Soup's On!

Fresh Garden Veg-All!

As our summer days begin that ever so slow slide into that cooler interim we call "fall," it's time to take stock of what's left in the summer garden, and what's done. Although some heirloom tomato patches are still churning out fruit, our heirloom plantings pretty much petered out a solid month ago. While we still enjoy the occasional tomato or two, the bushel harvests are a distant memory.

I'm sad to see those days end. I'm never ready for the end of summer gardening season. Although there are things to plant in fall and spring, nothing offers the diversity of produce that springs from a summer garden. What is a gardener to do then, when the sudden urge for an ear of heirloom corn or a single pole bean comes on strong in the dead of winter.

Carrots from the Bird Back 40

My friends, we are prepared!

One of our favorite evening meals, especially during those weeknights after a long day at work, is a simple soup that contains ground turkey, a bit of broth, can of tomatoes and a can of Veg-All. The wife that is Venus stumbled upon this recipe some years ago, and it's been a staple in the Bird Houze ever since. Add in some freshly baked crescent rolls and you've got yourself one quick and easy supper.

This meal is that much better when you can add a can of tomatoes or tomato sauce that came straight from the Bird Back 40 the previous summer. As I took stock of what was left in the summer garden some weeks ago, it suddenly struck me, why purchase the canned vegetable stock known as "Veg-All?" Why not make your own Veg-All at home?

Leaning Towers of Pole Beans

We already know that anything fresh from the backyard is far superior than anything that can be purchased in the local supermarket. So why stop at canning projects that involve tomatoes and cucumbers? Why not put that overproductive carrot patch that would make Bugs Bunny jealous to good use? Our pole bean planting efforts now strongly resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And although this year's corn crop was nothing to write home about, there was still enough there to add to the mix.

Three garden vegetables = Homemade Veg-All.

Fresh Heirloom Garden Corn

One important thing to consider before we move even further into this project is this: This project involves the use of pressure canning equipment. Water bath canners simply do not provide the pressure needed to safely can non-acidic vegetables like this, unless additional acid in the form of vinegar or lemon juice is added. At that point, you wind up with pickled vegetables rather than the canned variety. Even with our pressure canning equipment, Venus and I added a tablespoon of lemon juice to each pint jar before canning, just to play it safe.

Chopped and Ready for Processing

I must say, this has been an excellent year for carrots of all shapes and sizes in the Bird Back 40. The same holds true with the pole bean crop that we planted in July after removing a less than stellar garlic crop. The planter beds that dot the Bird Back 40 don't stay empty for very long. Once one crop is removed, the tired soil is amended and new seeds are added for the next crop.

But, I digress.

Parboil and Can

This is a much simpler project than canning tomato sauce, whole tomatoes and salsa. Those canning efforts involve a number of different steps before the actual product is added to jars and placed inside canning equipment for processing. For a simple vegetable mix like this? It's pick, clean, chop, mix together, parboil and can. The only difference is processing time -- about 45 minutes at 15 lbs. pressure. Just the simple act of processing can take several hours, especially if you have more jars of product than canning space in the pressure canning equipment.

But the payoff is a sweet treat during those cold winter months. If popping open a jar of home-canned tomatoes or tomato-sauce brings that sweet smell of summer into the kitchen, I can only begin to imagine the smells and taste that our vegetable canning efforts will bring.

SIMPLE WINTER SOUP

1 lb. ground turkey

1 tablespoon oil

1 onion

4-5 cloves peeled garlic

1 14.5 ounce can beef broth (water and beef bullion works just as well)

1 14 ounce can whole or chopped tomatoes

1 can Veg-All

Fresh or dry herbs

Fresh Garden Veg-All

Use food processor to ground garlic into bits and cut onion into appropriate bite-sized pieces. If you don't have a food processor, use a blender, or put a butcher knife to good use and start chopping. Add onion, garlic and ground turkey to soup pot containing oil, and proceed to cook on medium high heat until meat is cooked and no longer pink.

Add beef broth, tomatoes, Veg-All and herbs of your choice (Venus uses a mix of basil, oregano, cilantro, marjoram, whatever she has handy) and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, or just turn the stove off and allow soup to cool slightly before serving. Pop some crescent rolls or any other role into the oven for ten minutes and serve with soup.

Enjoy!

