Liz On Food

Grilled Beets with Balsamic Vinegar

Fresh Chioggia beets from the Boulder farmers' market were the impetus for this delicious summer side dish. You can grill other varieties of beets, but Chioggias are my current favorite, both for their beauty and flavor. The Chioggia beet is an heirloom variety that originated in a coastal town in Italy by the same name. With an early maturity of about 55-65 days, these beets start appearing in our local farmers' markets in mid to late June.

I simmer beets prior to grilling them. Take care not to over-cook Chioggias if you are used to preparing deep red varieties. Chioggia beets are more tender and require less cooking time than their deeper-colored cousins.

I recently served Grilled Beets with Balsamic Vinegar as an accompaniment to grilled fish. The flavors in this dish pop at room temperature so, conveniently, you can prepare it prior to grilling meat and fish and set the beets and greens aside.

Yield: 4 servings

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

1 bunch of fresh Chioggia beets (about 7-8 medium)
1 T olive oil
1/8 t black pepper, freshly ground
1/4 t salt
2 T balsamic vinegar

Cut off beet greens about 1/2 inch from bulbs. Scrub beets thoroughly. Wash and drain greens; set aside. Place beets in medium sauce pan, cover with water. Bring to boil and let simmer 20-25 minutes until just tender. Remove from heat; drain and cover with cold water. When cool, peel skin from beets. Skin should peel off easily, revealing beautiful pink and orange hues.

Place beet greens in medium sauce pan; add water to about 1 inch depth. Bring to boil and let simmer 15 minutes. Drain beet greens and set aside.


Preheat grill. Place beets on a cutting board and slice into quarters. Chioggas have dramatic striping, which shows well whether quartered or sliced crosswise.


About 3 minutes before grilling, place grilling tray on grill to preheat. Place quartered beets in medium mixing bowl; add oil, salt and pepper. Toss gently. Spread beets on preheated grilling tray.


Grill about 5 minutes, turning several times. Remove from grill when edges begin to brown.

Plate individual portions by centering beet greens and arranging beets on top. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar just before serving.

Per-serving Nutritional Profile:
    Calories, 100
    Fat, 3.5 g
        Saturated Fat, .5 g
    Cholesterol, 0 mg
    Carbs, 15 g
        Dietary Fiber, 4 g
    Protein, 4 g
    Sodium, 400  mg
    Vitamin A, 110% Daily Value
    Vitamin C, 35% Daily Value
    Calcium, 10% Daily Value
    Iron, 15% Daily Value

Backyard Garden Early Season

This year, I purchased Abbondanza's locally cultivated seeds for my backyard garden. You can find the dirt (pardon the pun) on the whys and wherefores of this investment in this post: Can I Make My Back Yard Garden More Local? I am excited to see what my locally purchased seeds will do in my garden compared to longer-distance seed sources in years' past. I will be updating my blog throughout the growing season so you'll have a chance to check out the progress as well.

While early June may seem like mid-season in those in more temperate climates, it's early season here on the Colorado front range, especially considering we had snow mid-May this year. So far, I have healthy seedlings signally a solid harvest to come, in large part due to the seeds, but also because of rabbit fencing, compost and irrigation.

One row of green and wax bean seeds were eaten by blackbirds, so I replanted those a few days ago. Oddly enough, the birds discovered only one of my two rows originally planted so a have a line of nicely progressing plants. And those pesky birds may have actually done me a favor, as now my bean harvest will be spread out over several weeks.

I planted several varieties of leaf lettuce. Sprinkling the seeds together in a row will result in a blend of greens later in the season. The charcoal-colored tubing is soaker hose we installed last year. The timed drip system allows for water conservation, ideal in arid areas such as Colorado where gardens required irrigation.

Here's how zucchini and yellow summer squash look when they pop up. It will be a few weeks before fried squash blossoms are on our home menu.


Carrots always seem to take a while to get started. These little Nantes Scarlet seedlings are so small, I had trouble focusing the camera! This is the same cultivar that produced Carrot Love last season. Notice the cottonwood fluff that has settled in the garden.


Turnips are one of my favorite vegetables, especially when harvested as young, tender, small globes. You can see some bugs have been enjoying the leaves, but not to the extent that it will deter the growth of the plants.

Our beet seedlings are coming along. These could have been planted sooner but it was tough to get motivated when it was still snowing in April and May! No worries, we'll have luscious beets in no time. Well, not quite no time. With a growing time of 45-65 days, we should have beets by mid-July. I'll get back to you on that.


I've limited this particular season preview of my garden to seeds purchased from Abbondanza. Within the last week, herbs, eggplant and tomato plants from local green houses and farmers' markets have thickened the plot (pardon another pun). Stay tuned for the next episode.

