Squash with Balsamic, Honey & Feta

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This dish was an instant favorite at a Canadian Friends-giving a few years back.  James and I get TWO Thanksgivings every year, we are SO lucky! This is an easy vegetarian side to make that can be served hot or cold, brings color to the table and travels well so it is perfect for potlucks and family style sharing.  It has well balanced sweet and savory components that you find in Sweet Potato casseroles and Bread puddings.

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Ingredients:

  • Butternut or Acorn Squash, peeled and cubed
  • Olive Oil, 1 tbs
  • Sesame seeds, 2 tbs
  • Honey, 3 tbs
  • Balsamic, 1 tbs
  • Chili Flake, 1/2 tsp
  • Feta, 2 ounces, crumbled
  • S & P, to taste
  1. Toss cubed Squash in Olive Oil and distribute evenly on sheet tray
  2. Bake 20 minutes at 410°, remove and toss with sesame seeds.
  3. Bake additional 10 minutes
  4. In a serving dish drizzle Honey, Balsamic, Feta and Chili flakes over roasted Squash
  5. S & P, serve hot or cold.

Chimichurri

food, recipes

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Mint-Basil Chimichurri

Chimichurri is a Central/South American sauce for grilled meats traditionally made from parsley and oregano.  We used large amounts of Mint and basil, add more red chili flakes if you like. I was able to freeze the excess for future meals. Chimichurri loosely translates as “a mixture of several things in no particular order”, this sauce goes great with Lamb, Beef and Pork.

Ingredients:

Mint, 2 cups packed

Basil, 1 cup packed

Olive Oil, 9 tbs

1/2 Lemon, juiced

red chili flakes, 1/2 tsp

salt, tsp

red wine vinegar, 2 +1/2 tsp

 Easy preparation. Combine ingredients and puree.  Should resemble a pesto.

Yard Goals

Garden

We spent most of last year observing each season and what kinds of plants and wildlife were present/absent.  Now that we have a basic idea what kind of plants are already here we can plan on removing/replacing the ones that don’t belong.  Time to begin plotting out details for zones we began last spring and work towards completing them by Fall 2017

Ivy Creeping up the house 1/16
Pulling back Ivy and root systems like a carpet

We can keep pulling back the invasive ivy cover outside of the backyard fence and give that area some time to breathe (see whats dormant in that soil in the following seasons) while we work inside and close to the fence and front yard.  About 85% of the area inside the fence (J) is free of invasive plants, however there are huge piles on cemented parts of the yard where we were allowing vines to die completely/dry out before removing them.  There are also a lot of vines creeping in from the fence line so we need to maintain and fine comb the area removing ivy and blackberry thats come back using hand tools

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A few of my VERY FIRST tools; loppers, handsaws and a hand spade are great for ivy removal.

Section E, the flower bed in the back yard was a jungle, there was just SO much going on in that soil, tons of crazy root systems and plants we couldn’t identify. I covered this area  with a dark tarp and weighed it down.  This will cut off oxygen and sunlight to whatever the hell is in there, I’ll check this spring to see what I can remove by hand and cover it up again.  Maybe in a year or more we can amend the soil and grow some roses or veggies in the raised bed.

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There is more yard on the other side of the garbage storage that needs invasive plant removal and some rose bush maintenance.

 

Next year I want to:

Install nest boxes.

To preserve and enhance terrain transitions with stone and gravel, creating paths.

Create a hedgerow to block view of highway in section M.

Bring in stone and mulch to frame established trees, shrubs and ferns.

Stake trees.

Determine soil PH in section C and J.

Record a sun map.

Create Mason Bee housing in far corner of section J.

Plant tall grasses and shrub to protect Mason Bee and bug housing from pets.

Bring in gravel for front yard in front of section A & B.

Check out our Yard Goals Post

Back Yard Criteria

Garden

Shooting for SILVER level certification with the Backyard Habitat Certification Program

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Top Row: Untouched Backyard with Visitors. Bottom Row: 11 weeks later after some invasive removal.

We got the site report for our property and learned there was actually 23,222 sq. ft of plantable area.

Some native plants identified during the assessment: Oso Berry, Oregon grape, Sword Ferns, Big Leaf Maple and Douglas fir.

Silver Level Certification Objectives require removal of Himalayan and Evergreen blackberry, all Ivy and Spurge Laurel from the entire property.

 

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For this program there are actually five vegetation layers (diagram missing shrub layers, small and medium).

 

4/5 of the vegetation layer criteria is met and 5% of the plantable area must be native plants.

No pesticides of any kind are used on our property.

Wildlife Stewardship is achieved already by having dead wood onsite, reduced outdoor lighting during migration and by having pollinator and beneficial insect nesting habitats present(small brush/rock piles, bundles of branches and stems). We are at the PLATINUM level here.

The Storm Water Management objectives for Silver level are already met by leaving leaves and fallen debris to restore soil, we have several large canopy trees on the property and we will adopt eco friendly maintenance practices as we proceed restoring.  We’ve reached PLATINUM in this area as well.

The majority of the work in our yard will be removing and maintaining an invasive free area, increasing the number of natives mostly in the ground vegetation layer and to fill in plantable area left by ivy and blackberry.

Time to write a wish list and mentally divide the property into manageable areas to work  one at a time.  This will benefit wildlife and plants that already live here by not disrupting large areas at once.