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Trash Can Potatoes and Fence Pots (our Urban Garden)

We had a lot of questions about our garden so I thought I’d share a bit more detail in the hopes it might help inspire others to give it a shot.  We are very novice at this but really excited and thankful for the encouragement of everyone here!

For those who missed the humble beginnings of our urban garden:

We’re going to share the mystery of our trash cans and how the hanging pots are mounted

Let’s start with trash can potatoes – this is a super-easy project:

1. Choose a brand-new trash can (we opted for metal to avoid plastic but I’m sure there are arguments to be made for both materials):

2.  Drill drainage holes in the bottom:

3. Drill holes on the side, about 6 inches up from the base which allows for further drainage (in case we get a monsoon):

That’s all there is to it.

We’ll share planting photos once we plant in it (next weekend) though it’s very simple – fill with about 6 inches of dirt, lay seedling potatoes with their eyes pointed vaguely skyward and cover in dirt and let them grow – as green spouts appear you’ll mostly recover with soil.  The end results will be a trash can full of potatoes – but we’ll share more in coming weeks.

For our hanging pots?

We worked with what we had to work with – a fence which had support beams running horizontally across them.  The local dollar store had pots and brackets which cost less than $3 for a set – but they didn’t fit inside each other well.  So it was back to the drill:

1. Here’s the pot as we bought it:

2.  We drilled holes into the top of the pots:

3. We then hung the hooks over the support beam (if it doesn’t hold I have a back up plan – but so far, so good) – we pushed the hooks down so they are pretty much flush with the top of the beam and rest between the spaces in the fence):

The lesson in the hanging pots is not as literal as the one in the pots (that will work anywhere) – take a good look at your space and what you have to work with and examine what’s available and affordable.  The nursery can be an expensive place to shop this time of year and you may be surprised at what you find around you.

We shared how to build the rasied-beds for next-to-free here.

Feel free to share your ideas, posts and tips on your gardens in the comments – we love sharing!

How to Make a Raised Bed Garden from a Skid (Pallet)

When looking to garden in small spaces, you need to know Fern of Life on the Balcony.  She has a great blog – and an amazing garden on her 50-square foot balcony in California.

She had recently published an article on how to create a garden from a pallet (re-nest also posted an interesting vertical garden this week here).

We had purchased two raised-beds last year.  They were awfully expensive and I was convinced I could make something cheaper that would work just as well (I’m not the handiest although becoming more adventurous with more experience).  I’m really happy with the results – though I’m not sure that the material is strong enough to last more than a year.  On the positive side, we saved some wood from going to scrap and were able to re-use it for another year and it was free.

Note: not all skids are equal and careful research should be done to ensure that you are comfortable with the risks associated with using them.  We used skids that were used for shipping food and, with research, decided the apparent risks were acceptable for us.  It should be noted that many skids (more details in the comments below and at Fern’s link) are treated with a lot of chemicals that may not make them safe for food so do your research and use care when choosing.

We found skids by searching the free section on Craigslist.  After finding them nearby we also found some in our back alley.  Fern points out how to find suitable skids for growing – I wasn’t so concerned with using food-specific wood (though we did) as non of our soil will be in contact with the wood.

We’ll share how these survive through the summer – this is as much an experiment as it is an idea on how to make them.  I am , so far, thrilled with the results. The biggest challenge was removing the slats on the skids without destroying them.

Each raised bed is made from a single skid – had I used two skids per bed I would have saved work and perhaps had a stronger result.

You’ll need a hammer, nails (screws may have been a better choice) and a skill saw.

1.  Choose your skid – be picky and get the best condition that you can:

2.  Pull one set of slats off.  Note that the ‘top’ has more slats than the bottom.  If you’re building using a single skid, you’ll need to pull the slats from the top (this it the more work part).  Keep the removed slats as you’ll need them later.

3.  Turn the skid over.  Place somewhere your saw can reach

4.  Cut the skid in half – this is to make the base for your garden (note the other half has 4 partial slats):

5.  Two things to do here – although I only did one and had to re-do it later.  The first is to check the length of your removed slats compared to the base (a skid is typically 40 x 48 inches) – you’ll need to cut off about a foot of the skid so the removed slats can span the length of the skid.

You also need to move any remaining nails in the skid and the 4 partial slats from the step above.

