Grilling Tips - For Vegans and Omnivores

From an email I received today:

Grilling Tip

As every Southerner knows, come spring it will be time to get ready for that all-important cooking technique of the South --- outdoor grilling!

I have just found out there are many stores (and not just in the South) where you can get a FREE Bar-B-Q grill! In these tough times free useful items are very welcome. You can get a free BBQ grill from any of the following stores:

A&P Albertsons Aldi Costco Dan's Food Lion Fry's Harris Teeter Home Depot Big Lots Brookshire's Lowes Publix Safeway Sam's Club Tesco Target Vons Trader Joe's Wal-Mart Winn-Dixie

Garden Prepping

We had a gorgeous weekend in central NC. Summer heat without the humidity. We kicked things off with an early morning 5K run in Chapel Hill. I’m a volunteer coach with the Fleet Feel No Boundaries running program. I help women who have never run get from 0 to 5K (3.1 miles) over the course of weeks. My specialty is coaching the back of the pack runner (being one myself!). I love being able to help instill confidence in a person to do what they thought they could not – break the boundaries they have set for themselves.

Then, it was breakfast at a local diner, then back home to work in the garden. We got some veggie beds tilled, weeds pulled, and started work on a new flower garden in an area where we used to have a beautiful oak tree. The tree was well over 100 years old when it had to be cut down. We were heartbroken about it. It had a large vertical split – a result of severe ice storm damage, and a heavy ant infestation didn’t help. The tree was taken down several years ago (and we used the wood to heat our house for two years). The area where the stump was ground down was becoming pretty crappy looking – the residual underground stump and roots have been rotting, causing sinking spots in the yard. Nothing was really growing nicely. Hubby had the gumption to plot out a nice kidney bean shaped area to beautify. He started tilling and raking and moving grass, rocks, etc. I even got in on the action and helped pry up roots and rocks (yay, CrossFit – the workouts are paying off). This was some HOT work. On Sunday, hubby made a beautiful border with rocks that were bordering other beds. Now we will add some well composted horsey poo and top-soil. I’d like to grow sunflowers this year, eventually establishing perennials that don’t require a lot of water. I’m thinking Mediterranean.

Just getting started.

Almost done - taking a break!

Another fun activity was the Farm Tour. North Carolina has an abundance of small to large growers. Organic and biodynamic farmers, CSAs, farmers’ markets, etc., really do well here. The farm tour allows the public to visit working farms and connect with the farmer on a more personal level than even a visit to one of our many area markets allows. Due to our already packed schedule, we only got to visit three farms. My favorite was a farm that intensively plants on ¼ acre. We also had the opportunity to purchase tomato plants at this farm. We picked up 20 plants: Celebrity, Sun Gold (my favorite cherry tomato), German Johnson, and Cherokee Purple. I learned something at each farm we visited.

Harvest: I picked half a pound of red radishes. They have a nice sharp flavor. I used some in a veggie slaw: collards, cabbage, carrot, radish. The dressing was veganaise and ume plum vinegar with some mustard seeds and celery seed. Very delicious.

Peas, Glorious Peas

Pea plants, that is. I planted a bed of peas on February 15 with my Earthway Seeder. The seeder saves a lot of time and backbreaking effort when planting large quantities of seeds. The pea patch is about three feet by 15 or 20 feet long. The plants are growing nicely and are about 18 inches high. Just saw some blossoms starting to form. Fresh peas are delicious. I still have some in the freezer from last year.

The rear-tine roto-tiller we picked up on Craigslist is repaired (belt was dry-rotted and snapped on the first use but the engine runs great). Looking forward to getting some new beds tilled. Yes, the lasagna method of building new beds is great (have used it many time and continue to use it), but I have a very large yard, work 40+ hours a week at my job, so I'm willing to use machines to get the big jobs done. I have the skills and the tools (gotta love that Craigslist) to work by hand should that need ever arise, but I prefer to use my time to the greatest advantage. No apologies on not wanting to make things excessively hard on myself. I'm also not 20 years old. ;)

Letting It All Hang Out

Everyone with a sustainability blog has already posted about hanging the laundry, so what's one more? We all know it saves money, is more "green," lowers carbon footprint, etc. I'm not going to try to educate any of you on the hows and whys. You have likely already figured that out.

There are few household chores that I enjoy, but hanging laundry outside is my favorite. From the time I was assigned to do that chore while growing up, to now, in my own home, I have always found the act of hanging laundry to be meditative. During nice weather, when the sun is shining, a light breeze is blowing, the repetitive act of picking up a piece of clothing and clipping it to the line, go to the next garment, repeating over and over again is an escape. Yes, an escape of the mind from everyday thoughts. Only hours of working in the garden further shut the world out for me. I stand in one place, clipping the clothes to the line, spinning the rotary frame to the next of the four sides, until all the clothes are hanging and swaying in the breeze. Breathe in, breathe out, smelling fresh air, feeling the warmth of the sun, hearing the wind whispering through the trees, birds singing.

