The Thai Coconut Shrimp (Prawn) Recipe

I get my shrimp from the fishmonger at my farmer's market. They are, by far, the best prawns I've ever had. I love botanebi, or botan shrimp (the type of sweet shrimp where the heads are coated in potato flour and fried while the tails are left raw) and hokkoku akaebi which is smaller but equally as yummy. But the prawns I use most often are larger and I buy a pound at a time...probably once a month - a pound of these are $16.99. That is a bit rich for my blood but they are worth it. Sweet and lovely.


I made the soup the other night and it was yummy!

For the broth:

Prawn Shells

3 cups of good chicken broth

3 bruised lemongrass stalks

Half an onion

2 cloves of smashed garlic

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

Noodle:

1 package Pad Thai rice noodle – cook according to your taste and rinse in cold water – set aside.

For the base:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (galangal is best)

1/2 pound (3 to 4 medium) carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced

½ lb zucchini cut into bit sized chunks

1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk

1 tablespoon gluten free cornstarch

1 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined, and tails removed (save for broth)

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

TSP Fish sauce

Top with:

4 green onion, thinly sliced

Handful basil & coriander (cilantro) – roughly chopped

chili oil - if you aren't serving kids

Tools: 2 pots, knives, cutting boards, colander, fine mesh strainer, stirring spoon

Directions:

1. Cook your noodle and rinse with cold water

2. Peel your prawns, clean them and set aside

3. Make your broth - put all of the broth ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil and set to simmer for around 15-25 minutes (or as long as it takes you to do the rest of the stuff for the soup). 

4. Make the soup

Heat oil in a large (3-quart) saucepan over medium-low heat. Add ginger, garlic, carrots and zucchini cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 3-5 minutes. Add, coconut milk, and your stock (use the fine mesh strainer to catch the veggies & spices while pouring in the liquid). In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water until smooth; add to pot. Bring to a boil.

Add shrimp; stir until shrimp are just pink, about 1 minute. Add fish sauce. Remove pot from heat and stir in lime juice.

Put a serve of noodle into a bowl (1.5 cups) and ladle soup over it. Garnish with green onion, basil & coriander. To add more heat add some chili oil at the end. But if you are serving to children - skip the chili oil.

Open a nice Tsingtao.

Rudi's Gluten Free Bread

I thought it would be worth mentioning that Rudi's has gluten free bread. They also have an entire line of baked goods that have gluten. 

They are doing a Spread the Bread Campaign:

"For every dollar coupon downloaded, Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery will give a dollar to The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) to help in their efforts to better educate physicians in the diagnosis of celiac disease. There are an estimated 3 million people in the United States suffering from celiac disease, yet only 160,000 are diagnosed."

This is their website:

http://www.rudisglutenfree.com/spread-the-bread-coupon/?gclid=CNaMyL701aYCFRxqgwodrhHnHg

I love that they are spreading awareness. I think it is great they are making gluten free breads. 

Click here to your one dollar off coupon if you want to try it or if you already eat it - get some more:

I received an email from a representative of the company asking if i wanted a sample to try out. Boy did I jump at this opportunity. My favorite on the shelf brands of bread (not mixes) have been Udi's and French Meadow. Boy do I love French Meadow and Udi's may have little tiny loaves but they are delicious and the kids love it.

Rudi's sent me this little package with literature, a loaf of multi-grain, and a cute as a button sandwich box:

I must say...in all honesty - to me, French Meadow is still tops. The Rudi's slices were concave - meaning they didn't have a bump at the top - it was rather an indent. The taste is okay, I find Udi's multi-grain to have a better taste and texture. The Rudi's texture was grainy and I don't mind it so much but it was too spongy - not meaning soft exactly - but not dense enough.

My kids are split on the issue. The 5 year old likes Udi's best and the 2.5 year old Rudi's. What about the husband? Well, I buy him fresh bread every Thursday from the baker.

