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Growing produce from Seeds, Seed Starting Basics
Jan. 29th 11:00-1:00, $30.00
Growing Cut Flowers in Your Vegetable Garden & How to Use Edible Flowers in Cooking
Feb. 5th 11:00 – 1:30, $40.00
Growing a Spring Salad Garden & Salad Harvest Demo
Feb. 26th 11:00 – 1:30, $40.00
Organic Vegetable Gardening & Cooking Demo
March 26 11:00 – 1:30, $40.00
Here’s a simple trick to cleaning up corn on the cob while not quite cooking it all the way. I love corn on the grill but husking it before hand can be a pain trying to get all the strings off.
Cut off the bottom of the cob just above first row of kernels. Place on microwave-safe plate, cover with a damp paper towel and microwave on full power for 30 to 60 seconds. (If you want to fully cook the corn, microwave for 4 min. per cob)
Remove from microwave and using a hot pad or cloth pinch and squeeze the top of the husk to push out the whole corn. It should slip out fairly easy.
Proceed to cooking it in the manner you like.
Remove any summer crops that are starting to fade and prepare soil with mulch, mycorrhiza, compost. Re-plant with fall/winter crops or cover crops.
Plant last round of heat loving crops
(early) tomatoes with harvest dates within 50-60 day range
Summer/winter squash (same requirements)
Peppers
Mid-season planting in August
Basil
Beans
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Chives
Cilantro
Cucumber
Dill
Lettuce
Kale
Mustard Greens
Onion, Shallots, Green onions
Radish
Peas, plant 2 rounds, August and again in Sept for fall/spring harvest
Spinach
Turnips, baby white turnips & regular
Late summer (end of Sept) plant cover crops for any areas where you won’t be planting any winter crops.
Some cool season vegetables should probably be protected from the hot months of Sept into Oct. But by planting these vegetables/fruits now they will benefit from the warmth of the soil and the longer days. If you wait too long, late Oct, the soil is already cooling down and the sun is leaning towards winter, the days growing shorter.
Need more help? Send me an email with questions. I have video’s available for guidance, contact me, Debbi@debskitchen.com
Farm Tour!
Do you know how mushrooms grow? You’ll learn everything about mushrooms that you need to know! Did you know that mushrooms are a nutrient dense food? Good for you!
Here’s a link to their website for more info
Mountain Meadow Mushroom Farm
Here’s a blog post about the farm & yummy Mushroom Risotto recipe from Mary at California Greek Girl
Mushroom Risotto
Next we’ll head over to
North County Olive Oil Co. and meet Sue Rober at her Sunshine Gardens location where we will taste and experience their True California Olive Oils with style.
Their vision is to share with you their experience in the California olive oil industry. They have selected a portfolio of top producers who make both extra virgin olive oils and vinegars from California olives and grapes. They represent a variety of regions which offer unique styles from many varietals and cultivars of local California olives. We look for producers that promote sustainable practices in the grove and throughout their day to day practices.
Our Olive Oil Tastings offer a unique experience created around a variety of artisan producers of California extra virgin oil, wine and specialty artisan products.
A cooking demo & lunch will be served by
Chef Debbi & Chef Mary
Menu*
Cheese Platter with Seasonal Vegetables & Fruit
Winter Salad with Pixie Tangerines
Mushroom Risotto
Road Home Brownies
Don’t miss the great swag bags that you’ll get to take home!
We encourage car pooling, need a ride or want to provide a ride?
Get in touch with Chef Debbi here
debbi@debskitchen.com
Now taking reservations
Sponsored by Melissa’s Produce
Straight from your local farmers market you should start to see some of this produce available.
Asparagus
Avocados
Beets
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chard
Citrus:
Blood Orange
Grapefruit
Lemons
Navel Oranges
Tangelos/Tangerines
Lettuce
Mushroom
Mustard
Onion, Green
Passion Fruit
Peas, Snow & Sugar Snap
Spinach
Strawberries
Turnips
Beets
Be sure to thin plants to about 3″ apart and harvest when they are small for a sweet flavor. Leaves and stems are edible, steam lightly or add to a salad.
To cook, place in a piece of foil, drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast in a 450° oven for about 10-15 min. or until tender. Rub skin off with a towel
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Buy transplants in the fall and bury the stem up above second row of leaves. Try roasting these vegetables in a 450° oven. Place cut up pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet, toss with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and any other seasoning you may like (red pepper flakes, garlic powder, lemon juice. Roast for 10 -15 minutes or until tender.
