Discovery Community School!

January 16, 2013

We got a visit from the Discovery Community School students today, and were lucky enough to get their help planting some radish seeds in the greenhouse garden! This time of year, young radish seeds would only survive in a warmer environment such as a heated greenhouse, or other indoor space with good light. We are giving them a try!

We planted the seeds in individual rows, 1/2 inch deep and 1 inch apart. Then gently pinched our rows closed, gave them a little pat to help the seeds make contact with our soil, and let them do their work! Hopefully, we will see some baby radishes popping up soon. Thank you DCS students, and check back to see your radishes!

Can you see the seeds?

 

Beet Biscuits

January 16, 2013

Beet Biscuits!

These biscuits add some color, variety, and personality to your biscuits!

Start by pre-heating the oven to 400 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper ( a special paper used in baking to replace greasing). If you don't have parchment paper, just grease your pan with butter or a non-dairy alternative.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp sugar
4 oz cold butter
1 1/2 cup total liquid, buttermilk and beet puree together. Roughly around 3/4 C of puree, and 3/4 C of buttermilk. 
Red beets, about 1 medium/large size
~2 cups Apple juice, or enough to cover beets

~First, make your beet puree. Cook the beets in some apple juice until soft, peel the skin off, and puree in a blender or food processor. Set aside for later.

~Next, start on your dough. You can shake up your butter first in a jar or can to break it up into smaller pieces. Then, add all of your dry ingredients and the butter in your mixing bowl, and mix until the dough is the consistency of cornmeal (a little coarse and lumpy). Don't over mix your biscuits! The dough should not be smooth, or creamy.

~Add the buttermilk and mix until just it is just incorporated into the mixture. Then pour in your puree into the dough until you reach desired color, or consistency (about 3/4 cup). If you add less puree, be sure to substitute with more buttermilk. Overall, you need about 1 1/3 cup of total liquid.

~ Roll out your dough on a floured surface, to about 1 inch thickness, cut into rounds and place on baking sheet.

~Bake at 400 degrees until the peaks of the dough turn golden brown.

Enjoy!
 

January 4th, 2013

Turnips!

We are still able to harvest (outside):                           

• Leeks
• Kale, all varieties
• Swiss Chard
• Turnips
• Brussel Sprouts
• Sorrel
• Potatoes (only a few left in the ground!)
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Celery
• Sunchokes

    Frosty, Cool Chard

                                                         

                                                                   Happy New Year!!

Artichokes are tough!

It is now 2013, and things have been changing a lot in the garden. Many things are asleep to cope with the cold, low light, and overall wetter conditions of winter. There has been lots of frost this week, and that can be hard on some of our plants. However, some things are still going strong like kale, artichokes, leeks, celery, swiss chard, radishes, turnips, parsley, sorrel, and brussel sprouts.

Turnips, frosty and still going strong

Here is what is going on in the garden right now~

Frosty Lacinato Kale

 Kale is pretty strong and hardy, and can usually withstand hard frost as can some of its other Brassicae relatives such as brussel sprouts, broccoli, collards, and cabbage.

Remay!

We also have some new friends in our greenhouse......baby collard greens! These were planted from seed, and are now big enough to be in their own pots. When they are old enough, we will transplant them to the outdoor garden, and voila! Delicious greens~

South Shore and Madrona!

December 5, 2012!

Harvesting Brussel Sprouts!

Freshly harvested leeks

Beautiful cauliflower, ready to pick!

IslandWood welcomed South Shore and Madrona Elementary this week! With the help of their fabulous students, we harvested and made a delicious snack with Chef Chris using the following home grown ingredients:

• Brussel sprouts
• Leeks
• Kale
• Cauliflower
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Peppermint
• Lemon Balm
• Lemon Verbena

 We made a delicious vegetable saute, fresh tea, and garnish of herbs and fresh grated cheese...yum!

Prepping our veggies

Saute it up!

 

Decorate our plates, and enjoy!

December 4th, 2012

What are we still able to harvest outside in the garden this week?

Leeks, Kale, and Celery

• Leeks 
• Celery
• Kale
• Chard
• Artichokes
• Potatoes
• Brussel Sprouts
• Broccoli
• Sorrel
• Chives
• Herbs: rosemary, oregano, peppermint, lemon balm, thyme, sage, parsley
• Sunchokes
• Collards
• Turnips
• Parsnips

Fresh Sorrel in our Garden! After a fresh rain, the sorrel (Rumex acetosa) a perennial herb, looks so green, and happy. As always, it is delicious right out of the garden. Have you tried sorrel before?



 

Colder weather is on the horizon, and we are getting prepared in the garden! Some plants do poorly in cold weather (around or below freezing), but what to do if they live outside? We can put some remay on them!

Remay is a spun-bonded polyester fabric that acts as a "plant blanket" if you will. It comes in different sizes and weights, just like blankets we use. The thicker the fabric, the more protection it offers. It allows for rain and water to penetrate to the plants, although it can shade some light. Remay also protects plants from pests and wind, and is used to shelter baby plants while they first take hold. Overall, when other plants freeze in the open air, the remay-ed plants have no frost and have a better chance of making it through the cold temperatures.

This is what the garden looks like this week.....some beautiful crops like leeks, celery, and kale doing great in the colder weather. We put remay on the chard, and over some of our herbs. Hopefully, they will stay nice and warm!

Cozy Chard