GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Author: Eric

Dear Weber Grill,

Learn more about this and other fun stuff at our viewer forum, The Greenhouse. Comments have been turned off here, but you can post your thoughts, pictures and videos at The Greenhouse.

Will Weber send gardenfork a smoker?

still no response from Weber Grill about asking them to supply me with one of their neat Smokey Mountain Cooker Smokers for the show.

After the Smoked Salmon debacle, I really want to smoke food the correct way, and their Smokey Mountain Cooker receives high praise on the web, so I sent their marketing dept. an email about gardenfork.tv and its thousands of devoted viewers. I asked if they would consider sending me one of these smokers, but have not heard back from them.

How about a grass roots write-in campaign? You can contact them at [email protected] . Ask them to send one of these great smokers to us so we can show everyone how great a smoker it is. Lets show them how Web 2.0 and the power of social media can foster Weber Grill brand loyalty.

Back to the Burnt Salmon. A reader sent me this email about what I’m doing wrong ( how unusual… )

I use a smoker very similar to the one you used. I think smaller chunks of moist apple wood would be better so that you can avoid putting them on the heating elements. I shorted out mine doing that and had to get a replacement heating element and found out in the instructions about this fact. I use a flavored brine: the recipe follows and typically don’t need to smoke more that a couple of hours in my “tube smoker”. I then use a vacuum packer to store each piece in the refrigerator. Often I cut the salmon into 2 to 3 ” steaks. They make great gifts for neighbors.
Brine recipe:
1-2# fish
1 quart H2O
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup salt
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tps nutmeg/
1 tps cinnamon
1/2 tbsp meat tenderizer

Recommend several hours of brine in the refrigerator. Prior to smoking, air dry for at least 1 hour.

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June 18, 2007
Garden cart plans and agrarian blog

I ran across Herrick’ blog about his book and gardencart: The Whizbang Gardencart Blog a while back and wrote a post about it in my Web 2.0 blog, and I wanted to share it with you all here as well.

Herrick has written a book about how to make your own gardencart, and I’m going to buy the book and build one for a gardenfork.tv episode. Clearly Herrick is a much better carpenter than me.

Herrick also has a blog about his life as a farmer in upstate NY, The Deliberate Agrarian.

May 20, 2007
BBQ in Brattleboro, VT

Learn more about this and other fun stuff at our viewer forum, The Greenhouse. Comments have been turned off here, but you can post your thoughts, pictures and videos at The Greenhouse.

My friend Eric Skiff went to Top of the Hill Grill in Brattleboro, VT and shot a video in the Gardenfork BBQ series style. It’s great and flattering. Please check it out here.

I’ve been to Brattleboro, there is a coop restaurant there, The Common Ground, its good.

May 17, 2007
How to make Carbonara Recipe

Carbonara is a really simple dish, the trick is to make sure the eggs do not become scrambled eggs.

6 ounces of thick cut or slab bacon

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese. do not buy pre-grated, it doesn’t tast great.

1 box ( 1 lb ) spaghetti ( i prefer thin spaghetti noodles )

Set of pasta pot of water to boil on the stove.

Cut the bacon into little squares about 1/2″ square. Cook the bacon until crisp. Drain off all the fat except about 1 tablespoon.

Beat the 2 eggs with the cheese in a small bowl. Alternative: you can add 1/4 cup of cream to the egg/cheese mixture if you like.

Put the serving bowl in the sink, and place the colander in it.

When pasta is done, pour into colander that is sitting in the serving bowl.

Remove colander and pour hot water out of serving bowl. Careful, use oven mitts.

Pour egg – cheese mixture into serving bowl and immediately add noodles, toss once and add the bacon with its 1 tblsp of fat.

Toss to coat, add pepper and salt to taste ( Traditionally, this is served with a lot of pepper )

Serve immediately.

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May 17, 2007
Farming in Maine: a blog

Learn more about this and other fun stuff at our viewer forum, The Greenhouse. Comments have been turned off here, but you can post your thoughts, pictures and videos at The Greenhouse.

I received an email from Robin, who has a farm in Maine with a nice website and blog. Plus an amazing picture of a moose on her blog page

“I knew I hated my office job and our second floor city apartment. … I traded heels and suits for jeans and boots and have never been happier. “

Robin can grow those French red pumpkins, Rouge vif D’Etampe, I cannnot.

March 31, 2007
How to boil maple syrup GF Video

Despite a wonderful head cold, i spent a large part of the weekend with my friend Bill at his sugar house boiling maple sap. Making maple syrup is one of my favorite things to do in late winter, and in this video Bill shows us how to boil maple sap to make maple syrup

{ bill’s farm is also where we have some of our beehives, you can see them in the Beginning Beekeeping Videos }

T

Check out our other Maple Syrup Videos:

Click here to watch a video I made about our other friend’s sugar shack in the next town.

