Roasted Golden Beets Recipe

I am absolutely in love with golden beets. We planted then in the garden and enjoyed the beet greens and now I am enjoying them roasted. I went out a grabbed a pack of seeds so I can plant more. I love the lighter flavor they have compared to red beets and the fact that they don't stain everything. I keep it simple...

2 medium sized golden beets
2 carrots
olive oil
Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and chop beets and carrots into chunks, toss in olive oil and a dash of Italian seasoning. Place on a baking pan and cover with foil. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until tender. Remove foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes.

Delicious, simple and healthy.

Harvest Monday 4-30-12

Well I finally got to harvest something...some lettuce from our little backyard garden. I of course did not take a picture of it. I also planted some celery starts, along with beet and carrot seeds down at our little community garden plot. I checked it yesterday and the beets are coming up! I also have purple peas, kale, swiss chard, claytonia, and 2 types of lettuce coming up in the backyard. Lots of havesting to come! One thing I love about all this rain is the fact that I don't have to worry about watering as much. :)

Happy harvest Monday! We are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions, where others show off there harvests!

Garden update April 2012

the clay is dug out and the cinder blocks in put in place

two trips with the trailer to get a yard of blended soil

I have a place to get my hands dirty! The makeshift garden bed is somewhat complete. I still have to plant more and set up some way to harvest and plant in the middle, but its a start. My back hurts but my heart is full. I transplanted some Oregon snap peas and some mix lettuce. Later this week I will get more started. I am having trouble planning where to put everything. I am used to a lot more space but it will be a nice challenge. Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions.

Creating a Place to Garden

The future garden

While I'm up here in Portland I still want to be able to garden! I'm at my parents house and this is really the only place that gets good sun. Its kinda hard to see but there is a line curving around the back were it will end. Its a lot smaller then what I am used to but I think that's for the best. I can really focus my time on learning more. The soil up here in their yard is clay so we will have to dig out a lot of it and replace it with some good stuff for growing.

Its a big project and we are starting a bit late but I grabbed a 12 pack starter and will get some seeds started this week. I will be starting claytonia, spinach, kale, swiss chard, red romaine lettuce, and deertongue lettuce. They already have a raised bed full of strawberries (I'm so excited for them...yummy) and we will have our herbs in pots on the deck. I have a lot to learn about growing up here but I am excited for a new challenge. My mom helps run a small community garden so I plan on helping out there and learning from other gardeners.

I did actually get to harvest something this week! Just a few twigs of rosemary to make some homemade conditioner...hey, its something! We are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday, a place for gardeners from all over the world to show off there harvests, check it out.

Harvest Monday 2/21-2/27 2012

lovely beet greens, we are still thinning.

More peas!

I love the beet greens, especially the color. We harvested a lot of greens (kale, chard, and spinach) without taking pictures this week. Most were blanched and added to the freezer. The others were added to yummy salads along with claytonia, mache and the last of the lettuces. I also decided to try and make our own spinach powder this week by drying out some of our spinach, wish me luck. I just remembered to add that we also had 5-7 radishes that we harvested this week.

Sadly we had a couple days full of wind and our peas were stripped from there trellis and snapped down in half. I picked the mature ones of the plants and I hope for the best but who knows if they will make it. Everything else in our little garden is perking up with the sun...I keep on the water since we still are waiting for the rain. I love sunny weather but know that rain is what is best this time of year...rain...please come!

I made it to the market this week so here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday Feb. 25th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, chives, fennel and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, tangelos, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, limes and strawberries.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, spinach, escarole, swiss chard, aruglua and chicory.

Root veggies- parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, turnips, and many types of potatoes.

Others- many types of winter squashes, regular cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, red onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, sugar cane, savory cabbage, and asparagus.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 2/14-2/20 2012

Chard, kale, mache, claytonia, spinach and a radish

More spinach, and our first beautiful peas (Sugar Magnolia Purple Snaps from Redwood Seeds)

PEAS! Finally some yummy peas, they tasted amazing. We were not sure if we were ever going to get any since we planted so late in the fall. They managed to over winter and produce! We also had lots of greens to add to salads and a few radishes. Still looking forward to more root veggies and our brassicas in the future.

Sadly, we did not make it to the farmers market this week to get the list. I have a feeling not much changed but next week we will be back with a full list.

