quick pickled peppers

We have a few pepper plants sitting in front of the Apartment Homestead-habaneros, jalapenos, serranos and cherry (my favorite) and while I was watering yesterday I noticed that they were all bustin' out-when did that happen?
My usual next step would be to harvest them for Fire or Green Heat Jelly, but I already had several pounds in the fridge that I was going to can in the next few days. The fact that I had about a quart of peppers seemed obvious-pickle them!

(check out my little habby plant!)

(a small collection from the porch)

I love me some pickled peppers-I dig the tart and the vinegar cuts some of the heat, especially from the uber-hot ones. Basic fridge pickled peppers last a long time too. The past batch I made was 4 months old when we finally finished it. I love these in salad, sandwiches and on an appetizer platter with a bunch of other goodies-and don't throw out the pickle juice-its great in dressings (or in a cocktail).

QUICK PICKLED PEPPERS

2 c mixed peppers (i have mixed but you can use whatever you can tolerate)
1 c water
1 c cider vinegar
large squirt (1-2T) agave
2T salt
2 bay leaves
2 T coriander seeds
3 cloves garlic, peeled (actually like to use more than this, as many as you can fit in the jar, then you get hot garlic too!)
2 T black peppercorns

Wash the peppers, take a sharp knife and stab them a few times so the brine can permeate the whole pepper.  You can keep them whole or slice them like the ones you see in the store. I say do whole, strips and slices, that way you have more of a selection to choose from! Pack into a quart jar.

(i added some mustard too!)

In a non-reactive pot, combine all the other ingredients and simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Pour over the peppers and allow to cool on the table.  Once cool, move in the fridge.  You can start eating them tomorrow, but honestly they taste WAY better in a week or month!

(I like to use these old-school juice containers that we picked up on 127)

geranium syrup=some good mojitos tonight??

My friends Linnea and Dave told me that they had some geranium plant for me to use-i have been wanting to use geranium for a while to make a few things. my two plants, while they are getting bigger are certainly not enough to make jelly, liquor, scented sugar and syrup without stripping them bare.

YOWZA-i ended up getting an entire trash bag full of the stuff that left this wonderful scent in the store and house...so first things first...
i made 2 bouquets in old mason jars, one for the house and one for the shop. not only do i get to have the fragrance of the plant for a little bit longer, but keeping geranium in some water prolongs the plant so i can use as much of it as possible.

(just another Thursday night: cleaning and sorting geranium plants!)

For the longest time i have been wanting to turn this plant into a cocktail-type ingredient, i haven't really seen it on any menu (tell me if i am wrong) and anyone who has a geranium knows that once it is established, it grows like crazy (hence the trash bag present). The first two things that came to mind were sugar and sugar.

SCENTED GERANIUM SUGAR

• handful of large geranium leaves
• 1 large mason jar (quart)
•  2 cups of sugar (or whatever you need to fill the jar)

Quickly sterilize the jar by pouring some hot boiling water with a shot of vinegar in the jar (or a run through the dishwasher) and dry it.  Line the bottom of the jar with a few leaves and cover with 1" of sugar, tamp the sugar down with a spoon to start releasing the oils from the plant. keep alternating geranium with sugar until you reach the top. Attach the lid, and leave in a sunny place on the counter for a few weeks. Check and shake the sugar every day or so until you can smell/taste the geranium on the sugar. Filter the leaves out after a few weeks and store in the pantry.

GERANIUM SYRUP

• 2 c water
• 2 c sugar
• 1 c washed geranium leaves

Dissolve the sugar in a large pot under medium heat while washing the leaves.

Add the leaves to the sugar mix and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover and allow to steep for 15 minutes. Strain the leaves and bring the mix to a boil again for 10-15 minutes.  Allow to cool and pour into cute jars.

