Home grown increases the flavor of a tomato by at least a 1000%. You don’t have to go far in a conversation to find folks who agree – it’s a well known fact. I’m growing quite a few varieties this year, and there are many more to try next season…beautiful colors, unusual heirlooms, from the huge Mortgage Lifter…
Tag: Recipes
Paonia Peaches! Elderberry peach crisp, Frangelico peach preserves, Serrano peach hot sauce
The North Fork Valley of Colorado where I live is blessed with so many orchards, most of them organic. In mid – August, everyone was talking about JJ’s peaches, u-pick for 1.25 a lb. I decided to drive up to Lamborn Mesa during the height of the earliest picking season, on a coolish morning which was quickly warming…
Reflections on a gift of watermelon pickle
Isn’t it the memory of watermelons that makes us want to grow them? It is for me. I was in third grade, with a teacher named Ms. Hoover. Ms. The first woman I had ever known who wasn’t a Miss, or a Mrs. Ms. Hoover had teased up hair and big brown eyes that seem…
KIMCHI !! Making Korean Sauerkraut straight out of a Colorado garden
I’ve been doing some miles on my kitchen floor these days – August is that glorious crazy time when winter visions of this season’s garden are coming into wild, abundant fruition and there is plenty to pick, eat and preserve! I love kimchi and have been waiting all season for my cabbages to arrive at…
Garden Party!
Pachamama loves color! This bright wheel of steamed garden delights was simply drenched in fresh lemon, basil and dill vinaigrette and spun off to a garden party a couple of nights ago. This is my first post from the WordPress for iPhone app! So it will be short and sweet. My times in the kitchen…
Potatoes – Tomatoes; and an authentic Ecuadorian recipe from the Andean Highlands
I do have a reverence for the garden, which sustains me – with a love deep within my heart expanding into the earth. Digging potatoes is a marvelous treasure hunt, a reflection back out of the earth of all that love – and in gardens past, also a race against the wily and voracious wire worms. This year,…
Broccoli, Sharp Cheddar and Five Herb Soup with Peppered Cornbread
AND NEW KITCHEN GADGETS: While in Laramie, Wyoming I happened upon several great finds in Mimi’s consignment shop – the most exciting of which is this fantastic fish cast iron muffin pan! It’s made by the company Lodge from the U.S. I’m a big fan of cast iron cookware, and have quite a few pieces…
The Pickle Chronicles
I planted 12 pickling cucumber starts around mid-May, and today picked the first mature cucumbers! YES. Where there are good spicy pickles, cold winter days are tolerable, and a grilled cheese sandwich elevates into heaven. There always seems to be an acclimating time after planting, before vegetables really take hold and begin to thrive. I spent…
Composed Beet and Spinach Salad with Goat Feta and Bing Cherry Balsamic Honeyed Dressing
Do try this simple salad – the flavors are excellent together….and full of empowering iron. I can visualize the same salad prepared with golden beets and the chubby yellow-rose Rainier cherries and will post for you if I can bring those things together. The spinach and these beets are from my garden, pulled as I…
A Moving-in Celebration (and) Eating Local in Denver
This weekend was a greatly anticipated trip to Denver to see my son and daughter-in-law, their new place in the city (and their two dogs, a beagle and chihuahua mix, and cat, of course!) Coming from my garden in rural Colorado and with the cherries, apricots and peaches literally bouncing off the trees right now gave me…
Apricots, a parade……and cooking dinner with friends on the Fourth of July
I was so happy to have a sweet invitation on the Fourth of July to come over to a friend’s house and cook dinner with a vibrant group of people. Living in a town of about 1600 folks with a few yearly festivals and lots of culture means that on July 4th the annual Cherry Days/Fourth of July…
Collard greens and andouille sausage with black eyed peas
For company last night, an impromptu delicious meal with collards and new potatoes from the garden. We started out with a glass of local Black Bridge Winery Chardonnay. These are my family’s heirloom crystal goblets. I remember family holiday dinners across the table from my twin sister Mary, tipping up these glasses as we’d drink our…
Sour Cherry Season – with recipes
The season of Cherries is upon us! These trees are in my friends’ expansive organic AND biodynamic orchard in Paonia, Colorado – in the fruit grower’s valley, THE fruit grower’s valley of the state. I have an Italian plum, small “summer” apple, a big grape bower with Reliance and Thompson seedless grapes, a small strawberry…
Pachamama's Beautiful Food 