I still prefer my own. When I was making sourdough this summer I made bread that was wonderful. But I don't have time right now to coddle a gluten free starter, allow bread to rise for 4+ hours and have it possibly fail due to my "grandma-style" (love this phrase) dry to wet ratios.

http://www.rudisglutenfree.com/spread-the-bread-coupon/

A few words on diet

So Happy New Year all. I thought I'd start out by talking about that four letter word that sends everybody into a frenzy - diet. 
What is diet? Is it a noun - A diet is food habitually eaten, or is it a verb I've dieted for years and my weight is like a yo-yo, or even an adjective - I'd like a diet soft drink (blech)?
How come it is okay to talk about animals and their diet but not okay to speak of humans in the same manner? How come it is okay to say - flamingos have a diet of crustaceans with a carotenoid pigment that colors their feathers? And not - I have a diet of proteins, fats, veggies, fruit and whole grains? (or in some cases they have a diet of corn, corn, and more corn).
Why do we cringe when we say diet? Because, typically diets means deprivation, starvation and misery. But not for this lady. I commonly speak of my diet in conversation. I also talk freely using the word diet to simply explain how one eats. My family - husband, kids, myself; is not starving, nor overweight, we're healthy, our clothes are normal sizes, we can run, climb, jump and generally feel great. In fact - now that I think about it - we rarely get sick.
I read something disturbing in last month's Organic Gardening Magazine - which I already knew but they put it so well - obesity is a sign of hunger. Wow - how much sense does that make to laymen? If you know anything about nutrition, you will know it is completely true. 
For example - a girlfriend of mine said something this week that just made me want to write - she said she skipped lunch and was so hungry (around 2:00PM). She said, "And that's a really bad thing." This girlfriend has some weight issues that she struggles with due to her life/work balance and  schedule which causes her to skip meals, crave fats and sugars rather than something healthy like nutrient rich proteins, veggies, fruits and whole grains, because she's starving. After she indulges in satiating her immediate craving in an overindulgent way, her body use up what she eats for immediate brain and life support energy (which she does not spend exercising), and stores the rest because her body knows she's going to starve it again and again.
This is why many children in this country are obese and hungry at the same time - not because they are eating too many healthy nutritious foods. Because, believe me, if you food is nutritious, and you even only eat one large meal a day and possibly snack on fruit and veggies the rest of the day - you will not be starving. In fact, if you do not have underlying medical issues or psychological issues which make food turn against you and you are not already extremely overweight, you most-likely will not become obese from eating nutritious food.
One of the first mistakes of people who assume they eat nutritious food is label reading. If you are reading a label, 8 times out of 10 the food has been manufactured - first and foremost in the "no-no" list if you want a healthy diet - there are exceptions - but not many. Ah, convenience - something processed, packaged and made up to look desirable - don't we all love it? But, a-hem, excuse me, this is mother nature speaking - didn't I do that for you already with my apples, bananas, pears, carrots, celery, peas, tomatoes and so on?
Do I have processed stuff in my house? You betcha. Gluten free flours, cheese, ice cream, gluten free baked goods, corn chips, rice crackers, condiments, and some cereals (these are actually from guests and from times when I had the little angels with me - mommy I want 'dat', yet the sit for months). What do you have?
Many people who consider themselves nutrition experts say to avoid corn, soy, dairy, wheat, and sugar. Okay so what else is there to eat? Well there's plenty - but I think this is a very tough statement if you are eating non-manufactured foods. The issue is that the above ingredients are in almost every processed food on the shelf. So if you eat even more of it, on your sandwich, in your pasta bowl, with your steak (or in your steak for that matter if you eat grain fed meats), you're not balancing your diet and the processed forms have no or low nutrients. There's that word again - diet.
So this is a great segue into the second half of this entry. My New Year's Resolution is to get even more veggies into my family's diet. While doing that I really need to cleanse. The holidays have left a heavy feeling in me - something I think may be due to many factors - but definitely overindulgence on things with lower nutritional value.
So, starting Sunday (because I need to go to Farmers Market) we are changing our diet. We already eat on the healthy side but now our diet is going to be organized differently.
Typically we're 30% whole grains, 30% veggies/fruit, 40% proteins and fats - because so often these are together for example dairy, animal protein and nuts all have high protein with fat content.
I'm changing us to 35% veggies, 15% fruit, 10% beans, 20% whole grains and 20% proteins and fats (non bean). So we're still getting 40% proteins but I've shifted to beans and away from grains and fruit. Grains are good, but with gluten intolerance running rampant around here I'm going to see if this helps.
What will the typical day look like from a meal perspective?
Breakfast
Quinoa cereal with squash puree and sunflower seeds (grain, veggie, protein/fats)
Snack - piece of fruit and handful of seeds or nuts (fruit, protein/fats)
Lunch
Bean and vegetable soup with salad of pressed pickles (beans, veggies, veggies)
Snack - piece of fruit and raw cheese (fruit, protein/fats)
Dinner
Poached fish (or a 4oz serve of grass fed meat), wild rice, vegetables with broccoli and apple-plum vinegar dressing (protein, grain, veggies)
Dessert
Ice cream or yogurt with fruit (fruit, protein/fats)
Oh yeah - you bet we snack...healthy snacks keep you from starving. Grabbing food the way mother nature intended is the best!
We drink fresh juices, teas with honey and water.
Luckily my younger son's school serves whole foods and i make lunch for my older son so this shouldn't be that difficult. My oldest likes anything you can dip so veggie/bean purees with whole grain pita works. A bit of fruit and he's got a solid lunch.
Recipes and more on how it is going this week. Until then, enjoy your diet! Don't dread it.