6.  Our base is ready:

7.  Use the partial slats to make posts (you should see 4 of them nailed in place below).  Note that the slats are off the ground – this will present my soil bag from touching the ground (something I want to present the ground from leaching in as well as to assist draining):

8.  Take the removed slats and Build a frame to connect the posts (we cut the two end pieces):

9.  Staple Landscapers cloth (we purchased 50 yards of it for less than $15) on the frame:

10.  Wrap the cloth around the slat you stapled – this will help it ‘catch’ on itself and make it more likely to stay.  You may need to cut the cloth before wrapping – leave yourself lots of excess material or you’ll end up with a garden hammock (we have a bit of one :) ):

11.  Wrap the other side and cut small slits in the material to allow for drainage (you don’t need many - just get the lowest point and then you’re done (you may need a second layer of material wrapping the other direction to complete the process:

Our first box took twice the time of our second.

If you missed yesterday’s post, here’s how our garden beds look like now.

We’ll share progress and results this year.

An Urban Garden in my Parking Space…

We`re novice gardeners.  We`ve had some success in the last few years and we`re hoping to grow more this year – but we don`t have a lot of space.

Last years garden consisted of two small raised beds of tomatoes on the patio of the coffee shop we live above, a single cucumber plant in a pot, hot peppers in the back alley and herbs on our fire escape.  The patio was decent but had some problems – it was shaded for much of the day, some of our hard work was taken by patrons and, in one really gross incident, I found a cigarette butt disposed in one of my gardens.

The shade was truly the most problematic as the others were isolated incidents.

Our last remaining space was my parking spot (or the front part of it as I use it for parking):

It`s not exactly  glamorous (although it does have a bunch of stinging nettle which are edible – if they weren`t in a parking space).  We knew it would take some cleaning up and that we`d have to plant things in containers – off the ground.

We started with a simple clean-up:

From there we bought some dollar-store items (ok they were more around $1.50), brought up the beds from last year, added some trash cans to grow in and built some raised beds out of salvaged material:

We`re not done yet but getting closer!  We`ll share a few how-to`s this week from what we`ve learned – it`s not too late and no space too small to grow something…

Possibly the Best Homemade Calzone Recipe (Technique) Ever

I grew up calling them “Panzerotto’s” or “Panzerotti’s” and others know them as Calzones.  The truth is that my version is probably not very traditional and can be made 1,000 different ways.  What I make is a stuffed pizza – and I love it.

The magic of a Calzone, to me, is that the outsides of the pizza are dry and firm while the inside is semi-steamed and moist from the evaporating sauce and cooking vegetables.  The super hot pizza ovens in Italian bakeries tend to cook the bottom so fast that the moisture doesn’t leak through (at least that’s my guess) but home-made results always lacked.  I always had the same problem – an amazing stuffed pizza with perfect crust on the top – but the bottom was soggy and generally fell right through.

The results went from marginal failure (an awkward mess) right through to disaster (a deconstructed doughy mess with most of the pizza stuck to the pan or scattered on the floor).

My problem was simple: longer cooking times meant sauce ‘melted’ through the pizza and made the bottom soggy to the point that it either fell apart or it became fused to the pan.  My secret to the best home-made Calzone isn’t so much about any recipe – it’s more about how to cook a Calzone so that the bottom resembles the top in terms of texture and composure.

Here’s my secrets:

  1. Make a pizza dough (here’s a link to our homemade pizza dough which we shared yesterday).
  2. As your dough rests before rolling, prep your veg and sauce.  We use regular tomato sauce that’s cooked at a gentle simmer with some salt and pepper.  I often add a few dried hot peppers to rehydrate them at the same time.  It’s ok (and even great) for your sauce to be thin (for years I cooked it down to try to stop the leaking at the bottom to no avail).
  3. Roll it into a long rectangle on a floured cutting board or counter.
  4. Start to heat the oven – we cook around 450.
  5. Transfer your dough to a piece of parchment paper (don’t be too delicate – as long as you handle pizza dough with steely confidence, it won’t usually rip :) ).
  6. Make sure you’ve on the parchment paper – it will soon become much more difficult to transfer it.
  7. Cut slits – lots of them – on both sides of the dough.  Don’t be afraid about cutting too close to the center – being too close is actually better (I tend to leave a space as wide as the narrow part of my ladle).  It’s ok if you cut through the parchment paper (but you probably won’t).

