Sweetness!

It's that time of year when - if we're lucky - the weather starts cooling and we're interested in warmer and richer comfort foods like chicken and dumplings, gumbo, and sweet potato casserole.

Oh, sweet potato casserole! And sweet potato pie, and baked sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar, and best of all: savory roasted sweet potatoes. (Recipe below.) Mmmm mmmmmmm!

So where to begin? Sure, you can pick them up at the store year-round, and the sweet potatoes will start appearing in south Louisiana farmers markets in the next few weeks, but you know where you should really begin: your own back yard.



In about May or so of this year, I planted nine Beauregard sweet potato slips in three containers. Two of the containers have little doors at the bottom, which was great for harvesting new potatoes in the spring, but I didn't even open them for the sweet potatoes.



I was supposed to wait until late September to harvest, but I was really curious, plus I could see a sweet potato peeking from the soil of one container. So of course I harvested that container right at the beginning of September. The last one will wait until October, but I did the second one today.

To begin, I dumped the container over onto a large plastic garbage bag (to make clean-up that much easier!).



Then I simply sifted through the soil, picking out potatoes and placing the soil back into a container. While sorting through, I came across the longest, weirdest looking sweet potato ever!



But I kept going. There wasn't much worth photographing in this container, but I have a few. Once they are dry, they will keep for a while, though I will likely roast them with olive oil and coarse salt soon!



And what to do with the container and all that soil? Start more plants, of course! These are broccoli, but I am using the other sweet potato container for carrots. YUM!





ROASTED SWEET POTATOES

sweet potatoes (as many or as few as you like)
olive oil
coarse salt

Wash and peel sweet potatoes. Cut into chunks no bigger than 1".
Toss with a scant bit of olive oil, but enough to very lightly coat potatoes. Sprinkle with a little salt; keep in mind that these potatoes will be sweet, and the salt should complement the sugars but not overwhelm them.
Roast at 400* F for about 25 - 35 minutes, or until fork tender.
Serve warm.

Growing Green Onions

Yes, it really is just this easy to grow green onions. I don't know if this works everywhere, but in the warm southern climes, growing green onions is a simple task.

Oh sure, you can buy green onion seeds to plant, but that takes a while. This method is simple, fairly quick, and you are using something you would have just thrown away or composted anyway. Just buy them when you normally would, say for gumbo or red beans, and then plant the leftover bulbs.

First, buy a nice-looking bunch of green onions at the grocery store or your local farmers market.


Second, chop up the green and white parts of the onions, leaving the bulb with the roots attached.


Third, find a small patch of ground - by small, I mean about two square inches per onion - or a pot with soil.


Fourth, plant the bulbs with the roots down (yes, it is necessary to remind some people of this) and the white part up.


Then cover the bulb with soil, leaving just flat white top exposed.


Finally, be patient, and in a couple of months, you will be able to start harvesting green onions from your very own yard.


Once you get in the habit of simply going outside for fresh green onions, it's hard to buy them at the store. (Like I did today, just for this blog.) In fact, it is so ingrained in me now that when I was cooking at my sister's house last year, I didn't bring any green onions and had truly forgotten that not everyone has them growing in their yards. I survived, but it was a good reminder ... and a good excuse to publish this little public service announcement.

Pears ~ Pears ~ Pears

Most people in the U.S. consider pears to be a fall fruit, but for me, pears are a marker of mid-summer. But it wasn't always this way: The first summer I was in my house, I didn't pick any pears and actually considered removing the tree, but a friend talked me into keeping it. And I am so glad I listened!

Generally, pears that grow in the Deep South are commonly called "cooking pears." And it's true: most are far too hard to eat fresh and require cooking. But the ones that grow in my yard are delicious and crisp and sweet! I peel and eat about one fresh pear per day during the season.


But with about 300 pears on my tree, what do I do with the rest? Well, this year, I have shared with family and neighbors (as usual), brought a few bags to the community garden, and I canned some ...



... and made Vanilla Pear Butter, which is out of this world yummy on hot French bread or a turkey sandwich ...



... and pear bread (served with a side of fresh figs, another summer favorite!) ...



... and pear cobbler (baking as I write!).

ETA: The cobbler is delicious!


