I planted the rows a bit too close together. This made it hard to weed between the rows, and I think the weeds competed for water and held the corn back a bit. Doing this again I’d make every second or third row wide enough to comfortably walk between so that I could reach in and weed. I think this would increase yield quite a lot.
Similarly we had a heat wave while the cobs were growing and I think the soil dried out a bit. It seems like corn really likes water, so it’s worth making sure you have a good sprinkler setup.
I picked the corn when the beards were starting to look dry. I shucked it and laid the cobs out to dry on a cloth in the garage. After about a week the kernels felt quite hard. It was fairly easy at that point to detach the kernels from the cobs. What worked best was to remove one kernel, then work along in rows by pushing the next kernel down into the empty space with fingertips. I understand that you can also get devices designed to do this, like a metal ring that you grip in your hand, but I didn’t find it necessary.
The final yield was about 2kg/4lb of dried corn from a 2×4 meter patch.
But now the interesting part – the pictures! I was really stunned how lovely this corn looks. It is easily the most impressive thing I have grown. Some ears were deep ruby red through to black, some were speckled with flecks of red, orange and yellow, some had random blue and white kernels. My favourite were the pale yellow, blue and white ones with a pearl-like sheen.
In the mood for an xmas treat, I just invented this cocktail and it is good enough to tell you about. I call it… Santapants.
1 shot brandy
2 shots port
1 heaped teaspoon cream*
1 teaspoon brown sugar
generous half teaspoon of mixed spice (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg type of thing)
1 pinch dried ginger powder
*It isn’t the type of thing I’d usually buy but I found buttterscotch cream and had to use it in this cocktail.
Shake all ingredients vigorously on ice in a cocktail shaker and serve in a chilled martini glass. If I had some I would garnish this with candied orange too.
Here’s some exciting news: I just spent a morning harvesting our first patch of wheat! Sweat, itch, straw and dust aside I am pretty excited to make the first loaf. At a very rough estimate I think we might have a yield around 1kg wheat per square meter so the 40m2 patch might have produced enough grain to make a years worth of bread. I’ll update this when the final count is in.
I used a beastly sharp sickle, and good gloves. I can see this thing lopping a finger right off.
First I tried cutting quite high to just get the heads but there was a lot of variation in the height of each stalk so I soon started just cutting at the base, grabbing bundles and sawing through them.
I laid down armfuls as I went, then gathered them into stooks at the end. The stooks were just to be romantic, I just chucked most of it on a tarp under cover. I’ll let it dry for a week before the next step.
Next is threshing, then winnowing. Threshing just means smacking the wheat, straw and all until the grain comes loose. Winnowing is separating the grain from the chaff, straw, bits of earwig and so on. There’s still work to do figuring out the best method for this! I did a small batch just to test by filling a feed bag and smacking it into the wall, then pouring the contents back and forth between two buckets so the wind carried chaff away. After doing this manually I firmly believe that growing and processing grains is the reason mankind invented machinery.
Finally, here it is – my very first loaf made from home grown wheat. Tastes delicious and feels very satisfying.
After reading about the benefits of getting more calories from good oils and protein and eating less carbs I came up with this recipe for polenta quiche, which has about 300 calories per serve, half from fat, and with 20g of carbs. I’m making up large batches and freezing slices so I have healthy tasty breakfasts on hand for the morning rush. It’s interesting to see how it comes out of the oven – the recipe is easy to make because you really just mix and bake and the heavier polenta settles to the bottom forming a crust on its own. Like any quiche recipe you can vary the fillings a lot – I like using some corn kernels and a rasher of bacon diced and fried up with the onion. Add some butter for a richer quiche.
Ingredients
6 Eggs
1 Tbsp Rice flour (or wheat flour if not making gluten free)
1/2 onion, diced fine
1 Spring onion, sliced
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp diced tasty cheese
1 Sprig parsley, sliced
1/2 Cup Polenta
2/3 Cup milk
1/2 Tsp baking powder (use gluten free if required)
Other fresh herbs if liked
1 Clove garlic, chopped fine
Pinch each salt & pepper
Saute the onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat until clear.
Mix all ingredients together and stir very well.
Tip into a greased pan – I use a loaf tin but a round quiche/pie dish could also work.
Bake in a medium oven – (I used 180C/350F fan forced) until brown and no longer wobbling.
Here you see the polenta has settled somewhat, making the bottom more like a crust while the top half is light and fluffy!
The price of Kale in my local shops is surprisingly high given how easy it is to grow – in the garden it doesn’t seem to need as much water as some things once it is established, and produces lots of leaves over a month or more. I find Kale seductively beautiful with its chunky dark green leaves and strong flavour.
