Port Potager

After nearly losing our whole beet crop earlier this summer, we were so happy to harvest pounds and pounds of beets this weekend. We left some in the ground, where they should be fine as long as the ground doesn’t freeze. The first thing we did was roast a couple of pans  of beets with shallots, rosemary, and olive oil to get them ready for pickling : We also roasted a couple more pans without the seasoning, so we could peel and freeze them. The frozen beets can be used throughout the winter for tarts , brownies , and other goodies.  We also still have a whole crisper drawer full of beets that we haven’t done anything with — yet. After clipping some rosemary for the roast beets, I dug up our plant and potted it for the winter. In the past I have always held out hope that enough mulch would help it through, but it’s just too cold here in the winter for rosemary. It will sit in a sunny window until spring. By the way, if you attended my wedding you...

This week we're putting into practice an old fashioned food plan. I'm pretty sure my grandmothers planned a week's worth of meals like this all the time, but nowadays we don't do it much. That's too bad, because it's a really cost-effective way to eat well, it forces some creativity, and it encourages using all of an animal rather than letting less popular cuts of meat go to waste. I'm talking about using a whole bird over the course of the week. We could be talking about any big cut of meat, but we're going with a turkey this time around — mostly because it's big, so we'll get a lot of meals out of it. If you only ever cook a whole bird (of any kind) on Thanksgiving, think about giving it a try on a regular old Sunday, and see how far you can stretch it for the rest of the week. The first meal? A classic Sunday dinner: This is roast turkey, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, stuffing with sage and celery , steamed green beans, and ev...

That's "Happy New Year" in Pennsylvania Dutch , the fast-dying dialect spoken by the frugal Germanic oldsters where I grew up. The tradition, which I've written about before , is to ring in the new year with a big plate of pork and sauerkraut for good luck. Judging by my Facebook feed , I am not alone in maintaining the tradition! Here's what we ate last night: Das ist gut! If you could use a little luck to start 2014 off right, you can't go wrong with this dish!  On the plate: Sauerkraut (fermented and canned —  here's how ) Applesauce (also homemade and canned —  more how-to ) Smothered Pork Chops (Kirk uses an excellent recipe from America's Test Kitchen , but we also modify it with whatever herbs and veg we have on hand — I believe chopped apples and some mincemeat were added to the sauce this time around. One part you should never, ever change, though, is the crumbles of bacon for garnish.) Mashed potatoes (You don...

When it's my turn to cook, I often go for a vegetarian dish. Tonight I went down into the root cellar (ok, it's really just the cold, drafty basement) and grabbed a couple of butternut squash to stuff. First, they need to be pre-baked, so cut off the stem end, slice lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Then place cut-side down on an oiled tray (I used peanut oil, but it doesn't really matter): Bake for a half hour at 350 degrees. As you can see, I picked a big one for me and Kirk, and a small one for the kids. While that's cooking, you can make the stuffings.  For the kids, I went with an Italian filling. The measurements below made extra, but you might need it depending on the type of squash you use). 1/4 cup pine nuts, chopped (I used a food processor) 4 sundried tomatoes, finely diced 6 cloves of garlic, minced 1/3 of a small leek, diced 1/2 cup grated mozzarella 2 Tbs. grated parmesan 1 cube frozen pesto , thawed (it's about...

Ok, so the kids weren't all that psyched about tonight's dinner until I reminded them of this: Justin Timberlake - Cup O Soup by tony0413 Then they got on board. Anyway, you shouldn't need any convincing to be excited about this dinner: Kirk made a chicken barley soup and some sage rolls, and it was all delicious — perfect for an icy-cold day between snowstorms. Chicken Barley Soup 3 chicken breasts 2 stalks of celery 3 leeks 6 small parsnips 1 Tbs. peppercorns 1 lemon dried herbs 1-2 Tbs. olive oil 2 large turnips 3/4 cup barley 8-10 sundried tomatoes  1/2 cup frozen peas salt and pepper to taste To make the quick stock, fill a large stockpot with 3 quarts of water, 3 chicken breasts, plus a stalk of celery, 2 leeks (cut into large chunks), 6 small parsnips, 1 Tbs. crushed peppercorns, 1/2 a lemon, and a handful of dried herbs of your choice (we used sage and thyme).  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1 hour....

