Recipe for Pasta with fresh chives

 

Lemony, Chivey, Chickeny, Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

• Some sort of pasta, maybe even some Fresh Pasta
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 bunch chives
• 1 lemon
• 2 Tbs olive oil

Directions:

1. Bring water to a boil for the pasta. Don’t forget some salt. Cook the pasta.
2. Cut the chicken breasts in half horizontally so that they are half as thick. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
3. Cook the chicken filets over a medium-high heat with a little bit of oil. It should take 3-4 minutes per side to cook the chicken.
4. Zest the lemon, removing as little of the white part as possible. Juice the lemon into a large bowl and add the zest and olive oil.
5. Finely chop the chive and add them to the bowl. Chop the chicken width-wise into bite size strips. Add the chicken in with everything else.
6. When the pasta is done, drain and toss in the bowl with all the other stuff. Yum. 

Community Supported Agriculture

Do you remember your grandmother's vegetable garden? That mouth watering, intense flavour of home grown vegetables? Remember going to the garden with a basket and harvesting only what you needed for the evening meal? You can have that again!

Last year The Greenhouse and Garden Store began a new project on a trial basis. We had been supporting the West Coast Farmers Market for the past couple of years but it we were losing our shirt. The manpower required to get ready for it and then attend was costing us more than we were making. On to plan 'b'. We decided to start a weekly vegetable basket, commonly known as a CSA. This is a trend sweeping North America that gives consumers an opportunity to purchase local produce without having to search for it. It develops a relationship between the consumer and the people growing your food. Studies show that fresh produce is much higher in vitamins than vegetables that have been shipped long distances in less than ideal conditions.

Consumers sign on at the beginning of the season and receive a basket once a week that contains locally grown, pesticide free produce. The vegetables are harvested the previous day and the basket contains whatever is in season. A sampling of what you may get; beans, beets, bok choi, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, ground cherries, herbs, kale, kohlrabi, leek sugar snap peas, mixed baby greens and lettuces, onions, shallots, bunching onions, radish, spinach, swiss chard, tomatoes, tomatillos and zucchinni. There will also be surprises from time to time.

Weekly recipes and produce care tips will be posted to our blog to help you out with some of the vegies you may not be familiar with. These baskets are $25 per week and will comfortably feed two people. A larger family may want to consider a double basket at a cost of $50.

If you are interested in signing up or if you would like more information, contact us at kim@thegreenhouse.ca or call 634-5757. Baskets are available for pickup at a central location in Corner Brook or at our greenhouse in Little Rapids.

To be sure of your place in the queue submit your application by April 15th, 2012 as we have to start planting and aim to grow only enough for the orders that we have.

Fall Rye as a Green Manure

Fall Rye is a seed that is planted in the fall, generally in a vegetable garden, for the purpose of tilling into the soil in spring to add organic matter to your soil. The benefits of using this crop are threefold.

- When planted immediately after harvest, it quickly germinates and the extensive root system inhibits the germination of weed seeds thus keeping those pests to a minimum and reducing your work in the spring. Many insects and diseases overwinter in weeds so the rye will help protect your garden from infestations the following summer.

- The grass and its roots will prevent erosion of your soil throughout the fall and winter as well as catching the snow to provide a good snow cover.

- When tilled into your soil in the spring the rye provides a green manure which is high in nutrients and organic matter. This is the equivalent of purchasing manure and compost to add to your soil, but much less expensive since a kilogram of the seed will cover 500 sq’.

There are a few things to be aware of when using this type of crop.

- The plant has a very extensive root system that is difficult to turn with a fork so a tiller is recommended.

- The plant MUST be tilled in before it goes to seed in the spring or you will have rye growing in your vegetable garden for the rest of time.

To plant the seed, broadcast it in your garden as you dig your vegetables. You do not have to wait till the garden is empty but rather spread the seed as you empty the garden. Your garden does not have to be tilled beforehand unless your soil is quite compacted which it should not be if you are digging or pulling your vegetables.

In the spring your garden should be tilled while it is still damp but not wet. Rye absorbs a lot of moisture and will dry your garden out in a very short time. Be sure to till before the rye goes to seed.

Fall rye is an excellent and inexpensive option for amending soil for gardeners whether they practice organic methods or not.

