http://walthamfieldscommunityfarm.blogspot.com/

Another cool local farm blog - they have excellent (-looking) local recipes...I'll let you know if/when I try some of them.

I really like the writing these farmers do about farming and the kind of more spiritual, reflective aspects of farming.

Of course, they are farmers, not gardeners, but you get the idea.

Need an online garden guru?

Wanna learn how to start your own garden?  How about a tomato in a pot?  A few years ago I tried to write down all the things I wish I'd known when I started....check it out!

https://sites.google.com/site/abbymachsoncarter/home/boston-backyard-gardener

Short-term cucmber-onion pickles (or the quickest pickles of all...)

This one's for my friend Katie who was trying to figure out what the heck to do with the pile of pickling cucumbers from her Boston Organics order.  Here's some pickles that you can make this afternoon and eat tonight.  From Deborah Madison's Local Flavors - a cookbook with seasonal, semi-fancy farmer's market-based recipes.

I would serve these pickles with grilled meats, put them on sandwiches, throw them on a salad or eat them plain.  (for the simplest pickles of all, I slice salad cukes or onions 20 min-1hr early, throw them in a tupperware, sprinkle a few spoonfulls of vinegar on them, close, shake, and store in the fridge until its time to serve the salad. yum!)

QUICK CUCUMBER-ONION PICKLES:

2 shiny fresh red or white onions
2 cups thinly sliced cucumbers, peeled only if the skins are tough

Pickle Troubleshooting

Here's a link from the Canning for a New Generation facebook page - now, if you try to make one of the pickle recipes I posted, you can find out what went wrong!  : p    Or you can scan it before you start to avoid trouble...

Hopefully you won't need it, but just in case you do...

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_06/fermentproblems.html

Sauerkraut: advice from the pros...

Learn about fermentation from the pros - Sandy Katz, who I got to learn from during a summer internship at IDA in central Tennesee, actually was one of the first people to show me how to do food preservation.    After I left, he published the book he'd told us he was working on, and its become a little bit of a cult phenom for people who love to ferment.   I still haven't bought the book, but here are his tips for making sauerkraut - which actually makes me more confident about my own kraut.   Check it out for more info on starting your own fermentation.

Wild Fermentation Sauerkraut tips