Gluten free flours and mixes - a Bob's Red Mill Review (and who's doing it better).

Bob’s Red Mill Product Review

(image above is from their website)

Ever looked at the gluten free section in your store or online and wonder - wow - I wonder how Bob's Red Mill Products are?

Perhaps you tried them and like them....

I have, so...I'm going to just review my Bob's Red Mill attempts in this single post. As a gluten free baker I try to turn to pre-milled flours sometimes to alleviate much prep work needed to soak, grind and store the grains.
Can I "soak/sprout" away gluten?

I also want to say something to the people who try to tout soaked/sprouted wheat as "gluten free" or "gluten reduced". When you have severe issues with gluten (Celiac Disease) and/or a direct allergy to wheat, rye, barley; no amount of "pre-digesting" the grain is going to help you. You may even need to stay away from supposedly gluten free oats. Bummer.

And some of us may never be able to eat gluten safely again. No matter what steps we take to heal our gut - it just isn't going to happen. So we are in constant search for those products that allow us to enjoy the foods we recall tasting so good.

From their site: "Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods produces more than 400 products, including a full line of certified gluten free products and an extensive line of certified organicproducts. With a wide variety of whole grain products, from flours and hot cereals to baking mixes and grains, Bob’s Red Mill has “whole grain foods for every meal of the day.”"

The Review in short:

Naturally, I have not used all of their 400 products, but I have used a significant amount; regretfully many without success. I've tried most of their recipes from the back of the bag as well and 90% of them tasted weird, have too much liquid, leavening, etc - many times I should have trusted myself to adjust the recipe when it seemed off.

I've had better luck with flours from King Arthur, Authentic Foods (a favorite), Pamela's (however their baking mix has dairy and leavening in it and I've stopped using it), and Gluten Free Pantry.

I've tried many other brands I was lukewarm about; Arrowhead Mills (I find many of their flours too coarse), Betty Crocker (where's their grain coming from? Are they actually gluten free pantry like everybody says?), etc , and I've also bought prepared goods from Glutino, Udi's (lovin' their blueberry muffins), Rudi's, French Meadow, etc. I'm not a Gluten Free novice and I've left some brands off the list like Chebe and the other one in the brown bags that escapes me right now - they pale in comparison.

I'm really not interested in hearing about any new mixes - unless of course it will knock my socks off and be dairy free and organic....

I've reviewed a couple on their website so those reviews are included here with photos. I should probably review ALL of their products on the website but that takes so much time.

