INNA pickle INNA jam | blog (the early days)

Change of Address

2010-05-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

thank you, dear readers, for following INNA's adventures on this blog! It's been a great platform for stories and photos, but it's time to move to a few new homes:

for information about INNA jam products, check out INNA's new website.

to keep up on adventures, stories and photos, check out the new blog.

and of course, lots of bits of information floating around the INNA jam twitter and facebook pages, as well.

thanks for reading, eating, and supporting INNA! See you on the new website, blog, and at upcoming events!

Hello April

2010-04-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

April in the arugula.

It's spring. The arugula bolted. I guess that's why it's also called rocket. To the sky!

recipe: pasta with pickled MEYER LEMONS

2010-03-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

This is Laura Franek's recipe for pasta with pickled MEYER LEMON.

Laura says, "I love this dish because it takes about two seconds to make, and is crazy good." I can vouch for the crazy good. As far as the two seconds, you pretty much put the pasta to boil, and while it's cooking chop up the toppings. mix. eat. repeat.

1/4 pound of capellini (angel hair pasta).
boil in salted water until al dente.

A handful of parmesan cheese shavings.
A vegetable peeler is handy for this.

A handful of fresh basil, chopped fine.

4 pieces of pickled MEYER LEMON, chopped fine.

Drain the pasta, serve in a bowl.
Drizzle with olive oil, grind some black pepper.

Top with lemons, basil, and parmesan.

It IS crazy good. thanks Laura!

SEEDLINGS

2010-03-15T18:03:00.000-07:00

Picking out this summer's seeds.

Some are from the store, some are from the seed library at the Ecology Center, some (the tomatoes) I saved from last summer's garden and farmer's market haul.

February 8.

Planted in reused 6-packs, placed by the sunniest window (which as you can see, isn't very sunny. It was a cold and rainy week).

The bottoms are reused sushi takeout trays (I eat a lot of Berkeley Bowl $4 avocado sushi). The identifying sticks are coffee stirrers.

February 22.

As the weather got warmer and sunnier, the seedlings got carted outside for some sun and fresh air. Check out that cart! It's a Salton Hotray!

The Salton Hotray cart is a mid-century food-warming hosting cart. See the plug, and temperature control? Your options are: off, hi, norm, and low. I don't have the power cable, so I don't know if it actually works. But I'll bet a tomatillo seedling that it does.

March 15.

And the seedlings are getting bigger!

MEYER LEMON pickle

2010-02-25T15:21:00.000-08:00

MEYER LEMON pickle

SUMMER PLANS

2010-02-08T13:09:00.000-08:00

We got a few days of sunshine, and I'm already dreaming of the summer garden.

Once the garlic gets pulled in June, I'll plant in that bed salad greens and root vegetables, which should last through the late fall.

The herb bed.
The garden herbs get used almost every day of the year, I feel like we can't have enough.

And in the sunniest spot in the garden, the summer favorites: many varieties of tomatoes, Armenian cucumbers, green and purple tomatillos, and zucchinis. I wonder if I can squeeze in some pole beans, too? I will try.

FEBRUARY

2010-02-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

hello February!

(in this photo: INNA jam perpetual postcard calendar, large binder clip minus arms, windowsill)

JANUARY GARDEN

2010-01-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

Update on the garlic, planted three months ago.

And while we're at it, an update on the winter garden.
It'll be brief, since there isn't much growing aside from parsley.

And moss. And weeds.

Oh! But the cala lilies are beautiful.

Want one?

I have some potted cala lilies that are looking for a home (no flowers on the potted ones yet).
Just drop me a line at hello@INNAjam.com, and we'll arrange for a pick up.

RECIPE: BLOOD + SAND COCKTAIL

2010-01-20T22:14:00.000-08:00

It's cocktail hour!

My favorite and most-often mixed cocktail in 2009 has been the Blood + Sand. Sounds gruesome, I know. But really, it's the perfect whiskey cocktail - not too sweet, nice and booze-y. I first had it last spring at NOPA in San Francisco, and I am forever changed (and so is my bar).

The cocktail is named after "Blood and Sand," a 1922 silent film about a poor village boy who grows up to be the hot-shot matador of Spain. Throw in some fame and fortune, romance and seduction, and there you have it - a box office hit.

For the drinkable version: whiskey, sweet vermouth, cherry liqueur, and orange juice.

Good timing, now that it's orange season (whiskey, luckily, is always in season).

For the cherry liqueur I highly recommend using Cherry Heering. It has a great flavor and isn't overly sweet. Since it's used sparingly in cocktail recipes a bottle will last you a very long time.

This recipe makes two drinks. But I guess that depends on the size of your glass...

1.5 oz whiskey. I use Jameson.

.75 oz sweet red vermouth.

(remember to store your vermouth in the fridge, it's a wine after all and won't keep well with the rest of your liquor on the shelf).

.25 oz Cherry Heering.

I usually don't measure the Heering, just pour in a splash - but I thought you'd hate me saying "a splash" so I measured it out.

2 oz of orange juice.

I got just about 2 oz of juice from one orange.

And plenty of ice.

Shake, and pour into your glass of choice.

One of John's home-made brandied cherries (thanks John!).

The Blood + Sand.

NAVEL ORANGES

2010-01-19T18:08:00.001-08:00

julia street NAVEL ORANGES

Recently, some friends moved into the neighborhood. Welcome to South Berkeley!
They were excited to report that there are fruit trees growing in their backyard, including a gorgeous old navel orange tree.