Here is my little Kale patch – nearly time to plant some more.
I often make quiche or bean & Kale stews but I’d never heard of Kale chips until I found a bag for sale at a health food store. Unfortunately the bag I bought tasted a bit like garden mulch so I was interested to see if they tasted any better home made. The result really surprised me – these babies are not just delicious “for Kale”, they are delicious full stop! My first tray full hardly made it out of the oven.
Isn’t this a handsome veggie?
Method
Cut or tear the large central stems out of each leaf. You can just squeeze the central stem and run your fingers down it to tear it out easily.
Wash the leaves and dry them well – I used my salad spinner.
Mix a few glugs of olive oil with any seasonings – I used salt, paprika and a clove of mashed garlic.
Toss and turn the leaves in the oil until well coated.
In a low oven, bake in a single layer on a baking tray until the leaves are completely crispy. I went with 160C for about 20 minutes, turning part way through.
They shrivel a fair bit but because Kale is quite chunky they still have some volume.
I’ve come to realise that I’m in love with polenta (which if you don’t know, is a kind of porridge or paste made from cooked corn meal). It is good for you, delicious, texturally satisfying, and goes in a surprising range of dishes – from appetisers to desserts. So when I coincidentally read mister meatballs post about growing your own, then the salt’s writeup about the flavour of heritage varieties, I knew I had to try growing it myself.
The first step in any new project is to read up, so here’s what I learned before putting anything into practice!
Yield
It’s always hard to estimate how much of a crop you’ll get when most figures give bushels per acre and assume farm equipment and so on but from some internet searches I think it’s possible I’ll get 2kg of dried corn from my 8-10 square meter patch. I could be waaaay off so it will be interesting to see how much I get and how long it lasts. It seems like you need a little more space than the typical suburban garden if you want to grow a whole years supply but I will update here when the harvest is in.
Varieties
There are a number of types of corn but the varieties that I’ve seen sold so far can be divided into sweet corn, popping corn, flint corn and dent corn. Dent corn (or field corn) is used to make softer flours for things like tortillas and fine cornflour. Flint corn seems to be the variety most often used for polenta. Sweet corn and popping corn are used as the name suggests – sweet corn is the variety that we eat fresh on the cob. Sweet and popping corn are said not to be as good for making flour although my dad tried making tortillas using popping corn for the masa and was happy with the results. Of course, within these varieties are lots of different types. Floriania Red is said over at Mother Earth News to be good for polenta but after I saw photos of Painted Mountain corn at Easy Living The Hard Way, I had to get some. If you’re in the US, Amazon stock this variety.It isn’t exactly easy to find the seeds in Australia so please share any sources you might have!
Growing
Corn is usually planted in spring but check the recommendations & conditions for your local area. Here in South Australia we are still getting a bit of rain but a warm spring overall so I decided to start planting! The first step was preparing a garden bed to grow the corn. Corn likes rich, loose soil so I turned the dirt over with a mattock, then sprinkled over some gypsum to improve drainage as the patch had a little clay. I also added some organic fertiliser with added potash, then raked the beds level and worked the fertiliser in. Corn is pollinated by the wind transferring pollen between plants, so it is best planted in multiple rows fairly close together. The usual recommendation seems to be 30cm (1 foot) between rows and 10cm (4in) between plants in the row. The rows will be thinned later to 20cm between plants (8in). The initial double spacing is to allow for some seeds not sprouting.
I tapped in a stake at each end of the row, and used a string line to get the spacing right. I dug a furrow about 2cm (4/5 in) deep with a hoe and dropped the seeds into the furrow, then filled it and patted down. After sowing the seed I gave the patch a long water – the soil will need to stay damp constantly until the seeds sprout (then watered regularly afterwards too). I read one recommendation to soak the seeds overnight before planting but to be frank I was impatient! We’ll see how it works out.
Here’s my stakes and string line, with the second row underway
Week 1
The corn started to sprout after about 10 days. I scattered around some organic snail pellets as I’ve been told those new green shoots are very tempting for slugs and snails.
Week 3
Here we are 3 weeks after planting. The corn is rocketing along, maybe a hand width high. I thinned out the rows today – I couldn’t bring myself to kill all the babies so I tried transplanting a few of the small shoots to the end of the rows where they had more room – a few days on and they seem to be doing fine! Time will tell if they end up as healthy as the others.
Week 7
The corn is is probably a bit slower than expected at this point because we’ve had quite a few unusually cold spells, but when the sun is out it shoots up noticeably. It I have given it a drink of liquid fertiliser and a sprinkle of an organic fertiliser pellet. It’s hard getting between the rows to weed!
