Free Seed Share Coming Up - and Garden and Kitchen Fun

Dear Folks,

My Free Seed Share is this coming Saturday, November 3rd, 1 pm at Mesa Urban Garden.

Free Seed Share
Saturday, November 3, 2018
1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Mesa Urban Garden (MUG)
212 East 1st Avenue (NE corner of Hibbert and 1st Avenue)
Mesa, AZ  85210
602-370-4459

I hope to see you there!

My Elephant Garlic is finally sprouting.  I was looking for it sooner as the regular garlic began sprouting just days after I planted them.  But these are coming along nicely now too.

More eggplant fruiting!  I love both the Casper and the Listarda, but I think I am beginning to favor the Listarda more - the color, the flavor, few seeds and it can get quite a bit larger than the Casper without over-aging* too soon.   Leaving on the plants until sometime next week.  Not quite sure what I am going to do with them - maybe more "bacon"!

*Over-aging means the fruit starts to turn bitter.

I thought you might like to see a collage of my garden critters.  Daisy Mae the Flying Pig, Annabelle the Goat and Beauregard the Rooster.

In my last blog post I shared the Sweet Potatoes "Molokai" I harvested.  They are in my water heater shed where they can cure and be available for when I need them.  Two were HUGE, so I decided to make a couple of different side dishes with one of them.  I actually still have a piece of this one and will think about how to use (maybe sweet potato "Bacon"?), but I have to say I really liked the way these two sides turned out.  Usually I leave skin on all potatoes when I cook them, even when mashing.  However, with sweet potatoes this size then can be 'woody' and the skin tough so I peel them.

I harvested my I'itoi onions, which have a shallot like flavored bulb and mild onion top.  I used my mandolin to cut a section of the Molokai into slices.  Because the Molokai is more dense at this size, I zapped the slices in the microwave for 2 minutes and cooled them. cleaned and cut the I'itoi into sections.  I melted about a teaspoon each of butter, avocado oil and uncured bacon fat.  I added about a teaspoon of my dried thyme, coarse salt and cracked black pepper and tossed the potato and onion to coat.  I pre-heated my toaster oven to 350, stacked the potato and onion horizontally and baked for about 60 minutes.  Topped each serving with some shredded Parmesan cheese. Yum.  I was trying for a "pretty" presentation with this side.  It "sort of" worked out.

Who does not love some form of potatoes and onions!

I also had to do something similar with more of the Molokai.  I had a lovely bag of organic baby potatoes from the store and a red onion. 

I preheated the toaster oven to 325.

I cut the Molokai into pieces and again zapped in the microwave for 2 minutes.

I cut the regular potatoes into pieces and placed in water to keep from browning. Cut about 1/3 of the onion into chunks (saving the peels in my freezer "stock" bucket).

I melted a mix of butter and uncured bacon fat (about 1 1/2 tablespoons total)  Added the drained potatoes, Molokai and onion and tossed to coat.  I find tossing the veggies IN the pot I melted the fat in did a much better job coating than trying to pour over and stir while in the pan.

Poured into my pan, sprinkled about 2 tablespoons of my crushed dried celery leaves and 1 teaspoon of my dried thyme and roasted for 70 minutes, approximately.  I stirred the mix once about half way through.  Topped with Parmesan Cheese and served.  We LOVED this one.  I think I will do this one more often and alternate the red onion with my wonderful I'itoi onions.  I really like the contrast of colors of the regular potato, the Molokai and the red onion.  The flavor marriage was outstanding.

FYI - I use my toaster oven regularly rather than turn on the big oven, since it is usually just the two of us.

It also fits right into the idea of growing your own and harvesting as needed.

We should have lovely weather for the Free Seed Share this coming Saturday.  I hope to see you there.

Meanwhile, you can find my books and calendars for sale at Amazon or my publisher's site.

Have a Great time in your garden and kitchen!

