How to Choose Chili Peppers–Jalapeno, Thai, Serrano, Habanero, Scotch Bonnet The potent spicy heat you experience eating chili peppers is caused by capsaicin, a colorless, odorless, waxy compound found in the white pith of the pepper’s inner wall where the seeds are attached. Capsaicin is an irritant to most mammals—including humans; the sensation it leaves
Planting Garlic: Garlic requires a long season for optimal yield; garlic’s long season of growth must include 6 or more weeks of chilly weather for optimal bulb or head production. Garlic is a cool-weather perennial plant commonly planted in the cool of autumn or in early spring. Garlic–which is often classified as an herb–is grown
Clay soils are too wet or too dry, slow to drain, slow to warm in the spring, and slow to release nutrients to plant roots. The best way to improve clay soil is to add several inches of organic matter such as aged compost to planting beds regularly—at least twice a year–and work it into
Cabbage soup with sweet potatoes Cabbage soup is earthy with a subtle sweetness. With a few aromatic vegetables or some meat or lentils added, it makes an inexpensive yet flavorful and filling one-dish meal. Common green cabbage from the spring, fall, or winter garden is ideal for cabbage soup. Ratio. The ratio of liquid to
Great Northern bean soup Dried bean soups are hearty and perfect for chilly days. Black beans, navy beans, kidney beans, lima beans may be used. For a velvety, smooth soup, purée or whir the beans in a blender after cooking; for a soup with texture, purée only half the beans. Water is the common liquid
Pesto ingredients Pesto is a creamy green herb sauce you can make by hand in about ten minutes. Classic pesto is a combination of fresh basil leaves, garlic, pine nut kernels, grated parmesan cheese, salt, and olive oil. But pesto is not a specific dish, but the name for a style of sauce; so substitutions
Pasta ingredients Fresh pasta is easily made at home—with no recipe. All you need is all-purpose flour, eggs, salt, and a few drops of water. It is delicate and rich flavored and excellent with light sauces–butter and Parmesan cheese, or olive oil, garlic and parsley, or cream and bacon bits, or tomato sauce with an
Strawberry jam, plum jam, peach jam, blueberry jam, grape jam—any fruit can be cooked with sugar to make jam. Late summer is home-made jam season—unless you grow apricots and then mid-summer is jam season. My Santa Rosa plum tree is a jam factory in September. Whatever fruit you grow or buy at the farm market
Potato salad with dill and scallions Potato salad is a summer classic—but it’s also a spring and fall and winter classic. Some like it moist and creamy. Some like it dry and crumbly. Some like it dressed in egg-rich mayonnaise. Some like it dressed in oil and vinegar. Some like it with sweet relish and
Broccoli soup Purée aromatic and sweet vegetables in a blender for a velvety soup or purée them by hand in the pot for a slightly chunky soup. Carrot soup, leek and potato soup, cauliflower soup, broccoli soup, winter squash soup: root vegetables and substantive bodied or flowered vegetables make thick, flavorful purée soups. Potatoes, carrots
