Green Options

June on our Wisconsin farm and B&B, Inn Serendipity, ushers in a few weeks of chaos.  Tending everything from gardens to B&B guests, June packs in a cornucopia of duties that take time away from the kitchen and savoring the abundance of the early summer season.

Don’t get me wrong as I truly relish this time of year, when both the days and work lists are long but satisfying.  Which is why we need quality fuel, good food to provide energy for the day.  This Spring Spinach and Asparagus Pasta ranks our new seasonal favorite, as it blends the tender seasonal flavors of asparagus and spinach with a filling dose of pasta, nuts and cheese, seasoned up with a unique, savory soy sauce-based dressing.  Plus it makes a sizeable batch, perfect for easy leftovers throughout the week.

Read on for the recipe and enjoy:

Before I can fully jump into savoring all the tempting, fresh flavors of the spring garden, there’s one last chapter I need to wrap up from last year’s growing season:  finishing up what’s left in the freezer.  My taste buds may be craving that tender new asparagus, but my rational mind reminds me to first finish that shredded zucchini, Swiss chard and whatever else may be lingering in my freezer first.

Frozen shredded zucchini is not a bottle of nice red wine.  Age does not improve the zucchini, it only ushers in freezer burn.  On my family’s Wisconsin farm and B&B, Inn Serendipity, I typically freeze most of our garden harvest for the simplicity and efficiency.

All summer long I shred, blanch, or tray freeze my garden goodies, packing the produce into square freezer containers and lining them up in our thirteen cubic foot chest freezer in the basement.  Chest freezers, when full, can run quite energy efficiently as not as much cold air escapes when you lift open the lid, versus the vertical type freezers.  All winter long we defrost and eat through our garden harvest, ideally letting these freezer containers slowly defrost for a few days in the refrigerator, using the defrosting process to cause our refrigerator to run less.  As we “eat through” the freezer and space opens up, I fill the empty space with recycled milk jugs filled with water to help the freezer run more efficiently.

By this time of year, I’m down to the last few freezer containers and a freezer in need of a good clean out, but need a dose of culinary motivation to use up those last lingering items from last year.  Here are three strategies I use for that that final “freezer finale”:

Hop over to the beautiful San Francisco Clary Sage Organics boutique anytime you’re free between Sunday, May 3rd and Sunday, May 10th, and when you buy something they‘ll donate a portion of their proceeds to The Trust for Public Land. “The Trust conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, gardens and other natural places, ensuring livable communities for generations to come.”

So stop by with Mom in mind, becuse you’re invited to “take a peek at our Spring offerings at Clary Sage Organics. We’re sure you’ll find something for the mom, grandmother, wife, aunt, girlfriend, daughter or sister in your life!”

Last year we shared our admiration for Brazilian shoe maker Melissa and the evolution of their footwear designs and this year their recycled plastic shoes never looked so good!

“The environmentally sensitive sandal is ethically made in Brazil in a closed loop system so there is no waste. The Gladiator is made from recycled MEFLEX plastic and provides amazing comfort for your battle weary feet.”

Companion planting is a great way to deter pests without spraying nasty chemicals onto your garden.

Every Easter, I’m in charge of the veggie roast. That means my hubby and I get to hit up local Orlando farmers markets or farm stands on Easter weekend to pick out the goods. This year, we hit up a teeny stand near my in-laws’ house. We got more veggies than the seven of us could eat for under $10. Amazing! We also got to talking with the fellow who ran the stand. He was explaining that some of his onions were a little stained on one side, since the farm grows them alongside their strawberries to ward off pests. This was my introduction into companion planting.

I knew that marigolds would help keep certain bugs away from the garden, but that’s about as far as my companion planting knowledge went. Here’s a list of some other great plant pairings to help keep your garden pest- and chemical-free!

Do you have a rain barrel for your home?

More and more homeowners are using rain barrels to conserve water while collecting soft, non-chlorinated rainwater to nourish grass and plants.

