Cinderella's Curried Butter Balls

Now that I am a fancy breeder, I understand why the cat lovers call their kitties these long names with detailed clues to their parentage.
This year's pumpkin harvest was amazing, and it is still continuing. This year I tried another experiment. Last year, I planted Rouge Vif d'Etampes pumpkin (my favorite for how cool it looks), and also the standard Butternut squash varieties (my favorite for eating). Both varieties are in the group cucurbita maxima, so I had kind of an idea (and a hope) that they would cross.
I was interested in a smaller pumpkin than the fancy French kind that I now usually just call "Cinderella". Every time I wanted to boot one up, I had to find even more room in the fridge or find 20 friends to share it with. This year I even resorted to removing the produce bins to get some of a leftover pumpkin into cold storage. So, to this aim, I planted the saved seeds, and put the plants very close together, and hoped that the larger Cinderella had crossed with the smaller Buttercup and I'd end up with a smaller really cool red pumpkin that is still super tasty.
Well, so far, I am declaring success, even though I haven't actually tasted all of the varieties I came up with. Both potential parents are legends in the taste department, so I had no worries there. I probably ended up with about 10 plants and around 16 giant pumpkins. I got several shapes: the traditional Cinderella squat shape, a higher and boxier shape more like the butternut, and a round kind. All are the same bright orange-red color as Cinderella. Now the round ones are interesting. They have more of a green tinge at the bottom, and being almost perfectly round, have to rest on their sides. Though they were some of the first to fruit, they took more than a month longer to ripen than the others. And though the largest round specimen is only 8 inches wide, it weighs in at a hefty 12 pounds.
I am notoriously bad at keeping track of my seeds. Now to keep track of the 3 new varieties? This year I also planted some buttercup, but it didn't do too well, so I don't expect much additional crossing. In 2012, I'll probably plant last year's seed again, so I can get some additional selections.
Oh, and the curried? It's not about the color. I almost forgot. I also planted one Red Kuri pumpkin last year. It's also a maxima. Come to think of it, my round pumpkins look pretty close to them, only without the neck and all the fussiness.
Note: I got the above photo from Seeds of Change, where I also got the original seeds.

I AM an Urban Homesteader

I don't usually count and weigh my produce. I eat it.
But, now that we are keeping score, here's some of what I am up to:

1 blackberry vine
2 grape vines
3 berry bushes
4 fruit trees
5 plots golden sunchokes
6 varieties of winter squash (red kuri, butternut, buttercup, baby pam pumpkin, Cinderella pumpkin, acorn)
7 varieties of summer squash (zucchini, yellow, pattypan, caserta, cocozelle, tatumi, round)
8 fava bean plants
9 colors of chard (white, cream, pink, green, lemon yellow, gold, orange, red, magenta)
10 sources of rescued spinning fiber (2 Ragamuffins, 2 Siberian Huskies, 1 German Shepard mix, 3 Spaniel mixes, 1 samoyed, 1 angora rabbit)
11 kinds of hot pepper (Bhut jolokia, serrano, jalapeno, giant cayenne, cayenne, poblano, NewMex Joe E. Parker, Espanola, Anaheim, bird, black pearl)
12 months of veggies!
No partridge. No pear tree. (yet)

Urban Bumstead

I just heard that "that family in Pasadena" has trademarked some of the names and phrases to describe a place that is sort of like a city backyard, only there is a worm bin installed in the bbq grill.
And, this family has been trying to get others to stop using their name, since I guess they peed on it first, way back when, when Al Gore and I were inventing the internet.
It is a sad day in Mudville. I remember the good old days when trading partners were trading partners and it wasn't like, you know, some people at work.
I'm sure all you long-time readers remember my English teacher, Jim. He's the first hippie person I knew to have that kind of place that is located in the inner city but has chickens and a veggie garden. That was in 1972.
Oh ya, and my Dad, but I only remember back to the early 60's or so. We didn't have chickens, but our next-door neighbor did. We got first dibs on the manure, though. I guess those were the good old days, back in the days when manure was slung onto gardens.

