All Fruit (&/Or Veggie) Ice Cream

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Ann Lovejoy
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Crazy Cool Treats From The Garden And Beyond

First of all, I should explain that I don’t get out much. Thus, stuff that’s old hat for many folks is often screamingly new and exciting to me. Anyway, this weekend I combined perennial planting (one of my favorite all-time activities) with a trip to The Mall, a place I rarely visit. In fact, I only go if somebody else will drive! Naturally enough, I didn’t find more perennials there, but I DID come home with a totally fun gadget that makes sorbet that’s as creamy and rich flavored as ice cream even though it only includes frozen fruit (or vegetables).

Called Yonanas, this gizmo grinds frozen foods into creamy puree with the texture of soft ice cream. The original recipes are based on frozen ripe bananas, which I often have on hand, since I never know if my grandson will be in banana mode or not. As a single person, I often find it a challenge to use up fruit before it gets overripe, so this machine seemed like a great idea. When bananas or avocados or raspberries or blueberries are edging past their prime, I freeze them, sometimes for months on end. Now I have something new to do with the bounty, just in time for summer.

Beyond Bananas

The really good news is that if you run short of bananas, you can take the basic idea all over the place. In just a few days, I’ve moved past banana strawberry “ice cream” to peach blueberry sorbet, avocado basil sorbet, and banana almond sorbet with chocolate chunks and toasted coconut flakes stirred in. In the process of making pineapple ginger sorbet, I discovered that the Yonanas is not a Vita Mix replacement or even a blender. In fact, you have to cook harder, stringier and/or denser foods before freezing and using them, or figure out a work-around. This is not an industrial strength machine (though they make them, apparently), so it works best when you stick with soft stuff that’s been frozen at least overnight, then partially thawed.

The strength of the gadget is that it makes soft sorbet or ice cream in a few seconds (if you don’t count freezing/thawing times). If you don’t have one of these things, you can get a similar effect by grinding fruit in a food processor, then freezing the slush in an ice cream maker (just freezing it will make it rock hard). The other trick is that works best is to peel bananas BEFORE freezing them…

Ice Creamy Banana Strawberry Sorbet

2 ripe, peeled, frozen bananas
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 teaspoon minced fresh mint
1/2 teaspoon fresh lime juice
pinch of sea salt

Thaw fruit for 10-15 minutes. Feed one banana into the Yonanas, follow with the strawberries and end with the other banana. Stir in mint, lime juice and salt to taste, serve and enjoy! Serves 2-4.

Peach Blueberry Sorbet

2 ripe, peeled, frozen bananas
1 cup frozen peach slices
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt

Thaw fruit for 10-15 minutes. Feed one banana into the Yonanas, follow with alternating half-cups of berries and peaches, then end with the other banana. Stir in vanilla and salt to taste, serve and enjoy! Serves 4.

Avocado Basil Sorbet

This one makes a great palate cleanser or starter course on a warm evening…

2 ripe, peeled and frozen avocados
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup plain Greek yogurt

Let avocados thaw for 10 minutes, then put through machine. Stir in remaining ingredients and serve. Serves 4.

Banana Almond Sorbet

2 ripe peeled frozen bananas
2 tablespoons (or more) almond butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons chocolate chunks
2 tablespoons toasted coconut flakes
2 tablespoons chopped toasted almonds
pinch of sea salt

Thaw fruit for 10-15 minutes. Feed bananas into the Yonanas, stir in remaining ingredients and serve. Serves 4.

Pineapple Ginger Sorbet

2 ripe, peeled, frozen bananas
1 cup frozen pineapple slices
1 cup frozen strawberries
2 teaspoons fresh minced ginger root
pinch of sea salt

Thaw fruit for 10-15 minutes. Feed one banana into the Yonanas, follow with alternating half-cups of pineapple and berries, then end with the other banana. Stir in ginger and salt to taste and serve. Serves 4.

I’m sold! What do you think?

Posted in Recipes, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

A Palette of Plants Deer Don’t Prefer

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Ann Lovejoy
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A Palette of Plants Deer Don’t Prefer

Deer Resistant, Never Deer Proof

My new garden is filling in fast and I am so thrilled to watch the progress. My transplanted shrubs are thriving on the blend of sandy loam and fish-and-tree-waste-based compost (a local specialty). Of several dozen kinds I planted, only one has been deer-browsed so far. I am a bit puzzled by that, since the shrub in question, Sorbaria sorbifolia Sem, also called the ash leaf sorbaria, is not usually a deer-preferred plant. Indeed, it is sometimes called deer proof, though in my yard, that is a fantasy. Deer resistant is as good as it gets, and Sem has here-to-fore fit that category solidly.

