Zucchini Orange Marmalade Bread

Yum. I was googling for stuff to do with zucchini a while ago and someone made this zucchini marmalade cake thing, following a recipe from the Tartine bakery cookbook. Bells went off in my head, zuke (check - garden full of it), marmalade (check - pantry full of homemade stuff) Tartine cookbook (check). I made 2 changes to the recipe: 1) I cut the sugar way back, their recipe is for cake, I wanted a healthy breakfast bread 2) I don't follow rules well, so I don't really measure things when I bake. That said, here are the proportions you are supposed to use:

Zuke Marm Cake

adapted from Tartine
1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup sugar (I use ~ 1/4 cup of honey)
1/2 cup orange marmalade (I use more)
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

mix wet, mix dry, mix 
350. 9x5 pan, an hour or so. low/wide pan a bit less...

 

Natural Mosquito Repellent

I learned on You Bet Your Garden this week (9 June 2012) that Lemon Balm and Catnip are great mosquito repellents if you rub them on your skin. Mosquitos aren't a big problem in Santa Barbara, but this is good to know. Both grow in the garden.

Michelle Obama / Gardening / NPR

Great interview this morning with Michelle Obama about the White House garden.

The money quote: We have a wonderful history in this country of community gardening and somehow along the way we lost that tradition. Part of what we hope to see is people reconnecting to that part of our heritage.

Gardening stories / NPR

really cool story about Thomas Jefferson's garden. and then a not-so-cool story about the 'cides they use to grow strawberries that don't necessarily taste like anything. yum.

On Community Gardening

You bet your garden this week (5 May 2012) has a fascinating interview with Mark Birdsall, who is involved with setting up community gardens for under privileged people who are used to receiving food from food banks. (The interview starts around the 14min mark).

Some interesting points, that reflect on the UCSB garden:
They will have master gardeners on hand to help with people's questions. This is one of our biggest issues. When I give away plots to new garden members I try to point out the plots of gardeners with alot of knowledge that people can seek advice from. I also give some basic advice about what grows well for me. But we are pretty far from being master gardeners. Producing a document of gardening tips for new garden members is something I've thought about and I definitely think we should do it; by pooling our info I think we could help alot of people.

Teaching people to grow food can be difficult, but it is as important to teach people how to cook what they grow. We've put some recipes on the garden blog, I think I'll put more of a focus on that.

Some gardens (i.e. school gardens) suffer because the school year doesn't match up with the growing season... "good intentions do not manage a garden." This is more of an issue back east than in California, but plots that are unattended in the summer do suffer. And that's also when many of the fruit trees produce, so people gone for the summer don't experience that benefit.  

Pollan's Food Rules, Illustrated

"Food Rules" by Michael Pollan - RSA/Nominet Trust competition from Marija Jacimovic on Vimeo.

Green Bronx Machine

Willie Nelson / Sustainable Farming