The Bountiful Container

I’m happy to announce the fourth printing of McGee & Stuckey’s, The Bountiful Container is now available. This 432 page book is a complete guide growing container gardens of vegetables, herbs, fruits and edible flowers. We’ve included recipes for using your home grown goods. Maggie and I researched soils, containers, fertilizing and every aspect [...]

Tarragon Roasted Chicken

Tarragon is growing by leaps and bounds and the delicate, fresh anise-like flavor pairs beautifully with salads, eggs, fish and chicken. Today we made a simple roast chicken stuffed with tarragon. I picked a small handful of tarragon shoots cutting to the soil line to encourage new growth. As mentioned in earlier posts I grow [...]

National Zucchini Bread Day

Surely there is no recent holiday with a more obscure origin. The date is listed as both April 23rd and April 25th. It seems to have no presidential decree or any notable history. It reminds me to use the shredded zucchini frozen last fall. It’s almost time to plant more zucchini! Our current favorite variety [...]

Easy Gardening Tips

Baking soda and water is often all we is need to treat mildew in the garden. Trouble is it’s so easy to forget or misplace the recipe. So if that should happen to you this recipe it will be archived on this site.
Mix together:
1 tablespoon baking soda (from the kitchen cupboard) [...]

Unsweetened Pumpkin Tart - “Citrouillat”

It was in the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook that I first encountered a very old recipe for a savory, unsweetened pumpkin pie. While this tart contains a bit of butter it’s far less rich than Ms. Toklas’s with a cup of heavy cream and rich crust.
Last night we cooked a magnificent 8# Queensland squash and [...]

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I’ve been making this for my own use and as gifts for several years. Vanilla extract is easy to make, richly flavorful, and fragrant. Use one vanilla bean per each four to five oz. bottle. Split the bean in half lengthwise and then chop into ½ inch pieces. Stuff these pieces into your bottle and [...]

High Omega-3 Pumpkin Cupcakes

Each cupcake contains two grams of healthy Omega-3 fatty acids from canola oil, flax seed, squash, and walnuts. Eggs may or may not be high in Omega-3’s depending on how the hens are fed. A good reason for free range hens to have a mixed diet that’s high in greens.
I developed this recipe after [...]

Salad Greens & Edible Flowers

As we move into cooler weather I see our salad garden is a bit uneven. We have lots of greens for cooking, mesclun, racdiccio and arugula but sometimes I begin to crave a crunchy salad that’s packed with flavor and color. So I broke down and purchased some lovely local Romaine lettuce. The garden pantry [...]

Tarragon Beet Salad

Today I made “essence of tarragon”. To do this, cut the plants back, carefully rinse the foliage, spin or shake away excess moisture and strip leaves from the stem. Pack the leaves into a jar and cover with hot white wine vinegar or rice vinegar. I store this in a cool pantry and that’s it. [...]

Stuffed Pumpkin “Smiling Jack”

Tomorrow is Halloween and we have a porch full of squash and pumpkins. We’ll be offering trick-or-treaters mini pumpkins along with candy.
Stuffing
1 5 to 7 pound pumpkin
1 # Country “breakfast sausage”, ground turkey, or
crumbled veggie burger
1 large onion, diced
1 cup long grain brown rice
1 3/4 cups water or stock
2 cups chopped kale or mixed greens, [...]

Three Sisters Layered Casserole

The tradition of the Three Sisters in Native American Gardening refers to the practice of planting a mound of soil with 5 to 7 corn plants in the center. After the corn grows 6” tall 7-8 beans are planted around the corn which supports the beans. A week later 7 or 8 squash or pumpkin [...]

Soup au Pistou, a Vegetable Soup Recipe

Soup with Pistou is a fragrant mixture of herbs and vegetables which originates from Provence France. In my mind it is an” end of the garden” soup, with a few basic ingredients and then a little of this and that is incorporated. It’s always served with a large dollop of Pistou. The Italians have Pesto [...]

Papalo or Summer Cilantro

Papaloquelite, Porophyllum ruderale known as papalo or summer cilantro, is a Mexican and Central American herb. The leaves have a warm pungency like cilantro with a hint of citrus and a more powerful flavor. I recommend using about 1/3 as much papalo as cilantro when preparing salsa and then adjust flavor to your taste. In [...]

Queensland Squash Scones

This recipe originates from Queensland Australia. Sir Joh and Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen were a tireless and colorful part of this regions history. He served as premier of Queensland for many years. Her constant support advanced his career. She was known for baking and serving these tasty and most economical scones that are based on Queensland [...]

Basil & Pesto

It’s time to plant basil when night temperatures are staying above 45 degrees. Put it in too soon and temperature sensitive leaves can blacken and plants become sensitive to fungus like botrytis. Come early to mid-July when soil is warm try sowing directly in the ground for a bumper crop in late summer.
I’m often asked [...]

Spring Turns Up

Ah, just the first few signs of spring and I begin coaxing quince and forsythia branches into bloom. We have had a lovely sunny week here in Western Oregon, and while it is still cool that extra sunshine has begun turning fields and lawns into a soft green haze. Of course there are spots that [...]

Chicken Vegetable Curry With Yacon

This Indian style curry includes Yacon. These Andean tubers cook to a tender/crisp translucence and absorb the curry flavors. For a vegetarian dish simply omit the chicken. Serve with rice and a side dish of yogurt and chopped cucumber seasoned with cumin, salt and pepper. Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground [...]

Thai Chicken Curry with Yacon

Thai curries are fast and easy when you use a commercial curry paste. For this recipe I used Mae Ploy brand green curry paste. It comes in a 14 oz. plastic tub. Other ingredients like fresh basil and Kaffir lime leaves are optional but they do provide extra flavor and aroma. Yacon in this recipe [...]

Yacon Carrot Salad with Wasabi

Peeled and cut yacon discolors when exposed to the air. Acidity from citrus or vinegar maintains the white color. When making this salad, prepare the dressing first so you can quickly add the julienned yacon to it and preserve the color. Note my suggestion for using the food processor to speed preparation. As I keep [...]

Yacon Waldorf Salad

My friend Joyce and I have been sharing birthday dinners for nearly twenty years. This year, it was my turn to prepare dinner for six, so I seized upon this as an opportunity to prepare not one but two yacon based dishes for for our meal. This salad really shines with the yacon and apple [...]

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 [...]