Friday, February 20, 2009

A Cure for the Winter Blues Part II {Community Garden Edition}

Last week I did a post on container gardens photos that inspired me enough to get me out of my Winter funk, and here are some of my favourites of community gardens and allotments.

Enjoy and happy green day dreams. ;)

Sláinte!

Laurel

Baltic Street Community Garden, Brooklyn New York (photos by Flatbush Gardener)





Jones Urban Valley Farm, Birmingham Alabama (photos by stephee)




Sunnyside Community Garden, Kingston Ontario (photos by tee-dot)





Edgerton Community Garden, New Haven Connecticut (photos by sweet lil' bunny)




La Grande Community Garden (photos by A Lon Maclean)





Richmond Community Garden, Richmond British Columbia (photos by Artcatcher)







Soo Line Community Garden, Minneapolis Minnesota (photos by nate)



Thursday, February 12, 2009

Portobello Mushroom and Mixed Bean Loaf



This is a reinterpretation of a recipe that I found in the Best-Ever Vegetarian Cookbook by Linda Fraser (The Mushroom and Bean Pate).

Portobello Mushroom and Mixed Bean Loaf

6 large portobello mushrooms, finely chopped 14 oz of canned or dried mixed beans (soaked over night), mashed*
1 cup of whole grain breadcrumbs
3 scallions, chopped
2 ribs of celery, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon of parsley (fresh or dried)
1 tablespoon of rosemary (fresh or dried)
1/4 cup veggie stock (if using dried beans, if not use juice from can)
Olive oil (however much you need)
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Cook beans over low heat (with veggie stock or bean juice) for about 15 minutes, until tender.

Remove from heat and mash beans.

Put olive oil in pan, and once ready, add garlic. Cook over low heat. Once ready, add mushrooms, scallions, and celery. Cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Once cooled, add mashed beans and mushroom mix to a bowl with egg, cheese, herbs, tomato paste, and pepper.

Place into a loaf pan (greased with olive oil), and bake at 350 for about one hour.

*For mine I used dried Northeaster, Christmas Lima, Orca, Pinto, and Ireland Creek Annie beans.



We ate ours with a salad of mixed greens, cucumber, and dried cranberries. And it went well with Frogpond Farm's (an Ontario organic vinter) 2007 Gamay Rose

Sláinte!

Laurel

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A Cure for the Winter Blues {Container Gardener Edition}

Even though Winter is technically more than half over, the last part is always the longest! I was surfing the web and found some wonderful and inspiring container garden photos. Here are some of my favouries:


Photo by Satrina0




Photos by oneblackbird


Photo by Annie in Berziers


Photo by Tracy27


Photo by ariari


Photo by NH567


Photo by Arboreality


Photo by Selkie30


Photos by Beck Naksup


Monday, February 9, 2009

Luverly of the Week: Anais Nin



"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish it's source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings." ~ Anais Nin