• "Blossom end rot" - Is the name of my mystery novel if I ever write it! Or, what I'll put on my tombstone that I died of (Yes Mother, it will go out under the peppertree...) A few of my tomatoes have it but once it was cut away the tomatoes were delicious. This is due to uneven watering - I blame the dern'd water restrictions and summer heatwaves!
• One of the fig tree cuttings is leafing out! Joy abounds. I am continuing to water all the fig "sticks" in case the others bud soon too...
• My herb of the year 2009 Sweet Bay has had exponential growth this season -a month ago I was taller than the shrub & now it is much taller than I am. And I have been using it copiously for cooking and demonstrating since January. What a good herb!
• "Heart of Gold" Rose and "Sunset Celebration" Roses looking good!
• My Pop wanted a composter for his birthday in June, so I looked into it for him. I found out that his zip code qualified him for two at a reduced price from the local recycler. http://www.solanacenter.org/1compostbins.html He ended up getting two, one for himself & one for me! I love his birthday when I get presents.... 

VGC Cricket President’s letter Nov. 2005 ©Karen England

     My mini apple orchard is just 4 years old and already its story rivals the best children’s fairy tale. Originally, I told my cousin who owns Sunshine Gardens that I wanted to buy nine “Anna” apple trees for a spot I designed to be a tiny orchard. I wanted “Anna” apples because I have grown them successfully before and love the fruit. My cousin (who should have been a used car salesman) said he would give me a good deal (read “Free”) if I took some apple trees off his hands that he could not sell. These particular trees were originally a special order for a woman who reneged and, in me; he saw the golden (Dorsett) opportunity to unload what he could not sell to the public. Ah, the joys of family. The caveat was they were not all “Annas” and several trees were no longer marked. It was a “take them all or nothing” deal. Although they were not all the same variety or the variety I had initially wanted, “free” is hard to pass up, so I took them, & the orchard was planted.

     To my delight, very early on, several of the trees produced fruit and, as a result, I was able to identify some of the unmarked varieties. Also, two of the original trees died (due to a gopher) and I wanted to replace them with my first choice, “Annas”, only to have my cousin talk me into more used cars, i.e. some “Golden Dorsetts” he had in overstock. Ok, I admit it - I’m easy, I took ‘em. By the 2nd year, I had identified all but one of the nine apple trees and all but the unknown tree were producing fruit.   

     It was obvious from the beginning that the unknown variety was very different from the rest, the quintessential ugly duckling. Gangly in growth, leaves with tip burn and struggling to adjust to orchard life. During the first two years, the apples were watered with an overhead spray until our garden help installed drip irrigation to the orchard. Almost immediately, the trees responded to the change with exponential growth, & the ugly duckling tree responded most of all, transforming before my eyes into the most glorious tree, no longer gangly, with healthy large green leaves and sweet white blossoms that reminded me of something but I didn’t know what. Then it bore fruit. Unbelievably, it isn’t an apple at all - it is a pear! Now I know what it reminded me of, the flowering pear trees that are planted all around our area. I was always told that fruiting pears do not do well in our climate so I would never have planted one deliberately and here I had one thriving. My ugly duckling apple has turned into a beautiful swan pear. This is my kind of gardening, exciting & sweet. When I’m out working in the yard, I sing this little ditty:

“In the first year of Orcharding,

my Cousin gave to me,

Five “Golden Dorsetts”,

Two “Anna” apples,

One yummy “Braeburn”

and a swan of lovely pear tree.”

I bet you can guess what kind of pie I’m making for Thanksgiving this year…

                Wishing you all happy gardening and a blessed Thanksgiving,

hese days, I live in Vista, California, just 10 miles from where I grew up in Encinitas. Both places have the same Mediterranean climate, the same USDA zone 10 & Sunset Western Garden Book Zone 24 and yet they are vastly different. I can look out in the morning to the west and see that the coast is fogged in, while I have lovely morning sun and that is only one of many, many “micro-climate” differences, yet we supposedly have the same gardening zone. Still, when it comes to growing bay, it is the really the same in either place - it grows enormous here, 25 to 30 feet high and a few feet wide. So, I am amused by the books that say it grows 4 to 6 feet high and in other climes I’m sure that is true where inclement weather makes it less vigorous but I can expect 4 to 6 feet of growth in a single season! It can be grown in a container quite well & that will stunt, or “bonsai” if you will, its growth. Laurus nobilis, is commonly known as “Sweet Bay”, “Bay Laurel” or just plain “Bay”, (not to be confused with an inferior plant called “California Bay”, Umbellularia californica, or “West Indian Bay Rum”, Pimenta racemosa. Please note: that the unrelated “Mountain Laurel”, Kalmia latifolia, in the Ericaceae family, has poisonous leaves.)