After canning one day, I also poached some pears to eat with leftover butterscotch ganache. Yum!



And still - still! - I have about 100 pears left on the tree. My, oh my ... what a lucky girl I am!

Red Stick Farmers Market

My Saturday morning routine includes a visit to the Red Stick Farmers Market. This week, I remembered my camera, and I want to share with you why I love the market as I do.

I started my morning with a pint of Smith's Creamery chocolate milk. I normally get a half-gallon of chocolate milk for Drew just before heading home, but since he's galavanting about the country, I treated myself first thing!

I love seeing all the fresh produce! This time of year is fabulous for tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes! Glaser's Produce Farm has a fantastic variety from which to choose, and Fletcher Farms, from whom I bought my strawberries for the fabulous strawberry vodka, now has some of the prettiest tomatoes around.

Of course, Chenier Farms has excellent Brandywine and other tomatoes, too, and other vendors have grape and cherry tomatoes. Mmm mmmm good!

Eggplants take center stage, too. So many varieties to choose from! Here are a couple of choices from Glaser's Produce Farm.

Squash and onions get along famously ... I can get my fill of each from many vendors, but here are some selections from Chenier Farm.

Chenier Farm also sells the best honey around and is my supplier for fuyu (or kaki, as some call them) persimmons. These persimmons won't be ripe until the fall, but trust me: they are worth a try! They are not like the tart American persimmons, but are instead sweet when green and crisp or orange and fully ripe. Oh, how I love a fuyu persimmon!

Another great combination is goat cheddar cheese with apples! When I was in high school, my dear friend Eve introduced me to this combo, and I've been grateful ever sine. Here, I've selected Ryals' Goat Farm cheddar cheese to accompany Beard's Farm freshly picked apples ... ahhh, it doesn't get much yummier than this:

My favorite new farm is Robertson Organic Farm. It's located in Baton Rouge, and is one of the few farms that is actually certified organic. I couldn't resist a carton of okra ... olive oil, Tony Cachere's, and a grill are all you need to make a tantalizing okra!

I like to get extra okra to slice and freeze for a nice winter gumbo, too! And what is perfect with gumbo? Fresh file, of course ... and rice! I like to watch Uncle Bill grind the sassafras roots into his famous Creole File, and I love the smell of Cajun Grain's organic brown jasmine rice cooking on the stove. Just thinking about this makes me want a bowl of gumbo, till I remember that it's nearly 100* every day.

Of course, there are a few people that everyone knows. Mr. Buddy loves giving out pecan samples from his Plantation Pecan Company, but this time of year, his booth features peaches!

The blueberry farm dude (a.k.a. the black bear dude, since he is one of the Louisiana black bear experts, as well) is eagerly waited for each year. His farm is not certified organic, but employs organic methods in its fields.

Mila loves sharing growing tips with interested market goers. I buy almost all of my plants from Greenhand Nursery because of Mila's extensive knowledge and gorgeous plants.

Or, if you don't grow your own flowers, you can pick up a bouquet from one of several vendors.

This week, there was a fun game: "Guess How Many Tomatoes!" I didn't win.

And most weeks, there is a demonstration of some sort. This week, Forte Grove Bakery based in Plaquemine, Louisiana provided the entertainment with a canning demonstration.

I oscillate between Forte Grove and SaySaye's Village Bakery. I just love SaySaye's braided French bread and apricot spread!

Of course, there is other entertainment, too! There is sometimes a kids' booth with kid-oriented activities, or maybe an informational booth from the Master Gardeners' Association, or a useful thing like the knife sharpening skills of Doyle Hanson.

And music: of course there is music. No Louisiana function is complete without music! There are different musicians playing outside every week, and sometimes the dulcimer society has a jam session inside.

I admit that I can sit for hours listening to the musicians who grace the market with sound each week.

But there is so much more, too! There's the *other* goat cheese vendor, Belle Ecore, whose venture began because somebody gave her two goats ...

... and Nur's Kitchen, with delicious hummus (also available at Whole Foods), stuffed grape leaves, and my favorite red lentil balls ...

... and fresh seafood and meat and chicken and eggs ...

... and, well, why don't you try it for yourself? There are so many more choices and more vendors than I can possibly mention here!