Day 16 - No Carrots

I went looking for my container of carrots from trader Gaston and found that someone else had eaten all of them. Dang! I really wanted something different today.
I was too busy to shop today. I spent over three hours in the garden, tearing down some old fencing and putting up new metal mesh fencing. I worked until the staples ran out in the staple gun, about a third of the way through the project.
I picked a ton of greens to take with me on a trip, and spent much time washing, trimming and pulling off slugs. The fridge is bursting with vegetables.
For breakfast I had the last of the coffee from partner Irene, and a protein shake from partner Igor.
For lunch, I ate MORE french toast with honey, lettuce and potato salad.
For an afternoon snack I ate a tangerine from partner Earl. After working in the garden, I sat down with a large container of tea from partner Otto and lime from partner Colin.
For dinner I made stuffing with bread from partner Arlene, turkey from partner Cindy, leeks, celery, sage, salt, thyme from partner Philippe, and black pepper from partner Ophelia.
For an evening snack I had a cup of the squash soup, garden pumpkin seeds, lettuce, corn salad, and a taste of sauerkraut. I decided to put some dried shiso leaves into the crock, to see if they would lend more color to the batch. By the end of the day, much color had been added, and I fished the shiso leaves out and ate them. They tasted wonderful, but they could have been left in longer. (They were a bit too chewy.) I lined the crock with a new layer of shiso leaves and put the kraut to sleep for the evening. Shiso leaves have a cinnamon-like taste, and the only cinnamon flavor I have enjoyed since the start of this February challenge

Day 13 - Spring is Here!

I ate a substantial breakfast before a date with another trading partner involving lots of walking. I had eggs, greens, toast from partner Arlene, butter, and coffee from partner Irene.
I had a late-morning snack of french toast with honey from partner Alex and a tangerine from partner Earl.
For lunch I finished up the chayote squash dish, and had some mini bagels and apple slices.
For an afternoon snack I had 1/2 banana, and another cup of coffee from partner Irene, with a dab of honey and some Detroggia beets.
I have to take back all the bad things I said about the Detroggia beets! Despite their shape and lack of a white ring, when I cooked them in the pressure cooker, all the water was yellow. When I sliced the beets, I discovered that the insides were strawberry red and gold striped, with all the wonderful flavor of a chioggia. I can't wait to show these off at the next locavore potluck, I'll be the best little food snob.
We went out to eat with friends for dinner. I also had a calcium pill from partner Igor.
I did not spend any money for food today, and so have $4.23 left over. This is almost enough to buy a package of raisins at Whole Foods.

Day 12 - Back to my old favorites

I made another baking dish full of chayote squash (from partner Julia) and tikka masala from partner Karl. I also had a mug of coffee from partner Irene and a taste of my new batch of sauerkraut. While I was away, the kraut started to turn nice and pink from a baby head of purple cabbage from partner Richard. It looked pretty sad before, but now that the acidity is higher, the color is much better. The juice looks like a nice blush wine.
For a snack I had some mini-bagels with margarine and a mug of coffee with half-n-half, all from partner Arlene. I also got some bread from Arlene.
For lunch I had french toast made with the bread from partner Arlene, an egg and some butter. I also had a huge plate of steamed broccoli and peas from the garden, some cookies from partner Arlene and some lime juice.
For an afternoon snack I had toast and butter, and more of the squash with tikka masala.
For dinner, I had a bowl of the vegetable soup made earlier in the week, rice from partner Matthew, 1/2 of the banana and some turkey from partner Cindy and a handful of dehydrated apples from partner Colin.
I didn't spend any money for food, so I have $3.40 in the "food bank".

Day 1 - Lunch

I stopped by the garden and many of my friends/trading partners were there. Since it is getting warmer, the gardens are overrun with winter greens. It is time to rip some older plants out and get ready for spring planting.
After spending waaay too much time gabbing and piddling around with compost, I harvested a large container of veggies for the rest of today and early tomorrow. So here's lunch:
Juice made from a blood orange from partner Danielle and a tangerine from partner Earl
Arugala from partner Fiona
Lettuce from the garden and partner Gaston.
Radishes, mache and snow peas from the garden
Broccoli from partner Hermine
Salad dressing from Alex
1/2 packet meal replacement shake from partner Igor
The lettuce was nice and crispy, and a blend of several varieties. I grew the Freckles and Red Romaine and Gaston grew the Bronze Mignonette and Four Seasons from some seed that I had grown out myself two years ago.

Day 1 - Breakfast

I realize that if I want a fair account of the first day, I had better start now. It does take some time to write down all I eat. So here's breakfast:
Radishes and buttercrunch lettuce from the garden.
Olive oil and local lime dressing from trading partner Alex.
Dried apple slices from trading partner Bonnie.
Dried apple slices from partner Colin. (Colin's apples are much sweeter so I mix the two.) Both varieties were drenched in lemon juice from Danielle before dehydration.
Yes, the radishes really were the French Breakfast variety. Despite the name, I had never eaten them for breakfast before. I picked them yesterday but forgot to bring them inside. I usually don't eat this type of breakfast, especially in the winter, but the radishes called out to me, for some reason.

