Senior Sea Kayaker

Eggs, with chives and pepper, over potato and zucchini hash and tomato with dill and pepper. Blueberries and juice on the side.

Harvested my garlic yesterday. Only 58 this season however I will be doubling that for next year. Hanging in the cellar to cure. Reseeded the area with 2 varieties of bush beans, 2 varieties of chard, lacinato kale, some Russian tarragon and a small plot of purslane (my potted purslane has germinated and I'll see how it goes).

I'm in a 5b zone. Not seedlings however I would suggest bush bean seeds. One of those bags would support 12 plants, you'll have a crop in 55 to 60 days, and they're tasty. A good compact plant is a French haricot or filet bean variety. I just harvested my garlic and part of the reseeding was 57 bush beans.

Late to the party as I've been off grid for a week fishing and hiking. Slowly working my way through a week's worth of posts. As always a fascinating trip. I've gotten through page 1 and will finish when I have some spare time later this evening (lots of gardening and chores to catch up on). Great photography of both place and food.

My sister dropped off these PC Ube buns yesterday morning. Apparently they weren't the big hit of the 'Insiders' Report' as they were reduced from the original $3.49 to $0.94 Cdn. Had one for a breakfast sandwich of blood sausage, egg and old cheddar with gazpacho and cherries on the side. The bun wasn't anything special (texture of brioche and sweet).

Some uses for harvested scapes: Pretty standard quick pickled red onions with added scapes, mustard seed and black peppercorns. Started a lacto-ferment 7 days ago of scapes in a 5% w/v brine. Well on its way. The standard wisdom for scape removal is when it curls around however I harvest them earlier when they are still very tender. I'll use them as a scape to just above the undeveloped flower and freeze the upper section which I will use in lieu of garlic chives in dumplings..etc.. There is evidence, out of a U. of Guelph study, that early scape removal will significantly increase bulb yield.

Salmon with dill and black pepper over mushroom and red pepper couscous. Salad of mixed greens, cucumber and basil thinnings. Lettuces, dill and basil from the garden. With a glass of pinot noir.

I always enjoy these vicarious tours (and all the seafood). However I'm very curious about the house. Places like this are fascinating and most likely have an interesting history. The sides appear to be clad in either aged cedar shakes or shingles, it appears to have a relatively new asphalt shingle roof to match the siding (makes me wonder if the roof was originally cedar shingle) and finally what is the area with the wraparound windows atop the hexagonal central tower and how is it accessed (spiral staircase)?

Nice produce all. I'm only harvesting lettuces, scapes and herbs however I'm getting flowers on my snow and sugar snap peas. I'm also going to have to extend their netting frame as they've reached the top (planned for).

I got home late yesterday so a quick dinner. Microwaved 'baked potato' with feta and herbs with a sesame and black pepper tuna steak. Tomato, cucumber, orange and greens salad with a glass of pinot noir.

'Odds and sods' breakfast sandwich after being away for a few days. From the bottom: lettuce, tomato, egg scrambled with roasted tomato sausage and leftover omelet filling (mushroom, radish green, scape and feta) and pepper jack on a toasted WW ciabatta. Messy to eat but worked. Cherries on the side. And a few breakfasts from last week still in the camera. Pomme paillasson (or rosti), roasted tomato sausage and herbed scrambled eggs. Cherries. Mushroom, radish green, scape and feta omelet with brioche and apricot jam. Cherries.

@weinoo Interesting. What I've made in the past is what Bocuse calls fine quenelles or moussellines and I've done them with shrimp or lobster (pike is something caught fishing and eaten as a shore lunch). I dug out my copy of 'The Lutece Cookbook' and Soltner's recipe for the panade, for a 1 lb. amount of pike, is less than one fifth, in proportion, to that used by Bocuse. The proportions for other ingredients are more aligned so the major difference between the two is the amount of panade in the Bocuse recipe. Below is the panade for 1 lb. of fish.

Here is a clip from 'Mind of a Chef' featuring Andre Soltner preparing his quenelles. How they are made and what to expect.

This got me curious. Picard did/does a number of duck dishes however his signature poutine is 'Foie Gras Poutine' (from my copy of his 2006 cookbook). If so a very decadent dish and something I wouldn't mind trying.

Breakfast sandwich of homemade roasted tomato sausage, egg and pepper jack on a toasted brioche bun. It could have used some lettuce but I didn't feel like going out to pick some and feed the blackflies. Tomatoes and cherries balanced out the fatty sandwich.

My guess for outdoor planting the local soil is out of the viable pH range so I'm planning on containers and see what happens. Back in Ontario it would grow in bone dry arid areas where nothing else grew. It would grow between patio stones and in any crack in asphalt. Could be just too damp here so I'm thinking on keeping the containers as dry as possible and using a mix that will dry out quickly.

A simple dinner after a busy afternoon. Scallop salad and lettuce on a toasted WW ciabatta.

Purslane appears not to be endemic on Cape Breton as it is in Ontario so I'll be planting my own from my favorite seed supplier.

Montreal in the 60's. Iceberg lettuce, root vegetables and tomatoes in those old straight cardboard packages with cello tops of 4 tomatoes. Or canned veg. One saving grace for me was I played baseball in the summer and shinny most of the year with some Italian guys and once in a while their mothers would make food for us. All the families had extensive backyard gardens with vegetables I'd never seen and it goes without saying the food was delicious.

Here in Cape Breton it's been unseasonably cool with night temps around 5 C. and day temps in the low teens. Not the optimal conditions for tomatoes and peppers.

Two books I would recommend are Vivian Howard's 'Deep Run Roots' which covers a lot of greens with recipes and Abra Berens 'Ruffage', as recommended by @blue_dolphin, which again covers a lot of greens and recipes. In my opinion some of the above are best cooked long such as kale, collards and turnip greens, some can treated like spinach such as beet, chard, arugula and radish greens, and some are great raw such as the greens found in those mixed greens clamshells. I would certainly add escarole to your list to try. Have fun.

One possibility. I'm having one of my neighbors, retired but used to work at the local farmers' co-op, over to get her opinion and advice.

First scapes harvested, enough lettuce for a salad and some of my tomato plants.

Quite right.

Billions would be really stretching it. However if you're looking at the other main component of the recipe, namely legumes (beans, lentils.....) billions would be much more appropriate.