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veggie garden tour garden explanations

Purchase your tickets today!!  (you may also purchase tickets at one of the gardens! However, its nice for us to get an estimate of people for the wonderful reception afterwards!)

THIS SATURDAY IT IS!!!     Its exciting that its almost here!!!  The gardeners have been working hard!     Please click above and read all about the gardens you will be visiting.

Money for this event goes to sustaining Eat Right Racine’s efforts.

You can purchase tickets at these locations…..

Milaegers (both stores),  Nutritonal Designs, Sheepish and Wilsons coffee shop!

A HUGE thank you to Milaegers for all of the time and effort they have put into this event for making it happen.

Over the last few days we have harvested a couple of our beds of garlic, shallots, potato onions, and a few Brassicas.  It’s hard to believe that in the heat of what has turned into a lovely summer, we are thinking of fall crops, but that is the mind of a gardener.  We are planning and planting our fall root vegetables and will be prepping beds over the next couple of weeks for a fall round of greens and radishes.

The exciting things happening right now are the glimpses of all of the wonderful things to come.  All in different stages of ripening, where our season is so short, fall harvest is truly a blessing.  When everyone thinks summer melons are finished, ours will just be ready for harvest, right along with the pumpkins!  Don’t miss out on Racine’s first vegetable garden tour!  On August 13th,  stop by and say hi.

If you would like to read about our first experience with some garden pests this year check this out.

~Amy

Along with 8 diverse gardens to attend,  we also have 2 “gardens of interest”

Please  read below to get a “sneak peak”  about these gardens!

GARDENS OF INTEREST
 Racine Urban Garden Network’s Marquette Street Garden is an example of innovation, creativity and public urban
gardening. While the Marquette Street Garden is a public garden and available for viewing at any time, RUGN is
making a docent available between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to share the history and vision for the garden. The
space includes a rain garden, plans for a dog walk, composting on site, fruit groves, and both butterfly and sensory
gardens for children. Raised beds are available for rental each growing season. Come and learn about cold frames,
hoop houses, and incorporating artwork into public gardens.

 The Eco-Justice Center – In this intentional community, 6 Dominican sisters model sustainable, simple living while
reverencing the land they live upon and the animals who share it. Come to visit another communal garden where
garden plots, in raised beds, can be rented for $25 per season including seed plantings of your choice. Produce
grown in the gardens here feed the residents of the Eco-Justice Center, the Siena Center, with excess being shared
with local food pantries. Just west of the gardens you may find a sunflower house which is a delight to see!
Additional features include alpacas, farm geese, 12 different breeds of chickens, and an hermitage private retreat
center.

If you have any questions regarding the vegetable garden tour,  feel free to contact Heidi @ 262-497-2228

Eat Right Racine partners with Milaeger’s and area vegetable gardeners!!
Focus on Fresh
Vegetable Garden Tour
Saturday, August 13th
11:00am – 3:00 pm

Racine’s first  vegetable garden tour!

Take a tour through a variety of Racine’s finest  local vegetable gardens!

Optional reception following the tour will be held at Milaeger’s. (NORTH side location)  Reception includes  …cooking demonstrations of seasonal foods, AND tastings of  these wonderful, in season, foods!  Tomato Talk with Kevin Milaeger, live music,  Wisconsin’s finest cheeses  (made by a world champion cheesemaker!)  Local beer!  and so much more!  All in the company of wonderful people!!

Tickets for tour only are $15 and tickets with reception is $25.  Ticket sales will be available July 15th online and in local stores!

Music by Katie LaFond

locations for ticket sales are…

Milaegers (both locations)

Nutritional Designs

Wilson’s coffee shop

Sheepish

If you have further questions,  feel free to contact Heidi @ 262-497-2228.

Do you have a mulberry tree in your backyard?  Does one of your friends?  I know, I know, it’s a total pain to pick them, right?  Well.. not!  So, do you know the shaking the tree trick?  No, this is not pick berries while listening to Peter Gabriel, you actually shake the tree!  Place a clean sheet below the tree, and shake the branches.  The ripe ones fall off and the others hang on ’til next time.

Now, what to do with the berries?  Wash them, I find using a strainer inside a bowl works best (a salad spinner, without spinning).  Normally they can be washed within 3-4 rinses, don’t worry if there are some little stems on the berries themselves, just remove any larger sticks/debris.  Then all you do is place them in a pot on the stove with a touch of water and let them simmer away.  Once very soft and liquidy, strain the liquid through cheesecloth and return the now gorgeous jewel-toned, free of seeds and stems, liquid to a simmer.  Add sugar, about 2 cups per 4 cups of juice,  I know this sounds like a ton, but that is really the quantity and it left the liquid just sweet enough that the kids loved it, but not super saccharine sweet for us.  If you’re feeling adventurous, add a broken cinnamon stick or two, a little lemon zest, a few cloves, really anything your heart desires and reduce.  Strain once again, then place the remaining liquid into sterilized glass container(s) with a lid and refrigerate.

What you now have is cordial.  Mix 1 part cordial with 5 parts soda water and you have a healthy home-made soda for the kids.  Or you could get crazy and add a little something like vodka and have an adult libation.  Trust me this may have been our first try at this, but it will not be our last.  I think there are many fruit cordials in our future.  This method also works well with edible flowers like violets or elderberry.  I want to thank Julie for giving me the basics, if you want to see her breakdown on amazing flower cordials check it out here!

