Barbolian Fields

I promised you all my favorite hummus recipe. But first, I’d like to know how a bunch of smashed chick peas mixed with a little this and that, and a name that sounds like something related to compost, has become such an exotic dish among pseudo yuppies like myself.

Indeed.

Ok - I have a confession. I don’t really have a “favorite” hummus recipe. I make it different every time. But see, that’s the beauty of it. Here’s how I made it the other day - and everyone woofed it:

Put in a blender or otherwise chop, smash, and blend:

• 2 cans of chickpeas or garbanzo beans, same thing, drained - save the juice. Usually I cook my own, but this day I was in a hurry. Despite my raving about garlic, garbanzos are really what make hummus hummus - but you could also use another kind of bean if you don’t have them on hand.

• Garlic scapes - about a dozen or more - personally, I just can’t get enough of these curly things

• 3 T olive oil - (low-fat variations could use less)

• 1/3 c lemon juice or a couple of squeezed lemons

• 1/3 c sesame seed (I would have used more but I ran out) - if you don’t have a blender, Tahini, which is essentially sesame seed already blended with olive oil - is a good choice. If you use Tahini, be cautious with the oil.

• 1 c or so of parsley, smashed down - I grow a lot of this, and at this point, this recipe is sounding a lot like the pesto one, only with added beans instead of walnuts

• Maybe a little salt - don’t really need it with the lemon juice

Chop it, blend it, or whatever you need to do to make this a relatively smooth paste. Add back in about 1/4 cup of the drained bean juice if it looks too thick.

This hummus version is very green. People won’t know it’s hummus, which they think of as being kind of tan and something they’d maybe rather not describe. Yes - it’s very garlicky and very lemony. It’s also heavy on parsley. I love all these things.

Hummus is wonderful. Think of the many things you can do with this stuff! Here are some ideas:

• spread it on bread (better than butter!), pita bread, fresh crackers, tortilla chips
• dunk veggies in it, such as carrots, celery, broccoli - or whatever you have
• mellow it out with another can of beans
• spice it up with a little cayenne - or maybe some oregano or cumin, a little pepper
• use black beans instead of chickpeas
• leave out the sesame seeds if you don’t have any - don’t worry, it still works!
• add a couple scoops of peanut butter (some people like anything if it has peanut butter in it, my husband, included)
• make it more tangy with a couple of scoops of yogurt
• use lime juice instead of lemon
• add different vegetables to it - roasted peppers, spinach, sun dried tomatoes? mmmm….
• garnish it with parsley & paprika
• sculpt with it (the idea here is get creative!)

This humble dish is one of the oldest known to man - and you can see why - it can be whatever you like or whatever you have or a mixture of all you have and like. It’s wonderful. It’s eaten daily all over the Arab world, and many other cultures have a version they call their own. In fact, it’s known to have been around 5000 years before Christ! Now that’s amazing. My guess is that it helped the Egyptians build the pyramids. Just think what YOU can do with it!

Plus, it’s full of protein, iron, vitamin C, fiber, and more, depending on how it’s made.

I figure that anything that looks like a glob but gets your kids to eat beans, whole-grain crackers, and vegetables must be a good thing.

ENJOY!

I have been asked - no - begged - to reveal my soon-to-be-famous recipes for pesto and hummus using fresh garlic scapes. Ok. I bend to peer pressure. But not without this warning:

EATING THIS STUFF CAN BE ADDICTIVE!

And to lure you into my web, I also offer a recipe for homemade crackers to go with them.

Go ahead…try these…don’t let anyone see you…scoop them into small bowls and go off to your happy place…we’ll see you in a few days. I tantalize you first with the pesto. You have to come back for the hummus and crackers.

GARLIC SCAPE PESTO:

First, a caveat: the problem with this recipe - or maybe it’s me - is that nothing is really measured and substitutions are made freely, depending on what you have on hand. If you are a freestyle cook, you understand this mentality. There are a few things you must have, namely, garlic and olive oil, or it simply isn’t pesto. Personally, I grow a lot of basil and several varieties, but I am not terribly fond of it in pesto (I know, this is blasphemy to my Sicilian heritage), because most recipes ask for a lot of it and it is too overpowering. Now the garlic - I grow lots - I use lots - it is incredibly overpowering - and if you are a true garlic lover, that is just how it should be. Ok - the recipe:

1 doz. garlic scapes
1 cup, more or less, of parsley (I grow a lot of this, too - it balances well with garlic and is available most of the year)
1 1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 - 1 tsp sea salt (you don’t need much)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice

Chop, blend, or whatever you need to do to make it smooth. Yes, you can add Parmesan if you have it - or if you have pine nuts, those are great - and of course, you can totally change the taste with aromatic fresh basils, but I don’t always have those things, and the craving must be fed, regardless. What kind of recipe is this, you ask? Ok, not really a recipe, more like a guideline.

