Hard-boiled eggs that aren’t actually boiled?  There’s no water involved?  I think the proper term is “hard-baked eggs”.   A few versions of the recipe have been making the rounds on Pinterest for a while.  I remember my grandfather doing something similar when we visited during my childhood, and thought I’d give them a try to see if the recipe lived up to the hype.

Hard-baked Eggs

12 or 18 raw eggs, placed in muffin tins or a jelly-roll pan so they cannot roll off.

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Place eggs on center rack and bake 25 minutes (30 min for duck eggs).  Remove from the oven and allow to cool before peeling. 

(Adjustment: If you are already baking something in the oven at 350, you can add some eggs on the top rack of the oven and bake for 25 min.  The heat will be reduced by the item baking below them.)

What exactly is the hype?

1)Claim: They taste better than hard-boiled.

I found this not to be true.  While they taste a bit more “roasted”, perhaps, it’s not like the baking imparts a delicious smokiness to the egg (perhaps it would if you had a wood-fired oven?).

They were perfectly done in the middle, with no greying of the yolk, so perhaps that makes them a tinge less sulfur-y than eggs that are more easily over-cooked while boiling on the stove. Overall, they tasted just as yummy as hard-boiled eggs.

2)Claim: They peel easier (even fresh eggs just laid).

What I found:  YES!  They peel very easily.  Typically, I don’t hard-boil eggs from our chickens until they are 2 weeks old (3 weeks for duck eggs), since they will peel much easier when the membrane holding the white to the shell has broken down a little bit.  (By the way, this doesn’t mean those eggs are “old”, most grocery store eggs are already 30-60 days old by the time you purchase them).  The eggs I baked were laid YESTERDAY, and the shell just slipped right off as soon as the egg was mostly cooled. 

3)Claim: There is less clean up.

Well, yes, there is less clean up, if you mean that you don’t have egg-water to pour on the plants, and 1 pot to wash (I confess to putting the muffin tins right back in the cabinet.  There wasn’t a speck on them…).

My friend Kelsy pointed out that there is much more ENERGY expended, and I think that is the more important issue.  I baked 18 eggs while baking lunch.  I just put them on the top rack of the oven.  I wouldn’t preheat the oven and run it for half an hour just for 18 eggs, but I would put them in with another dish that is already cooking.

So, the bottom line is that hard-baked eggs turn out very well, and if you are already baking a dish, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make a batch this way.  I’ll definitely be doing it again. 

One of the most frequent questions I receive from folks wanting to increase food production on their property is,“What food crops can be grown in the shade?”  While there are some annuals that tolerate partial shade (Swiss Chard being one of the better ones, in my experience), trying to force annuals to grow against their nature is only going to frustrate you and the plant both.

My answer to the above question is grow perennial food crops in shady locations.  Many perennials thrive in the shade and still produce a tasty harvest for you, year after year, with little or no maintenance.  In this part, I’ll talk about the fruit-bearing perennials that we have growing on the shady East side of our house, which has become a (mostly) Native Edibles Garden.  Later this week I will address herbs and perennial vegetables:

Lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), the lovely, low-growing evergreen shrub shown above, produces sour red berries that are delicious in coridal, jam, wine, and sauces.  It is packed with vitamin C.  They produce 1/3-2/3 lb of berries per plant, so put in several.  It doesn’t like wet feet, so mix in plenty of organic matter and little sand if your soil is largely clay.  Oregon State University has a cultivation guide here.  Lingonberries used to be difficult to find here, but Portland Nursery has started stocking them this year.
Native Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) or Red Huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium)  – These slow-growing evergreen shrubs actually prefer shady spots, and will grow larger (6 ft) than if planted in sunshine (3 ft).  Notoriously difficult to grow and slow to mature, they are a plant for those with patience.  Hucklberries have shallow roots and do not tolerate weed competition or scratching by chickens around their base.  We purchased ours from One Green World Nursery.

Black Currants (Ribes nigrum) – This is one of Ruth’s favorite berries.  She loves black currant jam on toast. The flowers, shown here, will produce large crops of black fruit rich in vit C, iron, B5, and potassium.  It does require a little bit of pruning, but starts easily from cuttings or volunteers, so you’ll be able to share them with your friends.  Plant two for more fruit. 

Red, Pink and White Currants – (Ribes spp.)  – Although these plants are said to do best in sun, I have had good success growing these in less than 4 hours of sunlight.  Our white currant is in full shade and produces a huge quantity of large white sweet fruit great for eating fresh.  The key, I think, is to give them a good start by turning-in good compost before planting, and feeding each year with coffee grounds.  All of these currants are self-fertile, producing up to 20 lbs of fruit per plant, depending on how you prune it.