Happy foraging

~Amy

With the Fourth of July just around the corner, even if the weather is cool, we are all thinking of what side dish to bring to the party.  I found the perfect recipe that we made for our cookout over Fathers Day.  I found the recipe on my epicurious ap (there is always an ap isn’t there?).

It is a Mediterranean Eggplant and Barley Salad.  I stayed true to the recipe, except for one major thing.  I  couldn’t get my hands on barley at the Trader Joes we were at in California, so we substituted.  It was the most amazing mixture, I went back and bought three bags to bring home!  It’s called Harvest Grains Blend and contains Israeli couscous, Orzo, Baby Garbanzo Beans and Red Quinoa.  This is a crowd favorite and vegetarian to boot!

1 1/2 pounds eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

3/4 pound zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

10 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper
1 C chopped green onion

1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/4 tsp. cayenne

8 oz. pearl barley (this is where I substituted the blend)

3/4 C water

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp. sugar

1/2 pound cherry tomatoes, quartered

1/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved

1 C. flat leaf parsley, chopped

1/2 C. fresh mint, chopped

Roast

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and pre-heat to 450.  Toss eggplant, and zucchini with 5 Tbsp oil, 3/4 tsp. salt, and 3/4 tsp. pepper in bowl.  Then spread in 2 oiled large shallow baking pans (I used foil lined cookie sheets).  Roast vegetables in oven, stirring occasionally until veggies are golden brown and tender, 20-25 minutes.  Combine veggies on one pan to cool, reserving other pan to cool your grain.

Cook the Grain

Now for this section I followed the initial directions then changed to the liquid requirements of the grain mix from TJ’s.  Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in heavy pot over moderately high heat, cook green onion, cumin, coriander, and cayenne, stirring until fragrant, about one minute.  Add grain and cook stirring until well coated, about 2 minutes.  Then add your liquids per the package requirements and cook until done.  Once cooked (for the grain mix 15 minutes, for barley about 20 minutes), spread grain on other cookie sheet to cool.

Dressing

Whisk together lemon juice, garlic, sugar and remaining 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, and 3 Tbsp oil in a large bowl.  Add grain, roasted veggies, and remaining ingredients and toss until well combined.  Serve at room temp.

It held up great in the fridge and was perfect for leftovers too!  This was a vegetarian dish that I got my dad to enjoy, and that proves to me that it’s perfect for all.  But if you’re skeptical, I’m sure it would also be great for you carnivores out there with some diced roasted chicken.  I hope the cook-out season brings you lots of tasty treats!

~Amy

Hooray!  Tis the season for the beautiful fruits of summer! 

I’ve been making & serving this salad for years now and not once have I had someone taste and not like it.  Actually, they usually stop after their first bite, eyes bulging out of their sockets, because it’s that good.  It’s unexpected…..to mix blueberries with creamy cheese and giving it a good ole savory kick.  The beauty of this salad is:  A.)  it takes under five minutes to make  B.)  it’s super pretty to look at  C.)  you can serve it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. 

BLUEBERRY & FRESH MOZZARELLA SALAD

• 1 pint of washed blueberries
• 1/2 a ball of fresh mozzarella, cubed
• 1 TBL. lemon juice
• 1/2 TBL. olive oil
• 1/2 TBL. balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. of dried basil or 2 TBL. of fresh basil chopped (my darn basil wasn’t quite ready yet when I shot the pic…..believe me….much better with fresh basil)
• a pinch of salt

It’s better to serve this salad within a couple of hours of making it so the fresh mozzarella doesn’t absorb all the balsamic and become discolored.  I’m sure it would taste the same, but we eat with our eyes before our mouths, right?  Do yourself a favor and give it a whirl.  If you hate it, bring it to my house and my kid will eat it. 

Happy Summer Cooking!  Daniela

P.S.  I have also subbed the blueberries for strawberries.  That works too!

It is 8 am on a Sunday.  My windows are down as I drive to the store in a pea soup like fog and listen to the birds call to one another through the mist.  Daniela ask me a couple weeks ago how I blog, do I stockpile writing and schedule posting.  I have never been able to write on demand.  A deadline does help, but I tend to wait until the words just come pouring out of me, in moments, like the one this morning, driving to the store.

The non-work week life of this wannabe CSA diva began two hours before my drive as I sipped coffee and rather than leisurely reading the paper, scoured the internet for solutions.  How do we deal with the darned asparagus beetles we just discovered?  What is the best recipe for the amazing bumper crop of rhubarb that is materializing?  Wow, clear plastic is better at warming up beds than black plastic!  My mind is spinning and B’s and my conversation is peppered with excited, yet exhausting, ideas of new things and lists of what needs to be done on what is left of this long holiday weekend, the traditional jumping off point for the season.

We have managed to get quite a lot of planting done in the last three weeks or so and Friday we finally emptied the rest of our basement greenhouse of plants.  This crazy cool, cloudy, and damp spring has delayed our cool weather crops, at least based on last year’s experience.  In total we have 144 plants in the ground (not including the 63 strawberries we added to the berry patch).  The rest of this weekend we will be adding more new raised beds; building trellis’ and direct seeding additional produce.  In this second year of creating farm boxes for friends, we have doubled our commitment and by the time we’re done will have doubled our garden space!  You can see the progress and varieties in our garden log.

I’ll stop back now and then to give you an update and share what we have learned.  We just modified some old wooden snow fence from the barn and made an awesome trellis~ repurpose!

Happy Sunday!

~ Amy