We also added a little bit about us (click here) to our blog. Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 2/7-2/13 2012

Lil' guy likes to hold the basket.

We pulled more radishes (5 of them), a bunch of kale and some spinach. Next year I hope to be able to plant a much larger amount of everything for our fall/winter garden. We still have been able to harvest something every week but I would like to be able to harvest a lot more every week. I think this week we will finally be able to harvest a few purple snap peas!
Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday Feb. 11th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, pommelos, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, Palestine limes and strawberries.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, spinach, swiss chard and pea greens.

Root veggies- parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers, chayote, and yucca.

Changes this week: the addition pea greens.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 1/31-2/6 2012

Radishes, parsnips, and carrots

Kale, and beet greens

More root veggies! We needed to thin the root veggies again and instead of giving them to the girls like normal we kept them for ourselves. Even though they are still way to small, the parsnips and carrots tasted great. The doctor said the radishes were great too. I was surprised at how much I liked the beet greens. We sauteed them into some pasta with lentils, marinara and mozzarella cheese. It was amazingly yummy! We also had claytonia, spinach and chard added to a salad or two this week. Our fridge is on the fritz and freezes any veggies so we ate most of it right away and put the kale in the freezer for later.

We have 30 tomato seedlings already and plan on starting more soon, but I also started celery, and 4 types of peppers this past weekend. We are really looking forward to the summer bounty in our garden.

Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday Feb. 4th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, pommelos, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, Palestine limes and strawberries.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, swiss chard and spinach.

Root veggies- parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers, chayote, and yucca.

Changes this week: the addition of strawberries (can you believe it!?) and the subtraction of hachiya persimmons.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 1/24-1/30 2012

First Radishes!

Spinach and claytonia, to add to a salad

Finally something besides greens! I don't like radishes but my husband does, we were both excited to find these. I'm sure their will be more this week and hopefully some other root veggies. We of course had eggs, along salad greens but not a lot. Everything is slow growing but at least we are at the turning point. One of our fav bloggers (Rick at Stoney Acres) just posted about the amount of day light finally coming up to 10+ hours (read it here). I'm thankful for lessons learned. We have learned a lot, mostly with help from family, friends and other bloggers. Thank you all!

Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday January 28th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, pommelos, hachiya persimmons, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, and Palestine limes.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, swiss chard and spinach.

Root veggies- parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers, chayote, and yucca.

The same as last week with the addition of yucca.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Harvest Monday 1/17-1/23 2012

Greens, greens, and more greens. We ended up with a lot of spinach and kale so we blanched and froze some for soups. All of our salad greens are still growing and I checked a radish the other day and they are finally getting close. I cannot wait to be able to start harvesting our root veggies. We also had some eggs but not a lot. We spent most of our time indoors this week since we are finally getting some rain.

Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday January 21th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, pommelos, hachiya persimmons, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, and Palestine limes.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, swiss chard and spinach.

Root veggies- parsnips, carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers, and chayote.

The same as last week with the addition of parsnips.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Wordless Wednesday: Seedlings

Tomato seedling, four different varieties. We plan on trying our hand at cloning them this year.

Harvest Monday 1/10-1/16 2012

 This we harvested some sage, salad greens and kale. We also picked up some kale at the market to make kale chips , a yummy treat this weekend. So far we have really enjoyed our first fall/winter garden but we are looking forward to spring/summer.

Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday January 14th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, pommelos, hachiya persimmons, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, and Palestine limes.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, swiss chard and spinach.

Root veggies- carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers, and chayote.

Pretty much the same as last week with the addition of rosemary, sage, thyme, pommelos, kohlrabi, sugar cane, thai peppers and the flowers are back!

We spoke with the man selling sugar cane about getting starts so we could grow our own and he was excited and helpful...he invited us to his farm, gave us directions and told us that in spring time he would bring us cuttings.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Kale, Spinach, Swiss Chard Vegetarian Lasagna Recipe

Lasagna, one of our favorites of all things layered (from terrines of Fois Gras to Tiramisu) can be an incredibly healthy meal. We have been playing with recipes for awhile and finally created a favorite. We recently invited a guest to share a vegetarian version of the classic. We pulled alot of the ingredients out of our backyard (the veggies, herbs, sauce, and eggs).