How to tap maple trees for sap Priscilla shows us how to tap sugar maple trees

One error I see people do is to tap maple trees that are not sugar maples, there is a difference. Consult a good tree identification book, like this one called Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast
, which is handy when identifying trees in winter, it has lots of pictures of tree bark.

Do you tap your trees? How do you boil your sap? I plan on doing it myself this winter, and am deciding between using tubing or buckets. What are your thoughts on buckets or tubing lines? Let us know below, thanks.

March 26, 2007
Creme Brule the gardenfork.tv way

Creme Brule’ is easy, and tastes great. Plus its really fun to use new tools, readily available from your hardware store to make the burnt sugar crust. Yum.

Note: the first part of this show is shot in the dark on purpose. watch and learn.

March 4, 2007
How to season cast iron pots / cookware – GF Video

A trip to the local farm store yields a box of cast iron cookware. Here’s how to season cast iron. Note, after watching this video, watch the newer one I made here about how to season cast iron, thx!

Seasoning cast iron is not rocket science, just watch our how to season cast iron video here and you’ll get the Eric way to season cast iron. One note: I now suggest using flax oil to season cast iron, its much better than vegetable shortening for the job. You can find flax seed oil in the refrigerated section of health food stores and places like Whole Foods.

For heavily rusted cast iron, aka how to clean rusty cast iron, watch this GF TV video on removing rust from cast iron.

Next you’ll want to know how to clean your cast iron. The basic rule is to avoid soap. If the cast iron is seasoned properly, just about everything will clean off with hot water and a clean sponge. i have a dish sponge just for cast iron, i took a sharpie and wrote ‘ cast iron’ on the sponge to get the point across to everyone about that.

You’ll be surprised at how easily stuff cleans off a seasoned cast iron pan. I do avoid cooking scrambled eggs in cast iron, for that I use a non-stick pan, works much better.

Let us know your cast iron seasoning suggestions below:

Best Cast Iron Seasoning Instructions – GF Video

February 22, 2007
Ginger Ice Cream, how to and recipe

Ginger Ice Cream Recipe

2 cups of milk

fresh ginger grated to taste

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup cream

ginger cookies

The night before put the insulated ice cream container in the freezer.

Heat the milk with the grated ginger in a saucepan to about 160F, to steep the ginger flavor into the milk.

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until light yellow

Add the warm milk to the egg/sugar mixture slowly.

Heat this mix to about 170F, stirring regularly. The mix should start to thicken slightly.

Take off the heat and add in the 1 cup cream. put in a metal bowl.

Wrap ginger cookies in plastic wrap and Crunch up with a rolling pin. Stir into ice cream mix.

Place in freezer or a bowl of ice to cool down to about 40F.

Pour into insulated ice cream container and process according to the maker’s directions. I turn mine on for 30 minutes. If you have an outdoor space and its winter, run the machine outdoors.

After it has been processed, put in the freezer to harden.

Homemade ice cream can be kept in the freezer in an airtight container. I’ve found it best to place plastic wrap right on the surface of the ice cream, then seal the container.

recipe ©2006 Eric Gunnar Rochow

February 12, 2007
How ( or how not to ) cut down a tree with a chainsaw

Safety First when using a chainsaw, it is the most dangerous tool one can own without having to be licensed or have a permit to carry.

A few quick tips: wear ear and eye protection, steel toed boots, work gloves, and if possible, a hard hat. Read the instructions that came with your saw, the booklet that came with my Stihl is quite good.

Full disclosure: I am not a professional lumberjack, just a DIY guy who wants to get people to pay attention to the proper way to use a chainsaw. One thing that is not in the video, but you should wear a helmet with a face shield and ear protection built in. I bought one for about $45, so go do it, one piece of equipment takes care of your head, eyes, and ears.

There are more than a few opinions on how to cut down a tree, I’ve changed the method seen in this video, in this how to cut down a tree video, i use a slant cut on the back side of the tree, and i now use a straight cut just above the front wedge cut. Slant cuts can cause the tree to twist when it falls, which is a very bad thing.

We have more tree felling, cutting down a tree, chainsaw use videos here on the site, watch them all.

February 1, 2007
How to repair your windows – window glazing

My good friend Bobby is a professional window glazier. In this episode Bob shows us the right way to remove the old glazing compound and apply new compound. I’ve wrestled with this for years and Bob shows how to do it easily.

January 4, 2007
How to carve a turkey and how to make gravy

We had dinner at Chris and Cheryl’s house on Thanksgiving. Amazing food made by amazing people. All we had to do is show up. Nice.

December 21, 2006
Video: Cold Frame Plans from Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Last week we visited with Patty Hulse at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, who showed us the cold frames they built and use throughout the winter. Very nice. Thanks to my friend Tony, ( the man who knits ) for helping with the camera. An episode on knitting is in the works.