If my sorbaria were the common form, it might have outgrown the deer by now. My sweet little Sem is a much better mannered form of this often aggressive shrub, which can exceed 10 feet in height and the size of your garden in width. No, Sem is a handsome, red-tinged form with much-dissected foliage, and it makes a ruffled mound about 4 x 4 feet or so in time. Still, the family vigor means I’m not in despair about the deers depredations, but I did take time to stick a tomato cage around the poor twigs, wrap the cage with chicken wire, poke some sharp, twiggy sticks around the edges and top it off with a second, nesting cage to keep those hungry snouts at a distance. That should give Sem time to recover its groove and put on fresh foliage.

Get-Over-It Gardening With Deer

I can, in fact, suggest a range of plants that deer will never touch, that won’t need water, and will never outgrow their spot. In a word: Plastic. In real life, it’s a little harder. Over the years, I’ve seen lists of plants deer love and plants deer hate, and have been fascinated to notice some of the same plants on each list. It seems that deer in one area eat things that deer elsewhere don’t. They can also change their habits: For many years, deer in my yard ignored azaleas, but one year, they ate them eagerly. I now have deer that browse the new growth on ivy, which I’ve never seen before. On one notable occasion, a deer ate the better part of a large and extremely toxic angel trumpet, yet I found no dead Bambi in the driveway.

Voracious and charming, greedy and beautiful, deer can be the bane or the grace of the garden. Although young deer will eat pretty much anything, mature deer are more discriminating. Sort of. And if there are no deer-proof plant, there definitely are deer resistant ones. Often these are plants with hairy, smelly, waxy, dense, or highly textured foliage. In addition, I’ve never seen deer eat ferns or grasses, or eucalyptus or madronas, or entire Doug firs…

Baffling Bambi

After all these years, I don’t try to outwit deer, just to leave them mildly baffled. I feel that I have learned quite a lot about these lovely  if totally annoying creatures, having been blessed with many of them in each of my gardens. At present, my yard hosts a growing family in the front yard and a clutch of young bucks in the lower back yard. Sometimes my neighbor even calls and asks me to get my deer out of his garden. Still, if I tell you deer don’t usually eat this or that, I mean MY deer, THIS year. For what it is worth, I offer you my my current list of plants my personal flock of deer rarely eat (all of):

Bulbs

Allium              Ornamental onions
Begonia            Begonia (tuberous)
Crocosmia       Crocosmia
Dahlia               Dahlia
Endymion        Spanish bluebells
Freesia              Freesia
Fritillaria          Crown imperials (specifically)
Galanthus         Snowdrops
Gladiolus          Gladiola
Hyacinthus       Hyacinths
Narcissus          Daffodils
Scilla                  Squills
Polianthes        Tuberose

Shrubs & Subshrubs

Abelia                 Abelia
Berberis             Barberry
Brugmansia      Angels trumpet
Buddleia            Butterfly bush
Buxus                 Boxwood
Ceanothus         California lilac
Cistus                 Rockrose (usually)
Cotoneaster       Cotoneaster
Daphne              Daphne
Datura                Angels trumpet
Erica                   Heather
Escallonia          Escallonia
Gaultheria         Salal
Hypericum        St. John’s wort
Ilex                      Holly
Juniperus          Juniper
Kerria                 Kerria
Lavandula         Lavender
Mahonia            Oregon grape
Nandina             Heavenly bamboo
Picea                    Spruce
Pieris                   Lily-of-the-valley shrub
Pinus                   Pine
Potentilla            Cinquefoil (usually)
Prunus                 Laurel
Rhododendron   Rhododendron, Azalea
Rhus                     Sumac
Ribes                    Flowering currant
Rosmarinus        Rosemary
Salvia                   Sage
Sarcoccoca          Sweetbox
Senecio                Sunshine (specifically)
Skimmia              Skimmia
Spirea                   Spirea
Syringa                 Lilac
Viburnum            Viburnum

Perennials

Acanthus        Bear breeches
Aconitum       Monkshood
Achillea           Yarrow
Agastache       Hummingbird plant
Alyssum          Basket-of-gold
Artemisia       Artemisia
Aster               Aster
Aubretia         Rockcress
Bergenia        Leatherleaf
Chrysanthemum  Chrysanthemum
Crambe           Sea kale
Digitalis          Foxglove
Echinacea       Cone flower
Erigeron          Fleabane
Eryngium        Sea holly
Euphorbia       Spurge
Ferula              Fennel
Gaillardia        Blanket flower
Geranium        Geranium
Helleborus      Hellebore
Iris                    Iris
Kniphofia        Poker plant
Lavatera          Mallow
Lupinus           Lupines
Meconopsis     Welsh poppy
Monarda          Bee balm
Nepeta              Catmint
Oenothera        Evening primrose
Papaver             Poppies
Penstemon       Beardtongue
Perovskia          Russian sage
Phlomis             Phlomis
Phormium        New Zealand flax
Pulmonaria      Lungwort
Rheum              Rhubarb
Rudbeckia        Black-eyed Susan
Santolina          Lavender cotton
Scabiosa           Pincushion flower
Stachys             Lambs ear
Thymus            Thyme
Verbascum       Mullein
Verbena             Verbena

