Now this doesn’t mean I am going to cease blogging about gardening, home, craft and cooking – but that I am rolling all of that back into my main blog at Red Cedar. It’s just much easier for me to maintain that way.

To that end, I have reorganized Red Cedar to reflect the main topics of both that blog and this one along the top menu. If you are only interested in Gardening posts, there is a category for those. Recipes? Look under Eat. Plus all the other interests that you might share with me – organized for easier perusing.

In the coming days, this blog will come down and amongtheweeds.ca will be redirected to my main blog. I hope that my readers here will follow me there (if you don’t already!)

Today I put up a Sage-Rosemary olive oil and a Sage-Lemon Vodka. I have no idea what either of these will turn out like, but given the ingredients – and a method I know well – I’m feeling confident these are worth sharing.

Sage-Rosemary Olive Oil

Pack a clean jar tightly full of sage leaves, add some rosemary sprigs and a couple cinnamon sticks or peppercorns if desired. Fill the jar to the top with good quality extra virgin olive oil – make sure to cover everything. Cover with a cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band or jar ring. Put away in a dark place for a month or more. Strain to use.

Lemon Sage Vodka

I used this recipe from the Cap and Hare forum which is as follows:

2 – Lemon Peel
3 – 8″ Sage – Fresh
2 cups – Simple Syrup
4 cups – Vodka

Create your Simple Syrup.
Place the flavorings in the bottle.
Pour the Simple Syrup over the flavorings while the syrup is still hot.
Add Vodka to fill the bottle, usually about 4 cups.
Age for 1 month in a cool dark location, closet or cabinet is fine.
Remove Lemon Peel & Sage and filter out all of the small bits with a coffee filter to clear the Vodka.

Two days after the garden tour, we were off to the interior for some high-alpine camping in Cathedral Lakes Provincial Park – and on the way home from there we picked up our first interior fruits – 2o pounds of bing cherries and 20 pounds of apricots. A tad more expensive than last year, I’m sure the late start to summer has hampered good production – but still Keremeos has the best deals going and we couldn’t resist.

Which means now we have a larder full of the following:

• Cherry pie filling
• Cherry-apricot brandy sauce (for meats, or anything else) – several of these in gift-size for the holidays
• Cherries
• Apricots
• Pickled Red Cabbage (the cabbage from my garden, how satisfying)

August will be the month of peaches and tomatos – salsas and chutneys which we eat a lot of. Not to mention more pickled things and I’m also hoping to get to canned sauerkraut in the fall.

I really do find the late-summer food stockpiling so very satisfying – a lot of work and cost outlay over a couple of months puts so much amazing stuff in our cupboards for the rest of the year. I am also really grateful that my partner does so much of the prep work!

In any case, here is a recipe share:

Cherry-Apricot-Brandy Sauce
(almost firm enough for toast, makes a nice sauce for red meats or pork)
Makes 6-8 250-ml jars

3 cups of cut apricots
4-5 cups of pitted cherries
2 cups of water
1 cup of sugar (or more to taste)
1 box no-sugar-needed pectin
Brandy (the cheap stuff is fine)
(alternately, you could omit most of the water and the pectin since this is a sauce – I like a little “set” in my sauces and the water makes it go further)

1. Boil the apricots, cherries and water together until the fruit is crushable.
2. Add sugar, boil again. Add pectin and boil for a full minute.
3. Into sterilized jars drop 1/2 a tablespoon of brandy and 1/2 a teaspoon of lemon.
4. Fill jars, process for 10 minutes in water-bath canner.

(Note – this is a completely unscientific recipe, but with the fruit, lemon juice and alcohol – contains lots of acid to prevent the growth of botulism. As with all canning recipes, please follow all sterilizing and processing steps you would normally.)

Despite my gnawing misgivings leading up to the event (what if no one shows up? what about the weather? maybe I should just give back the grant so someone else can use the money) – I can happily say I was wrong and our neighbourhood rocks! See here for more photos on Flickr.

