Nasturtium Pesto

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Oh yes I did! The garden as a whole did ok this year, but the Nasturtium are going gangbusters. It’s been a busy fall but I had to take a minute to share this. It’s delicious and pretty, and would accompany a hard strong cheese just beautifully.
Blend your flowers and some oil and lime juice and see how much you’ve really got, before adding the rest. The flowers look like a lot more when they are whole.
As many Nasturtium as you can gather, others quantities relative to that.
Papita ( raw green pumpkin seeds)
Raw sunflower seeds
Olive oil
Lime juice
A fresh Garlic clove
Salt
Pinch of paprika (I like it hot)
I also froze some for a winter treat too!

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Make your own mustard

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Now that I’ve made this whole grain champagne Dijon, I will be trying to make all different flavors. Not to mention that a $2.69 bag of mustard seeds makes about $50 bucks worth of gourmet mustard. I used just brown seeds and you can find them at Indian markets or finer grocery stores. I made a big batch so I could give some away too. You will need a large mouth glass jar and your stick blender.
1 cup Champagne or dry sparkling
wine.
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup whole brown mustard seeds
1 generous teaspoon of sea salt
Put everything in your jar and let sit in a dark corner for 3 days. Then blend with your stick blender for about 7-10 minutes. You want the seeds to be just flecks and the mixture to emulsify. You’ll never buy mustard again. Keep refrigerated for months, but it will lose some of its punch over time so enjoy right away.

Garbanzo Palm Hearts Salad

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Happy 4th of July day off .
I figure our rack of NH pork ribs aren’t that unusual, so I have for you a delicious side.
Garbanzo bean, sliced hearts of palm, grated spring turnip ( From Enterprise Farm CSA)
Big scoop of large capers
Fresh Dill
Ground sage
Sea salt
Ground pepper
About 2 oz fresh Blue Cheese dressing from the New Boston Farmers Market.
Toss and Wow!

Gifts from the Garden!

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These two little gems were volunteers in the container garden in our parking spot. After the zucchinis died back, I noticed this new little vine growing and recognized it as melon. The seeds must have come in from our basement worm composter fertilizer. Well they were not going to have time to ripen.
So I picked them to see what we got.
Wow were they delicious ! I pealed them and they had the texture and crunch of a cucumber and the slight hint of sweet watermelon flavor . It was wonderful in a salad. I might do this on purpose next year.

Backyard Eggs

The best eggs ever are always from backyard chickens. There is something special about the taste when the chicken eats mostly table scraps and not just grain and chicken feed. Whenever we see anyone with a cooler at the end of the driveway and a sign, we always stop and get some. Up in New Hampshire we have found the golden eggs at the end of the rainbow.
A little ice cream and farmstand on 114 in Weare. They don’t always hVe eggs, and they don’t advertise them.
You inquire at the window and then they have to “call up to grandma to ask”.
Meanwhile the chickens are running all around and begging ice cream left and right. These are ice cream eggs. I never before had one so delicious .

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Solving your mint problems

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We had a poster of Woodchucks eating dandelions in my kitchen growing up. The caption read, ” learn to eat your problems for breakfast” it left a mark on me and I’ve always tried to do just that. When my community garden plot was being taken over by mint- I took home like a bushel and made mint pesto. Use any pesto recipe if your need ratios, I made a ton because it freezes well. In my food processor :
Mint
Fresh squeezed lemon juice ( a little more then for basil pesto)
Olive oil
1/2 Sunflower seeds
1/2 Papita ( raw pumpkin seeds)
Garlic
Salt
Really just taste as you go but so good with goat cheese, as a spread or on flatbead grilled!
Seen here on whole wheat pasta, Kalamata olives, steam broccoli , sheep feta.