Pancakes In The Mountains

We went up to the mountains a few weekends ago with our friends Robert and Roberto to celebrate our dear Beto's birthday. We had the most fabulous time, staying in a beautiful, eco friendly cabin on 63 acres of land, complete with a small veggie garden and horses, up near the Sequoia National Park.  We took hikes in the rain, and had some very memorable meals. Here is one of our breakfasts, cooked by Beto, that has already become legendary. I wish I could say that I grew some part of this meal in my garden!

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes
(From Epicurious)

3/4 Cup Quick Cooking Oats
1 1/2 Cups Plus 2 Tablespoons Well-Shaken Buttermilk, Divided
3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/8 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Large Egg, Lightly Beaten
2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Melted + More For Griddle
1 Tablespoon Packed Brown Sugar

Preparation:
Soak oats in 3/4 cup buttermilk for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl.
Mix together egg, melted butter, brown sugar, remaining 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk, and oat mixture. Add to dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
Heat a griddle over medium heat until hot. Lightly brush with butter. Working in batches, pour 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto griddle and cook until bubbles appear on surface and undersides are golden-brown, about 1 minute. Flip with a spatula and cook other side, about 1 minute more. (Lightly butter griddle between batches).

Serve with caramelized ginger pears (recipe to follow).


Roberto’s Caramelized Gingered Pears
(Use Bosc or Asian Pears)
serves 4

Core and cut 3 pears in 1/4” wedges, unpeeled
Put pears in a heavy (preferably cast iron) pot with one handful of dark brown sugar per pear.
Stir in 1 teaspoon of ground ginger.
Simmer on low until sugar melts, stirring occasionally, until sugar is melted and pears absorb the dark brown of the sugar.
Spoon over pancakes!

FOOTNOTE:
Instead of pears, peel and cut into wedges, a mango, and follow recipe. Apples can also be substituted.
A pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon can be added as well!










XXX

Yvette

Happy Sunday!

"Gardening is, by its very nature, an expression of the triumph of optimism over experience. No matter how bad this year was, there's always next year. Experience doesn't count. Just because the carrots have been knobby, misshapen, and somewhat bitter for four years in a row doesn't mean they're going to be knobby and misshapen next year. No sir, next year you will (1) work in twice as much compost and peat; (2) plant a new, improved variety; or (3) get lucky. Or even better, you can forget carrots and plant something exotic like blue cauliflower in that bed. Because every year starts with a clean slate, and the phenomenon I call garden amnesia ensures eternal hope....

Blessedly, the voice of experience, the voice that should be crying, "Oh, puh-lease!" never pipes up in the garden. And I, for one, hope it never does. It is not wanted there."

- William Alexander "The $64 Tomato"


XXX
Yvette

Brussels Sprout Trifecta

We have two new tenants to report, who are happily co-existing with our old favorite residents the Sow Bug! Welcome to our new best pals:

The Harlequin Cabbage Bug, Who's Specialties Include, But Are Not Limited To, Sucking The Sap From The Plants Until They Fall Over Dead. She Is Featured Here With Her Truly Cool Looking Eggs:




And Her BFF / Nemesis, The White Fly, Who's Two Amazing Talents Are Competing For Sap Sucking Rights With The Harlequin Cabbage Bug, And Then Laying These Abstract Expressionist Eggs Under The Leaves They Don't Manage To Destroy!




So, To Recap And Extinguish:
The Sow Bugs Are Attacking The Roots Of The Brussels Sprout Plants (Diatomaceous Earth Will Take Care Of That)

The White Flies, When They're Not Sap-Sucking, Fly Around The Brussels Sprout Plants In A Biblical, Locust-ish Swarm (The Dr. Bronners Diluted With Water Seemed To Thwart Them - For Now)

The Harlequins? It Seems That They Just Need To Be Picked Off And Squashed By Hand. They Crunch. Yuck. Look For Them On Your Cabbages As Well.


XXX
Yvette

We're In Sunset!