Here is a great craft to do with all that bay, make wreaths for the kitchen! I first learned to this from my BFF Theresa Loe of www.gardenfreshliving.com over 15 years ago (I think) and recently I taught my new friend Peggy how to make them at a class I taught at www.keyscreeklavenderfarm.com these are Peggy’s gifts to her friends!

She also added bay to her website that has crafts for teachers & children ...
http://ottogo.com/may-2009-craft-of-the-month-butterfly-theme.html “This craft is
great for repetitive pinch and release and for bilateral motor coordination.
Painting can become a real tactile experience if you have the child use their
finger instead of a brush to paint. Put the butterfly on the refrigerator or
filing cabinet. Catch a whiff of the herbs whenever you walk by. It will have
your spirits fluttering! This craft is a real olfactory experience. It utilizes
a lot of pinch grasp and fine motor control.”

Every year, I chuckle, when the culinary catalogs come with expensive $$$ fresh bay wreaths for sale like this one from
http://www.mcfaddenfarm.com/wreaths.html#baywrth 

when you can grow & then make your own bay wreaths to use, enjoy & give!

Culinary Bay Wreath

Supplies:

• Fresh bay branches
• wreath form
• paddle wire, available at craft stores
• clippers
• ribbon, optional

With clippers, cut bay branches into lots of approximately 3 – 4 inch sprigs. Use the wire to securely attach the sprigs to the wreath form. How much bay you will need depends on the type & size of the form you have chosen. TIP: Dry the finished wreath flat on a table for a week or so before hanging on the wall. This is so that the wreath does not droop and dry lopsided.

SOME GREAT BAY USES:

• Use homegrown bay leaves, fresh or dried, in any recipe calling for bay. Be sure to add a leaf, even if none is called for, to your favorite stews, soups, chilies, & pasta sauces. Don’t forget dessert! Do as the ancients & add a leaf to rice puddings, custards, cakes & more, for a delicious treat.
• Grind up dried bay leaves for “Powdered Bay Leaves”, a spice no longer offered for sale by spice packers. Sift out any hard bits before using.
• Put a leaf into your flour, rice & other grain storage canisters for a classic method of preventing pesky grain bugs.
• To relieve sore muscles, simply add 1 or 2 leaves to your bathwater & soak.

While on vacation in the Outer Banks, N.C. last year we had lots of great fish and I found that “Old Bay®” was a common seasoning used in many restaurants, did you know you can make your own?

Make your “Own Bay” Seasoning Blend (Shhhh! Don’t tell “OLD BAY®”)

Combine well and store in an airtight container. Use your “Own Bay” seasoning as you would that other stuff!

1 tablespoon ground bay leaves

2 1/2 teaspoons celery salt

1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper

3/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, ground

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground mace

Try making “Own Bay-o Dip”

...adapted from http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2008/05/shrimppoboy

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice (optional: to taste, add some lemon zest too!)

3 teaspoons “Own Bay” seasoning

~Stir together mayonnaise, lemon juice, zest, if using, and 3 teaspoons “Own Bay” seasoning

Use this tasty mayo instead of tartar sauce with fish. Great with French fries! Yummy with crudités’.

TO LEARN MORE – PICK UP A COPY OF THE EXCLUSIVE “HERB OF THE YEAR” BOOK FROM AN IHA MEMBER NEAR YOU! BOOK ALSO AVAILABLE ON WWW.IHERB.ORG -WHILE THERE, PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING THE IHA! BOOKS & MEMBERSHIPS MAKE GREAT GIFTS!

Part I By Karen England www.edgehillherbfarm.com

“A large bay is almost beyond price.”