Normally, orange trees in Berkeley grow well but their fruit doesn't fully ripen. This happens because they require a certain amount of accumulated heat hours, more than we get here in this coastal cool-summer region. Of course, there are are exceptions to the rule, and this orange tree might be one of those exceptions.

Even though South Berkeley in general doesn't get enough heat, there are mini-micro climates that do. In particular, the wind-shielded south-facing-side of a white-washed house, which is exactly where this orange tree is growing.

The "navel" in the NAVEL ORANGE is actually a mutation that happened around 1820 in Bahia, Brazil.

The orange forms a conjoined twin at the bottom, opposite the stem. Kind of creepy, eh?
Navel oranges are sterile, so there are no seeds. oh! the convenience!

Of course, because there are no seeds the only way to propagate a navel orange is by taking a cutting from a parent tree. So this navel orange is actually a fruit from a cutting of a cutting of a cutting of a cutting of that original mutated orange tree growing in Brazil almost 200 years ago, kept alive by scion propagation!

TURNIP

2010-01-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

A turnip from the winter garden. The only turnip, in fact. There you have it - my entire turnip harvest. Ta daa!

Good thing I don't need to live off the garden, or else I'd be eating wallpaper by now.
Apropos eating, I wonder who's bite marks are those. A mammal? An insect? do you know?

POMEGRANATES

2009-12-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

greenwich drive POMEGRANATE

Went pomegranate picking in Pleasant Hill yesterday.
From afar the tree looked like it was hung with perfect red ornaments.

Pomegranate, up close.

RECIPE: JELLY (OR JAM) DONUTS

2009-12-15T19:20:00.000-08:00

In a fit of temporary insanity, I decided to make jelly donuts from scratch.
Ambitious, I know. Blame Hanukkah. Recipe adapted from foodnetwork.com.

Ingredients:

4 cups white flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1 envelope dry active yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup INNA jam
1 liter Vegetable oil (I use canola)
3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Beat the eggs.
Melt the butter and leave it to cool.

Warm the milk. Don't boil it. Just warm it up for the yeast to get turned on.

Mix:
half of the warm milk
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 packet of dry yeast

Give the yeast about 10 minutes to wake up and get foamy. It should look like this, or maybe even more foamy and white on top. It'll smell all yeasty like a bakery.

In a big bowl, mix:
the 4 cups of flour
the teaspoon of salt
the yeast mixture
the rest of the warm milk
the 2 beated eggs
the melted butter.

Once it's all mostly combined, turn the bowl onto a floured work surface and start kneading. And don't stop. For a while. As far as I'm concerned, this is really the key with yeast doughs. If you need to, set a timer - 5 to 10 minutes should be good. You want the dough to become elastic, kinda like bubble gum.

Put your newly created ball of dough in an oiled bowl. Turn it around in the bowl so that it gets coated with oil all over. set it in a warm place to rise (I leave mine on the stove. On top of the fridge is a good spot, too). Cover it (I use a plate). Let it rise for 2 hours. If you're lucky and your yeast is happy, it will double in size.

Punch it down, and turn it back onto the work surface. Knead it 2 times. That's right. Just 2 times. Then stop. This is the other key of yeast doughs. Knead it a lot the first time, and almost none at all the second time.

Roll out the dough to about a half an inch thickness and cut into circles.
I wanted a lot of small donuts, so I used a small cookie cutter. Re-roll scraps to make more.

Put the dough circles on a lightly floured surface, and cover with a dry towel. Let them rise for about 20 minutes.

And then, let the frying begin!

Pour an entire bottle of canola oil into a heavy pot with tall sides. Heat it on medium-high. If you have a deep-fry thermometer, then your kitchen is better equipped than mine. The oil needs to be at 350º. Since I don't have a thermometer that goes that high, I checked the temperature by putting a clean wooden chopstick into the oil - once bubbles come out from all over the chopstick, you know the oil is hot enough (it makes sense once you see it, trust me).

make sure to constantly turn the donuts as they fry, or else they'll be lopsided.

Once they're a LIGHT golden brown (don't overfry them), take them out. Let them cool on a plate lined with a few layers of paper towels. If your oil is hot enough then the donuts will come out light and fluffy and not at all greasy.

To get the INNA jam filling inside the donut, I suggest you use a pastry piping bag, or a large gauge syringe (a turkey-marinade-injector might work, or maybe you have access to medical supplies?). I didn't have either of these tools, and resorted to brute force (chopstick, ziplock bag and fingers). I highly recommend you avoid my mistakes and welcome tools into your life.

For the jams, I used 5th street PLUM, not too sweet STRAWBERRY, and channing way LEMON. I probably put about a teaspoon or two of jam into each donut, but really, just shove as much as you can in there.

Sprinkle with loads of powdered sugar.

enjoy!

JALAPEÑOS

2009-11-22T19:28:00.000-08:00

The jalapeños for INNA jam come from the farmer's market.
The Derby Street Farmer's Market, to be exact. And to be more exact still, the Tong Thao Farm table.

Mr. Thao is very proud of his jalapeños, and says they are the spiciest around (I agree).

Way back in the heat and bounty of summer I asked Mr. Thao how long his jalapeño season is going to last. His answer, "November," has been ringing in my head since.

November arrived, and my deadline was looming. These will be the last of the local, sustainably-grown jalapeños I'll see till next summer. So to follow the thought to its natural conclusion, I should buy as many jalapeños as I can get, and make enough jalapeño jam to last through June. Right?

In typical INNA fashion I got to the farmer's market early (read: eager), waited for the Thaos to set up (read: stalking), and bought every last jalapeño pepper that they had that day (read: greedy).