Greens growing in a cold frame at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

December 15, 2006
White bean soup with kale recipe

White beans, be they navy beans, yankee beans, great northern beans, are great in soup. This is my really simple fast recipe for white beans. This can be cooked with canned beans or dry beans. Dry beans take longer, but if you have time, great. I use a pressure cooker to cook my dry beans.

Being a strong proponent of the KISS [keep it simple stupid] theory of life, this soup is a charter member. Beans, onions, garlic, olive oil – cook and you are done.

The version we do here is dressed up a bit with cheese rinds and oregano, but again, it doesn’t need this to taste great on a fall evening.

White Bean Soup

Bag of White Beans or a large can of beans

1 onion, chopped

Chopped Garlic

Options:

Chicken or vegetable stock

Cheese rinds

Oregano, Marjoram, Rosemary, Sage

Pesto

If you have dry beans, cook them and save the cooking water.

Saute the onion until golden clear.

Add the beans, and bring to a simmer.

If desired, add seasonings and cheese rinds.

If you have the time, allow the beans to simmer so the flavorings work thru the soup.

If not, after 10 minutes, its done.

For a decadent flourish, add a splash of olive oil or pesto to each bowl just before serving.

October 11, 2006
Disc Brake Replacement How To GF.TV Video

Its easy to change the disc brakes and rotors on most cars. Here’s a disc brake replacement video we made on GardenFork.TV . Use this video as a initial introduction on how to repair the disc brakes. Consult your car’s repair manual for the exact procedure for your vehicle. Be sure to jack up your car on the frame and to use jackstands. Chock the rear wheels to keep the car from moving while you are working on it, work on flat surface, and set the parking brake. Also be careful of brake dust, as its not healthy to breathe.

Be sure to buy disc brake grease and some spray brake cleaner, it gets messy with all the dirt under the wheel wells. We wear latex or nitrile gloves to keep our hands clean, the nitrile gloves work best. And you get what you pay for when buying disc brake pads, don’t cheap out, these things stop the car, you know. Work on one wheel at a time, that way you can look at the other wheel as a reference.

We also have a front wheel bearing replacement video that show how to remove the brake caliper and how to install new wheel bearings.

October 3, 2006
Broccoli and Anchovies over Pasta

OK, one here for the fork part of garden + fork. Another recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef. Real simple to make, and in the time it takes to bring the water to boil and cook the pasta, you are finished.

Anchovies have become a favorite in our house. I have to admit I had an aversion to them for years, but they are great, and healthy for you too. They cook down into little bits of nothing and give off a great flavor.

We are improving on the lighting in the kitchen, so you can at least see my face in most of this episode. More improvements coming.

A viewer suggested we ask you all what you’d like to see us cook. Send us an email by clicking on the link on the left side of the page, tell us what to cook.

September 22, 2006
Transplanting Plants, How to transplant Hosta plants

Hostas are ubiquitous in our area. They do well in shade, and we have plenty with all the tall trees around us. These plants are very easy to transplant, so if you have some in one area and would like to have more in another, watch how we do it.

I’ve traded hostas with several neighbors, I’m partial to the large leafed blue-green varieties. You can check out more info at the American Hosta Society.

Slugs love hostas, so do deer. We don’t have a large numbers of either one, thankfully.

September 14, 2006
Tomato Hornworms – how to get rid of them – GF Video

Tomato Hornworms can ruin your tomato plants overnight. Here’s how to get rid of tomato hornworms. If you notice the leaves of your tomato plant have been chewed to the stalk, and it looks like the plant has been stripped of it’s leaves, you have a tomato hornworm infestation.

Nothing like coming up to the house to find large portions of your tomato plants stripped of their leaves. This is what happened to us, so we made a video about the tomato hornworms who took over our tomato patch.

The Tomato Hornworm is the caterpillar of the Five Spotted Hawk Moth, a relatively non-descript moth, but in its caterpillar stage wreaks havoc on tomatoes.

In the video I talk about the eggs of the parastic wasp, then I realized later the white protrusions from the caterpillar are the cocoons of the braconid wasp, not its eggs, which is even better, as soon they will hatch and parasitize more Hornworms. If you want the whole insect story, check out the Tomato Hornworm page at Wikipedia.

I have heard about cardboard collars one can put around a young tomato plant to prevent the Hornworms from crawling up the stem. Another way, according to Wikipedia, to reduce the resident population is to roto-till the garden, as this will destroy hornworm pupae in the soil.

If you see a wild sounding moth-bug think flying chaotically around your garden, it could be the adult moth of the tomato hornworm. I have only seen the moth a few times, but its huge and looks like a crazy bug thing.

We have a number of how to grow tomatoes and how to cook tomato videos on our site here. I especially like our cherry tomato recipes, one of them is a raw cherry tomato pasta dish that is brilliantly simple.

Roast Cherry Tomato Pasta Recipe Video

Fresh Cherry Tomato Pasta Recipe Video

Get Rid of Tomato Hornworms Video

August 30, 2006