Cabbage
Cabbage is in the same family as broccoli and cauliflower. Homemade sauerkraut is the best! Cut out the fore of the cabbage and thinly slice the leaves into shreds. Place in a large bowl, add 1 1/2 Tb. kosher or canning salt and knead or massage the salt into the cabbage until it releases it’s liquid. Pack into a quart jar with a wide mouth and pour all liquid over the cabbage. Make a brine of 1 cup water and 1 Tb. kosher salt, stir to dissolve salt and then pour it all into a quart freezer bag, place this on top on the cabbage and place a piece of cheesecloth over the mouth of the jar, tie down with string or a rubber band and place in a cool, dark place on your counter. The second day, remove bag and press down on the cabbage to see if it will release more moisture. It should ideally cover the cabbage, if it doesn’t add more brine by either adding the ingredients in the freezer bag or make a new brine by stirring together 1 cup water and 1 tea. kosher salt. cover the cabbage and let stand for 3 -10 days. Begin tasting sauerkraut on the 3rd day, when it reaches the flavor you want, place a cap on the jar and store in your refrigerator.
Carrots
Make sure you have nice loose soil so the carrots can grow long and deep. Thin them when they sprout to give them room to grow, add the thinnings to your salad, soup or stew. Slow roast carrots as you would the broccoli or cauliflower. Drizzle with honey after roasting.
Leafy Greens
Lettuces, spinach, chard, mustard and kale all grow very well over the winter but plant at 2 -3 week intervals for a staggered supply of greens instead of harvesting all at once. Many greens can be lightly sautéed or eaten raw.
Onions & Garlic
Plant onions from ‘starts’ rather than from seeds. Pick short day varieties for best harvest. Scallions that are succession planted can be harvested over the winter/spring season.
Plant garlic from bulbs, plant pointed end up and cut off any green that is sprouting from the top.
Peas
Fall & Spring harvested peas are sweet and easy to grow. Plant a variety from English peas or shelling peas to sugar snap peas. Give them a trellis or cage to grown on and harvest daily for a continued harvest.
Peas and pea pods are lovely lightly steamed or even raw.
You can still plant sweet peas this month for spring flowering
Chef Debbi returns to the Rancho! We’ve been waiting a long time to bring our classes back to Rancho los Alamitos. We’ve schedule our first class for Sat. June 8th, we’re going to pickle!
Saturday, June 8, 2019
9:30 am – 12:30 pm
$75 Future member/ $65 per RLA member
Advance Reservations Required, Reservations close 5/27/19
Join us at Rancho Los Alamitos for a hands-on class on the basics of pickling and fermenting vegetables from your garden or the farmers’ market. In this class, you will make two kinds of pickled vegetables and a jar of sauerkraut. (If you think that you don’t like sauerkraut, wait until you try your own!) This is a refrigerator-style pickling where no water bath canning is necessary. Chef Debbi will demonstrate techniques, discuss food safety and the basics of canning pickles in brine. Each participant will prepare and take home three jars of their very own preserved produce.
The class is suitable for adults and interested teens. Reservations are required. Parking is limited at Rancho Los Alamitos, so car-pooling is encouraged and appreciated.
Sponsored by
In Southern California we are lucky enough to grow a fall crop of beans. With warm days still ahead the beans will sprout and grow quickly. Bush beans are your best bet, with shorter days to harvest than pole beans you should be able to harvest in just 45-50 days. Check your seed packet for harvesting information.
There are three types of bush beans, snap beans (eat the pod & all), shelling beans (eat the beans inside the pod like peas) or dried beans. Dried beans you’ll want to leave on the plant until everything has dried up, pick the dried pods and put into a grocery bag. You can knock the bag around to remove the shell or pull the dried pod away from the beans. I like to freeze the beans for 24 hours to kill any pests that may have hitched a ride. Then store in a glass jar or other container in your pantry, away from heat and light. When you’re ready to use them, treat them like any other dried bean (that’s another story….)
Most bush beans don’t need to be trellised, and they produce most of their crop all at once. For a great harvest and good use of space, plant Square Foot Gardening style, 9 plants to a square foot.
To get the best crop inoculate your bean seeds before planting. Beans, peas and all legumes ‘fix’ nitrogen into the soil. The inoculant, Rhizobium leguminosarum, is a nitrogen fixing bacteria. These bacteria “infect” the legumes growing in the soil and cause the legumes to form the nitrogen fixing nodules that make peas and beans bombshells.
You should be able to find the inoculant at any garden center or nursery. It can also be ordered from www.groworganic.com (Peaceful Valley Farm Supply).
While you are digging the holes for the seed, soak the seeds in water for about ½ hour. Dig your hole and sprinkle a generous helping of inoculant into the hole. Water and then plant your seeds. They’ll take up to 10 days to sprout, don’t overwater while you are waiting for them to poke up from the ground, overwatering can cause the seed to rot before it sprouts. Watch out for birds as well, they love seeds! I like to cover my bed with a floating row cover until the seeds are up and have several sets of leaves.
Give the plants 2 – 3” of water a week and you can side dress with a little compost. I mulch my beds with straw to help keep water evaporation down and to keep weeds from sprouting.