But now that you’ve made it, you must face your ethical dilemma: go hide or go share. Your choice. I won’t tell.

Despite the cold spring here in the Pacific Northwest, the garlic has been thriving! We got everything weeded over the weekend and thoroughly watered. You can almost feel them reaching upward, waiting for that promised sunshine!

As you can see from the photos, I planted the garlic rather densely in beds (4 rows/bed) this year, which has really facilitated the weeding, fertilizing, & watering tasks! The picture in the lower right quadrant shows 2 plots in the background that were recently tilled under — I had grown a green manure crop of a combination of clover, vetch, and ryegrass; I will be planting them again soon with more of the same; these will be garlic beds for next year and 2010. Yes, those are the Olympic Mountains in the background. Gorgeous morning!

Also pictured are the tall spikes, often called “spears” of the elephant garlic. The hardneck varieties send smaller shoots, called “scapes”; pictured are the tight-curling scapes of the rocambole hardnecks. I have been cutting these off (yes! you can have some if you are in the neighborhood!) and using them in pestos, salad dressings, & stir fries. They also add an unusual touch to floral arrangements. I am making some garlic hummus to bring to a barbecue this weekend, and am thinking about how the scapes might be quite beautiful pickled in a jar! Mmm!

I figure bulb harvesting is about a month or so away (a little late this year). I may get one more watering in, but will stop the water after that, which will help prevent molds and extend the shelf-life of the bulbs.

We might hit 70 today when the official summer starts at 4:30 today! That is welcome news for those of us who have been wearing sweatshirts all spring! Celebrate the solstice!

(visit my official garlic website at http://barbolian.com)

WOW! Is there anything like fresh green garlic to make you feel that spring has ARRIVED!?!

(Ok - the first crocus and daffodil might also elicit a bit of giddiness - but we don’t EAT those!)

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: THE GARLIC SCALLIONS ARE READY!

Today I went and picked an armful of mizuna - which, by the way, is such an extraordinary green - it’s purplish maroon blush on the topside of the leaves is absolutely beautiful, and its sharp hot, horseradish-like flavor when fresh clears the sinuses. Cooking, as with the garlic, mellows its flavor. Once planted, it seems to re-seed itself prolifically - which is fine, because “weeding” has never been more flavorful!

What could be a better combination than a few garlic scallions (have to test them, you know, to make sure they are ready!), some mizuna, and maybe a tad bit of sea salt, briskly sauteed in a little oil - hmmm…. Oh, dear fresh garlic, how I have missed you this last month! I just cannot break down and buy those 2-for-a-buck inferior bulb varieties that come from who-knows-where. The wait has been worth it! Note: these garlic scallions are from a mixture of gourmet varieties - there is simply no comparison with the “California Early” types grown commercially!

Garlic scallions - or “green garlic” - those tender little morsels before they mature into a pungent clove-divided bulb, spell spring in so many ways! Yes you can eat the shoots! And those garlic cloves that didn’t quite overwinter and have started to sprout? You can still plant them! Even a small pot will do. Crowded is ok. In a couple of months (maybe less), you, too, can be eating your own scallions right from the garden.

Other great ideas for garlic scallions: chopped fresh in salads, humus, pesto (who needs basil?) - or lightly cooked (throw it in at the last minute to not lose the flavor!) in eggs, with pasta, over seafood, in soups, on potatoes, with asparagus - or maybe mixed with leeks or chives and thrown in just about everything.

WANT SOME NOW??? My supplies disappear quickly (they are habit-forming!), but if you live on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State, within reasonable distance of Sequim (gas prices are driving up the cost of food everywhere!), I am most willing to accommodate. Visit my main website at http://barbolian.com.

YES I am open to barter & trades!

Ok - Mother Nature had her laugh last week. Enough already!

The garlic, always of strong stature and symbol of fortitude, survived unscathed, tips only slightly yellowed from the experience. Primroses, strawberries, and daffodils, too, though some bent under hail, managed to shake the icy crystals in the days that followed. At a little higher elevation, our cherry trees had not yet blossomed under the snow. I worried about the bees that might have been caught unaware in this pseudo-spring foolery. The winds whipped through here relentlessly, knocking over shelves in the greenhouse and spilling sprouts and summer hopes to the floor.

