Temecula Berry Co

This last Saturday, some friends invited us to go with them to pick blueberries, and we are so glad we went. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera, and I don't know how to transfer pictures from my phone to my computer because I am that tech-unsavvy. Anyhow, we had a great time with our kids strolling through the blueberry patch eating probably about our weight in blueberries as we picked some for our bucket. It's probably because of customers like me that it costs $5/pint. If you have time and are interested you should check it out.

www.temeculaberryco.com

Also, they have other activities during the week for kids. It's a pretty cool place and you get fresh blueberries too!

My "Harvest" for Today

I love Fridays, not only because it means the weekend is here, but also because it's they day I go out and get most of my produce. This is what I picked up today from the farm: 1 red onion, 2 white onions, 2 large bunches of carrots, swiss chard, red leaf lettuce, romaine, collard greens, kale, and beets. All for $15. Not too shabby. I also swung by the strawberry stand and picked up a half-flat of strawberries for $10. There is some good eating at our house, and even good eating for the chickens!

While I was at the farm, I saw a lady from the Valley Chronicle interviewing Ursula, the lady that runs the farm. I expect there will be an article coming out about it soon. Here's how they work their CSA: You pay the fee up front and for us it was $80. We get to pick what produce we want whenever we go in and they deduct the amount from what we've pre-paid. The great thing about signing up is that they will give you a 20% discount across the board on whatever you buy. Once your money has run out, you pay again, and so on. It's a nice system and you never get more than you can eat, because you choose what you get. Brilliant!

Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend!

More Chicken Stuff

Sorry about all the chicken posts. I just get so excited about all the stuff I'm learning about them. I had chickens growing up - a lot of them, actually. We had a huge barn and at least a dozen chickens running around. I'm finding, though, that having them as an adult is a lot different than experiencing them as a child. For example, I can immediately pick out the pecking order of these ladies. We have a white one that is a lot bigger than the others, and yet it's always off by itself, away from the other hens. It's last in line for food, last in line to use the nest, and just kind of wanders around. The other day, Roxy, our dog, went over to sniff at her, and she puffed up her feathers and pecked her nose and scared her away. I think it's interesting that our 70+ lb lab-boxer mix is lower on the pecking order than that hen.

I've also learned that chicken poop is great for composting. It's full of nitrates to replenish the soil, although it has to sit, or marinate, as I like to call it, for a few months before it's used. If used too soon, it will burn up your plants. I have 2 compost buckets I've been working on, full of fruit and veggie scraps and also chicken poop. I'll let you know how they work when I actually use them. I think, when we move, if we ever do, that I will keep my chickens in the garden area for a few months, so they can work that poop right into the soil for me with all their scratching and digging. Then I'll move them to a new area to fertilize that patch of ground. We'll see how it goes. If anyone is interested in collecting some of this "fertilizer" just let me know. Bring a bucket over and I'd be happy to fill it up for the next few weeks for you.

Chickens are also great at eating leftover greens, pasta, and bread. When I get beets, I give them the greens, since I'm not a huge fan of them. We give them our watermelon rinds and apple cores. It's nice to know that no food is getting wasted.

One more tidbit - this will either gross you out or you will find it fascinating. Chicken have only one exit - known as their vent - that everything comes out of. That means that the eggs and poop are coming out the same hole. This thoroughly disgusted Craig. He wanted to make sure I was washing the eggs before using them. But we only wash them right before we use them. Eggs come out with a coating that helps it keep for longer. It's best to let them be until you're ready to use them.

Congratulations! You have now passed Chicken 101!

The Incredible Egg

I've learned so much about eggs in the last week and wanted to share what I've learned so far. Not only is the egg you see here really good for you, the shell has multiple uses as well! The easiest thing to do, is to throw the shell into a compost bin to add a bit of calcium to the mix. I also found out you can grind up the egg shell or smash it into small pieces and plant it with your tomatoes. Apparently, when tomato plants are deficient in calcium they get what I think is called blossom rot. To prevent this from happening you incorporate the crushed egg shells into the soil and the plant will get the calcium from the egg shell as it decomposes. Pretty cool, huh? And you know what's even cooler? You can also crush up the egg shell and sprinkle it on top of the soil to prevent slug, snails, and some other creepy crawly I don't remember the name of, from destroying your garden. As the pests slide over the eggshells it gives them small cuts all over their body and they dehydrate and die. Now that is an all-natural pesticide. It gets rid of the pests AND makes the soil more nutrient-rich! Win-win. I also learned that you can use the half shell to plant seedlings indoors. The great thing about this is that once they are ready to transplant, you just drop the whole thing in the ground, just like the peat-pots you get at the store, except the eggshells are free! Eggs are amazing. Just make sure to wash out all of the egg white before doing any of this, as it will attract larger and more destructive pests.