Week 10
Seriously rocketing up over the last few weeks, my corn has now flowered and is developing ears. The flowers are on top while the ears start showing up as tufts of ‘beard’ along the stalks. A common recomendation is to tap the stals at this stage to make sure pollen drifts down to pollinate the ears.
I’ve been interested in growing wheat for a long time – it just seems to be something you should do if you’re into baking and doing things ‘from scratch’ so with winter rains here and the offer of a spare patch in my mums veggie garden if I helped clear it, I have just sown my first crop! As you’ll see, this is just a test patch for now with perhaps 20 square meters of land. If it works out, I can use a much larger patch for planting. We just scattered the wheat by hand (broadcasting) so it isn’t in nice neat rows or anything and we just used whatever variety the local health food shop sold for sprouting.
I have a lot to learn but here’s a few useful facts I’ve uncovered:
Wheat yield per acre varies a lot depending on irrigation, variety, soil, climate etc but can be in the order of 1.5t per acre which is around 370g (2/3lb) per square meter. Depending on usage, a person might need 20kg (40lb) of grain for a years supply. This means to be completely self sufficient you’d want around 55 square meters sown with wheat per person in the household. Ideally wheat should be rotated instead of planting the same patch every year, so you’d want to either use the patch for something else the year after or have several patches you plant out in turn. Of course you don’t have to grow your own entire years supply – I’m going to be happy if I get enough for some loaves and pizzas out of our first harvest.
I found suggestions that it is good to plant multiple varieties together. If some varieties are less resistant to certain pests or diseases there’s a reduced risk of losing a whole crop.
Seeds should be sown about 5cm (2in) deep. You can scatter the seeds over raked soil, then fork or rake them in to around that depth. They need water straight away, then at least once per month if it isn’t raining.
Wheat germinates in around a week and is ready to harvest after 5-6 months. It’s ready to harvest when the grains are hard.
Different wheat varieties, surprisingly called spring or winter wheat, are be sown in winter or spring. Winter wheat needs a cold period to germinate properly. Winter wheat has more gluten than spring wheat, so it would make stretchier doughs that hold their shape and rise more.
There are also ‘red’ or ‘white’ varieties, red varieties apparently having a more prominent ‘whole grain’ taste than white varieties which are more mild in flavour.
4 months later
The wheat has grown well through winter and now has lots of decent sized ears! I expected it to be a bit taller but as can be seen, most plants are only knee height. Maybe this is the variety we bought, or maybe it will continue to grow?
6 months later
The wheat has started to dry out! The ears are starting to sag and the grains are almost crunchy when you bite into them (and they taste great). We are harvesting next weekend.
To test a few grains, you grind the wheat head first into your handThen gently blow away the husksVoila!
I am writing down this recipe to share the enjoyment of picking fresh garden greens on a sunny spring morning – there is something very satisfying about cooking like this. The only remaining piece of the puzzle is to get our own chickens for really fresh eggs!
I vary this recipe depending on what is in the garden, today it is rocket (arugula), flat leaf parsley, thyme, oregano, spring onion and a little new spinach.
Here is part of the oregano jungleMy rocket is going to seed – but it still tastes good!
Ingredients
2-3 eggs
About 1 cup of mixed herbs and greens – spinach, spring onions, chard, oregano, whatever is good!
1 Tbsp of diced or grated parmesan
A grind of black pepper and a pinch of salt
A pinch of dried garlic powder or a clove of fresh garlic, chopped
Optionally a pinch of red chilli flakes
Method
Dice greens roughly and herbs fine.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and stir together with a fork.
I think eggs overcooked are ruined, so I cook them over low-medium heat until just done. Heat a skillet and add a nice piece of good butter (go on, you’re about to work it off in the garden anyway aren’t you?) and a glug of olive oil.
Tip the egg mixture into the pan and cook until it starts to look cooked all the way through – a few minutes. Then carefully flip and cook the other side for a minute. It might help to carefully loosen all around the edges with an egg flip before flipping.
Not quite ready to flip
Eggs and chilli are a really yummy combination so I eat omelette with a dab of a delicious Harissa (chilli paste) from My Country Kitchen (I can’t find a website for them but bought at the Willunga markets). That plus a nice espresso = the breakfast of champions!