  8. Lift the parchment paper and dough and place on a large rack (we use these to cool our jars when preserving).  It’s far easier to move it now than when it’s loaded up.  This rack is a key component.
  9. Place the rack on top of a cookie sheet – this will levitate the calzone over the cookie sheet which will later catch our excess moisture.
  10. Lay down your sauce, veggies and the rest.

  11. Criss-cross the slits like your tying your shoes.  Don’t be too delicate.  It’s ok if there’s some space and you don’t have to follow the same pattern all the time.  Mine isn’t perfect (it just looks it :)

  12. You’ll notice some sauce has already begun to leak onto the parchment paper.  Time to create drainage holes: use a steak knife (or cheap pairing knife) and cut holes close to the Calzone.  Cut lots.  Excess moisture will drip through these and drain into the cookie sheet.  The parchment paper is necessary at the start to stop the dough from baking INTO the rack.

  13. Bake for 15 minutes – test the bottom of the calzone and as soon as you think it’s cooked enough to not get shredded by the rack, remove the parchment paper by sliding it out.  This allows complete drainage and air circulation that will ensure the bottom continues to stay dry and cooks like the top.
  14. When it’s complete, let the whole thing rest and cool slightly – on the rack.

It may sound like more work than it actually is – the process is simple – keep the bottom out of the sauce and surround it with as much air as you possibly can to get an even bake for the entire product.

I still make the occasional mistake – when I do, it’s always the same one: I pull it out before the middle piece is perfectly done.

I tend to serve my slices smothered in extra sauce – Dana prefers it without.

Do you like thin crust pizza?  If so, you have to check out our ‘secret’ technique that will make the best thin-crust pizza you’ve ever made at home.

If you’re going to go through the trouble of making calzones by hand, you should consider preserving your own tomato sauce as well (if you don’t already).  There’s nothing on the market that tastes as good as home-preserved sauce and it’s relatively simple (you can also preserve whole tomatoes if you don’t want to buy the equipment to preserve sauce).  Here’s a partial guide to our ‘best of’ tomato preserving posts.

How to Make Pizza Dough

We`ve been making our own pizza dough for almost a year-and-a-half.  It`s remarkably simple to prepare, doesn`t take a lot of labor and tastes remarkably great.

We use a food processor with a plastic blade to mix the dough but you could easily substitute your hands for the machine.

I find that most pizza dough recipes emphasize the wrong thing – the recipe.  There`s a lot of factors which affect your dough which include humidity, size of your flour and the temperature of the room.  A recipe is a guideline to get you started but you need to tweak the dough each time you make it – and that`s really easy.

Here`s the guideline:

  • If your dough is sticky, add a bit of flour.  I didn`t do this when I was learning and it made the bowl difficult to clean and the dough tough to work with.  Add a small amount at a time – there should be no dough stuck to the sides of the bowl.
  • If your dough is crumbly, add water – a very small amount at a time.  If you have `crumbly bits`, this will bring it together.

Your finished dough should be a lovely ball.  The consistency is closer to soft bubblegum than a brick or goo that won`t fall off your fingers.

This recipe is scalable up and down and relies on weight for it`s main ingredients as a more accurate way of measuring:

  • 20 ounces flour
  • 12 ounces water
  • 1 ounce olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons maple syrup (optional – can use sugar or omit)
  • 0.5 teaspoon instant or active yeast

Place dry ingredients in the mixer and give them a buzz.  Follow by adding the oil, maple syrup and then water and add them in a steady stream with the mixer on.  This takes about 20-30 seconds of mixing (I stop halfway to scrape the outsides of the mixer inwards).

Dust the outsides of your dough with flour and place in a bowl and cover with a moist towel.  Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes before cutting it in half and rolling it out flat on a well-floured surface.

If you want a very thin crust, let your dough rest for about 10 minutes after rolling (covered with the moist towel) and then roll again.

We cook the pizza in an oven at 450 degrees – it can take about 10 minutes, sometimes a bit longer.  You know when it`s done when your spatula easily lifts the dough without stretching (this means it`s cooked on the bottom).

We`ll share our ultimate tips for making calzone with this dough tomorrow.

The pizza above included our dough as well as our homemade pasta sauce, dried mushroom and celery powders as well as dried herbs.

Banana Chips – How to Dehydrate Bananas

There`s not a lot of mystery to making banana chips – although the homemade version just taste so much better than what one buys commercially.

