Garden Hummus and urban agriculture

So much for the not updating. I didn't think I'd have time/sufficient access to a kitchen to post during my travels, so it made more sense to announce a hiatus. These 7 weeks in Italy have been a great learning experience and a good opportunity to see all the work that goes in to the food we consume everyday. I can also call bullshit on those who claim that Americans can not meet their food demands on organic/pesticide free/GMO free farming. The truth is we can. It just means that field after field of monoculture has to be a thing of the past. It also means that we have to be smarter about the way we consume and our land use. One thing that I loved about my time in Romania was that almost every house had a garden. None of this pristine, radioactive green, manicured lawn business. If you had a home, be it in the country or the city, there would be trellises full of grapes and several fruit trees, tomato plants, zucchini, beans and lots of other veggies. Even large apartment blocks had green space that integrated food producing plants along with more decorative varieties. This kind of integration can benefit nations to be more food secure. Sure, not every household is producing all of the food they consume, but having a productive garden can be beneficial if something should happen to larger food supply.

This is one of the reasons I find what's happening in Detroit to be really interesting. Having grown up in the Detroit area, I've felt first hand the impact of the decline of the auto industry and the lack of economic opportunities for most everyone in the area. It's nice to see that city planners are thinking of converting the vacant lots and abandoned homes into productive agricultural space. However, the plan that's getting the most attention is likely to displace many people and is very costly. I know there are groups working to reclaim land in Detroit, one empty abandoned lot at a time without waiting for some order to come from the top down. It's times like these I wish Michigan had a shorter timespan for adverse possession laws to take effect. I don't care if banks own the land or slumlords, or out of state real estate sharks, people have a right to healthy, productive and safe communities. Sure, there are no jobs in Detroit, but it looks like a great opportunity for the people of the city to develop alternative economies through agriculture. At least this way Detroit will cease to be a food desert and maybe be a model for communities facing similar problems. 

On to the next order of business: Garden Hummus
It is time for the chickpea harvest in the garden (this is my first) and though all the new chick peas will be preserved for winter, I did find some in the pantry from last year, so of course I had to make hummus.

 

The hummus has garlic, paprika, lemon juice, parsley an a little sun dried tomato. Before the hummus could be made, the chickpeas needed to be harvested. This is what they look like au naturale:

 

The bundle sits out to dry in the sun for a while, usually a week or two. Once they're ready, the chickpeas are separated from the leaves and stems, hulled and washed and laid out to dry some more.

They kind of look like Kix cereal. After they're dry the second time, they're put in large glass jars, lined with laurel leaves at the bottom and top. The laurel helps absorb moisture and keeps bugs away.

As I mentioned, the chickpeas I used for the hummus were from last year, so they were soaked in saltwater and left on a sunny windowsill for 8 hours. They were then cooked for about an hour and a half until soft. I tossed them into a food processor with a couple tablespoons of tahini, a few cloves of garlic, a bit of olive oil and some salt. I blended until smooth and transferred to a bowl.  I added some sun dried tomatoes as garnish, parsley, olive oil and paprika. I'm not a huge fan of sun dried tomatoes, so I was reluctant to toss them into the blender to make sun dried tomato hummus. I won't list the exact measurements of ingredients because you can't screw up hummus. You add more of the flavors you like, less of the ones you don't. You like creamier hummus, add more tahini and blend on high for longer. Hummus is inexact and it's fun to experiment with different flavors. 

sun dried tomatoes

been busy the last few weeks with the tomato harvest. They started out like this:

 

and went to this:

then to this:

and finally to this:

It took roughly 4 days of sun to dry the tomatoes. Some of these will be packed in olive oil and kept for the winter, others will be sold. I haven't seen this many tomatoes in my life. I've learned some great techniques to drying tomatoes that might even work in Chicago. Though we don't get nearly as much sun as Italy, the month of July and August are usually hot and sunny enough to dry the tomatoes, provided the humidity isn't awful. It might take an extra day or two, but I believe it will work.

update on not updating

I am learning all about delicious Italian cooking in Italy at the moment, so when I return to the states I will be posting recipes like:

-Tiramisu
-Whole wheat crepes with ricotta and a sweetened red wine glaze
-A hundred different recipes featuring eggplant
-Sun dried zucchini pickle
-A delicious dessert featuring peaches and wine and all sorts of other goodies that does not have a name

it will be amazing.