Which was 23 pounds of jalapeños. Just as a point of reference, the most jalapeños I've ever processed at a time was 6 pounds. ok. here we go.

I called for reinforcements, and the helpful awesome Jessica and I started making jam.
First, we made many many batches of green jalapeño jam - the classic "plenty spicy JALAPEÑO."

Many batches. Many many batches.

Then we moved onto red jalapeño jam, since this late in the season about half the peppers were fully-ripe and red (during the summer there are almost no red ones - they're all picked green).

We were worried that the red jalapeño jam was too hot - it's definitely spicier than the green jalapeño jam. But still, we forged ahead, and made a couple batches of aptly called "crazy spicy JALAPEÑO."

(A few weeks later I brought some of this crazy spicy JALAPEÑO jam to a holiday fair and it turned out to be just as popular as the plenty spicy version. Lesson learned - never underestimate how spicy is too spicy. We love heat.)

After a long day of jam-making, Jessica went home, but there were still loads of red jalapeños left. And I, for the life of me, could not make another batch of jam. I just couldn't.

So what to do with so many red jalapeños?

then I remembered Mexico.

Driving through Baja last winter I came across pickle stands. Um. Correction: I stopped at some pickle stands. Seriously - how could I resist? They were spicy and tasty and so beautiful in the afternoon light.

Spicy pickled peppers! of course!

One big happy jalapeño family.

FUYU PERSIMMONS

2009-11-02T18:13:00.000-08:00

The day started out disastrous.

I was tipped off to a ripe persimmon tree in North Oakland. So like the obsessed urban forager that I am, I loaded up the bike trailer and the fruit picker and the jars of jam (for gifting/bribing) and the helpful boyfriend and set off.

The bike ride was short, and I quickly arrived at the cold-call I-swear-I'm-not-a-crazy-person door-knocking portion of the INNA show.

Behind door #1? A neighbor who prefers to talk to me through glass, bank-style. He refuses my gift of jam because it would require him to open the door, confessing that he isn't wearing pants. um, OK. I learn that the persimmon tree isn't actually in his yard. It's on the neighbor's property. OK. Got it. Moving on.

Behind door #2? A neighbor who prefers to talk to me through a heavy metal screen door. So heavy in fact, and with such microscopic holes, that I can't really focus on whoever it is back there behind the barrier. At this point I wonder to myself, "Self, am I innocently knocking on doors on a particularly dangerous and untrustworthy block, completely oblivious in my fruit-picking haze?" Finally, the disembodied voice opens the barricade to accept my gift of jam, but unfortunately doesn't want to share the persimmons. Which happens, and is totally fine. But the whole experience left me a bit unnerved.

No persimmons to pick, but there's still lunch to eat. It was a beautifully warm sunny day, so we went to stand in line and, eventually, eat fried chicken sandwiches at Bake Sale Betty's. Yum.

Then, on the ride back home...

I spotted a big, loaded, ripe persimmon tree!

Behind door #3 was a very friendly neighbor who gladly accepted my gift of jam. He had no use or interest in the persimmon fruit, and let me pick as much as I wanted. And I wanted! And we picked.

It really was very, completely, insanely LOADED.

We picked tons, and there's still loads left. This tree and Mr. Friendly Neighbor made my day.

RECIPE: OVEN ROASTED TOMATOES

2009-10-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

It feels like tomato season is about to end. So in a bit of a panic, I stocked up for winter at the farmer's market. Dirty Girl Produce was selling 20 pound boxes of organic early girl "offgrade" tomatoes for cheap. So I bought a box. And Jesse carried it. All the way home.

I think offgrade means they're squishy and will only last a day - So I gotta hustle.
I'm gonna roast these, pack them in ziplock bags, and freeze them for use during the winter.
Each ziplock is one cooking portion, so it makes things easy and fast.

Wash. De-stem. Cut. Core.

Fill up every roasting pan I have.

In retrospect:
Several hours of pan scrubbing/soaking/scratching/ruining later, I realize that I should have used parchment paper. So if you're gonna roast tomatoes, put down parchment paper on the pans first, then the tomatoes.

Salt. Pepper. Olive Oil.

350 degrees. 1.5 hours.

If you're roasting tomatoes on two levels of the oven like I am, be sure to swap the top and bottom pans about halfway through the process.
I don't know if all ovens are like this or not, but mine is way hotter on the bottom.

Roasted!

The glass pans distribute the heat better than the metal one, so the glass pan tomatoes are more juicy / less roasted than the metal pan ones.

I like the metal pan version. The black burnt bits are great, and will add a ton of flavor to whatever dish these end up in.

Not as pretty, but just as tasty.

1 pan = 1 ziplock portion of home-roasted tomatoes, frozen.

And, repeat.

It'll take two more oven-fulls to get through the box. I feel like I'm in this predicament way too often.

PUMPKINS

2009-10-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

From Top to Bottom: Cinderella Pumpkins, White Pumpkins, and Spaghetti Squashes.

I went to Monterey Market to buy some pumpkins. Just a few. I asked the produce man which are the sweetest - for making pumpkin jam. And he said...

Red Kuri Squash.

Taste Test = very sweet, good dense flesh, similar to kabocha but less "dry."
Rank = my 2nd favorite.

Peanut Pumpkin.

Taste Test = stringy!
Rank = not worthy of cooking. does not rank.

Sugar Pie Pumpkin.

Taste Test = cooks up soft and sweet. But inconsistent - I bought some other sugar pies that turned out stringy. So my faith in sugar pies has wavered.
Rank = 3rd. a decent option if nothing better is available.

