Summer squash can be a pain to grow in Florida, between the bugs and the mildew, but it is so good! Grilled with a light, herb rub, this made a special summer supper, and would be an excellent accompaniment to hamburgers, BBQ, or pulled pork. The herb rub recipe makes more than you…
Author: toadstoolsfairyrings
In The Garden: The Zucchini Has Escaped
I love the early summer garden, before the pests, heavy rain storms, and incredible heat set in. The garden is easy and productive now, and the weeds and bugs feel under control. However, productivity CAN have some drawbacks! We were gone at the Florida Folk Festival over the weekend, and in only a few…
Pig/Chicken Symbiosis
For years we couldn’t have our egg chickens be truly free-ranging because of predator problems, and (the biggest problem) our “livestock guardian dog” loved eating chickens. We tried having a special light-sensitive door that opened and closed automatically, and poultry netting, plastic owls, etc, but it never solved the walking-chicken-dinner problem. This year, we’ve been…
Mock Artichoke Soup
All the ingredients for this soup were home-grown (well, except the black pepper!). The potatoes are just now ready to dig, and the pairing of the fresh potatoes and the patty pan squash give this soup an unusual flavor of artichoke! Benning’s Green Tint is an heirloom variety of patty pan squash that has been…
Grain-Free Early Summer Quiche With Basil And Wild Garlic
Mirin has been reading a lot of survival books to himself lately – Hatchet, My Side of the Mountain, and Julie Of the Wolves. He’s been inspired to forage in the forest and ditches. We certainly do stop to scrump wild plums, harvest wild grapes, mushrooms, betany roots, etc, but I usually draw the line…
A Garden Interview With Tim Noyes
I recently met Tim Noyes at a Third Monday Meeting, and discovered he was a kindred gardener who also gardens with the same “above organic” standards that I pursue. I was so impressed with his knowledge of heirloom vegetable varieties, and the amazing tomatoes he brought to share! “I have been gardening for 8 years. …
Grain-free Cookies N’ Cream Ice Cream Cups
This is the next instalment of Frozen Summer Treat Goodness Experiments that have been going on in the kitchen lately! The cows have been eating bales of just-cut oat hay that smells like oat porridge with honey, and the cream line on the milk has been increasing – the top shelf of the fridge is…
Biscuit-Crusted Mini Breakfast Pizzas
These mini-pizzas delighted my children one morning, when everyone had had a long day the day before, and were all set to be grouchy and snappy that morning. Instead they were so pleased with these little pizzas, they helped cut them out and season them, and even made runs to the garden and herb…
Early Summer Garden 2017
The summer garden is at that lovely and anticipating time when flowers are blooming and fruits are ripening. I didn’t really have time for it, but I planted lots of flowers – zinnias, hollyhocks, Tithonia, marigolds and cosmos in the flower beds in front of…
Orange Creamsicle Icepops
Summer is starting to set in (at least here in Florida). There was a short spell of cool nights over the weekend, but being nearly mid-May, we can reasonably expect the weather to get hotter and hotter and the intense summer heat to set in. We’ll be getting out the sprinklers and water guns…
DARNE DE SAUMON A LA MAITRE D’HOTEL: French Grilled Salmon
For my birthday recently my mom bought a whole premium Scottish salmon from Northwest Seafood. We brought some of it home to try out this delicious grilled salmon recipe in La Cuisine. It’s simple, rich, and delicious. Usually I re-write the recipes to be in a more modern format, but this recipe is…
Natural Cheesemaking: Fromage de Chevre and Creme Fraiche
We have been making a lot of cheese lately – both fresh, cultured cheeses and fresh renneted cheeses (we have no cheese cave to age them). For years I have wanted to be more serious about dairying, but when I looked at cheesemaking books, I felt intimidated and unhappy about all the additives and delicate…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 