Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Britesea]

Our apple trees are absolutely covered with blossoms, YAY! DH says he's seen at least 3 different kinds of bees buzzing around them- the wild mason bees, bumblebees, and honeybees from someone's hive around here. Also saw a hummingbird visiting them. It's been 3 years since we had a decent apple harvest, between droughts and the Year That Summer Never Came, so I have high hopes for this year. This is also the first year I've had ducks free ranging, and they've been spending a LOT of time under the apple trees so I think they've been picking up all the overwintering pests.
DH and DS managed to build 3 more raised beds for me; once I get them filled with soil they will get planted with the last of my spring crops. I need to put up the trellis for the peas, and set up something to keep the favas from falling over when they get top heavy.
I had to go buy some more soaker hoses... some of the ones I had were so full of bad holes that they weren't worth trying to repair. Plus with all the new beds, I needed more soakers anyway. Each bed needs about 25 feet of hose to cover the whole area, so I bought 50 footers, and extra couplings to make 2 hoses out of one. Next step is to lay them out and use garden staples to keep them flat. I hope that's the last purchase besides the extra angles, because I'm counting the pennies now...

Trying something different for dinner tonight. A Moroccan dish of fish and onion tfayas on couscous.
(recipe follows)
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup raisins
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 8 saffron threads, (see Ingredient Note)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 3 large onions, (2-2 1/2 pounds), very thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 1/3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth, fish broth or vegetable broth, divided
• 2 1/2 pounds Pacific halibut, or other firm white fish, skinned and cut into 2-inch wide pieces
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds
• 1 cup whole-wheat couscous

Preparation

1. Place raisins in a small bowl and cover with warm water; let soak for 10 minutes. Drain.
2. Crush saffron and salt together in a mortar and pestle until a coarse powder forms. (Alternatively, place saffron and salt on a cutting board and use the flat side of a chef’s knife to grind into a coarse powder.) Combine with ginger, turmeric, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper in a small bowl.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the spice mixture and cook, stirring, until the mixture starts to foam. Add onions, sugar and the plumped raisins. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions turn light brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Add 1 cup broth and nestle fish into the onion mixture. Cover and cook until the fish is flaky, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and season with pepper. Cover and set aside.
4. Meanwhile, heat canola oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add almonds and cook, stirring, until just beginning to turn golden, about 1 minute. Drain on paper towels.
5. Bring the remaining 1 1/3 cups broth and the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil to a boil in a small saucepan. Add couscous in a stream. Stir once. Cover, remove from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
6. To serve, mound the couscous on a shallow platter. Top with the fish and onion t’faya and sprinkle the almonds on top.

 

[Britesea]

Well, I didn't get a chance to make my fish tfayas last night *sigh* I was working in the garden when DS hollers from the door that I just got a phone call from L asking where I am. Seems I had forgotten that the community organization was meeting an hour earlier than usual so we could have a farewell potluck for our secretary/treasurer who's going on mission to Wisconsin for the next several months. Thank goodness I had some home canned dark chicken meat, and had pre-fried the rice sticks! I put together a huge Chinese Chicken Salad in about 10 minutes flat- just had to cut up the lettuce, scallions and cilantro while DS put together the dressing.
I fixed enough for an army, and ended up bringing enough home to feed the menfolk, so that's what we did instead of Tfayas yesterday.
If y'all want me to post the recipe for the salad, let me know. It started out as a recipe from a sister-in-law, who sold chinese chicken salad at local fairs and art shows etc. It was so popular, they actually had a mailing list- people who wanted to know where they would be next. She gave me the recipe as a wedding gift, and over the last 30 years I've gradually tweaked it a bit.

We had another frost night last night- it went down to 28 F. I'm hoping that didn't put the kabosh on the apple blossoms.

I hauled that 25 pound sack of carrots out of cold storage, and guess what I'll be doing today? Dilled carrots and carrots in orange juice/brown sugar, and plain canned carrots.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Please do! Hope you had a wonderful carrot-y day!

 

[Britesea]

I'll post that recipe over in the kitchen for ya.