The winds died down, I filled the hummingbird feeder, and was surrounded within minutes, one even buzzing me as I hung it up.

And this week, lo and behold, a new spring! The cherry blossoms have opened, a frog enjoyed a spot of sunshine beneath the shadows of leaves.

Ahhhh, spring . . . how much more we appreciate it now!

What’s the deal here — SNOW and HAIL in APRIL in the Pacific Northwest?!?! This is UNHEARD of! The garlic is weathering it out, although I notice the tips have turned a bit yellow. I am convinced now that this phenomenon is because it gets a big growth spurt in the early spring, which is more susceptible to frost and cold weather.

Meanwhile, the lovage has exploded to over waist high and the weeds are trying hard to keep up. In fact, they almost are!

Here on the farm, we have been rescuing strawberries from quackgrass and morning glory: my punishment for letting my garden go a bit last fall!

We’ve also planted our potatoes, a few salad greens, and some extra mint.

Spring will soon be here - or so the calendar tells us!

Anyone out there have a mole & gopher problems in their yard and garden?

I don’t have all the facts, but I suspect many of these rodents are beneficial in that they eat a fair number of insects. Unfortunately for them, I have no idea how many bad bugs they kill for me - I just see the mounds of dirt here, there, and everywhere, my plants toppling over, and the expressways they provide for other critters to my fresh veggies. Whether they are actually moles, voles, gophers, groundhogs, or other rodent species makes little difference to me, but I draw the line when they start getting into my garlic patch!

I have run across a variety of ideas for running them off:

• Running a pipe from a vehicle exhaust to the hole: Gassing them seems a bit extreme to me and not something I advocate. Too much like WWII. Needless suffering is not acceptable in my book.
• Running a hose down the hole and flooding it: I admit I have been known to try this, but it is a huge waste of water and they just come up somewhere else.
• Battery-fired electrical jolts: Those little rods that you push into the ground seemed like an interesting solution as long as you didn’t mind buying a bunch of batteries. What do they do to worms and microbes? I quit using them.
• Large “watch” animals: I used to have 5 llamas and have always had an assortment of dogs and cats; however, as “watch” animals, they did more watching than running off. We currently have an old yellow lab who is pretty good at pointing them out and sometimes does a little surface digging when she is feeling frisky.
• Kitty litter poured down the holes: Our cats are outdoor cats, so I haven’t tried this, but I hear it works. Personally, I would worry about chemicals and parasites. My cat, however, thinks the whole garden is his personal cat box, and particularly enjoys doing his “business” wherever I happen to be gardening. I get a little area cleaned out and he promptly comes right over and squats beside me. It is very annoying! He cares little about my parasite phobia.
• Cayenne pepper - buy by the gallon at Costco. You might need several gallons if you have a large garden. Sprinkle around in dry weather and re-sprinkle after a rain. Not very practical in my case.
• Juicy Fruit gum: My grandfather swore by this one - and only Juicy Fruit would do. He would simply stick a stick down the hole. We lived in an area that had a bounty on groundhogs, so he could have been out there shooting them. It hasn’t worked as well for me, though.
• Wine bottles: If you have stuck with me this far, here is my personal method by which I swear. Take a bottle of wine out to your field or garden where you have a mole problem. Yes, that’s right: a bottle of wine. Those large 1.5-liter bottles are just right, but you can go smaller. Cheap wine is fine, but I suggest you get something you like. Bringing along a friend is optional. Sit down and drink it. Remember, if you have a friend, sharing is caring. Curse all you want - or not - the end result is about the same - but since I mentioned I swear by this, it doesn’t hurt to vent a little, and in fact, it might help. When the bottle is empty (no use wasting cheap wine!), put it upside down into the mole hole — not too far. That’s it. Walk, stumble, crawl away, as appropriate.

My theory on why it works is twofold: 1) the wind rattles the bottle and causes vibrations and noises that the rodent finds disturbing, and 2) you no longer care.

Witness my field full of mole hills (no bottles out here - moles are free to blindly roam):

This picture shows correct placement of the wine bottle:

Now look at my garlic patch: almost completely mole-free. Ok, maybe it’s hard to tell by this photo, but trust me. This is soft, tilled up, enriched soil. Normally they would be having a field day here.

Good luck to you all, and happy gardening!

  Mid-February and the garlic is looking good!

 AND - to further prove that spring is on its way - the rhubarb is pushing up its gnarly head!