Here is the list of our ingredients:

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Marinara (1 to 1 1/2 Quarts).
Fresh Kale
Fresh Spinach
Fresh Swiss Chard
Home made Ricotta cheese, we used the recipe in Sunset Magazines  "One Block Feast""
1.5 cups Cheddar cheese
1.5 cups Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan
1-2 Eggs
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried thyme
9 Lasagna noodles (3 per layer)

Now, here is how you do it:

Pre-Heat the oven to 375 degrees and get a piece of foil large enough to seal your baking dish.

For a 9X13" baking dish you will need perfectly cooked lasagna noodles. If you use fresh noodles the same applies, cook them, then cool them and toss with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).

Mix 1 (or 2 if you want it more firm) egg with 3 cups of ricotta cheese, the herbs, salt and pepper to taste. You may want to thin it with whole milk or heavy cream. We like ours to be thick.

Now mix the Cheddar and Mozzarella cheeses and reserve. The parmesan is to be dusted in with the cheese to your liking; too much will make the dish too salty so beware.

Now we layer layer layer.

Start with marinara. Then layer 3 lasagna noodles. Top the noodles with the ricotta and then the other cheeses. Then layer the Kale, Spinach and Swiss Chard.

Cover this with sauce and repeat.

The last layer of lasagna noodles goes down and is simply covered with marinara and topped with the shredded cheeses. In other words, use the home made ricotta for the inside 2 layers.

Wrap tightly with the foil and place on center rack of your preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and broil at 375 degrees until the cheese starts to caramelize.

Salt, Pepper and Parmesan the top.

Let stand 5 minutes, then serve with warm homemade bread and homemade butter.

This is how much Kale, Spinach, and Swiss Chard we used, but I would recommend a little more.

We are linking with with The garden of Eden's Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard, so check out other recipes from the week.

Harvest Monday 1/3-1/9 2012

Not much to talk about this week when it comes to harvest, just salads (claytonia, mache, red romaine, deertongue lettuce) and greens (chard, and kale). The girls provided some eggs but they have dropped in their production the last few weeks and one was broody for awhile so she wasn't doing much but laying in a nesting box.

We also had our first Saturday of the year and one of our goals (check them all out here) is to make a detailed list of what our local farmers market has every week. We want to learn what other farmers are growing on our area, develop relationships with them and learn from them. Plus the public can learn how easy it is to eat seasonally.

Here is the first list from the Chico Certified Farmer's Market: Saturday January 7th 2012

Herbs- dill, cilantro, parsley, and lemongrass.

Fruit- grapefruits, many varieties of apples, hachiya persimmons, oranges, kiwi, mandarins, lemons, Mexican limes, and Palestine limes.

Greens- red Russian kale, dinosaur kale, curly kale, bok choy, arugula, mustard greens, collard greens, many different types of lettuce, tatsoi, swiss chard and spinach.

Root veggies- carrots, beets, turnips, daikon, radish, sweet potatoes, and many types of potatoes.

Others- Butternut squash, acorn squash, many types of winter squashes, red cabbage, regular cabbage, napa cabbage, broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, celery, onions, sweet onions, garlic, green onion, leeks, mushrooms, sunchokes, avocado, and chayote.

We were thankful and somewhat amazed at the bounty of our little town...it is January remember! The variety is wonderful and just proves that eating seasonally is really no big deal.

Happy Harvest Monday, we are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...so go check out with others are harvesting around the world.

Homemade Biodegradable Seed Starters: Updated

Update below.

I found this the other day and thought I should share it. Homemade Biodegradable Seed Starters from Toilet Paper Tubes...what a great idea, right?

All you have to do is cut a toilet paper tube in half (or a paper towel tube in quarters or maybe more) and fill it with potting soil, then use as you would normally use a seed starter. Simple...easy...and best of all, FREE! Thanks goes to NW Edible for the idea! :)

So after trying this...I DO NOT recommend it. Once wet the glue released and created a mess. They fell completely apart. I guess you could put tape around them and then take it off when you transplant but I would just recommend using something else. Sorry if any of you already tried it.

Goals for 2012

The new year helps us all to reflect and make changes, if needed. I think its important to continue to learn and strive towards being a better person. Here is a list of things we want to work on, some are business related, some are personal and some are a way to do our part in being more "green"and/or self sufficient.

