Market and Fair

I'm getting bummed out; the market will close next month! How can it possibly already be September??? The bannock people weren't there today (boo!) but we got a nice haul:


Leeks (I'll be making Potato Leek Soup tomorrow), chives, lemon cucumbers, plums, peaches, honey and squash. And look what I found at the grocery store:


Tim Tams! I first read about these on a food blog and I've been wanting to try one for years. And now I have a box.


After the market and grocery shopping we went to the Knutsford Fall Fair. We saw some kids riding around on little pony carts (god, I really wanted to do that!), and checked out all the winners for food and crafts.


This reminds me that I haven't told you about the Barriere Fall Fair and Rodeo we went to last weekend. I'll share some great pictures Scott took soon.

Have a great weekend!

Market and Fair

I'm getting bummed out; the market will close next month! How can it possibly already be September??? The bannock people weren't there today (boo!) but we got a nice haul:


Leeks (I'll be making Potato Leek Soup tomorrow), chives, lemon cucumbers, plums, peaches, honey and squash. And look what I found at the grocery store:


Tim Tams! I first read about these on a food blog and I've been wanting to try one for years. And now I have a box.


After the market and grocery shopping we went to the Knutsford Fall Fair. We saw some kids riding around on little pony carts (god, I really wanted to do that!), and checked out all the winners for food and crafts.


This reminds me that I haven't told you about the Barriere Fall Fair and Rodeo we went to last weekend. I'll share some great pictures Scott took soon.

Have a great weekend!

Saturday

I forgot to include in my last post a picture of my new apron I got at last weeks market:
So cute! I've wanted an apron of this style for ages. And it only cost $5. Score.

Yesterdays haul:
Organic carrots called Dragon something. Neither of us can remember. Organic green and purple peppers. Organic squash. Cherries. Green plums. Peaches. Corn.

We had a cocktail on the deck yesterday and picked some of our celery for our Caesars.
It was bitter, unfortunately. Perhaps it needs more time. But it looked purdy.

Half of last weeks jumbo zucchini was turned into Zucchini Saltimbocca, which I've made before.
This time I used provelone, basil and westphalian(?) ham, and coated them with panko instead of flour. They were just as tasty as I remembered. I have to decide today on what to do with the other half of the zuke. I'm thinking either zucchini cookies, which I have made before but I guess I didn't post about it, zucchini bread, this pasta, or this one, or maybe something new.

Our weather has perked back up, so we are heading out for a walk before breakfast. Have a great day, and happy long weekend to all who get one this weekend! Yahoo!

Saturday

I forgot to include in my last post a picture of my new apron I got at last weeks market:
So cute! I've wanted an apron of this style for ages. And it only cost $5. Score.

Yesterdays haul:
Organic carrots called Dragon something. Neither of us can remember. Organic green and purple peppers. Organic squash. Cherries. Green plums. Peaches. Corn.

We had a cocktail on the deck yesterday and picked some of our celery for our Caesars.
It was bitter, unfortunately. Perhaps it needs more time. But it looked purdy.

Half of last weeks jumbo zucchini was turned into Zucchini Saltimbocca, which I've made before.
This time I used provelone, basil and westphalian(?) ham, and coated them with panko instead of flour. They were just as tasty as I remembered. I have to decide today on what to do with the other half of the zuke. I'm thinking either zucchini cookies, which I have made before but I guess I didn't post about it, zucchini bread, this pasta, or this one, or maybe something new.

Our weather has perked back up, so we are heading out for a walk before breakfast. Have a great day, and happy long weekend to all who get one this weekend! Yahoo!

Lately

It's only hours until we head out to the Saturday market. Here's what we bought last week:

Zucchini ($1!) that I put next to my kitchen ruler to show how big it is; the ruler is 12". Potatos, cukes (2 for $1!), beans, yellow squash that I cooked on the bbq with olive oil and Spike, sprouts, and raspberries.

I have told you next to nothing about my garden this year. We had planned to rip up some sod and put in a garden like we had in Calgary, but it didn't happen. So we planted in the existing garden in the backyard. It's been pretty hit or miss; we had a slow start to spring/summer and then the heat hit with a vengeance. My squash and watermelon plants were the first casualties, and my herbs are all struggling. Here's what looks good still:

Celery! We are growing celery!

And kale. I think it's time to start picking. I only have one kale recipe, anyone got any suggestions?
Our 2 heirloom tomato plants. They are large and in charge and finally have some wee tomatos on them. Any time now....

Pepper plant, with little teeney peppers.