--Catherine, The Herb Lady

My Calendar and Book Links

Wall Calendar
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1387385798/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

Publisher Direct
http://www.lulu.com/shop/catherine-crowley/edible-landscaping-a-month-by-month-calendar-desert-southwest-usda-zone-9b/paperback/product-23433329.html


Beginner's Southwest Gardening Book
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/141164039X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Publisher Direct
http://www.lulu.com/shop/catherine-crowley/edible-landscaping-in-the-desert-southwest-wheelbarrow-to-plate/paperback/product-176297.html





-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

If you enjoyed this post, please share and subscribe below by entering your email, to get all my posts! 

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Disclaimer: Clicking on links on this blog may earn me a small commission if you purchase something. Your price does not change.

Around The Garden, Post Rains, What is New and Sprouting!

Dear Folks,

Our gardens responded so well to the extra rain (that last storm brought us 2+ inches) and we benefited economically as we were able to turn off most of the auto watering for at least 3 weeks - win/win!

Shown are the celery roots I replanted - I love "recycling" celery bottoms to grow MORE celery for use.  As I write this post I put the smaller ones in yesterday, and the larger ones in 14 days ago. With the right conditions celery roots just "want" to grow!  I soak for 1-3 days and look for the center to begin regrowing and then plant level with the surrounding soil or just a tad lower.

My Sweet Basil Patch is huge and time for a bit of pruning to keep the leaves growing larger. I always leave a portion in flower for the bees and beneficial insects and I am hoping for some additional harvesting before the soil cools which impacts the flavor of the herb.  When I prune I cut and drop and the seeds will emerge later or next spring.

Speaking of seeds . . .

My next FREE SEED SHARE is November 3rd!
Saturday, November 3, 2018
1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Mesa Urban Garden (MUG)
212 E 1st Ave (NE Corner of Hibbert and 1st Avenue)
Mesa, AZ 85210
602-370-4459

I hope to see you there!

My Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) is ready to harvest the "fruit" (the calyx of the flower) and still putting out flowers.  If you come to the Free Seed Share, you may be able to take home a branch. I plan on cutting some the morning of the event and will give out first-come-first-serve.  I can answer your questions on what to do with them too!  Few plants are as stunning and totally usable as this wonderful edible - which, by the way, LOVES our summer heat. Think about it - to get this beautiful at this point it had to be growing all-summer-long!

A couple of other beautiful flowers in the garden right now are my eggplant, which hopefully means more fruit to harvest before the cold comes in (although the weather -wonks are indicating a milder but wetter (HURRAH) winter).

My Society Garlic is blooming so prettily in its happy spot.  It is sometimes hard for me to catch the lovely lavender color, this picture is not bad.  I have the variegated variety with stripped leaves.

My Dark Opal Basil in another area of the garden is really dark purple right now.  I keep basil varieties separated so the seeds will stay true.  Basil loves to mix and the results can be rather grand or disappointing.

My garlic is UP!  I planted 15 days ago and they are coming along nicely.  This is the "regular" type of garlic.  I have another bed of Elephant Garlic which has not shown themselves yet. 

I am digging out the main sweet potato bed and it had some monsters in it.  The big ones are still quite usable they just take longer to 1) cut and 2) cook.  This is the purple Molikai variety.  I want to swap out this big bed for something else - have not decided yet but meanwhile I am storing this in our water heater shed which will help cure them for long-term storage and I can use as needed.

I also have a couple of plants of sweet peppers, "Lipstick" variety and they are all coming along nicely now that the weather cooled off a bit.  Peppers grow very well here, but tend to produce less in the intense mid-summer heat.  They also like a bit of afternoon shade. This plant is an example of some interesting facts about it.  Location - it is in full sun most of the year and is on a once a week watering. It shares space with Greek Oregano which keeps the soil surface cooler during the summer.  It is about 18 months old!

I have a lettuce patch - an area I decided to try out so I could have access to it and a place to grow a nice continuing mix of leaf greens.  I am treating this as cut-and-come-again, snipping off the tops when I need them and adding a few more seeds every couple of weeks to help keep it going nicely for the next 6 or so months.

My wonderful I'itoi onions are in need of harvesting and separating - which is a joy for me to do.  I get to use of the shallot-like bulbs and green tops and I transplant some to increase the bed.  I have basically stopped growing other onions because this variety is just so great both as a bulb and green top.

A couple of new to the garden:

"Beauregard" is the latest addition of garden art.