Annuals

Alyssum           Sweet alyssum
Calendula         Pot marigold
Clarkia              Farewell to spring
Cleome              Spider flower
Eschscholzia    California poppy
Heliotropus     Heliotrope
Lobelia             Lobelia
Myosotis          Forget-me-nots
Nasturtium      Nasturtium
Nicotiana          Flowering tobacco
Papaver             Poppies
Pelargonium    Geranium
Petunia             Petunia
Ricinus             Castor bean
Tagetes             Marigold
Verbena            Verbena
Zinnia                Zinnia

Good luck!

Posted in Easy Care Perennials, Pets & Pests In The Garden, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

The Lighter Side Of Cauliflower

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Ann Lovejoy
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Spring Salads and Fritters 

Broccoli and Cauliflower study by Marthucia Lombard

Broccoli and Cauliflower study by Marthucia Lombard

I’ve been mildly obsessed with cauliflower all winter and now that spring is here, it’s only getting worse (or better). Here’s what I’ve been getting up to (since sciatica has kept me out of the garden, dang). Let me know what you think!

Cauliflower Raw Yet Mellow

This gorgeous salad has everything; crunchy, savory, salty, pungent, and sweet, it’s addictively more-ish. The pre-soak in oil and vinegar “cooks” the cauliflower a bit, mellowing its bite but leaving it pleasantly crisp.

Purple Power Salad

2 cups purple cauliflower, cut in small florets
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1 head red Romaine lettuce (or any), cut in ribbons
1/2 cup purple grapes, halved
1/4 cup chopped red onion
2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese

In a large bowl, toss cauliflower with vinegar, oil, and salt and let stand for 20 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, toss well and serve. Serves 4.

Cauliflower & Chick Peas & Kale &…

Make this speedy curry with coconut milk for extra richness or keep it slim and simple. Serve it with brown rice or on its own; either way, it makes a lovely meal and leftovers taste even better the next day.

Quick Cauliflower Curry

1 tablespoon coconut or avocado oil
1 onion, chopped
1 inch ginger root, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 sweet potato, chopped
1 head orange or any cauliflower, cut in florets
4 cups chopped Black Magic or your favorite kale
2 cups or 1-15 ounce can cooked chickpeas, drained
1-2 cups coconut milk (optional)

In a deep pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onion, ginger, and garlic, sprinkle with salt and cook to the fragrance point. Add celery and spices and cook for 1 minute. Add sweet potato, reduce heat to medium low and cook, covered, until barely tender (12-15 minutes). Add cauliflower and kale and cook until barely tender/wilted (3-5 minutes). Add chickpeas and coconut milk if using, heat through and serve. Serve hot over rice or as is. Serves 4.

Crispy Fritters

I never deep fry anything, but in Italy, I learned that when you cook things quickly in just-hot-enough oil, they emerge crisp and light and not at all greasy. When a drop of batter sizzles when it hits the oil, the temperature is right. If it just sits there, the oil’s too cold, and if it smokes and starts to burn right away, hello, too hot.

Cauliflower Cheddar Fritters

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk OR plain almond milk
1 cup wholewheat pastry flour
OR brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon stemmed, chopped thyme
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup grated extra sharp cheddar cheese (or any)
4 green onions, thinly sliced
2-3 tablespoons avocado or safflower oil

Steam cauliflower florets for 3 minutes, plunge into cold water until cool, and drain well. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and milk, then stir in dry ingredients and blend well. Add thyme, pepper, cheese, green onions and cauliflower and stir to coat. Put oil in a wide, shallow pan over medium high heat. When hot, drop in tablespoonfuls of mixture and press gently to flatten a bit. Cook until brown and crisp (2-3 minutes), turn and cook other side. Serve hot. Serves 4.