Plant companion plants near beans for the best growing bed, they like to grow near beets, cucumber, nasturtiums, peas and radish.
Watch for pests such as a cucumber beetle, bean beetle or weevil. I planted my beans near basil which is usually a good pest deterrent but this year those white butterflies (which are really cabbage moths) laid eggs on the basil and the little worms devoured my newly sprouted beans. So I planted a new round because I love green beans, especially in the fall. I freeze some for soups when winter comes and hopefully have enough until next spring when I can get some more in the ground.
Here’s an easy side dish recipe for you to try.
Serves 6
* To blanch green beans: Fill a large bowl with ice and cold water leaving room for green beans. Bring a large saucepan full of water to a boil and add green beans and a good helping of salt, cook for 1-2 minutes, drain the beans and plunge them into the bowl of ice water. Let them cool, drain and dry well.
Cook bacon until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels, reserving 2 Tbsp. drippings in skillet.
Add olive oil to the pan with the bacon drippings then add the quartered shallots and sauté until browned. Add the vinegar, stir well, then add the green beans and toss until coated with oil, cook for another minute then season with salt and pepper and toss with bacon, serve hot.
How To Grow Great Tomato Plants
Buy transplants
Purchase healthy, stocky plants that have no flowers, fruits or buds
Choose a sunny location, rotate planting beds every year
Plant in an area where you may have grown peas or beans the previous year
Add compost to the soil and make sure the soil isn’t compacted.
Succession plant
Choose an early variety that can be planted in early spring. I like to plant my main crop in April and then another couple of plants in July for fall harvest. Check Sunset Gardening Guide for the best time in your area to plant.
Depending on how you’re going to stake or cage tomatoes, have all the equipment ready for planting day, stake the plants at the same time you transplant.
Planting
When planting remove lower leaves and plant the tomato deep, so that only about 3” are above ground. Tomato plants have the ability to grow roots from the buried stem. Water well after planting. Water well and deep but infrequently, keep your watering consistent, tomatoes need about 1” water a week.
Fertilize
Don’t over fertilize your tomato plants. Use a high phosphorus content fertilizer such as Dr. Earth Organic Tomato/Vegetable Fertilizer, 5-7-3. A high nitrogen content will give you lots of green leaves but little fruit.
Pinch branches out
I always pinch out side shoots in the beginning to help the plant grow tall rather than gangly.
Mulch and Companion Planting
Tomatoes love carrots; basil and marigolds so plant them in the same bed and mulch the rest of the soil to keep the moisture in.
Serves 12
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 12 (2 1/2-inch) wide-mouth canning jars with a paper towel dipped in oil.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, and baking soda into a large bowl.
Using the electric mixer and a medium mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar on low speed, then increase to medium mixing speed to mix well. While the mixer is running, add the eggs, one at a time. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the applesauce. With a large spoon, stir in the sifted flour mixture and the walnuts.
Pour the batter into a measuring cup with a spout; pour the batter neatly into greased jars. Fill the jars halfway full. Place the filled jars on the sheet tray and bake on the center rack of the oven for 45 minutes. When done, the top of the cake will spring back when pressed with a finger, and the sides will have come away from the jar.
Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes. Poke holes in the cake with a toothpick and pour salted caramel over the top. Serve with whipped cream.
Adapted from Riki Senn at Greenbriar
Cut up all your veggies into what ever shape you like, making sure they fit into the jar that you will pickle them in.
In a medium sized saucepan add vinegar, sugar, lemon peel and salt; bring to a slow boil, whisk until all the sugar is dissolved,
Wash a quart canning jar and fill with hot water. Let stand while you are bringing the brine to a boil.
Once the sugar has dissolved in the brine, pour the water out of the jar and fill with veggies. Pour the brine over them, let cool, then cap and refrigerate.
Is your garden overflowing with tomatoes? I always grow too many and one of my favorite ways to make them go a little farther is to oven dry them. Much like sun dried, these concentrated gems pack a powerful punch and can be used in any dish where you’d use tomatoes. Especially nice on a cheese plate with some creamy goat cheese nearby.
To preserve them I turn them into a tomato confit and keep in my ‘pantry’ refrigerator. They can’t be water bath canned because of the oil, but they will keep for about 6 months in the refrigerator, if they last that long. The refrigeration will also help to preserve the oil and keep it from going rancid quicker. Use only fresh organic herbs and make sure you wash and dry them very well, you don’t want any water going into your beautiful confit.
Mangia (Eat!)
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Arrange the tomato halves cut side up and close together on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper.
In a bowl, combine olive oil, garlic, and herbs. Drizzle over tomatoes and bake until the tomatoes are soft and shriveled but still retain some moisture, 1-2 hours or more.
Let cool completely. Tomatoes can be stored in a glass jar, cover tomatoes with olive oil, add a fresh sprig of thyme, seal and refrigerate.
Photo: Chez Pim