2010 Colorado Farm Fresh Directory

If you live in Colorado or if you're thinking about visiting, you might find Colorado Farm Fresh Directory useful. Published annually by the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA), the directory includes statewide listings of farmers' markets, food, wine and ag festivals, farm and ranch vacation destinations, a crop calendar, and more. The 2010 Farm Fresh Directory was just published. To entice you with Colorado's offerings, I'm interspersing this post with photos I took at the Boulder County Farmers' Market, Longmont, a couple seasons ago.

Historically to present, agriculture has made significant contributions to the Colorado economy generating $20 billion annually and supporting 100,000 jobs.

Here are a few Colorado stats from the 2007 US Ag Census, the latest edition published:

• More 80% of Colorado’s farms and ranches are family or individual owned.
  
• Most of the top 10 ag revenue generators are related to animal products (beef, dairy, grain for feed, eggs and poultry, lamb and pork), with some notable exceptions. Wheat is #3 and produce is #6.
  
• Many people may not think of Colorado as being suitable for fruit and vegetable production but producers know better. Comparing fruit and vegetable production by state, Colorado ranks 3rd in head lettuce, 4th in summer and fall potatoes, 5th in cantaloupe and onions, 6th in sweet corn, 7th in peaches, 8th in cabbage and pears, and 9th in edible dry beans.

In looking at these numbers, you might have noticed that our state's production and processing is not limited to local distribution. While the CDA encourages buying local, it also touts that "Colorado's produce is shipped throughout the US and to over 115 countries around the world." And CDA also notes Colorado is home to several prominent food and beverage brands with national and international distribution, including Celestial Seasonings, Coors, Engstrom's Toffee, Hot Pockets, Leprino's, New Belgium and Rudi's Organic Bakery.

Don't these fresh veggies look like the start of a great meal..or two...or three?

In Praise of Home-Delivered Milk

With three teenagers in our home, we go through a lot of milk. Several years ago, I decided to switch from store-bought to home-delivered milk. My primary motive at the time was convenience. I found myself running to the store too often for my busy schedule. Royal Crest Dairy delivers milk and other products in our rural neighborhood once a week, so I stock up on a weekly supply of milk and recruit family members to bring it in off the porch. On Wednesday mornings, our top refrigerator shelf is nearly full of milk (save the space allotted for microbrewery beer).

While I value the time-saving aspect of the home delivery, other benefits exist as well:

• Royal Crest is a Colorado family-owned dairy processor, a rarity in dairy industry consolidation.
• If I can reduce my trips to town (10 miles round trip), I'm reducing fuel consumption. Royal Crest milk delivery vehicles run on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). According to the federal government, LPG-fueled vehicles produce fewer toxic and smog-forming air pollutants. Royal Crest has earned several environmental awards for its efforts.
• Royal Crest milk is packaged in sturdy reusable/recyclable plastic milk bottles made with #2 recyclable plastic (HDPE, high-density polyethylene). According to Royal Crest, these bottles can be reused up to 100 times before recycling. HDPE is considered safe and is approved by the FDA for use in a variety of food packages. Just like other plastics, HDPE is not biodegradable so it's a plus that Royal Crest reuses the containers, unlike the one-time use of store-purchased milk jugs.
• For those interested, Royal Crest milk comes from cows that have not been treated with recombinant bovine somatotropin (also known as rBGH). From a food safety perspective, this feature did not influence my decision to go with Royal Crest. However, Colorado Front Range consumers might find the price appealing as it is often lower than the store-purchased certified organic milks. (Note, Royal Crest milk is not certified organic.)
• Consistently over the years, our home-delivered milk has tasted great and had a long-lasting shelf-life.

No, this is not my photo - but it's a great splash, eh? Every once in a while, I rely on Fotolia to spice up my blog photography. and when I see photos like this, it makes me glad I have a day job as a culinary dietitian! None-the-less, It's the simple domestic management tools, like home-delivered milk...and Fotolia, that allow for less stress and more creativity with a busy family. That leaves more time for culinary pursuits, gardening and blogging.

By the way, Happy June Dairy Month!

Can I Make My Backyard Vegetable Garden More Local?

In locavore terms, what could be more local than growing your own food in your back yard? Long before Michael Pollan and Alice Waters espoused the virtues of locally produced foods, I was growing various fruits and vegetables. I picked up the habit from my parents who grew backyard vegetables and fruit when we were growing up and still do today. OK, I fess up, true confession: As a kid, I was a bit of a whiner (well,more than a bit) hoeing weeds in our Midwest community garden plot on hot, humid summer days. Kvetchin' or not, I hold a gardening tenure (as do the 'rents') that makes me quite the trend setter growing edibles. Actually, I don't think backyard vegetable gardens are news for most folks with rural roots (no pun intended). Those lovin' the country life have just been waiting for the suburban and urban creatures to catch on...and we're happy you have!