A Tomato for Every Occasion

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

It's that time of year when the answer to every question is: Tomatoes. Understand? If I ask the lovely wife that is Venus, "what's for dinner?" The answer is: TOMATOES.

What's for lunch? TOMATOES. Breakfast? TOMATOES. What's your favorite drink? TOMATO COLLINS!

With a splash of gin, of course.

The point is -- with an overload of tomato production -- you start looking for recipes that call for fresh heirloom tomatoes and lots of them.

Fortunately -- I found such a recipe. It's pictured above. Yeah, it's fancy alright. But thanks to my San Joaquin Valley tastes -- I lowered it down to proper "valley standards." The official title of this dish, featured in the uppity-duppity New York Times no less, is (and I quote): Penne With Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, Green Beans and Feta.

Leftover Tri-Tip from Sunday Night Dinner

I'll be honest. I fiddled around with this recipe a bit -- and came up with a new name of: Penne With Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, Green Beans, Feta AND LEFTOVER TRI-TIP.

Heh...

The official tomato for this dish? None other than Stupice, which is churning out golf-ball sized tomatoes faster than we can consume or give them away. This is the perfect tomato for a dish such as this, because the Stupice has a zip that goes well with slivered basil and Feta cheese.

Plus, uh, we have a lot of Stupice on the vine. Stupice anyone?

Fresh off the vine Pole Beans

There's another reason why I picked this dish out of the 24-odd recipes featured in the New York Times. It also called for a healthy offering of fresh green beans. What a coincidence, as we have pole beans and bush beans coming out of our EARS at the moment. This is the perfect dish at the perfect time.

Plus -- uh -- we had the leftover tri-tip from Sunday night's dinner.

Hey man -- you go with what you got. To be honest? We could have added squash, eggplant, green onions, carrots and a multitude of other vegetables that are producing like madness in the Bird Back 40 at the moment (pumpkin anyone?).

But we left that for another evening and another dish that I like to call "Hodge Podge Garden Soup." Hodge Podge Garden Soup, by the way, can easily be turned into "Hodge Podge Garden Casserole" and "Hodge Podge Garden Omlet." Those meals are yet to come.

Stupice Tomatoes with Basil and Seasonings

The recipe, which calls for "salt and pepper to taste" was also modified somewhat to include freshly ground black pepper -- because nothing says "fancy" like freshly ground black pepper. Plus, let's be honest here, OK? Freshly ground black pepper is REALLY good -- especially when you combine it with vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes warmed by our famous Sacramento Valley sunshine.

The dish is fairly easy to make -- and Venus and I made this a team effort. While she chopped up the pole beans and basil, I took care of slicing and dicing the Stupice tomatoes and grinding up the black pepper. It seemed somewhat criminal to add a boxed pasta like Penne, but we haven't started growing the fresh ingredients used for fresh pasta yet.

Yet, I say. The Bird Back 40 is an experiment in all things gardening. Who knows what we might be growing in another five to ten years.

Stupice Tomatoes for SNACKING!

The finished dish, which is detailed below, was indeed a slice of heaven. Anything combined with fresh heirloom tomatoes and basil from the backyard garden is usually a slice of heaven. But this dish in particular was pretty darn good -- and also made for a nice lunch at work the very next day.

We don't let good heirloom tomatoes go to waste in the Bird House.

Do you have a favorite dinner/lunch/breakfast recipe that features heirloom tomatoes and other good stuff from the backyard summer garden? If so -- please feel free to leave it behind -- because we're always taking suggestions.

And now -- without further delay -- the recipe for Penne With Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, Green Beans and Feta (with whatever barbequed delicacy you may have leftover from the night before. Don't be picky. This meal works with anything).

This recipe first appeared in the August 5th, 2009 edition of the New York Times and may be accessed here.

Penne With Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil, Green Beans and Feta

By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

Sweet, juicy heirloom tomatoes lend themselves well to uncooked tomato sauces. In summer, I make quick meals out of chopped ripe tomatoes, pasta and green vegetables.

6 to 8 ounces fresh green beans, trimmed, strings removed if necessary, and broken in half if very long

2 cups chopped fresh ripe tomatoes

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 plump garlic clove, minced (more to taste-we used more)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (I like to use a very good coarse sea salt or fleur de sel for this)

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (optional)

2 tablespoons slivered basil (we used more)

2 ounces crumbled feta (about 1/2 cup)

3/4 pound pasta (penne or fusilli are good choices)

1. Combine the olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt and pepper in a large bowl, and let sit for 15 to 30 minutes (or longer).

2. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Fill a bowl with ice water. Add the green beans to the boiling water, and boil four to five minutes, depending on how crunchy you like them. Remove with a strainer or skimmer, and transfer to the ice water. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then drain and set aside.

3. Bring the water back to a boil, and add the pasta. Cook until al dente, about eight minutes. When the pasta is ready, drop the green beans back into the water to heat, then drain the pasta and beans and toss at once with the tomato mixture and the feta. Serve hot or room temperature.

Yield: Serves four.

Why Kitty Hide?

It's a question that I cannot answer: "Why Kitty Hide?"

It's also a question, in restrospect, that I miss and could hear over and over again.

The wife that is Venus and I hosted our niece and nephew this weekend at our North Natomas home. The parents of the 2-year old girl (think TERRIBLE TWO'S) and 5-year old boy needed a bit of a break to be honest. We were more than happy to help them out.

Venus and I both know that the seeds that bring about a love for gardening must be nurtured at an early age. Our niece and nephew had never planted a garden before, until this weekend, and they seemed to enjoy it immensely.

I think they also loved running from "The Scarecrow" monster, a motion detection system that shoots a stream of water at whatever crosses its path. Still, they seemed to have a lot of fun planting the final crops of the 2009 garden -- a bed for our pickling cucumbers.

Our pickling efforts went fairly well last year, our first, but we learned that not all cucumbers make great pickles. That's why we ordered more than one variety of pickling cucumbers last winter, and had the kids plant our seed-starting efforts this weekend.

While little Celina loved running about the garden, she was most interested in the cats. And she simply could not understand why they would run in terror from this shrieking little girl. And so, throughout the weekend, this innocent little girl would look me straight in the eye and ask: "Why Kitty Hide?"

I learned that there was no good answer to this puzzling question. In fact, it didn't matter what answer I gave, as it usually prompted the response of: "Why Kitty Hide?"

And not just any kitty, but all four of them.

So, while we did our best to distract Celina with efforts such as planting pole beans, she still couldn't get over the fact that these flurry, fluffy creatures didn't want to come anywhere near her. That's why I hear the question over and over again today: "Why Kitty Hide?"

As it turns out -- both little Mark and little Celina do have a bit of that gardening gene in them. Celina, however, isn't quite ready to put anything harvested from the garden in her mouth at this point (not many 2-year olds are ready at age 2), but Marquitos was a different story. I was surprised.

It took a long time before Bill Bird would let a tomato come near him. I certainly wasn't eating garden produce at age 5. It would take several more years of cajoling and outright threats from my mother before I dared eat a slice of cucumber. But -- little Marky? He's different.

That little boy not only treasured the last cutting of broccoli from the garden, he proceeded to eat a great deal of it for dinner that night. Of course, it did help that his Aunt Venus prepared his most favorite meal of Mac N' Cheese, but it's rare to see a 5-year old boy not only consume garden produce, but actually like it.

But it didn't stop there. Not hardly. Mark was to discover the next day that he actually liked fresh peas from the garden. You could have knocked me over. I never would have believed it. A five year old boy picking pea pods, splitting them open, and devouring every pea inside? It took me years to get to that point.

Venus and I do not have children, yet. For most couples, acquiring children is akin to falling off a turnip truck. But for other couples, well, it can be a struggle. Put us in that "struggle" category. And, I think it's then that you come to realize that children are really God's greatest gift.

There is really nothing like teaching a child to dig a small hole for a starter plant or seed. The joy of watching a young child tear into a pea pod, or hunger for something else you have just harvested from the backyard is hard to describe. But there is a sense of satisfaction. The hard work of previous weekends is paying off. It's paying off in ways you never imagined.

I know that the weekend we spent with our niece and nephew helped plant the seeds for future gardens in future years. I know that they look forward to coming back later this summer, when they will see the seeds that they planted this spring flower and produce. Hopefully, they'll get to sample their work, and begin to understand the answers to some of the gardening questions they have.

But -- there is one question that can probably never be answered.

Why Kitty Hide?