When the clothes are dry and off the line, I get to enjoy the fresh scent of the outdoors on clothes, and sheets, if it's a sheet washing day. It is wonderful to slip into bed at then end of a long day and smell the fresh scent of nature as I drift off to sleep(likely an exhausted sleep on a weekend day, having worked outdoors if it's any season other than winter). Breathe in, breathe out, drift to slumber.

Someday I will Plant My Garden

Here in central North Carolina, I will someday have a garden, as I have for years. This year, it's taking so much longer to get things going. Yes, it's only April 8. I do have some peas growing, and some spinach and carrots are finally deciding to grow (after sowing those seeds on February 15). Brocolli and cabbage transplants bought it after several nights of unseasonably late hard freezes. And, I never got around to replanting. Then, the rains came, and it rained down from the heavens for days at a time, leaving the ground beyond saturated. Then we had a snowstorm at the beginning of March - the poor daffodils! Then it rained again for days, saturating the ground once more. I'm itching to plant something!

Source of the free fertilizer for the garden!

Is This Thing On?

I love reading blogs and waste, I mean, spend a lot of time reading and perusing blogs when I'm supposed to be working or doing other things. My goal last summer was to document how my attempt at increased food self-sufficiency was going, plant a fall garden, and then enjoy the harvest well into the winter months. Ahh, such the dreamer that I am. The good news is, that over all, I managed to glean hundreds of pounds of produce from my back yard farm. I dried, froze, and canned some wonderful veggies. I even weighed and wrote down what I grew on various scraps of paper and calendar pages. It would be swell to actually do the math and see what I finally got.

Fall garden? What fall garden? I never even got around to planting garlic last October, so sprouty garlic from last year's harvest is all I have left, then off to the famer's market for me one it runs out.

Speaking of running, I trained for and ran my first full marathon last fall. That life goal sucked up just about all of my free time. Am I glad I did it? Absolutely.

So, welcome to a new year of whatever. New plans, new garden dreams. New running and other goals to accomplish.

Get Wild – Eating Really Locally, And FREE

There is so much being written about regarding eating locally, both for saving money (not to mention the health bennies of fresh food) and reducing one’s carbon footprint. Did you ever consider the ultimate local money-saving way to eat, and it doesn’t cost a stinkin’ dime!

GO WILD! That’s right, pick some weeds and dig in. There are so many uncultivated foods just waiting to tempt your palate. I’ll be highlighting various edibles from time to time. Today’s wild food is the lovely and delicious Lambsquarters. Other names are pigweed, dungweed (since the plant grows in high nitrogen soil), and gooseweed. Lambsquarters grow in disturbed soil, so you’ll find it just about anyplace where someone has dug something up (roadsides, your garden, etc. You won’t need to look far). It’s a distant relative of the grain quinoa, and it produces thousands of tiny seeds which remain viable for decades. The leaves are a jagged diamond shape.

by looknfeel at flickr

Lambsquarters grow abundantly on my property. I am grateful to have them and let them enjoy themselves wherever they spring up. I don’t pull them up; I trim to harvest the leaves, and the plants keep growing getting bushy, providing my hubby and I with delicious free greens all summer long. They are a great source of many vitamins, including protein, potassium, vitamin A (helps prevent macular degeneration), and calcium (build strong bones and teeth). The mild flavor bears a resemblance to spinach, and the greens can be steamed, sautéed, or added to soups, pastas, salads, etc. I have frozen and dried these delectable leaves for enjoyment and nutrition in the winter months. Heck, I have even seen lambsquarters for sale at the farmers’ market.

When harvesting the lambsquarters, you can trim the growing tips with the baby leaves, or strip the leaves off larger stalks. The underside of the leaves feel gritty and powdery, but once you wash the greens you will not feel that texture when you are munching down on some of these yummy greens.

Try this recipe next time you find some yummy lambsquarters.

Pasta with Kidney Beans (adapted from Bush Beans)
half pound pasta (spirals, penne, etc.)
¼ cup water from cooking the pasta
2 tablespoon olive oil or water
1 cup thinly sliced onion
2 large (or more) thinly sliced cloves garlic
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (adjust to your preference)
1 – 15 oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
8 cups (6 oz.) lambsquarter leaves, rinsed
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half (or used diced tomatoes)
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese (optional)
1 tablespoon fresh parsely, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Reserve ¼ cup of the cooking water and drain the pasta and set aside.

Heat the oil or water in a large frying pan on medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic, and sauté for about three minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add the red pepper flakes, beans, and pasta water. Simmer until the lambsquarters are tender. Add pasta, tomatoes, and parsley, and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with cheese if desired. Serve warm.

Serves 4-6.


What are you waiting for? Go outside and forage some lambsquarters!