Last Harvest and Free Eggs!

It's that time again. I put it off as long as I could but after a week of cool, gray and rainy days I took advantage of a slight break in the weather and yanked out the rest of my garden. I gleaned one last round of still green hot and sweet peppers and a handful of undersized tomatillas. I used up these and the last of the ripe tomatoes for a batch of end of season salsa. The few plants with reasonable sized green tomatoes are slowly ripening in the sunporch


I left the brussel sprouts still in the ground but everything else is in the composter now. I still have to empty the rain barrel (if it ever stops raining long enough) and put away the hoses. It looks so barren from up here...



I did it just in time tho- not only are we expected sub zero temps this weekend but Monday morning I woke up to this:

That's the city works crew repairing the laneway behind my house. My garden is now a construction site which is a tad unnerving since I've put a lot of time and money into building up my soil. Not to worry, I had a brief conversation with the foreman and it turns out he's a farmer himself! He raises a few head of beef cattle, some pigs and chicken on a few acres very close to where we attended Foodstock last week. I gave him a jar of my pear chutney and he promised to look out for my dirt and veggies. This morning I opend up the composter to find these hidden inside!


Best harvest ever- thanks Frank!

Food Storage Friday - The Headcold Edition

We've been a bunch of sickies this week- just annoying headcolds for myself and our temporary roommate but the Russian has been really sick and it turns out he has pneumonia. Which means there's been a lot of soups and teas on the menu this week. And since the weather's been lousy and I'm not feeling so great, I haven't done any shopping at all. We did a pork roast on Sunday so there were a couple days of leftovers and some nice pork stock to which I added bacon, brussel sprouts and kale. A big pot of homemade chicken soup lasted a couple days as well. The last of the greens from the garden, some homemade pierogies and pork paprikish rounded out the week. The most processed thing we ate all week was probably the sour cream!


One thing I noted this week is how depleted my medicinal herbs are! I managed to forage some rosehips which I've been adding to hot lemon with ginger, honey and cayenne. I have fresh sage and thyme but I have no slippery elm bark for coughs and a lot of the other herbs are either depleted or too old to be any use. Looks like a trip to the herbalist is in order. I don't know if my usual trusted cold remedies may have been able to prevent the Russian from ending up as sick as he was but having to make a trip to the ER is something we both prefer to avoid. If you aren't already sick when you get there you're sure to be exposed to a lot of ugly germs!

As for me, in addition to feeling physically sick, I'm also a bit sick of canning. I have one last batch of tomatoes and some apples to deal with and then I think I need a break, at least at home. Thankfully the growing season here is all but done so there's not much left to can anyhow. The preserving workshops I teach are scheduled to go till mid Nov and I'll still need to do some pickled beets for us once we've had a frost but at the moment I'm longing to be finished. And when I need something else to keep my hands busy, there's a whole lot of yarn waiting patiently for knitting season to begin!

Last Pick of the year- Ginkgo Nuts!

Yesterday I did what is likely my last pick of the season with Not Far From The Tree and the object of the pick was a new one for me- ginkgo nuts! Which we prompty decided should be renamed stinko nuts - oh boy do these things reek!

I got a crash course on ginkgo today. First off, nuts are only found on female trees (I can think of so many inappropiate remarks here but lets just stick to the part where trees have gender- who knew?)The term for this is dioecious, from Greek meaning "two households" and only the female trees give off that overwhelming stench - maybe to attract the male trees?

Secondly ginkgo nuts aren't really nuts. They're more like an edible pit. The fruit surrounding the pit is also apparently edible but since that's what emits the odor there's no way I'm attempting it. There's also the fact that the flesh contains an oil known as urushiol, the same substance that causes some people to react to poison ivy and similar plants. Thankfully I am not one of those people but since picking ginkgo fruit barehanded can result in an irritation that ranges from a mild rash to full blown contact dermatitis, I decided to don those lovely gloves just in case.

If all of that isn't enough to scare you off, the nuts themselves contain MPN (4-methoxypyridoxine) which is toxic. In small doses (10 or less nuts /day) it's considered harmless but larger amounts can cause nausea, cramping, vomiting, convulsions and even death (although you'd have to consume an awful lot of them!)

Even the process of making them edible is tricky.
First you have to clean off the gucky fruit (while not getting any on your skin).

Next you crack open the shell and remove the nut.

Then you need to remove the membrane

And finally you have to cook them.


Instant gratification they are not! It took me a few hours to prepare a mere handful.


So why would anyone want to eat them? Well they are very nutritious, containing potassium, phosphorus, folate and vitamin A, and traces of zinc, copper and manganese. They also have antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and vasodilatory properties and in traditional Chinese medicine they are used for a variety of ailments, particularly for conditions concerning circulation, heart and lungs. Which is great but not really enough incentive to go through all of that if you aren't sick. Luckily they also taste delcious!

I boiled the first bunch with salt until the water evapourated and they turned bright green.

They taste bit like edamame, which they resemble, but more chewy and rich. I would have liked to eat the entire batch but decided to stop at a few to make sure I didn't over indulge. I think I'll roast the next batch with oil and salt; the cooked nuts can also be added to soup and other dishes.

Once cooked the nuts can be also be stored in the fridge for about a month. And thankfully they no longer smell like rotting milk!

Now if only my house didn't.