Hey Ladies...

I've been battling aphids on my tomato plants since June. I've never noticed any aphids in my gardens before, but they started out on one tomato plant this year and spread to the others. It was my excitement to try this one particular tomato variety that kept me from plucking the infested plant before things got out of hand.

Every year I plant different varieties of heirloom tomatoes. I've tried the brandywines, green zebras, garden peach, yellow pear, Juan Flame, Black Krim, and countless others. I've enjoyed every one of them, but I rarely repeat them because there's something special about planting a new (old) variety. Sometimes I'll hear about a variety I want to try and seek it out. Other times (okay, most times) I just like the name of the tomato plant so I'll buy it. I mean, how can you resist a tomato called the "Hillbilly"? Such was also the case with the Italian Cream Sausage tomatoes.

I know, I know. Those tomatoes don't sound vegan, kosher, or even healthy. Maybe that's why they appealed to me so much... And when aphids appeared on my Italian Cream Sausage plant, I just couldn't bring myself to destroy the plant.

I've tried a few of the recommended treatments- I've inspected each leaf, squishing the aphids and their larvae. I've sprayed them with a high pressure hose to knock them off . I've misted them with soapy water to drown the suckers. Yet they still spread to my other tomatoes.

So now, with 6 tomato plants afflicted, I'm bringing in the big guns.

Ladybugs LOVE aphids. Me: not so much. So I'll let the ladies do the work on this one.
{By the way, I got them at Mother Earth Gardens in Minneapolis. They're awesome}

The boys helped me water the garden to encourage the thirsty ladybugs to stay a while, have a drink, and have a bite (of aphids) to eat. Then we spritzed them with some sugar water to make them a little sticky so they won't want to fly too soon. {Don't worry- it doesn't hurt them}
The boys helped me spread the ladies on the tomato plants. We only used about 1/2 the bag. The ladybugs went back in the fridge for a nap until our second spreading. I hope they're hungry!

Some good news from the garden is that the black hollyhocks I got for Mike a few years back are finally blooming. Mike's favorite color is black and when I asked him what flowers he'd like to plant he replied, "Black ones", probably trying to be difficult. So when I found black hollyhocks, I knew we had to plant them.
When I'm out in the garden, using a pitchfork and spreading straw, mucking around in compost, I like to pretend I'm a real farmer. This is how hardcore I feel.

Meet my blog-on-the-side

Dear blog-reading friends,

I know it seems like I've been neglecting you lately. What was that- One post last week?! It's time for you to meet my blog-on-the-side, Eat Local Mississippi Market. What once was just for co-op folks is now open to all. I'm trying not to "cross-post" so that you can get something unique from me at each site. Be forewarned that the MM blog is not all vegan, but the lessons learned and great recipe ideas will be useful no matter what your eating habits.

Love,
Liz

St. Croix Adventures

Yesterday our family embarked on a journey into the wilderness. Okay, we just went to a state park, but it felt eons away from the city. We went to William O'Brien state park on the St. Croix river to spend the day canoing, picnicking, and swimming.

Now it probably wasn't the smartest idea for two folks who have never so much as touched a canoe to decide to go on a 2 hour canoe trip on the windiest day of the year with two restless 8-year-olds...But we were feeling adventurous! So we rented a canoe, two paddles, and 4 life jackets and set sail. Except the sailing wasn't exceptionally smooth. It was more like frantically paddling upstream both ways, zig-zagging across the river so much that our short loop probably quadrupled in mileage.

Is there some secret to canoing? It looks so simple in movies and from my usual landlocked view. Perhaps Mike and I didn't have our rhythm right. Or maybe it was the kids deciding to STAND UP and both lean over one side of the canoe, sending us tilting perilously close to the water. Or maybe we had the boat backwards or something (is there a front?). Or maybe the wind really did make our trip be upstream both ways. Whoever we decide to blame, it was pretty stressful trying to keep going one direction and avoiding getting stuck in the shallow parts. But there were moments when we looked up into the trees and the sky and remembered, "Oh, yeah. This is really beautiful!"


It didn't look like a sunny day- in fact, it was downright cloudy with storms coming in that night. Both Mike and I got sunburned kinda bad, but the kids were fine with their farmer tans already established for the summer.

After we got safely back to shore we went to the beach and swam for a little bit and the kids worked on a sand castle. I layed on the beach and tried not to fall asleep. Then we found a shady spot to cook dinner and enjoyed some potatoes and refried beans alongside rice-veggie burgers. Oh, yeah- and chips and soda of course. No eating local today. {wait, that's not true. the corn chips were local and so were the frozen potatoes} In true camping style, we ate these out of paper cups.



We finished eating just as the clouds started rolling in and made it home before the biggest part of the storm hit St. Paul. And just a few minutes later? A tornado warning for our beloved park. We made it out just in time. Good thing we decided not to make it a camping trip!

My second wedding...

I'm super excited to be doing the desserts for another vegan wedding!
This one is in September, so Fall flavors will be featured.

Flavors will be: S'Mores, Maple Walnut, Lime Margarita, and Pumpkin Cream Cheese.


