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| Happy Thanksgiving! |
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| 2" of rain- Frozen |
Not a whole lot of picture worthy work got done this week. For one thing, it was stupid cold with lows in the low 20s and highs in the 30s a few days. I have heard half a dozen anecdotes about how November normally isn't this cold. Perhaps it is setting up to be a harsh winter? I did manage to harvest and deliver a bit of food but production has slowed way down.
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| Frozen soil around some carrots |
The format of the blog will be a bit looser these next few months. Each post will be more focused on one topic, whatever I happen to be immersed in at the time. I will be building a Green House soon so that will surely get an entry. You can also look forward to regular recipe posts from the EatWell DC Chefs. To kick that off I'm sharing a recipe that I made for Thanksgiving. I heard about it on NPR's All Things Considered. Here is the
Story. And here is the recipe which was a hit on my Thanksgiving Table.
Carrot Mash with Orange and Mint
Ingredients
2 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
Kosher salt1 oz.
(2 Tbs.) unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces
2 Tbs. heavy cream
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1-1/2 Tbs. finely chopped fresh mint
1/2 tsp. finely grated orange zest; more as needed
Hot sauce, such as Tabasco, to taste
Put the carrots in a 4-quart saucepan with enough cool water to cover by at least 1 inch. Add 1 tsp. salt and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and cook at a gentle boil until the carrots can be easily pierced with a fork, about 25 minutes.
Drain well in a colander, letting the steam rise for a few minutes. Meanwhile, heat the butter, cream, oil, mint, orange zest, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a dash of hot sauce in the saucepan over low heat until the butter is melted.
For a rustic texture, return the carrots to the pan and mash with a potato masher to the consistency you like.
For a smooth texture (shown), purée the carrots in a food processor until smooth and then add them to the pan, stirring well to combine.
Season to taste with more orange zest, salt, or hot sauce before serving.
(I actually forgot to put in the hot sauce at all and went a little heavy on the orange zest. It was spectacular but there is room to play with these flavors)
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| Tomato and Eggplant in November! |
And as an example of what you can do with a Hoop House, here are some summer veggies I bought from Accokeek Eco Farm that were harvested in November from inside their Hoop House.
And here's what I did with them:
Puddy Time
Here's something new I'm trying. I covered a few crops with a couple inches of leaves to help insulate them from the cold. I learned about this from a workshop at the Mother Earth News Fair. It seems to work really well. So far I have tried it on the spinach and carrots. I harvested a few pounds of Spinach this week which was easy enough. I was able to quickly brush the leaves away, harvest and brush the leaves back over. The biggest drawback was that the spinach was dirtier than normal and took longer to wash.