Fairytale Pumpkin.

Taste Test = stringy, vegetable-y. not ultra sweet, but a very bright orange-colored flesh, even after cooking. very very bright orange color.
Rank = pretty, but not the best for eating. This might be a "decorative" pumpkin. ranks low.

Jarrahdale Squash.

Taste Test = creamy, sweet, great pumpkin flavor. totally smooth, not stringy at all!
My favorite part about it - the cavity with the seeds is a solid mass, not a ghoulish mess of stringy goop, so it's easy to clean and prep.
Rank = the best! 1st! #1! ichiban!

And the Cinderella Pumpkin.

Taste Test = stringy. boo.
Rank = no rank for you string pile.

So I bought one of each.

Coming soon... Pumpkin jam!

p.s. there's more pumpkin and squash photos on the flickr page.

PICKLED GREEN GARDEN TOMATOES

2009-10-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

A Fall Harvest.

I pulled up a lot of the tomatoes plants yesterday to make room for the winter crops, so a whole bunch of tomatoes made their way into the kitchen. Some were red, some were yellow, and many many of them were green.

A bowl full of green cherry and pear tomatoes.
Maybe they could be pretty/tasty little pickle bites? the experimentation begins!

De-stemmed and washed, sorted into jars by type and size.

Introducing... the brine!

I used a sweet bread & butter brine with the tomatoes. It made sense to me that for tomatoes a sweet brine would be a better pairing choice than a sour brine. But I've never had Bread & Butter green tomatoes, so I wonder how it'll turn out.

It looks murky, I know. It's because of all the spices - turmeric, celery seed, mustard seed.
Now the waiting begins. Pickles will be ready in a month.

PLANTING GARLIC

2009-10-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

The garlic and the braid from which it came.

This is the purple garlic I traded for last spring. What's left of it anyway. Whatever didn't get used up for cooking will be used as seed garlic and replanted in the garden for the next crop of garlic bulbs.

The good, the bad.

I separated the good cloves (left) from the bad cloves (right). Good cloves are big and fat - the bigger the clove, the bigger head of garlic you'll get. The bad ones are small and puny, or those who's protective skin got accidentally peeled or compromised - without the dry skin the clove will rot before it starts to grow.

But once I separated and piled up all the seed garlic cloves, I decided that it wasn't enough. More! I need more!

So I went to Monterey Market to buy some California Garlic.

And while I was at it, might as well get some seed potatoes too. I like the Yukon golds.

The two heads of California garlic I bought. These are white garlics.

The store-bought garlic cloves are way bigger than the home-grown purple ones.
Here's to variety!

The garlic bed.

This way up.

If you're planting garlic, make sure to plant it pointy side up.

As usual, I'm probably planting everything too dense. Getting greedy.

GREEN GENOA FIG

2009-09-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

Picked some green genoa figs in Berkeley.

They're really good.

ANISE SWALLOWTAIL CATERPILLAR

2009-09-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

The other day a beautiful big yellow anise swallowtail butterfly was flying around my fennel (aka anise). I was sitting right next to the plant and I watched it as it landed on the Fennel and hung out for a while. A few days later, the caterpillars showed up.

And let me tell you, they are HUNGRY. They're going to demolish the fennel, which normally I would not be cool with. But they are beautiful, so they can have it. If they asked me for money I'd probably give them that too.

FENNEL LIQUEUR

2009-09-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

Not sure how this will work out, but I picked a bunch of wild fennel.

And covered it with vodka.

I'm hoping for a licorice-flavored liqueur, but who knows. Fennel is supposed to be the main flavor of absinthe... or it might turn out more like ouzo.

LAFAYETTE RED DELICIOUS

2009-09-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

I went to Lafayette this morning to pick some red delicious apples.

Lafayette! Yeah, a bit too far for a bike ride.

Farther than usual and earlier than usual, but it was well worth it. An easy-to-pick tree loaded with red delicious apples.

and it's true. red and delicious.

Six canvas bags full to the brim.

That's a lot of apples.

Thanks tree! thanks Beth for getting in touch! thanks Tom for helping me pick the fruit! Thanks Jesse for coming to pick me up with a zipcar!

WILD RUSSIAN RIVER BLACKBERRIES

2009-08-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

I spent last week at the Russian River. It was lovely and warm. The water was deep enough to jump into from the dock, I drank my share of Sonoma wine (and beer from the keg that was parked on the porch), and canoed up and down the river in the morning as the mist was rising from the water. And everywhere I looked I saw blackberries.

I know I was technically on vacation, but I couldn't resist. So I went picking.

At first I went by myself and braved treacherous conditions. Giant spiders! Creaking redwoods (I wasn't gonna wait around for that branch to fall)! Cracked-out locals! Thorns! Blistering Sun! Needless to say, I didn't last long. Just long enough to gather berries for one pie.

The next day, Jesse joined me and we descended on the brambles en masse. The scary spots I had scoped out the day before didn't seem quite so bad the next day. Spiders? Wooden stick! Redwoods? I think I imagined those creaks! locals? Are actually nice and told us of a better picking spot!

Wild Russian River Blackberries. Hooray!

EAST BAY BARBEQUE

2009-08-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

East Bay Barbeque is a great underground eatery, serving food almost every Sunday in an Oakland backyard. Sam is the cook extraordinaire.

People gather in the afternoon, and hang out. Talking, drinking, and eventually the food comes out.

The classic Smoked Pulled Pork Sammies are served every week. These are how I originally got hooked...

when Sam and Jerry were selling the Pulled Pork Sammies at the Oakland Art Murmur.

