Oak Slough Farm

Jess’s Corn

Sadie wanted to grow flowers, Asa wanted to grow pumpkins (which we aren’t doing because he and Kat will be back in school come Hall-o-ween) and Jess wanted to grow corn.  In true Jessica fashion, she bought a book about growing the best corn and read the first part of it.  We’ve tried growing corn before in our house garden without the greatest success.  Perhaps we didn’t plant enough to get the pollination right, or we didn’t space the plants out far enough; but, that stuff is all covered in chapter 1, so Jess got us lined out this year.  And the corn grew.  Last night we harvested and ate a little batch.  It was delicious. We are growing a variety called “Peaches and Cream” because our friend Becky in Missouri, who has a little café, makes the best creamed corn from this variety.  Asa cooked it up in the husks on the BBQ and informed me that the trick was to soak the corn in water before cooking.  I’m the more traditional type, and just boil it (shucked) in water for a couple of minutes.  Everyone but Kat agrees to top it off with a bit of butter and some salt.

Basil  

We have basil coming out of our ears.  Well not our corn ears, but our pepper ears.  In the past, I’ve always just approximated the distance we spaced our greenhouse transplants, but this year Sadie had us using a long measuring tape.  So, when we transplanted the peppers into the field at 2’ apart, they really were 2’ apart – and this was a bit too big.  To help keep down the weeds and maybe help keep the plants from cooking in the sun, we transplanted some basil in between the peppers.  Now the basil is like a weed.  Its dwarfing the peppers and taking all their sun.  When I worked on a farm in Davis that sold at a farmers’ market in San Fransico, we routinely sold out of hundreds of basil bunches.  Unfortunately, Red Bluffers don’t seem to be as enthralled with making pesto or using basil in other dishes, like Thai eggplant and other stir fry, on tomatoes with mozzarella, or cut into your salad.  We are hoping to generate some more excitement for basil by offering free bags of it this week.  Plus, I think it may be good for your heart.

Recipe – Indian Vegan Butter Chicken—6 servings 

Sadie and Cisco made this for dinner last week and we all loved it.  Since Kat is vegan, they substituted walnut milk for the butter, and eggplant in for the chicken.  It was all good.

To make the vegan butter, soak 40 cashews or walnuts in warm water for 15 minutes. Drain water. Add ½ cup water and puree in a blender to form a paste. 

Meanwhile, sauté two diced onions in oil on med heat until translucent. Add 4 minced garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons grated ginger, 3 cup fresh tomato puree, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp red chili powder, ½ tsp turmeric, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp cardamon powder, 1 tsp coriander pods (opt) and cook until the oil separates from the sides of the sauce, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1½ Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp fenugreek and the vegan butter. Use an immersion blender to puree the curry more finely.  Keep warm over low heat.

In a separate pan sauté up some sliced eggplant in a bit of oil.  Eggplant soaks up the oil, so the trick is to keep adding just as much as it needs to put a nice edge on the eggplant without over-saturating it. We also added chickpeas for protein. And, of course, you could cook up some chicken. Finally, put your protein/veggies over a bed of rice and top with the sauce.  Enjoy!

Be well – Josh