Sunset Magazine is featuring us, side by side with some of my favorite blogs (Orangette, Victory Home & Garden, Heavy Petal, Life on the Balcony, and Eating LA), to name a few, in its March 2009 print issue!

Big huge giant thanks and hugs and starry eyed love to Sunset! Thank you Sharon Cahoon. You are my garden hero!

XXX
Yvette

Subversive Tip Of The Day....

Click Here To Stick It To The Man

(Thx To Suzi For This Link!)
XXX
Yvette

PS. For a more constructive solution, these folks have been well reviewed.

Meet Brevicoryn Brassicae!

Who's been sucking the life out of my beautiful purple cauliflower leaves? None other than my newest nemesis, the Mealy Cabbage Aphid.

Here's a portrait of one of the better looking ones...we'll call him Fabio:


Fabio has made hundreds of babies.
They're yucky little beasts.


It just makes me crazy. I live in a city of about four million people, and the aphid that specializes in devouring Brassicas has found my three friggin cauliflower plants. What, are they reading my blog or something? How do they do this?

Here's some info on getting rid of these mooches for you, just in case you're on the Google Bug Radar:

Where only a few are present they can be rubbed off affected shoots, after a while natural predators will arrive and remove them. A hose with good force can be used to dislodge them from tough-leaved vegetables. Placing aluminium foil or a mirror below plants, fools them into flying upward.
A spray prepared from a couple drops of washing-up liquid to a gallon of water as an acceptable organic method of control; so are insecticidal soaps made from plant fatty acids. Avoid spraying in sunshine to prevent scorching the plant.
Biological controls need a constant supply to survive, so there will always be a low-level presence, hopefully these will be on nearby wild plants. Ladybirds are nocturnal so if they are feeding during the day the number of aphids may be low.
For chemical control use pyrethroids or bifenthrin - spray as late in the day as possible to avoid Ladybirds and other friendly creatures. There is evidence that Myzus persicae are developing resistance to the pyrethroids and Primocarb so it is best to vary the chemicals used to reduce the chances of this happening.
An acceptable organic spray is made from an extract of the Neem tree called Azadiractin
Companion planting using partner plants which deter the aphids, eg. Borage to deter Black Bean Aphids.

I'm going to spray them with a mixture of about 1T of Dr. Bronner's soap mixed with a quart of water. I'm guessing that that'll be the cure.

Meanwhile, still harvesting tomatoes!

XXX
Yvette

Tomatoes in December and Tomatillo follow-up

Back in August Yvette was lamenting the passing of summer and I commented here that at the time I wasn't quite ready to cede the season. To that end I set about planting another crop of tomatoes with some seeds I had left over from the spring. Aside from these, Yvette had purchased some Brandywine plants and I had a few volunteers from last years yellow cherries pop up at about the same time.

Well, here it is the day after the winter solstice and we still have fresh tomatoes almost daily. Not a bumper crop mind you but fresh nonetheless. Of the three varieties I planted late in the season: Brandywine, Green Zebra, and Purple Cherokee, only the Brandywines failed. They grew to about 3 feet in height and just sort of stopped. I took them out to make room for more seasonal crops of garlic and (ack!) Brussels sprouts. The Green Zebra and Purple Cherokee plants meanwhile are huge with lots of flowers with the occasional fruit or two. At the very least they add some green to our view out the kitchen window. The real heroes have been the red cherry and the roma that have been producing non-stop since early summer. It's interesting to note that the roma was planted primarily for canning because, you know, there are no fresh tomatoes in the fall and winter. So it's odd to eat the ones we canned and still have fresh ones around. I plan on removing the roma in the next week since it has really tapered off, and the red cherry will probably follow shortly after. Still - tomatoes in December?

On the the tomatillo front, I stated that I thought they would grow year-round and attempted to prove it. I was able to get a second successful planting but when I started a third the seeds germinated, grew to be about two inches and then stopped growing altogether. If you tried the recipe from the first tomatillo post you can probably imagine my disappointment.

Fred