Jostaberry (Ribes nigrum x Ribes uva-crispa x Ribes divaricatum) – This thornless hybrid of the black currant (“JOhannesbeere“) and two gooseberries (“STAchelbeere“) (hence the name “Josta”)   produces purple gooseberry-sized fruit with a hint of musky black-currant flavor.  It is disease resistant and self-fertile, but obviously must be propagated by cuttings and does not come true from seed.  It can easily be trained into a fan shape and put against a fence, but it does grow 5-6 ft tall and as wide.

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) – We have a native elderberry, and also an Asian elderberry for better fruit-setting, although they are semi-self-fertile.  These tall (8-12 ft) shrubs thrive in just about any conditions and can be pruned to a central leader and trained into a tree shape if desired.  Elderberries are extremely high in antioxidants and immune-boosting compounds, and many people make a syrup out of the fruit for cough remedies, etc.  The flowers are a crop in their own right and make a delicious cordial.  The berries are quite popular with birds, and you may need to net your elderberries to get a good crop.  The fruits can be juiced or made into jams and sauces.  (A word of caution: there are reported cases of severe gastro-intestinal distress and other symptoms (particularly in children) from eating sizeable quantities of raw elderberries).

Coast Strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) -This little plant can be seen thriving all over Oregon from sand dunes to understory. It will make an excellent spreading native ground cover and provide you with tiny, intensely-flavored strawberries.  We put some in, but haven’t enjoyed the fruit, since the ducks like them very much, and they are right at ground level.  As with all strawberries, take care not to plant too deeply for the crown, which should be slightly hilled up above the roots and left uncovered.

Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorous) – This NW native perennial thrives in the shady understory.  Unlike many of its cane-fruit cousins, the thimbleberry is thornless and spreads by rhizomes. My kids like the fruit raw, but I prefer it cooked into jams (it makes a lovely jam mixed with red currants). If you have a shady spot and are looking to grow fruit, this may be a good option for you, but it does spread and needs to be kept in check.   If we get enough fruit some year, I’d like to try making a melomel with it.

Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium) – I confess, when we first moved here from Missouri, I thought that some species of holly had taken over half the state of Oregon.  I soon found out that is actually the edible Oregon Grape.  While not the prettiest plant, in my opinion, this relative of the barberry (not a grape) makes a good hedgerow if plants are put close together, and has attractive little yellow flowers.  The berries are a traditional native food here, although I find them less than palatable either raw or cooked alone.  However, combined with other fruits (see Salal below) they are quite good, and their juice will make a very good wine.  They are also used medicinally as they contain high amounts of the anti-bacterial, berberine.  Crushed berries applied topically are supposed to be an effective therapy for psoriasis and eczema.

Salal (Gaultheria shallon) – Sometimes also called “shallon”, I have an affection for this plant, because it reminds me of the years we lived on the Central Oregon coast, where it flourishes.  This handsome evergreen shrub supplied the Oregon tribes black berries that were dried into cakes or cooked with fish or fish roe.  I find it does go nicely stuffed in a salmon, along with ramps or shallots and wrapped in bacon and steamed or cooked over a campfire.  When making jelly, it goes well with Oregon Grape, and mellows the harshness of that berry.

I’d like to add as budget allows:

Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) – I’m looking forward to adding this low-growing evergreen under one of the elderberries as soon as there are pennies in the budget for it.  The red berries are the original source of wintergreen flavoring, and while I wouldn’t want to snack on a whole bucket of them, they are a nice breath freshener.  More importantly, they make a good ground cover.

If you’d like to swap/barter for some of the plants listed above, we have a few of each available right now.   Or, if you are interested in take cuttings to try propagating your own, we are happy to share.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back later this week when I discuss some of the shade-loving perennial veggie and herb crops we are growing here.

Since I just did a post on walking onions, l thought it might be good to talk about another fine spring allium that is often overlooked by home gardeners.

Last summer, when George was just a few days old, friends came to help with the garlic harvest.   We harvested 40 lbs of organically grown heirloom garlic, but, inevitably, some heads were missed.  Here you can see three distinct heads of garlic that were forgotten in the ground.  We have about 2 dozen of these clumps around the farm.

When they germinated in late fall/early spring, we left them be.  With so many bulbs planted close together, they will be too crowded to each create a new head of garlic.  That doesn’t mean they don’t produce a tasty crop of their own, however accidental.