This weekend, in Calgary, Canada, Clean Calgary Association, in partnership with the City of Calgary, will hold its 8th Annual Rain Barrel Sale.

With spring coming, local residents there are thinking about their lawns and gardens. Water usage in Calgary doubles in the spring and summer due largely to lawn irrigation.

Two things my girls have enjoyed doing this Spring: playing in the rain and helping me start the garden. The perfect activity for combining these twoo things is collecting rainwater! With how dry it can be here in Utah we need to save all the water we can. Rainwater can reduce the reliance on city water and save resources, especially as water ordinances and restrictions  tighten and water becomes more scarce. Collecting rainwater for your spring/summer garden is the perfect solution and a fun experience for your kids. It is also a great way to teach your children water conservation–and you’ll enjoy the lower water bills!

If you have a small garden like mine (we just have an herb and salsa garden) you can have the children place their buckets and pails outside when you know a rainstorm is coming. This will ensure you have enough water for a couple of weeks.

April showers may bring May flowers, but they also bring some very anxious, antsy gardeners! Before you pick up a shovel or plant a single seed, there’s much to be done while you wait for the spring planting season.

Planning your garden during the winter and early spring can help you get a jump start and give you an idea of what you’ll need for the season so you can be prepared.

If you’re starting a garden for the first time, you’ll first want to take stock of the area you have available to garden. Will you have a container garden on your porch or a big veggie patch in your back yard where the lawn used to be? Determining where you’ll garden well in advance will allow you to be ready to dig in as soon as the weather warms up. If you’ll be converting a lawn into garden space, you may need to rent or borrow a tiller and start preparing the soil a few months before the last spring frost. If you’ll be starting seeds indoors, you might want to clear a sunny windowsill or a closet for seedlings until they’re big enough to plant out. So it helps to think ahead and have a plan in mind.

Up here in Vermont we live for spring. I mean, really. We literally go berserk. If it is 40 degrees and sunny, people become uncorked. They run, barely clothed, through the streets. We sit on porches. Everyone is outside, doing something. Because for months and months, we’ve been inside, in the dark, huttled around our woodstoves.

Okay maybe I am exaggering just a wee bit. But spring is a really big deal here. It’s like we should be awarded a congressional medal of honor just for making it another winter. Right now, we’ve got mud galore, and patches of dirty snow in the yard. And cold, driving rain. So we read about spring.

Take a tip from Annie Somerville, acclaimed chef at the Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, when you explore the upcoming first farmers’ market of the season, check out some of the more unusual, fresh fare that showcase spring flavor.

Chef Somerville knows her seasonal offerings.  For the past 28 years, she has helped lead the Greens Restaurant to become a national showplace for creative, fresh, local vegetarian cuisine that features the local abundance from sustainable and organic California growers.  Her signature dishes, like the Warm Cannelli Beans and Wilted Greens recipe below, draws inspiration from her regular forages at the Embarcadero Farmers’ Market and area farmers.

“At the market the last couple of weeks, you could really start seeing big indicators that the season is shifting and spring has officially arrived,” explains Chef Somerville, as she vividly and affectionately describes spring produce as if they were beloved old friends returning for a visit.  For an artistic chef like Somerville, the farmers’ market provides a culinary palette, a place where she can wander and draw cooking inspiration from the ingredients she sees.

Take a tip from Chef Somerville and explore some of the more unusual, uniquely flavorful fare that appears this time of year.  Here’s some ideas on using three of her favorites:  Nettle, chervil and kale.

When Green with Glamour wrote in today wishing us sunshine & flowers in bloom, I became delightfully curious about their Spring offerings. I fell for this gorgeous sundress. It is an unusual and interesting piece as the print was painted by elephants! It’s the brilliant result of an “uplifting & artistic collaboration” between the designers of Prophetik and the AEACP (Asian Elephant Art Conservation Project).