Serv’n up some Good Luck Blackeyed Peas

Eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is thought to bring prosperity.

We always start the New Year off with a big pot of Blackeyed Peas and cornbread (the way my Mama made it). Here is some food for thought on this southern tradition and it’s origins.

The “good luck” traditions of eating black-eyed peas at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud.

In the United States, the first Sephardi Jews arrived in Georgia in the 1730s, and have lived there continuously since. The Jewish practice was apparently adopted by non-Jews around the time of the American Civil War.

In the Southern United States, the peas are typically cooked with a pork product for flavoring (such as bacon, ham bones, fatback, or hog jowl), diced onion, and served with a hot chili sauce or a pepper-flavored vinegar.

The traditional meal also features collard, turnip, or mustard greens, and ham. The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion. Cornbread also often accompanies this meal.

Another suggested origin of the tradition dates back to the Civil War, when Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, typically stripped the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock, and destroyed whatever they could not carry away. At that time, Northerners considered “field peas” and field corn suitable only for animal fodder, and did not steal or destroy these humble foods.

Here’s one recipe for Good Luck.

2 pounds dried black-eyed peas
8 ounces hog jowl or 2 small to medium ham hocks
6 cups water water
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves
salt & black pepper to taste

Pick over the peas and rinse well, then soak in cold water overnight. Place ham hocks or hog jowl in large kettle with water, bring to boil, and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Drain peas and add to the hog jowl. Add whole onion, minced garlic, salt & pepper. Add more water if needed to cover peas. Cover tightly and simmer slowly 2 hours or until peas are tender. Serve with cornbread.

From Lydia Hess – Amber Lotus Designer/Art Director

Organic Kitchen Garden Wall Calendar

Hazelnut Pumpkin Pie ~ enjoy

Hazelnut Pumpkin Pie
1 pie crust

Recipes and Tips for Your Health and Well Being

15 ounces (about 1 3/4 cups) canned pumpkin pulp
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups plain hazelnut milk
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon coriander (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely grated
1 cup hazelnuts, chopped
Preheat oven to 425° F. Press crust into a 9-inch pie pan and crimp edge. Combine remaining ingredients except nuts, stirring well. Pour into pie shell and bake 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° F, scatter hazelnuts over the top and bake for 45 minutes or until pie is done (knife blade comes out clean). Let stand for 30 minutes. Serve warm or cold. Serves at least 1.

From Year of Healthy Living – by Ann Lovejoy

The Essential Rose — new 2012

The Essential Rose is one of 10 new titles in our line up this year. The International Herb Association chose the Rose as Herb of the Year™ 2012. The Essential Rose wall calendar is artfully crafted by writer and renowned gardener Ann Lovejoy. Beautiful, fragrant and delicious, roses have been a floral favorite for thousands of years. Most often associated with passion, love and beauty, roses are also one of the oldest known medicinal plants and are valued for culinary uses around the globe. Stunning photography combined with recipes and tips on cultivation, crafts and herbal remedies will enchant you all year long.

Summer has finally arrived in Oregon

Berries from Lydia's garden

Oregon is famous for it’s berries.

Beautiful, Bountiful, Beneficial Berries

Sunny June brings berries galore, from June-bearing strawberries to plump blueberries, succulent raspberries and sweet-tart currants. Although many berries are available in grocery stores all year round, much-traveled fruit lacks the vibrant flavor and delicate texture of freshly picked, locally grown berries. Research proves what our senses know well: nutritional quality is at its height when seasonal food is eaten as soon as possible after harvest.

Nutty Berry Salad
2 cups baby mixed greens
2 cups shredded Romaine lettuce
2 cups raspberries
1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
1 cup blueberries
1 nectarine, stoned and chopped
¼ cup chopped roasted walnuts
¼ cup chopped roasted almonds
¼ cup chopped roasted hazelnuts
Toss greens and divide between 4 dinner plates. Mash 1 cup raspberries and blend with yogurt. Stir in remaining fruit and nuts, spoon over greens and serve immediately. Serves 4.

