Backyard Farmgals

I love asparagus, especially the fresh picked right off the farm kind.  We are lucky enough to have a farm close to us that sells asparagus every spring.  I planted my own asparagus patch, but you can't harvest for three years after planting...I have one more year of patiently waiting before I can harvest my own tender little stalks.  This year I decided to try to save a bit for later in the year, so I decided to bravely freeze fourteen pounds of the tender stuff. It is a fairly simple process, you need a large pot of boiling water, an ice bath and a clean dry towel set up.  I always set my process up in a long line, it seems to make everything go faster if I am not walking back and forth all of the time.  You will also need parchment or wax paper, cookie sheets, and gallon sized zip top freezer bags. Here's how to do it: 1. Wash and clean the fresh asparagus. 2. Trim the bottoms, I usually cut about an inch off, if it's really fresh there is no need t...

With rhubarb season in full swing, I have found myself on the hunt for new recipes.  I was lucky enough to run across this fantastic recipe from a new cookbook that I got at The King's English in SLC (fantastic little bookstore in the 15th and 15th area).  I love seasonal cookbooks, it makes it so easy for me to cook with whatever is growing in the garden.  When looking for this rhubarb recipe, I also ran across several other in-season recipes that I can make right along with it.  The unique thing about this book, which is called "Chicken and Egg" is that it focuses on recipes that use either chicken or eggs (go figure!).  Since I am the co-mother to a flock of 60 hens, this book sang to me as I eyed it.  It has a lot of pictures, which to me is essential.  How do I know what something is going to look like if I don't have a picture to reference?  Let's just say cookbooks without pictures are insanely useless to me (once again we have established ...

I picked my first bunch of rhubarb yesterday.  Oh, the joys of the first harvest and the hope that it gives of more to come.  I have to admit I am in love with rhubarb, not just for culinary purposes, but I am in love with the plant itself.  How can you not love a plant that is as old as dirt itself, that has leaves wider than my whole body, and glorious thick stained red stalks shooting up from the ground?  I love this plant!  It is the first to poke through the ground in the spring; it gives me hope that winter WILL (one day) end!!!  I needed rhubarb this Spring; Winter is still threatening, snowing in the canyons and higher elevations.  I kind of stick out my tongue at Old Man Winter as I slice those thick tangy stalks off the plant! Rhubarb is a very ancient member of the buckwheat family and is a perennial, which means plant it once and it comes back year after year.  It has been documented in ancient China for medicinal uses as far...

Have you ever had a fava bean?  They are amazing!  Also called broadbeans, they are packed with piles of nutrients.  Did you know that a cup of fava beans sports a whopping 14 grams of protein?  Surprise!!!  They are both filling and nutritious and they have oodles of folate in them, as well as tons of trace minerals (those little things that we forget to think about that make such a difference).  All around, fava's are something that you want to have around.  Broadbeans have been around for thousands of years, which is probably why I am so drawn to them.   I have this great book that is published by National Geographic titled " Edible "that tells all about edible plants, their nutrition and their origin.  According to my little "Food Bible", fava's are thought to be from Southwest Asia or the Mediterranean.  There have been remnants of these beans found in Neolithic sites is Israel dating to 6800 to 6500 BCE.  How cool is it tha...

The aftermath...little pea nubs...enough to make a farmgal scream!!! I returned home from an anniversary get away to discover that my peas had been assassinated!!!  All around my kids' sandbox, I had planted sugar snap peas.  It's a great use of a very small space, and since they grow vertically, they make almost a little hedge around the play area.  They have been coming up nicely, I had just placed all of the old apple branches around them for support, like I do every year.  It's a great use for the pruning from fruit trees.  I collect the straighter branches and use them like a trellis support for beans and peas.  It looks really natural and it's very eco friendly, and that makes me feel like I am doing my little part to help the Earth.  After the peas are finished, I tear it all out and start again with climbing beans.  The kids love that they can play in the sand and eat peas and beans while they play.  What can I say, I am all about ...

As I gathered eggs this morning, I was so struck by how beautiful they are.  Each has it's own unique hue of color and shape.  Each chicken lays an egg with her "signature" on it, be it color, tint, shape, speckles; each one is so unique, and so beautiful in it's own way.  Eggs somehow entrance me.  They are the beginning of life, the very essence of what life comes from.  I often look at them with fascination.   I was watching the Royal Wedding this morning and was thinking about Prince Charles.  He has been an amazing advocate of chickens, organic gardening and organic food for more than thirty years.  His garden at Highgrove has been an inspiration to me.  I bought a book about Highgrove when I was first married to Woodman eleven years ago.  I have thumbed through the photos and read about the transformation of the estate since it was purchased in 1980.  Sheep and cows "mow" the grounds, water is recy...

A few random pictures of spring.  Between moments of sunshine and hailstorms these photos have been keeping my hopes up that spring WILL get here...eventually! One of my favorite things about spring: pink tulips. They are the hope and promise of a new season, warmth and sunshine to come.   I love the green streaks on the petals and the softness that emanates from them.  They have got to be one of the most magnificent flowers! I'm in love with this black and white.  Don't you just love the shape of the petals?  They almost look like they are trying to kiss you! Ranunculus.  They are so bright and cheerful.  I love how the petals almost glow.  These are the party animals of spring!!!  They don't hold anything back, they give all their color and all their energy to putting a smile on my face. I have 200 daffodils blooming right outside my back door.  They are so happy.  If any flower was able to give joy, it has to be daff...