Skip to main content

Posts

Collecting and Saving Teeny Yellow Tomato Seeds

Today we have teeny yellow (and red) tomatoes coming out our yin-yan. I am joyful with such abundance during a year of drought, and grateful for the friends who passed the wonderful little yellow tomato starter plants on to us (when we had opted not to grow tomatoes this year after a couple of bleak harvests). These tomatoes were labeled "Tumblers".  My gardener-daughter-in-law was here earlier in the summer and exclaimed several times over how sweet and tasty the tiny yellow tomatoes were.. like candy.  Could she have some of the seed? Soooo.... I am saving seeds... and with a method that will work for any other tiny tomato (grape, cherry, etc.). HARVEST: For the best possible seed production, let your fruit ripen on the vine if at all possible (and you know that it happens quickly with these little tomatoes).   If you want to ripen the little guys you save from the first frost, they WILL ripen, but slowly, and in a cool, dry location. Seeds will always b

Delightful Crunchy Sunflower Seed Pesto Recipe

Looking for a delicious way to use your yummy fresh garden basil  but almost had a heart attack when you saw the cost of pine nuts for the pesto recipe?   Subbing home-toasted sunflower seeds will give you a very tasty crunchy pesto for a fraction of the cost of pine nuts!  Ingredients 1 C. raw, organic, shelled Sunflower seeds 1 tsp. Celtic Sea Salt 3 - 4 Garlic cloves 2+ tsp. fresh-squeezed Lemon Juice 4 C. lightly-packed Basil leaves 1/2 C. extra virgin Olive oil Method In a skillet over medium heat, combine Seeds and Salt, and stirring throughout, toast until most seeds are golden (careful not to burn!).  Remove from heat and cool. Alternatively , toast seeds in your toaster oven at 300-325 degrees for 5-15 minutes. Watch carefully not to burn. Cool. Combine all ingredients --except olive oil-- in a food processor. Process while drizzling olive oil through the top opening. Store in a mason jar in the fridge.  Makes about 2 C. Delicious on pasta, pizza, crackers, brioc

Yummy 3-Ingredient Organic Breakfast Cookies

Organic Breakfast Cookies (rainbow effect thanks to a crystal on my kitchen window sill) You may already have come across these delicious breakfast cookies but thought: "hey, where's the good stuff? The sugar? The eggs? The fat?"  Well, the good stuff is all in the ingredients-- this is a whole food recipe which means we aren't using derivatives, we're using the real food, and it doesn't need to be gussied up with animal products to have incredible mouth appeal (that is what fatty, sugary, salty, custard-y textures and tastes contribute).  So, I say, try 'em and if you're disappointed, well, add some of the other ingredients... COOKIE INGREDIENTS (all organic and non-GMO) 3 well-mashed Bananas 1 C. Old-Fashioned Oat Flakes 1/4 C. Chia Seed Gel You can go with these 3-- pretty delicious by all counts-- or you can add in one or several of the following: 1/4 C. chopped Nuts (I like pecans) or Seeds 1/4 C. unsweetenened Coconut shre

Make Your Own Seed Mats (for Tiny Seeds)

This year I am excited to be trying a new technique (or me) for carrot planting... I am going to make my own seeding mats ! Have you ever planted carrots and either been overwhelmed by all the seeds that burst through in one spot, making it difficult to thin them without pulling up too many, or just feeling how wasteful it is to be aborting all those potential wonderful carrots? PLANTING CARROT SEEDS IS THE HARDEST PART OF GROWING CARROTS Carrot seeds are teeny-tiny.  It is difficult to see them when you plant and because they are so light you will sometimes find them flying about willy-nilly.  Here are some methods you can use to lessen these frustrations: Buy " pelleted seeds "-- these are various tiny seeds with a clay coating that make them easier to see and work with.  The coating needs to be kept moist during the planting process and eventually falls away.  They are fairly pricey ($6+ for 100 seeds).  Order HERE . Buy Seed Mats or strips.  T

Pan-Fry Carrots (Roast Carrot Sticks)

Pan-roasted carrots (with some potato fries mixed in) Our younger son grows organic vegetables, fruit and berries on an off-grid community farm in the interior of BC.  We stopped in to see him the other day and came away with a load of last year's carrots, still as carrot-y flavoured and plump as the day they were dug from the ground, thanks to the hill-side root crop storage cellar.   Our granddaughters opted for fish and chips today for lunch, and some of the 'chips' were carrot chips.  They are also a great base for a roast carrot soup.  When you roast veggies, you get extra delicious flavour. PAN-FRY CARROTS (Roast Carrot Sticks) <more properly called: Oven-fried> Wash and scrape carrots.  Chip or slice into strips, as desired. Preheat Oven to 425 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine: 1-2 T. Olive Oil 1 tsp.   Celtic Sea Salt 4-6     large straight Carrots , cut into chips or strips (as desired) Lay chips out on a cookie sheet

Eating a Rainbow (of Carrots)

A few days ago I had some dental surgery and am still chewing gently on one side only. Peas and carrots are a childhood comfort food that I can virtuously squeeze into my healthier-eating adult menu (other comfort foods were chocolate bars and maple-walnut ice cream cones, not what the dentist ordered). How sweet that my husband picked up a package of organic Rainbow Blend Carrots yesterday!  I've eaten these (pricey) babies before, and not only are they beautiful to look at, but they are truly yummy! These ones come all the way from California-- but I have a package of West Coast Seeds -- untreated, Aren't they pretty?  Rainbow Blend Carrots organic, and GMO-- so that maybe the next time we eat these babies, we'll be doing the locavar thing! He's out (conversing in Spanish with his weekly group who meet at the Starbucks upstairs in the Courtenay Quality Foods ).  I'm hungry and am going to have one of those simple, cut-to-the-chase lunches we

Organic Chickpea and Carrot Curry Soup - Vegan and Gluten-Free

  Organic Chickpea and Carrot Curry Soup Quite often I decide what to cook based on what I have in the fridge -- what veggies are malingering, waiting their turn, feeling left-out?  What precious sauce did I make a couple of days ago that is only half-eaten? Did my husband mention something about wondering what I had planned for those carrots?  That is how tonight's organic chickpea and carrot curry soup came about-- the bag of carrots that were starting to go a little brown on the tips... oh, and all those delish chickpeas that I cooked up the other day that I partly used for that yummy Avocado-Chickpea Hummus ...   INGREDIENTS 2 T. Coconut Oil 1 medium Onion , chopped 2 cloves Garlic , chopped fine 1/2 tsp. organic Curry powder (I used Mild, you pick your own bite) 1/2 tsp. Cumin seed, ground in the coffee grinder 1 thumb-to-the-joint piece of Ginger , grated 6 Carrots , chopped 2 C. pre-cooked Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans (or 1 15-oz. can, rinsed) 5 C. Wa