Too much Kale!

This spring we planted an ambitious amount of kale starters and now... KALE KALE KALE!! Here are a few great ways to make a great kale dish for the side or main course.
 
Spicy Kale Salad
1 bunch young kale
juice of 1 lemon and lime
1/4 cup dried cranberries
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon fresh pepper
1 clove garlic, smashed and finely diced
1/4 cup parmesan

Soak cranberries in lime juice and wash the kale cutting into thin 1/4” ribbons. Remove the cranberries from the lime juice, and whisk the juice into the olive oil until it emulsifies. Add the lemon, lime, salt, spice, pepper and garlic. Toss everything together and bam! Kale spicy salad that is sure to please.

Quinoa and Kale Salad

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup dried cranberries
olive oil, for cooking
a small chunk of purple onion, thinly sliced
1 small bunch of kale, thinly sliced
salt and pepper
1/4 cup walnuts
whole lemon squeezed

In a medium pot cook the quinoa as directed on the packing. Once finished, drain if needed and take off the heat. While it is still warm, add the cranberries, cover and set aside to cool.

In a medium skillet set over medium-high heat, heat a drizzle of oil and sauté the onion for a couple minutes, until soft. Add the kale the pan and cook for about 5 minutes until wilted. Season with salt.

Add the kale to the quinoa, along with the walnuts and lemon. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss and enjoy!

Happy Summer Solstice! Lemon Balm Tea Time

Today is the first day of summer and what better way to celebrate than some homemade garden grown lemon balm tea.

First Day of Summer's Garden Bounty

Lemon balm is  a member of the mint family, is considered a calming herb with many uses. It was used as far back as the Middle Ages to reduce stress and anxiety, promote sleep, improve appetite, and ease pain and discomfort from indigestion.The crushed leaves, when rubbed on the skin, are used as a repellant for mosquitos and is also used medicinally as an herbal tea, or in extract form. It is claimed to have antibacterial and antiviral properties. Lemon balm tea is just the trick for stress and anxiety issues and a great way to start your summer.

Lemon Balm grows vigorously and should not be planted where it will spread into other plantings. It is often considered a weed and can get out of control quickly. So use it up make some tea!!

Leah's Luscious Lemon Balm Tea (Iced):

You will need:
Mason Jars/ Tea Container
2 Handfuls of Fresh Lemon Balm
Some honey
Boiling water
Optional: Lemon, Lime or Spearmint to add to taste

Boil a pot of hot water
Pick your lemon balm get about two handfuls
Wash in a bowl of cold water and shake to dry
Place in the bottom of the mason jar or container that you choose to use bruise and tear a few of the leaves to release the favor.
Add boiling water carefully and then add your honey and optional items to taste. 
Let cool to room temperature and then place in the fridge for at least two hours. 

For and added kick!

Chamomile Lemon Balm Tea:
Do the same as above but take freshly picked and dried chamomile put in a tea ball and steep in the lemon balm tea mixture they blend very nicely together and can really make you relax! 

Home Grown Chamomile and Lemon Balm

Let the scratch brewing begin

Scratch brewing season! We started the season off last weekend planting our Cascade hops, Black Lace Elderberry, Juniper, Raspberries, Lemon Balm, Bee Balm, Moonshine Yarrow. All ingredients for our scratch brewing experimental beers for brewing this spring and summer. We got lucky this year and saved some money by finding the plant sale at the senior center, talk about a good deal! Who could turn down those old folks in their Lions Club vests! 

Here are how some of these plants are used in brewing:

Juniper: Can be propagated from seeds, but germination may take up to two years. Cuttings are a more reliable method. To harvest pick the berries starting in the second year (Bummer none this year) after they turn color; the needles can be picked throughout the season. Brewing: Foliage and berries have be en used to flavor traditional ales and gin in the Netherlands for centuries. Use fresh berries 1-2 tablespoons late in the boil for a ginlike flavor, use the leaves 1-4 ounces to the secondary fermenter to give a bittersweet aroma. 

Elder: We bought the blacklace elderberry plant. Harvest: Harvest flowers when they are open, berries when fully riped. Brewing: Use 2 ounces of the flowers for dry hopping. Use 1-6 pounds of berries to add a sweet, honeylike flavor to fruit beer. WARNING: Flowers and berries are edible the bark and leaves are poisonous and shouldn't be eaten!!

Lemon Balm: Harvest: Cut the leaves just before plants flower. Use fresh or dry immediately after harvest. Brewing: Use 1/2 an ounce of the fresh leaves late in the boil to add a strong lemon scent and flavor. 