• excerpt from A Year of Healthy Living – 2011
by Ann Lovejoy

June 2011 — Today the answer is yes

Sunny June brings berries galore, from June-bearing strawberries to plump blueberries, succulent raspberries, and sweet-tart currants. Although many berries are available in grocery stores all year round, much-traveled fruit lacks the vibrant flavor and delicate texture of freshly picked, locally grown berries. Research proves what our senses know well: nutritional quality is at its height when seasonal food is eaten as soon as possible after harvest.

June 2011 - Year of Healthy Living

Members of the rose family, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries all offer valuable phytonutrients that benefit your health. Like a little valentine, heart-shaped strawberries are indeed protective of the heart, also offering anti-inflammatory effects (COX inhibition) with broad physical benefits. They may also help alleviate inflammation-related pain from disorders such as arthritis and rheumatism.
Red berries like raspberries, currants, and cranberries owe their blushing colors to anthocyanins, potent antioxidants that also fight bacterial and fungal pathogens.

Berry Tips
To preserve freshness, don’t wash berries until ready to eat them.
For best flavor, serve berries fresh and at room temperature.
Add a cupful of fresh or frozen berries to sourdough waffle or pancake batter.
For a quick and delicious dessert, serve fresh raspberries with a spritz of fresh lime juice and a little maple syrup.
Toss fresh blueberries with minced red onion, cilantro, and a splash of lime juice for a spunky side for fish or chicken.

Year of Healthy Living — June 2011
by Anne Lovejoy for Amber Lotus Publishing

Click on this Calendar
to pre-order Year of Healthy Living 2012 from Amazon.com

Planting Peas when Lilacs Leaf Out

Many organic farmers sow peas not by date but by average daily temperature. Though few humans track this interesting statistic, the common lilac does. It leafs out when average day and night temperatures hit a certain point. Wherever you live, you’ll give your peas a good start if you plant them when lilac leaves are about the size of your pinky fingernail.

To grow healthy peas, pick a well-drained spot in the sunniest place possible. If the soil doesn’t drain well, peas may suffer from fusarium wilt, or pea root rot. To avoid this, mound the pea bed with 8-12 inches of topsoil mixed with compost. When planted in well-drained but moist, compost-enriched soil, peas will sprout quickly and produce deep, sturdy roots.

To improve germination, soak dry seed peas for an hour in cool water, then roll them in a legume inoculant. This contains special bacteria (rhizobia) that help legumes (peas and beans) produce large quantities of nitrogen-fixing nodules on their roots quickly. If you look at pea or bean roots, you’ll notice little whitish lumps or storage nodules that contain atmospheric nitrogen absorbed from the air through the plants’ leaves. If you cut tops off instead of pulling plants up at season’s end, legume roots will release stored nitrogen back into the soil to nourish the next crops.

Check the packet before buying an inoculant and choose one that works for all peas, including sweet peas, and for string beans, snap beans and lima beans. Though these plants will form root nodules eventually, you’ll get larger crops with an inoculant because many soils lack adequate colonies of the specific bacteria legumes need. Given the right inoculant, the young roots will function fully right away, even in cold soil.

To sow peas, make a shallow furrow with your trowel and plant them about an inch deep. If your soil is well enriched with compost, you can simply push the peas into the soft soil to a depth of an inch or a little more. Some gardeners pre-sprout their peas to make sure they get off to a good start. To do this, inoculate your peas, then roll them up in a damp paper towel and tuck it into a plastic bag. Leave the top open so you don’t have mold or mildew problems. Indoors, peas can germinate in as few as 5 days, while outside it may take as long as 2 weeks.

Plant sprouted peas 2-3 inches apart, placing each seed an inch below the soil surface. If crows, squirrels or deer are a problem, protect young plants with a floating row cover cloth.

Recipes from Ann Lovejoy –
[excerpt from The Organic Kitchen Garden - May 2011]

Fettuccine with Smoked Albacore and Snow Peas
8-10 ounces fettuccine
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 brown field mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 cups snow peas, ends trimmed, shredded
1 cup dry white wine OR vegetable broth
8-10 ounces smoked albacore OR any tuna, broken into chunks
1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons capers, drained
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, stemmed
2 tablespoons Romano OR Asiago 
cheese, grated
Cook fettuccine according to package directions. While pasta cooks, heat oil and garlic in a shallow pan over medium-high heat and cook, stirring often, until lightly golden (2-3 minutes). Add mushrooms and snow peas and cook, pan covered, for 2 minutes. Add wine or broth, bring to a simmer, add smoked tuna, cover pan and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer gently until heated (2-3 minutes). Stir in vinegar, capers and parsley, and serve at once over hot, drained fettuccine, garnished with grated cheese. Serves 4.