So onto what I've used (please assume all products are GF):

Almond Flour
Best product that I've tried from Bob's so far. i like to use it to make cakes, muffins and other baked goods. Keeps it moist and adds protein. Almond flour is highly perishable and should be kept in the freezer as they suggest.

Sweet Rice Flour
works for thickening BAD POUND CAKE
We use this product in our gluten free baking and in sauces, however the Pound Cake Recipe on the back is horrendous. The recipe has to be off. A FIRE started in my oven.

Sorghum Flour
I love this flour - it is very versatile, sort of heavy, though so use it sparingly. I use it in my from scratch maple brownies and it is divine. I have made the scones - I prefer my own. I'll be making scones soon, posting and linking to the recipe - meanwhile - try Pamela's recipe on her baking mix if you eat dairy.

Brown Rice Flour
A staple in my kitchen - our brown rice flour is the base of my gluten free flour mix. Can't live without it.

Potato Flour
Another staple in our kitchen, used as part of the gluten free mix and as a thickener.

Garfava Flour
Another all purpose flour I use in 1/3 amount in my flour mix - it can make things taste "beanie". Babycakes features their blondie recipe on the back - I think they are pretty good - but can get beanie as I mentioned before.

Xanthan Gum
THE STAPLE FOR THICKENING AND BINDING. Very slippery - very messy - don't underestimate the power of this stuff - usually 1/4 tsp is enough. Yeah yeah - I know you can use flax seeds, chia, and some other things (kuzu - what I use in my brownies and arrowroot). YEAH I know it is a refined corn product. Honestly, I've not found anything else that works like it.

Corn flour
Another staple - just fine - keeps well in vacuum container.

Polenta/Grits
Wonderful Polenta - just what you expect. I like to soak mine in whey for 24 hours before cooking.

Old Fashioned oats
Another staple at our house. Great with soaked/baked oatmeal. This is a link to my favorite recipe: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2009/03/healthy-breakfast-recipe-from-sue-baked-soaked-oatmeal.html

Cornbread Mix
This was actually pretty good. Quite heavy from the general recipe so I experiment with lightening it up. It stands up well to experimentation, additions like jalapeños and Tillamook cheddar....

Millet
We eat a lot of millet in the morning and I use it like couscous as a side. This is pretty good. I actually like it better than Gold Mine - I find that the small Gold Mine grains have little stones.

Millet Flour
This makes morning sweets even sweeter. It is a very nutritious and dense flour - very yummy.

Quinoa Flour
We use this, but sparingly, it can taste a little bitter and impart a flavor you might not enjoy into baked goods.

Quinoa
This is exchanged with millet or added to millet as a side dish. It must be rinsed. It "sprouts" quickly. Very nutritious - tastes better as a grain than a flour. However - I like to add Quinoa flakes [Ancient Harvest] to my baked goods sometimes - banana bread is really nice with it (1/2 cup).

Pizza Crust
One of the better pizza crusts in a bag. If you can get it really thin it is good. Tip: Bake the crust first on a pan with parchment - then put on your toppings and put it back in...Don't use a stone with gluten free crust - it will be too hard.

Whole Grain Bread Mix
I personally like this bread, it is better than the "wonderful" bread mix; it is a little grainy so the kids and husband don't like it.

Brown Rice Farina
Very successful morning cereal for the children with cultured butter and maple syrup or preserves.

Biscuit and Baking Mix
It really is too bad this stuff only works for pastry for me (prefer Gluten Free Pantry for pastry crust though) - but that is a big positive since I do make tarts often. The biscuits are terrible - prefer these from scratch as well (123 Gluten free has THE BEST Gluten Free Southern Style biscuits EVER:

http://www.shop.123glutenfree.com/product.sc;jsessionid=ADD66B0A3176359DD0F00E815EEA8C51.qscstrfrnt03?productId=11&categoryId=1

Wonderful Bread Mix
A staple here...although after eating Udi's for a while I can taste the heavy bean flour in this bread and it is too much. I was making sourdough from scratch this summer and it was great but a lot of work - I'll keep working and post a recipe when I think I've perfected it. Everybody's is different though due to your humidity and environment.