But lately there's been some kickass contenders on the menu. Especially the Grilled Chicken Sandwiches.

On perfectly charred buns.

And roughage, of course.

It's great food, and great people. If you want to go, just email the boys at ebbarbeque@gmail.com to get on the list and find out the where/when.
(by the way, can you spot the INNA pickles on the table?)

TICKING CUCUMBER BOMBS

2009-08-02T11:29:00.001-07:00

Persian baby cucmbers (left) and cornichons (right).

I'm a bad cucumber picker. The top ones are the way they should be picked. obviously i waited too long to pick the other ones.

POTATO HARVEST

2009-08-02T11:27:00.001-07:00

Freshly dug!
Russian fingerlings, red russet, purple somethingorother, Yukon gold.

AUNT IDA'S LIFE CYCLE

2009-07-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

Aunt Ida's Italian pole beans are producing like crazy. I picked almost a pound of beans today! the great thing about these beans is that they can be eaten as green-type snap beans (left side), or they can stay on the vine and dry out completely to become shelling beans (right side). The dry beans taste a lot like lima beans. My favorite to eat are the ones right in the middle.

As the beans become more fully formed the green husks develop beautiful red marks, similar to cranberry beans. These can be shelled and eaten as fresh-shelling beans. But really, no matter which stage of the life cycle these beans are at, they're all gonna end up in the same place - my plate.

NOCINO - GREEN WALNUT LIQUEUR

2009-07-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

The fruit on the black walnut tree are getting bigger.

So I harvested 30 green walnuts to make Nocino, a green walnut liqueur.

But I'm not the only one harvesting walnuts from that tree.

Squirrel leftovers on the fence.

And back for more.

But I digress. I cut up the green walnuts and combined them with vodka, sugar and spices. I probably waited a little too long to pick these walnuts - the shells were pretty well formed and I had to use a rubber mallet to get the knife through the fruit. But the nuts inside were still jelly-like, so it should work well for the liqueur.

A gallon jar of Nocino. It should be ready in 18 months. A slow one, for sure.

LOQUAT KERNEL LIQUEUR

2009-07-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

I saved the kernels from the loquats I harvest in June and infused them in vodka. After a month of steeping in the sun, I have the base for a loquat kernel liqueur.

The alcohol has a crazy strong scent of amaretto, and a nice brown color. I added some syrup to this, and it'll cure for a few more months in the dark.

MYSTERY LEMONS

2009-07-17T19:30:00.001-07:00

I picked these lemons yesterday at Dan and Amanda's.
I have never seen any lemons like these before.

They peel like a tangerine, but they're yellow, sour, and ripe right now (the whole summer crop thing makes me suspect that it's a tangerine crossed with a lemon, as opposed to just unripe tangerines). Also, they have a bump at the tip. Do you know what these are?

PICKLED CARROTS

2009-07-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

Red, yellow, white and purple carrots, pickling away in a spicy brine.

Sunshine Carrots!

CORNICHONS

2009-07-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

Today I picked the first cornichon - a tiny little cucumber. Well, I'll admit it, it's not as tiny as it's supposed to be (1-2"). I let it grow a little bit too big (2-3"). These cucumbers are used for making French pickles, and they have all these tiny little black horns all over.

I rubbed those black horns off with a towel, and put the cornichon into a tarragon vinegar. As more cornichons are ready to pick, I'll just keep adding them to the vinegar. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll have a full jar!

JULY GARDEN

2009-07-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Persian Cucumbers.

Daikon Radish.

Black Beauty Zucchini.

Jalapeño.

Loose Leaf Lettuces.

Nasturtiums.

GREEN BEANS

2009-07-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

I planted 4 different types of green beans this summer.

upper left = Hericot Verts (bush)
very small and tender beans, best tasting. low producer, hard to grow.

lower left = Provider (bush)
lots of beans! a classic green bean type, prolific.

lower right = Contender (bush)
turns from a green bean to a shelling bean very quickly, too quickly. smaller beans than provider. my least favorite.

upper right = Aun't Ida's Italian (pole)
very different from the rest. flat beans, very crispy, less watery than provider. Since it's a pole bean, it produces WAY MORE than any of the bush beans.

So that's what I think of the beans. Of course my favorite bean, the hericot vert is also the hardest to grow and produces the least. Now i know why these are so expensive at the store.

YOGURT

2009-07-02T09:35:00.001-07:00

A quart of milk + a half cup of good yogurt + heat + time =

Two pints of homemade yogurt!

It was my first time making yogurt, and I think it turned out pretty good - thick and creamy, and not too sour.

I used Saint Benoit plain yogurt as my starter since I like the way it tastes. Different commercial yogurts might use different combinations of bacterial cultures. These bacterias ferment the milk into yogurt (some faster, some slower) and also impart different flavors. Saint Benoit uses L.bulgaricus and S.thermophilus, and isn't very sour. Works for me.

I don't have a yogurt maker, so I just heated the milk to 170º F, cooled it down to 112º F, added the yogurt starter, and poured the mixture into warm jars. I left the jars full of pre-yogurt soaking in hot water (108-112ºF) inside a cooler (with a meat thermometer keeping track of the temperature... I added more hot water when it cooled below 108º F). 6 hours later - yogurt!

PLUM SEASON

2009-07-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

Parker Street plum.

It's plum season, and I've been lucky enough to pick a few plum trees recently. This tree is just two blocks from my house, in a neighbor's backyard.

These were beautiful little red plums, with, um, a lot of personality.

Josh, the neighbor, helped me pick some, and I definitely took him up on his offer of "take as much as you can carry." Those were long two blocks on the way back.