-Adelma Grenier Simmons

Although I am truly a Pastor’s daughter, I grew up in a nurseryman’s family, working from the tender age of 12 years old for my cousin’s retail garden center located in what is arguably the best location anywhere for horti-business - Encinitas, California, a city that touts itself (or rather, did) as “The Flower Capital of the World” because so many growers, just like my family, settled there. Even though I was around plants constantly growing up, living in a climate that is truly a gardener’s paradise, as a youngster I had no interest in plants and gardening. Yes, I worked in the family nursery business, but it could have been any business for all I cared. It wasn’t until 18 years later when I was married and moved into my first home that I began to develop any interest in the plants I sold all day long. As a new bride I was learning to cook, (gardening was not the only skill I had no interest in growing up!) and, one evening after work, I went to the grocery store on the way home intending to make spaghetti sauce for dinner, when I had a life-changing, herbal epiphany right there in the store. As I began to fill my cart with the ingredients needed to make my mother’s spaghetti sauce, I realized I had just sold the very same items during that day, albeit in plant form - things like basil, bay, oregano, and tomatoes, and for less money than the price of the small spice jars I was about to buy. This was a revelation to me. I had everything available at my work to grow “spaghetti sauce”. At the time, in 1990, a “pony pack” of basil or tomatoes cost 95 cents for 6 little plant starts (Note: very soon afterward the “pony pack” became extinct, due in most part to the high mortality rate of the tiny plants once in the hands of the consumer, and the “pony pack” was replaced by the slightly larger “color pack” which not only sold for more money, $1.95, but contained slightly larger, older plants in the 6 pack and had a much higher consumer survival rate…) Oregano and Bay are normally sold only in individual pots, not “packs”, but a four inch size pot of oregano or a one gallon size pot of bay was then, and they still are, reasonably priced in comparison to grocery store spice jars. That night I put the spices back and made alternate dinner plans that evening’s dinner. The next day I bought and planted my first garden, my first herb garden to boot! And 19 years later I am still benefiting from the lessons I learned from that first garden. Of course, I was fooled, just like other new gardeners everywhere, by the small size of the plants I had bought and I planted them too closely together. Also, even though I had plenty of room in which to plant, most of my available area had plenty of sunshine, I inexplicably planted everything together in partial shade. Even though I did everything wrong, the plants still grew, they just leaned over and out, reaching to the sunshine. And, even though I did everything wrong, they still tasted great. The reward was unbelievable flavor and fragrance and I was hooked. If these herb plants would survive, could survive, in spite of me, not because of me, I wanted to learn more, and learn more I have. In 2006, my 4-year old potted Bay tree, a direct result of that “epiphany garden”, inspired by spaghetti sauce, won the “best in show” trophy at my local flower & garden show. It is the only trophy I have ever won and I treasure it as a monument to how far I have come as a gardener, as a cook and even in some respects as a human. More about “the Herb of the Year for 2009” tomorrow! ‘Til then, here is my recipe invention that I loving call –

“Breakfast of the Year”- Bay Oatmeal

I eat this practically every day! Delicious, good for you & easy…

Serves one – can easily be doubled or tripled to serve more.

1 cup water

½ dried fruit – such as apricots, prunes, craisins, raisins, apples, or a mixture, etc…

1 fresh or dried bay leaf (Laurus nobilis)

Pinch sea salt

½ cup old fashioned rolled oats, preferably organic (This can be made with steel-cut or stone ground oats but keep in mind the cooking time will be much longer.)

1 handful raw almonds, pecans, or a mixture, chopped

1 tablespoon flax seeds, ground in an spice grinder

Pinch freshly grated cinnamon & nutmeg, optional

Honey, optional

Bring the water, fruit, bay & salt to a boil in a small heavy sauce pan and add the oats. Reduce the heat and cook for 10 to 20 minutes (timing depends on desired consistency of your cereal) stirring occasionally. Cover, remove from heat and let stand a few minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Top with nuts, flax seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg & honey & serve.

This is my version of a Paula Deen recipe.