After a friend gifted us with a Flying Pig, which I named Daisy Mae and I found it so appropriate to a garden in the desert that so many believe can not be enjoyed (when "Pigs Fly"), we were then gifted with a goat (Annabelle) and then we just had to find a chicken.  We looked for several months and a family member suggested this delightful rooster.  It took me a couple of days looking at him to have him "name" himself - he just looks southern-grand.

The other new to the garden is not actually IN the garden yet.

I had an opportunity to purchase some Land Race wild apple seeds from Baker Creek (I just discovered they are no longer available - so they must have run out of the seeds*see my note below) this past spring and after some fits and starts two sprouted!!  Here is one of them.  I just transplanted to a 6 inch pots the other day.  So far so good.  I am not sure where I am going to put them or even if I should put them in the ground (they are not grafted and our soil can be dangerous to non-disease resistant roots).  "Land Race" essentially means survival of the fittest and these pioneer age apples could be anything from a crab apple to a well know heritage variety.  Kind of fun to learn as they grow.

NOTE:  In the Mission Valley of Montana, there is an incredible diversity of naturalized apples. Apples in this area range from bright orange to subtle pinks in riotousstripes of colors, and the flavor is outstanding. The apples here surreptitiously sprouted from seeds deposited by pioneers of the 1800s.

One last critter in the garden - a Gopher Snake.  Spotted in the front yard we relocated to the back yard.  They are beneficial to gardens also.  While we really do encourage live and let live, we have had a surprise problem with gophers a year ago, so this helper can control the population.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of our gardens.

Don't forget my calendar and books for gifts or if you are in need of helpful information.

Have a best day in the garden!



-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

If you enjoyed this post, please share and subscribe below by entering your email, to get all my posts! 

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Disclaimer: Clicking on links on this blog may earn me a small commission if you purchase something. Your price does not change.

November Planting / Sowing Tips and a Fall Soup.

Greens and Herbs Harvest

Dear Folks,

November planting and sowing is very similar to October, only later and that is an important point when you choose vegetables for their maturity date.  It is VERY important to get long maturity veggies like head cabbage and similar in the ground or sown asap so they have the full cool weather months to grow to harvest size and use.  If these edibles are sown or transplanted later than best time, then you have them growing into the warming times which can stilt the growth or cause them to blast into flower before you get to harvest 
them.

FREE SEED SHARE coming up November 3rd - details below,  click on this link to read on facebook.

Garlic cloves going in!

If it is still October when you read this get YOUR GARLIC cloves planted by October 31st for the same reason as the head vegetables -- they need ALL of the winter chill to develop beautiful heads in the late spring.  Pictured planting on October 8th- I usually try for October 1st.

Successive sow all of your green leafy edibles along with cilantro, dill, chervil and parsley for a continuous harvest all winter and well into spring.

Don't forget to successive sow sugar peas!

Now that we have had some really nice rain this week, and cooler than normal temperatures, I am seriously hoping my belief and those of the weather folks will come true - a stronger El Nino and more rain and snow pack in the mountains this winter.  AND while many folks including myself, don't enjoy real cold, a cooler-than-last-year winter will be good for the gardens, pushing back pest bugs and energizing many of the plants.

November PLANTING:

Anise
Asparagus
Bay, Greek (Sweet)
Beets
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Cabbage, Ornamental
Caraway
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chamomile
Chard
Chervil
Cilantro
Dill
Endive (and Chicory)
Fennel, Leaf
Fruit Trees
Garlic (only as green garlic)
Greens
Horseradish
Kale, Ornamental
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lavender
Lemon Verbena
Lettuce
Marjoram
Mints
Mustard
Myrtle
Onions, Green
Onions
Oregano, Greek
Oregano, Mexican
Parsley
Parsnip
Peas
Radishes
Rosemary
Sage
Savory
Spinach
Tarragon, Mexican
Tarragon, French
Thyme
Turnips

EDIBLE FLOWERS TO PLANT:

Calendula
Carnation (Dianthus)
Chamomile
Cornflower (Bachelor Buttons)
English Daisy
Hollyhock
Jasmine Sambac (Arabian)
Johnny-Jump Up
Marigolds, including Tangerine Scented (Tagetes Lemonii), Citrus Scented (Tagetes Nelsonii)
Nasturtiums
Pansies
Primrose
Scented Geraniums
Shungiku Chrysanthemum
Snapdragons
Stocks (Matthiola)
Sweet Alyssum
Sweet William (Dianthus)
Violet

Seed Share and Q&A With Catherine, The Herb Lady at Mesa Urban Garden

Saturday, November 3, 2018
1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Mesa Urban Garden (MUG)
212 E 1st Ave (NE Corner of Hibbert and 1st Avenue)
Mesa, AZ 85210
(602) 370-4459

QUESTION and ANSWERS  Catherine will answer your questions on transition gardening with edibles and sowing in the cool garden.

When to sow
What is successive sowing and why
Maturity dates - what do they mean and why is it important

SEED SHARE -- FREE -- Pick up some seeds to get growing or expand your garden.

I had some organic celery and cut the roots off, let it sit in water for a couple of days to get re-growing and planted them.  Why compost, or worse toss, when they will re-grow and give you harvesting later on!

GARDEN TIPS for November
    First frost date average is around November 17th.
    Frost in the Valley at the 1100 or lower elevations is usually limited to ‘soft frost’ where simple cloth sheets or paper placed over sensitive plants (or moving potted plants beneath patios or trees) is sufficient to protect them.  Never use plastic covers as the plastic transmits the cold to the plant tips.
    For every 1000 feet over 1100 in elevation the first frost day is moved forward 10 days.  The possibility of hard (killing) frosts starts to occur, although at 2000 feet or lower this is still a rare occurrence.
    Frost pockets in the Valley can surprise gardeners.  As a matter of practice, if the weather forecasters predict an overnight temperature of 40 F, I prepare for frost by protecting my sensitive plants with cloth or paper covers This is because heat retention by buildings and walls dissipates by early morning (4 or 4:30 a.m. to dawn the temperature can drop 8 degrees plus or minus).
    Frost danger continues until about mid-February.
    Cool weather annuals and biennials can be sown every 2-4 weeks (beginning in August) through the end of November for a continuous crop through next spring.
    November through January can be a ‘rainy’ season for the desert. You can usually hold off on regular watering if you have received a half inch or more of rain within 2 days of normal watering days.  Make good use of your water meter to determine soil moisture. 
    If rains are heavy this month, in addition to foregoing some water days, you may need to put down Ironite or green sand to compensate for mineral bonding (which makes iron unavailable to the plants) due to both the excess water and the cold soil.

FROST DAMAGE
The best way to think of frost damage on your edibles is the damaged plant material is now a partial protective cover to the underlying growth.

As mentioned in prior notes, frost damage in the lower desert gardens is usually limited to 'soft' frost which is controlled by simply putting cloth or paper covers over the plants at night, or if containers, moving them under evergreen trees or onto the patio.

IF, however we get hard or killing frosts, of extended periods or days, die-back will occur even on protected plants.  The reason is the radiant heat retained by structures and even the soil dissipates completely, leaving the plants exposed to too-cold air.

Whether the frost damage is from soft or hard frosts if the plant is still alive DO-NOT-REMOVE-THE-DAMAGE.  Doing so risks damaging the growth still alive under the top die-back.  I don't remove even dead plants until spring.  I have found basil seedlings coming up under a large dead basil plant killed off by a hard frost.

Obviously we like our gardens to look pretty most of the time, but selectively resisting the urge to pull something a little bedraggled gives you, the gardener, access to earlier production of the warm weather plants because of their larger root systems.

Nasturtiums!  Are yours starting to come up or have you planted seeds yet?  What, no nasturtiums?  These great edible plants should be in your gardens for their taste and benefits to your plants as they help keep pests at bay.

"The Essential Herbal" blog is a great site.  Their newsletter today is all about recipes using nasturtiums.  Give a look.   One of my favorite recipes is making "Dolma" stuffed leaves which usually is grape leaves but the nasturtiums are great as a substitute.  Check out my recipe here, and get your nasturtiums growing!  (Sow the seeds covered, they germinate in the dark.)