5th Street plum.

A neighbor in West Berkeley has a massive green-yellow plum tree. There were plums on the ground everywhere - he told me he didn't have time for the plums this year, and the fruit on the tree will just end up in the compost unless I pick it.

So pick I did.

And pick and pick and pick.

TINY FINGERLING POTATOES

2009-06-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

Just harvested two plants' worth of fingerling potatoes.
And ate them for breakfast. Yum.

But don't get the wrong idea - these were very very small potatoes.
2 of Kate's chicken's eggs were probably more food than all the potatoes combined...

COMPOST

2009-06-27T08:56:00.001-07:00

Every last Friday of the month, the City of Berkeley gives away compost at the Berkeley Marina. Jesse and I hooked up the bike trailer, brought a Brita pitcher for shoveling purposes, and made out way to the Marina in the morning.

Officially it doesn't start till 8:45. But we got there a little after 9am, and the compost was almost entirely gone. (Somebody loaned us a shovel, I'm sure our Brita pitcher looked pretty pathetic).

It was chaos and mayhem and lots and lots of cars vying for good spots near what was left of the gardening gold. we were the only bicyclists there. And there was probably a reason for that. A trailer full of compost is hea-vy.

And Jesse did the hauling honors. Thanks Jesse!
From the Marina...

Up the Overpass...

Across the Freeway...

Down the greenway...

Across the railroad tracks...

And through the Berkeley neighborhoods...

LOQUATS 5 WAYS

2009-06-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

Those many many bowls of loquats have over the last week transformed into:

local-loquat & ginger butter (left)
local-loquat & Jameson butter (left)

These are loquat butters (as opposed to jams) since they are mostly fruit (almost no added sugar). The ginger loquat butter is very fresh-ginger tasting (since i grated in the ginger at the very end of the process). The Jameson loquat butter is much more subtle - the whiskey taste isn't obvious at first, but it leaves you with that warm-booze feeling.

local-loquat & mint jelly

This is more of a proper jelly. I have it in 2 mint strengths - major-mint and minor-mint.
This is great with any dish you might traditionally use mint jelly for, like lamb. It's also a killer ingredient in mint juleps. I've been using it lately as a base for a dressing for oven roasted beets (recipes coming soon).

loquat mostarda.

Mostarda is a traditional Italian condiment served with meat or cheese, it's pretty much fruit in a mustard-flavored syrup. So it's sweet and spicy.

brandied loquats.

I used loquats instead of cherries in a maraschino cherries recipe. These would probably be great as a cocktail garnish, or on top of a cake, or on a fork.

RECIPE: GLEANED CHERRY COBBLER

2009-06-07T12:01:00.001-07:00

A few days ago I went to San Francisco to deliver some jam and then predictably made my way to the Mission. Between getting a burrito with Liz at El Toro (salsa verde!) and visiting Helene over at The Mission Statement (new earrings!), I came across a cherry tree loaded with rainier cherries. Loaded. A street tree. In the Mission. I wasn't about to pass this up.

Helene and the fine folks at The Mission Statement lent me a wobbly ladder, and the fine people of the Mission District kindly volunteered to hold the ladder while I climbed into the tree and picked and picked and picked. The cherries were good, and no matter how high on the ladder I got (high! and unstable! scary...) there was always a branch just a little bit higher full of more ripe fruit. At a certain point the fear for my life ending due to a fall from great heights onto cement got the best of me and I just had to stop.

But not before I got enough cherries for Jesse to make a cherry-loquat cobbler.
It was REALLY good, and totally decadent with cherries. The biscuit dough on top is great, too. You can make this with any stone fruit (plums, peaches, apricots, etc.)

RECIPE: Cherry Loquat Cobbler
Adapted from Simply Recipes

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp of white sugar
about 4 cups of halved, seeded summer fruit - enough to fill a 2-quart pan
* if using loquats, I recommend peeling them.
2 Tbsp corn starch
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a 2-quart casserole, combine 1/2 cup white sugar, fruit, cornstarch and cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, combine the remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter in with a fork or pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the milk and egg until just moistened.

Drop batter on fruit. Bake in a 350°F oven for 35 minutes, up to 1 hour - until topping is browned to your liking.

LIMONCELLO PART 2

2009-06-07T11:58:00.001-07:00

Making limocello is fun.
After the lemon zest infused the vodka for a month, we strained it out and added simple syrup.
Now it'll cure for another month, and then... drinking!

WHOLE LOTTA LOQUATS

2009-06-03T09:56:00.001-07:00

This is the view from my window. For the last month or so I've been watching the neighbor's loquat tree get heavier and heavier, riper and riper. Thou shalt covet thy neighbour's fruit tree.

The tree, a little closer. It's very tall - probably 30-40 feet.
And very very tempting. I've never seen such beautiful, round big loquats before.

So I knocked on my neighbor's door, bearing a jar of strawberry jam and my best "I'm not crazy" expression. The neighbor, Justine, answered the door (hooray!) and was so nice (hooray hooray!) and happily let me pick as many loquats as I wanted (hooray hooray hooray!).

I just needed a fruit picker.

Attempt #1: DIY fruit picker made from OJ bottle, gaffer tape, long bamboo, and wire.
Verdict: FAIL.

Attempt #2: Get a Berkeley Public Library card, ride my bike to the Tool Lending Library.

And check out a proper fruit picker.

But in the end, I didn't even need to use the fruit picker because Justine let me climb up on her roof, where the ripe fruit is within reach.

I picked loquats.

And more loquats. Now for the jam making...