The veggie these neglected garlic heads produce is an altogether unique food called “Green Garlic”.  They are much -prized by chefs, and can be quite expensive in the store/at the farmers market, if you can even find them.

Raw, they can be used in a similar fashion to scallions, but with a bit more of a garlicky kick.  I particularly like them in on top of mashed potatoes.

Cooked, green garlic mellows to a delicate flavor reminiscent of mature, aged garlic, but without the heat.   You can prepare them as you would young leeks, splitting them in half lengthwise, and either roasting them with olive oil, or poaching them in salt water or stock.  They can then be pureed and added to any soup, savory souffle.  Or, green garlic is equally delicious chopped and sauteed with pinenuts and pea-shoots.

If you’re looking for other green garlic recipes, there are some tasty ones here.

I frequently get questions from folks here in the Northwest who struggle to grow onions.  Their sets either rot in the ground, or never produce substantially-sized bulbs before the season ends.  The truth is that to get large onions (Walla Walla Sweets and others) to produce really well in a shorter, cool season is tricky.  I have given up on growing them altogether (because I’m a lazy gardener).  Don’t be discouraged, there are other more reliable (and I think, superior) options.

We grow leeks, shallots, garlic, and little cippolini onions with no problem here in Portland.  Garlic and shallots are planted in October for a mid-summer harvest.  Leeks are started from seed in August and grow overwinter for a Feb or March harvest.    Cippolinis are started from seed indoors in late winter and harvested in mid-late summer.

But there is one onion that takes zero work and left to itself in a sunny location will produce a continual harvest of green onions and zippy onion bulbs.  That plant is the perennial Egyptian walking onion.  Also known as tree onions, these clumping plants produce hollow, scallion like greens and a shallot-sized bulb. It is one of the first plants to come back in spring, and is rich in vitamin A.

Late in summer, they grow bulb-lets on the top of stalks, which will eventually sprout, fall over and root in the soil.  You can either let them flop over on their own (i.e. “walk”) or you can eat them (I think they’re tasty raw), or you can cut them off and plant them where you will.

In the top photo you can see the parent “clump” on the right, and where I have let the bulb-lets fall last autumn, there is a new little clump on the left (directly in front of the chard).

If you’d like to try some walking onions, I’d be happy to give you a clump, or you can purchase them at various nurseries and suppliers.  Simply plant your bulb-lets in a sunny, well-drained spot and be careful not to set them too deeply.

Happy gardening!

Today we had homeschool co-op, followed by a trip to OMSI for the Lego sculpture exhibit, followed by the grocers.  Friday is typically exhausting for all of us, and it’s nice to come home to find dinner is just about ready.  A bit of prep the night before, then throw everything in the crockpot before we leave the house, and we have a simple, nutritious meal with little effort Friday night – all I have to do is start a pot of rice and put out the dishes.

This week’s Friday night dinner is comprised of pinto and kale (with ham and shallots). The meal works double duty:  I make a big enough batch that leftovers can be used for bean burritos or enchiladas on another busy night later in the week.

The total cost for this dish is just over $4.50, if you include the fact that I grew the kale, shallots and garlic, and the beans are purchased in bulk.  Again, that’s $4.50 for the main dish for two dinners for a family of 6.   Add in rice (also purchased in bulk at the Asian market), and the cost  for this dinner is just about $0.95/person.

Here’s the recipe:

Pintos, Kale and Ham One-Pot

Thursday night, prep the following ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of dry pinto beans, sorted and rinsed (sometimes I use cranberry or red beans)

5 ounces of uncured ham (or bacon), chopped

4-5 shallots (about 1 1/2 cups), finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 tsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp olive oil

1. In a large bowl, combine beans with 8 cups of cold water.  Cover with a plate and let soak overnight.

2. In a skillet on med-high heat, cook ham pieces until browned and crispy.  Remove, add olive oil, shallots, and garlic, and brown sugar, stirring frequently, until caramelized, about 10 min.  Remove from pan with ham.

3.  Add 1/3 cup of water to the pan, scraping and stirring to deglaze (don’t lose all that yummy flavor you’ve built up on the pan!).  Add the liquid to the shallot/ham combo.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The Next Morning:

1. Drain beans, and put them in your crockpot.  Add the ham/shallot combo to the beans.  Just barely cover with water.  Then add:

1 Tbsp Penzey’s Ham Base

1 bay leaf

2 big handfuls of chopped kale (or spinach)

2 tsp Smoked Paprika

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Stir ingredients in crockpot.  Put on “low” setting for 8-10 hours.  Serve over rice, or with rustic bread.  Garnish with shredded cheddar if desired.

