Tag Archives: seasonal recipes

Recipes

Seasonal Eats: Beet, Carrot, Ginger Salad

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Eating from your garden or even just eating locally seems like it can be toughest in winter. No matter how much you ferment, dry, can, and freeze, it can be challenging not to reach for the fresh produce readily available in every supermarket. This beet, carrot, ginger salad is one of my favorites for creating a delicious side that’s fresh, light, and colorful but can also be made with ingredients from your root cellar or local winter farmers’ market.

For this recipe, you’ll need:

  • Beets
  • Carrots
  • Fresh Ginger
  • Rice Vinegar
  • Lemon or Lime Juice
  • Onion (can be a green or bulb onion)
  • Salt & pepper
  • Optional Fresh mint, cilantro, or lemon balm

Another great thing about this recipe is that it doesn’t need to be exact. I like to keep the ratio of grated carrots to beets at about 1 to 1. However, you may find you prefer it a little differently.

Begin by peeling your beets and grating them and your carrots. You can then toss them together. If you’re using bulb onions, I would also finely dice up a handful or two and toss them with the grated root vegetables at this time.

After I grate and mix the beets and carrots, I begin grating and adding fresh ginger about one tablespoon at a time to taste. Especially if you’re not used to cooking with fresh ginger, you may want to start with less than you think you’ll need. You can always add a bit more later. 

Next, toss everything with a small amount of rice wine vinegar and lemon or lime juice. I would use about two tablespoons of vinegar and one tablespoon of lemon juice for every one pound of beets. 

The last step is to season with a bit of salt and pepper and any roughly chopped fresh herbs or vegetables you’d like, such as green onions, mint, cilantro, or lemon balm.

You can serve this salad fresh at room temperature or chilled. It’s a perfect healthy, quick recipe that’s sure to impress guests at holiday get-togethers. 

Recipes

Homegrown: Five Seasonal Cooking Resources

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This season we’ve been inundated with orders and happy to see many folks trying to make the best of a tough situation by planting victory gardens. We love seeing new gardeners grow their own food for the first time and veteran gardeners expanding their plots.

Particularly for new gardeners, cooking from the garden is a bit different. Rather than selecting a recipe and purchasing the ingredients, gardeners harvest their ingredients and then select a recipe.

While we try to post some of our favorite seasonal recipes here on the blog, we certainly don’t have a comprehensive list. Here are a few of our favorite resources for seasonal recipes and preservation techniques.

Fresh Preserving

When you’re in doubt about putting up the harvest check the Fresh Preserving site from Ball Canning. They have tons of recipes and guides for water bath canning, pressure canning, freezing, dehydrating and more.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Some of you may have read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver documents her family’s year-long adventure of eating locally to their Virginia home. You can find some of their favorite recipes from their year of local food on their website. Try quick dinners like their swiss chard “Eggs in a Nest” or recipes like their Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies to use up excess produce.

Mother Earth News

The seasonal recipe section of Mother Earth News is filled with tons of recipes from a wide variety of homesteaders and gardeners. Check out unique recipes like Thai Green Tomatoes with a Coconut Crust or Creamy Parsnip Soup with Sorrel.

Garden Therapy

Stephanie Rose created Garden Therapy after she found that gardening helped her to “rebuild [her] health.” Her website now includes an abundance of gardening resources including recipes that will help you bring seasonal ingredients to the table. Try fun treats like Edible Flower Lollipops, delicious meals like Garden Fresh Quiche, or beverages like her Salad Bowl Gin and Tonic.

Farm Flavor

Farm Flavor strives to connect consumers to agriculture by profiling U.S. farmers and ranchers. Their recipe section is full of easy ideas for you to use your homegrown or local produce. This summer whip up some Collard Green Salad Rolls or Garden Fresh Gazpacho.

SESE Blog Recipes

Here are a few favorites from the SESE blog. Browse for more recipes and stay tuned with us this year.

Did we miss something? If you know a great food preservation or seasonal cooking resource, let us know on Facebook!

Garden Advice

Spring Greens Ravioli & a Spring Gardening Checklist

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Waiting for the bounty of a mid-summer garden can be tough. As the weather gets warmer it can be tempting to reach for supermarket tomatoes, peppers, and melons even though those won’t be ready in most backyard gardens for several months. However, we can learn to slow down and appreciate local, seasonal flavors. This recipe takes the overabundance of greens available this season and turns it into a filling and delicious meal. 

There are so many spring greens available for this recipe. In this batch, I used kale, spinach, chives, lemon balm, parsley, dandelion greens, ramps as well as violet greens and flowers. A note on the ramps: please research sustainable ramp harvesting unless you grow your own! They are overharvested in many areas of the United States.

Depending on where you’re located and what you’ve got in your garden there are plenty of other options. Consider using nettles, chard or beet greens, collards, creasy greens, cleavers, or even lettuce! I also used onion and garlic stored from last season but you could also use leeks or chives.

For the filling:

  • A large bunch of greens (about 1lb)
  • 1 medium size onion 
  • Fresh garlic

Chop up your greens and onion or leeks. Then saute the onion until tender. Add your greens to the pan, stirring them into the onions and place a lid on the pan and turn off the burner. Leave them sitting like this for a few minutes. You just want to steam them. 

For the dough:

  • 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tbs olive or vegetable oil
  • 1 cup of water
  • Spices to taste

Combine the flour, salt, and spices. Then add the olive oil and begin slowly adding water while mixing. Keep adding water and stirring until the dough forms a ball. You may have to work it with your hands a bit. The dough should be smooth, elastic, slightly sticky and easy to work with. If you’ve added too much water you can knead in a bit of extra flour. 

Roll the dough out into four sheets about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Then you can slice it into your desired shapes and add a small spoonful of filling. Press the edges closed with a fork or just pinch them with your fingers. 

Boil your ravioli for 3-5 minutes. Serve warm.

This pasta goes great with many sauces like a spaghetti sauce you canned last season, just a touch of butter and salt, or broth. 

Spring Checklist

  • Amend soil with compost.
  • Sow cool weather crops like kale, lettuce, onions, collards, and peas and thin them as needed.
  • Harden off and transplant spring crops like broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts.
  • Continue starting warm weather crops indoors (depending on your zone).
  • Plant potatoes.
  • Sow or plan to sow multiple successions of crops. 
  • Get creative with the food coming in from your garden and local farmers market. Don’t be afraid to experiment!
  • Mulch garden pathways.
  • Leave dead plant material and leaves as long as possible to provide shelter for beneficial insects and caterpillars. 
  • Watch transplants still indoors for problems and pot them up as needed. 
  • Install key garden elements like deer fencing, row cover, trellises, and drip irrigation.
  • Join the Big Bug Hunt. It’s an international ‘citizen science’ project that tracks when and how garden bugs appear and spread during the growing season. Making a report only takes seconds and they’re close to launching an initial pest prediction service!

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