NEIGHBORHOOD EGGS

2009-06-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

Through Forage Oakland, I met Kate and Jonathan.
They live down the street, and came over with a dozen eggs and 2 jars of beautiful marmalade to trade for some INNA jam and pickles.

The eggs are so delicious and super fresh - thanks to their 4 chickens in the backyard. I look forward to visiting their garden and meeting their chickens soon.

GARLIC vs. GARLIC

2009-06-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I pulled up the garlic that I had planted 7 months ago in San Francisco.
When I moved to the East Bay this past January, the garlic came with. It's been living in a wine crate ever since. So it wasn't surprising when the bulbs I pulled up were pretty small. I guess "bulbs" might not be the best way to describe them. They are more like glorified cloves.

Oh well, there is more, and LARGER, garlic to be had.
Mike and Jenny out in Clayton grew extra garlic this year, and they traded some of their garlic for a jar of strawberry INNA jam.

My garlic (left), their garlic (right).
Now there will be enough garlic for the summer pickling!

FEMALE WALNUT FLOWERS

2009-05-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

In my book, walnut wins first place for anthropomorphic sex parts.
These are the tiny tiny female flowers, they have two delicate petals that catch the male pollen to fertilize the fruit.

These are the male flowers (catkins) from the same tree. This photo was taken about a month earlier than the female flowers photo. As you can imagine, timing is a bit of an issue with walnut trees - the male catkins are often ready to release their pollen way before the female flowers are even formed. hm.

Professional growers usually have 2 types of walnut trees in their orchard. The majority of the trees are for fruit production, but scattered throughout are some walnut trees of a later-blooming variety, to help with the timing issues. These "fertilizers" are about a month behind, so they will have male catkins in bloom at the same time that the rest of the orchard will have female flowers ready to be fertilized.

Female flowers ready for fertilization.

Fertilized female flowers.

TOMATOES IN THE GROUND

2009-05-11T09:43:00.001-07:00

And growing!
This tomato seedling came from Spiral Gardens.

I was growing my own tomato seedlings, but that is a sad sad tale of failure. The seeds sprouted fine, but then were in absolute stasis since (true leaves never developed...), and it's been 2 months! it could be that they were too cold at nights, it could be that the soil i used didn't have enough nutrients, it could be that i didn't water them properly and they were stunted. I will for sure try again next year.

Meanwhile, i got 4 seedlings from Spiral Gardens, and another dozen from Long's, and they are doing great!

OAKLAND ROSE GARDEN

2009-05-04T20:38:00.001-07:00

The Oakland ampitheatre of roses is pretty, and weird. pretty weird i guess.

FLURRY OF ACTIVITY

2009-05-04T20:24:00.000-07:00

All these were made in the last week!

Four batches of strawberry jam (that's right, four. Thanks Liz for the pile of strawberries!), one batch of grapefruit marmalade, pickled carrots, preserved meyer lemons, cucumber dill pickles...

And... limoncello!
Amy and I are making this together. Limoncello part 1 - infusing lemon zest in vodka. Later we'll add the simple syrup and let it mature some more. We're making two different batches - meyer lemon and regular lemon.

RECIPE: LEMON MARMALADE

2009-04-28T09:31:00.001-07:00

Ingredients:
5 pounds lemons (any kind will work great)
3-5 cups of sugar (how much exactly will depend on how sour your lemons are, and how sweet you like your marmalade)

Pick/buy/borrow lemons.

Juice the lemons. Reserve Juice.

Slice up the peels. you can keep the membranes of the fruit and slice those up too, or toss them. If you keep the membranes you'll get a creamier marmalade, if you use only the peel, you'll get a more "candied" marmalade. You can also run everything through a food processor (using the slicer attachment, or if you like a paste-like marmalade, chop it all up with the food processor knife).

Put all the chopped peels in a pot (that is not aluminum. use stainless steel or an enameled pot). Cover in water and bring to a boil. Boil until the peels are tender, but not too soft.

Rinse out the peels. This will remove some of the bitterness. If you like bitter things, you can skip this step. if you hate bitter things, you can do it twice. Be sure to wash out the pot real good, too.

Put the rinsed peels in the rinsed pot, add 3 cups of sugar and 1 cup of lemon juice. bring to a boil, then simmer for a long long long time. 2 hours maybe. keep stirring so it won't stick.

After the peels are real soft and most of the liquid has evaporated, taste your marmalade. You can add more sugar to it now if you want it sweeter.

Once you have it at the sweetness you like, turn off the heat. add another 1/2 cup of lemon juice, and put the marmalade in jars.

This is usually where I stop. I store the marmalade in the fridge, so there's no need for further processing. If you want your marmalade to be shelf-stable (not requiring refrigeration), you'll need to can it in boiling water.

ABU GHOSH

2009-04-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Olives, pickles, and pita bread.
On the way back from Jerusalem today, we stopped at Abu Ghosh for lunch.
We at The Lebanese Restaurant.

Chopped salad in tahini, baba ghanoush, and Dani ripping a pita.

And more still came.
The waiter brought so many little plates of salads and spreads, that he started balancing plates on top of other plates, for lack of room. It was all so good.

Mint tea.

Turkish coffee.
And the meal is done.

MOUNT CARMEL, ISRAEL

2009-04-12T15:44:00.001-07:00

Dani and Yael at the trail head.

Cyclamen (Rakefet in Hebrew).

I saw the leaves of this plant the whole hike, growing from crevices in the rocks.
But it wasn't until the very end of the trail that I actually saw one in bloom.

Wild Thyme.

