A Cozy Lunch

It is rainy, foggy, extremely windy, and 45 degrees here today. My solution to the chill?

I warmed myself up with a spicy bowl of Tarka dahl for lunch. Dhal is served at almost every meal in India. It is a staple food and there are many versions of this dish. It is such an easy, delicious and relatively fast meal to make. I used some of my dried Red Cayenne peppers leftover from last year's garden which made it extra delicious.

Wrapped Long-Stitch Book

I am teaching the final class in a three-week bookbinding course tonight at UAF. I made a new version of one of my favorite bindings: the wrapped long-stitch, to provide a visual sample for the students while teaching how to bind their books. This version is a hardcover and is sewn onto tapes with a completely open spine. Typically for the wrapped long-stitch I use a thick soft-cover wrap and do not sew on tapes.

Oaxacan Delights

A couple of weeks ago I finally made a feast for some good friends using the ingredients that I smuggled back from Oaxaca to Alaska this January.

Menu:
Red Mole Turkey Tamales (using our own harvested turkey-meat)
Jicama and Avocado Green Salad
Chips and Authentic Oaxacan Salsa (using dried chiles)
Coconut-Pineapple Tamales (for dessert)
Margaritas

Matt and I sat down together for the tamale-making marathon and it actually did not take too long. It really helps to have a second person for that part! I think we made about 35 tamales.

While in Oaxaca City, Matt and I took a cooking class at La Casa de los Sabores from Pilar along with a group of other people and we learned so much. It was an excellent way to learn the real way to make good tamales. We went along with Pilar to the market to purchase all the ingredients fresh for the meal. Most importantly we were able to learn about the chiles used in Oaxacan cuisine and which ones we should bring home with us to cook with. Matt and I also purchased chepil, avocado leaves, and jamaica and they all successfully make the trip through the airports!

I did not make the agua de jamaica for the dinner with friends simply because I was focusing on the margaritas! But, because a recipe showed up in two food magazines this past month, I made it just the other day to enjoy with Matt and it was a very refreshing and beautiful summer drink. I also came across a variation of the recipe on a website I enjoy that looks delicious and I intend on trying with my next batch.

Cascade Farm Update

Whew, it has been a busy month! Between tending to the garden and greenhouse, learning about worm composting, acquiring our meat chicks and turkey poults, and enjoying the sunshine I have been taking photographs to share once I finally got around to posting again.

The garden is doing excellent and we've been eating our salad greens for the past week. It is always such a treat when we can start eating out of the garden each day. Last night we had a delicious Arugula salad with heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market. Our tomato plants have numerous flowers on them but we will not have our own for at least another month, longer for the full-size ones.

A few days ago I released a couple thousand lady bugs in and around the garden and greenhouse to combat the aphids that I do not want around this year. Last year we had an aphid infestation in our greenhouse that never really went away. Another goal of mine is to prevent the holes throughout my mesclun which always seem to appear on the spicier greens. I'll get those little buggers! Currently my baby mesclun mix is healthy and growing rapidly.

Our five Bourbon Red turkey poults are doing well (after a few sad unexplained losses) and the Delaware chicks are just so cute and fluffy. We think they are all enjoying their new home. These little ones are enjoying the warmth of a heated brooder right now but soon we will move them outside when their feathers have filled out.

Two curious chicks
(a red light bulb inside a black box is not great for photos, hence the BW photo)

A tiny Bourbon Red turkey poult!

Mmm...kale

Brussel Sprouts enjoying the sun

A couple of our happy cucumber plants

As I sat here writing, a wicked storm approached our house. I ran out to take a short video in the middle of it of the hail-rain-thunderstorm equipped with very close lightening. The loud thunder almost made me drop my bowl of popcorn and Canute is snuggled up against me not knowing what to think of the noise. I suppose my garden needed a good soaking after a few weeks of dry heat, but let's hope it wasn't too much force!

Cookbook Repair

Below are a couple of photographs documenting the repair of the cookbook I posted about earlier. Because the book did not need restoration (great, because I am not trained in that!) and the owner only requested a patch-job, I simply stabilized the binding with new scrim and glue, applied a new headband, and salvaged half of the great endpapers to use when reattaching the book to the cover.

