THE TILTH-Y BITS

I had such a nice time in the garden today! We had a long and arduous weekend. Parties on friday for Hubbie's  work. Then went to  Sunrise Tree Farm on Saturday and got a fat, wonderful, and TOTALLY unmanageably heavy tree for the house. Saturday evening went to Namaste Vineyards and had a wonderful meal with owners Dave and Kassie. Got up next morning and Hubbie began the process of putting the lights on the tree. OMG!!!! Lights were out, took two trips to store to get more. Then that evening had a tree trimming party with friends. (tree photos later) So blasted tired from all the fun and food!
I figured it was time for me to (literally) get back to my roots. The garden was a mess, it always is around this time of year. Its wet, its been wet and it will be wet for the next 6 months!!! Stuff is rotting, covered with mildew, and crawling in slugs and slime. Not a very pretty sight. That's why I will not subject you to photos. (I'm SO nice!) Here's one when it IS nice (and dry).

 So it was out into the yard, gloves on, clippers in my apron and the kitties keeping me company. I am a big believer in mulch. In the backyard  the Oak tree provides a good leafy cover. It's easy, leave the leaves right where they've fallen on the grass and mow the lawn.  As you mow, the leaves and grass mix and TA DAA! Mulch! I then toss this messy mix around the gardens and apply a little extra on top of plants that may need protecting;  Hostas come to mind. The rest is placed in a pile to compost and break down  for the spring.

One very popular plant, if you have the room, is the Comfrey plant, also known as Boneset. The leaves are VERY high in nitrogen and are great for fertilizer. It is also a Medicinal herb. I have made salves from it. If you choose to try it please read up on it. Never use a home herbal remedy without knowing about it. Today I cut off all the leaves and dumped them into the compost. They'll break down and add nitrogen to my garden in the spring.
Next the tops of many plants have withered and rotted so I clip off the tops, pulling away any particularly icky leaves and dump these. I have found that keeping the tops contributes to some diseases and allows last years buggies to remain nice and warm in the compost. Not in MY yard you insect! These tops may have seed and if you place this in the compost you may get more than you bargained for when they germinate. I did this with a tomato plant and had tiny little tomatoes everywhere but where I wanted them.

One nice thing about the wet soil here is that it is easy to pull out plants and weeds at this time of year. The soil is soft and wet enough a good tug can lift out a great many pesky roots. I like Asters but their root systems are very agressive. Be warned once you got 'em they got you babe. This time of year I can pull on the stems and the plant, root and all, comes out. There will still be plenty of roots that sneakily stay put but you can pull them up as they stick their little sprouts out of the soil.
I trimmed Dahlia stems - they were all gucky and rotten. Oh yes! Be sure you have MARKED the locations of your plants! Use any kind of marker you like - here's my favorite Markers . They're tall so I don't lose sight of them in the summer when other plants may block my view. When you are happily pulling away and trouncing those nasty weeds, its good to know where the good guys are planted (been there, done it, WAY too many times).
Where was I? Oh yes the Dahlias. Some people will leave the bulbs in the ground here. I do a bit of both. Some I Store and I leave the rest where they are if I have been leased with their growth. I have already done my storage so now I just clean up the icky leaves, and put a little mulch over the area.
I'm running out of steam and have just enough in me to do a quick rake and dump the crud into the big compost bin for the garbage pickup. Its nice to know that all your garden waste isn't wasted, we have a great system that mulches everything! If you are interested in knowing all the garden chores for December in Oregon go here: HERE . I'm gonna go inside, write in my Blog, and have a nice hot pot of tea!

"The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.  ~Hanna Rion"

Local Thanksgiving Wine Tastings

Thanksgiving weekends, both before and after, are a great time to taste the wines made right here in Oregon. Often the tasting rooms have a little more going on, some extra munchies, a few futures tastings, and music so it's a good time to check 'em out. Hubby and I went 'round to some faves and I thought you might like to hear about them.
The weekend before Thanksgiving we drove down south on 99w (Pacific Hwy) to check out Benton Lane  we're fond of their Rose and have bought a ton of Pinot from them. The 2011 Pinot Gris has been on the summer table and was a big hit.
We stopped off at Hard Times Distillery  Hubbie has written about them on his Blog Corvallis Epicurean. He's fond of their Vodka Sugar Momma and I like their Sweet Baby Moonshine. Chill it down and sip it out in the yard, man! that's nice!