With the holidays fast approaching, this week kind of got away from me, and I realized I never finished this post about the excellent dinner that Kirk made last Sunday. We've been doing our Advent Sunday celebrations up right this year, with really excellent dinners to enjoy while we light the week's candle and reflect on hope, peace , love, and joy. Last Sunday was the Sunday of love, and we observed it with a December turkey dinner. Along with turkey comes stuffing, and it's easy to see why that's a traditional food at this season of the year. The things we have from the late fall garden are exactly what we need for stuffing: Here we have the dried out ends of bread, and a pan of diced carrots, leeks, and the last of our celery. Kirk cooked them a bit to soften them up, then used his hands to mix it all together in a big bowl. Also in the mix: That’s thyme, sage, and rosemary. Although we cut large bunches to dry before frost, we still have these h...

I finally used up my old shampoo, so it's time for another go at recipes for the shower. This recipe is based on one from Rosemary Gladstar, and you can check out the original recipe here . I made a few tweaks based on what I had handy. Step one: make a strong tea with 1 ounce of dried herbs in 8 ounces of distilled water. Turns out an ounce of dried herbs is a LOT: I used (more or less from left to right) sage, rosemary, and comfrey. The rosemary and comfrey are supposed to be good for hair (more about this in Rosemary Gladstar's book , if you are interested). The sage is mostly for its darkening properties. I ended up doing a modified version of what was recommended for brunettes. Now, I actually have naturally light-to-medium brown hair, and it gets lighter in the summer. Aside from some misguided Sun-In use in junior high school, I have never colored it. I thought I'd give the darkening version of this shampoo a go, knowing that it is gentle, natural, and ...

Did I mention that we had absolutely gorgeous weather last week during April vacation? One thing I love to do is to stroll around nurseries looking at all the plants they have, and it was a lovely week to do it. We don't need many flowers (although I still like to look), but I was on the hunt for the perennial herbs we have planned for the back row with the grapes . Although I was sad to find that my heretofore favorite nursery is shutting down, I found a great new (to me) nursery in Haverhill that might be my new first stop on future plant hunts. Cottage Gardens  is a great little family-run place on the Haverhill/Merrimac line, and you should definitely check it out if you live in the area. They had lots of flowers, a solid culinary herb selection, and their prices are great . I quickly filled up a flat of four-inch pots, including …  The basil and cilantro I mentioned before . These will give us something to munch on while we wait for the seeds to pop up and beco...

In addition to the basil that I cut and dried back in October , I also brought in some other herbs to dry before the first expected freeze . Those are now completely dried, and today I put them in mason jars to store them: From left to right are sage, tarragon, and marjoram. At the time, it felt like I brought in armloads of herbs, but when they dry, they really shrink down. In the middle of the summer it seems like there's no way you could ever use all the herbs you plant, but drying them for storage is a whole other matter. Now I don't think there is such a thing as planting too much! I also cut several bunches of the cilantro that is still growing in one of our greenhouse tunnels. We managed to time this perfectly, because the colder weather has kept it from going to seed — something that I've never been able to keep on top of in the summer. Anyway, I only brought in a fraction of what is out there:  So I was thinking that this was a gigantic bunch of...

As I write this, it is snowing. Check the date: October 27. That's some crazy shit right there, people. We knew this was coming, but I have to be honest: I did not believe that forecast AT ALL. With the exception of that killed-back basil , we haven't even had a real frost yet. TV weather people up here are notorious for hyping up the forecast, so I wasn't buying it. Until last night, when we read the freeze warning from the National Weather Service, that is. Then, like stupid summer grasshoppers , we had to scramble. So, in the dark and the cold, we went outside and managed to put it up a green house tunnel: Kirk set up 10 foot long , 1/2-inch pvc pipes to make the hoops (four of them). Then he zip-tied another one along the top to support the plastic sheeting. The plastic sheeting is held down by scrap lengths of wood from the raised beds. This was no fun to put together in the dark of night, and it all felt very half-assed. Seeing the picture, though, makes us ...

Earlier this week we pulled most of our turnips. Like most people, I'm not a huge lover of this vegetable, but these were so beautiful: Seriously, these are some perfect turnips. Ah, but what to do with them? We always think about eating the greens, but we never manage to pick them when they are small enough — and these leaves get big, spiny, and out of control really fast. So we always end up with actual turnips. We took our turnips and made them into a meal our family fondly calls "root soup." It's super easy and open to several variations, depending on what root vegetables you want to use. This week's soup uses turnips, sweet potato, and carrot, but you could add other root vegetables. Winter squash (like butternut) could work too. Root Soup 1. Saute onions, garlic, and carrots (all finely chopped) in olive oil, salt and pepper until softened. 2. Put sauteed mixture in a large soup pot. Add cubed (and peeled, for the potatoes) turnips, sweet pot...