Pickled Beets – Preserving the Winter Garden Bounty

Evelyn, Jonathan Dye, and I have eaten many pickled beets made with this recipe. They’ve been added to cheese plates, paired with gravlax and other preserved fish, and also served simply with some dark rye bread, some fresh dill, and a dollop of crème fraiche (maybe a squeeze of fresh lemon too?). Evelyn’s winter garden has been a bountiful one. She has bushels of beets and needs a way to preserve them. Pickling is the perfect treatment for a homegrown beet. Here’s what I think Evelyn should do with her winter beet bounty!

Free Seed Saving Class at Yorba Linda Public Library – 5.14.14

Join OurLocaltopia’s Farmer and Biologist Jonathan Duffy Davis, this Wednesday (5.14.14) at 7pm for a class on seed saving! Held at the Yorba Linda Public Library, this free class will give you the tools needed to effectively gather, save, store and share seeds from your backyard garden or farm.

Stinging Nettle: A Foraged Food That’s Worth The Pain – Video and Ravioli Recipe

Foraging for wild foods can be intimidating. The delicious and the deadly can look similar and occupy similar environments. Stinging nettle is a great plant for the novice forager. Simply touch the plant and it will tell you if you’ve identified it correctly!

Free Cooking Class on 3/26/14: Garden to Table Cooking at Yorba Linda Public Library

Wednesday March 26th 2014 at the Yorba Linda Public Library!

Don’t forget! This Wednesday, OurLocaltopia is teaching another free cooking class at the Yorba Linda Public Library, as part of the “Food For Thought” series. This week’s class focuses on Garden to Table Cooking and will cover how to make the most out of your backyard edible garden or your weekly farmers market spoils. The Jonathans will provide up close demonstrations of at least four unique dishes, with samples and recipes available to the audience. Class will be held in the Library’s downstairs community room and will run from 7pm to about 8:30pm. Bring your friends, and enjoy a free night of delicious culinary education! See ya there!

~ OurLocaltopia

Elegant Strawberry Conserve

Strawberry Conserves.

Strawberry season comes early in Southern California and is just around the corner for the rest of the country! We wanted to post about this AMAZINGLY EASY Strawberry Conserve recipe, inspired by one of our go-to books, Canal House Cooks Everyday.

Late Winter Gardening for the Southern California “Homestead”

The Southern Californian winter garden is a delicious one. Cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and kale, carrots, beets, and radishes, onions and leeks, and an astounding array of lettuces can all be pulled from your garden’s soil. The winter is starting to come to a close but there remain plenty of options for the winter gardener. The time for tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumber is just around the corner. A post on the summer vegetable garden is soon to come. But today’s late-winter gardener should focus on crops that grow quickly (to make room for soon-to-be-planted summer crops) and on planting fruit trees.

Thursdays in the Kitchen: An Elegant New Year’s Eve – Final Class of 2013 on 11/21

Hello friends! Don’t forget… on Thursday November 21st at 6pm, we will be hosting the final Thursdays in the Kitchen class of 2013, our “Elegant New Year’s Eve” celebration.  This class will be team taught by Jonathan Duffy Davis and Jonathan Dye and will serve a dual purpose: to explore a wonderful menu of elevated cuisine, perfect for end of the year parties AND to celebrate the success of the Thursdays in the Kitchen series, all while enjoying a fabulous evening!

Jonathan Duffy Davis’ Pickled Green Beans: Recipe and Method

Most vegetables are takers but bean give back. Along with the rest of the legumes beans have formed an amazing symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Rhizobium). These bacteria that call the roots of legumes home are capable of taking the inert nitrogen gas (n²) that constitutes almost 80% of every breath that we take and turning it into a form of nitrogen that plants can use. Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient to plant growth in the garden. The more nitrogen your soil contains, the better your garden will grow. Thus, beans nourish not only the gardener but the garden as well.

Stick To The Recipe! A Primer on Canning Pickled Vegetables, Jams & Jellies

Autumn is a perfect time to learn how to can in Southern California. The bounty of summer is quickly fading but there is still time to pick up the end of the stone-fruit and warm-season vegetable harvest and preserve the last of that summer sunshine. Learning how to can now will also enable you to make all of the fantastic pickles that are possible with winter vegetables.

The Great Squash Soup Duel: Davis vs. Dye

Squash Soup Duel:

The Jonathans Throw Down.

 

As most of you know, the Jonathans are the creative culinary force behind OurLocaltopia. They are each extremely talented cooks, with divergent styles that inform and strengthen each other. Occasionally their differences come out in epic Iron chef style duels, like the one detailed below. I was lucky enough to experience this duel in person, and while I could never pick a decisive winner, the  process was educational and, of course, delicious! Read on for details on two seemingly similar dishes,