Wild thyme, the main in ingredient in za'atar, completely covered the top of the mountain. It grows in massive bushes! (not as a ground cover the way it does in my garden).

Some other plants and flowers whose names I don't know.

The sheer variety of flowers in bloom was breathtaking.
Of course, I stopped to take a photo of every single flower I came across, turning a 2-hour hike into a 4-hour hike.

FAVA BEANS

2009-04-06T16:41:00.001-07:00

Fava Flowers and Beans.

I think that Favas are awesome plants. Here's why:
1. They grow easily from seed, in the winter (when little else wants to grow).
2. They grow fast and big (4 feet high!).
3. The flowers are pretty and prolific.
4. Both the leaves and the beans are edible. yum.
5. The plants improve the soil by fixing nitrogen. thanks favas!

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS & JAM

2009-04-03T12:23:00.001-07:00

Strawberry Jam (left) and Plum Jam (right).
Last summer's jams - gotta eat these up and make room for a fresh batch.

Buttermilk Biscuits.

###

Buttermilk Biscuits Recipe
(taken from epicurious.com, with some adjustments in attitude):

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Rounded 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 tablespoon buttermilk for brushing biscuits

###

preheat oven to 425°F.

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a bowl, then sift again into another bowl. i know what you're thinking, "Two Bowls? how many dirty dishes does this recipe make?" but this is important for fluffy biscuits and to appease biscuit voodoo. Blend in butter with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk and stir with a fork until a dough just forms (dough will be moist). DON'T OVERMIX IT!

Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead gently 6 times. That's it. 6 times. then STOP! the dough should be cold and not overworked. If the butter melts while you're working the dough you'll get dense doorstops instead of fluffy biscuits. you've been warned. Pat out dough into an rectanglish type shape. It doesn't really matter. just flatten it down so it's about 1/2 inch thick.

You could trim all 4 sides with a knife, if you want. or not. Pro: you get those great edges that make the biscuits easy to break open. Con: you have to make 4 extra cuts, and then you have some extra dough left! take the extra dough and make it into a ball and flatten it out, this will be one of your biscuits.

Cut rectangle in half lengthwise, then into thirds crosswise to form 6 squarish type shapes. Transfer biscuits to an ungreased baking sheet, and brush tops with buttermilk. if you want golden tops don't brush on too much buttermilk. Bake until pale golden, 12 to 15 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool to room temperature. if you can wait that long.

SEEDLINGS

2009-04-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

They're growing!

OLIVE HARVEST 2008

2009-04-02T10:13:00.001-07:00

Annual Olive Harvest at the Oliver Farm, December 2008.
All the white containers were filled with olives by late afternoon.
The next day the olives became olive oil
(with the help of a very large stone, and a centrifuge).

Olives are picked by hand.

Walnuts, Persimmons, and Grapes.

The farm.

LAVENDER

2009-03-30T23:13:00.000-07:00

Lavender.

BEAN SEEDLINGS

2009-03-30T23:04:00.001-07:00

Bean Seedlings.
I've got a lot of beans going. a lot. pole beans and bush beans, with names like race horses - "Contender," "Provider," and of course "Aunt Ida's Italian." These will be great pickled, and then, promptly put into a bloody mary.

ZUCCHINI SEEDLINGS

2009-03-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

Zucchini Seedlings.
These leaves are huge. and they're not even the true leaves - just the sprout leaves. If you look real close you can see the white root poking out of the bottom. This is gonna be a monster plant.

WALNUT TREE

2009-03-29T11:26:00.001-07:00

The walnut tree is growing catkins.
These are the male pollinators that will fertilize the female flowers.

MEYER LEMON MARMALADE

2009-03-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

Meyer Lemon Marmalade.
Thanks for the lemons Tom, Drew, and Stephanie.

PICKLED ASPARAGUS

2009-03-29T08:10:00.001-07:00

Pickled Asparagus.
With meyer lemon, mustard seed and chilli. Just made this batch, should be ready to eat in 2 weeks. Asparagus is in season right now!

DILL PICKLES

2009-03-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

A Gallon of Dill Pickles.

SNOW PEAS

2009-03-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Oregon Giant Snow Peas.
Grown from seed started last fall, these plants survived the move from SF!

GARLIC

2009-03-28T10:45:00.001-07:00

Garlic INNA wine crate.
I planted this last fall. it should be ready in June.

STARTING SEEDS

2009-03-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

The greenhouse.

Purple Tomatillos.
These are the only tomato seeds to come up so far. I suspect it's because the greenhouse got way too hot and the Tomatillos were the only seeds digging it. I'm ventilating the greenhouse more now, and i moved the rest of the tomatoes to a lower level, so i'm hoping that they'll come up.

Persian Cucumbers.
These awesome cucumbers are my favorite cucs and will be the cornerstone to the INNA PICKLE empire - they are small, tasty, and have a thin skin.

These seeds are supposed to be planted directly in the ground, not started in pots, so this is really just an experiment to see how well they'll do. I'll also plant some of the same seeds directly in the garden once the nights get warmer, and see which plants do better.

FIG TREE

2009-03-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

new leaves, and some figs, too.

This is the first crop of the year, called Breba.
The main crop, happening in late summer, will be much larger.

STRAWBERRIES

2009-03-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

There are 38 strawberry plants in the strawberry patch.

Half of them are Camarosa Strawberries, which are June-bearers (a strawberry flood in June).

The other half are Albion Strawberries, which are ever-bearers (a trickle of strawberries for most of the year).

The Camarosas are putting all their energy into making leaves, while the Albions are already making flowers... sometimes with no leaves at all!