We walked out of there with a bottle of their Wasabi flavored vodka for a gift. I know someone who likes Shushi, figured they could try it.
Much to our surprise, just down the street, was Broadley a winery that doesn't open half as often as we would like. So we walked over and had some really good tasting! We liked the 2011 Pinot Noir. they had a few 'futures' wines - just bottled not quite ready for selling but you can reserve some if you think it will become a good wine. It was nice trying them out.

We went off to Hood River for a Thanksgiving visit with my daughter. Stayed at our favorite  Lodge for a few days and had a wonderful buffet at  Skamania Lodge  and then home again to the kitties.

This Saturday we drove over to a special event tasting at Harris Bridge Vineyard. A favorite of ours Nuthatch Cellars was pouring with them. We have had some very good wines from Nuthatch we've bought their '08 and '09 Pinot and this day we bought another '09 Malbec. All good stuff. We had not tasted from Harris Bridge so this was a great introduction. They make dessert wines and use a process that (in my humble opinion) allows for more flavor and less sugar forward. We bought some of the "Magnolia" and decided to join their wine club.

Tastings are a great place to meet kindred spirits and learn from others about the local wine scene. We met some wonderful people there and are hoping to have them over for a tasting soon. Its not for naught they are called Harris Bridge. Right outside the door is a lovely Covered bridge. With all the rain the water was flowing high and noisily along.
Back at home we tried to find a place to put all we've bought. Speaking of buying, we have a favorite wine shop in Corvallis: Wineopolis, 151 NW Monroe Ave Corvallis, OR 97330 (541) 738-1600. Our good friend Jerry Larson carries Nuthatch, Broadley and Harris Bridge, not sure about Benton Lane.Here  is an article about the store.
I hope everyone had as good a Thanksgiving Holiday as we did.

NOT Pumpkin Pie

I'm an ex-catholic, so I know confession, sometimes its good to get things off your chest. I have a confession, its hard and please don't judge me too harshly, but I gotta come clean: I don't like pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie  has so little flavor of its own, its mostly sugar and eggs with a LOAD of spices. Without a pretty crust covering it looks, well frankly, AWFUL! People won't eat it plain, they have to glop on a ton of whipped cream to even wash it down. 
Now you can say "Kathy, you've just never tasted a good pumpkin pie." You may be right but how old do you have to be before you eat a good piece of pumpkin pie? I'm  runnin' outta time here folks. Well my Hubbie DOES like pumpkin pie so I decided to find a way to give him a good piece of pie.  I decided to grow some squash - just NOT pumpkins.  I ordered the seed from  Azure Dandelion . I wanted to grow heirloom seed and found them on a search. The sales pitch says: "The orange flesh of Sweet Dumpling Squash is very sweet and tender, ideal for baking or stuffing." Sounded good to me. 
I have some fabulous raised beds that Hubbie built for me two years ago (I'll have to post about them and hubbie later on). So after 6 weeks in the greenhouse, the seedlings went outside and began the slow summer spread until they were ready to pick in October. They were very polite growers, spreading in a few sunny directions, leaves weren't overlarge and they were just as happy hanging over the edges of the beds as within. No pest problems so I'll be growing them again.
The Down and Lo on Squash: Curcurbitaceae - Gourd family -  Melons and Squash. This includes pumpkin, melons and cucumbers. Go HERE if you need more info. 
For our purposes there are two different kinds of squashes you'll find easily at the market. The soft skinned ones are often called 'summer squash' like Zucchini and Yellow squashes, they have a smooth soft skin and you can eat 'em just like they are skin and all. Then there are the 'winter squashes' like Pumpkin, Sweet Dumpling, Acorn and the like. I figure most of us are familiar with them.  Gimme a break you've NEVER killed a pumpkin for Halloween? The 'summer and winter' designation isn't because of the time of growth. Its because the winter squashes can be kept in a cold cellar DURING winter without spoiling, while summer squash is only viable unless you preserve it in some fashion. I  keep my winter squashes in a closet, its dry, cool and dark, they have company, we keep wine in there too.
The Sweet Dumpling Squash weighs about a pound and has a lovely appearance with green streaks in the skin. I got two of them out of the closet and cut them into big chunks for roasting. 

The seeds were scooped out and set to the side to be roasted later (that's another post). Don't get bent outta shape over the stringy bits. They'll cook up just as tasty as the rest. One of them was much bigger and things cook better when they have about the same mass so I cut the larger one into 3 pieces. Each was rubbed with olive oil - any light oil will do, sprinkled 1/2 teaspoon of salt over them (I use Kosher salt).

