The Garden Thread - October, 2024

October 1, 2024 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Liz]

Acorns can be eaten raw, roasted, or boiled.

To make flour, soup, porridge, cake, bread, and coffee-like beverages.

Acorn noodle soup is a distinctive flavor.

[Liz]

Try cornichons, lge capers, fresh herbs, raw veggies.....

[Pollard]

It’s a shame that all the hickory trees that are here are Bitternut Hickory. Good wood for handles and burning in the smoker but the nuts, as per it’s name, are bitter. Just checked out a wikipedia article on them and evidently, the nuts have a high percentage of oil that can be extracted and is similar to pecan oil.

One of their links even leads to forager|chef — https://foragerchef.com/sam-thayers-bitternut-hickory-nut-oil/

[FamiliarFace]

We have a plethora of bitternut hickory trees here. One rather mature tree hangs over my “meditation” garden. Though I have a few ornamental plants there, it’s mostly native plants, because that’s all that wants to grow without an obscene amount of work. They take over by mid summer.

When I get my sloped area behind it trimmed back, it’s a very pretty view of the backyard. You can almost see to the creek, and definitely can see the deer paths back there.

Most all of my gardening here is the flower and shrub kind. Too much shade for many vegetables. It’s closer to a botanical garden feel here than anything. Those hickories make for a good amount of maintenance.

[FamiliarFace]

I really like this idea. Will try, thank you!

[FamiliarFace]

This morning hubby found the leftovers of the carnitas in the fridge, along with the shishito/onions/cherry tomatoes/ black bean mixed stuffing. He decided he wanted a Mexican omelette. We also had some mushrooms, so I sliced those up and sautéed them before putting it in with the shishito mix. INCREDIBLE!!

Did I mention that we topped it with Mexican street corn sauce (recipe below) and salsa? It was so pretty that I should’ve taken a photo. I’m not going to count the calories today, just try to get in more exercise, ala yard cleanup. My daughter turned me on to this recipe when we had our weekly family food challenges during the lockdowns, and it’s a keeper. I make up one batch and put it on all sorts of stuff. Lasts a week or two. I haven’t tried to freeze it, but I think I will try that the next time I make it.

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/grilled_mexican_street_corn_elotes/

Grilled Mexican Street Corn (Elotes)

PREP TIME 10 mins
COOK TIME 10 mins
TOTAL TIME. 20 mins

SERVINGS 6 to 8 servings

If you aren’t able to find traditional Mexican crema in your local grocery store, use regular sour cream spiked with some lime juice. You can also substitute crumbled feta for the cotija cheese.
Ingredients

6 to 8 medium ears sweet corn, husks removed
1/2 cup Mexican crema, or sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper, or to taste
2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest, from 1 lime
2 tablespoons lime juice, from 1 lime
1/2 cup cotija cheese, crumbled
Lime wedges, to serve

Method

Heat a gas or charcoal grill to 400°F. Once the grill is hot, clean the grates.

Whisk together the sauce:
Meanwhile, whisk together the crema, mayonnaise, cilantro, garlic, chipotle pepper, lime zest, and lime juice. Taste and season the mixture with salt if needed. Set aside.

A Note On Salt
Crema and cotija cheese have a little salt already, so add extra judiciously.

Grill the corn:
Place the husked corn directly onto grill grates. Grill the corn for about 3 minutes, undisturbed, or until kernels begin to turn golden brown and look charred. Turn over and repeat. When all sides are browned, remove from the grill onto a plate.

Top the corn with sauce and cheese:

Using a brush or a spoon, coat each ear of corn with the crema mixture. Sprinkle with crumbled cojita cheese. Sprinkle with additional chipotle pepper, if desired. Serve immediately with extra lime wedges.

Note: keep this recipe for when corn is in season. It’s amazing. Good any time of year, but on the corn, it’s pretty wonderful.

[Pollard]

https://wmich.edu/sustainability/projects/gibbs/food-forest

[FamiliarFace]

Really cool!! Thank you! Maybe I can turn my meditation garden into something a little more “productive”. It gets a lot of shade in the summer, but in the springtime, it gets maybe a third to a half day of sun. I have one peony that’s always beautiful over there, and a volunteer Meadow Rue that’s just beautiful. Maybe I can plant a few of these understory fruits out there, though I suspect, the raccoons and bunnies will try to get whatever they can from them. Still, I love the idea! Will try to incorporate what I can. Always an experiment going on in this household!

[Liz]

Sensational corn recipe........thx.

[Qiviut]

Thanks - will save for summer grilling!

