Community Garden Layout 2009

So, here's the layout for this year's community garden plot. The area is 20ft by 40ft. We have planted some as of May 1st, but not much. Our last average frost is the 15th of May, so we'll get everything in the ground around the 15th.

Above is a shot across the row of peas. They are just starting out. Since they are so cold hardy, we plant them as soon as we get the ground turned over.

Here is the horseradish as it comes up. Apparently its roots spread like crazy wildfire. Oh well, a bit late now.

The young leaves are tender and have a slight taste of horseradish, but actually would make a wonderful addition to a spring salad.

This shows the perennial end of the garden. This is the lavender, thyme, lavender, tarragon, lavender row. The rest of the garden plot is to the bottom right corner of this picture (with north running across the row of perennials).

The empty area to the left of the lavender is our 'annex'. We claimed some more public area (an additional 20 X 15 feet). We have more everbearing strawberries there now as a border. After the 15th, we will plant some cooking pumpkins, and maybe some miniature, decorative pumpkins for fall.

Pork Chili Verde

Ok, today we are making a chili verde. I am using a Joy of Cooking recipe as my base, and altering it to fit my needs/ingredients.

Ok, here's the ingredient list;

1 Pork Roast (we are using like an 8 lb shoulder -- but anything should work)
4c. chopped poblano peppers
1/2c. chipotle peppers (or chipotle in adobo)
2c. chopped onion
2Tbs minced garlic
4-6c. chopped fresh tomatillos
1 1/2 tsp whole cumin
1 1/2 tsp whole corainder
2 tsp. chili powder
1 bunch fresh cilantro
2Tbs fresh oregano
1 lemon
1 lime
salt
pepper
chicken bouillon (*see note below*)

1. First I trim the roast. I want to leave some connective tissue and fat for some flavoring, but I trim off alot of the excess fat
2. Next, using a little olive oil, brown the meat on all sides on a skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Place the browned meat in the crock pot and cover with onion, tomatillos, poblanos, cipotle, oregano and garlic. Add bouillon.
4. over medium-high heat, toast the corriander and cumin until fragrant. grind in mortar and pestle. add to chile powder and add to crock pot.
5. squeeze lemon into crock pot
6. put crock pot on high and cook until pork is done. I put mine on for about 6 hours.

7. remove pork from crock pot and chop to 1 1/2 - 2 inch pieces (just bigger than bite size)
8. squeeze lime into sauce and add minced cilantro
9. Stir and serve with fried tortillas

*chicken bouillon*
For this, I want the flavor of chicken, but none of the liquid of the stock. On cook day, we normally make chicken stock and reduce it until it coats a spoon. We freeze the stock and cut it into 1 inch cubes to add to sauces later. To substitute, you could add a bouillon cube, or buy some chicken stock and boil it until it coats the back of a spoon (an hour or two). You just want a little extra flavor, but the tomatillos will give so much juice that you don't need any additional.