   Place  face down (I found the pieces that were completely enclosed face down cooked more moist than the pieces with portions of the meat facing outward)  on a pan that had been rubbed with more olive oil and put into the oven at 400 for 30 - 45 minutes. Try to pierce the flesh - not the skin- if the fork goes in easily they're done. They look and smell lovely!

Once they have cooled enough to handle,scoop out the flesh, the skin is tender and can come off so scrape with a light touch. Although no one is gonna DIE or notice if a little skin is mixed in. The whole thing gets blended into a smoothie anyhow. Place the cooked meat into a bowl for the pie filling.  



By the way, don't throw out the leftover skins and scraps! Place into a pot and cover with just enough water to cover them. Boil for 15 - 20 minutes, stir and mush it up a bit. Strain out the liquid and you will have a delicious broth you can use to moisten the pie mix if it is too dry. It can be a soup stock or just drink it as it is! Waste not! 

From this point on you make a basic (pumpkin) squash pie recipe. When I'm doing a recipe for the first time or trying to change one, I often start with a tried and true recipe that has had lots of testers. A good place to start from is the site Epicurious. It uses recipes from many magazines and the recipes get lots of reviews. I went there and found a recipe for Perfect Pumpkin Pie Well it is supposed to be a pumpkin pie - right?

The crust is a simple pie crust (we'll do a post on crusts later). Roll it out and bake using Pie Weights until it is light brown. I made some adjustments, to make the pie more acceptable for my taste - less sweet and a little lighter.

 The Squash is VERY sweet so I cut the sugar down to 1/3 cup, and I cut the cream by half to 3/4 cups to keep it light. I had 16 oz of pumpkin so I used it all up. I kept the spices as they were. 



  Below the photo you will find the recipe with my adjustments.  It will be thicker than a regular pumpkin pie so you can do a few swipes with the spatula to make some curves and such in the surface so you end up with a  better looking pie.  

Now look at that! Yummers! Raised bits of browned pie, little lakes and valleys, all toasty and smells GREAT!!!

 
Here's the best part: I GREW the squash that made this lovely pie! It was a part of my home, I watched it grow over the summer and mothered it along. The fruits of a tender loving labor always taste so much better!

Sweet Dumpling Squash Pie

1 Pie crust bottom layer

16 oz Roasted Sweet Dumpling squash

1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pinch of ground cloves

3 large eggs

3/4 cups heavy whipping cream

Preheat to 375°F. Butter and flour or spray non-stick spray on 9-inch-diameter deep-dish pie pan (I use a ceramic pan I made).

   CRUST: Here is a simple pie crust recipe or you can also buy ready-made crusts. Don’t get all bent outta shape about ‘handmade pie crust’ they’ll Love this pie anyhow. Roll out pie dough on floured surface to 13-inch round. Place in pie pan.  Make a nice high edge, line crust with foil and fill with pie weights. For the novice: be sure to lay the foil so that you can lift this out – leave the four corners of the foil in a ‘liftable’ position.  Bake 15 minutes or so until crust edge can stand on its’ own. Take it out of the oven and remove the foil and pie weights (careful! HOT stuff!) Return to oven and bake about 7 minutes +/-, crust will still be kinda pale just a light gold. Set aside. 

   Lower oven temp to 350°F. Be sure rack is in center for pie cooking.

   PIE: while the crust is cooking, puree SQUASH in processor. Mix in SUGAR and SPICES. Add EGGS one at a time, pulsing after each addition. Gradually add CREAM, processing just until blended. Process 5 seconds longer. The result should be a bit thick, not liquid, like a slightly melted ice cream.

Pour filling into cooked crust and make a few pockets/swirls with spatula. You may want to cover the edges of the pie crust with a diaper of foil to keep the crust from over cooking and coming out WAY too brown.    Bake until edges are puffed and center is set but still moist, about 1 HOUR +/-.

  TEST for doneness:

      * A wooden skewer or a clean dry knife stuck into the pie about halfway across the middle should 

         come out clean. If you stick the middle it won’t come out clean and shouldn’t.

      * Give the pie a little shake, it should have a little softness in the center, but not sloshy. 

         The center will continue to cook after it is out of the oven. Besides a totally cooked middle 

         will be a dry pie indeed!

     * The appearance should have browned edges on the tops of ridges, the pockets should be

         shiny and there may be a few cracks in the crust. Lookit the photo.

This pie can be cooled and refrigerated for a day or two. Wrapped in foil it can be frozen.