All Purpose Baking Flour
King Arthur beats the pants off this mix. Don't even bother with it. Too grainy, heavy and beanie tasting for us.

Steel Cut Oats
The kids and husband don't like these so we don't eat them anymore - too chewy.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
These cookies never taste right. They taste too beanie or soapy or something - must have too much leavening agent. They are sometimes grainy!

Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal
We tried this a couple of times - kids don't like it - they'd rather soaked oatmeal or millet.

Brownie Mix
Another general bummer. Pamela's brownies are by far the best mix I've sampled so far. But I have a brownie recipe that will delight and amaze (will blog it soon after I make them next and will update and link).

Chocolate/Vanilla  Cake Mixes
Nothing to write home about, cooks evenly, a little bland on the chocolate. Pamela's tastes better and Betty Crocker is just as good and cheaper).

Buckwheat Groats/Kasha
Tried a few times to serve this as a side or a cereal to my family - they hate it. I'm not partial to it either way - it sits in the freezer.

Pancake Mix
I don't know what it is but every time I make this the pancakes taste like FISH. YEAH - that's right - FISH. They are repulsive. I check the dates, try them from different locations, etc - but blech.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread Mix
TERRIBLE. Don't even bother.

Please leave your comments below.

The gluten free banana/squash muffins

I love these muffins - very easy. I use raw and organic ingredients. The honey is raw and unfiltered, milk raw goat, butter is organic and cultured, flours are organic, the eggs are from our chickens, butternut squash from our garden, and organic bananas.
You need to make some butternut squash puree before you start (you can also use kombocha)  - so trim up a squash, cut into 1/2 inch cubes and steam until tender - puree or mash. Soften your butter - leave it out on the counter with the eggs the night before you make them.

your ingredients:
2 cups gluten free flour blend (1/2 sorghum, 1/2 brown rice, 1/2 tapioca, 1/2 quinoa is what I use - but - quinoa flour is an acquired taste and you can substitute more brown rice flour)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (optional - leaving it out makes crumblier muffins - they were just fine when I left it out this morning)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter softened
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
3 bananas
1/2 cup pureed/mash butternut or kombocha squash
your method:
1. preheat oven to 350 - line 12 muffin tin or 24 mini-muffin tin with liners - alternatively spray with non-stick spray.
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. cream honey and butter
4. add eggs
5. add vanilla
6. add bananas and squash
7. add 1/4 cup milk
8. slowly add flour
9. mix until combined
10. put in prepared pan - I fill mine and they work fine.
bake for 25 minutes check with toothpick - should come out clean.
let cool completely - especially if you use quinoa flour.
Enjoy.

The Environmental Fair

This weekend I was the host for the Seabreeze Organic Farm CSA (http://www.seabreezed.com/) table at the Encinitas Environmental Fair.
Our day could have been so much better for a few reasons:

• Somebody else set this entire thing up - luckily I read the Vendor sign up so I could request a tablecloth from the owners. The Vendor sign up also said we had a tent - more on that later!
  
• At the farm there was a bag of veggies, postcards and some business cards with NO NAME.
  
• There was half a bag of fruit - but it wasn't marked so we weren't sure I should take it.
  
• When I got to the fair - somebody forgot to reserve a tent - there I was, with fresh produce and flowers to display and no tent - with the unpredictable sun - that was really a problem. So the owners had to bring me a tent AND the fruit (I really hated having to interrupt their Sunday).
  
• I could have sold about 30 CSA subscriptions had there been a sign-up sheet, price list and shareholder agreements.
  
• We could have also used a SIGN that said who we were...for about $30.00 they could have a sign made and we'd look much more professional.
  

So before the tent and the fruit came - this was our table (I brought the apple for my snack - but needed it to hold down the postcards - then people kept touching it - so there was no eating that):

The fair looked awesome, I met some great people, but a great many concerns came into view.