And, on the first Saturday of each month, the farmers are joined by artists for the Arts Market ... but it would take another entry to describe the wonders of the arts.

See you Saturday! I'll be there bright and early.

Wow, it's hot.

Wow, it's hot. June 1st ... over 100*. June 2 ... over 100*. June 3rd ... yep, you get the idea.

And windy! We have had a very windy spring this year, with 10 - 20 mph winds being the norm.

So what does all this mean for the garden? It is dry! There has been very little rain around here for the past four months, and the plants have to be watered quite frequently. I have been watering every other day, but the combination of heat and wind this week has resulted in a need for daily watering, especially of the vegetables.

The good news is that although it is too hot for most of the tomatoes to set fruit, the strawberry tomatoes seem to like the heat. Not only is the first strawberry tomato finally ripening, but it is a prolific producer: one vine has well over 100 tomatoes set right now! It is such a sweet variety, and I've only tried the ones from the store. I cannot wait to sample freshly picked ones and see how sweet these really can be!

The dinner plate hibiscus is another summer garden keeper. This plant loves the heat and produces quite a fantastic display once it starts blooming. It's gotten plenty of water since it is surrounded by veggies, but the lack of rain has resulted in a slightly smaller bloom than usual. Still, nearly 11" across isn't too bad!

I hear thunder outside right now, but there is no evidence of water falling from the sky to relieve my poor, dry gardens. Amazingly, the water just 50 yards away - the Mississippi River is at flood stage - is about 20' higher than my yard at the moment. Thankfully, that water is safely behind a levee!

Fortunately, however, the fruit trees seem to be okay. The high water table because of the river and the long roots of the fruit trees have kept them healthy, despite our strange weather pattern this year.

Strawberry-Loquat Jam

When I moved into my house seven (SEVEN?!) years ago, I had no idea what a loquat was. Sure, I'd seen the bushes here and there, adorned with pretty fruit at weird times during the year, but I didn't really know what it was.

And then, nearly a year after we moved in, my neighbor invited me to try a few Japanese plums. I wasn't sure about it, but he'd been eating them for years, and he was still alive. Right? Right.

The *huge* loquat tree that overhangs my fence.

So I tried one ... and then another ... and Drew and I couldn't stop! They were so incredibly delicious, like a sweet, juicy plum filled with gorgeous copper seeds. And I love plums!

I learned that the "proper" name for this plant is a loquat (or an Eriobotrya japonica, if you want to get really technical), though they are commonly called Japanese plums around here and Chinese plums in some other areas. It is edible, though the seeds - which are prolific sprouters, by the way - and the leaves apparently contain some deadly toxin, like cyanide.

A better view of the delicious Japanese plums.

This year, the neighbor's loquat is simply loaded. We've picked and picked from the tree, and it hardly looks like there are any missing. So, as usual when there is an abundance of something edible growing nearby, I try to come up with some use for it.

And since strawberries are in season, too, and since I happen to have some jelly jars and other necessary supplies, I decided to make strawberry-loquat jam.

Drew and I picked as many fruits as we could ... or, that is, until our arms were too tired to pick any more. We brought them inside and I washed them well. Then I squeezed the juice from the loquats until my hands were too weak, then I recruited Drew to squeeze the rest.

Washed and ready to be juiced.

I decided to make freezer jam since it doesn't require any proper canning techniques. I began by cooking the loquat juice with the pectin, then added strawberries and sugar (and a little local honey!) to finish it off. It seemed a little sweet, but I figured I could live with that. Once the jam was ready, I placed in freezer jam containers and placed it in the fridge so that it could set before freezing.

Strawberry-Loquat Jam

The real test, however, would be how it tasted on a biscuit. Since I couldn't wait to find out, we changed our dinner plans from pork chops with a parsley pesto and cherry tomato pasta to (freshly laid) scrambled eggs with extra sharp cheddar cheese and hot buttermilk biscuits.

Surely this needs no explanation.

While I thought the jelly was too sweet when sampled on a teaspoon, it was actually just right. I can imagine this glazing a nice brie served with water crackers or layered, perhaps, in a lovely goat cheese torte. But on a piping hot, fresh from the oven biscuit? Divine! This strawberry-loquat jam definitely passed the test.