Two great soups to use your garden bounty.

Herb Soup
From the book : “101+ Recipes From The Herb Lady” - by Catherine Crowley

    A wonderful blend of herbs, lettuces, croutons and cheese. The beauty of this soup, besides its fabulous flavor, is the ability to vary the herbs, lettuces, croutons and cheeses for different flavors. I developed this recipe from Provencal soups.

While this soup is not pureed - it is an option as shown in the following, similar soup recipe.

1    shallot, finely chopped
2    tablespoons butter, unsalted
4    cups mixed fresh herbs, finely chopped (I used Thai basil, cilantro, parsley, see note below*)
1    package spring lettuce mix
1    teaspoon coarse salt
1/8    teaspoon black pepper
6    cups boiling water (can use broth - but try the water the first time)
6    cups croutons (any stale bread diced will work too - some day-old nice artisinal breads would be great for this)
3/4    cups Parmesan cheese

    Set aside 1/2 cup each of herbs and lettuces for garnish. Divide croutons and cheese into 6 soup bowls.
    Saute shallot in butter for 1 minute. Add herbs, salt, and lettuces all at once and cook—stirring for 5 minutes. Add boiling water, cover and simmer for 15 minutes—stirring occasionally. Ladle greens and broth into soup bowls. Add garnish of herbs and lettuces to each bowl. Serve and enjoy. Serves 6.
    *Traditional recipes call for sorrel and chervil or any combination you like - the Thai Basil has a tarragon aspect to it which mimic the chervil with a kick and cilantro's citrus back-note mimic the sorrel.
 

Green Harvest Soup - a pureed soup

Another soup version  February 2009

I adapted this from a recipe I saw in Better Homes and Gardens magazine.  Since I am not overly fond of cooked spinach (in reality after I developed this recipe - I discovered I'm slightly allergic to spinach and beets), I chose a sweet potato over a regular potato (as called for in the original recipe) to sweeten the soup — worked beautifully and the arugula adds just a nice amount of nutty bite.

Green Harvest Soup
1 large shallot, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons - 1 tablespoon dried Herbes de Provence or Italian herb blend
1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
2 cups de-fatted chicken stock - homemade is best - can substitute vegetable
1 large sweet potato, cleaned, peel left on, chopped
1 package (approx 4 cups) mixed greens or baby spinach, rinsed well and dried - set aside 1 cup, torn into bite size pieces
1 cup arugula, torn into bite size pieces
Parmesan cheese curls
edible flowers for garnish (I used pansies, calendula petals and sweet alyssum)
baguette slices
salt to taste

In a heavy pot, melt butter and olive, add shallot, onion and dried herbs and saute on medium heat for 5 minutes.  Add the stock and sweet potato, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook covered until the sweet potato is tender, about 10 minutes.  Begin adding all the greens (except for the reserved 1 cup) a little at a time until incorporated and wilted.  Remove from heat and let sit to cool for about 5 minutes.

I used an immersion (stick) blender, but you can use a regular blender or food processor to puree the soup. Careful! Don't burn yourself - I do love my immersion blender - once you get the hang of it you are not dirtying another container (blender)*.

Taste the pureed soup for salt - you should not need to add any or only a very little.

Ladle into soup bowls, top with a bit of reserved greens and arugula, edible flowers and cheese curls, and serve with baguette slices.

There are so many healthy benefits to these foods, it is almost a sin to not serve it whenever they are available from your local growers.

I hope you try one of these soups.  If you do let me know and also how you may have changed it up to be "your" harvest/herb soup.

. . .

You can have all my gardening tips at your fingertips with my gardening book and/or calendar

My Calendar and Book Links

Wall Calendar

Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1387385798/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

Publisher Direct
http://www.lulu.com/shop/catherine-crowley/edible-landscaping-a-month-by-month-calendar-desert-southwest-usda-zone-9b/paperback/product-23433329.html


Beginner's Southwest Gardening Book

Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/141164039X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Publisher Direct
http://www.lulu.com/shop/catherine-crowley/edible-landscaping-in-the-desert-southwest-wheelbarrow-to-plate/paperback/product-176297.html

Have a great day in the garden and kitchen with your bounty.
 