Zucchini! And a couple more possibly on thier way.

My potatos totally suck this year. So, so depressing.


Out tomato plant we bought from Costco. It looks like crap, but we've gotten a ton of yummy tomatos off of it, with more greenies waiting to ripen.

I made the cooking club recipe from Foodtv.ca last month - potato skins from the new show Road Grill. Ultimately I didn't submit this for 2 reasons. One, it was a miserable day when I made these and I didn't use the grill. Two, um, I really don't like this show. At all. And try as I might, I just couldn't write a nice post about it. But the skins were good - bacon, cheese, tomato and green onion. Potato skins rule!

Lately

It's only hours until we head out to the Saturday market. Here's what we bought last week:

Zucchini ($1!) that I put next to my kitchen ruler to show how big it is; the ruler is 12". Potatos, cukes (2 for $1!), beans, yellow squash that I cooked on the bbq with olive oil and Spike, sprouts, and raspberries.

I have told you next to nothing about my garden this year. We had planned to rip up some sod and put in a garden like we had in Calgary, but it didn't happen. So we planted in the existing garden in the backyard. It's been pretty hit or miss; we had a slow start to spring/summer and then the heat hit with a vengeance. My squash and watermelon plants were the first casualties, and my herbs are all struggling. Here's what looks good still:

Celery! We are growing celery!

And kale. I think it's time to start picking. I only have one kale recipe, anyone got any suggestions?
Our 2 heirloom tomato plants. They are large and in charge and finally have some wee tomatos on them. Any time now....

Pepper plant, with little teeney peppers.

Zucchini! And a couple more possibly on thier way.

My potatos totally suck this year. So, so depressing.


Out tomato plant we bought from Costco. It looks like crap, but we've gotten a ton of yummy tomatos off of it, with more greenies waiting to ripen.

I made the cooking club recipe from Foodtv.ca last month - potato skins from the new show Road Grill. Ultimately I didn't submit this for 2 reasons. One, it was a miserable day when I made these and I didn't use the grill. Two, um, I really don't like this show. At all. And try as I might, I just couldn't write a nice post about it. But the skins were good - bacon, cheese, tomato and green onion. Potato skins rule!

Saturday Market

The most beautiful Rainbow Chard ($2.50) I've ever seen, Baby Bok Choy ($3), delicious peas ($5), carrots ($3) and beets ($3) because I was watching Forever Summer this morning and Nigella made cold beet soup.

Saturday Market

The most beautiful Rainbow Chard ($2.50) I've ever seen, Baby Bok Choy ($3), delicious peas ($5), carrots ($3) and beets ($3) because I was watching Forever Summer this morning and Nigella made cold beet soup.

Saturday Market and Vermi-Composting

The market was pretty busy yesterday. We went a little later than usual, and two stands were sold out of their produce by the time we got there! We'll have to move faster next week. This week we bought:
Kale (going in soup tonight), spinach, strawberries (from Vernon BC) and Italian Romaine (grown in Kamloops). We still have some rapini from last week and some beautiful asparagus from Armstrong BC left over too.

Then we drove out to the garden center on the highway. They were teaming up with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District to sell Worm Composters. I've wanted to try composting for a while. I was pretty much ready to try it in Calgary, but then we decided to move, so there was no point. And where we live now there are bears. Not roaming all over the city constantly, but sightings in the area we live in are not uncommon. Perhaps it's silly and unfounded, but I was worried that a composter in the back yard might attract a hungry bear. I had read about worm composting, but had no idea where to start. So I was pretty excited to see the notice in the paper last week.
We were a little late getting to the garden centre and missed the seminar on worm composting, but the store staff and worm suppliers were happy to go over it with us. They even sold us the demo unit which was already put together. After paying and meeting up with the worm supplier in the parking lot to exchange money for worms we headed home, about 60 bucks lighter to get set up.
Here's the composter sitting in the kitchen.
The bottom layer is the base, the next layer is the collection tray (this is where any excess liquid will come out) and the top tray is our first stacking tray. The stacking tray has holes in the bottom. We put down a couple of layers of dry newspaper.
We rehydrated the coir (coconut fiber) and then squeezed out the excess moisture. The coir is mixed with compost (provided to us by the worm people) and shredded paper. Spread it in the tray.
Then add 2 cups of food in one corner. This was where the fun began - pulling all the yucky and old food out of the fridge and finely chopping it. The worms got apple, strawberries, cucumber and some spinach from that days market. It was mixed with coffee grounds, and for good measure we threw in the filter.
Then the worms were introduced to their new home. That's one pound of Red Wiggler worms, about 500. We tried to spread them around, but it didn't work so well (I was afraid to smoosh them or stress them out anymore), so we left them alone.
And covered them with a couple more layers of damp newspaper.
And put on the lid.
The manual suggests leaving them in a well lit place for the first week to force the worms down into their house. So the composter will sit on our kitchen table for a week or so. In 3 days we have to check on them to see how much food they have eaten. If they are crawling around in the food, we add more.
Because I was already on a roll, I chopped up the rest of the questionable food in the fridge in my food processor. The worms eat fruits, vegetables (except potato peels), starch, egg shells, coffee grounds, paper and cardboard. Don't give them meat, dairy, citrus peels, oil and salty food.
I chopped everything up and portioned it into small handfuls. Then I froze them on a baking sheet to store until needed. There's cabbage, raspberries, lettuce, green onion, pita bread, and red peppers in there. And I've put a bowl on the counter to remind us to save the organic waste and not throw it away.