(bottles from Ikea, $1 store down the street and the nice lemonade @ Trader Joes)

I have to let the syrups cool before i can use them, but i am planning on making geranium mojitos tonight when our friend mike comes over so i will be posting about that and a few other things i make!

little-big garden

(my squash plant sportin' a chub)

yesterday evening, i went out to clean and water my little apartment garden when it hit me: this is about to bust out!
our garden, a mixture of hydroponic boxes from Harvest to Home, whiskey barrels and various pots of all sizes was about to produce a nice little summertime bounty-not too bad for a small space.
Our "apartment homestead" garden is separated into a few sections:
- The upstairs, where our front door is has most of the herbs-i try to keep them closest b/c they are in the smallest containers and dry out fast...i try to reuse my water for these plants, so they get water everyday. i am going to move the agave next and and add some grape or passion fruit vine for a little privacy and shade.

(have to trim the spikes off the agave before moving those suckas)

-downstairs: we have the veggies. next to the root cellar i have a few items (i have to leave room for my neighbor!), like those taters from a while back...they are doing pretty good!

(next to the root cellar: nopales & taters)

-under the stairs: the largest part of the garden. i had 2 tomato plants that i got from h.depot a year ago, one of them died and the other one was just barely hanging on...but now it is 4xs bigger than ever-i can see that the little yellow tomatoes are just about to ripen-YUM!
-next to it are our 2 boxes from Harvest to Home which are GOING OFF! dark kate, oregano, banana and jalapenos, cucumbers, squash and a crazy big parsley (seriously, if you pass by our place, please take some parsley).

(hydroponics and whiskey barrel tomatoes)

-in front of the boxes: i have fava beans, geranium another tomato from Adriana @ anarchy in the garden and more cucumbers.

(fava beans still remind be of Silence of the Lambs...)

-the other side of the stairs: passion fruit, fennel and lemongrass.
-next: the roof. we have access to the roof from the bedroom and i am trying to figure out how we can grow at least from items there and eventually each side of the stairs will have some food vine.

(my passion vine had no fruit!)

i am thinking once everything is done, we can do tours on living in apts/small spaces and having and apartment farm!

compost happens

(my worm bin is so healthy-an old potato scrap is actually sprouting!)

for the past year or so we have been actively composting on-site...as a business i really want to limit our waste and also it just seems kind of obvious that if we are going to sell composting items and have composting workshops that well....we should be composting right?

i have to admit though that i haven't been the best worm-wrangler (we vermicompost here), and our composting instructor and friend Jenna of Phoenix Infinite has a few times saved us from complete disasters...this past week was no exception.
unfortunately i have been too busy with work to really appreciate the fine are of worm composting...usually i just throw our various green waste under the "blanket" of damp newspaper and occasionally water the top area to keep it from drying out....seriously bare minimum. when Jenna came by, she said her usual, "let's see how your worms are doing" and again, i froze with panic that i again almost killed my wriggly guys.
as she checked the situ, i spouted off about 5 excuses of why they are almost gone, and that i am a horrible worm-mama, i don't deserve to compost, etc...
but i spoke too soon. Jenna turned to me with a big smile and said, "looks like these guys are ready for more room!"...thank goodness! but now what???
basically, making more room for more worms is kind of like adding an addition to your house.

1. mix foundation: basically take a coco-brick and wet it down, get it heavy with water.

(coco brick, lightweight and great material)

(add water to the brick and this is what you get-worm heaven!)

2. add some drywall: mix the coco with shredded paper

3. install the frame: add the next level of the composter, fill with your foundation and drywall.


4. raise the roof: wet some old newspaper and place on the mix, this keeps the worms nice and warm on those cold nights.

(today's Times, tomorrow's worm blankie)

5. dont forget the the food! add a few pieces of greens and the worms will travel up to the new addition within a few hours-they move pretty fast!

