Out of Fall, Into Coldframes

I signed off last with a long to-do list, and I'm happy to report that the list is now bordered by a long vertical column of red check marks. It is done and things are good.

1. Turn compost and collect finished compost.
Admittedly, that's not me. But I talked him into turning the front composter because it's completely full. I took care of the back one, which over the past few months has produced gorgeous, pitch-black finished compost.
As an aside, I really recommend having two composters going at all times so you can have an "active" pile (one that you add stuff to) and a "cooking" pile (one that you're waiting on to finish up). And when you harvest all your finished compost from one of them, leave a little at the bottom to get the next pile of gunk cooking faster.

2. Level with the damn brussel sprout.I killed the poor plant once, around July 4, when I decided it was never going to do anything that resembled producing a sprout. I tore up all 6 plants and my father-in-law gently pointed out that it was about to start bud formation, so I promptly stuck the most intact plant back into the ground. Lesson learned. Brussel sprouts take their good old time.

But really. It's freaking October 24 and the thing is still not done? I'm never planting these dumb things again, or maybe I'll do a little research first (novel idea) and plant them either very early or very late in the season, when they do best.

One piece of advice I found in the great cybergarden was to lob off the top of the plant so it stops growing up and starts getting down to business. So I did.Who knows if that will work. (?)

3. Harvest basil, coriander (cilantro gone to seed) and random other things to prepare beds for turning and enriching.
Here is about 1/20 of the basil I harvested. I got adventurous and harvested my two ginormous "ornamental" basil plants (the purple kind that's described as pretty but not tasty) and tried it out in my pesto recipe. I used walnuts instead of pine nuts because I figured the heavier flavor of the walnuts would work well with the stronger basil - and because walnuts are cheaper. So if I blew it, I'd be less mad.

Anyway, it rocks. And now I have enough pesto for . . . well, just look at my freezer:We could literally eat pesto for 15 days straight.

For the recipe and pictures, click here.

4. Enrich beds with finished compost.Here you can see that I removed the grid (and most of the plants) to prepare the bed for a major redig and enrich. It's sort of like exfoliating and moisturizing, but with dirt instead of your face.

Exfoliate:
Moisturize:and admire critters:- I planted a bunch of the vacant squares with more hairy vetch (a green manure) and some with more with turnips and radishes just for the heck of it. -

5. Rip up squash vines (and discover squash!)

6. Plant garlic.

I ordered "German Extra-Hardy certified organic garlic from Seedsavers.org, and it arrived in the mail a few days ago.Garlic over-winters in the garden, and you're supposed to plant it sometime after the first major frost of the season (which was the night before).

Inside the package were 2 bulbs and an instruction sheet.It said to separate the cloves only at planting time, and to plant them 4-6 inches apart and 2 inches down.These cloves (which you must plant root-side-down) will sprout before the winter, but if properly covered (by mulch or a cold frame) will go dormant and survive the winter - even in New England.

After planting, I covered the squares with extra compost (instead of mulch).
I'm saying all this, but honestly, I have no idea whether this will work. Theoretically, I should be digging these up next June!

7. Check in with fall crops.Here's the lettuce in the front garden. I harvested the lettuce in the rear garden because the sun patterns have changed such that it's not going to get any full sun until spring. Also, I needed some lettuce for the fajitas I made with all the zillions of bell peppers I just harvested.

The turnips and beets - and the 3 radishes that survived the squirrels - are doing great, too. The beets were "topping out," or basically growing themselves out of the ground, so I packed some finished compost around the tops. This happened on my early crop of beets, and it worked just fine.

8. Admit defeat with the carrots. Again.I failed. Don't know why, but both crops this year have ended badly - with short, confused looking carrots. I've varied the soil textures, the sunlight, the amount of compost. They taste good, but it's embarrassing. I have to tell people that I planted dwarf carrots or something. More research needed.