So in a couple of months we'll have a tray full of compost, ready for the plants!
I'm pretty nervous about this, I'd feel terrible if I screwed up and killed my 500 little worms. I'm going to sit down with Google later today and try to answer the questions that the book has raised for me.
If anyone out there can recommend any websites, or has any advice for me, please let me know!

Saturday Market and Vermi-Composting

The market was pretty busy yesterday. We went a little later than usual, and two stands were sold out of their produce by the time we got there! We'll have to move faster next week. This week we bought:
Kale (going in soup tonight), spinach, strawberries (from Vernon BC) and Italian Romaine (grown in Kamloops). We still have some rapini from last week and some beautiful asparagus from Armstrong BC left over too.

Then we drove out to the garden center on the highway. They were teaming up with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District to sell Worm Composters. I've wanted to try composting for a while. I was pretty much ready to try it in Calgary, but then we decided to move, so there was no point. And where we live now there are bears. Not roaming all over the city constantly, but sightings in the area we live in are not uncommon. Perhaps it's silly and unfounded, but I was worried that a composter in the back yard might attract a hungry bear. I had read about worm composting, but had no idea where to start. So I was pretty excited to see the notice in the paper last week.
We were a little late getting to the garden centre and missed the seminar on worm composting, but the store staff and worm suppliers were happy to go over it with us. They even sold us the demo unit which was already put together. After paying and meeting up with the worm supplier in the parking lot to exchange money for worms we headed home, about 60 bucks lighter to get set up.
Here's the composter sitting in the kitchen.
The bottom layer is the base, the next layer is the collection tray (this is where any excess liquid will come out) and the top tray is our first stacking tray. The stacking tray has holes in the bottom. We put down a couple of layers of dry newspaper.
We rehydrated the coir (coconut fiber) and then squeezed out the excess moisture. The coir is mixed with compost (provided to us by the worm people) and shredded paper. Spread it in the tray.
Then add 2 cups of food in one corner. This was where the fun began - pulling all the yucky and old food out of the fridge and finely chopping it. The worms got apple, strawberries, cucumber and some spinach from that days market. It was mixed with coffee grounds, and for good measure we threw in the filter.
Then the worms were introduced to their new home. That's one pound of Red Wiggler worms, about 500. We tried to spread them around, but it didn't work so well (I was afraid to smoosh them or stress them out anymore), so we left them alone.
And covered them with a couple more layers of damp newspaper.
And put on the lid.
The manual suggests leaving them in a well lit place for the first week to force the worms down into their house. So the composter will sit on our kitchen table for a week or so. In 3 days we have to check on them to see how much food they have eaten. If they are crawling around in the food, we add more.
Because I was already on a roll, I chopped up the rest of the questionable food in the fridge in my food processor. The worms eat fruits, vegetables (except potato peels), starch, egg shells, coffee grounds, paper and cardboard. Don't give them meat, dairy, citrus peels, oil and salty food.
I chopped everything up and portioned it into small handfuls. Then I froze them on a baking sheet to store until needed. There's cabbage, raspberries, lettuce, green onion, pita bread, and red peppers in there. And I've put a bowl on the counter to remind us to save the organic waste and not throw it away.

So in a couple of months we'll have a tray full of compost, ready for the plants!
I'm pretty nervous about this, I'd feel terrible if I screwed up and killed my 500 little worms. I'm going to sit down with Google later today and try to answer the questions that the book has raised for me.
If anyone out there can recommend any websites, or has any advice for me, please let me know!