A new pair of socks off the needles.  I have an addiction to stripes, both for looks and simplicity.   I used to like more complicated color work, but knitting with 4 kiddos running around means it’s hard to stick to a chart and actually make progress on more involved patterns.

The yarn is Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport purchased in college (eek!) and finally got around to using.  I’m doing my best to work through my yarn dresser upstairs and completely de-stash before I buy more yarn or do any extensive spinning.

I finished the blue stripeys just in time, since this week I wore a big hole in my favorite pair of striped socks, and I haven’t had time to finish darning them yet.  (For a great darning instructions, check out Wool and Chocolate’s darning tutorial.)

A view from the inside while I’m sewing in tails.  Even simple color work should have its own loveliness on the wrong side.

Good ol’ slip-stitch stripe heel.  I like using it because (obviously from my picture earlier), my Birkies wear hard on the back of my socks and I like a double-reinforced heel for more infrequent darning.

Glad my toes will be toasty warm at the Trackers pirate potluck tonight!

After quite a few late nights sorting, cleaning and organizing, we’ve successfully moved everyone’s clothes into a “Family Closet” laundry system in the basement.  No more hauling laundry up and down the stairs.  No more baskets of clean laundry strewn about the house.  No more laundry on the floor of the girls’ room.   And believe me, homeschooling 4 kids and running the Teaching Garden means I will gladly take any reduction in chaos and increase in spare time that I can get!

Why did we not do this sooner?  A number of larger families we know had recommended it to us, and after researching a bit on the subject (visit my Laundry board on Pinterest), we pulled together a few pennies and dove in.  4 boxes of clothes went to Goodwill, 2 to the consignment store, and a ridiculous amount of junk was purged from the basement.

So far, we’re saving several hours a week doing laundry, the house is less messy/cluttered, and the kids are helping more with the laundry chores.  And there’s a bonus – we have three large closets upstairs that will be getting converted into a reading nook, a mini sewing room, and a cozy kids’ hideaway.

So, here’s the tour of our Family Closet on a $200 budget:

The three older kids are learning to do the laundry.  There is a step-stool next to the washer so kids can load and unload laundry with ease.  Mama does the bleach and delicate laundry and helps kids with the other loads.  We’re all a team and we help care for each other, and part of that is working together to get the chores done so we all have more free time to spend playing and creating as a family.

This “Antonius” system from Ikea is the inspiration for our Family Closet.  Our friends have one and keep laundry for their 6 kids in it.  Ours is full with 4, although we also store winter coats in ours, and the boys have lots of extra pants because, in our experience, boys go through pants like crazy.  Cost: $170.  This is the bulk of our expense.

6 fabric boxes from Ikea – $12.

Shirts, socks, shorts, yoga pants, etc for Mama and Dad are in hampers on this shelf.  We are both quite tall, so our clothes take up space!  Two hampers each.  Cost $12.  The shelving they sit on came with the house.

When kids do laundry, things get spilled.  There are also spray bottles with vinegar-based cleaner on this shelf next to the rolling racks.  Storage tubs of too-big clothes and Easter decorations are behind these baskets.

I would like to put shelves on the wall to the left (which is the outside of the bathroom), but that’s not in the budget at present.  Cleaning supplies sit on the table for now.

We’d like to add more lighting in the Family Closet so it feels less “basementy”, and put on a few finishing touches, but for a super-low-budget remake of a previously wasted space, I couldn’t be happier.  Our next project is to clean and organize the other 1/3 of the basement (1/3 being laundry, 1/3 being the wood-framed canning/brewing room) and turn it into an office.  After that, we’ll be working on the upstairs closets and making them into functional spaces for our family.

Hope you enjoyed our Family Closet tour.  Thanks for visiting.

Most of the family has come down with some viral bug/fever, so in an effort to help us all recover, and at Bea’s request, I’m making a pot of moong dal for our dinner. This simple, hearty vegetarian dish is the center of an easy-to-prepare and comforting meal we often prepare when we’re under the weather.  It’s loaded with garlic, kale, and other ingredients to help sick kids get well soon.

Add some raita, jasmine rice and/or some naan on the side, and dinner is served.

Here’s the recipe:

Get Well Soon Moong Dal

In a dutch oven, heat 1 1 /2 tbsp of coconut oil or olive oil on med-high.  Add:

1 large red onion, finely chopped

1 yellow or orange bell pepper, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

2 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Cover with lid and sweat the above for 10 min.  Remove lid, and cook, stirring frequently, until ingredients are caramelized and cooked down (you may need to reduce heat after several minutes to prevent scorching), about 20 min more.