With a food and nutrition science background, I was destined to approach my backyard garden as a scientific experiment, learning best practices, estimating cost savings and studying methods for reducing inputs.

I have learned through 20+ years of trial and tribulation, as well as through good old Colorado Cooperative Extension, to adapt my Midwest-based gardening skills to Colorado's cantankerous climate with its limited moisture and short growing season. Last year, I focused on water conversation through drip irrigation and improved tomato yield through plastic mulching with a good degree of success. I'll be implementing those techniques again this year.

This year, my seasonal experiment will include überlocalizing by planting Boulder County cultivated vegetable seeds from Abbodanza Organic Seeds and Produce, Longmont, Colorado.

Abbondanza's collection "has been hand crafted, gathered and cared for and includes varieties collected over the last 18 years." Through its efforts, Abbondanza has adopted many common vegetable, herb, and flower varieties to the Rocky Mountain region. Last season, I picked up some Abbondanza nantes carrot seeds at the Boulder farmers' market and grew some fabulous carrots. 

I got to know one of the Abbodanza co-owners through serving on the Boulder County Food and Ag Policy Council, so I can tell you these are dedicated local growers. Abbodanza not only sells seeds but also sells produce at Boulder County farmers markets as well as Community Supported Agriculture shares.

Although I'm merely a sometime purchaser of organic fruits and vegetables, my backyard edible garden is an adventure in organic gardening techniques. We compost yard and kitchen waste, which augments the garden soil. That's supplemented with purchased organic compost. I don't use pesticides on the garden (synthetic or otherwise). I have learned over the years which vegetables tend to attract bugs and I just don't bother to grow them anymore (brussel sprouts, for example). One nice thing about our arid climate: It cuts down on unwanted garden bugs and microbes. Abbondanza seeds are produced with organic growing practices, so that fits my organic experiment. In addition to last year's carrots, I have planted other organic seeds in the past and have always been happy with the results.

Abbondanza seeds are available throughout Boulder County but you can also purchase them by contacting Abbondanza directly. That's how I obtained my seeds. I poured over the list, made my selections and sent an email. I soon received a cheerful email reply and my seeds showed up a few days later with an invoice, which I promptly forgot to pull out of the envelope until a couple weeks later. I then scurried to send a check. Oops, my bad...sorry, Abbondanza!


Here are my selections:

• Shiraz Beets
• Indy Gold Snap Beans
• Purple Top White Turnips
• Gold Rush Lettuce
• Red Rapids Lettuce
• Scarlet Nantes Carrots
• True Gold Zucchini
• Caserta Zucchini
• Garden Dill
• Marketmore 76 Cucumbers
• Green Oak Leaf Lettuce
• Lolla Rosa Lettuce
• Jade Snap Beans

I'll post progress of my Abbondanza crops throughout the season. I've been clearing the garden bed and shoring up the drip hoses, so I'll be planting shortly. Now, if it would just stop snowing.

Peach Jam Pecan Bars

Regardless of when Colorado peaches are in harvest, we enjoy their delectable goodness year-round by freezing pie filling and making peach jam. I spiced this year's batch of peach jam with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. And that's the impetus for this crunchy, crumbly sweetheart of a bar cookie recipe I whipped up. The following version calls for peach jam with the spices as separate ingredients (because I'm assuming you may not find a ready supply of spiced peach jam).

Yield: 30 bar cookies

Preparation Time: 45 minutes

3/4 c butter
1 c brown sugar
1 c flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 c old-fashioned or steel-cut oats
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 t baking soda
8 oz peach jam
3/4 c chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400^o. In mixer, beat butter and sugar until light. Add dry ingredients, mix until crumbly.

Place half of mixture in 9x13 baking pan, press to fill bottom of pan. 

Spread with peach jam.

Sprinkle half of chopped pecans over jam.

Gently spread remaining crumb mixture in the pan. Top with rest of chopped pecans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until edges just turn golden. Let cool before slicing.

Per-serving Nutritional Profile:
    Calories, 140
    Fat, 7 g
        Saturated Fat, 3 g
    Cholesterol, 10 mg
    Carbs, 19 g
        Dietary Fiber, 1 g
    Protein, 1 g
    Sodium, 65  mg
    Vitamin A, 2% Daily Value
    Vitamin C, 0% Daily Value
    Calcium, 2% Daily Value
    Iron, 4% Daily Value

Fun breakfast treats, these peach jam pecan bars go nicely with coffee and tea, in addition to milk.