to keep foam down.
7. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil (a boil that can’t be stirred down), stirring constantly.
8. Stir in remaining sugar and return to a full boil and boil for exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. (remove a small amount of syrup from pan and cool quickly on cold plate to test consistency, you want it to by syrupy but not too thick).
9. Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of top. Wipe jar rims and threads, cover with lids and place jars in elevated rack in the canner. Water must cover jars 1 or 2 inches above lids. Cover and bring water to a gentle boil. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner. Remove and cool on rack.
Just a note: Make sure you’re picking real elderberries and not ink berries. If you’re not sure, find someone who knows and have them help you. As with anything else, make sure you’re not allergic to something before you eat a big helping of it. Also make sure to check the seals on the jars before storing them.
What kinds of delicious syrups/jellies did you make this summer?