Crust:

1 1/4 cups Organic all-purpose flour

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, optional

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced

4-6 tablespoons cold water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place flour, cheese & salt in the bowl of a mixer & cut in the butter until it looks like pebbles. Add the cold water a tablespoon at a time until the dough sticks together. Chill one hour. Roll out and line a 9 –inch glass pie plate. Prick  the crust with a fork all over and prebake 7 –10 minutes until just starting to color. Remove from oven to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Filling:

4 large tomatoes, 5 medium tomatoes, or 6 smaller tomatoes, sliced

1 cup roughly chopped fresh herbs – such as a mix of basils, (lemon, Greek columnar & sweet) & parsley (flat leaf & curly)

1/2 cup chopped green onion

zest of one lemon, optional (if making homemade mayonnaise, use zest from that lemon)

1 cup each grated cheddar & Monterey jack cheese

1 cup mayonnaise (preferably homemade*)

salt & pepper, to taste

In a bowl mix together the mayonnaise & cheeses.

Layer the tomato slices, herbs, onion, zest, if using, salt & pepper in the pie shell. Spread the cheese mixture on top of the tomatoes and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until lightly browned.

*Basic Blender Mayonnaise –from Fannie Farmer (really Marion Cunningham)

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 cup combination of oils, 1/4 cup olive & 3/4 cup vegetable

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon boiling water

salt to taste

Place egg, 1/4 teaspoon salt, mustard & 1/4 cup olive oil in the blender. Turn it on and slowly add the remaining 3/4 cup of oil in a thin slow stream. Add the lemon juice & water. Taste & correct the seasoning if needed. Refrigerate until needed. makes 1 1/2 cups.    

I know that buying an already roasted chicken at your grocery or big box store is a convenience, and many times, it is a very inexpensive convenience to boot, but beware! Cheap convenience is not all it is cracked up to be. In my opinion, you are not getting your money's worth, especially since, with very little effort, you can roast the chicken yourself and, if you follow my advice, recoup any extra money you spend doing it. Over the next few blogs I am going to try my darndest to get you, the world at large, to roast a chicken- I want you to see, to smell, to taste & savor what you have been missing by letting the grocery store roast it for you.   

The first reason to roast your own chicken is that you can and most definitely, you should buy a better quality chicken than the grocery store uses for roasting. Here's a sobering thought –have you noticed that the body shape of our young female population is changing? Speculation is that this is due, in no small part, to the hormones in the chicken, beef and dairy our children are eating. A friend who works for a major Bra manufacturer says that when a young girl comes in to be fitted for a "D" cup bra at the age of 12, the saying among her co-workers is "She eats a lot of chicken!" The hormones used in these animals in order to make them mature faster, produce more eggs or milk, etc... seem to be having a similar effect on the developing young people eating them, girls especially. (One 1998 study entitled Survey of hormonal levels in meat and poultry sold in Alexandria, Egypt appearing in Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal concluded "Data on residue levels obtained from these results clearly indicate that anabolic agents in beef and chicken entail a special risk to public health" and suggested that cooking chicken by "boiling without skin is recommended to reduce the consumer's intake of hormonal residues". Read the study for yourself http://www.emro.who.int/Publications/Emhj/0402/06.htm). It is not necessary to take the study’s advice if you purchase organic chicken. The already roasted chickens you have been buying at the market are not organic, they are not even free-range, and they are certainly not antibiotic or hormone free & they are cheap for this reason.

Second, many of the seasonings used in the grocery store bird are less than healthy. The birds are brined, injected with flavor enhancers, massive amounts salt, m.s.g. (monosodium glutamate), and who knows what else, trying to make a tasteless, over processed, overcooked product palatable. The flavor of a high quality organic, free-range chicken needs no enhancement! You are in control of the amount of salt and eliminate all the nasty chemicals,

Third, you get to smell the chicken as it roasts! Please, do not discount this reason. The fragrance is comfort itself. The aroma of a whole chicken as it roasts in your home is an important part of appetite and the meal. Food prepared outside the home removes this important part of the whole experience. Homes should smell of good wholesome food, eliciting healthy appetites & enveloping home comforts. I cannot stress to you enough how fast food and eating-out has diminished this very important part of home life.  

Have I convinced you? I look forward to your comments.

In the next blog, I will give you the shopping list and basic recipe with variations. Then in the blogs following I will be giving recipes and strategies for using up every bit of the goodness a roast chicken has to offer – things like homemade chicken stock from the bones and dishes from the leftover meat and stock -soups, enchiladas, pizza, chicken salad sandwiches, and more. I hope that this will change your kitchen life…