The Worm Turns
(Garden • Nature)
Few things reinvigorate your relationship with the earth more completely than digging a new garden by hand in the dawning spring. 
It took probably four or five hours spread out over the past three days – not bad, and surely would’ve gone faster were my son’s back a few years older and mine a few years younger. We also uncovered 40 or so bricks spread out about a foot down at one end of the new dig. No telling the story there, but it’s fun to imagine.
The 350-square-foot patch is just off the concrete, about 20 yards from the back door. An excellent location for a kitchen garden, but just by accident, because it represents the last remnant of summer sun in the back yard. The giant pecans have made sure of that.
It’ll be home to 10 raised beds of 4 by 7 feet each – enough to hold, say, three tomato plants with some companion dill or so-called Mexican marigold (Tagetes minuta). The latter might be more common in Peru, where they cook with it like mint. But my purpose is to see whether its reputed anti-nematode properties are real. The main point of this new garden plot is to rest the back garden dirt after moving peppers, eggplant and tomatoes through the various beds back there. They all like the same trace soil elements, and they all attract nematodes, which have proved to be a big pain in the roots for most of the past few years. The secondary point of the new plot is to serve as a proper kitchen garden where the likes of basil, oregano, Italian parsley, cilantro, mint, tarragon and chives can be had in a pinch.
This year my tomato expectations run high. The new dirt appeared to be dark and rich as I turned it over, with just enough clay content to hold raised beds together, plus it was full of earthworms (and more than a few June Beetle grubs, which I fed to the birds).
The worms attracted my 6-year-old, who’d recently received a scientific kindergarten lesson on the subject, apparently. Did I know that earthworms were good for the garden? That they had a mouth, but didn’t have any teeth? That they can stretch through the tiniest places? They can actually digest parts of some rocks? If they are attacked or mishandled and broken into two, both pieces may live? Their poop is not bad, it’s good for the dirt? They’re probably my very favorite worm, right?
I made the mistake of questioning her assertion that some earthworms reach 10 feet in length, though mostly just to interject a period into the conversation. Of course she was right.
“I’m pretty much an expert,” she explained. “If you have a question about earthworms, you can ask me.”
Then she stood there and waited for me to think of one, while I sweated and grunted and turned over shovels full of heavy dirt. I told her I couldn’t think of any at the moment.
So she checked back with me as each new moment arrived, to make sure my thirst for earthworm knowledge was sated.
→ B.Dunn, Mar 11, 2010, 08 22 am
Storing Fat For The Winter
(Nature • Garden)
This is the time when the stars align, and we rush to set aside the year’s/decade’s surplus for the coming winter/Great Recession, in hopes we may thus sustain ourselves and carry through to another spring/middle-class bubble ecstasy time.
Thus we swim into the late-season sea to surf the cusp of death in a cycle that has always defaulted to rebirth in the past, so why worry now? These things have always been the same.
Passed deadlines, present regrets and root canals future fall out of sight, temporarily out of mind, and into the cracks of a Medeski-Scofield jazz rendition of the Beatles Julia, while all the while a semi-authentic Texas chili (less heat in deference to the children) simmers on the stove.
Three searing hot sauce species and one excellent persimmon jam batch cool their respective heals in canning jars nestled in the fridge.
Meanwhile, this year’s pecan recipe:
Oven-Roasted Brazos Pecans
Ingredients:
→ 5 pounds shelled native Texas pecans
→ 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon Kosher salt
→ 2 tablespoons granulated garlic
→ 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
→ 4 tablespoons brown sugar
→ Baking parchment
Method
→ Pour about 2 gallons of cold water into a large pot. Stir in 3/4 cup of salt until dissolved. Pour pecans into water and stir. Allow to soak for 5 to 10 minutes.
→ Pre-heat oven to 275 degrees. Remove pecans from pot, and drain in colanders. Spread out on cutting boards, cookie sheets or paper towels until somewhat dry.
→ Combine remaining salt, garlic, pepper and sugar in a small bowl. Place pecans in large paper bag. Sprinkle seasoning into bag. Roll top of bag shut and shake vigorously for a couple of minutes to evenly distribute ingredients.
→ Line 3 to 5 aluminum foil pans with baking parchment. Remove pecans from bag and spread in thick single layer across bottoms of the pans. Place in hot oven.
