Pumpkin Carving Diggerdudes

Dear Garden Lovers,

Today at DIGS we carved pumpkins, dunked suckers in hot-chocolate, and had a wonderful time (we even mulched the beds for next week's garlic!)

Enjoy the photos. Click to play full screen slide show.



Best, Jen

Saturday, October 29th PUMPKIN CARVING

ATTENTION GARDENERS: There will be a regular work party this Saturday, Oct. 29 at 10 am. We have garlic and squash to divide and 2 beds to mulch for winter. The Little Diggers will meet at 10:30 to carve their pumpkins for Halloween. We will supply pumpkins and snacks for the carvers. Please bring carving tools for your Little Digger. All are welcome.

What's Up in the Garden?

Dear Garden Lovers,

Just a quick slide-show update of What's Up?
This weekend's photos:



(click to enlarge and for full screen slideshow).

On Saturday this is what we did:
We all mowed the lawn and weed-whackererered -ed -ed,
and chopped and layered compost, and top-mulched with leafy seaweed.
And after turning in the rye grass and looking at all those resting beds, I realized that there were still fruits and lettuces and warmth loving flowers to be seen.
Peer around the DIGS garden and see for yourself.
It's so late in October and we are all amazed.

And the flowers, my gosh the flowers!

Thank you everybody who works to create this magical place!
Jen :>)

This Saturday Oct. 15th

ATTENTION GARDENERS: We will meet this Saturday, October 15 at 10 am in the garden. There is still lots of work to be done to get ready for winter. Members might want to bring a bag to carry home a piece of squash or some extra garlic. A reminder that there is no Little Diggers lesson this week. We will meet later in October to carve pumpkins for Halloween.

And – a request – Anna’s store, the produce stand outside the garden is a place where we put produce from our garden (organic!). But it is not to be used to dump all sorts of material to give away. Please respect it. Thanks so much.

from Marg

Mulch Harvest Munch!!

Dear Garden Lovers,

Today at DIGS we mulched, mulched, mulched, and harvested too.
Now we EAT!! hahahhaa. See recipes for squash pie etc. below.

Everything in the garden looks so beautiful, even as the season comes to a gradual end.
Take a look:



Click to make photos larger, and choose slide show-full screen.

We are storing the squash now that it's "cured" so that every few weeks we can divide them up 2-3 at a time so all the DIGS gardeners can gradually enjoy them. We also prepared several beds for planting, and garlic will be planted (a new variety) in November around the 5th.
The harvested garlic from this year had a bit of a droopy fungoidal problem, so we will divide up the good cloves next week. Soup and pie recipes below!**

The pumpkins and squashes, as you could see from previous photos, were grown right on top of the big compost pile (made with seaweed and leaves), and so now that they're cleared we can wheelbarrow that mulch to every bed that needs to be reinvigorated.
We mulched around the kale, cabbage and broccoli.
All the brassicas have been heavily limed to avoid club-root.

The soil in the fallow beds is seriously like some kind of edible cocoa powder; and it even smells like brownie mix! Incredible stuff

We've done a wonderful thing; we've created live soil!
Amazing.
Thanks to everyone who helped today, and let's sing the mulchy song as it leads to muching! :>)

Mulchy-munchy,
puddin' and pie...


.....wait.
That's not how that goes!

Oh, and Little Diggers will be carving pumpkins in two weeks; stay tuned.
Best, Jen
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RECIPES
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Fast Squash for dinner; no peeling.

Precook the squash in the microwave;
Remove seeds, cut into any sized chunks with skin on.
Place in deep microwaveable mixing bowl with 2 inches water, dash salt.

Microwave on high for 6-10 min. depending on piece sizes.

Drain, score on flesh side, place skin down on greased tray.

Broil 5-7 minutes to brown, topped with:
butter/sugar/maple syrop/honey,
salt/pepper for 5 minutes.

To use up left-over cooked squash or yam:
(peel cooked squash chunks with paring knife, very easy, to mash for pie below**).
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*Squash or Sweet Yam Pie*
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Crust - Julia Child's quick processor crust single 9-inch

1 and 1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Whirr until mixed

Add in small cubes:

1/2 c shortening or lard/butter

Pulse briefly, until pea-sized clumps form.

Add:

2-3 TBSP water.

Don't whirr too much at all, just until dough clumps on blade.
You can finish by hand.
Turn out on floured surface, knead once-twice if huge blobs of fat, or something strange ha ha.
Gather into ball, pat flat, roll out to fit pie-plate. Transfer on rolling pin, crimp edge.

Use processor again to make filling. No need to wash it out.

Preheat oven to 375.

Squash Dessert Pie Filling - (from D.J.!)

Whirr in batches in food processor.

2+ cups cooked squash, cooked yam or combination (2-3 cups mashed okay)
1 and 1/2 cups milk/cream/evaporated milk your choice
2-3 eggs
1/2 c white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp each: salt, nutmeg.
1 tsp each; cinnamon, ginger
dash cloves or allspice
Pour into unbaked pie shell.

Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes.

See photo at top of this post.
Made on Sunday for Thanksgiving.


Note: Jack-O-Lantern Bonus!!

When you create "pumpkin scrapings" from thinning the walls of your "jack-o-lantern", you can cook them up in the microwave to make this pie too!
Just use a big spoon to gouge your pumpkin walls thinner, and they illuminate better too.
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Garlic Soup recipe:
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5 cloves garlic - mince,

gently saute in

1/4 cup butter.

Add to make roux

2 Tbsp flour; cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add and let thicken to boiling

4 cups chicken (or veg) stock

Add:

Salt to taste
Bay leaf
pinch Mace

Simmer 1/2 hr adding pepper to taste at end.

Beat
2 egg yolks in a bowl.

Add a small amount of the soup to the eggs to temper, beat, and then return egg mixture to the soup.
Heat but do not boil.

Optional:

Add 1/2 cup dry red wine
(or some lemon juice, or even cream.)

Sprinkle soup with
chopped parsley.

More garlic soup recipes below:
(I'm still searching for the one thickened with cornmeal...oh where oh where?.....)

Soup 1
Soup 2
Soup 3
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Pumpkin Squash Harvest

Dear Garden Lovers,

Today the Little Diggers harvested the golden hubbard squash (aka space-alien-orange wrinklers) and the pumpkins from amidst the tangle of the largest compost bin. See slide show below.



Click to enlarge and choose full screen for a large slide show.

The excellent and cute tiny diggers also harvested their bean poles, scarlet runners (very large!), golden and green/red tomatoes, while the grownups transplanted two kinds of kale (scarlet and green) and planned spots for more brassicas (cabbage family).
Lots and lots of kale means lots and lots of kale chips! Yum!!
Recipe below*.

The bigger diggers then tried to barter some land from the little diggers (in exchange, as it turns out, for candy on Hallowe'en) in order to find enough space for all the cabbages that are going in garden beds in the next four weeks. Wow, those cabbage-non-eaters drive really hard bargains!!

It was super fun and relaxed today.
Note: The final little diggers lesson of 2011 will be at the end of October for the pumpkin carving!

Other news:
Winter rye has sprouted tall and lushly under the remay cloth (foiling sprout eating birds) and the grapes over the gates are already being nibbled by visiting night raccoons (try yodelling at them if you're a midnight yodeller; just might work.)

Kale Chips - the newest snackfood craze



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From another good recipe site
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KALE CHIPS Recipe

Quote from above site:These chips are so fabulous you will never need regular chips again. Dried kale is surprisingly filling and these nutritious and rich chips are a meal unto themselves.

Each of the following recipes uses about 1 head of green kale. Ruffles have ridges- therefore curly kale holds the flavor best. Wash the leaves well; do not use a leaf if it has those little bugs that like to stick to the backs of the leaves. Don't use the woody stems. Tear large bite-sized pieces of the leaves into a large bowl and pour a sauce (recipes below) over the kale, massaging with your fingers until the kale is thoroughly saturated.

Spread saturated kale pieces onto dehydrator trays with teflon sheets and dehydrate at 105° for 12- 15 hours. The leaves shrink and should emerge crispy. (regular oven temperatures are suggested below)

No dip needed for these chips, but a side of cherry tomatoes or sliced cucumbers helps wet the whistle.

Hummus Kale Chips Light and lemony. • ½ cup sprouted pumpkin seeds • optional: ¼ cup sprouted sesame seeds • 1 clove garlic • 2 stalks green onion • 2 stalks celery • juice of one lemon • ½- 1 teaspoon cumin • ½- 1 teaspoon cayenne. Grind seeds well in coffee grinder. Chop all other ingredients and blend together in food processor. Follow directions (above).

Sesame Kale Chips Call these Dragon Wings for their fire-breathing Asian flavor!
• 1 cup sprouted sesame seeds • 2 medium plums (pitted, about ¾ cup chopped) • 1 stalk celery • 1 clove garlic • juice of ½ lemon • ½ cup chopped onion • 1 inch fresh ginger root, minced • Cayenne to taste. Grind sesame seeds in coffee grinder. Blend all other ingredients in food processor, finally adding ground sesame. Follow directions (above).

Fat Free Kale Chips You will thoroughly enjoy this amazingly delicious fat free version!
In the Vita-Mix, blend the following ingredients well without water (use the tamper): • 1 medium small zucchini • 1 large red, orange or yellow bell pepper • ¼ cup chopped onion • 2 stalks celery • juice of ½ lemon • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste. Follow directions (above).

More Kale Chip variations/using oven instead of dehydrator

Recipe 2

Recipe 3

Recipe 4

Video 1: Easy low heat Kale chips.

Cute four year old makes red-pepper garlic kale chips: Video 2
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Fun was had by all today. What a wonderful garden! Thank you everyone.
Best, Jen