Yacon & Green Beans with SE Asian Flavors

In this recipe the shredded yacon and green beans are highly seasoned. The Yacon absorbs the color and flavors of the sauce and assumes a new identity. Shrimp Paste with Bean Oil is a wonderful sauce recommended by our friend, Chef Eddie Chong. It’s similar to the expensive Chinese XO Sauce. Look for it in [...]

Yacon Pineapple Slaw

This is a recipe that we’ve made since first growing yacon and we keep returning to it. An easy fresh and unusual winter salad.
1 medium fresh pineapple
1 pound fresh yacon, 1-2 tubers
¼ cup lime juice
¼ cup sweet red pepper, rings or diced
Peel and slice the pineapple into eight sections making longitudinal cuts. Remove the core [...]

Happy Thanksgiving

All of us at Nichols Garden Nursery wish you a happy Thanksgiving. I’ve stopped posting recipes for Thanksgiving dinner and hope you’ve found useful recipes and menu ideas. Much of our dinner is already prepared because of this blog. In coming weeks I will be working on recipe development for Yacon. This plant of the [...]

Thanksgiving-Cornbread & Sunflower Seed Stuffing

Our traditional stuffing. For Thanksgiving we use cornbread, the grain of America. Stuffing needs to be tasted and seasoned as you prepare, a reason to not use raw eggs. Hold back on the salt as the natural juices of the bird and sausage add sodium. This recipe makes 4-5 quarts of stuffing. The rule of [...]

Thanksgiving – Corn Sticks

Corn Sticks
The best cornmeal for this recipe is medium grind stone ground. It will give you a combination of floury particles and larger ones with a bit of crunch. If you can’t find it use regular yellow corn meal. This recipe will also bake in a 9” cast iron skillet or baking dish. The corn [...]

Speaking at Tilth Conference

Saturday, November 18, I’ll be speaking on container gardening using edible plants at the annual Oregon Tilth Conference. Celebrating their 32nd anniversary, the  conference takes place over two days in Salem, Oregon. This non profit organization provides a strong outreach education program on sustainable agriculture and is one of the leading providers of organic certification.

Thanksgiving – Chocolate Pecan Pie

Zesty Chocolate Pecan Pie
This rich and decadent pie combines some of the great flavors of the Southern US and Central America. Pecans are the state trees of Texas and native to the US, chocolate and vanilla come from Mexico. We use the classic Karo corn syrup which is not high fructose. A hint of hot [...]

Des Moines Garden

One focus of this blog is community gardening and encouraging participation in the Garden Writers Association program “Plant A Row For The Hungry”(PAR). My friend, Cathy Wilkinson Barash, author of “Edible Flowers From Garden To Palate” and other gardening books is president of The Garden Writer’s Foundation which helps to support and promote PAR.
Cathy lives [...]

Thankgiving Squash

Winter Squash with Maple Syrup
Squash is historically a staple crop throughout most of the Western hemisphere. Indeed intercropping of squash, beans and corn formed the fabled “Three Sisters”of the South West. These three plants grow harmoniously together, store well and when eaten together are nutritionally complete. Native Americans in the North East were collecting maple [...]

Thanksgiving – Tomato Aspic

Tomato Aspic With Shrimp and Avocado
Aspics are a rather old-fashioned dish and thus perfect for a festive meal. This combination of ingredients is a family favorite. Sometimes we add in a ½ cup of chopped cucumber or a ½ cup of salsa. Here is the basic recipe and it’s quite satisfactory. There are several steps [...]

All America Thanksgiving Menu 2006

Our family Thanksgiving dinner is a celebration of foods of the New World. When Europeans first arrived they quickly took seeds and plants to Europe and these were soon in wide distribution. In fifteen years, hot peppers had circled the globe. Beans became household staples in Italy and sailors carried pineapples around the world as [...]