Rhubarb Cordial

Many of the camp parents wanted the recipe for our rhubarb codial that we served at the tea party yesterday. There have been a lot of variations on this recipe over the past 20 years but here is the original.

Part 1
Fill a large pot 2/3 full with rhubarb that has been chopped into 1" pieces. Cover with water so that there is approximately 1/2" of water above the chopped fruit. Simmer on stove for approximately 20 minutes or until soft. Transfer to a jelly bag and strain the rhubarb into a large bowl for a couple of hours. This juice can be divided into small portions and then frozen for future use.

Part 2
4 cups rhubarb juice
1/2 can lemonade concentrate
1 can of water using frozen lemonade can as unit of measurement
1/2 cup sugar
Stir the above ingredients together and refrigerate. When ready for a glass of nice cool rhubarb cordial, pour approximately 1/4 of a cup into a glass and top up glass with ginger ale. I use two fingers of cordial in my glasses so this may take some experimenting to get it right.

There are different ways of using this recipe. I often use water in place of the ginger ale for a 'somewhat' healthier drink. Sometimes I use homemade lemonade for a really tangy treat. I also substitute the rhubarb for different fruits and find a juice made with the grapes that we grow here at the greenhouse to be a big hit.

Enjoy!

Local Roots Summer Camp

Chia Pet before it grew its hair.
Teagan about to make her chia pet.

Collecting flowers for use in dying fabric with natural dyes.

Here are some of the children making paper.


The greenhouse had a summer camp here for 8-11 year olds this past week. It was a blast. My daughter, Jesse, came home from Halifax to coordinate it. She kept those kids hopping for 5 days. They did everything from making paper out of corn husks to catching tadpoles at Rapid Pond. The children made their own snacks and lunches (with a little help from the adults) from many of the items that we grow here at the greenhouse. We tried to focus on a well balanced diet but we did try to make it more palatable by dipping some things in chocolate. Yay for chocolate. the above photo is of Skyler shucking strawberries.

Local Roots Summer Camp

Know any kids who want to try something different this summer?

This summer The Greenhouse and Garden Store will be offering a Local Roots Summer Camp for kids from 8-11 years of age. Business slows down significantly at The Greenhouse after Canada Day, and we are always looking for new things to do. We thought that it would be great fun to host a summer camp this year, for kids to come to The Greenhouse to learn about sustainability, gardening, and healthy living. This year’s camp will be run by myself and my daughter Jesse, who will be visiting from Nova Scotia.

Our camp will be held from August 1-5th at The Greenhouse. If you know any kids (or parents) who might be interested, or if you would like to find out more about our camp, check out our new Local Roots web page: http://www.thegreenhouse.ca/summerProgram.html

Hope to see you there!

Transplanting

Here is a photo of the transpanted seedlings. They look pretty untidy, but after 24 hours they will straighten up like little soldiers. Make sure your plants are watered in and start fertilizing with a very dilute solution of Plant Prod 10-52-10 or an organic fertilizer such as 'Muskie'. We carry both at 'The Greenhouse'. You only need to use the 10-52-10 for a couple of weeks and should then change to 20-20-20. If using the 'Muskie' you can continue on and do not need to change to a different formulation. Sit back and watch them grow.

As well, your seedling should have nice, healthy roots. Each plant is carefully plucked from the seedling flat and transplanted into a larger pot or flat. Make sure you sure steralized soil such as promix or sunshine mix or you risk losing all of your hard work.

Pictured above is a marigold seedling. The smooth, oval leaves are the cotyledons... the first set of leaves that hold the sugar and starch needed for the plant to put out roots. These are not true leaves and you will notice that on all plants, these leaves die as soon as the plant has begun to establish itself. The raggedy leaves are the true leaves. True leaves look different on every plant but are very distinctively different from the cotyledons. Your seedling should be showing true leaves before you uproot it to transplant.

Last blog our seedlings were just up. The true leaves are showing on most of our seedlings and Marlene, Connie and Daddy (not pictured) are transplanting like mad. That's Cherie in the background preparing to start hanging baskets. Seeds that have been broadcast cannot stay in the germinating flat for long as they are too close together and diseases will present themselves when plants are crowded. Thus, one must remove the seedlings and plant them in a larger container for growing on.