Three workshops went off without a hitch, our master-gardener was in fine form answering questions all day, and we gave away hundreds of free seed packs as well as four gardening books (in the raffle). At final count, we believe that 120-150 people participated in the event – most people going to an average of four houses, and each house getting between 20 and 30 people visiting. Which is pretty good number for a word-of-mouth event like this one.

In the end, all of our participating households said they were glad to be a part of this and it gave them a chance to meet people from their neighbourhood. For my part, I met lots of people who I hope to hang out with again (we’ve already got a dinner invite out of the deal – yay neighbours!)

I will be putting together a report for the grant wrap-up event in the fall, which I will surely post here and elsewhere, but for now I just wanted to say – PHEW! I am so glad that’s over and proud of how it went.

For all the people who want it to happen again? Let me know and next year we’ll do it with a community committee – cause that is a hell of a lot of work for one person.

A couple of years ago, I posted some canning tips which are worth a read over if you are new to canning this year – otherwise proceed to the recipes we used for this weekend’s food storage project.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam
Makes: 8 1/2 pint jars
Modified from the recipe in the Ball’s Blue Book to reduce sugar to manageable levels

8 cups strawberries, crushed
4 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 packages “no-sugar needed” dry pectin – Bernadin makes this product and you can buy it at Safeway and Canadian Tire
2 cups of sugar (the original recipe with these quantities would have called for 10 cups of sugar since this is a double batch of fruit)

1. Combine strawberries, rhubarb, lemon juice and pectin in a large saucepot.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat.
3. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Return to a rolling boil.
4. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly.
5. Remove from heat.
6. Skim foam if necessary.
7. Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
8. Adjust two-piece caps.
9. Process 10 minutes in water bath.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Filling – We used the Bernadin Recipe as written on the website as it doesn’t have a high sugar content.

Victoria Sauce (Rhubarb Chutney)
From the Ball’s Blue Book of Canning
Makes six 1/2 pint jars

2 quarts chopped rhubarb
1 1/2 cups chopped raisins
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 1/2 cups brown sugar (modified from original 3.5 cups)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (modified from original plain vinegar)
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger powder (modified from original ginger)
1 teaspoon salt

1. Combine rhubarb, raisins, onion, sugar and vinegar in a large sauce pot.
2. Cook until thick, about 25 minutes.
3. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.
4. Add spices; cook 5 minutes longer.
5. Pour hot into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.
6. Adjust caps.
7. Process 15 minutes in boiling water bath.

Next up for canning will be raspberries and cherries – both coming on the market as we speak. I’m thinking cherry salsa and stewed rhubarb and raspberries will be on the next round of canning whenever there’s enough cheap product out there for putting up.

A seussian scape!

For all my complaining about the weather this year, when I actually get out into my garden I have to acknowledge that it’s coming along pretty well. I’ve had a hard time with some things (salad greens – how odd) but others (red cabbage, fennel) are taking right off. In particular this year my garlic is coming in thick and gorgeous and I’m excited for August when I actually get to pull it up and dry it.

This morning I was out toodling in the morning sun (finally! sun!) and I noticed that my garlic has got scapes going on. Scapes are essentially the seedpod of the garlic, and as cool as they look, they should be removed in order to promote the growth of the garlic bulb. The good news is that they are edible and make a wonderful addition to salads, stirfrys, pasta sauces, and pestos. Basically any recipe that calls for garlic can use scapes instead – because scapes taste like a mild garlic.

This week at the farmer’s market, I bought some scapes and basil to make one of my favourite summer-time recipes – Garlic scape pesto – which is awesome on meat, pasta, or thinned with some vinegar to make a salad dressing. I love this stuff – and mix it with everything when the ingredients are in season. It’s very straight forward to make and takes no time at all:

Garlic scape pesto
Makes 2 cups

Ingredients
2 bunches basil
10 garlic scapes
1/4 cup pine nuts or 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds, hulled
oil to thickness desired
feta or parmesan cheese to taste
salt to taste (but not too much or it kills the delicate garlic taste!)

