MMMMMM – Guacamole
Last Saturday I talked about the box of avocados we purchased from a small farm in California. Since we have 18 avocados to eat we’ll be eating them for every meal. The first one was ripe yesterday, perfect for Cinco de Mayo! I made guacamole and we had it in our omelets.
My guacamole recipe is simple: 1 mashed avocado, 1 diced jalapeño (right now I’m using fire roasted pickled jalapeños I made this summer, here’s my recipe for those), 1 Tablespoon of Greek yogurt (this adds probiotics and helps keep the guac from turning brown), juice of one half lime, salt and pepper to taste. I also often add a few teaspoons of olive oil to help the guac maintain it’s green color and stop oxidation, it also adds to the smooth texture.
Mr Chiots used to dislike avocados very much, he wouldn’t eat them at all. Whenever we’d eat at Chipotle I’d order guacamole. He’d try a little each time and soon enough he was ordering his own little tub of it for his burrito. Now he’ll polish off a half an avocado for breakfast.
Last night for dinner we had fajitas with guacamole. This morning we’ll probably have sliced guacamole with our eggs. I’m trying to freeze some guacamole to see how it thaws. If that works I’ll have another box of avocados on the way to stock the freezer.
What’s your favorite way to eat avocados – or do you not like them?
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Nuggets
It’s been a week now since the nuggets appeared in the coop. For the first day or two I kept them in a brooder in the coop to make sure Broody Hen was going to stick with them. Since she did a fine job, I put them outside in a small enclosure for a day.
After that I set them free, no fences or anything to keep them safe. Broody hen is doing a fantastic job of keeping them all in line and safe from predators and the guineas, other chickens and she even fought off a wild turkey hen that was trying to sneak into the coop for a free meal. She’s a champ.
There is a greater risk of something happening to one of the chicks if I let them run freely, but I’m OK with that. They will be healthier and better chickens if I let their mom show them what it means to be a chicken. They will also be much happier for it!
I love that she’s doing such a great job, brooding little birds is one of my least favorite things to do. Since I like to have them outside on grass as soon as possible, it gets tedious carrying them out and bringing them in again in the evenings. I’m happy knowing there’s a great hen doing what she was born to do!
Have you spotted any babies in your garden yet?
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Quote of the Day: Organic Gardening
“The only two herbicides we recommend are cultivation and mulching.”…Organic Gardening Magazine
I noticed while working in the garden yesterday that the weeds are starting to germinate. Mulching and smothering is my preferred method of dealing with weeds, especially the tenacious ones. Right now half of my main garden is being smothered, it will remain fallow this year and I should be able to plant next year.
I’m also adding cardboard and feed bags around the little pottage in the back to smother the weeds around the edges. Every year in grows by a few feet thanks to smothering. This method takes patience, but it works very well. Sometimes you’ll need to smother for two years to get rid of vigorous perennial weeds.
My biggest method for controlling weeds is no till gardening. It’s amazing how much of a difference that makes in the number of weeds you have. The first year or two are spent hand weeding to get rid of any weeds from seed or root, after that initial flush the garden settles into a calm. There are weeds here and there, but nothing like there are when tilling.
How do you deal with weeds in your garden?
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Small Farm Food
If you’ve been reading here long you know I’m a big advocate of local and small farm food. Just because I try to eat locally doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy food from afar. Growing up in Colombia gave me a taste for all things tropical. Just like the rest of the food in my diet I source my tropical goodies from small farms as well. We live in a day and age that makes that very easy.
Yesterday I received a beautiful box of avocados from Fairview Orchards in California. I received 18 beautiful avocados, wonderfully fresh. They were picked Monday and arrived at my place on Friday morning (they were supposed to arrive Wed, but the USPS 2-day Priority isn’t what it used to be).
I’m super excited to be able to eat avocados till my heart’s content. They’ll be on the menu every morning with eggs (one of our favorite ways to enjoy them). No doubt some of them will be mashed, mixed with lemon juice and frozen for future enjoyment and I might even get crazy and make a batch of that avocado ice cream I’ve heard so much about. If you’re looking for sources of small farm favorites, check LocalHarvest.org, they are a great resource for all things local and small farm.
What’s your favorite fruit/vegetable from afar that’s not local to your area?
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It’s Coming Together
Last year I added pathways to the small potager behind the house. I added a small circular bed to the middle with pathways that crossed diagonally. Only the circular bed got lined with rocks, I didn’t have enough time to line the pathways as well.
Last summer had I trouble with the mulch from the pathways ending up in my garden beds and the compost from my garden beds in my pathways. I decided to line them with rocks to help with the problem. Eventually the paths will be paved with stones or bricks, but until then this will do.
It took me a long time to find enough stones, but I’m just about finished. Now I need to get out my chipper to make mulch for the pathways. This little garden is the one I’m expanding this year, I mentioned that last week.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this garden progresses over the season. Last year it was a veritable jungle.
Do you have any garden changes planned this year?