Beet cake

I had some beets I needed to use up yesterday and didn't feel like eating them straight, so I decided to make some beet cake. It's great for the sweet tooth and actually has some nutritional value! Say what? Here's the recipe I used, adapted from one Craig got in one of his cooking classes in college.

1 1/2 c sugar
3 eggs
1/4 c canola oil
1/4 t vanilla
1 c cooked and grated beets
1/2 c water
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 c flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 pan. Combine sugar, egg, oil, and vanilla. Beat well in a mixer. Add beets and cocoa powder and beat again. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and water. Mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 35 minutes. Top with a little powdered sugar and enjoy!

I was excited to use this recipe because I got to use 3 eggs from my new chickens! They had been laid that day. Talk about fresh! Oh, and a little warning, it may taste a little earthy, due to the beets. More beets equal more beet flavor. The original recipe call for 1 1/2 c beets, but I had only enough beets for 1 cup, so it was more chocolatey then beety.

Chickens!

Guess what we got over the weekend?? That's right! Chickens!! We are one super excited family over here. We had an incredible opportunity that we just couldn't pass up. We originally weren't planning on getting chickens until we moved to our new house, but Craig's uncle and aunt were moving and couldn't take their chickens with them, so they let us have them. The best part is that they included a deluxe model coop with the chickens, so all we had to do was pick it all up and take it home. We've already got 5 eggs and we've only had them for a day. Although, one of the chickens is having a hard time getting the egg in the nest, as you can see. I've started feeding them flax seed so the eggs will be full of omega 3 fatty acids. 

I think my kids are more excited than anyone. Our first morning with the chickens, they woke up early and checked for eggs. When they found one in there, they ran into our room and woke us up to tell us. They didn't even do that on Christmas or Easter! Since that morning happened to be Mother's Day, I called dibs on that egg and Craig cooked it up for me to eat for breakfast. It was delicious! I can't wait for more chicken adventures!

Pizza

Who does not love pizza? My kids love it when I make pizza. It's one of the few meals they do not complain about. I try to make everything from scratch, including the dough and sauce. I haven't gotten around to making the cheese myself yet. The ultimate goal is to make an entire pizza from my garden. For now, I will be satisfied with fresh ingredients. I've been experimenting with ways to make the sauce. I didn't like that the majority of my homemade sauce came from cans in the form of tomato sauce and tomato paste. Then it dawned on me. Why don't I just use sliced tomatoes and fresh herbs for the sauce. Easier than mixing a bunch of stuff to spread, so the other night I tried it and was very happy with the result. Here's how I made this awesome pizza:

Dough:

4-5 c flour (I try to make at least half of that white wheat flour)
3 1/2 t yeast
1 1/2 c warm water
3 T olive oil

In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 c flour, yeast, and 1/2 t salt. Add warm water and oil. Beat with mixer for a couple minutes. Stir in as much remaining flour as you can, and then knead the rest in until you have a somewhat stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. This will make 2 large pizzas.

While the dough is resting take 2 pizza pans, spray with cooking spray and then dust with cornmeal. I love having that little bit of cornmeal on my crust. Spread the dough out on the pan and cover with thinly sliced tomatoes. I added some fresh oregano and basil from my herb garden and sprinkled it over the tomatoes.  I tried to slice the mozzarella, but since our cheese slicer was broken, I wasn't too successful. For some reason it seems more authentic to have sliced mozzarella on top. Then I topped the pizza with our usual toppings: green bell peppers, mushrooms, red onion, and italian sausage. Then I sprinkled some freshly grated parmesan on top and some chopped parsley, also from my garden. I bake 2 pizzas at the same time, so I baked them for 10 minutes at 375 and then switched racks so they would cook evenly. I baked them for another 10 minutes. When you pull them out they are done to perfection!