9. Harvest the marigolds.
They were going to get squished by the coldframes, and their main job, which was to repel harmful bugs, is not as important now that it's fall. So now I'm just giving them away.10. Finishing touches, then tuck into bed.Add the coldframes. . . and then the windows.And then wait for things to grow!

Jasmine in bloom

The jasmine along the fence is finally in bloom . . .
and the critters are thrilled.The turnips are coming on strong (at least I think these are the turnips?)and the snails have so far shown restraint with the tender young peppers.
This basil is now in the freezer as part of a monster batch of pesto:
And I am giving away these beautiful red babies as fast as they ripen. Next year, I am planting only Brandywine tomatoes, though - mark my words.
Life is very, very good.

Pesto presto

(Mom, this one's for you...but if you have tons of basil and like pesto, it's for you, too.)

What happens if you are stranded at home with this:

and this:


and maybe this?


Well, I was (except for the stranded part). And I made this:


I think it's the best pesto recipe ever, and it's so easy. There's a secret to the recipe, though -- anchovies. Believe it or no, and you'd never guess it by the taste of the finished pesto, but the anchovies lend a rich saltiness that works so well with the Parmesan.

I harvested the tops off my basil plants. As long as you cut just above a leaf node, the plant recovers just fine. In fact, I think mine have benefited from frequent cutting. They just keep producing and have not yet tried to go to seed. This is what the plants looked like after I chopped off the tops. Oh, and use a very sharp knife so you don't crush the stems.


And this is how much basil I used in this batch:

If you can't grow your own (this year, that is. No excuse for next!!), buy a bunch fresh. It should be cheap this time of year, especially at farmers markets, and very especially at the end of the day, when they're trying to unload it all.

Next, ask someone really nicely to peel you a boatload of garlic. I think I used about a cup of peeled cloves. I like to use this much garlic because it makes up a large portion of the body of the pesto. One of the reasons I do this is to cut some of the fatty richness (and guilt) of traditional pesto without compromising flavor. But using this much garlic fresh would remove the enamel from your teeth and burn the hairs from your friends' noses.

So the trick is to mellow it a tad by frying it in olive oil (which you need anyway for the pesto).

And here's where the secret weapon comes in: lots of anchovies packed in olive oil. Dump about 4 cans into a frying pan, (I say 4 because that's how much I used in this batch, but you can scale down) and add some extra olive oil (about 1/4 or 1/3 cup).

Then chop up the garlic just a little (not tiny pieces or they'll burn) and add it to the oil and anchovies.

Sautee over medium heat until the garlic is just golden.

I let it get a little more brown before I removed it from the heat.

The trick here is to just take the edge and zing off the fresh garlic, but not to caramelize it so it gets sweet.

Wash and pick the leaves of the basil, stick them in a blender and pour the hot oil/garlic/anchovy mix over it. This will wilt the leaves and make the whole mess fit better in your blender.


Blend it up a little. Then add a bunch of pine nuts (walnuts work too, but the flavor they lend is harsher. Still good, though).
And then about that much Parmesan cheese. The stuff in the green can works just fine, so don't waste your money. Good basil and garlic is more important.

Now you blend for real. You may need to add a tad more olive oil and perhaps a (as in, one) tablespoon of water to get things moving. Beware to not make your pesto a liquid, though. It should be very thick. And I don't recommend stirring the green guck with a wooden spoon while it's blending. The spoons tend to not recover well from brushes with whirling steel blades.

Blend it until it's super smooth, put in jars and freeze. The pesto is absolutely not shelf stable, so you have to either eat it, freeze it, or refrigerate it and use it soon. The reason you see so much (crappy) pesto in jars in the supermarket is because they've done something to the contents to make it stable, such as acidifying it. Check it out next time you're at the store. You'll probably see citric acid listed in the ingredients. This ruins the pesto and makes it taste sour and tangy in a bad way.

But nevermind all that bad news. The good news is that you have just made swoon-worthy pesto that would make the Godfather cry.

It's so easy being green.