Seeds,Seeds and More Seeds

There are still seeds available at the BCCD Roger Gustafson Nature Center at 603 N Appleton Road in Belvidere. If there is a certain variety you are looking for you can email me to check availability. We still have a lot of tomatoes, and beans; our favorites!

It's been a long time between blog posts.

The last year has gone by quickly and the blog lay dormant while we planted, weeded, and harvested in 2011. I am going to try and be diligent about posting this year.

We had our annual heirloom seed sale yesterday and it was encouraging to see all the people who showed up to purchase seeds and sit in on our programs. More than 160 people came out. We sold a lot of seed packets and almost all of the seed catalogs are gone. We still have a great variety of seeds left and some Baker Creek and Select Seed catalogs available, so stop by the BCCD office.

Boone County Master Gardener Mitzi Kelley gave another fantastic program on Organic Gardening. She is so knowledgable and we appreciate her doing this program for us each year. You always learn something new from her, even if you have been to her presentation before.

Aaron Minson, Boone County County Conservation District Prairie Restoration Specialist, gave a really interesting presentation on the preservation work done at BCCD and gave tips for using native plants in home landscaping. He talked about the preservation goats that BCCD uses (learn more about them at the BCCD website) and had a really great power point presentation.

Space was tight in the Roger Gustafson Nature Center as people poured in to browse the seed boxes and purchase their packets of seeds. Coyote kept watch over the event and made sure that everyone got their free seed catalogs before they left.

With the sale behind us, we will be out in the greenhouse getting ready to start sowing seeds for this year. First to be planted will be the leeks. I can't wait to get my hands dirty again!

We're Back In The Greenhouse!

It has finally warmed up and we are back in the greenhouse starting seeds for the 2011 growing season. Yesterday we started our cold weather crops, some herbs and flowers.

Leeks and onions were the first to be sown. We put the newly planted flats on a warming bed. In a few weeks we will have hundreds of threadlike sprouts that we will eventually have to transplant. Not my favorite job. I am always afraid I will damage them. They seem to survive my transplanting and by mid-summer they are growing strong. It always amazes me how such sturdy plants can come from such tiny seeds.

Cabbages were next. We grow a lot of cabbage. We grow about 7 different kinds of cabbage for our Norwegian, German, Scottish and Yankee gardens. We plant alot of cabbage since we have to replant what the groundhogs eat. They insist that we share!

Spinach and greens were also started plus we direct sow in the gardens.

We started some herbs and flowers that we will be selling at our plant sale. We are going to have a good variety of heirloom annuals. Morning Glories, Holly hocks, Sweat Peas, Nasturtiums, Love in a Mist, Sweet William and Johnny Jump Ups are a few of my favorites. We do not have an exact date for the sale yet but it will be sometime in May.

Next week we are hoping to get into the gardens to till. This week the ground is saturated from all the snow and rain we had. We also have to replace one of our hops poles. It broke right at the base and we will have to dig a new deep hole and replant it. The hops poles have been in the German Garden for 10 years.

After a long winter it is always a good feeling to get your hands dirty and start planting.

Feed the Gardener

Gardening is hard work. The payoff is good food. After a morning in the garden I am always hungry. Today I came in from the garden with a taste for pancakes. I always make mine from scratch since they are so easy. I use a recipe for buttermilk pancakes but instead of buttermilk I use organic yogurt with fruit in it, or soy yogurt. I add a little water to thin it if the batter is too thick. The yogurt makes the pancakes moist and flavorful. To top them off I use my step-dad's homemade faux maple syrup. It is easy and foolproof. Maple syrup is very expensive and store bought pancake syrup is full of high fructose corn syrup.
My homemade has lots of sugar but since I only use syrup once or twice a month I think it's okay to splurge.

Here's the recipe:

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup corn syrup (I use Karo brand lite corn syrup with vanilla. It contains corn syrup, salt and vanilla. Other corn syrups contain high fructose. Check your labels!)
1/2 tsp. Mapeleine or maple extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. butter extract

Add sugars, water and corn syrup in a pan. Heat till boil, then boil for 7 minutes. Remove from heat and add extracts. Stir well. Let cool and pour into syrup container. Enjoy!

Taking Work Home

Everyone tends to have the habit of taking their work home with them. Even gardeners. The work we bring home is a little different. Today I have brought home pumpkins. I need to clean them, cook them, save the seeds and freeze the pulp.

These are some of the pumpkins I brought home; Winter Luxury (far left) is the one with the cantaloupe like webbing, Cinderella (far right), Seminole, it's the small one with the writing on it (Pat leaves me notes on produce) and Amish pie. The other small ones are some I grew in my garden at home but can't for the life of me remember the name.

Years ago I had the great idea that I would can my own pumpkin. I love making jams and jellies, pickling beets, canning fruit and making dilly beans. Pumpkin however is not a favorite for canning. As I found out it takes a pressure cooker. I have had a fear of pressure cookers ever since my Grandma's exploded all over the kitchen and I had to help clean up the mess.

So I came up with an alternative; freezing. It is so muck easier. I bake halved pumpkins, I puree, I pour into freezer bags, I freeze. Anytime I want to make a low-fat cake from a mix I pull out a bag of pumpkin, thaw it for an hour in cold water, open the bag and mix.

I use the pumpkin for pies, pancakes, Rachael Ray's Most Awesome Whoopi Pies, and cookies. I love anything pumpkin.

I save the seeds for work. We process them and then replant. We sell the extras at our seed sale. The baked rind gets put out in the compost and usually gets eaten by squirrels and raccoons. They love pumpkin too!

And the Winner Is...

Since I am a softie I decided that everyone left a comment from the original date of the post (which for some reason says October 6, it was posted on November 2)for the cookbook until today will get one. That means knownbyname, Annette, Nora, Dandelionmom, Lisa@the cutting edge of ordinary, Kitty, and Shanae will be receiving a Heritage Garden Cookbook. Just email me at bccdheritagegardens@gmail.com with your mailing address and I will send one to you.

The Heritage Garden Cookbook

This year for the Autumn Pioneer Festival the gardeners put together a cookbook of recipes that represent the 5 gardens. The recipes vary from traditional 1800's recipes to the more "modern" (up to the 1950's) old family recipes. We offered it for sale at the Harvest Table at the Autumn Pioneer Festival.

I will be giving away two copies on the blog. All you need to do is leave a comment and after a week I will pick the names of two people who left comments and announce it. You then need to e-mail me with your address and I will ship them out.
There are recipes for Lefse, hops yeast and bread made from the yeast, pemmican, drunken crumble, and preserves; 60 unusual, heritage and really good recipes.