There is one essential decision when it comes to drying bananas: to use lemon juice (or ascorbic acid) or not.  Adding an acid stop the fruit from browning.  This argument applies to most fruit and it`s purely about appearance.  I don`t mind the darker color (in fact I actually find it appeals to me – pun intended in the case of bananas).

Dry them at 130 degrees – the actual time will vary depending on the thickness (I tend to cut them around a fifth-of-an-inch in thickness).  Many dry them until slightly pliable but I like to take them a step further and make them crispy (which is why I also cut them slightly thinner than others).

I love them as a simple snack.

The step by step directions are probably just as easy in photos – so here you go!

Dehydrating Limes

Dana jokes that I will preserve just about anything I can lift.  And since limes are so light, the qualify:

There`s not a lot to drying limes.  Cut them as evenly as possible and place them in the dehydrator at 135 degrees and dry until they are crispy – I like to describe them as `breakable.`  There`s a lot of water in these little dudes and dudettes so ensure they are dried throughout by pinching the flesh of your thickest piece between your finger and your thumb.

We mentioned making these on our Facebook Group (If you`re not a member you may want to check it out – there`s more than 900 members of the community there who are engaging in conversations, sharing ideas, techniques, recipes, links and more) and several people wanted to know what to do with them (thanks Rachel, Lisa and Bashar! :) ).  I admitted at the time that I had no idea and we asked the group and our Twitter friends for recommendations.  Here`s a list of ideas:

  • Our friends at The Avro suggested muddling it into cocktails (appropriate suggestion from a bar after all!)
  • Rachel mentioned using lemon and lime powder for baking (but wasn`t keen on the color – our dried lemons also turn out very dark).
  • We heard from the awesome team at Earth to Table Bread Bar (ooooh their cookbook…) that we could make Thai soup with them.
  • Food hero Arlene Stein and Chef Friend Shayma (Spice Spoon) recommended a Persian stew named Khoresht.  Febi clarified that this would use whole dried lemons (an interesting concept that may take some exploration – I would think you have to pierce them multiple times before drying).
  • Chef Scott Vivian (from the awesome Beast Restaurant) recommended an Indian Lime Pickle .
  • I definitely want to experiment with turning them to powder and using them to rim a glass or within a cocktail.

I dried limes because I was curious – and I found 8 on sale for $1 (they were a few hours from being thrown out – so they were cheap and felt good to save).  Looking forward to experimenting – any other ideas out there for them?

Dehydrating Mushrooms – Easier than Pie

Mushrooms are so rewarding when it comes to dehydrating.  Clean them, slice them (optional) and throw them in the warm box for 4-8 hours (around 135 degrees).

If I`m going to turn them into powder, I don`t mind keeping them whole.

If I`m going to use them for something different (the texture of rehydrated mushrooms is almost meaty and awesome in burgers, added to mushroom soup, stuffing or sauces), I like to slice them in the size or shape I intend to use them in.  The flavor is concentrated so these taste like uber-mushrooms and I find myself snacking on them too often.

I also find the final result to be so darn pretty that I could stare at gnarly dried mushrooms for hours.

If you look carefully below you`ll find Shaeffer helping out by inspecting the proceedings:

I can`t wait to rehydrate the portabelo slices and have them atop a sandwich or mushroom soup!

Recipes for Wild Leeks – Fish Sauce and Potato Salad

We use wild leeks (also known as ramps) for many things around our house – the most common uses are pickling the bulbs (they’re great with old cheddar), pesto’ing the leaves (we freeze them in muffin tins) and drying the roots (they are awesome atop a salad or raw/ delicate fish).  We have other plans for the leaves this year but we’ll report on that once we experiment further.

I thought it might be good to remind myself that you don’t have to preserve everything (this was a tough lesson in 2009 when I realized I didn’t eat a single fresh pea and had canned every pea I had that year).  Here’s a quick way to turn a single meal into two separate dishes using Wild Leeks (a simple fish dinner followed by a different take on potato salad).

Start by giving your leeks a good wash.  They often have an awkward enzyme (it looks like a fusion of dirt and the slimy layer of an onion that lies under the skin and on top of the flesh).  It’s easy to pull off.