Sizzling Prawns 
with Snow Peas
2 teaspoons canola oil
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bulb fennel, chopped
6 green onions, thinly sliced
2 cups shredded cabbage
1/4 teaspoon shoyu OR soy sauce
1 pound cleaned, deveined prawns
2 cups shredded snow peas, ends trimmed
1/2 cup dry white wine OR vegetable broth
2 tablespoons cilantro, stemmed
In a heavy frying pan, combine oil, pepper flakes, sesame seeds and garlic, and cook over medium-high heat until pale golden (1-2 minutes). Add fennel, green onions, cabbage and soy sauce and cook, stirring occasionally, until barely tender (4-5 minutes). Add prawns and peas and cook, stirring occasionally, until prawns are opaque (3-4 minutes). Add wine or broth, cover pan and cook for 2 minutes. Serve hot over rice or pasta, garnished with cilantro. Serves 4.

Renew, Refresh, Renovate – A Year of Healthy Living.

Spring is a season of rapid change, awakening an urge for renewal, refreshment and renovation. Years ago, spring cleaning meant turning your home inside out, washing, cleaning and reorganizing everything in the house room by room. If that sounds too daunting, just choose a few key places to begin.

Storage spaces tend to become stagnant holding areas, so start there. To clear closets quickly, trade with a friend for help. Remove everything and wash or paint the space, changing shelving as needed. Sort each item into boxes labeled by category: keep, give, recycle, toss, not sure. After you put the keepers back in place, tuck the “not sure” box in the guest room or garage for a few weeks (or months) before making a final decision.

Now tackle areas you use daily and repeat the process room by room. Where the furniture looks fine but the room feels dingy, it’s a terrific time to paint. Before you replace furniture, let yourself breathe into the space of an empty room for a while. Put vital furnishings back first and play with the repositioning of each piece. You may discover that a room looks, feels and functions better when some furniture is left out.

Recipe
Lemon Lift
This sparkling dressing gives a lift
to tossed greens, fruity salads, steamed vegetables, baked chicken
or grilled fish.
½ cup canola or rice oil
1 tablespoon sweet rice vinegar
½ organic lemon, juiced, rind grated
1 tablespoon minced fresh mint
1 teaspoon maple syrup (or to taste)
¼ teaspoon tamari or soy sauce
Combine all ingredients in a tightly sealed glass jar and shake well to emulsify. Makes about ⅔ cup.

This and many other great Tips and Recipes by Ann Lovejoy can to be found in our A Year of Healthy Living Wall Calendar.

Potato Soup – from Herb Garden’s recipes

Ali McCart wrote in to tell us of her savory experience with one of Maggie Oster’s recipes from Herb Garden’s.

“I made Maggie Oster’s Potato Soup last weekend, and it was amazing! I was especially inspired by her encouragement to experiment with herbs. She lists a variety to choose from, and I went with a basic combination of savory, thyme, basil, and marjoram. It tasted great, especially with homemade bread!”

Potato Soup

4 tablespoons butter
1 cup diced onion
6 to 8 ounces potato, peeled and diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces mixed chopped herbs, such as sorrel, chervil or tarragon, summer savory, thyme, nasturtium leaves, marjoram, basil or borage
 
Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and potatoes and stir until well coated. Season with salt and pepper, as desired. Cook, covered, over low heat until the vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in broth, milk and cream. Increase heat to medium and bring to a boil. Add herbs and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until just cooked. Transfer the soup to a blender to puree or use a hand blender in the pan. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve garnished with calendula petals or other herb flowers, as desired.
 
Makes 4 servings.

Cooks, gardeners and anyone who cherishes the magic of herbs will enjoy entering this world of flavor, fragrance and color. Herbs have been used for centuries on every continent in everything from cooking and medicine to perfumes and crafts.

The Herb Gardens 2011 wall calendar includes sumptuous recipes from author Maggie Oster as well as a wealth of herbal folklore, remedies and growing tips. More than just a calendar, this is a resource to be kept.