1. Make more pre-prep meals for freezing and canning.
2. Save seeds from as many varieties as we can, to start our own collection of seeds.
3. Make more things from scratch, for instance we just switched to make all our own butter but we want to do more, like cheeses, pasta, ketchup, mayo, and etc.
4. Raise a percentage of our own meat.
5. Eat seasonally and preserve enough so that we don't have to buy non-local veggies and fruits.
6. Serve a series of community dinners, with all local food.
7. Hold a food swap.
8. Teach a canning class and a series of cooking classes.
9. Switch to more natural products by making them ourselves; shampoos, conditioners, laundry soaps, etc.
10. Read more books.
11. Finally open an Etsy shop for my knitted items.
12. Take a sewing class or read a sewing book (my grandfather sent me my great grandmothers sewing machine).
13. Exercise more, like taking walks, yoga and swimming every day once it warms up.
14. Gain more followers on our blog.
15. Try new recipes and blog about them.
16. Go on more than one date night a year.
17. Create how to videos on homesteading.
18. Attend the farmers market every week for a year, see below.

(Things have changed a bit since the begining of this year, some of the crossed out will be added to future goals.)
We have also decided to attend the local Saturday farmers market every week and make a detailed list of everything that is grown in our area. This way others will have an idea of what is available locally and when. We define local, in this since, as within 30-35 miles of where it is sold. It will help us to know what others are growing, know when to start planting and help us develop relationships with other farmers. We plan on it becoming apart of our weekly harvest Monday post.

We are looking forward to the coming year and will be blogging about our adventures as we achieve these goals. Happy New Year!

Check out our long term goals by clicking here.

Harvest Monday 12/27-1/2 2011/2012

baby artichoke with a little frost bite...I think they taste better this way.

We only really harvested this baby artichoke and eggs this week. Before we left for the holidays we harvested a lot of the salad greens, they are making a slow come back and we should have some yummy salads this coming week. We did a big thinning in the garden this week on our root veggies...the doctor had some of the tops of the thinning and the rest went to the girls. I really missed the girls while we were out of town and I'm so thankful to have great neighbors who will chicken sit. This week we plan on writing a post of our goals for the year...some are life goals and some are homestead goals.

We are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions, check out what others around the world are harvesting.

Saved seed totals for 2011

We are still (and will always be) learning how to garden, this was our first year attempting to save seeds. These are the variety's we saved this year:

Green bell pepper 1/16 oz
Yellow sweet pepper 1/16 oz
Sunflower 8 3/8 oz
Melon 1/2 oz
Mohawk tobacco 3 1/8 oz
Celosia and other wildflowers 3/8 oz
Pumpkin 1/4 oz
Missouri Bill's pole beans 1/2 oz
Black garbanzo beans 7/8 oz
Holstein bush beans 1/2 oz
West African millet 1/2 oz
Sorghum 1/2 oz
Artichoke 1/4 oz

We will see how well we did when we start planting...next year we are planning on trying to learn more about saving seeds and hopefully save more variety's of things we grow. We just received The Heirloom Life Gardener: The Baker Creek Way of Growing Your Own Food Easily and Naturally and I cannot wait to read it. I hope it helps us push ourselves farther into the lifestyle we love living. Book review coming. Happy New Year!

Some of our Missouri Bill's pole beans

Harvest Monday 12/20-12/26 2011

Kale, Swiss chard, and spinach

Salad greens...claytonia, red romaine, deer tongue lettuce, and mache.

The last harvest Monday of 2011! We just got home and un-packed the car. I of course came in a started writing. :)

We harvested only a bit this week since we left to spend time with family for the holiday. The weekend was wonderful and relaxing and we scored some awesome loot. We received a bee keeping book and heirloom gardening book, along with a bunch of other fun stuff...plus seeds! We also received a flip video camera...so you can look forward to how to videos! We will be hosting Christmas next year, so the planning starts now...

We are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions...go check out what others around the world are harvesting.

Harvest Monday 12/13-12/19 2011

Frosty flowers

The first pea!

An onion popping up under the straw

We didn't harvest much this week, just salad greens and eggs. I have been saving our chard, kale and spinach for a special meal. Yesterday I made sage cheese and ricotta cheese. Tonight I will be making lasagna with the fresh ricotta, chard, kale and spinach for dinner with a close friend. Have a happy Holiday weekend and...

Happy Harvest Monday! We are linking up with Daphne's Dandelions, a place to check out what others around the world are harvesting.