The bride and groom will have a two tiered mini citrus cake covered in cream cheese frosting and lime zest. Aren't these flowers beautiful? Who can guess what kind they are? (No cheating, Erin & Holly!)


After a long hard day of sleeping out on the deck chairs, it was all I could do to whip up a quick salad for dinner. This one is with nappa cabbage, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapeños, and green onions. I dressed it with sesame oil, tamari, and rice vinegar. A bit monochromatic, but delicious nonetheless.

Why I'm not very cool

Where do I like to spend a hot Saturday night? In the kitchen, of course.
How ironic that canning or preserving needs to take place during the hottest summer months, when the garden is overflowing with food. This task, while enjoyable, heats my kitchen far beyond lasagna-baking or soup simmering temperatures. It is nearly unbearable.

So today, while making mulberry jam and jalapeño jam (that's two kinds, not mulberry-jalapeño...although that might be good), I took breaks in the kiddie pool in the backyard and sipped ice water.

And then, after heating up the kitchen to unbearable levels, I figured, "Hey, why not make some pasta?" My fellow Eat Local Challenge participants and I have lamented over the lack of very local pasta here in MN. I rely on the Dakota Grower's pasta from North Dakota when I need a quick pasta fix, but there's nothing like homemade pasta.

Tonight I decided to make a tortelloni pasta with 1/2 my dough and some fettuccine with the other half.

The pasta itself is pretty darn local, with flour and water being 99% of the ingredients in this recipe. The filling is as follows:

Herbed Sunflower Seed Pasta Filling

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds, toasted in a dry skillet (MN)
1/4 cup water (MN)
2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
10 stems from cremini mushrooms (WI)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh thyme (backyard)

After toasting the sunflower seeds until beginning to brown, add 1/4 cup of water and let them soak for about an hour. Go do some yoga in the meantime. Then whizz around the sunflower seeds, soaking water, and remaining ingredients in a food processor until finely minced, but not quite smooth. Use about 1/2 tsp. per 2" round of pasta dough. This would also be super good as a spread on crackers, inside a tortilla, or just off a spoon.


The sauce for this pasta is a white sauce made with Earth Balance, flour, Org. Valley soymilk (WI), salt, green onions (MN), cremini mushroom caps (WI), parsley (backyard) and blanched snap peas (backyard). I didn't measure anything for this recipe, sorry.

Even though it was 9pm before I got to eat dinner, it was damn good. And the best part is, I have fettuccine in the freezer for another day!

Yippee!

If there's one thing this Eat Local Challenge has done, it's made me really excited about food. {I know what you're thinking..."How could Liz be any more excited about food?"}

A few months ago I never would have squealed with delight after seeing that the nappa cabbage and yellow squash from Wisconsin were delivered today. But today, in the produce aisle, I squealed and even jumped up and down a little after seeing these beauties. Plus, there were local cippolini onions! I'm just so excited to have my menu broaden!

So as soon as I got home I cooked up some buckwheat with the onions, then sauteed yellow squash, zucchini, onion tops, cherry tomatoes and cremini mushrooms with handfuls of fresh parsley, lime basil, and thyme. Wow- this was just what I needed. I just seasoned it with the herbs and salt, so I could really taste the freshness of the veggies.
Afterwards I enjoyed a shake made with OatsCreme (MN made- I emailed them to find out where their oats come from), Organic Valley soymilk (WI), and backyard strawberries.

Now I've just got to plan a fun dinner for tomorrow. I'm just working a 1/2 day, so I could make something really special...

Local Party Food

We hosted a game night at our house last night and I challenged myself to make the snacks as close to 100% local as possible- Here's how I did:

Our burritos were made with homemade flour tortillas (flour from MN and soymilk from IA), homemade refried black beans (beans from MN, peppers from the garden, green garlic from MN/WI), lettuce from the garden, and homemade pico de gallo (tomatoes from MN, green onions from WI, japaleno from garden, cilantro from MN/WI).

The chips were from Whole Grain Milling Co. in MN. The cookies are my Sunny Oat Maple
Cookies (local except for the oil, salt, and vanilla). Our beverage of choice for the night was Rhubarb-Ade. I think I posted before about the Rhubarb Lemonade recipe that my friend Sarah gave to me. I tweaked it just a bit-

Rhubarb-Ade

6-7 cups chopped rhubarb
7 cups water
1 cup maple sytup
a small handful of fresh lemon verbena leaves
additional 1-2 cups cold water

Boil the rhubarb, maple syrup, and water until the rhubarb is very mushy (maybe 10 minutes). Then strain the liquid in to a pitcher with a fine mesh strainer. In a smaller cup, smash the lemon verbena leaves with a cup water to release the flavor, then add to the rhubarb liquid. Taste the rhubarb ade and add more cold water if it need to be diluted or more maple syrup if it is too sour. {If it's too sweet, you can add some lemon juice, but my rhubarb was tart enough} Refrigerate pitcher for at least 4 hours, until thoroughly chilled.

Here's a great bagel sandwich I had a few nights ago- made with a St. Paul Bagelry "everything" bagel, MN tomatoes, MN made pickles, my homemade pickled radishes, and Wisconsin dill mustard. Yum!