**if you want to learn from our composting pro Jenna, she will be at the store in April!**

taters project

was talking recently to fave customer Bonnie (please check out her solar cooking class too-pretty sweet!) about various adventures in growing food and she shared a tip that she has been using to grow potatoes. as she sat there talking about the large flower pots she was using and how the taters were doing really well, it dawned upon me that my poor little whiskey barrel was just barely popping out a few yellow cherry tomatoes...time to change things out.
so during the weekend i decided to go to the Irvine Farmers' Market to pick up some cool looking taters and see what happens...

(sprouting taters ready for planting)

when i got back home, i bid farewell to my wilting tomato and pepper plant and harvested the last of the onions. i checked the moisture of the barrel (which FYI, you need to drill some serious holes on the bottom-they get nasty if you do not have proper drainage) and did a few rotations of the soil.
according to Bonnie-this is what you do to have happy taters:
-get some taters and let them sprout, if they are big ones, cut them in smaller pieces-just make sure you have at least a couple "eyes" on each piece.
-let them dry for a few days in a sunny window
- lay them in hay (i did a small bed of soil w/hay on top)..when they start sprouting though, add more straw
-when the taters flower or when the shoots start to wilt it is time to enjoy!

(i simply placed the cut taters in some damp soil and covered with straw)

let's see how this turns out!

note: i have heard of tire-taters, or growing taters in tires. while i am all for the tire gardens, i cannot validate how safe it will be to have tires around food (and heat from the sun!)...let me know if you do this.

renegade onions now in my tummy

(with a little cleaning...)

(cleaned up and ready to eat for chopping!)

i dont know if they are in the soil already, for sure a few have been "transplants" that i placed lovingly in various pots at the bottom of our stairs but we have onions! it is crazy, they seem to be in each of the plants i have at the bottom of the stairs, anywhere from 1 to 3 onions in a pot!

over the past 6 months, i have started to see little green shoots poke out and just this past week i have waited until i saw some of them look strong and much bigger (especially after the rain!). i have started growing garlic recently by simply planting garlic that had green shoots popping out (which are a little bitter if you cook them).

(one of the strong sprouts that we harvested-growing in our passion fruit pot)

(random pot that i also planted garlic that sprouted in the kitchen)

MUSHROOMS WITH RENEGADE ONIONS

• 1-2 # mushrooms (i did a mix of crimini and white)
• olive oil
• salt (or spicy salt)
• handful of onions sliced, green parts and all
• 1/4 c.white wine vinegar
• 1-3 cloves garlic, sliced
  

wash and trim the mushrooms, if they are a little big chop them in 1/2.
in a large pan, add olive oil and saute the garlic for a minute, add the mushrooms cooking for another 5 min. add the onions and the vinegar and salt and place a lid on it and simmer for 10-15 minutes....SUPER GOOD!

new friends, old friends and KCRW's Good Food??

(not edible, but really pretty!)

(Joel explaining the wonderful world of wild plants to Eddie and Harriet)

About a month ago, we had an amazing class at the store called Foraged Foods: identification and preparation. Naturalist and friend Joel Robinson foraged foods from our local wild places and i taught a cooking class with these tasty ingredients....i have to admit, this was an awesome class for not only Joel and i, but it has also caught the attention of some other big foodies in Southern California.
Just this past Thursday, Joel was interviewed by beloved KCRW foodie show Good Food for our class and he gave an in-depth tour and tasting of wild Santa Ana to new friends Eddie Lin and Harriet Ells...i got to cameo a little demo on making a wild salad too!!

