Author: Robinne Weiss

The end of summer

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Tomatoes in the greenhouse, still going strong...for now.

Tomatoes in the greenhouse, still going strong…for now.

And here it comes…the Metservice forecast for tomorrow…

A few spots of early rain, followed by fine spells and scattered showers with hail, and possible squally thunderstorms. Snow lowering to 400 metres from afternoon. Cold southwesterlies, becoming strong about the coast in the afternoon.

It’s time to batten down the hatches, rescue the last tomatoes and zucchini, and bring firewood to the porch. I gave the goats some extra bedding (and will do the same for us, too!), and I’ve tucked down the edges of the small tunnel house in the garden, in the hopes of eking out a few more peppers and eggplants.

I’m ready, as I usually am by mid-April, for the summer to be well and truly over. I’m ready to let the chickens loose in most of the vegetable garden, to control the weeds for me over winter. I’m ready to stop frantically preserving the summer’s bounty and start eating what I’ve saved.

Not that there isn’t gardening to do in the winter. My “winter” vegetable garden is bigger than many people’s summer garden, but it is still less than a quarter the size of the summer garden, and feels like a holiday. I’m looking forward to starting that holiday soon.

Fall Foraging

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DSC_0016 copyI enjoy foraging for forgotten food, and university campuses often offer good pickings. Development marginalises former research and demonstration plots. The plants are abandoned in some corner between buildings, and are forgotten by everyone but the groundsmen who have to mow around them.

Apples used to be a huge crop around Lincoln (until growing houses became more profitable), and the university has done research on apples for many decades. The “Orchard Carpark” is presumably the former site of the University orchard, but only one lone apple tree remains on the edge of the pavement. No one officially picks its fruit, but passersby avail themselves. This year, the tree is groaning under a heavy crop.

This morning, when I stopped by, the tree was well-picked on the lower branches, but there was plenty of fruit on the ground, and my daughter climbed into the tree to reach a few higher up. We came home with a bag full of tart, firm apples. Perfect for pie.

Mommy’s Magical Crackers

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DSC_0007 copyNamed by my kids years ago, these are so magical, they start disappearing almost before they leave the oven. It’s a good thing they’re easy to make—easy enough for every day, good enough to include on a fancy cheese and cracker tray at a party.

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 c. wholemeal flour

¼ c. sesame seeds

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1/3 c. vegetable oil

2/3 c. warm water

Mix flours, sesame seeds, soda and salt. Stir in water and oil, stirring just until the dough comes together in a mass. Divide dough into halves. Roll out each half very thin (1-2 mm) on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cut into cracker shapes, and bake at 190°C (375°F) for about 15 minutes, until they are brown and crispy. Check regularly toward the end of baking and remove any crackers that have browned before they burn.

Eat quickly before they vanish!

* Replace the wholemeal flour with rye meal (or a coarse ground rye flour) for a lovely variation.

Pumpkin seeds

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DSC_0013Pumpkin seeds are another of those foods (like onions) that I never really appreciated before I grew them myself. It’s not that I didn’t like them, but they weren’t something I paid much attention to.

I still don’t go out of my way to buy them, but I very much enjoy our harvest of pepitas, roasted with salt and a bit of curry powder. They’re almost as hard to stop eating as peanuts (and just as good with a beer)!

Seasonally Adjusted Holidays

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100_2185When life gives you pumpkins, make Jack-o-lanterns!

Halloween used to be one of my favourite holidays, and not because of the candy. Costumes, pumpkins, and the excuse to scare one another outdoors at night—what more could you ask?

Halloween here is a sad farce, and we do not observe it. It is fundamentally an autumnal celebration, and coming, as it does here, at the very beginning of summer is simply wrong. There are no pumpkins, there are no crisp brown leaves, and the sun doesn’t even set until after 8 pm.

Though we skip Halloween, when autumn does come around (long about Easter), we celebrate the lengthening night and cooler days with Jack-o-lanterns.

Naked seed pumpkins are great for carving—the flesh isn’t particularly good for eating, so I don’t feel so bad about throwing the pumpkins shells to the kids to carve after I’ve removed the seeds. (Uncarved pumpkin shells go to the goats, who don’t seem to mind the gritty, tasteless flesh.)

The finished Jack-o-lanterns sit on the picnic table outside the dining room window, where we can enjoy them during our increasingly dark evening meals.

Recipe Reminiscing

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DSC_0001 copyBren’s Quince Paste

Vilma’s Marinated Eggplant

Mrs. Cassel’s Mint Tea

 

Recipes linked to a person. Old friends, neighbours, family members.

 

Susan’s Tofu Meatballs

Ray’s Potato Bread

Mom’s Cheesecake

 

Each recipe is a story, a memory.

 

Virginia’s Chocolate Shortbread Hearts (made for our wedding party)

Lisa’s Orange Biscotti (first eaten at her house while her husband, Pete, taught me to knit)

Granny’s Tabouli (granddaughter Rhian, one of my housemates at Uni, collected bras)

 

Other recipes evoke a place.

DSC_0004 copy

Donuts (Camp Tamarack, where we made them with children during cultural history lessons)

Rosti a la Grenada (Grenada, eaten while visiting friend Ginger during her Peace Corps service)

Ricotta (Panama, made with Klim powdered milk; it was the height of luxury in our mud house life)

 

You could read our life story, know our friends, just by flipping through our recipe book. As good as a photo album; every turn of the page is another image, another taste of from our past.

Celebration breads

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DSC_0007 copyI know it’s not fashionable to appreciate gluten these days, but our household thrives on bread. No holiday celebration is complete without at least one bread. Holidays are an excuse to bake something different, something extravagant. Today rated two special breads. I made hot cross buns for breakfast, and Ian made a challah the size of a toddler, which we enjoyed with home made goat cheddar for lunch.

DSC_0002 copyEnjoy your day, whether you are celebrating Easter, Passover, or just a beautiful day in April! May it be full of bread!

Easter Egg Engineering

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First, they dyed the eggs.

First, they dyed the eggs.

The annual glut of hard-boiled eggs is about to begin. The children dyed eggs this afternoon. This year I challenged them to create Lego machines that would allow them to paint designs on their eggs. They took on the challenge with enthusiasm! One created a remote-controlled machine to rotate the egg. The other created a machine that rotated the egg, and moved it up and down, and held a cotton swab soaked in food colouring, all at the same time. The results were pretty impressive.

The remote controlled model.

The remote controlled model.

The deluxe model, complete with cotton swab holder.

The deluxe model, complete with cotton swab holder.

Peanut Butter Eggs

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With older kids, now, I didn't even need to do anything--they did it all (except the dishes).

With older kids, now, I didn’t even need to do anything–they did it all (except the dishes).

I don’t go in much for Easter candy. Waxy chocolate rabbits and creepy marshmallow chicks? Ick! I do, however, have in inordinate fondness for homemade peanut butter and coconut eggs, made with good dark chocolate. Years ago, one of the secretaries where I worked made them and sold them every Easter, and I had no resistance whatsoever. They were a daily treat for me until her supply was gone.

Thankfully, I don’t have that temptation any more, but last week my son asked me to pick up smooth peanut butter and chocolate for peanut butter eggs. What could I do, but comply?DSC_0008 copy