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cschonie

@caroline_schoneweis

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Gardening, Cooking, Eating, Trail Running, Mini-Adventuring, and sometimes, knitting! Everyday’s a weekend since I’ve retired!
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I don't think we ever had turnips when I was a kid, and I never fed them to my own kids, but ever since I started growing Milan purple top turnips and fell in love with their stunning, magenta "shoulders," peeking out of the ground, I have looked forward to including them in our fall meals! They weren't an easy sell for my taste buds, at first, since they are on the slightly bitter side, but I wanted to like them and kept trying. Soon, their wonderful, earthy smell and the right cooking techniques won me over. I made roasted turnip, potato, and white bean soup last night with the last of our turnips from @trailsendfarm. @rms060 gave it a big thumbs up. I topped our soup with my magical smoked pumpkin,garlic oregano, and pepper powder Russ helped me make last week using his Weber grill, but I'll write about that some other day. #turnips #heirloomvegetables #soup #soupseason by @caroline_schoneweis

Happy Halloween from Poppy! by @caroline_schoneweis

Speaking of "last harvests," my beautiful Aleppo peppers are just about finished. I'll miss their brilliant pop of red in my garden. I've bragged about growing them since COVID when ground Aleppo pepper or seeds were almost impossible to find because of the civil war in Syria. Lately, they've been way easier to access but are being grown primarily in Turkey, which is the reason they're still listed on the @slowfood_international Ark of Taste endangered foods list. The philosophy is they're not truly Aleppo peppers if they aren't being grown in their traditional terroir, kind of like having endangered species in zoos isn't the same as having those animals in the wild, if that makes sense. Anyway, it's good to hear that since 2024, Syrian farmers are beginning to return to farm near Aleppo. Their cultural resilience makes me wonder what part of our culture this current crop of hate mongering-politicians are so worried about us losing. Most of us already don't grow anything at all, much less beloved heirlooms, cook to any real extent, or eat with the seasons. Maybe, they're worried about cultural literacy. Oh wait, most of us don't read either. #culture #aleppopeppers #heirloomvegetables by @caroline_schoneweis

My end-of-season eggplant harvest is a bit faded but still picture-worthy. It was a paticularly stellar year for my old favorites, listada di gandia and Rosa Bianca," but not so much for my more recent "sentimental" favorite-- lavender-ish, Baghdad Market 48. (I I think I had it growing in too much shade. It is from Baghdad after all!) Russ has promised me eggplant Parmesan tonight, a delicious way to mark the end of eggplant in our diets until next July! Um, unless @siafreshproduce happens to have some at the market.😛
#eggplant #growfromseed #growfood #heirloomveggies #vegetablegarden by @caroline_schoneweis

I was kind of wishing that I had "smello-vision" yesterday. @rms060 smoked a bunch of our Aleppo and gochugaru peppers, and the smell from our backyard reminded me of New Mexico in the fall. I nutri-bulleted them this morning, with a few fresh peppers, a half of a peach, some hibiscus petals, garlic, cilantro, lime juice and brine from my last batch of cucumber pickles! I'm feeling very accomplished, um, while also wishing I'd remember to wear gloves while working with hot peppers.😬 My last picture is of a bottle of my leftover pickle brine with a few tablespoons of the pepper mash added, that I intend to use for my next batch of fermented cauliflower. #ferment #fermenting #hotsauce #peppers by @caroline_schoneweis

My fermenting-fiend of a brother claims that rutabagas make the best ferments. I can see that as a possibility, but I prefer the sharpness of turnips, and, fortunately, also have access to delicious turnips from @trailsendfarmllcca. The ferment on the right is a mix of cabbage, shredded turnips, garlic, and thinly sliced Aleppo peppers and the one on the right is the same, only with fresh Aleppo flakes. I anticipate a little "fire" but not uncomfortably so...I hope!😝 #fermentation #ferment #turnips #buylocal #suppirtyourlocalfarmer by @caroline_schoneweis

