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Teaching a passion for gardening and cooking that nourishes the body.

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Norwood High School

thefarmchef

Teaching a passion for gardening & cooking food that nourishes the body. Creator of the 5-week program called Cooking for the Family in Cincy. Zone 6

Still loving this soil for @tilth.soil! Our seedli

Still loving this soil for @tilth.soil! Our seedlings are growing beautifully. Yay!

Planting some things outside this week: peas, cabbage, onion sets, carrots, and kale.

Already harvesting: lettuces, spinach, chives, green onions, and chickweed (ha I didn’t plant that, but I love wild edibles).

Time to start our seeds indoors. We just got our s

Time to start our seeds indoors. We just got our soil!We are so excited that this year we get to use soil from @tilth.soil. This stuff is so fluffy and lucious. I have high hopes for our seedlings. Huge thanks to @mustardseedfarmcsa for recommending them and organizing the order.

Tip: if you have old metal blinds cut them up to make plant labels. You can reuse them year after year. Also, @cincyrecyclingreusehub has a ton of previously used pots for free that can help you with seed starting.

Squash Vine Borer larvae. Sometimes I have a love

Squash Vine Borer larvae. Sometimes I have a love hate relationship with insects! They are so vitally important and even this vine borer looks really fascinating and has an interesting lifecycle, but man they wreck havoc on squashes!

Tip of the day, if you lose a squash plant to these guys cut the stem up and kill all of the larvae so they don’t grow into the moths who make more of these creatures.

I have fairly good success with saving plants infested with vine borers if I catch them early enough. As soon as you notice what looks like sawdust on the stem of a squash plant, start at the hole and carefully cut up the stem until you find the larvae. Extract the larvae and then mound damp soil around the stem and cover the cut.

I didn’t catch this one early enough and it had 5 larvae in it! Yikes! I luckily planted a second round of squash in seedling trays about a week ago to replace the ones that die, so I can continue with a constant supply of summer squash.

#squashvineborer #gardentips #backyardgardener

Start of summer garden. It’s getting hot out her

Start of summer garden. It’s getting hot out here!

I love trying new types of peppers each year. This time I tried Candy Cane peppers from @funkesgreenhouse. Aren’t they beautiful?? Evidently they turn red and chocolate striped and are sweet like a bell pepper.

Thank goodness for my garden helpers. We could really use some rain helpers though.

#summergarden #gardentour #zone6a #backyardgarden

Late spring garden check in. Yay! My garden is com

Late spring garden check in. Yay! My garden is coming along.

Aren’t these King Tut purple peas so beautiful? From @bakercreekseeds “One of the most historical peas known, this particular variety is said to have been taken from the tomb of famed Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, or King Tut. The story is, his servants planted and harvested these peas to help provide for his afterlife. Though some claim to have debunked the story, Lynn McKee’s family tradition asserts that her father received the seeds found in the boy King’s tomb, where they had been undisturbed for nearly 5,000 years until Howard Carter found the tomb on Nov. 4, 1922. From there, as the legend goes, the seeds were taken to England where they were propagated and shared with friends.” Check out their website for more of the story.

Fava bean farinata. On our trip to Italy this past

Fava bean farinata. On our trip to Italy this past fall we bought a bunch of dried fava beans at the farmers market in Puglia where our dear friend @archistrati lives. She said to wait to prepare them until her olive oil comes in. Her delicious olive oil from their recent harvest came in, so it’s time to cook them up.

In Puglia one of the traditional ways of cooking the fava beans are to boil (with a potato to make it less bitter if you want that) and purée. Then serve with sautéed bitter greens, hot chili flakes and a bunch of olive oil. While that is super tasty, we tried it a little different tonight.

I made farinata (chickpea flatbread that Amanda taught me how to make) and topped it with a layer of crème fraiche then the fava purée. From there we topped it with chive and blossoms, prosciutto, parsley, wood sorrel, pickled onions, Parmesan, and doused it in her delicious olive oil. It was the perfect spring meal.

If anyone is interested in getting any of Amanda’s perfectly spicy in the back of your throat olive oil DM me.

#farinata #favabeans #puglia #oliveoil #springmealideas #eatwhatyougrow

Sad sad seedlings. Potting soil matters when you s

Sad sad seedlings. Potting soil matters when you seed start! I learned the hard way.

- The first image is of my seedlings around this time last year.
- The second image is of the potting soil I used.
- The third and fourth image is of my seedlings this year.
- The fifth image is of the soil I used this year.

All seedlings were planted roughly around the same time frame as last year’s planting and had the same light setup.

The only thing different was the soil and wow! My plants are so so puny this year! So so sad! I know what potting mix I’ll not be getting next year.

Want to learn how to cook healthy for your family

Want to learn how to cook healthy for your family on a budget? Join @lasoupecincinnati on Saturdays starting Jan 13th from 10-12:30 for 5 weeks during our Cooking for the Family program. Register online: thefarmchef.com/programs/cook4family
*Classes open to residents of Walnut Hills

Vendemmia. We went to visit our dear friend, Amand

Vendemmia. We went to visit our dear friend, Amanda @archistrati in Puglia, Italy, and it worked out perfectly for us to join her, her friends, and family to harvest grapes and prep them for making wine. They test the sugars in the grapes and when the grapes hit a certain sugar content then it’s time to harvest. In Italy they call the process Vendemmia, and it’s such a beautiful community activity.

We tried their natural wine from last year and wow so incredible! They are doing two different kinds of red wine this year. Both are natural wines using the grape variety that is roughly translated as “salves of Babylon.” As I understood it, one is carbonic which the grapes are fermented whole with the bunches intact and the tank is filled with CO2. The second method is what is in the large red basin. We extracted most of the grapes from the bunches and those are stirred twice a day while they are fermenting. There’s a lot more that goes into both processes. I hope to be able to visit again sometime and maybe be able to try the wine.

After we worked, Amanda treated everyone to a delicious meal full of laughter, conversation and incredible wine.

#vendemmia #winemaking #grapes #puglia

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LaSoupe is offering public Cooking for the Family Classes starting soon!
Cooking for the Family has a new hub in Cincy!
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Cooking for the Family receives UC Bicentennial Grant

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