Break the leek into its components (I placed the roots in a smaller bowl and placed them on a shelf in the warmest part of my kitchen to dry – once complete I will remove the roots from the tip of the bulb and add it to the compost):

We’ll start with creating a simple fish sauce – these instructions were based on some advice from Hooked for our recent Pickerel dinner.

Chop the bulbs and some of the green.  Many people find that leeks leave a bitter ‘coating’ in their mouth long after a meal.  It is my experience that most of the greens cause – you don’t need to use them all.  I also like keeping some of the greens uncooked to use as a fresh herb in dishes (such as our potato salad).

Ramps (just another name for ‘wild leeks’) are the adopted child of onions and garlic (or so I claim).  They adore butter (and so do I).

  1. Gently melt some butter (clarified works very well for this) in a pan (by some, let’s just assume that means a lot).
  2. Add the chopped bulbs and soften.
  3. Add some white wine.  Don’t be shy.  About 2 parts wine to 1 part butter.
  4. Simmer gently to reduce the mixture.
  5. Add the chopped greens at the last-minute and top your fish

We served this with boiled potato, fried pickerel and quick-pickled onions:

We had leftovers at the end of the meal (the 4 potatoes below were only part of our remaining spuds).  We chopped the leftover potatoes, pickled onion and the remaining uncooked wild leeks (we had extra wine-butter sauce that isn’t in the picture):

Toss everything in a bowl.  We added oregano, paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper, mustard seeds, the leftover butter sauce and added sesame seeds for even more crunch.  With all of this butter, no mayo needed (if your is too dry, consider adding some olive oil to the mixture which will add a subtle flavor without hijacking the taste of everything in the bowl):

Many home cooks don’t use enough spices.  I’ve learned (i.e. been slapped around by many chef friends) to lower the number of spices I put in a dish while dramatically increasing the amount of each I put in.  Ass spices tot he point that you are uncomfortable (with the only exception being the hot stuff which you can add until you are comfortable):

Two quick dishes made from the same meal.

What do you use leeks for?

Please note: always ensure you are foraging or purchasing leeks which are sustainably harvested.  Leeks were so over-harvested in Quebec that the leek has almost disappeared and Legislation makes it either forbidden to pick them or the quantity you can harvest is incredible minimal).  For guidelines on harvesting or purchasing wild leeks sustainably, our article on pickling and pesto describes more).

More Considerations on Buying a Dehydrator – and how to buy Affordably

Our recent run of posts on dehydrating has led to a lot of questions (here and on the Facebook Group) surrounding buying dehydrators.

We ran a very comprehensive article on things to consider when buying a dehydrator – consider it the pre-reading for this article (we won’t be repeating  points).

Since writing that article, I’ve learned a few things and would add two considerations to that list:

  1. The first one is emphasis: buy the biggest dehydrator you can afford – yet make sure that you have room to store it somewhere that is accessible and have the space to use it.  I am thrilled with our 9-tray unit and thankful that both Dana and I are ok with it taking so much room in the only closet in our house.  Not all would feel the same way.  Despite our massive unit (I can dehydrate about 24 square feet of product at a time), I do catch myself daydreaming about running 3-4 units at a time in shed dedicated to drying…
  2. If you’re patient, you can find them affordably.  Today’s articles highlight some examples of ways to find them on the cheap.

I am continued to be surprised by how much we use the unit and how much it has changed our kitchen.  Drying is consuming more and more shelf space on The Great Wall of Preserves (so much that we are thinking or relegating cookbooks to another room).  The food is fantastic, easy to make and so much fun to cook with.  I often think of dehydrating as ‘making ingredients.’

Here’s some ideas on how to buy a dehydrator cheaper than retail:

  • The time of year is critical.  Spring is the absolute best time to find them – spring cleaning and moving are abundant and there’s more dehydrators on the market than any other time of year.
  • Garage sales – especially in cottage or fruit producing areas.
  • Goodwill/ Value Village.  Keep your eyes out – there are multiple stories in our comments here and on FaceBook of people buying units for $5 or less.
  • eBay (be cautious of shipping – large units are…large).
  • Craigslist.  I learned a trick recently which was to check rural areas outside of my city for equipment like this.  When looking for fruit presses in Toronto I found almost nothing – when I searched Niagara, it was amazing how much abundance was so close to home.

It’s my experience that most retail stores don’t run sales on the large commercial units but you may occasionally run into sales on the smaller units at large retail shops.  The biggest key to saving is getting out and looking!

Any other tips out there?