-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

If you enjoyed this post, please share and subscribe below by entering your email, to get all my posts! 

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Disclaimer: Clicking on links on this blog may earn me a small commission if you purchase something. Your price does not change.

Sugar Peas, If You Please!

Picture taken October 9, 2018

Dear Folks,

I am readying my monthly planting post for gardening in November (with two great harvest soup recipes), but I wanted to get this information to you ASAP.

Get your sugar peas in NOW and then successive sow every 2-3 weeks for a continuous harvest into late spring.  Each plant will continue to pump out pods for months as long as you keep them picked regularly.

I love Sugar Peas!!

In fact I love them so much I wrote a block post several years ago (link below) in my Ode To Sugar Peas.

Harvested Last March, pods, peas, shells for dinner.

From tender skinny pods all the way through to harvest green shelled peas (I even use the shelled pods for slivering in salads or cooking as an added vegetable) to saving the dried brown seeds for cooking or sowing later, everything about this vegetable is just wonderful.

So, I have been growing them for quite a few years, successive sowing every 2-3 weeks (more going in today) following the old 1 pea per 4-6 inches in sowing and then I found this wonderful youtube channel a couple of years ago and - bingo - I realized I had been denying myself a true bounty of peas to harvest.

First, the video is on growing English (spring) peas, but the technique is the same for Sugar "Snap" Peas.

Second, while the video highlights a genius method planting LONG rows, it is the seed spacing I want you to pay attention to.

Third, I did this last year and had a huge and continuous crop of sugar peas through March/April, far more in the same of garden area, than in prior years.

TIP:  Soak your pea seeds for a couple of hours - but no more than 8 - to speed up germination.

I hope you find the video and ideas helpful.

Huws Nursery (UK)

My Blog Post "Ode to Sugar Peas"

Find my books and calendar purchase links on the side bar here on the blog.

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

If you enjoyed this post, please share and subscribe below by entering your email, to get all my posts!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Disclaimer: Clicking on links on this blog may earn me a small commission if you purchase something. Your price does not change.

Eggplant "Bacon" - Oh Boy!

Dear Folks,

My eggplants are really producing nicely, particularly my Listarda (Listada De Gandia) and I decided to do another batch of "Bacon" using a marinade and slices of this gorgeous fruit. Yes I know we call it a vegetable but it is really a fruit.

Anyway, I made some "eggplant bacon" a while back and I loved the taste but I had inconsistent 'doneness' issues with the center being soft while the outside crispy. So re-reading several recipes on line, I lowered the oven temp and got a much better result. BIG tip here, watch them when they are baking, you want crisp but not burnt and you do HAVE to turn them halfway through.

Some recipes note using them as dippers which I think would be good, but hey, we are talking "Bacon" here so BLT and Grilled/Melted Cheese sandwiches were what I wanted.

First the Marinade and it can be refrigerated and used as needed. There are several variations for this marinade around and I liked this combination. You can use avocado oil in place of the olive oil.

Eggplant "Bacon" Marinade
Vegan, Vegetarian and Omnivore friendly

1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) soy
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/8 cup maple syrup
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Pinch (1/16 teaspoon) liquid Hickory Smoke

Eggplant "Bacon"

Marinade
Eggplants
Optional Cracked Black Pepper

Use a mandolin if you have it to make the slices of eggplant even. I do not peel these tender heirloom varieties of eggplant.  You want about bacon-type thickness for the slices.

Have a ziplock bag ready. A nice way to do this is to open the bag and tuck into a mug with the top folded down over the sides creating a "stand" for the bag.

Pour the marinade into the bag.

Cut the stem end off the eggplant. Slice a small piece off the "round" sides of the eggplant.

Slice the eggplant an immediately put the slices in the bag. Zip closed and gently move the slices around to coat and lay the bag on a flat counter. Set your timer for 30 minutes and turn the bag once half way through.

Meanwhile get your pan and oven ready. Pre-heat oven to 300 - 325. I did 325 and may try 300 next time. Your first batch will be a test for your oven and what works to create nice crispy "bacon" without burning. I have to say even the "charred" pieces were delicious.

