Adventures in Berry Picking... and Eating

It's been far too long since I've updated. We've been working out in the garden, eating lovely CSA-supplied salads, picking strawberries, and trying out new vegan baking recipes.

The garden has been drenched several times this week, thanks to unpredictable, tempermental Indiana weather (don't like it?... wait five minutes.). During last week's hottest days, there was NO water pressure at all to water with. We were worried that we'd lose our veggies-- everything was turning yellow and drooping! We epsom salted our tomatoes and peppers, basil and cukes, and everything is greening up again. Thank goodness for the showers. Everything has just sprung up in the past three days. (Including the weeds). The tomatillos, serrano peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelons, canteloupes, and honeydews are all blossoming. I swear I've got a 3" hot pepper that's growing on a plant that's only 4" high.

Our lovely salad lettuces from seeds look great too!

We also planted some celery (zips' favorite!), but something is nibbling on it. I can't figure out if it's a very selective bunny, or a vegetarian bird. There's plenty of lettuce that hasn't been nibbled, but the celery has been munched to a nub. I fashioned a Robinson Crusoe/Blair Witch Project stick fence around them, and the nibbling has stopped for now... (I'll add a photo soon).

We went to a U-Pick strawberry farm and picked something like ten pounds of strawberries!


They were immediately turned into freezer preserves (mush them up, add pectin, sugar, a squeeze of lemon), and I tried out the vegan shortcake recipe in this month's Veg Times:

Vegan Shortcakes / Biscuits:

Preheat oven to 450F

1 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

whisk dry ingredients together then add

2 Tbs. margarine

rub in with your hands until cornmeal-like in texture, then stir in

6 oz. plain or vanilla soy yogurt

to form a soft dough. pat dough out into 1/2 in. on a floured surface. Cut with 2 1/2" round cutter and bake on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 8-11 min.

They're AWESOME!!! I'm NOT a baker. I'm new to vegan baking, and I've had some mixed results, but these are easy easy easy and delicious delicious delicious. Although the original recipe calls for plain soy yogurt, I could only find vanilla flavor-- but these are very light, moist, and would work well with both sweet (Strawberry Shortcakes for Memorial Day Cookout) and savory recipes. My leftovers are destined for a biscuit and (tvp) gravy trial run tomorrow morning.

In other strawberry news-- we also threw some into a strawberry soy ice cream recipe from Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer's book How it all Vegan~ Both the strawberry and chocolate versions turn out amazingly like guilt-free soft serve. Delish!!!

Vegan Fruity Ice Cream:

2 c. soft tofu
1/2 c. soy milk (we used Silk Unflavored)
1/2 c. oil (we used plain ol' vegetable oil)
1 c. sugar
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. vanilla extract (we had a generous and unsteady hand measuring this)
dash salt

add diced strawberries (or your fruit of choice) once the mixture begins to freeze.

Zips' Variation: Zips whizzed some berries up in the food processor with a handful of sugar and added it to the base mixture. Not only did it turn the ice cream a lovely shade of pink, it really adds flavor in addition to the strawberry chunks.

Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream:

2 c. soft tofu
1 c. soy milk (we used Silk Unflavored)
1/2 c. oil (we used plain ol' vegetable oil)
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 Tbs. vanilla extract (again, a generous and shaky hand measuring this)
dash salt

Here they are with a dollop of the freezer preserve. Like Zips sez.. too much of a good thing is even better!

Other than picking and gorging ourselves on berries, we've just been housecleaning, stocking the pantry for the summer, and tending the garden. When we get settled, we'll give an update on crafty projects in the works. I'm just waiting for Amy Karol's book to come out. (until then, I'll just re-read Angry Chicken and weep..)

I can't wait to show you how much Zips loves to sew.