I usually make 2 pizzas so there are some leftovers, but this time we only had 4 slices left, as opposed to an entire pizza, so I guess we'll be doing the tomatoes again.

Eggs in a nest

 I found another delicious way to use swiss chard, or any other weird leafy green! I originally found this recipe in the book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, but I've adapted it a bit.  It's pretty simple to make and packs a ton of nutrition. Last night I wanted to use some of the greens I bought from the farm before they started to wilt, so I made this. My kids really liked the way it looked, because it literally looks like eggs in a nest when it's done cooking.

Here's how you make it:

Chop 1 medium onion and as much garlic as you like. I used 4 cloves, minced. Saute them in 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil until the onions are tender and are starting to brown. Add chopped carrots and beets. I used 2 carrots and 4 small beets. Saute these for a few minutes. Coarsely chop one bunch of swiss chard, and to be adventurous, I chopped the beet greens too. Throw these in your pan and cover for a few minutes. The greens should wilt as they cook. When they are cooked to your liking, make 8 little holes, like a clock, in the greens. Crack an egg into each hole and cover. Let the eggs poach in the nest for a few minutes. I like to cook the eggs until they're not quite done, so the egg yolk is still a little runny. That way, when you mix it all together, it has that rich, velvety yolk spread around. If that's not your cup of tea, you can cook them all the way through. Serve on a bed of cooked brown rice. I made 3 cups of cooked rice to feed my family and it seemed to be just the right amount.

Like I said, I like to mix mine together with my rice, so it looks more like the first picture. It's filling and good for you. Enjoy!

The first tomato!

Finally!! I went outside to water my plants and found this little guy growing on one of my tomato plants. I was so excited. I had seen several blossoms, but no tomatoes up to this point. I have to say I was a little worried. Last year I had a huge tomato plant that blossomed like crazy and never produced a single tomato. I was hoping this year would not be a repeat of that, and now, I can be assured that it won't.

Stir Fry

The beauty of stir fry is that anything goes. When I was at the strawberry stand a few weeks ago, the guy manning the stand told me that their snap peas are so good with the onions that they grow and sell. He said it was the perfect combination, so of course, I tried them together. I put 1 chicken breast, 2 carrots, 1 red onion, 1 bag of snap peas, ends and strings removed, 4 cloves of minced garlic, and 1 bunch of coarsely chopped kale. I threw them all in my skillet and sauteed them in some olive oil. It was pretty delicious, especially when I added some sweet and sour sauce that someone gave us. I was actually happy to be eating this many veggies. (I'm kind of salad'd out) It did make me feel better about all the cookies and cake I've had this week! Yay for stir fry!

A new take on red velvet

As you know, yesterday was my birthday and I made my own cake. Can you guess which cake I had last year? If you guessed the one on the left, you are correct. I can't blame my husband and kids. They get an A for effort for trying to make me a nice cake. I guess they weren't aware that the cake has to cool before you frost it. And also, 1 and 3 year-olds are not good at frosting cakes, or putting candles on, for that matter. (Notice the one upside down candle.) So this year, I was happy to make my own cake, especially because it meant I could experiment with ingredients. I made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and strawberry jam filling. I had read on the internet, and you know the internet does not lie, that red amaranth used to be used as a dye to color things red. I had some extra amaranth sitting in my fridge and thought it would be a great experiment to see if it really worked. I made the cake as usual, with the exception of adding 1 cup of white wheat flour and blending the amaranth with the milk and vanilla in a blender. It ended up being about a cup of leaves and I don't think it was quite enough. As you can see, the cake was more of a brown velvet cake.

It tasted like a normal red velvet cake, so we weren't disappointed flavor wise. And now I know what it looks like with out dye! I would like to try it again sometime, using more leaves, or maybe including more of the stems to see if I can get the red color without artificial dyes. Have you heard of any way to do this?

Peachy Presents

 Today is my birthday. For several weeks I've been watching this peach on our tree, wanting to pick it so bad. Look how it's weighing that branch down. It NEEDS to be picked. These peaches are supposed to ripen late April, but I thought it might need a little more time. For my birthday, I decided to pick it.

This is the biggest peach we've ever gotten off our little tree, even though it is small by most standards. So I cut it open and ate it with my kids. I think it could have used a little more time on the tree or some time on the counter to ripen some more, but I was still excited to be eating something I grew. Hopefully, summer will bring me some more little presents to eat. :)