Garden Inventory

I suppose this post is more for me to use as a reference/log than anyone else....but perhaps other people may actually be interested in all the colorful things I am growing up here in Fairbanks! I've decided to make a list of everything I grew from seed this year and direct seeded in my garden so that I can come back in the Fall to this post and note which ones did amazingly well and which ones failed. It will also be useful for me to refer to next Spring when I begin the whole seed-starting process again.

Since I will be transplanting most of the vegetables into the raised beds tomorrow, I took a photo of the inventory after bringing the plants back inside from their last day of hardening off. In Fairbanks, June 1st is the last frost date, yet I have always planted out earlier because I use plastic row covers over hoops. This year it is just exceptionally warm so I am not concerned at all, but it is nice to have the row covers handy in cases of nasty hail and possible frost.


March 20th - Started Seeds:
Brandywine Tomatoes
Peacevine Cherry Tomatoes
Cosmonaut Volkov Tomatoes
Ida Gold Tomatoes
Applegreen Eggplant
Early Jalepeño Pepper
Hungarian Hot Wax Pepper
Long Red Narrow Cayenne Pepper
Parsley
Rosemary
Lavender

April 20th - Started Seeds:
Catskill Brussel Sprouts
Snow Crown Cauliflower
Tendergreen Broccoli
Windsor Broccoli
Red Russian Kale
Smooth "Even Star" Kale/Collards
Golden Acre Cabbage
Red Mammoth Cabbage
Perfection Savoy Cabbage
Red Rumple Lettuce
Olga Romaine
Table Queen Acorn Squash
Sunflowers

May 2nd - Started Seeds
National Pickling Cucumber
Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard
Arugula
Mammoth Sweet Peas
Nasturtiums
Costata Romanesca Zucchini
Patty Pan Pumpkin

May 20th-21st
Started Seeds:
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
Buttercrunch Lettuce

Sowed in Garden:
Sugar Snap Peas - sprouted May 26th
Green Arrow Shelling Peas - sprouted May 26th
Potatoes (All Blue, Yukon Gold, French Fingerling,
and Swedish Peanut) - started sprouting June 9th
Onions - sprouted May 28th
Red Meat Radish - sprouted May 24th
French Breakfast Radish - sprouted May 24th
Provider Bush Beans - sprouted June 4th (could start inside for better results)
Bull's Blood Beets - sprouted May 28th
Golden Detroit Beets - sprouted May 28th
Early Wonder Tall Top Beets - sprouted May 28th
Scarlet Nantes Carrots - Sprouted June 2nd
Cosmic Purple Carrots - sprouted June 1st
Rainbow Mix Carrots - Sprouted June 2nd
Laurentian Rutabagas- sprouted May 27th
Gold Ball Turnips - sprouted May 26th

May 26th
Sowed in Garden:
Mustard Mesclun Mix - sprouted June 1st
Organic Greens Mix - sprouted June 1st
Dill
Extra Nasturtium and Sweet Peas seeds

Transplanted to Garden:
All Brassicas
All Lettuce
All herbs

Entire Garden is planted except squashes.

May 28th: Cool and Rainy Weather for a few days.
Only 46 degrees this morning!
Transplanted and moved the (10) tomatoes, (9) peppers, and (3) eggplant into the greenhouse.

June 1st:
Transplanted (2) Costata Romanesca Zucchini to garden.
Started seeds: Arugula, Tom Thumb Bibb lettuce
Transplanted (6) cucumbers to the greenhouse.

June 2nd:
Transplanted (2) Table Queen Acorn Squash to garden.
Transplanted Scarlet Runner Beans to garden.

Garden is completely planted! Yay!

The Word on Cheese

I am still pinching myself....an entire magazine devoted to CHEESE? Really? There are other people out there just as obsessed with cheese as I am? Culture is America's first consumer cheese magazine.

The excellent thing is that they have only been publishing the magazine since December 2008 (2 issues so far) so I feel like I have not been missing out over the years. I can rest assured that I probably found out as soon as possible, living up in the interior of Alaska! SO, I now am of course wondering what delicious delectable cheeses one could learn about while reading this magazine. What else is in this magazine? I am curious. It brings to mind another recent find of mine that I would love to get my hands on as well: Meatpaper. Truly, there are just too many magazines that I desire subscriptions to so I have to stop finding these goodies.