flowers is mine

As mentioned in a previous post, flowers are blooming in abundance in our garden this year. This is our first echinacea flower, which was slow coming but finally here! I like watching all the bees that like the flowers.

Here's a honey bee slurping an onion flower:
 
That's going to be some pungent honey! Just like chive flowers, onion flowers are tasty for humans too.

kohlrabi

 
This was our first time growing kohlrabi. It was exciting and delicious.

fires

Last week there was a fire in the foothills of south Boulder, about 1.5 miles from us. We were under pre-evacuation notice for about 24 hours. Thanks to the work of aerial and ground firefighters, the fire is now 90% contained. This was the hottest June on record in Denver, and the 3rd or 4th driest season in Colorado, so conditions were right (there are 11 active fires in Colorado right now). Although not as destructive or threatening as the more high-profile High Park Fire in Ft. Collins or the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs, this fire (Flagstaff Fire) was close to home for us. At one point, we could see flames coming over the ridge from our bedroom window.

The experience of packing up to get ready to evacuate was thought-provoking. We don't have a land line or TV, so we had to rely on the Internet for information. We don't have a car so we packed our pannier bags and trailer for the dog to be ready to bike to a friends house if necessary; although, we have great friends that offered to come pick us up in their van if necessary.

The fire also made me realize the luxury of air conditioning. We have an air conditioner, but usually don't need to use it. With the combination of 100+°F heat and smoke in the air, having air conditioning was much appreciated. It made me think about the health impacts of a fire for people who don't have air conditioning or if there's a power outage and people are forced to open their windows to try to cool down.

beet hummus

I was recently at Shine Restaurant and Gathering Place with friend who ordered beet hummus. I hadn't heard of beet hummus before. Why didn't someone tell me? Seriously. It was really good. Obviously, I have since made beet hummus at home. You can put it on sandwiches or you can eat it as a dip with crackers. Really you can't go wrong

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. beets
3 T. fresh lime juice
2 T. tahini
1 t. cumin
1 clove garlic
salt
black pepper

Chop the tops off the beets and boil them for 30 minutes until they are tender.  Then remove the beets from the water and let them cool so that you can rub off the skins.  Once the beets are all cleaned up, blend them with the remaining ingredients.  Like regular hummus, beet hummus is pretty flexible in flavoring so go wild!

disappointing hops

I had been hoping for hops, but today, when I dug up the two rhizomes to check on them, all I found were these rotted out shells of sticks. Where did we go wrong? My only hypothesis is that we watered their container too often, causing them to rot. One of them definitely had white root nubs when we planted it.

Has anyone seen this problem before?

disappointing radishes

A friend gave us a bunch of radish seeds for sprouts. I planted them in a container and here's what they grew into...not totally unexpected but pretty disappointing.

garden-work

Here's what our garden looks like these days. Some notes:

• Lots of calendula flowers. There were lots of self-seeded volunteer calendula sprouts since we didn't dead head that much.
• Lots of volunteer sunflowers as well. We kept two, one of which is the tallest plant in the whole community garden!
• Our onions (from sets planted in spring) seem to be doing really well. They all bloomed, which is less desirable since it makes the onions worse for storing. The flowers taste pretty good though.
• The sage and oregano are both doing really well.
• We are continually harvesting lots of lettuce and arugula.
• The chamomile is recovering quite nicely.
• Tomatoes are doing better after feeding them Foxfarm "Grow Big."
• Peas are doing well. Not really climbing their structure as much as we'd hoped. We cut them back a bit to make room for beans.
• We've been letting purslane grow as a live mulch and beneficial companion plant.

Here's a recent harvest:

raw flaxseed crackers

I've had flaxseed crackers at a few restaurants and decided to try making them myself. I followed this recipe: 2 c. flaxseeds, ~2 c. water, 1/4 c. tamari, and whatever flavorings you like. Mix all ingredients and soak flaxseeds for 2 hours or more, adding additional water as necessary. You'd like the soaked mixture to be a pourable goo, but not too runny. Then spread thinly (~1/8") on plastic dehydrator sheets ("paraflexx" or "teflex") and set to 110ºF. Dehydrate for 4–6 hours, then flip and dehydrate for another 3–4 hours. Our used dehydrator only came with one sheet (fine for a halved recipe), so I had to improvise: I cut parchment paper into circles with holes in the middle.

 
The parchment paper actually ended up working better than the plastic sheet! It allowed the bottom to dry more and made flipping much easier. A doubled recipe (4 c. flaxseed) will fill 5 levels of the dehydrator.

My favorite flavorings to add are lime juice and chili powder. I did one batch with lots of black pepper, liquid smoke, and fennel, and I swear it tasted like beef jerky (or at least tofu jerky).

first csa share of the season

 

Summer has arrived!  The farmers' market has been going for 2 months now.  Our garden is shaping up.  And now, finally, our CSA share with Isabelle Farm has begun.  Bring on the veggies!

nytimes carrot cake muffins

 Today I went on an early morning hike with a good friend. Our mission was to take our sweet time up top Boulder's Bear Peak enjoying coffee, breakfast, newspapers, and mountain vistas.  I brought these carrot cake muffins that I made from a nytimes recipe! Of course, since this is Boulder I snuck in some ground flax seeds.