I love having lots of homemade olives around but I have to confess that sometimes I’m a bit slack with changing pickling liquid every day. Luckily there’s a method that suits my temperament very well – just chuck the olives and dry salt into a bucket and stir once a week. You don’t have to slit each olive or change the water or anything like that and best of all I think these are my favourite tasting olives too – they are kind of leathery and wrinkly, surprisingly they don’t actually taste all that salty though! Most of the salt draws liquid out of the olives and then runs away. Theres a really noticeable flavour of olive oil that I don’t get from brined olives. The method & equipment I’m using for this years batch is below. I bought 2 large plastic buckets with lids, and drilled holes in the bottom of one. The olives and salt go in the bucket with holes, which sits inside the other bucket to catch the juice. In previous years I’ve used a colander, anything that holds the olives and lets a bit of liquid drain out is fine.
Dry Salt Cured Olives – The method
1. Use bucket (or a large colander, large basket etc) with holes in the bottom so liquid can drain out. I sat a clean tea in the bottom of the olive bucket to stop too much salt falling out. Set the bucket over another bucket or tub to catch the juice.
2. Layer olives with salt in the bucket – about twice the weight of olives to salt. A 20 liter bucket holds up to 10kg olives with 5kg salt. Cover all of the top with a layer of salt.
3. Stir the olives around once a week so that they all contact salt evenly – it’s easiest to empty the outer tub of liquid, tip the olives into it then back into the strainer, and finally add a fresh layer of salt on top.
4. After a few weeks, start tasting. Continue the cure until bitterness is gone. This might take from 4-6 weeks, depending on the olives. When they are ready, remove olives from salt – I shook them through a big colander. Then rinse off remaining salt and let them dry.
Voila!
The cured olives can be stored in a 3% salt brine, or brine+vinegar but I like them best just kept in olive oil in jars or vacuum sealed bags. This year I mixed up chilli, garlic powder, fennel seeds and paprika to marinate the olives that were then vac-packed in serve-sized bags. They keep pretty well but I’ve seen recommendations to freeze them when vac packed to keep them fresh for even longer.
Rye bread is one of my favourite things to eat so recently I have been learning more about making my own. Rye is a bit tricky to handle compared to wheat flour because of its natural stickiness and lack of gluten but once you get the hang of it the reward is a spicy more-ish flavour with a moist dense crumb. Of course I can’t experiment with an ingredient without seeing if it can make a pizza and rye pizza dough seemed like something I had to try. Here it is, ready to eat! This was a good pizza, my favourite of the night.
Rye pizza dough ingredients – makes two small-medium pizza bases
300g Rye flour (around 2 cups but weigh it if possible). I used whole rye flour which is also called dark rye flour. Light rye is the equivalent of ‘white’ flour made from rye, with bran sifted out. Either should work but the amount of water needed might be different for light rye.
6g salt (1 teaspoon)
3g Instant dry yeast (1 teaspoon)
220ml water ( a bit more than 4/5 cup)
Stir the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl, then add most of the water and stir well. Continue to add water until a workable dough is formed – it will be more like a putty than wheat based doughs. I use around 70% hydration for whole rye doughs, it would be interesting to try a wetter dough but frankly this dough is already hard to handle!
Cover the bowl and set aside for 10 minutes before kneading. Rye is challenging to work with and will stick like glue to your hands. There’s not that much you can do about it (wear gloves? Use an electric mixer?). Knead for a few minutes, then divide into 2 balls and set aside, covered, to rise for at least 2 hours. As always the dough will be better if it is left in the fridge overnight and removed a few hours before use.
Because this dough is so sticky, I recommend assembling the pizza on a sheet of baking paper. You can shape the base, top it, and slide it paper and all onto a preheated pizza stone. Remove the paper after a few minutes of cooking. When shaping the base I aimed for a thickness of about 3mm (3/32 in). It is a bit harder to pick up and stretch a rye dough because it doesn’t have as much gluten as wheat so handle it gently.
Smoked Salmon & Caper topping
Rye can handle bold flavour matchups. I was thinking of a smoky bacon/mettwurst/tomato combo but settled on smoked salmon, capers and cream cheese which is a pretty classic combo with rye bread. I didn’t think it would need any tomato sauce. Cream cheese is great on pizza, just use teaspoon sized blobs and they’ll crisp up on the outside and be light but gooey inside. I laid a few slices of mozzarella underneath to help it all stick and finished with a drizzle of olive oil.
Assembled on baking paper, ready to bake
As can be seen from this last sorry slice the base is not as dense as might be expected.
Conclusions – I’ll be making this again but be warned that it’s a very different thing than wheat based pizza. The rye is fairly dense and not as chewy – I think of it as more of a topped flatbread than a pizza although of course those things are pretty similar. If you give it a go, let me know what you think!