Yarrow: Harvest: Pick the leaves and flowers soon after the plants come into bloom. Brewing: Used to bitter 1/2 ounce of fresh leaves or blossoms early in the boil for a mild bittering. 

Source: The Homebrewer's Garden & The Drunken Botanist 

We also planted the hops. Which took a full day of clearing blackberry bushes and digging holes. We used a large bamboo pole and hemp twine for our trellis. This year we planted eight Cascade rhizomes from Hops Direct.   

Building the hop trellis

Tommy also started the season off with a scratch brew of Dandelion Bitter Ale. This ale is a bright brown-orange and cloudy, with a sour piquancy unlike that of hops. Yield 5 gallons. 

Stewing the Dandelions

Dandelion Bitter Ale-

Grain Bill:

5.00 lbs. Maris Otter

0.75 lbs. Bairds Crystal 60*L

0.50 lbs. Dingemans Aromatic Malt 17-21*L

1.00 lbs. Briess Victory Malt 28*L

Adjuncts:

2.00 lbs. Dandelions (flowers, stalks, leaves, and roots); soaked multiple times & cleaned well

1.00 oz. Kent hops (15 minutes prior to flameout)

2.00 oz. homegrown hops (2 minutes prior to flameout)

Mash the grains from above at 153 degrees for one hour.  Boil the dandelions for 45 minutes then remove the large matter.  Fifteen minutes before flameout, add the Kent hops (I used store-bought pellets).  Two minutes before flameout, add the homegrown hops (I used this past season's hops, so they were a little tamed from before).

This year it was a Dandelion Bitter instead of Dandelion Cream Ale.  It was also all-grain brewed (using Brew-In-A-Bag, aka BIAB), so the efficiency took a slight hit, but the OG was at 1.045 or so.

Finding a clean place to pick the Dandelions is the hard part

Our Seattle Summer & Fall

Summer's Beer Brewing Bounty

This summer we grew a small herb garden and grew ingredients for small craft scratch brews and other kitchen essentials. We have lavender, chamomile, coriander, fennel, and peppers.

Coriander-
Coriander can be used in cooking for  homemade hummus and falafel, in sautés, and sometimes even on plain pasta.
Harvesting: 
Coriander is cilantro that has gone to seed so if you are a lazy gardener this is the plant for you! Coriander that isn’t fully dried tastes bitter so once you have picked your seeds be sure they dry completely. We live in Seattle so our coriander was ready to be harvested in early September.
Brewing: The seeds are a traditional ingredient in Belgian White beers and holiday ales. They have a sweet, clovelike flavor. The fresh leaves have a strong, distinctive scent and flavor used as a regular ingredient in Mexican and Chinese cooking. Use from one sprig to one ounce of fresh leaves or 1/4 to 2 ounces of seeds at the beginning of the boil for flavoring. (The Homebrewer's Garden pg.73)

Lavender- If you ask my mom what CAN'T lavender do!? And she's not the only one, lavender is known for its relaxing qualities as well as its gentle smell.   
Harvesting: 
Cut the leaves and flowers 6 inches below the flower spikes just as blooms open.
Brewing:
Lavender has a history as a brewing ingredient dating back to at least to the 1600s. It contributes a complex bitterness much like that of heather. Use 1/2 ounce of fresh or dried flowers late in the boil. The flowers can also be used for dry hopping (The Homebrewer's Garden,pg.86)

Chamomile-
Chamomile has been used as a medicine for thousands of years, dating back to the ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks.

Read more: http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/german-chamomile-000232.htm#ixzz26sgtaRl9

 Harvesting: You'll harvest the flower heads at their peak and dry them whole. After they are completely dry, you can crumble them up to store them. No stems and no leaves. OR You can use chamomile fresh by keeping dried herbs as whole as possible. Crushing/crumbling releases the volatile oils and there goes the flavor and medicinal value. You can crush as you use the herb. 
Brewing: Mild when stepped, it begcomes bitter when boiled. Use 1/4 to 2 ounces of fresh flowers at the end of the boil for bitterness. (The Homebrewer's Garden, pg.71)

Hops-

Tommy Harvesting

This is the most obvious beer ingredient in our summer's bounty. Hope growing in the Pacific Northwest is a proud tradition dating back to the late 19th century. We got our start from our landlord and neighbor. He had some old hop variety in his garden that wasn't growing, so he gave us some of our own to try out. In a matter of weeks we had a growing thriving hop plant in our yard. 
 

A great resource for if you are interested in learning more and how we got started is "The Homebrewer's Garden" by Joe Fisher & Dennis Fisher.