Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A testimony to Black raspberries

Ok so at the young age of 26 (I am being sarcastic because this is silly), I finally had my first black raspberry; from my backyard! We've been waiting for the raspberries to ripen and this is their third year so it's our first kind of sizeable haul.

Mike likes to eat berries like a bear (get on his tiptoes and eat them straight off the vine). It's a sight I'll have to capture sometime. I picked for about 30 minutes, carefully avoiding prickers and bird netting, and got about 35-45 berries- just enough for us to chomp up for dessert.

If you haven't had fresh black raspberries: Plant some. Pick some. Eat some!



Saturday, June 25, 2011

Homeward bound

In Columbus, Ohio for the weekend visiting my parents and I brought along my grandma as well! Enjoying my stay- looking forward to checking out the Worthington Farmers Market and wondering if the "City Center" market is up and running yet? :)

Looking forward to making some homemade goodies for my mom & dad, who have a boot and a huge inflated arm, respectively, because of a biking crash. Also going to help my mom out in the garden- its about time the tables were turned! Usually they're such helpers to me and I'm looking to re-pay a small fraction of that :)

Need to update with pictures but I've canned 2 batches of strawberry jam already- its that time already! I hope to get it one more batch before strawberry season is over.


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Asparagus, Onion, and Garlic scape Frittata

It may come as a surprise, but I'm kind of a picky eater. Most of it I attribute to trying something once when I was 8 years old, disliking it, and then refusing to try it ever again, on principle. I'm also stubborn, by the way :) So when Asparagus Season rolls around, I get creative. I am not a big fan of steamed asaparagus, asparagus in butter, etc. etc. but I DO eat asparagus if it's hidden semi-well, or chopped up into smaller pieces. Since our Farmers' Market opened in May, I have been coming up with Asparagus Hider recipes, including Asapargus Risotto and chopping up asparagus and putting it into my favorite potato salad recipe. It was time for a change tonight, so I decided to invent.

Have you ever made a frittata before? Maybe I'm weird, but I never have, and I really haven't eaten quiche or frittatas all that much. A co-worker brought in a wedge of homemade frittata today with what looked like asparagus and other deliciousness, and I decided to copy her. Maybe it wasn't so inventive but oh well.

This is also an All-Local dish, which always put a feather in my theoretic cap. Storage onions, fresh garlic scapes and asparagus, oregano from my garden. The ginger isn't local, but you can't be perfect all the time!

Asparagus, Onion, and Garlic Scape Frittata

Ingredients:

6 eggs
6 stalks of asparagus
1 garlic scape (or 1 clove of garlic)
1/2 onion
oregano to taste
rosemary to taste
ginger to taste
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. While the oven heats up, chop up the asparagus into small pieces, halve the onion, take one half, and slice it length wise into small strips, and finely slice garlic scapes, or chop up garlic. Take a small frying pan, put it on the stove, and heat up a tablespoon of olive oil. Once it's going, add the veggies mixture, and cook for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, crack the eggs into a larger bowl, add oregano, rosemary, ginger, salt and pepper, and whisk until well mixed. Add the veggie mix into the egg mix, and stir them all together.

Get out a 8x8 baking dish or a 9" pie dish, and oil lightly. Pour the fritatta mixture into the pan, and pop into the oven for 30-35 minutes, until top of frittata is golden brown. Enjoy!