How to:

Throw the basil, garlic scapes, and pine nuts into a food processor. Chop until fine. Add oil just to moisten ingredients, blend and add cheese and salt. You can make it chunky or smooth (I like my pesto smooth) – and put it on pretty much anything savory. Sometimes I add sundried tomatoes or roasted peppers to the blend. Any which way you make it – this is the best early summer peso ever!

Just a brief post this morning to herald the return of more garden-friendly weather! In the last two weeks things have really picked up around here and the veggie beds are finally getting it together despite the slow start in the spring. Right now:

• Everything that I planted early – oriental greens, radish, turnips – has bolted. This is the hazard of early planting in a cold year – particularly when temperatures go from cold to really warm overnight. This weekend I will be pulling out the failed greens and replanting.
• My tomato and tomatillo plants are now in the ground.
• My pole, bush and runner beans have germinated nicely.
• My summer squashes are also peeking out of the soil.
• All other seed is taking quickly at the moment – I’ve got beets, spinach, carrots and fennel all coming up in fits. My peas are really behind this year. It’s june and barely a flower!
• Gooseberries are present on the gooseberry bush, blueberries appear to be taking shape, and the raspberries are doing something.

I’m putting a lot more seeds in this weekend – both at home and my community plot. Oh – and starting my brussels sprout starts to go in for July – it really is that time already! Hopefully we get a long summer into fall!

When I got there, the plot looked like this:

Now, while the wild-growing pansies are beautiful, they were pretty much taking the whole plot up (not to mention the buttercup, the clover and the many other unidentifiable plants growing in there!)

Fortunately the earth was easy to turn and *full* of worms so it was short work to getting my garden plot looking like this:

It’s a little less vivid, but there’s a whole lot more space for veggies now. This isn’t the best shot, but at the far end are two leeks from the last gardener, two spaghetti squash plants (for which I must built supports), and some cabbages. I hope to get some more seeds and starts in this weekend. I’m a little late on it, but still with plenty of time to make it go.

Front yard, May 2nd 2011

Since then, we have intermittently worked at our little front patch (which has grown increasingly shady under the leafing beech trees) and finally have about half of it mulched and planted. This is about as far as we are going to get it this year I believe – due to the timing of the year and also the cost of putting in more plants. I would rather wait until next year when I can divide some of our shade-loving perennials rather than shelling out a ton of more money at the garden centre. Also, I’m waiting to see how the wild dug oregon grape and sword ferns do – as I have access to many more on my parents’ property and will install them if they seem to like the locale.

In any case, by the end of this weekend we have a front yard that looks like this:

Front yard, June 5th 2011

Which is feeling pretty sweet. I have to also acknowledge that Brian has done most of the work on this yard as I have been preoccuppied with the veggie garden and also my new community garden plot. One thing you can’t see in these photos is the veggie bed I put in to the right-hand side is doing quite nicely and even in the limited light, my greens are sprouting and starts are coming along. I think this is going to be a good summer greens and winter veggies bed given the shifting light availability/

Check out the detail gallery below, more photos to come shortly!

It’s been a bit drizzly and only warming up very lately so I’ve been a lot more focused inside than outside. But this simple sewn tablecloth for the patio dinner table is the bridge between winter and summer. I hope!

Made from Echino prints (a Japanese textile company I am besotted with right now), the heavy weight of the cotton makes a perfect weight for this endeavour. The border fabric was bought for me by Brian and my mom bought the center panel – both for my birthday. Originally this was going to be a bag, but I really wanted a tablecloth and this fabric was crying out to me to be used.

In other sewing news, I cut out the fabric for a basic four-panel skirt (elastic waist) last night for my first attempt at sewing clothing. Afterwards I realized that my print isn’t going to match up so it might be a bit wonky, but I’m using cheap ($5 per metre) rayon so it doesn’t matter much. If the pattern basically works to make, I’ve got some much more expensive Robert Kaufman cotton (cannot find a picture of online) that I am thinking to pair up with a Kona solid or a checked print to make an alternating panel skirt with some ric-rac trim or other embellishment. So hopefully I can put together the simple rayon skirt from the pattern I am using because it’s a bit of a test to see if I can go onto the next level of cutting into pricier material for clothing.