Cover your cookie sheet or large pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

Lay the eggplant strips out on the pan. They can be very closed together but not overlapping. They will shrink a bit. If you like you can sprinkle with cracked black pepper.

Flip the eggplant after 20-22 minutes and return to oven. Overall cooking time will range from 40-50 minutes. Watch carefully. Remove and either use immediately or cool and wrap up in the aluminum foil you baked them on and refrigerate. I had to wait until the next day to use and they were just fine and still nice and crispy after being in the refrigerator.

A couple of days ago I harvested a bunch of mixed greens from the garden (sweet potato, roselle and Egyptian Spinach, leaves along with some purslane and basil, and I'itoi onion tops. I used some of the leaves for the BLT.

Now to assemble the sandwiches - BLT with avocado and a melty swiss cheese, "bacon" with some basil leaves.  Both sandwiches on a multi-grain whole wheat toast.  I do not show it but I put some mayo on the BLT.

I literally could not wait to assemble the BLT with Avocado.  I opted to spread the avocado on one side of the toast. On the other, you can't see it, I spread some mayo, the slices of tomato, sprinkle with a bit of salt, then some of the "bacon" greens and more "bacon" - of course, and closed the sandwich up. 

Next the Melty Swiss Cheese, "Bacon" with basil leaves.

Several years ago I started making grilled cheese sandwiches with grilled eggplant and sweet peppers adding fresh basil leaves in the mix.  For these sandwiches I toasted the bread ahead of time.

It is important to layer the cheese between each of the other ingredients.  Here I used Swiss. I have used Provolone, Swiss, White Cheddar and Mozzarella depending on what I have on hand and my mood - maybe even a mix.  After assembling, I pop in the microwave for about 10-20 seconds to melt the cheese.

So, this. . .

 

To THESE . . .

Have you made eggplant "Bacon"?  Or other vegetable "bacons"?  How have you used the "Bacon" or how would you use it?

I think the next batch(es) I make I need to make extra and keep some for crumbling on salads or as a garnish on soups.  Like my "Creamy Potato + Vegetable Soups".

Have a great time in the kitchen with your garden bounty!

Watch for my November Planting tips in another post.

You can find my books and calendars at Amazon or my publishers site.  Check the sidebar here on the blog.


-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

If you enjoyed this post, please share and subscribe below by entering your email, to get all my posts! 

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Disclaimer: Clicking on links on this blog may earn me a small commission if you purchase something. Your price does not change.

Rain = Mushrooms!

Dear Folks,

While checking the rain totals for the last 24 hours, I spotted these in an area designated for a future tree.  I laughed out loud when I caught sight of them!

I check rain totals for a 24 hour period at first light - we received 1.25 inches over the last 3 nights.  Far less than many parts of the valley, but still enough to show mushroom growth in our healthy soil.

AND we got to skip major garden watering because of the totals.  Always cool to let mother nature do your watering.

As I type this at about 8:45 am it has started raining again - and the sun is coming out - good old fashioned sunshower - yipppeeee!

Back to the mushrooms, these puppies are huge!

 
And no I am not going to check and see if they can be eaten:

1)  I have no training; and
2)  My sweety is severely allergic to mushrooms!

. . .

If you are starting to think about gift giving for the holidays, consider my gardening book and/or wall calendar for your gardening friends or family (or those who want to but need help).  The information is applicable in USDA Zone 9b and above - Desert Southwest and Deep South.

My Calendar and Book Links

Wall Calendar
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1387385798/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

Publisher Direct
http://www.lulu.com/shop/catherine-crowley/edible-landscaping-a-month-by-month-calendar-desert-southwest-usda-zone-9b/paperback/product-23433329.html


Beginner's Southwest Gardening Book
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/141164039X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Publisher Direct
http://www.lulu.com/shop/catherine-crowley/edible-landscaping-in-the-desert-southwest-wheelbarrow-to-plate/paperback/product-176297.html



Enjoy the rain, stay safe and look forward to happy gardens!


-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

If you enjoyed this post, please share and subscribe below by entering your email, to get all
my posts! 

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Disclaimer: Clicking on links on this blog may earn me a small commission if you purchase something. Your price does not change.