Savory Pancakes

These light little cakes are dreamy as is but to add variety, you can top them with all sorts of things, from plain Greek yogurt mixed with capers to fresh mint or parsley, or asiago cheese, or finely chopped apple, or chutney…

Crispy Cauliflower Pancakes With Lemon Butter

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 organic lemon, juiced, rind grated
4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons wholewheat pastry flour
OR brown rice flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon hot smoked paprika
2-3 tablespoons avocado or safflower oil

Steam cauliflower for 5 minutes, then mash lightly. Mash butter with 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice and salt to taste, set aside. Add eggs, onion, garlic, flour, baking powder, lemon rind and remaining salt to cauliflower with half the paprika. In a wide, shallow pan, heat oil (start with 1 tablespoon) over medium high heat and drop in cauliflower mixture 1/4 cup at a time, flattening the blobs into cakes. Cook until browned and crisp (3-4 minutes), flip and cook second side (3-4 minutes). Keep cakes warm until all are made (add oil as needed), then serve with lemon butter and a dusting of paprika. Serves 4.

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Staying Strong And Healthy Despite Gardening

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Ann Lovejoy
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Stretching Reduces Kvetching

yogafrogThis amazing weather magnetically attracts us into the garden. It’s truly impossible to resist the lure of a soft, warm, sunny day when soil is begging to be planted. My new garden is indeed irresistible and thus I am now hobbling around groaning. Silly me. I know better than to jump from weekly gardening to full on daily sessions without doing a little prep.

Sadly, part of my brain thinks I’m still 40, or even 50, when I could be outside all day and feel pleasantly tired after 8 or 10 hours of garden grunt work. During my recent garden renovation, the father of my usual gardening guy did just that. He and a cousin put in a full day building the berm, then cheerfully offered to move half a dozen enormous Fatsia japonicas that had been too close to the house for over 30 years. Less than an hour later, the 10-foot-tall shrubs were pruned and transplanted to the back of the new berm and their original home site was raked smooth. Yikes!

Let’s Be Real

After some thought, I realized that this skillful guy might not be 50 years old yet, or maybe just. So, at his age, I was also still going strong. However, that was then. Now, I am just going grey, and it’s really not the same. This was painfully brought to my attention this week, when I put in a brisk morning gardening at the Waypoint, a wonderful public park-ette near the ferry dock. Now two years old, this welcoming gateway to the island features a bean-shaped bed of about 5,000 square feet and an L-shaped one of about 10,000 square feet. This one, which we call the Wild Garden, backs into a steep ravine populated with deer, raccoons, opossums and lots of birds.

Between them, the beds now hold in the neighborhood of 6,000 plants, many of them natives. Once a month (third Friday mornings, in case you’re around), a handful of stalwart volunteers spend a few hours tidying up, transplanting and reorganizing as the beds fill in and we see what works and what’s not. This spring, we started a massive mulching effort using arborist’s chips (whole tree, not just bark) to keep weeds down. It’s working well, but there are always things to reorganize in a young garden.

Uh Oh

As I hopped over the low stone walls in a carefree manner, I noticed that I wasn’t getting the bounce I’m used to. One leg seemed to be dragging a bit, but I didn’t pay any attention (of course). By the time we were packing it in, I thought my back was tweaked a bit and did some hip rolls in the parking lot. This little exercise might be the gardener’s best friend; you do a pelvic tilt and make small (barely noticeable) hip circles, first in one direction, then the other. This is not a hula hoop action, just a controlled little release that frees up the lower back (usually).

By the time I got home I could hardly walk, so I did some floor mat yoga stretches for the back, which helped. Best for a lower back tweak is a gentle hip roll that places both knees to one side while the back and shoulders stay flat. You hold that until your body relaxes (say a minute or two), then slowly switch sides. I also did some hamstring releases, lying flat with bent knees and feet flat on the mat, then lifting one leg to the sky, foot flat and straight up, supporting the lifted thigh with your hands. Again, hold for 1 minute or so, then switch sides.

Afterburn

So far so good, right? Next morning, I felt fine, so… Do you think I stretched a bit to warm up? Why no! I jumped right in and planted all morning. That afternoon, the burn was so acute I could hardly walk, sit or stand. I felt too sore to stretch (silly again) and spent a miserable night, able to sort-of sleep only in child’s pose (not actually all that comfy, truthfully). The next day, I could again hardly find a comfortable position and I am embarrassed to admit how long it took me to admit that I needed some help.

A kind friend who is a massage therapist suggested that ice would help, and so it did (and does today, too). An old (ha!) friend reminded me that I have had sciatica before. (Oh yeah.) Another pal asked me if I was still doing yoga stretches regularly. (No.) So. Here’s the end of this shaggy dog tale: Please let me save you some impressive discomfort! Stretch. Stretch. Stretch. Hips, hams, hands, neck and shoulders, all joints. Before, during, and after gardening.

Note To Self

Will I remember to take better care of myself? Given the recent track record, that seems doubtful. However, I am taking advantage of my increasing dependency on reminder notes and writing “stretch” in my daily calendar, not just for the next week or two but at the beginning of each week all year long. All. Year. Long.

Posted in Garden Prep, Gardening With Children, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged | 2 Comments