(wild radish-SUPER beautiful and very fragrant)

Throughout Joel's tour of our parking lot, Park Santiago and the Santiago neighborhood, i not only got a much needed break from the day-to-day "store-life" that i am usually consumed in but i was able to appreciate the beauty and wonder that is literally within block of my home....it is so easy to forget the wonder of nature around you when you are constantly working.
But even more, i really cherished that i could take a few moments from my day and have an adventure with friends: 1 whom i have been trying to do a walk/spend time with (Joel) and two new friends whom i shared a child-like experience of wonder and amazement in finding new treasures to eat! as i sit here and write, i am thankful that my little store has allowed me the opportunity to know such amazing people...i love how the world works!

here are some images from our adventure:

(we demoed this wild green in a salad)

(Black Sage right outside the entrance to Park Santiago)

(loquats! right outside a church in the Santiago neighborhood)

(recording in the church yard-lots quieter!)

our next Foraged Foods class will be on April 25, we also do a Wild Weeds Walk around Santa Ana with Caroline Colesworthy every 3rd Saturday of the month

adventures with foraged foods

this past weekend, friend and naturalist Joel Robinson and I collaborated on our first Wild Edibles class at the store. Joel was responsible for the foraging and identification portion of the class and i discussed the preparation and made more of the time consuming items.
Hosting a class like this takes a lot of prep time before the students even come in-Joel spends hours foraging for certain plants, not only for identification, but in a quantity that can allow me to make a meal. on my end, i have to research recipes, prepare goods (aka the acorns!) and sample items before we actually make them.

(just a few of the items Joel harvested)

(Deb stopped by to visit and we put her to work smashing acorns!)

i have always wanted to know about foraged and wild foods personally-which is why i had contacted Joel for the class...but i really didn't know how other people would respond to eating acorns, chickweed, wild mustard and artichoke stalks-would people be interested in something like this?
the answer was an overwhelming YES...we had a terrific group of people who not only samples every item Joel brought but had a great time making their lunch (which by the way was terrific!). i even experimented in making a white sage jelly which turned out incredible (you will be seeing this available very soon). below are a few photos of the class.

(preparing salad greens: these ladies were having a blast!)

(another prep station-toasting red peppercorns to flavor some of our dishes)

(just a few of the items that we feasted on-everything was great!)

the event went so well that we have already scheduled another workshop for April 25th and are looking for a few more locations to teach-let me know if you want us to do one with you!

butterfly garden: 18 months later

almost a year and a half ago, we did a workshop at the store with Back to Natives Restoration, a non-profit that is, " is dedicated to the restoration and conservation of Orange County and California wildlands, through education and restoration".
the workshop, in the heat of summer, was the gutting of the horrible vine mess we had in the parking lot and replacing it with native, insect attracting plants that would use little water.

(what we started with-straight up nasty!)

when the blog first started, i posted about the growth of the little garden. This weekend, i went out to look at it again since we are having a workshop about native gardening & upkeep on March 6th...all of a sudden it hit me-dang this thing got huge!

(right after installation of the native butterfly garden, 18 months ago)

(can you even see the butterfly sign anymore!?)

Can you believe that i watered this only the first 4 weeks after it was planted-no joke! i havent touched it aside from taking sage leaves for food/gift wrap and cleaning out the little pieces of liter that blow into it from time to time.

fortunately the past month or so has been pretty wet in Southern CA, which i am thankful for (i am really terrified of the drought and the absolute ignorance of most of the population of it in this area). the rain has made the garden grow event more...to the point of needing a trim.

**MAINTAINING YOUR NATIVE GARDEN workshop will be held March 6th from 10-noon**

little veggie garden

a while ago i posted about the Harvest to Home mini-veggie gardens we were selling. What i forgot to mention was that we actually purchased 2 for our own home. i figured that we could try and grow the rest of the items (or at least a majority) of produce that we were not getting from our CSA. what is so great about these little gardens is that you can pick a number of items to grow. for the winter, we decided on celery, broccoli, cauliflower, onions and a few kinds of lettuce (i find myself eating more salads now that i know what good lettuce tastes like).

(before)

(after installation)

the recent rain (and diligent watering) have really made a difference in just one month-check it out!

(one month later)

little baby heads of cauliflower and broccoli are coming through-i think they will be ready in about a month. the lettuce is also just about ready to eat-which i think i will try this week. i will have another update about the veggie garden in about a month.

(other side of the stairs-onions, garlic, passion fruit vine and succulents)