1. People do not understand the true costs of their produce.

Ponder if you will the differences between conventionally grown food vs. organic/chemical free food - yes i said chemical free - this means not even the allowable organic chemicals. Learn more here - http://www.ifoam.org/growing_organic/1_arguments_for_oa/criticisms_misconceptions/misconceptions_no16.html
2. People still believe everything that is told to them, and I mean this from the left - the crazy radical talk - like all tomatoes are gassed to turn red, all chicken farmers cut beaks, there's no such thing as real free range. Or my favorite - all corn is GMO...and my other favorites from the right - what's more sustainable about organic? Isn't it wasteful?
My advice here:

1. DO NOT buy fresh tomatoes out of season - grow your own - indoor, on your patio, in a topsy turvy - who cares - honestly skip "fresh" tomatoes if you aren't able to grow them at home - and it isn't tomato season.
   
2. I love Rainbow Ranch Farms for many reasons - they treat their chickens very well. No clipped beaks and totally free range. Don't buy chickens from the store unless you know of the practices that the farm and the slaughterhouse use - yeah I used that word. Think about it. http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M9885
   
3. Yes, GMO corn is everywhere – but there is GMO free corn. In order to cross corn you have to do it somewhat manually or have your field right next or near a GMO field. Corn that is GMO-free and organic is sold by people who mark it clearly. We grow ours in the back yard. Just enough for our use – and YES – corn has a season too…we've had no issues with pests and our corn – so why in the world would you need to modify it? Only because you are growing it unnaturally and therefore the pests are coming to tell you – don't do it this way. We grow ours in the "three sisters" method – beans, squash, corn. Beans fix nitrogen, squash shades the ground and keeps weeds out. You can get three harvests from one plot. Unfortunately, when commercially growing corn you need to use machines to harvest (or do you?) so you'd hurt your other crops…maybe we should think about other ways to harvest?
   
4. There's no way that organic farming is wasteful – quite the opposite. Heard some nasty allegations that cover cropping was a waste of a season or something – well not really – you can use it as green manure, livestock feed, etc – then once the livestock is done grazing, you turn it all in and start over…what a way to go…the earth is not stripped, you don't have to put any chemical fertilizers on or anything.

3. People think CSAs are inconvenient, pricey and not local (what?).

I do know that Seabreeze is very economical - and they deliver! If you are trying to shop farmer's markets and other chain stores - especially Whole Foods and Jimbos (local to us). A month of deliveries every week delivery is 250 for a large bag with fruit – you can do every other week as well or a small "gift bag" for $75. That's $65 a week for varied local fruits and veggies with a bouquet of flowers – nice!

4. So many people are incredibly uninformed - but walk around so very proud that they shop at farmer's markets - guess what folks - not all farmers at the farmer's market are organic!
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-16072-Portland-Sustainable-Foods-Examiner~y2009m7d12-Not-all-organic-at-the-farmers-market

What I totally forgot to mention to people was something awesome that Seabreeze offers: the grow food kit
http://www.seabreezed.com/index.php/component/content/article/25-general/72-grow-food-kit
The complete GrowFoodKit costs $1295 which includes shipping. Please call 858-481-0209 or email us at info@seabreezed.com for questions or to place your order.
I did encounter some lovely people. Unfortunately my demeanor was tainted by the looming stomach bug. I left early. I suffered when I got home. My poor husband had it that morning (3AM); mine started at 3PM, then the 5 year old at 3AM the next morning....

Allison, Allison, what do you grow? Lots of fruits, herbs and veggies you know.

This week I am posting photos of my garden. I picked up my beef share this week and now my freezer is very full. I never really had anything but flours in there anyways - but now I can't get anything else in there. 

This week I'm also harvesting some artichokes, shallots, carrots, peaches, rhubarb, fava beans and garlic. Our CSA, Seabreeze is still filling in the gaps of the garden. I've planted some lettuces however, I've been so busy working that I have skipped a few days of watering so they've not germinated :(.


After I make the cobbler, preserves, crisp, pot roast, artichoke dip, and fava bean fettuccine I will post photos and recipes.