That site has a lot of other good recipes, too.

[FamiliarFace]

The sauce. The secret is in the sauce! It’s killer. I let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using, but the longer it sits, like a marinade, the better it is!

Phenomenal on top of our omelette this morning. Put it on a tater. Dip your fries in it. You’ll find so many places you want to use it. That Mexican casserole would be another place. We use it all the time.

[Pollard]

Went out to the tunnel/garden to check on the plants. The Tatsoi/Chijisimai are making a comeback from the cabbage worms as I thought they would. Got a couple of Bok Choy plants ready to take.

On the way back, stooped down and picked up 2 cups or so worth of hickory nuts within reach. All has cracked husks so I de-husked them as I collected. Don't have a nutcracker but I have pliers, same thing. Cracked one open and there's not a lot of meat in it. Others might be better. I know I could go back out and fill a gallon container with them from that one tree. They do make hickory nut pick up tools.

Cold pressing makes the best oil and I do have a small 6 ton hydraulic press but I'd need a heavy walled vessel with hole in the bottom for oil to come out and a plate/piston that would fit snugly into the vessel and then press it down.

Here's a DIY version. Taller than it needs to be since the jack only has 4-6 inches of travel. Probably don't need holes all the way to the top either but maybe it came with holes already in it. The cylinder walls are a little on the thin side.

Making peanut oil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1ZT5PJjjW8

Would be cool to saute homegrown bok choy in home grown/home pressed oil. Ain't gonna happen today but having some source of oil here is something I'm happy to know about. Whole nuts will last years if kept in a cool place in containers.

I do have some steel pipe 4-5 inches in diameter with almost 1/4" wall.

[MomwithHope]

That mexican omlette sounds amazing.

[MomwithHope]

Very impressed!

[FamiliarFace]

We just got back from our daily walk, and Mr. FF remarked again what a stroke of genius it was to throw the former burrito components into an omelette instead. It really was sensational. I know why we don’t eat out very often. Most restaurants can’t compete with us. Our impromptu recipes seem to improve the older we get. (We’re not getting older; we’re getting better!)

[MomwithHope]

I’ve put shishitos and a little fresh salsa in any omlettes. Yummy!

[Pollard]

Went out to gather some nuts. There was an old 8 foot board laying on the ground surrounded with them. I sat on one end of the board and by the time I scooted to the other end, I had a gallon of mostly de-husked hickory nuts. That’s just one 4x10 foot spot under one tree. There were just as many nuts that had fallen and sat too long to be of use. Collecting weekly would be about right.

Looking at how little meat there is inside this kind of hickory nut, I might get 1-1/2 cups from the gallon of nuts and that might make 1/4 cup of oil. I don’t use a whole lot of olive oil which is the only oil I use. Quart a year maybe. I’m sure I could replace olive oil with hickory nut oil. Got a higher smoke point too.

In a day, I can set up a hydraulic nut oil press. Just need to find one piece of pipe I have that’s 4” dia and 6-7” long. Already eyeballed everything else I need. Naturally, acorns can be pressed for oil too.

[MomwithHope]

We only use olive oil too. Good luck with that. I think you are onto something.

[Pollard]

Aside from the youtube video, I found a webpage version of an oil press using a hydraulic jack. It was on an old website I’d long forgotten about, Journey to Forever.
Small Farms Library — https://journeytoforever.org/farm_library.html

From there, I found a link to another project I’d long forgotten about, CD3WD Project — https://www.cd3wdproject.org/CD3WD/INDEX.HTM

Thousands of publications with a lot of old school, manual, primitive methods. They’re aimed at developing countries but much of it is how things were done here and in Europe decades/centuries ago.

There’s one from 1929 called The Specialist about a carpenter who ended up specializing in privies/outhouses. It’s a short story and would print out to 7 pages minus cover and info-less last page and is quite entertaining.

Sample:

So I gits in the car and drives out to Luke’s place, and hid behind them Baldwins, where I could get a good view of the situation.

It was right in the middle of hayin’ time, and them hired hands was goin’ in and stayin’ anywheres from forty minutes to an hour. Think of that!

I sez: “Luke, you sure have got privy trouble.” So I takes out my kit of tools and goes in to examine the structure.

https://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/specialist.html

It was too comfy so he made it less comfy and cut their stayin’ time way down.

[Pollard]

Even if you don’t get much fruit, you’ll get those Spring blossoms and depending on tree, awesome fall foliage colors.

Even a non fruit tree like a dogwood are a nice looking small understory tree.