Did you know that Starbucks has a corporate policy of making its used coffee grounds available free as a soil amendment or composting ingredient?
For months I’ve been working up to introducing myself to our neighborhood Starbucks and starting regular pickups of grounds for my compost pile. A fellow gardener here in the District of [...]
Entries from February 2009
A Little Compost with that Latte?
February 28th, 2009 · 12 Comments · Uncategorized
Tags: coffee·composting
Kids Make Guacamole in the Molcajete
February 26th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized
Where did the people of Mexico learn to speak Spanish?
The answer is simple enough: the Spanish conquistadors who invaded and subdued Mexico hundreds of years ago. But the question points up the fact that there were people living in what we now call Mexico long before the Europeans arrived. Whether Olmec or Aztec or [...]
Tags: avocado·food appreciation·guacamole·kids·Mexico·molcajete
Food Lessons for Hard Times
February 25th, 2009 · 9 Comments · Uncategorized
To hear the economists tell it, times may be getting even worse before they get better. Some people have already been forced to tighten their belts. For others, it’s time to think about tightening belts even further. Still, there’s a silver lining to these austere developments: Less consumption by us humans is better for [...]
Tags: bulk foods·community gardens·Gardening Blogs·recession·seafood·vegetables·whole grains
Venison Goulash with Handmade Whole Wheat Noodles
February 24th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized
We recently traded some of our canned goods with a neighbor for a load of venison killed on a farm in downstate Virginia. Most of the package consisted of two entire rump sections of the animal. I spent the better part of an afternoon removing silver skin and cutting stew meat.
Most of that went [...]
Prize Worthy Sweet Potato Galette
February 23rd, 2009 · 7 Comments · Uncategorized
How did the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission know we are growing our own sweet potatoes?
I just received an e-mail urging me to enter a “bloggers recipe contest” sponsored by the sweet potato commission. I might have blown it off, but the reward for best recipe is $1,000. That got me thinking maybe I should [...]
Tags: cheese·garden·greens·sweet potatoes
Overwintered Carrot Cake
February 22nd, 2009 · 5 Comments · Uncategorized
My wife, the baker in the family, took one look at our recent harvest of overwintered carrots and knew what she had to make: carrot cake.
I know what you are thinking: There could hardly be anything more mundane than carrot cake. But trust me: once you’ve made it with carrots you’ve grown in your own [...]
A New Season on the Farm
February 21st, 2009 · 4 Comments · Uncategorized
This is the first in what we hope will be a regular series of articles about Leigh Hauter and his CSA operation at Bull Run Farm in The Plains, Virginia. Leigh has been farming in the Washington area for 15 years, first at the Cheseapeake Bay Foundation’s Clagett Farm in Prince George’s County. He [...]
Tags: broccoli·Bull Run Farm·CSA·eggplant·local farming·peppers·seeds·spring·tomatoes
Kids Make Black Bean Tamales
February 19th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized
Kids love working with their hands, which makes tamales–mixing the dough, wrapping it in corn husks–the perfect assignment for our “food appreciation” classes.
This week on our virtual world culinary tour we are in Puebla, a city south of Mexico City known for its colorful ceramics and its clever chefs. But really, tamales are almost [...]
Overwintered Carrot Salad
February 18th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized
When you’ve got carrots, make carrot salad.
We pulled about five pounds of carrots from the garden the other day, just getting ready for spring planting. Some of those carrots were roasted with parsnips. I turned some more into one of my favorite salads with dried fruits, nuts and a curry dressing.
This salad is so [...]
Fiery Pumpkin Seed Dip
February 17th, 2009 · 9 Comments · Uncategorized
Now it can be revealed: One of the most popular things we make is deceptively simple and doesn’t even look edible. It’s this humble dip made with toasted pumpkin seeds and cooked tomatoes, flavored to a fiery pitch with a roasted habanero pepper. We always make it in a Mexican molcajete, the traditional mortar [...]
Tags: dips·Mexico·molcajete·peppers·pumpkin seeds
We are engaging the concerns of a hungry planet--slowly--right here in our kitchen garden in the District of Columbia, one mile from the White House.