So today, I watered the hazelnuts, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, asparagus, favas, kale, nettles and potted herbs, as well as the seedlings in their cold frame.
Brought in laundry from the line and hung up a load of clothes and got a second load washing.
Did about half of the dirty dishes from last night and today (things really get bad fast when you cook in a hurry like I did!)
Picked up a half a yard of topsoil to top off some of the raised beds, also bought a new garden cart that is narrower and will fit between the rows easier. Emptied the soil out of the truck
Made up 6 more soaker hoses for the garden beds
Canned 9 pints of dilled carrots, and got a bunch of carrots peeled and ready to do more canning tomorrow.

Now it's time to start preparing the T'fayas. Once I gather all the ingredients it will go fast, but there's a lot to get out and measure.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I can't wait! Thanks so much!

 

[Britesea]

Settled in with a cup of mocha in my hand....

T'Fayas are wonderful! DS was underwhelmed but hubby and I really liked them.

I got the rest of my carrots canned up- 9 pints of 'glazed' carrots (canned with orange juice and brown sugar) and 9 pints of regular canned carrots, and a few leftover for dinner. The dehydrator is full of cilantro right now, I found a good deal at the supermarket. I've never tried dried cilantro so this is something of an experiment. If it works, I'll start growing cilantro in the garden again. I gave up before because it bolts so quickly and I don't use coriander seed in cooking that much

Spent a large part of yesterday cleaning up the kitchen and the bathroom, both of which were in dire need. Laundry too, but it was raining so the utility room is full of drying laundry.

Because it was raining, we didn't do very much in the garden. I moved some of the potted plants over to the western edge, along the fence. DS tried to move one of the large pots of stinging nettle without wearing gloves. Yup. We treated him with some plantain ointment.

The birds got every...single...kale transplant. I'll have to buy some from the nursery now, because I didn't have room in the house to grow spares. I have picked out an area to build a hot box for next spring as my house is just too dark for healthy seedlings.

Today is baking day so DH has control of the kitchen. He will be making one loaf of sourdough white bread for sandwiches, one loaf of sourdough whole wheat seed bread, and enough sourdough/peanut bread sticks to keep our dog happy for a week. When he finally relinquishes the kitchen, I will be making lasagna for dinner.

Well, the mocha is gone so it's time for me to head outside with some leftover carrots for the ducks, and go work in the garden again. I need plant peas (hope it's not too late), radishes, turnips, spinach, cornsalad, claytonia, arugula and broccoli today. Either today or tomorrow I can pick up more kale and replant that bed. The menfolk need to build 7 more raised beds and get them in place so I can start filling them with soil and compost over the next couple of weeks in preparation for the summer crops.

 

[Denim Deb]

I never got my peas in, so I'll try growing them in the fall.

 

[Britesea]

Got the peas planted! Yesterday I went into town and picked up replacement kale plants, as well as some calendula for my herb garden, some bee balm and borage for the bees, and a beautiful columbine that I couldn't resist. I haven't seen this before; it's a deep winy red in the spurs, gradually brightening to cream.
I got the kale replanted, then planted the broccoli and cauliflower. By then the sunlight was going, so I decided to call it good. Spent some time trying to figure out what to put over the new plants to protect them from the birds this time (didn't have a frame to put bird netting over them) but I was looking at the growing bed frames the men had put together for me; they didn't have any soil in them, but they did have hardware cloth stapled on the bottom to keep gophers out. We just turned them over so the hardware cloth was on top, and then placed them over the frames that had new plantings and voila! (And speaking of gophers, I found one of their mounds in the garden today- need to hunt down the gopher-chasers in the utility room and put batteries in and set them up)

Today, the menfolk told me they were taking me out for Mother's Day brunch (Eggs Benedict, yum!) and they are also handling dinner. I went out to the garden and planted peas, then discovered a volunteer plantago major plant which I carefully dug up from its inconvenient spot and transplanted it. Pulled some weeds, and then just sat in the sun and watched the house finches and goldfinches eating sunflower seeds at the feeder, and daydreamed about how nice the garden will look in just a couple of months.

Did I mention I got the peas planted?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Sounds like a great day!

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like a nice day. And, that columbine is beautiful!