To the pot, add:

2 Tbsp Garam Masala (I highly recommend Penzey’s Punjabi Style if you don’t use homemade)

Cook spices in the oil until fragrant, about 1-2 min.  Then stir in:

3 cups of Moong Dal (hulled, split mung beans) or red lentils.

2 cans of coconut milk (or, for a richer flavor, coconut cream)

3 or 4 cups of water

4 or 5 handfuls of fresh kale, washed, ribs removed and chopped (in Feb, the only kinds still going in our garden are “Dwarf Scotch Curly” and “Russian Red“)

Cover and cook until dal is soft and well cooked, about 45 min (although, you can add a bit more water and simmer longer, until dinner is ready).

Salt to taste and serve topped with toasted coconut chopped fresh tomatoes if desired.

Enjoy!

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day (flat tire, grouchy kids, nothing major),  and I’m recovering from yet another round of mastitis (feeling better, but trying to take it easy), so we’re trying to have a low-key morning.  It seems like the perfect time to finish a few Christmas gift projects while we listen to the remainder of our current book on CD.

Ruth and Bea collected the English lavender from our bushes this past summer, dried it, and stored it in jars specifically for making sachets over the winter.   Ruth (nearly 9) requested that we make more heart-shaped sachets today, although yesterday I made a few birds as well, using this fabric bird as inspiration.  Bea (age 7) sticks with rectangles, which are easier for her to tackle on the sewing machine (see end of this post).

So far, Hal simply enjoys sifting, sorting, scooping the dried lavender while we work.  His contribution to the project is snipping up the scraps of fabric into teensy itty bits, and he is sure that is somehow tremendously helpful.    Ah, well, it’s good practice with scissors and hand-eye coordination for him.

The girls were allowed to pick out a 1/4 yd of remnant fabric from the fabric store for this project, and I’ve been using thrifted odds and ends.  Buttons are from our button jar of scrounged/thrifted/found buttons, and the ribbons and lace are also from the thrift store.    Not only are the sachets a frugal homemade craft, but also make handsome, practical gifts the girls can put together themselves now that they are more confident in their sewing skills.

Here’s how we make them:

Ruth’s Lavender Hearts

Materials (per sachet):

- scraps of fabric approximately 4-5inches tall and wide, depending on desired shape/style of heart

- 3 Tbsp dried lavender flowers (you can also use cloves + diced dried orange peel, or dried rosemary)

- large handful of wool for stuffing (I use the un-spinnable bits of white/natural roving from the seconds/mill-end bags I purchase for dyeing and spinning.  Un-dyed is best, especially if using light-colored fabric, so it does not show through.)

- bits of lace/buttons, embroidery floss, beads, etc for embellishment

- 1 piece of 8-10 inch-long narrow ribbon if you desire to hang the sachet from a door-knob or hook.

1. Place two pieces of equal-sized fabric facing each other, and pin in the middle (You can use two whole-pieces, or, for a more folksy look, or to use up those teeny bits of a lovely print, create patchwork blocks instead.)  With tailor’s chalk or a pencil, free-hand a heart shape onto one of the blocks.

2. Stitch hearts together, leaving a small hole along one side (not at the point!).  Trim away excess fabric, leaving a 1/4-inch seam allowance (I find it’s easier for Ruth to sew firs,t and cut after and that way she is more likely to produce a heart she is happy with.)

3. Flip fabric right-side out, using the tip of a chop-stick or pencil to press the heart’s point crisply.

4. Using a funnel, fill each lobe of the heart with 1 Tbsp of dried flowers.  With the help of the chopstick, press wool stuffing into the rest of the heart (more stuffing = nicer-looking finished product.  Don’t skimp!)  When heart is halfway filled, pour in last tablespoon of lavender flowers in the body of the heart.

5.   Finish filling with more wool until sachet is desired fluffiness.  Using an invisible stitch (such as that used on quilt binding), fold in the seam allowance and close the hole.

Attach embellishments to your heart, and finish with a loop of ribbon tacked firmly to the top for hanging up your heart.

If your child is younger, s/he may enjoy this project more by making simple pillow-shaped drawer sachets like the ones below that Bea and I made together:

(Since I was sick over the weekend, I did not get to finish the second post on tactile play for preschoolers.  I will do my best to get it up later this week.)

Happy Christmas crafting!