Salad competition - Locavore potluck redo

Kris posted his salad, but now we need a salad-off. Since I don't have a camera, I'll have to describe what I got to eat this week. I started with spinach from R, freshly plucked from his garden, crispy-tender and very curly. I added my own freckles romaine baby lettuce, and plenty of lettuce that B gave to me. (She was in Ojai this Sunday and went a little hog-wild at the farmer's market.) The varieties look like cos romaine, red oak, lolla rossa and buttercrunch. She also gave me some tender new asparagus, so I steamed it along with the haricot vert string beans and baby broccoli from my garden. I chopped a huge orange sweet tequila sunrise pepper and a small but deadly orange habanero and added it to the mix. The radishes came from M's garden. They were large and pink, with pink markings on the inside. I also slivered my own celery stalks, scallions and baby fennel.
I did have a dressing, made with local olive oil, sea salt, lime juice from La Casa, Italian and lemon basil from my patio, and R's dried marjoram. I topped the salad with sweet pomegranate seeds that P gave to me.

Our last Official Potluck for the year

Now we are into full-scale winter hibernation. There are no more official locavore potlucks for the rest of the year, AND the farmers' market is closing. I stopped by the community garden and almost no one else was there. The majority of gardeners aren't really into winter crops, so they don't come as often.
There is no better way to celebrate a hibernation than to make a big pot of soup. This morning I cooked up a pot of turkey, rice and vegetable broth. To the mix I added my last carrot, a good bit of celery, a leek, more string beans, fennel, broccoli, peppers, chard, kale, Cinderella pumpkin, baby butternut squash, dried and frozen zucchini, dried peas and some dried herbs.

Bean Wars

My late beans are finally in! They seem to take so long this time of year, but well worth the wait. The first of the new crop of haricot verts was in this Monday, and now we are fighting over who gets to eat them all. I have only a few plants, but I am getting about one serving per day.
I had such good luck with this variety in the cold spring that it is here for another round. Hopefully the crop will keep going until the peas are ready. That may be a long time, since the first planting of peas is being trimmed mightily by some hungry animal.

Pumpkin at the Potluck

The pumpkin soup I had been planning all year for the potluck was a hit! The hardest part was growing the pumpkins. I started seedlings in February, and got some of them into the ground by March. The Cinderella pumpkin seedlings were transplanted a bit later in April. Both pumpkin patches had lots of compost that I made through the spring and summer of 2008 with horse manure from a friend, food waste from the local food bank and garden refuse. In the early spring, I cleaned out a friend's chicken coop, so the chicken manure was also added to the soil.
Now that I have shared the recipe for the compost and the soil, here's the recipe for the soup. I cooked the squash and made the broth the day before, prepared the tureen on the morning of the potluck and then did all the other stuff shortly before eating. I fully cooked the tureen two days later and it will take us another month to eat it all. That was one big pumpkin!
Soup
1 butternut squash
1 small eating-type pumpkin (I used Baby Pam)
1 Cinderella pumpkin
1 orange or red sweet pepper
2 red serrano peppers
1/2 cup raw walnuts
2 leeks
several green onions
several ribs celery
1 clove garlic
1 t coriander
olive oil
salt
water

Cut the squash and small pumpkin into pieces, remove the seeds for another use, and simmer in a large pan with 1/2 inch of water, covered, for 20 minutes. Let it cool gradually while you are doing everything else.
Soak the walnuts for several hours, and throw the soaking water into the compost pile.
Chop the bottom part of the leek, the white part of the onion, the bottom part of the celery, peppers and garlic, reserving the veggie tops, leaves and skins for broth. Saute the chopped veggies in olive oil until tender and let cool until they are easily handled.
Finely chop the veggie tops and leaves and put in a pan and cover with water, simmer for 5 minutes, cover and let cool for 15 minutes.
Strain the broth and add to a blender with the walnuts. Puree on high until smooth. Pour into a large pot.
Add the sauteed veggies to the blender and puree with additional water until they are smooth. Put the veggies through a food mill and add them to the large pot.
Scoop out the squash and small pumpkin pulp and put through the food mill and add it to the large pot. Add more water or broth until you get the desired consistency.
Toast the coriander seeds until they are fragrant and then grind with a mortar and pestle, and add to the pot. Season with salt to taste. Heat on simmer, stirring, until warm enough to serve.

Tureen recipe.
Cut an opening in the top of the Cinderella pumpkin like for a Jack-o-lantern, scoop out the seeds and strings, put the lid back on and place on a large baking pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. This is enough to get rid of the raw taste but not enough to cause the pumpkin to cave in. The flesh of this pumpkin is not scooped out and used for the soup.
While the tureen is still warm, add the hot soup.
The tureen will store very well in the fridge with the lid on for a couple of days, and can then be fully cooked and used for even more soup. You can also toast all the pumpkin and squash seeds the next day as long as they are washed and dried well.