→ Roast for about 25-35 minutes until pecans have turned reddish-gold. Remove pans every 10 minutes and stir pecans, to assure they cook evenly.
→ When pecans are completely dry and “roasted” taste is apparent, they’re done. Don’t allow them to roast too long, or they’ll turn dark and bitter. Remove from heat, allow to cool in pans, and store in sterile air-tight jars in the refrigerator or freezer if you can keep them out of the hands of your children or spouse.
→ B.Dunn, Dec 06, 2009, 07 19 pm
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Hot Pepper Philosophy
(Recipes • Garden)
Capsaicin, the natural compound that puts the bite into hot chiles, can be addictive, I believe, and consequently a small population subset walking the planet seemingly can’t get enough capsaicin-induced heat. I am not among them, although I do enjoy the heck out of hot chiles.
The hottest in the garden is the Jamaican Hot Chocolate, a rich, dark brown habanero pepper that I’ve found difficult to bring to fruition because it has a very long growing season but also refuses to set flowers when the temperature’s much above 85 degrees. 
This year, we’re enjoying the first good Hot Chocolate harvest in three years. One of the plants doing most of the producing is actually a perennial, having survived two winters now. These browns, while truly hot, are not by any means among the hottest of habaneros. But they are really flavorful. To me, the trick is getting at that flavor without searing the inside of my mouth.
I’ve been experimenting with Caribbean habanero sauce and salsa recipes, and hit upon one recently I think might be worthy of mention. It’s derived from Bruce Moffitt’s Salsa Mataguerro recipe, but with more fruit and far fewer habaneros. I’ve made this with ingredients that happened to be on hand in the garden. Substitute and experiment at will. Lets call it
Tropical Habanero Sauce:
Before You Start
→ Put on a pair of kitchen gloves, because you will need protection from the extreme heat of the habanero. These aren’t your mama’s jalapeños (about 200,000 Scoville heat units per habanero, compared to about 4,000 in a jalapeño.) Don’t try to handle these chiles bare-handed or, trust me, you’ll regret it.
Ingredients
→ 2 Tablespoons peanut oil
→ 1 Tablespoon dry mustard
→ 6 Jamaican Hot Chocolate habanero peppers, seeded and chopped fine
→ 6 Mirasol hot peppers, seeded and chopped coarsely
→ 6 Green chiles, chopped coarsely
→ 1/2 a sweet onion, chopped
→ 4 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped fine
→ 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh ginger root
→ 3 tablespoons raisins
→ 1 ripe Hachiya persimmon, halved
→ 1/3 cup cider vinegar
→ 1/3 cup brown sugar
→ 2 Tablespoons dark molasses
→ 1/2 teaspoon Cardamom
→ 2 cups chopped fresh pineapple
→ 1/2 cup water
Method
→ Heat the peanut oil in a large, heavy pan. Add the mustard and the garlic cloves, stirring over medium heat for two or three minutes. Add onion and ginger to the pan and stir.
→ After onion has softened, add Mirasol chiles, sauté for three minutes or so and then add vinegar, water, raisins, brown sugar, molasses, Cardamom, green chiles and habaneros. Stir together for five minutes.
→ Add the persimmon and pineapple, stir through until mixture comes to a low boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
→ Pour mixture into a food processor or blender; blend until smooth and about the consistency of ketchup. If necessary, add another quarter-cup water or pineapple juice.
→ Pour blended sauce into sterilized pint jars and seal. (Yields about two pints of yellow-brown hot sauce).
I was really pleased with this stuff. It has an initial tropical, fruity taste followed by the sweet-hot flavor of the Mirasol peppers and the longer-lasting, gradually building smokey heat of the Jamaican Hot Chocolates. Make no mistake – this sauce is extremely hot! However, the heat isn’t so overbearing that it masks the great taste of these chiles.
This will go well on a smoked pork tenderloin, no lie.
→ B.Dunn, Nov 07, 2009, 03 35 pm
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When Fruit Royalty Comes To Town
(Garden • Nature)
While modern miracles seem few and far between, we here at the One Acre Ranch were blessed this morning with a visit from Chiyata, pregnant Queen of the Persimmons.
While the implications of this honor have not been made 100% clear, we’re pretty sure this is an indication our persimmon tree is happy with its caretakers.
Please feel free to click on the little photo to your left, for a bigger look at her majesty in full glory.
→ B.Dunn, Nov 07, 2009, 10 26 am
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