I love pickles. My mom made incredible pickles, so did my grandma. I'm pretty good at pickling too although I'm more into fermenting, and they were vinegar-based cucumber picklers. So, when I saw The Pickled City @thepickledcity on an Instagram post, I ordered it right away. It's a wonderful book for any foodie or person interested in history, full of evocative photographs, but I felt another connection to it too. The whole time I was reading it, I kept thinking about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, one of my favorite childhood books. I just re-read it and now remember why! "The Pickled City" depicts much of the world that Francie Nolan, one of my favorite protagonists ever, grew up in, during the early 1900s in Brooklyn, including buying a much anticipated sour pickle from a shop run by a tired, old Jewish man. A friend recently said to me that "food is connective." I loved that, of course, but I think books are often connective too, especially when their focus is food! by @caroline_schoneweis

I'm going on a little trip this morning, so I thought I'd finish up this little sweater I've been knitting for my granddaughter, Sylvie...and just now noticed that my cats aren't centered! How did I not notice that like three hours of knitting ago??? I'm not proud of my lack of attention to detail, but I am proud of my tenacity...an attribute I've developed because...of my lack of attention to detail! Time to frog and re-knit those shoulders.😛😭 by @caroline_schoneweis

This is my kitty Louis. @pschoney rescued him about five years ago, from a gas station in the middle of nowhere, where he had lived a tumultuous existence amidst abandoned cars, as a picked-on member of a cat colony. In response to his often violent early life, he is a man of peace, never risking infringement of territory with our other cats, territory that includes our bedroom. For the last couple of mornings, he has been luxuriously lounging on our bed. It makes me happy that he finally feels comfortable enough to feel like he deserves the run of our entire house. It's also my convenient excuse for having not made the bed before noon yesterday or today.😛 #animallover #cats #rescuedcats by @caroline_schoneweis

My heirloom "Gezahnte" tomatoes are having a nice last hurrah. I had some luck with them early in the season, but most of the summer they were frustrating, consistently developing end rot. All my other tomatoes near them were quite happy, so I'm guessing they REALLY didn't like the heat. Despite our recent hot temps lately, though, this last crop is thriving. I'm definitely saving these seeds after all! #tomatoes #growfromseeds #vegetablegarden by @caroline_schoneweis

We have started getting to our local farmers market early so that we can snag a couple dozen eggs from Farmer Kaitlin and Farmer Jose from @trailsendfarmllcca, before they sell out! Besides being delicious, they're so pretty that I have almost considered replenishing my dwindling flock, but only almost.😅 I made scrambled eggs a couple of days ago for @pschoney and me, with sauted shitaki mushrooms, red onion, and cauliflower on the side with a little @clevelandkitchen whisky dill kraut and @yellowbirdsauce blue agave hot sauce that Paige just happened to have in her fridge. ...because...she's my daughter!😅 Oh, and lastly, corporate eggs suck; I mean it; they really suck. #supportyourlocalfarmer #eggs #realfood by @caroline_schoneweis

I'm not entirely positive I have a handle on how the whole "heirloom vegetable" nomenclature works, but I like the easy definition of them having a "face, a story, and a flavor." Anyway, these are some of this year's heirloom Buena Mulato peppers. Their "face" is obvious, and since they're a cheyenne variety, they are deliciously hot! But, I only recently read their "story" on the @trueloveseeds website from where I bought my original seeds. Black artist and wounded World War I veteran, Horace Pippin, who was also a prolific seed saver, is responsible for them having been saved from obscurity. I keep going to different sources to find more about him. He's fascinating, and I will think about him every year when I plant the seeds from peppers he was instrumental in saving. I haven't made hot sauce with them yet, but I used them in a cauliflower ferment recently and am excited to taste the result! #seedsaving #heirloomvegetables #peppers #growfromseeds by @caroline_schoneweis