I wanted to share how I started my garden and how long it took to get it really producing. 
Our plan:
Amend soil (fall - when the first few rains happen)
Make landscape plans
Agree on what to grow
Research for our soil and climate - plus companion planting and planting for beneficials
Mulch like crazy
Get seeds and starts
Start planting (January - when new year rains start)
Cloche and cover
Check soil and water
Thin sowing
We also planted herbs and lettuces in pots near the house for easy use
Keep up with composting so that we could use it
Books we read:

The Gardener's Table: A Guide to Natural Vegetable Growing and Cooking

http://www.amazon.com/Gardeners-Table-Natural-Vegetable-Growing/dp/0898158761/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274658110&sr=1-1

The Organic Garden (A practical guide to natural gardens, from planning and planting to harvesting and maintenance) 

http://www.amazon.com/practical-planning-planting-harvesting-maintenance/dp/1843099640/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274658735&sr=1-1

Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (Paperback)

http://www.amazon.com/Rodales-Illustrated-Encyclopedia-Organic-Gardening/dp/0756609321/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274657942&sr=1-7

California Top 10 Garden Guide: The 10 Best Roses, 10 Best Trees--the 10 Best of Everything You Need - The Plants Most Likely to Thrive in Your Garden ... Important Tasks in the Garden Each Month

http://www.amazon.com/California-Top-Garden-Guide-Trees/dp/B002B55XO0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274657824&sr=8-1

Gaia's Garden: a guide to home-scale perma-culture http://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-Guide-Home-Scale-Permaculture/dp/1890132527/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274658406&sr=1-3

Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide

http://www.amazon.com/Toolbox-Sustainable-City-Living-Ourselves/dp/0896087808/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274658466&sr=1-10

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!

http://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Homestead-Produce-food-quarter/dp/1603421386/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Living with Chickens: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Backyard Flock 

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Chickens-Everything-Raise-Backyard/dp/1592280137/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274658689&sr=1-8

Plus I have had a subscription to Organic Gardening for about 4 years.http://www.organicgardening.com/

How do you really start such a project so that your soil will LAST and be full of slow release sustainable food for your plants? How do you get nitrogen that plants need into the soil without buying heaps of stuff?


Two years ago we bought some Crimson Clover from Peaceful Valley Garden Supply http://www.groworganic.com/. I order most of my seed and starts from there. We had about 6k sq feet in the very back of our lot to create a vegetable garden. The soil in some places was great because the previous owners of our house composted...what genius!


However, most of the area we wanted the garden to be was used as a dumping ground for yard waste and concrete. I must mention we had many mustards growing here. Mustards are really good at improving soil quality, but we wanted to use this space so they had to go. We had to clear this, till the land and plant our green manure - the clover. And we needed to plant the clover around the rain schedule for the fall/winter (Nov). Here in Southern California we don't see a single drop of rain for MONTHS on end - yeah fog here and there but real rain that makes stuff grow - not for 5-6 months straight. But we got the clover seeds out and the rain helped sprout them and up came our field.


It was beautiful and grew very well. After it was about 18 inches high we went out and weed whacked it all. Then my husband tilled it all under. This green then rots in the soil and makes it nice. We had started a compost pile a while before so some of that also went out onto the lot.
I think that thing was tilled at least 3 times, maybe 4. Let me say now - this is hard work, but extremely rewarding.


We weren't quite ready to plant until March, but when we did, many things went in, over the next year and a half we put in an almond tree, another apricot, artichokes, broccoli, corn, carrots, fava beans, haricot verts, olive trees, grapes, squashes, zucchini, leeks, onions, shallots, garlic, potatoes, berries, cherries, herbs, lettuces, tomatillos, flowers for beneficials and cutting. We have apples, nectarines, plums, mangoes, pineapple guava and peach. 


We can eat out of our garden, however, our apples and some of the other fruit trees are too young to supply us with what we need right now so we need to supplement - hence the CSA subscription.


Here's a link to more photos of our garden:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=223531&id=585101538&saved#!/album.php?aid=223531&id=585101538


I'll post those recipes as soon as I make them!